Poppies!!!

Not sure if any of you know this but...I simply LOVE poppies...as is easily noticed by the images below. Recently my sister asked me about the pictures that I had taken in Charleston waaayyy back in May. I told her that sadly I had not even touched them. Well after she "borrowed" a few to play with for a project she is working on, I decided to play with them myself when I had a "spare" moment last night before bed. {{hold on, let me stop laughing as I imagine that I actually HAD a SPARE moment}}
So this is what I came up with. I love TTV (through the viewfinder) shots and since I do not have the camera to be able to pull it off for real, I did the next best thing. I have a great layer that I downloaded from this wonderful lady's website that emulates a viewfinder and then I layered a nice texture on top of that in the soft light blending mode. Sorry if I am getting too technical for you, just wanted those who know photoshop to be able to figure out what I did.

I plan on selling these in my shop soon so if you just love them, like I do, you don't have long to be able to own one or all of them.

One of My Faves

I just finished working on a group of pictures that I took of our cousins' kids the other weekend. Seeing how blogger doesn't always let me upload my pictures and it is late, I am only going to post one of my favorites of the day.

I try not to overprocess too many pictures but I gave this a little extra lovin' with Michelle Black's Honey Glaze action and free texture. I suggested we go to this old train car that is always parked on the tracks and we had some fun. Some more fun shots from this shoot on a later date.

Transition

So this is me. I posted this collage of photos on Flickr but have yet to post it here. This was taken on one of the many nights that I find myself wide awake when I should have long been asleep. I was sitting on my closet floor indian style facing the full length mirror my mom gave me as a gift for my 2 year wedding anniversary. I got the idea from here.

I have so many projects that I am working on right now. I can't wait to share them on here. I tried to upload some incredibly fun images on here last night but was unable to for some inexplicable reason. I also had a fun photoshoot with my gorjuss sister this weekend when she came up. Let's just say that we got some funny looks in downtown Covington as she posed on a bench in the rain.

I am also working with Sara on getting a template hammered out for my new website that is in transition. Right now all it does is link to my Etsy shop. I am trying to keeep myself geared up for really pushing my photographic services. Whereas I may not be able to do weddings as often, I still can use my skills at portrait and family sessions and such. I am also salivating on new gear such as what this talented lady has and these actions that I want so badly. I know that I am going to have to continue working full time for some time but there is no time like the present to pimp yourself out in preparation for the future. :D

By the way I have found a pretty cool blog that gives tips on how to customize your blog and have since been able to make the pictures on my blog a little bit bigger than the normal "large" size offered. Please leave me feedback and let me know if you like the larger size. I personally love it as it showcases the pictures a bit more than it used to.

Hmmm...transition time is great.

Avast Ye Pirates!!

{{Edit/Update: I obviously posted this one a bit prematurely. I haven't had the chance to upload ALL of the pictures of adorableness and forgot that I had this one set for a future time. I will get back with commentary on what's going on soon. I know it's a long post too. :D Couldn't decide which I liked best.}}
Here are the boys checking out the treasure map. :D
No stopping them from finding the treasure.
Who needs shovels? They used their hands.
All that glitters....chocolate is better than gold ANYtime. ;)

Each boy had their portrait taken with the treasure chest.


This was an adorable part. The boys were hiding behind trees to bombard the "invading pirates" with water balloons.

I took many shots of the ensuing action but love this one where it seems that the water balloon burst right after it was thrown.

After that the pirates all played golf...if golf was around back then, you know they would have.


After that it was off to the pool. Spencer and I went to the pool still in out attire and got a few strange looks. Oh well. It was fun anyway.

I will post a few more pics at a later date.

Another Sneak Peak. . .

. . . at the darling little one known to us all as Lilah Claire. I had to go ahead and post this one showing that, as usual, all children are even more angelic when they sleep. Although I must say, she looks a bit concerned.

Sneak Preview

Soon... :D
Yes, I know this is not a parrot. I know that it is a Toucan. We could not find any parrots at first and I was instructed to bring our friend here as a backup. He was proud to stand in for the job although exasperated that his cousin the parrot made a last minute appearance.

Childhood Lost

I don't think I have yet to post this picture that I took what feels like forever ago now. I took this at Piedmont Park when Spencer and I went there for the first time back on our date day.

I absolutely LOVE this image. It strikes at my heartstrings and reminds me of happy carefree time called childhood.

I was talking to a few mothers last night at the Kingdom Hall about how Liam's best friend in California doesn't even get a naptime and in some schools by the time you get into 2nd & 3rd grades there is no recess.

!!!!!!

NO RECESS! I swear that we are stripping childhood away from our children. There are SO many geniuses and great people who had normal childhoods and still did great things. Why do we feel the need to cram our kids heads and not allow fun time? We seem to be afraid that unless we keep them constantly busy with many activities that they will become vagrants and vagabonds. {{sigh}} Let the poor dears have their childhood to enjoy. They are smart little sponges and absorb more than we think they do and will have enough of no fun when they grow up.

