the blown dress

I love photos of wedding dresses hanging in front of a bright window. Since it's something I'd like to try with Ambers dress, I wanted to practice sooner. Substitute dresses... the girls easter dresses!

85 of 365: Sugar and Spice


86 of 365: Everything Nice

wedding bells

For the next three days in the challenge, I decided to practice more wedding type photos. Guess I'm excited about Ambers wedding coming up! :D

First up, some wedding ring shots. I have a love/hate relationship with my wedding ring. I love it to death, and think it suits me well... but its small, which makes me self conscious when women start showing their rings off to one another. I do get a lot of satisfaction that Tim and I walked into the store and essentially bought the ring, with no debt to add to what we already had.

84 of 365: With this ring...

and a couple close shots

it's not all sugar and spice

83 of 365: I DON'T WANT TO!

this is how I play the drums

she's an odd one, that Claire

82 of 365: Look what I can do!!


she ended up doing it for a long long time...

Haley and Me

I can finally show off these photos!! I think my little sister is gorgeous, and have wanted to 'seriously' photograph her for a while. I say seriously, because her idea of me photographing her, and my idea of photographing her are much different.

Mine: some great close ups of her gorgeous face... maybe some pull backs that are fun and goofy...ect.

Haleys: Purse my lips and hold up a peace sign... I'm hanging upside down!! ect...

For Karen's birthday, I got in cohoots with Aunt Sue to get Haley out of the house, and into a park like setting where I could photograph her. I 'broke' into my parents house to get Haley some nicer clothes, and we were off on our secret mission. Haley did really well for me! I went with the 'lets do my idea, then we'll do yours, then we'll do mine again' approach with her, and it seemed to work out great! I love the photos we got, and Karen did too! (YAY!)

more randomness

79 of 365: Bacon... always good


80 of 365: Longing to be outside


81 of 365: This Buds for you

One of these days I'll take more photos of the brewery. The other stack has 'Bud Light' written on it in blue, and depending on the highway you're on, you can see one or both of them lit up at night. Very cool.

Moments in the day

Just the little snapshots...

76 of 365: Just a typical dinner
I remembered as I was going to bed this day that I needed to take a photo... so just a typical dinner. At least one person is up and walking around. Nothings touched on the plate... yep....


77 of 365: Just so tired
My work boots... just taking them off and letting them lie... typically one of the girls will end up wearing them around the house


78 of 365: Spring is here
Before you ask, no these are not in my yard. I'm a terrible gardener. But my stepmom has gorgeous flowers. And I have no shame in laying down in the front yard to take a photo of them.

Slowly but surely getting caught up here :)

100th post... it's all about me!

I needed (well wanted) a portrait of myself on my website, and also figured it was time to let the avatar photo of Claire and I to have a break. So I went out and photographed myself. I ended up only liking three of the shots... and really I'm not a huge fan of any of them (I swear I am not that squinty!)... but this was the one I chose to use everywhere. The remote is whats in my hand... I didn't feel like attempting to shop it out, so there you have it!

75 of 365: Hello there!

pretty in ponytails

I don't own little kids hair stuff. Since we hadn't been bothering with the girls' hair, I never saw the point. But I was pulling on Claires hair a couple weeks ago, and noticed her hair was long enough that I might be able to pull it back. And since she's much more cooperative then Olivia, I went out and bought some holders, and prettied the two of them up.

Both girls got their own personal squirt bottle... because no ones hair was budging dry.

74 of 365: Bottled water is the best!!

Claire is pretty dang cute in pigtails.

And since her hair was wet, I spun Olivia's hair into one spiral curl. Very cute... though it poked her in the neck a lot, so she kept pushing her shoulder up to her ear.

I needed to read that

I've had a really bad day. And then I read an acquaintances blog, who had this quote....

Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could. Some blunders and absurdities no doubt crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day; begin it well and serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense.

-Ralph Waldo Emerson

I needed to read that.

I've also been really busy. If you hadn't heard yet, I changed my website... so go check it out. I'm really pleased with it :)

I'm also ridiculously behind on posting photos (both for the 365 project, and in general) but I'm planning on catching up in the next couple days. Lets start with some of the 365 shall we?

71 of 365: Turn to the right

I remembered as I was heading to bed that I needed to take a photo... this is a wall scroll hanging on the wall to the right of the computer. Lame, I know.

72 of 365: Can't Reach!!!

