Photobomb Friday: Eternally Grateful

Yes, I know it's Thursday, but there is really very little in my life that I can talk about at the moment.  There are things I am obsessing about, but these things are not going to make their public debut for a while yet.  So, I am pretty much lacking good material to talk about.

We're working hard on the wedding stuff, and I am so lucky my girls are behind me 110%!  My mom has been incredible getting things from the idea stage to the reality stage, and Bear is going to sit in on more meetings and have more input, too.  It's such a relief to be getting this production under way!  But, like almost everything else in my life... these developments are also internet secrets.  Ha!

Anyway, I wanted to share my Grateful's from the past week!  If I have nothing to say, I may as well treat you to visuals!









As always, click through the image on the post to see the original page and read what it is I am grateful for for each day!

Hope you have a wonderful weekend!

xo

Recently...

...our life seems to be taking unexpected turns that are simultaneously exciting and scary.  I don't always know what to do or what to say, but at least I have my Bear there for me no matter what!  I am so lucky to have him in my life!



No matter what I am so lucky to have him to call my own, always.  <3

xo

Becoming a Quitter...

I have been a fairly heavy smoker since my eighteenth birthday.  My day usually consists of: get up, have a cigarette, eat something, have a cigarette, drive somewhere, smoke the entire time I am driving, get to work, have a cigarette every two hours, drive home smoking, get home, have a cigarette with Bear, eat dinner, have a cigarette, go to bed.

See?  Heavy smoker.  And I am trying to quit which is the hardest thing I have ever undertook in my life.  My day now is: get up, talk myself out of a cigarette, have breakfast, watch TV and do laundry to ignore urge for cigarette, drive in car with windows up and sing along to music to avoid urge for cigarette, go to work and find interesting things on internet instead of having cigarette, chew gum, have dinner at work and read a magazine rather than run out for... you guessed it... a cigarette, drive home with windows up again and more music, get home, have a snack, get involved in some sort of activity until I fall asleep so as to avoid smoking.



I can't wait until my day doesn't consist of me thinking about cigarettes every ten minutes!  I can't wait until I get up and have breakfast and play piano for an hour or something and go through a whole entire day without the word "cigarette" crossing my mind once.  Because, as an addict, the mental desire to have one is so much more than the physical need to have one.

Do I sometimes cave and have one?  Yes.  But so far this LAST EVER pack of smokes has lasted me six days.  This is incredible for your average just-under-a-pack-a-day smoker!  Some of you have no idea.  Some of you do.  I am so proud of myself for doing so well!

I know myself, and knew cold turkey was not the way to go at it... I would only stress out and give in in the long run.  Sure, this way is longer and I feel guilty when I do have a cigarette, but I let it go and try not to look back.  By next week, I will hopefully be an Ex!

Anyone else trying to kick a habit?

xo

A Busy Weekend of Shoots!

Well, my business seems to really be picking up!  I was just about to give up on the whole thing a month ago, and I am really glad I didn't!  This weekend included a puppy session at a dog park and a family session at a Local Park!  Needless to say, I was running around a lot after small pets and children!  It was a blast, though, and I am so lucky to get to create such memories for such wonderful people!





Two of the above images are in my 365 Grateful Project as well!  It's been over a week and I am still sticking to it!  Yay!

What did you do this weekend?  Anything fun?  Are any of you doing a 365 (grateful or otherwise)?  Leave a link in the comments!  I'd love to see!

xo

Photobomb Fridy: Grateful Again

So, I decided to do my 365 Grateful project all over again... this time, I am using my DSLR, since Instagram keeps uploading my images as black squares... grrr.

This is Monday through Thursday, as I haven't taken today's image yet.  It's super early in the morning as I type this, as in 5 minutes into Friday, and I am hoping to take at least one photo this week outdoors... with natural light.  The stories for each image are uploaded with the image on Flickr.  Simply click on an image to be brought through to its original page and read the little paragraph to uncover the element in it that I am grateful for!