Okay, okay, I will get off of my soapbox now. If you like the picture above, it is for sale at my little shop here.

Milo

So I tried my hardest to post Pirate pictures last night to no avail. Blogger just wouldn’t accept them and I am not sure why. In the interim until I can try to post them again let me tell you about my weekend.

My little family went down to Macon this weekend to visit my family and as usual relaxed doing absolutely nothing. We brought Milo with us because we don’t like to leave her alone for the whole weekend. She and my mom and Sara’s dogs get along fairly well and she is very submissive to them. When my mom last puppy sat Milo, she and Dad always would take Milo out on a leash whereas their dogs roam free because Milo isn’t used to that. She resides comfortably in our big fenced in backyard. Long story short, we should have continued this practice because early Sunday evening she was in the road and refusing to come when Spencer called her and got hit by a car.

Don’t worry, she didn’t die but her back leg is broken…as well as her spirit. You can see it in her eyes in this picture I took last night.

(Sorry for the poor image quality, I took it with my new camera phone and am not used to it yet)

She is such a pitiful invalid. I know it hasn’t been long since the accident but it makes my heart sad to see her so languid with no pep.

(Here you see her styling with the bright pink bandaging the vet's children picked out for her)

So here's to my poor little doggie with the hopes that her spirits will recover soon.

Jack Johnson

Many, many moons ago, when Spencer had a job and we had some disposable income, we bought tickets to go see Jack Johnson at the HiFiBuys/Lakewood Ampitheater. That day finally arrived on Wednesday and we took our broke butts on up to the festivities.

Last time Spencer and I went to a concert at this venue, we were not dating yet. Funny how things go. We went to see Dave Matthews Band (ROCK ON BABY!) and it had just rained so we were prepared and brought tarps. They were thrown away by security upon entry. ALSO, as you know, most concert venues do not allow cameras or bags or ANYTHING, so to be safe, Spencer and I trekked on in with nothing but our tickets, IDs and some money. . . well wouldn't you know it, we could have brought in bags WITH cameras and a blanket. I was so jonesing for my camera but had to make do with my camera phone. Didn't do a bad job, don't you think? This was our view as we laid on our backs in the grass. The sky was quite pretty after a day of rain.
This was a shot of the lawn when it wasn't even at its most crowded point. The people don't start coming out of the woodworks until the main act begins. And here's a shot of Spencer and I enjoying ourselves people watching (and bashing...it is crazy what people will wear to concerts) as we hold our spot on the grass. We had a pretty great view of the stage and the large viewing screens.

Our view was actually better than this but there was no zoom on my camera phone. It was an awesome show and we enjoyed ourselves thoroughly. I was pretty dang tired the next day but it's not often we do things like this. Heck, you're only young once right?

Liamisms and other such updates

I know I have not been on here for some time it’s just that a LOT has been going on and I haven’t had the spare time to be able to edit any pictures. I have SO many to show all of you they just are in their rough state right now. Photoshop has ruined me. :(

I have a few Liamisms to share though that are too cute to keep to myself.

The first is one that my mom told me about a little bit ago. She and my sister have two female dogs. And we all know what dogs do to clean/scratch certain areas. Well one day Liam says:

“Freckles, stop licking your penis!”

Mom immediately corrected him, “Liam, Freckles is a girl, she doesn’t have a penis.”

“No,” Liam agreed “boys have penises, girls just have a line down there.”

!!!!!

I don’t think life gets much better than laughing at things like that.

**********

On Monday Liam asked Spencer and I where he was going the next day. “You’re going to big kids school again.”

“But, I don’t wanna go to big kids school. I wanna go out in service.”

Don’t we all sweetie? Just want to skip our other mundane responsibilities and go out in service everyday. Welcome to your first taste of the grown up world.

**********

Last night on the way home from the meeting, Liam and I were singing the bits and pieces of different kingdom songs that he knows. We are almost home when he asks:

“Mommy, when we get home can I watch a Jehovah movie? Because I want to learn more about Jehovah.”

I immediately wished that it wasn’t so late just so that I could oblige such a sweet request as that. It makes me forget about the fact that school has been a bit rocky so far. . .

Wait! I haven’t told you about that yet have I?

**********

Liam’s first day of school, the teacher’s aide calls us up to let us know that Liam had his scissors out when he wasn’t supposed to and cut his hair. Why oh why, we don’t know. He has used scissors at Pre-K, Grandpa’s house, AND our house without ever doing any such thing. . .but at school, he felt the urge.

Liam’s second day, he gets a squiggly face on his daily agenda because he was continuously talking and making noises when he shouldn’t. When I talked to him about it that night, he told me that he had been making himself burp. {{HUGE SIGH}} It seems I am raising a class clown.

Day three of school and Liam gets another squiggly face for hitting a boy…twice. At this point I am near tears because my baby boy is not showing his best side and making himself, not to mention his parents, look bad. :(

Day four he finally came home with a smiley face. Since then it has been up and down with his conduct. He has already had to be moved to his own desk because of talking too much. As always, it makes me want to call Mom to apologize profusely to her since I also was an incessant talker through my school years.

