1700 fancy frills

My little girls would love  this dress!  Can you imagine playing dress-up with a dress like this, let alone – photo sessions!  Go enter the giveaway if you want a chance at it.

Hello!!!

I’ve been away and I’ve missed you!  I’ve been very busy lately, and perhaps a bit uninspired.  But alas, I’ve been tagged by my blogging friend Toni, and have been invited to jump back in for a go at a fun game of tag.  Thanks Toni, for thinkin’ of me.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So, here are some random, and some weird things about me (I’ll let you be the judge.)

1.  The first physical characteristics I noticed about my husband when we first met were his nice, white teeth, his strong hands, and his handsome/muscular backside. 

2.  I started a photography business five months ago. 

3.  For some illogical reason, I hold my breath when I enter a room with a flu stricken person in it.  I stay in the room just long enough to give them an extra blanket or ask if I can get them anything, then I make for the hall to draw in a breath of fresh, uncontaminated air.  I don’t think I’d make a very good nurse…and yet I love to prepare a big pot of home-made chicken soup and gather up all the comforts that I can imagine to help flu stricken people feel better. 

 4.  I’ve been missing my grandpa lots lately (he passed away 19 years ago) so I made his favorite cookies the other day – oatmeal spice- then had my boys bring them down to share with our neighbor - the nicest, single man in his seventies.  He just happened to reply that oatmeal are his favorite cookies. 

5.  I want to go back to my childhood to get another wiff of my grandma’s kitchen.  I don’t know what it was, but I know it was a fragrance that encompased lovely memories.   I haven’t smelt it since… so I’m thinking that I want to learn to make my own mincemeat, and perhaps, just maybe I’ll discover it to be a part of that familiar aroma from those days long gone. 

6.  For some reason I am scared of some sales people (namely, car salesman…  we need a new rig) -when they start talking to me, I break into a nervous sweat and my knees get weak…plus, I become super duper suspicious.  I need help. 

7.  When my husband is wearing a faint trace of Gray Flannel cologne/aftershave, his neck becomes a magnet in which I nuzzle into and never want to leave.  for he is a magnet and I am steel.

Now, enough about me… I want to invite you to join in the fun.  If you’re up to it, play along!  Just copy the rules from above and do share over on your blog.  Be sure to leave me a comment so I can go read all about you!  Tag, you’re it!

Feeling Loved

 Thanks for this award Spanki, you surely made my day!!! 

 

And the feeling is most definitely mutual!  I love to visit Spanki’s blog… she’s fun and talented and so considerate, just to name a few!  She’s gorgeous, and yet so down to earth.  Her decorating skills make me drool, and leave me inspired – one day, I’d like to paint my living room with a really cool faux technique that she has instructed me in… I don’t have the skills that she has, so first… I’ve got to pep-talk myself into it!  

Upon receiving this award, there are a few rules that I must follow:

1. The winner can put the logo on her blog.
2. Link the person you received your award from.
3. Nominate at least 5 other blogs.
4. Put links of those blogs on yours.
5. Leave a message on the blogs of those you have nominated.

I love to visit a variety of blogs, some favorites I’ve recently tagged at a game of show-and-tell.  I think it’s always fun to discover new and exciting blogs to read, so I’ll nominate a new handful of my favorite inspirational reads.

Here they are, in no particular order:

1.  When my sweet tooth starts throbbing, my favorite place to visit is cream puffs in venice.  Um, yummm!  Keep a hankie nearby when you head over for a visit, you’ll need it to wipe up all of the drool from your desktop.  She makes the most deliciously beautiful treats that your eyes could ever feast upon!  …and the majority of them come with the recipe!

2.  I am always, always blessed with every single visit that I make to Ann’s a holy experience.  Ann is so completely deep-seated in God.  Her daily reflections are so very penetrating, humbling, and inspiring.  So many times, her words have brought such warmth to my heart – as a mother, and as a child of God.  Every time I reach the conclusion in her posts, I am filled with such a wealth of thoughts and ambitions.

3.  Of chorse I’m passionate to learn everything I can about photography!  A while ago I found JasmineStar’s blog, and when I did, I found much inspiration.  I read the beginnings of her blog when she was first starting out in photography, and got to see her first photo shoots.  Now she’s a very popular photographer in California…and I think it’s so neat to be able to see how her talents have developed for her along the way.  I always head over there when I’m needing some photography inspiration.

4.  I’ve recently discovered Kimba over at a soft place to land, and let me just say, WOW!  Now this lady has some talent!  She is so outrageously creative, and ambitious, and encouraging.  She does, and makes the neatest things, and she spells out the process step-by-step so you can totally picture yourself doing it.  TALENTED, let me tell ya!

