a colorful ending

I wrote about the red and blue color combo a while back (here), as I used it when decorating for a friend's bridal shower. Turns out God had already thought it up and carried it out far better than I could!




Today was such a beautiful day…the blue sky contrasting nicely with the clumps of snow from the night before slowly melting in the bright sun (and dropping off of branches onto my camera as I took these photos).

A great day to go slow and walk everywhere I needed to go. Important places like blockbuster and the bagel place and the local coffee shop.

Nice to end the year on a day like today.

Happy New Year, all!

christmas in review

This is my favoritest Christmas gift! It was all I wanted, as I've had the desire to learn to sew for many years, and just haven't ever gotten started. I even borrowed my mom's sewing machine for a year and a half and never even took it out of it's case. I recently read several reviews on this machine, and it seemed like a great one to get. I've got a book of fun projects that I want to make. I'm currently working on making a space in my apartment for it…


Last year's gift from everyone was my loft bed. I was supposed to take pics of it and send them to my family so they could see what it looked like all made up. better late than never, hmmm? Gotta love ikea.


My brother's pit bull thinks he's a lap dog. He must be touching someone pretty much all the time. When my brother starts to pack up, he follows him back and forth through the house, whining the whole time as if he's worried he'll be left behind. He's really a sweetie.

an open fire

oh, and we don't roast chestnuts, but no Christmas is complete without a fire in the 'place.

calm

It's a lovely day to stay in pajamas until evening, play with the dogs that came with my brother & his wife, and ponder how it can be snowing when the thermometer is reading 40. I love the completely laid-back calm of my mom's house at Christmas. I wish my other brother & sister-in-law could be here.

Enjoy this time to breathe.

And to thank God for redemption.

i've been puzzled…

I opened my first Christmas gift of the season last night. It was from a friend I had helped out with taking photography classes…finding information for her on the class and giving her rides home so she wouldn't have to ride the bus.

She's a sweet girl with such a great sense of humor. Though puns normally drive me nuts, she just does them so well, and I always laugh lots when I'm with her. So when she gave me my gift, it just cracked me up.

Now I can take my head apart and put it back together again to my heart's content!

snow!

Just thought you might like to know that the snow now covers my entire side mirror, rather than a paltry inch of it.


I slept in just the right amount of time to catch these exact shadows this morning.


This stubborn tree just won't give up its leaves.


And these "anonymous" girls had the bright idea of attempting donuts in an unplowed parking lot.


Didn't work.


However, with the help of a snap-together shovel…


…and a couple of kindly gentlemen who refrained from mockery, the Audi eventually made it's way out of the icy grip of the parking lot.


Always an adventure :)

family portraits

It's always a challenge to get any group of people all looking good, smiles on, facing the camera, etc. at the same moment. ( This guy is exceptionally good at it.)

I still have a lot to learn about the trick to getting children to look when you want them to. Even the best-behaved children can't be commanded to smile for the picture and expected to perform. That's why I've always preferred candid shots, where the smiles and poses are natural, though the photo itself may not be technically perfect. Good portraits are hard work!

I had a great Saturday recently, spending time with two of my favorite young families, shooting hundreds of photos and sharing lots of laughs over the little ones. Some of my favorites are below:

This was at the end of the shoot, when she had pulled apart a flower, starting with one petal at a time, then fistfuls of petals, until the flower parts were scattered all over the kitchen floor. She then proceeded to giggle and roll around and just be a little girl. What I thought of as I looked at these pics afterwards is how safe this little girl feels. She knows she's loved and will be protected and taken care of and she has no worries. She doesn't even know worries are possible yet. There is such joy in knowing we are safe.


joy in motion


how it all started :-)


Enough of this "cheeeese" nonsense. I'd rather hang out on the photographer's lap.



On to another family. The best looks we got out of their toddler were when her mom & dad kept asking her what different animals say. She totally focused, and grinned after each pronouncement and kicked her little toes. Aren't they just lovely? I love the coordinated brown & pink outfits. She even provided their own backdrop cloth that worked beautifully with the color scheme. How could I not get good pics here?



another example of one+one=three (or four or more!)



my hands-down favorite shot of the day. and it was largely accidental. As well as being the very last one I took.

the end of an era

For the past several years, I have belonged to an ever-shrinking unique group of Americans. We are often mocked and ostracized…sometimes by those closest to us.

People are incredulous when I tell them. They roll their eyes.

I am told I am woefully behind the times. Old-fashioned. Stuck. Out of it.

My crime?

I have been cell-phone-less.

And I have relished it.

The un-connected-ness. The freedom from interruption. The lack of embarrassing moments. The absence of the compulsion to flip it open every 3 minutes to see if anyone might be calling me in that instant. The keeping it charged and remembering to take it with me WHEREVER I GO. The NOT having to pay another bill each month.

Alas, no more.

The enemy has infiltrated. It is charging on my kitchen counter. It is a Christmas gift FOR my mother. But it's mine.

I let it sit on my coffee table for a week or so, giving it dirty looks when I passed it by. I finally took it out of the house this weekend. I have made a grand total of two calls on it. When I called my mom at home, she said great! now what's your phone number? Um. I had no idea. I now know that the number 4 figures in it rather prominently, but it'll probably take a while to be able to rattle it off like your average 8-year-old.

It took me about 5 minutes to compose one text message this morning. This is going to be one rough adjustment.

Excuse me while I go chop some firewood for the cookstove.

for all you southerners out there

The lightest, fluffiest blanket of flakes met me this morning when I headed out.

I know, I know, you're all so jealous.

This was on Saturday.

We now have several inches of the fluffy stuff.

And I'm sick, so I can't even get out to enjoy it.

Isn't it ironic?

brain dead fridays

so, there is a plethora of intelligent, accomplished women in blogland who have started things like "works for me wednesday," "work in progress thursday," or "missions mondays."

I'm thinking of starting "brain-dead Fridays."

Here's my story:

I'm in Target, shopping for work (yes, I get paid to shop occasionally. Please don't hate me.). I am searching for just the right table top or other flat surface that we can use for our next photoshoot. So I'm pushing my mammoth Target shopping cart (why DO they make them so big?) up and down the aisles, stopping every now and then to get a closer look at something, and eventually find what I'm pretty sure is the right thing. It has one of those stickers that cautions you to lift it with some help or else black jagged lines will shoot out of your back, so I'm trying to figure out how to get it to drop off the shelf right into my cart so I don't have to track down an employee.

As I manouevre my cart closer to the shelf where the box is, I realize that my cart is full of stuff.

Not my stuff.

**gasp**

I glance around furtively, trying to see if anyone is frantically searching for their cart FULL OF STUFF that they left RIGHT HERE, HONEY, I'M POSITIVE! There is a couple at the end of my aisle, so I ask them if I have stolen their cart. Nope. I hope those security cameras weren't being closely monitored at the time, b/c that one will for sure make it into the permanent collection. I'm laughing all by myself as I search for my TOTALLY EMPTY cart. I found one. No idea if it was really mine, or if this was a second theft, but I hauled the box into it and took off for the registers.

As I fled the scene, I did see a lady peering suspiciously down aisle after aisle. I just hope she realizes that she's not losing her mind, and she really did leave her cart RIGHT THERE.

This is what happens when I work too much.