Hopefully I will have some pictures up soon. I have some from my lovely in-laws anniversary weekend with all the kids down, I have some from the beach and I just remembered I still haven't posted Pirate Party pictures! Oh goodness me! :) And those are all edited and ripe and ready to share. I will endeavor to get those up VERY soon.

More Tea Anyone?

Some more of my favorite shots from the Tea Party.This little darling is the shyest thing. Her mother said that all she could talk about was the princess party but once she got there she would not come out of her shell for anything. She was still absolutely adorable down to her pink slippered feet.
Precious little ones.This is a one in a million shot I got of the hostess and her granddaughter. Absolutely LOVE it.This has to be one of the sweetest little girls ever known. She is quiet and polite and insightful. She has the most amazing, well thought out comments at the Kingdom Hall. And a sense of humor to boot.
There were 10 little girls there and 5 big girls. This was perfectly arranged as each big girl was put in charge of watching after two little girls. I don't think the party could have gone any better.

Growing Up Stinks

My baby boy started big boy school on Friday.

{{Insert sad face here}}

I am so sad about this fact that it has put me in an incredibly morose frame of mind for the latter part of last week and most of the weekend. I also made the mistake of looking through one of my mom’s baby scrapbook albums of my little man the weekend before last, which has not helped matters out much.

Last Wednesday night Spencer told me the date of our first PTA meeting and, I swear, I got chills up and down my spine. I looked at Spencer,

“We are entering a whole new world here.”

“I know.”

This made me realize that I have to get used to being a parent again. Huh? When Liam was born I did not feel like a mommy. I felt like I was playing a role. Eventually, over the years I got used to being Liam’s mommy and it didn’t feel foreign. But this is all new territory and it doesn’t seem real. I feel like I am playing a role again.

Last week when he came home from visiting his Bubbe and Poppi he was so stinking excited when I showed him the Transformers lunchbox that I bought him. He grabbed it up and took it to his room and filled it with toys:

“Alright Mom, I’m going to school now.”

The cutest part, though, was when he asked me if he could take his new lunchbox to the assembly. The backpack I bought him was the smallest well-made one I could find and it still hangs down to his knees. I don’t think I will ever forget the sight of him trying on his big ol’ backpack with nothing but his little whitey tighteys on. Wish I had grabbed my camera.

The night before school I went out to brave the buying of school supplies (YES, I know it was last minute but I made the mistake of ignoring my gut and waiting for Georgia’s tax free weekend (what I will do to save a few bucks), while Spencer went home with Liam after the meeting to get him to bed. I am told he was extremely cooperative.

“I have to go to bed so that I can get up in time for school tomorrow!”

Meanwhile I searched for prong two pocket folders…which, by the way, don’t exist anymore. You know the ones I am talking about? The ones that have the brads to hold your papers preinstalled? Yeah, couldn’t find them. Oh well.

The next morning when waking up Liam, we got a glimpse into the future.

“Can you wake me when breakfast is ready?”

Little booger already trying to sneak in a few extra winks.

I sat with him at the breakfast table for a little bit as he ate and he looks at me,

“Mommy, I love you.”

“I love you too baby.”

“I’m going to love you forever. You know why?”

“Why baby?” (This should be interesting)

“Because we’re going to be in paradise and I’m going to love you and daddy and me forever.”

I think I melted right then and there. Just remembering makes me say a silent prayer of thanks to Jehovah and pray that we keep doing something, whatever it is, right.

On to school. I hesitated as I ironed this shirt for him to wear on his first day to school. I imagined myself looking at it 15-20 years down the road and I figured, what the heck. Kids have worn weirder styles before. It’s just a patterned shirt after all. And doesn’t he just look too cute in it?

He could be a model couldn't he? (heehee) I told him I was going to put superhero patches on his bookbag...who knew they would be so hard to find. Instead I had to make do with a little pirate keychain I made for now. Patches will have to come later as it seems I am going to have to order them off the internet.

Spencer got some “footage” of Liam and I walking into the school and to his classroom together. Halfway down the hallway the consistent banging against his knees of the backpack was already driving him crazy.

“I hate this backpack!”

After we dropped him off, I met his teacher, and lingered for longer than necessary, Spencer and I finally left. Only to discover that all of his paperwork we had finished filling out and signing just that morning was left in the car. So Spencer dropped me off at the front door and I trudged back through the poster laden hallways to deliver said paperwork discretely to the teacher. I am just about to leave the classroom when I hear,

“MOMMY!”

And Liam runs up to me and gives me the biggest hug.

{{Double bittersweet sigh}}

That’s about all I have the energy to relate today and boy aren’t you glad. You’ve had an earful I am sure…or an eyeful as it goes…more soon.

Already busy at work coloring an apple for the teacher.

And this is Mrs. Miller. His first big kid school teacher.