I also want to take a moment today to mention the last image in a bit more detail... it depicts how grateful I am for my parents.  The picture itself is of my baby plate, DOB and weight, and underneath (not pictured) is my name.  My parents are wonderful people, who for a time when I was a teenager, I thought were close-minded religious nuts who had no ability to accept me for my mistakes and eccentricities.  Lately, I have grown much closer with them, and am beginning to understand why they were so strict while I was growing up, particularly in my teen angst years.  I am so incredibly grateful to my parents for their unyielding support, and their constant ability to fight for what they believe is right.  They have instilled in me a great curiosity about life, and a wonderful resilience.  They have made me stronger than I realized before.  Their love and support, trust and faith have impacted me more than I knew it could.  I am so very grateful to have been so privileged as to have been born to two such incredible people!  Love you, Mom and Dad!

Have a wonderful weekend!

xo

What I Wore: Wedding Dresses

I had been so good at posting earlier lately!  Today, not-so-much.

Yesterday we went wedding dress shopping as planned, and I had the best luck!  I found a gorgeous dress at a price that was a literal steal... I can't believe the luck I have had with cost for this wedding!  Everything has basically fallen into my lap for this event...

Anyway, I am super excited about this dress.  Yes, I, the girl who swore not to care about the wedding dress, the girl who wanted a cotton dress and Birkenstocks... I fell in love with an honest-to-God gown.

And here are some of the others I tried on... bear in mind the location is moving and clearing out stock, so there were only a few dresses to try, and limited sizes.  I really can't believe I found a perfect dress for a perfect cost there!















And... the only image I will release of the dress I actually purchased...



And surprisingly, I didn't hate trying on dresses the whole time.  It was actually kinda fun with Kaite and Mom.  :)

Happy Thursday!

xo

A Quick Hello!

Whew!  Blogger must be having a "moment"... my internet is working fine and it took FOREVER to get to the point of writing!  AGH!

This morning I am going to try on wedding dresses.  Before you get too excited for me, the dress is not a big deal in my mind.  In fact, I have learned through photographic evidence that whenever I think I look cute in a dress, I in fact look like I gained 30 pounds.  This is what the camera says.  And the camera never lies.  I have this warped impression of what I look like, and it's something like Kiera Knightley, when in fact, I more closely resemble Warwick Davis.

ANYWAY, I wanted to write and say I FINALLY received Photoshop CS5 and Lightroom in the mail!  WAHOOO!  I was so excited, I nabbed the four free plug-ins from Alex Beadon, and spent the evening trying to figure out how to import my iPhoto images to LR (which is annoying by the way, and includes steps).  Mostly, I just used some images I had on the computer and toyed with them.

I am more familiar with PS having used it before for school and on my PC before it died, and have only a 30 day trial to go on for LR knowledge.  And since I forgot about the trial after a couple days, I really only used it for about a week.  So I decided I'm going to learn how to at least make minor edits with LR.



I used the presets already included just to see what I liked and what worked with the kind of images I typically take.  Okay, the one on the right was just a silly picture Bear took of me one day and I was bomb-rushing him, so the image really can't be saved.  But at least it was fun!

Then I used one of Alex's free PS actions, "Black hearts White" on a forlorn looking photo of Josie.  This was taken in our narrow, windowless hallway with the D90 and my 50mm f/1.4 lens, but the light was REALLY yellow, even with the white balance set to tungsten.  I couldn't get the image neutral enough for my tastes, so I thought trying it in B&W would be a good alternative.  This action is supposed to be reminiscent of aged black and white film, I think, but I adjusted it a little by increasing the contrast and other such minor tweaks until I felt satisfied.  Look at that face!  So despairing!



Well, tomorrow I may have some pictures for you of me in a white dress!  O.o

I promise any of the pictures will NOT be what I am going for.  And will probably be fairly ridiculous because all I own at the moment are sports bras, which are probably not appropriate under garments for trying on a wedding dress.  Oh, well.

Wish me luck and a lack of panic attacks!  I was never good at shopping... and I always loose patience with trying clothes on!  Clearly, I am more nervous about having a meltdown than I am excited...

Happy Wednesday!

xo

PS- Do any of you have an tips or advice on LR or PSCS5?  Or know where to download any free actions/presets I could play with?  I love to play with pictures!

The Races!

