2/16/14--Austin's Valentine Surprise--Day ??

I've been working on this for a long time. Hence... the lack of videos. But, this was a surprise for Austin for Valentine's Day. I'm no professional artist, but I did it in anyways. :D

I sure love him.

1/27/14--Nail Polish Inevitability--Day 31

Okay, so I have a problem. I really love having cute nails, but I will ALWAYS inevitably do something to ruin them. I seriously was so careful today. In fact I was so proud of them, I thought I would show them off to the world!

Unfortunately... I still have not  mastered the art.

1/26/14--Sick and Random--Day 30

This is what happens when you don't know what else to film.

1/25/14--This has gotten out of hand--Day 29

Well, I have totally dropped the ball. I forgot to write posts and now it is time to see if I have recorded three videos during the last three days for your viewing pleasure. I doubt it. But hopefully I did something.

And I looked... and I couldn't find any... So, as punishment I had to grab three videos from the past. I didn't censor them. I didn't look at what was on any of them. I just grabbed some videos and hope there isn't anything embarrassing.

So, the uncensored videos from my life. After watching a couple of random videos, I have a pretty sweet life.

1/22/14--Unexpected Location Scouting--Day 28

I went for my first run in a while. And my first run ever living up here in Draper and stumbled across this beautiful cemetery. The grass had frost on it and the sunrise made it look magical. My first thoughts were, I want to shoot a scene here.

I'll have to incorporate a cemetery scene in The Light Bringer, the feature film Jace, a talented film friend, and I are writing.

1/21/14--Austin's Excitement--Day 27

We literally pulled off to a parking lot so that Austin could take some "detail shots" of the car. Those were his exact words. He was so excited.

1/20/14--Laundry Cocoon--Day 26

So, I was laying on the bed. Austin thought it would be fun to cover me in the laundry we needed to fold.

Seriously, I don't think I've ever laughed harder at a video.

1/19/14--Go Broncos!!!--Day 25

The Broncos won the AFC!!! We are ecstatic!!! New job, new car and Broncos are going to the Superbowl! Things can't get better than this.

Manning is going to help our boys Decker and Demeryius destroy the Hawks or the Niners.

1/18/14--I Wish I had a Different Video--Day 24

This is the video. It's actually a day or two old so it really doesn't even count. I really wish I had a video from all of our adventures trying to find a car! And we found an awesome one for a great deal. We are stoked!

It's a Hyundai Azera, 2006. It's legit.

Check it out:

1/17/14--Just an Update--Day 23

1/16/14--Duke Going INSIDE the Couch--Day 22

We taped up the couch, to prevent Duke from going inside. He has recently torn all of that off and found his way back inside. This is what he likes to do...

I taped it back up again after he wiggled his way our of there.

1/15/14--Dark--Day 21

1/13/14--Here's my Video!--Day 20

1/12/14--We are Donkeys!--Day 19

The calmer moments of the 1st playoff game for the Broncos!

1/11/14--The Experiment--Day 18

My teacher's told me once that if I just left a camera on, life would unfold before it. Our cat was going crazy in the room so I decided to set up a camera. As it would go, he grew tired of playing with his insane toys. At first I tried to get him to come down in the camera area, but I soon found that I became the subject of the camera, because I wanted Duke to come and play. I just left it on. It's unedited and just a stationary camera waiting for life to unfold.

1/10/14--Duke's Bed--Day 17

I don't think he's slept in that bed once.

1/9/14--Learning how to do Image Pans--Day 16

So, in an effort to do the mission video, I had to learn how to do image pans. So I used some of the pictures we've recently taken for our business to see if I could figure it out. It's obviously not perfect yet, but it was a good start!

1/8/14--The Sound Fiasco--Day 15

There are lots of things we work for in life. Sometimes it turns out amazing. We accomplish our goal and feel this great wave of liberation and elation. We have done it. We did something incredible. We worked our tails off and now it's finally paying off. These moments are few and rare, because most of the time we are struggling to get to this point. We have little successes, but most of the time we're trudging through the mud as we climb the seemingly insurmountable mountain. It's tempting to give up.

Then at some point or another, we sit on the mountain and think, I could just give up. I could roll back down. I could even just sit here until the dawn of time when I'm ready to try again.

Well, the video I'm going to share with you today is right before the moment I sat on the side of the mountain and thought, I could just give up right now.

My husband and I just got a new directional microphone for our camera and an LED light. I thought, this would be cool to try out.

