Christmas tree sneak peek

Okay...one tree down and one to go!! It took me from 10:15 yesterday morning to 7:20 p.m to get the lights on the tree in my den. It always takes forever cause I use a lot of lights. So, many lights that we rarely use the heat when the tree is on...lol!!! My husband has fits but he gets over it. My kids love the tree and I love doing it. Now to tree number two (after I go get it). I am helping a friend this weekend put the lights on her tree. She actually wants to pay me to do it...hey, do you see the possibility for a side business here?? I can handle lights one time a year for anyone!! Here are a few of the ornaments I have on my tree down stairs..enjoy the day!!

Loving the season!!

I have been a busy busy girl! I finally finished editing the shots from the Thanksgiving shoot with my family. I helped a wonderful friend of mine with her Christmas mini sessions last Sat. and had a blast! What fun to bring in the families and do a quick shoot. It was a little hectic since our location changed because of weather, but Kate did a great job and it was a lot of fun being her asst.! The rest of the weekend was helping Mandy decorate her tree and editing more photos and taking a Christmas card shoot of some of their friends..(pictures down the post) and their beautiful little nine month old!! She was a moving target...I don't think I got even one really good shot of her. It was so cold that we did the shoot indoors by Mandy and Rik's tree. I can honestly say that I suck at indoor shots!! I worked hard and still only got mediocre pics. No light equals bad photos!! Anyway, I am finished with everyone's photos and can now go get my own Christmas trees and start decorating them!! Out house looks like the Scrooge house cause I still have pumpkins on my front door...not even a sign of Christmas around here yet!

Gotta go get ready for aerobics, so see you later...don't forget to leave a comment if you come by. Please be respectful and don't take my photos without permission. Thanks :)

Favorites

So, of all the shots that I took over the Thanksgiving holiday, this is by far my favorite. Just the sweetness in Carter's little face is so touching to me. His Daddy is standing right by him the entire time we are trying to get his photo and Carter is not too sure he wants it taken. The next shot is too cute! Love you Scott and Carter!! (click on the photos for a better view)
Please leave a comment when you visit :)

Busy Busy Busy

So why is it that when you have a dozen things to do everything gets so complicated?? I will explain all this at another time. Right now I am going to talk about my busy week. I have been editing the hundreds of photos that I took over Thanksgiving. Mandy many of them did not turn out because I changed my lens and forgot to make a few changes on my camera (stupid girl!)
so I ended up with fuzzy and lousy shots. On the other hand, the shots I took of Leigh and Scott's families turned out really well. I have been trying to get them ready to send to my sister for their Christmas cards. I will be posting a few for comments (Kate)
and hope my family likes them.
I think I have mentioned my friend Kate several times before. She has started her own photography business and is doing great. She had a mini shoot set up for Saturday with several families and has asked me to help her. I am so excited. But now, the dang weather is threatening to ruin the shoot. We were supposed to shoot at a park here and it is going to be very very cold and rainy :( Kate has a backup plan and I think it will be fine...and probably as much fun as being in the cold :) I am still looking forward to it and I know Kate will take some great shots.
I am supposed to shoot a Christmas card shot for some friend's of Mandy and Rik's on Sunday. They have an infant daughter and I am looking forward to seeing her and trying to get some good shots of the family.
Next week, I will be putting together a scrapbook party for my little neighbor Josephine's birthday party. She is having 15 or so kids over and they are putting together the cutest scrapbooks. I am getting all the things they need to do the pages together for Laura. I am a bit behind now though...I have not done anything but work on the Thanksgiving photos since we have been home.
I am pathetic...lol...I can't manage to do but one thing at a time I am so obsessive when I get started with something.
These are just a few of the shots I took of the kids. I will post more later.....along with pics of our my grandchild...even though it is not photos that I took...lol!
Enough ramblings..on to the photos. Enjoy and please leave a comment when you visit.

Things to come

I am so sad now that Thanksgiving is over. I got to see my family and spend time just talking and enjoying each other's company. We had a fantastic meal and did some shopping on Black Friday. I took some photos of my niece and brother's family...here is a sneak peek. This is Jordan and she LOVES having her picture taken. I will post some more when I get them done :)
It has come to my attention that a few folks have been taking photos from my blog to their computer...these are my personal photos and would really appreciate anyone getting permission before they take my photos...thanks. Please leave a comment when you visit. And click on the photos to see them well :)

First photos!!