On Friday we attended a "derby with an art centre flair" for my one-day-a-week art gallery job.  It was a blast!  I was a bit confused at first, since the event was held at the Local Events Hall... how were horses involved in that?!?!  I mean, usually the place is a Bingo hall or high school reunion center, so factoring in horses was impossible to imagine.  I thought maybe it would be like The Triplets of Belleville, but it was simpler than that!




First, the local group of carousel horse artisans brought some of their works which were painted by members of the Art Centre to lend to the ambiance.  One of the carousel creatures was this boar/pig thing with pretty incredible tusks!  I got a kick out of him!  I once had the privilege of being at their "studio", which is really the "dining room" of this one house... FULL of chisels and huge blocks of wood with horse heads and front legs springing from them.  It was amazing.  Maybe I can go back sometime and snap some pictures of that?!?  Their work is truly impressive and makes me want to strike it rich and hire them to make me a whole working carousel for my personal enjoyment.  And as a massive photoshoot prop.  Think what that would add to family and kid portraits!!!




Anyway, we soon learned that the premise of the "race" was that a "jockey" picked out a  stick horse and wore a sign with the appropriate gate number for the steed they were riding and stood on the corresponding numbered box on the floor.  The floor was taped into a giant grid, eight squares across (one for each gate) and five squares deep (five squares to the finish line).  A guy using a Bingo ball roller randomly pulled the numbers for the horses and whoever was called moved forward a space.  This continued until the winning horse advanced all five spaces.





The event ran three hours and included a buffet dinner that was actually pretty delicious.  The veggies were the best!  There was a cash bar and included coffee, tea, and water for underagers and non-drinkers.  One member is also a candy maker and made hundreds of chocolate horseshoes for every guest to take home!




I bought Bear a horse he named "Lucky Strikes"... who wasn't so lucky, it turns out... even after I slated him in the third race in the third gate (three is my lucky number)!  Those who were luckier than we received a $50 purse every time their horse won, and anyone who bet on a winning horse was put into the big drawing for a $500 grand prize.  The woman who won the big drawing wound up having a choice between the money and a donated painting worth $1200... and took the money and ran.  So the painting will be the drawing prize for our holiday gala.





The whole experience was new and a ton of fun for us!  Do you have a job or belong to an organization that does some sort of creative benefit annually?  I'd love to hear what kinds of functions other groups may have!




Happy Tuesday!

xo

This Past Weekend...

was a blast!  It was really quite busy, but good!

Friday I had a haunted work experience which has mostly explained itself by now, except for the creepy unknown caller... needless to say, I was definitely relieved to lock up and leave early, arriving home safe and sound!  That evening, Bear and I headed to the local Events Hall for the Derby we've been working on arranging for months!  I had never been before, and had a ton of fun!  Bear bought a "horse" and was a jockey for two races, and I was happy as can be, snapping away!  More on this to come!



On Saturday I had a noon meeting at the Local Theatre about the upcoming production of Cabaret, in which I am set decoration crew head and Bear is involved in lighting.  I wasn't able to attend until my photo shoot cancelled on me, so I packed up some paper and headed in to discuss the vision of the the Powers that Be.  We didn't really touch on my aspect of the production, but I have a better understanding of what's going on and know the rest of the staff, which is always a plus!  Not to mention I should be getting a script first... ever notice how the film versions NEVER match the stage ones?!?!?!

After the meeting I came home and vacuumed the whole apartment and gave the bathrooms a much needed scrub.  Gross?  Yes.  Dusty?  Very.  But afterwards, I felt so accomplished!

Then I remembered my sister-in-law was hosting a Tastefully Simple party that I agreed to attend.  I checked Facebook to verify the event time, and saw I had a last minute booking inquiry!  I managed to book a sitting for some very snazzy high school seniors off to their Homecoming later that night.  So, I attended the first half of the dinner party, tag-teamed in Bear when he got off work, and headed off to shoot the dance-ready group!