I had more time than usual today because I had gotten off of work at one o clock. That meant I could plan out the movie a little more. I decided I wanted to do a homage to my mission. I was going to sing and play Nearer My God to Thee and make a slideshow of my amazing mission. Since one of my anniversaries of the mission was preoccupied with the more important issue of my grandma passing away.

This would give me a chance to try out the camera, the light and learn how to use Adobe Premier. I've been using Final Cut, but I would like to try out some of Adobe's more impressive effects. I mean, they have a whole program called After Effects. I was going to try the simple task of creating some image pans for the slideshow. What a great idea!

Unfortunately, with my novice-ness, I realized that after singing it again and again and again to make sure it was just right. And playing it and recording it all, every single shot.... the microphone was not turned on. No sound had been recorded. None. Not even the camera had captured it. My performance that had been tuned to perfection was only heard by my empty apartment.

I sat there in despair. Not only was my throat tired from singing, I was worried my neighbors were tired of hearing the same song over and over again.

But, through my anger and frustration, I did it all again. I am not sure what the finished product sounds like or what it will look like. But aside from feelings of reminiscing, I think it will evoke a certain feeling of frustration and trying it all over again. Which, when you think about it, that's what the mission is all about. Feeling like you're not getting anywhere and then trying again anyways. At the end of your mission, you usually have something beautiful. At the end of this experiment, we'll see if the same applies.

1/7/14--Duke... in the Pantry--Day 14

We finally got to go grocery shopping today. It was much needed as the only things in our fridge were 6 eggs, some sauces and some garlic. Seriously, sometimes I don't know how we survive.

But Austin was an awesome husband today and went and got some groceries for us. It's always fun to see what he brings home. Apparently, Duke wanted to help out. He had fun checking out our pantry for us and making sure it was good to go.

He only has two levels: extreme curiosity/insane playfulness and knocked out cold. He's a fun kitty.

1/6/14--Failure--Day 13

I didn't get a video up. Poop. I spent the morning before work hanging out with Chris and Elisa. That was fun. We played some Smash. Then I sent them on their way. Duke was acting like a scare baby. He went inside of our box springs, bathtub and couch. All to get away from Alaska, Chris and Elisa's dog. And when I say "inside" I mean INSIDE... except the bathtub. He was just curled up next to the drain in that one.

It took all day for him to be comfortable with the fact that there really was no dog in the house. Then Austin and I went to dinner at Mikado's. We got some sushi! It was awesome... hence, I forgot to do a video. But, I'm okay with failure. I'm human. So I will fail for the rest of my life. The good news is, I'm totally okay with being human right now.

1/5/14--Four out of Five Siblings--Day 12

So, there are very few times when most of us get together. Even rarer is when we all get together. But four out of the five of us had gathered and this is what became of it. You would think that I would edit out a lot of it. After all, it's not the most flattering to me. But this is my family, and we apparently don't care if there's a camera on us. We still act the same.

We also added to the mix Elisa and Austin. Great additions. I sure love all of them and wish Wooka could have been there too.

1/4/14--Clipping the Claws--Day 11

Okay, so I know a lot of the posts recently have been about our cat, Duke. But, seriously, that's what our life is right now. Today we had to clip his claws. I told Austin I didn't want to declaw him because I didn't want to hurt him. Unfortunately for us, that means we've gotten a couple little scratches. So, Austin lovingly obliged to helping me clip his claws. This was round 2. I think by this point he was starting to understand what was going on. He fought us a lot less than he did in round 1.

I have also found that it takes a really long time to upload high quality videos with our internet... so this one I maxed out at 240 so it wouldn't take as long. Sorry. Next time I'll get a higher quality image.

1/3/14--My Amazing Grandma--Day 10

Today was my Grandma's funeral. I didn't have the chance to record a video. But my husband made a slideshow honoring my Grandma. We played it at her viewing. She really is amazing. I can't wait to see her again one day.

Grandma's Slideshow

I love you Grandma.

Also, if you want to see other slideshows Austin has done, you're welcome to check out our website (tayloryourmedia.com):

Austin's Wedding Slideshows

1/2/14--Sleeping Duke--Day 9

We figured out the secret to getting Duke to be a good traveler. Just lay him on his back and he knocks right out.

Success!

1/1/14--Duke's New Toy--Day 8

We brought Duke home for the first time today. We sprinkled a little bit of catnip on the scratching post and he freaked out. Were so happy to have our kitty.

After driving all day he was excited to be free.