5.  Finally, what homeschooling parent couldn’t use a little motivation here and there??  My friend Nancy told me about Dawn over at by sun and candlelight over a year ago.  Dawn is the most organized person I’ve seen.  She is also one of the most involved homeschooling teachers that I’ve seen.  I love to stop by her site to see what she’s up to… I think her three sons will definitely appreciate the wealth of learning opportunities that she provides them with.  If I did a quarter of the things that she does, I would feel so very pleased with myself. 

I hope you find inspiration in these blogs as I have. 

Thanks Spanki, it was fun!

Go Enter the Giveaway!

My friend Janelle, over at A Classic Tale  is having a giveaway…today just may be my day!

Enter the drawing to win a free Muddpuppy Puzzle of your choice!  You’ll find a great selection of puzzles to go along with favorite children’s stories.  My kids love books and puzzles, so if we win it will definitely be hard to narrow it down… there’s Peter Rabbit, Richard Scarry, and Harry the Dirty Dog, just to name a few… Oh My!

Also, go check out her website here and see all the great children’s products she’s offering.    The next little nephew born into my family is going to be sporting a pair of these cute little retro tennies!

I’ve Been Tagged

The beautiful and talented Spanki over at spankslittlerascals has tagged me at a game of show-and-tell.  When you visit her blog, you’ll find her gorgeous family, great decorating, and loads of inspiration from her journey through life. 

Sooo… here’s everything you never knew you wanted to know about me.

1.  Where have you traveled?     Growing up, my family did a lot of camping and exploring in our home state.  We also explored the sites in surrounding states.  For our honeymoon, my husband and I went on a Caribbean cruise, stopping at Jamaica, the Bahamas, Tulum, Xel-ha, Grand Caymen, Cozumel…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And recently we traveled to Hawaii to stay with our good friends who were living there this past spring.

Of the places that I’d like to travel, Greece, Ireland, and New England in the autumn time, are at the top of my list.

2.  Where would you like to live?     I’m happy just where I am… on some land out in the countryside, in a house that my husband and I built with our own two hands. (as well as the hands of some wonderful family & friends.)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The sunsets from our bedroom window are amazing! 

 

3.  What is your decorative style?     My style is pretty much a hodge podge, what do they call that… eclectic?  I’m kind of farmhouse meets country cottage.  When I’m out shopping for the house, I just try to pick out things that I think I might like to look at day after day.  I really just want it to feel cozy when you come for a visit… put your feet up and share a cup of tea with me.

 

 4.  How many times have you been married?     One, to my high-school sweetheart.  We’ve just celebrated our fifteenth wedding anniversary.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

5.  What is your favorite color?     I like different shades of green, my most recent is a mossy green.  I also like shades of brown.  And my most recent of recent favorite colors is aqua.

6.  What is your proudest accomplishment?     Someday, I hope to say that my proudest accomplishment is having nurtured my children into happy, healthy adults.  For now, I’ll say an accomplishment that I worked really hard at was graduating from college with honors.  Academics didn’t exactly come easy for me, so I worked my hiney off in college.   Where the average student could read the chapter once and retain it’s contents, I was up reading it two or three times through.  I chose English as my minor, and my adviser tried to talk me out of it, saying that it was the hardest endorsement to earn at that college, and that the English professors were very demanding.  I decided then and there that I would defy him, and I did, with A’s!  My husbands memories of me during those days, he’ll tell ya, is waking up at three a.m. to the sound of my wailing from the dining room table downstairs.  Those were the days before computers were common household items, so there I’d sit typing on my electric typewriter, almost done with a page, only to find I’d made a typo and had to rip the whole sheet out and start again!  I. worked. hard.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

7.  What would we be absolutely shocked to know about you?     Wow!  There are so many shocking things about me… to narrow it down to just one… hmmm, I’ll have to get back to ya on that one.                      *added later*Okay, okay! I finally know what’ll really shock ya!  Ready for this?…I have the longest toes of anyone I have ever met, except for my radiantly gorgeous auntie Barbara Lynn (I think we tie, actually!)  My longest toe measures in at 2 and 3/16ths inches.  They’re as long as some peoples fingers I tell ya!  I’d post a picture, but you wouldn’t believe it, you’d think they were my hands.    

Now, it’s my turn to tag… so if you’d like to join in the fun,     I tag Nancy over at postcardsfromparadise, and Susan at shortonwords.   If anyone else would like to join in the fun, I’d love to hear your own answers …in my comments or at your own blog!