The client was the mother of one of my best friends from elementary school.  I really can't believe her other daughter, H, is a senior already!  It kinda blew my mind how grown up she was!  The kids in attendance were all really great, fun, happy teens who kept shocking me with their politeness.  Seriously, they all piled in SUVs to head off to dinner and rolled down their windows to thank me for a fun photo shoot!  I was a bit floored and I'm ashamed to admit I could barely stammer out my thanks.  Sometimes I underestimate people, I suppose.

But seriously, I can't get over how grown up H is!  I kept seeing the girl I knew when she was insistent that we play Barbie with her; and here she was, in a black strapless mini-dress with sky high heels and a boyfriend!  So crazy.

Sunday we went shopping a bit for groceries, a microwave, and a Blu-Ray player, since we've been DVD Player-less for over a year now.  I think it may be love.  I also picked up some new spray scents for the house and a couple dishtowels.  Gosh, I am so exciting.  Or I am really just getting old and boring.

Sunday night was family dinner night, and everyone made something.  It was weird having a dinner that consisted entirely of fried food, though!  We had oysters and hushpuppies, sweet potato and regular fries, onion rings, and chicken nuggets.  And by "we" I mean everyone had some of everything except me, I had chicken nuggets and regular fries and apple juice, like a big kid.  Dinner was really awesome, and pretty fun.  The night kinda ended on a downer with a sad phone call from a family friend, though.

It seems a lot of sad things have been happening to people around us lately.  It would be overwhelming, but I am beginning to keep a "happy list", of all my grateful's for just such occasions.  Now, when things take a turn for the tissues, I fortify my emotions with some small pleasantries.  I am seriously considering retrying my 365 Grateful project, and uploading my images to Flickr.  Every day brings a simple joy and I am determined to remember that, especially in the midst of so much sorrow.  Does anyone else keep a list of small happinesses?  Or has anyone else participated in the 365 Grateful project?

How was your weekend?  Anything new and exciting?  Can you tell me one thing that happened this weekend that YOU'RE grateful for?  Mine's having such supportive family and friends in life AND business!

Happy Monday!

xo

A Photo Challenge...

So, Squeebie sent me a message via FB asking me to test out my new lens with a few specific shots.  I wasn't able to complete the whole list, yet, but among the images she wanted to see were:

Bear rolling a cigarette; a favorite childhood toy; a picture of me without a camera (which I couldn't do, so I had a "prop camera" instead, but I think generally she wanted a photo of me in front of a lens, rather than behind it); and a picture of Josie.

There are others, and they will come later.  For now, these are the shots I will address.

First, here's my BooBear rolling his own cigarette.  The process is multi-stepped, and he's a pro so he's super fast.  I thought it best to take step-by-step images.




Second, here's my favorite childhood toy.  Well, these are two things that have carried through my childhood; a blanket my mother knit while pregnant with me, and a dog stuffed with nut shells I picked up at a family member's yardsale in Tennessee.  The yardsale had my little brother and I giddy at all the toys going away, and we were told we could choose ONE toy to keep.  When I got him, he had a pom-pom nose and two eyebrows.  He has since lost the nose and a brow, and is stitched up all over (that's how I know he's stuffed with nutshells!).  I cleverly named my two most precious belongings "Blankie" and "Doggie", because I had a lot of imagination.  Ha.  They travelled the states with me and my military family, went to college with me, and moved with me to Bear's house.  For YEARS I couldn't sleep without having them both with me, Blankie under my head and Doggie under my arm.  Like, truly years.  Until I was way too old for things like that... it was my hangover from childhood comforts, I guess.



Third, a few pictures of me.  These will be on the new website.  Pay no attention to the belly... I am the worst at sticking to diet and exercise!  Oh, well.



Lastly, some adorable shots of Josie.  She was game when Bear was with her.  Then I tried to shoot her alone... She sits on command, and then looks around anxiously for Bear to get her a treat.  Which is why she didn't look at me at all!  Bear asked if she let me get any good shots or if she was a butthead.  Well, she's an adorable butthead.  And I can't expect too much from her with her separation anxiety, her boy was a whole flight of stairs ahead of her!  He could have forgotten about her!  OH THE HORROR!!!





Do you have any requests for photos to see here?  I kinda enjoy this "assignment" thing, as it gives me a challenge between sessions!  Keeps me sharp!

Happy Friday!

xo