Sharing a Treat: Ball of Light Photography

Due to my love of Australia, interest in photography, and presence on Facebook, I came across some really amazing art this evening that I felt I needed to share.

I stumbled upon an Australian photographer, Denis Smith, who creates what he calls "Ball of Light" photography.  Not only are the pictures amazing and not edited in Photoshop, many of them are of some of the amazing places I myself have visited in Australia.

I'm not sure what I can share without permissions, so you're going to need to just click the link and check it out yourself.  

http://www.denissmith.com.au/

Make sure to read Story --> Ball of Light? so you can understand how it is done.  His blog is pretty neat as well, so if you have a couple minutes, check it out!  (I am also in love with the images in Angkor Wat, Cambodia, as that was part of our honeymoon adventure! (Happy three years tomorrow, hub!)

Incredible.  Unique.  Beautiful.

I'm impressed.

Image: FreeDigitalPhotos.net

And now I want to try!

Not All Who Wander Are Lost

How do you travel?  Do you prefer to have it all planned out for you by going on a tour?  Or do you work with a travel agent to plan where you will go and when?  Maybe you do a lot of your own research ahead of time so you are well-informed.  Or are you at the other extreme, where you just go and see what happens?

One summer vacation while in college, the hubby and I (we were just dating at the time) were able to make one of my dreams come true - a much smaller version of the longer-term around the world dream that we are currently working towards.  I wanted to get in the car and "just go."

Image: FreeDigitalPhotos.net

We took five days, packed our car with some clothes, a tent, and food, and took off.  Our only destination was "the ocean."  For us, that meant we were headed east since we were leaving from Buffalo, NY and only had five days. 

The only other rules we had were that we were not going to plan anything ahead of time, we were not allowed to drive on highways (except maybe on the way home if time was tight), and we would go wherever our whims would take us.  We would follow roads that sounded intriguing, visit a random hole-in-the-wall restaurant and discover an amazing meal, flip a coin if we came to a fork in the road and couldn't decide which way to turn, and overall just enjoy the journey and the freedom of it.

It was an amazing trip.

We spent a night at a campground in northeast NY,  drove over gorgeous green Vermont and New Hampshire mountains. We spent a night at a campground and had a pizza delivered to us by a four-wheeler. One night it rained on our tent and we couldn't dry it out, so that was the end of our camping for the trip.  We made it to the ocean in Maine and discovered an adorable (but extremely busy!) beach town, Old Orchard Beach.  We ran into trouble finding a place to stay on a very limited budget.  It was a summer weekend in a popular beach town with limited hotels.  Eventually, we found a crappy motel, paid way too much for it, and made the most of it. We reveled in our accomplishment of reaching the ocean and playing in the crisp, gorgeous water. We paid too much for a hotel in nowhere, Massachesetts. We had our ups and downs, our frustrations and annoyances, and a lot of excitement and fun.

Some of the highlights:

• Turning the car around to get a delicious burger at a random burger joint on the side of the road
• Playing tennis at a stumbled upon tennis court
• Driving down a road just because I liked the name of it
• Eating pizza in a tent that was delivered to us by an old guy on a four-wheeler
• Driving over and among beautiful green mountains
• Arriving at the ocean and playing in the water, despite its chilly temperature and large waves
• Overcoming frustrations by working as a team and stepping up for each other
• Being in a car with my best friend, with the radio playing our favorite songs and the windows rolled down
• The feeling of freedom and adventure
• Knowing that we had everything we needed to reach our goal and have an adventure

This was just a small snippet of a trip in comparison to our upcoming six (plus?) month adventure, but somehow I know now, just like I knew then, that we'd be ok, we can do it, we'll make it work. 

I can't wait for that feeling of freedom, spontaneity, and adventure...in an amount that I've never felt before!

Do you ever travel like this?  With limited or no plans, letting yourself "just go" and see where the journey takes you?

Garage Sale-ing

A couple weeks ago we held the big "garage sale" that we had been planning all summer.  The same garage sale I secretly was afraid wouldn't happen due to weather or unexpected engagements.  The same garage sale that we collected stuff for in boxes in the basement since spring, but I was afraid wouldn't amount to enough things to make it worthwhile.  The same garage sale that we continued to bring out stuff to sell while it was in progress.  The same garage sale that continues to this day, as we have some of the remaining items on Craigslist.

I am happy to report that we made a very satisfying amount of money, cleaned out a lot of "junk" that other people could use, and even had some fun!

We made almost $450 at our garage sale over two days.  We made over $60 more on Craigslist in the day that followed.  And we're not done!

Pretty awesome.  That money covers our backpacks and then some, although we already bought those, so it's much more fun to think about what $500 might get us on our RTW adventure:

• Visas for both of us for Russia
• A month in a private room in a hostel in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
• Both of us to fly from Mumbai, India to Dubai, United Arab Emirates
• Cost of one of us to hike the Inca Trail in Peru with a guide and porter
• 50 steak dinners for two in Buenos Aires, Argentina
• Full day of scuba diving in the Galapagos for two(with rentals and National Park fees)

Now, these are just SOME of the amazing things that this money could get us!

It's great to know that our time and effort paid off, people can use the stuff that we considered "junk" and "clutter," and we have a little boost to our trip fund.  Not too shabby.

I figure it's only right that I share some of my Garage Sale Tips:

• Signage is key!  We didn't advertise, but we live off of a few highly trafficked roads and used that to our advantage.  We had bright yellow plastic signs that stuck in the ground.  The text was bold and readable, contained our address, and arrows pointing in the direction of our house.  There were also subsequent signs that potential buyers would see along the way to direct them to our house in case they were unfamiliar with the area.  An early-bird garage saler even complimented us on our "A+" signage!
• Organization is appreciated!  We had a futon, small table, chairs, pillows and throw blankets for sale.  We arranged them into a room-like setting, decorating carefully.  I also made a board for displaying my jewelry, so the necklaces could hang freely and everything was visible.  We sorted items on tables into groups so that housewares were all in one area, books in another, and so on.  As people bought things, we would rearrange to maintain neatness and fill in empty spots.
• Labeling is important!  Put prices on everything!
• Some people are bargainers, others are not.  Don't assume people will always haggle the price down.  Many don't.
• Don't jump the gun!  Don't lower prices prematurely, you could greatly reduce your earnings.  My husband was an anxious bargainer in the first hours of our garage sale, lowering the price on certain items before the person had even made a decision on the labeled price.  We may have lost some valuable dollars.  Later in the day, a pair of women had a small child and as they walked up the sidewalk they immediately began ogling a plush "Nemo."  The price tag was high, even in our eyes.  Hubby wanted to tell them they could have it for half price (without them even approaching, asking, or remarking on the price).  I told him to just wait...they walked around the entire sale with it.  One asked the other what the price was.  She read it, they did not show any signs of shock or outrage at the price and proceeded to come over and pay the asking price.  Score!  On the other hand - towards the end of our sale we knew we would simply be donating most of the stuff that was left.  I walked around and told people that everything was half price.  It may have encouraged a bit of increased spending, it may have simply reduced what we earned, who knows.
• Have fun! We found the people who attended our sale to be friendly (for the most part), entertaining, and just plain fun to talk to.  It was great to hear what amazing uses people had for some of our "clutter", and it made me feel really good about getting rid of everything, on top of the money we made and additional space we gained in our home!

Image: FreeDigitalPhotos.net