And the Winner Is….

Thanks to everyone who participated in my little contest yesterday.  It was fun to read the different exclamations that you came up with for my baby girl. There was a nice variety of entries, as some of you interpreted the look on her face as having a sense of urgency, while others saw it as pure glee.

So, last night, my husband reclined in the judges chair and I read each entry to him, leaving out the name of the author to keep his selection completely unbiased.  After carefully listening to your entries, a couple of times, he concluded that Lucy’s entry, “Weeee… ha ha ha….weeeee.  Do it again daddy… please, please, please!!!”  is his favorite.  When asked why he chose that entry he responded, with a smile on his face, “Because that is exactly what she says.”

Congratulations Lucy, you are the winner of yesterday’s photo contest!  I will be contacting you soon to find out which print you’d like me to send to you, and what size you’d like it to be. 

To everyone else, thanks for your creative captions… I really enjoyed reading your entries.

And there we have it – the answer to the question that has baffled me upon this initiation of each of our babies into toddler-hood.  Why must he scoop our baby up like that, and then fling her eight or nine feet up into space… away from her mama, away from this hard, rocky, unforgiving surface,… away from safety and civility?!!  Well, why else?  Because she delights in it… she pleads for it, and then squeals in absolute bliss.  Many evenings, when her daddy pulls into the driveway, she runs to the front door to greet him, ”Super jump daddy…super jump!” 

Why, just look at the little rascal…What’s a mama to do!

Thanks for stopping by y’all…have a splendid day!

Give that Photo a Caption Contest

The baby in this photo needs your help!  Just look at the cute little thing, she’s got something to say but seems to be having some trouble finding the words.  I know that you can help her get it off her chest… just look closely, I’m sure it’ll come to you!  When it does, enter your caption in the comments section below and you’ll have a chance at winning a free 11×14, 8×10, or 5×7 picture of your choice from either my Barns Page or Lighthouses Page.   If you don’t need another barn or lighthouse picture, you’re still welcome to enter…I crave your comments!  

This picture is of my husband and my baby girl, taken five months ago.  Upon first glance, you may have asked yourself why my husband would be tossing around a rag doll, but with closer examination you’ll notice that she is alive indeed!  You may even hear a squeal if you listen hard enough.  Yesiree, those are real little clenched teeth, real little squinted eyes, and real little scrambled brains.

Me, on the other hand, I’m real confused.  You see, every time our babies have become toddlers (that would be five times to be exact,)  I become baffled once again, by the mysterious male species and his need to throw things.  Beginning with the very youngest to the more mature in age, I’ve see them throw rocks, toys, and balls, some even throw their tools.  But what, tell me, is this fascination in throwing their children?  That may be a question for another contest!   I myself like to keep our baby safe and sound, on the ground!   But then again, I’m a bit of a klutz, and my biceps are like noodles next to his!   

To enter the contest:  Choose a short phrase to sum up what she might be thinking/wanting to say, and enter it in the comments section below before 8pm western time today.  I will copy your entries anonymously, and ask my husband to select his favorite caption to fill the bubble in the picture above.  Winner will be announced tomorrow, Good luck!

“Choose Your Favorite Photo” Contest

I’ve been experimenting in Photoshop by converting pictures to black and white.  And I need your help!  I’m trying to get a feel for what looks right but it feels like a foreign language to me – I can definitely see differences but I don’t know which one’s I should be striving for.  While I tend to gravitate toward vivid colors, I know there are people out there who prefer black and white prints.  In hopes of developing some black and white converting skills, I played around in Photoshop this morning and came up with a few black &  white options.  I’d love to know which one you prefer. 

If this picture were one that you were ordering as a black and white print, which of the following four black and white versions would you prefer?  Enter your favorite Black & White (#1, #2, #3, or #4) in the comments section of this post by 9pm Pacific Time and be entered in a random selection contest.  The prize is an 8×12 to 12×18 print you choose from any of these barn photos, in black & white or  color.  

Here we have the original.  Don’t vote for this one, it’s just here to show the before conversion version.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

PHOTO #1   This is a basic black and white conversion in Photoshop: 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 PHOTO #2    This started from the above conversion, but I added a little more contrast to the skin tones and lips:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

PHOTO #3      This one was convereted using Photoshop’s gradient map:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

PHOTO #4     And this one has a white infrared filter applied to it:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Here they are side by side:

 #1                                                                  #2                                                             #3                                                           #4

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I would love to hear which one you prefer, and if you don’t care for barn prints I’d still like to know what you think!  Thanks for stopping by, and have a splendid day!