I was going for Jubilee (the doll) to be in focus... but didn't upload the photos until days later, and none came out. But Olivia still periodically asks about her, and tells me she can't reach her

73 of 365: No no baby Claire!

Both girls are fascinated with my inhalers. And can show you the proper way to use them. I also am starting to explore textures with photoshop... and I'm enjoying it!

Whats for dinner??

It's late, and I very much should be sleeping... but I'll post this one photo... because I love it....

Day 70 of 365: Claire is all done!

hmmm... I think the novelty has worn off....

Both girls appear to be annoyed with the photography... this does not bode well for me...

the boys are back in town

Niko and Aiden are my nephews, and I don't get to photograph them as often as I'd like. They came over to my house the other day, and I took that opportunity to practice.

Niko spent the whole time I was shooting in our recliner, and chewing on the Wonderpets flag. He did stop watching tv, though, to turn to me and say "Cheese!"

Aiden barely looked at me once! He was far far too busy for that. But I could tell he knew I was there (and that there was a camera pointed at him)

And like always, Olivia was oblivious to the whole deal

Beautiful Brown Balloons

Time for another Holly custom. I've got a couple blogs today, so I figured start with her ;)

Alright, so this pony comes with a story. It's a long one, so I'll try to abbreviate. Most of my friends agree that I *love* brown balloons. And by love, I mean loathe. Actually, after all these years, I kind of enjoy them... but at the time this all started... well....

It all started at the second annual My Little Pony Convention (Yes, there's conventions. Yes I have gone to them. I actually was on the convention staff for 4 years. I have no shame here.) So I'm friends with Holly, who at the time was on the staff of the convention, and she invites me along to help with setup. There were two people blowing up balloons, and two people hanging them, and myself running in between the sets of people handing off balloons. Somewhere in the process, someone inflated a brown balloon.

Now if you know me, you know that once I get started ranting, I'm off and ranting. So I start ranting about the brown balloons. I mean really, what is the purpose of a brown balloon? When I buy myself an assorted package of rainbow colored balloons, should I really be finding brown in there? Am I graduating from some high school with brown as one of my school colors? Or at a clowns funeral? Because if not, I can't find a reason for brown to be appropriate. I rant like that for the entire time we're setting up. My friend Slugs husband (yes her name is slug) who was also helping out, found me amusing, and during the actual convention rounded up all the brown balloons, and (unknown to me) hung them all at my stall. And managed to photograph me with them.

Told you it was a long story... but it was a set-up for the pony. Holly is best known for her zebras. I wouldn't be shocked if she's made over a hundred of them. And I had longed for one for years. Holly, ever the jokester, made me this beauty.

I love her and all of her brown glory. She sheens a pretty reddish brown outside. I just love her and her brown goodness!

another Holly classic

This one my first! She's going to be so mad when she see's this custom (mostly because I'm sure she's forgotten about it... plus she's improved her craft significantly since making it.) But who cares what she thinks! I mean this project is just about me cheering her up! Oh wait...

Lily Hopper

Like I said, she's my first Holly custom... but she's also the first custom I ever owned that I didn't make myself. I got her by swapping customs with Holly before I ever knew her (if she really wanted to be evil, Holly could post mine... I remember what I made, and I'm positive it hasn't aged well) When I got Lily Hopper in the mail, I just remember being stunned by the small brushwork... this teeny tiny painting on a pony. I'd never seen brushwork so smooth before (even though she's even better at it now.) I loved her and love her, even if the red in her paint is bleeding over time (the poor thing)

**told you you'd hate me Holly LOL!!**

Olivia... the dominant model this weekend

I tried practicing portraits today, since its been a while since I've truly focused on that. Not working in my favor - the high noon sun. Just happened to work that way with our schedules... not the best conditions to work in. But Olivia was a trooper.

Until she let me know subtly that she was done.

a bit of a drama queen

After Olivia got up from her nap, I decided to try to put her hair into a ponytail. Oh the fits and the anger! She sobbed and wanted a hug for like 5 minutes, and then got distracted by the television. I took that moment to take my day 68 photo...

Of course, eventually whatever was holding their attention on the television ended, and the gig was up...

...and the theatrics started all over again.

At least her hair was cute.

a couple random ones of Olivia

Olivia's got some mean hair going on lately (mostly because she won't let us do anything with it) and the wind blowing just accentuated it!


And I finally was able to capture Olivia drawing Claire. She actually drew her like six different times, but this is the only one I managed to capture (it's just a snappie... but I couldn't resist - out of everything she could draw, she draws her sister!)