Well, I saw the first real pics of my grandchild today...at least the ones where it looks like a baby, anyway!! I would post them, but I don't have permission from the parents to be. Only because I forgot to ask them...lol! Not to worry, I am sure that everyone and anyone that reads this blog will get a belly full of the photos that I will take when this little stinker is born.
I am so ready to go home for Thanksgiving. Our son will be riding with us and we won't have a lot of wiggle room. I have to take all the plates, cups, fruit for a hot compote, three people's suitcases and toiletries, gifts for two of the kids and six boxes of Saran Wrap that my sister can't find where she lives and a cooler with a ham in it. Not to mention we have to take pillows and blankets because my sister does not have enough for the army that will soon be invading her home! It will be a tight squeeze for us and all that stuff to fit in the midsized car that we are renting. It is supposed to be an Impala, because my husband can't wait to drive that stupid car!! It is the same size as the one we drive now and it is NOT big!!
Tomorrow will be a full day of running around for me. My day will start with going to the grocery store.....I HATE that chore more than anything in the world! Then off to Honey Baked Ham to pick up the huge ham that I have to pick up and take with us to Ga. Next it's off to the Y for a step class. Then I will be hurrying home to go and pick up the rental car...hopefully by this time Mac will be home to go with me. Last time we rented a car, we got there late in the afternoon and ended up with this crappy little car that I HATED driving and riding in. This time we CAN'T have a smaller car because of the load we have to carry, so the plan is to be at the rental place a lot earlier. Oh yeah, the next thing I need to do is pack..I am a good packer and can really cram a lot into a small space. This skill better come in handy when packing the car...lol!
Okay, that is enough for my list, at least for now :) The photos are the last thing I have done tonight...one is put another coat of paint on some letters that a friend of mine will be using in a photo shoot I will be helping her with in Dec. and the other is one of my favorite things to do...wrap Christmas gifts :)
So, have a great Thanksgiving everyone and please leave a comment if you visit.
P.S. thank you Ralph and Laura for taking care of all our animals :)

Testing...

I am trying to see how these photos look on my blog....I love the little black frame. Did it in the actions that I just got. I LOVE them. Thanks, Mandy for going with me to get them :) I have some interesting shots that i have been working on, but they are not my photos so I can't post them :( I just found out that my sister, Gail, is not going to be able to be with the rest of the family at Thanksgiving. Besides having some major dental work done this week, her little dog is having some surgery on his hip :( Poor little Madison. Between her mouth, the dog and her granddaughter not having a sitter while she is away, Gail decided that this is not the time to make a 16 hour (or more) trip. I am so sad. I will miss her more than she knows. It will just not be the same without her. She is SOO freakin funny and so much of a joy for us all to have around. Anytime we are missing one of us, our time is just not complete. But, when Gail is the one missing, there is even more of a hole. I know it is because it is her that I am the closest to and actually get to spend more time with. She is ALWAYS always by my side when I need her. I am so grateful for her and so sad I won't be able to be with her over this holiday.
Gail, I know you read my blog, so just know that you now owe me a holiday..I will take Christmas, LOL!!
The last picture is Gail and our niece's daughter, Raley.
Love you Gail and I will miss you terribly.

My first Christmas card shoot :)

Okay, here we go. The photos below are of my sweet girls that live next door. Their mom was kind enough to dress them in their holiday outfits and send them over for a few shots in my yard. I LOVED IT! I had a good time and the girls were comfortable and funny. I rented a new lens (Nikon 17-55mm 2.8) for Saturday and Sunday and could not wait to use it. It did a good job, but I was so uncomfortable using it...I was so scared I was going to mess it up, I could not even relax while using it! I know ...I know...that is dumb, but it really is the way I was feeling. So, I took a few with it and then I took it off and used my trusty Nikon 50mm 1.8 lens. Much more comfortable with it..lol! In the last photo posted the girls were watching Brian clean leaves off of the roof of our house! I could not get them to look at me..lol!! Thanks to Laura , Josephine and Carly for helping me make this shoot possible.
I wish that I could rent a lens to take home with me next week, but that ain't happening cause it is too much moola for me right now.
We have finally gotten the garage semi-clean. We took about 14 loads to Goodwill over the weekend (Actually, I am the ONLY one that did..Brian did NOT!) Laura took the last load for me on Monday morning and when I get rid of the books, a box of chew toys for Gail's dog and the Kidney Foundation boxes.....the garage will be ready to roll for my setting up a studio (of sorts) in there. I can't wait to start getting stuff set up so I can practice.
I am trying to learn lots of ways to use my camera and today I read about a new way to focus. I did not understand a damn thing I read!! Isn't that pathetic?? I have had this camera for a year (Christmas) and still can't figure some of the functions out. I will be making a trip to Wolf Camera to visit my friend, Jennifer, tomorrow.
I am starving, so I am going to heat up some soup I made yesterday for dinner now. So, enjoy the photos and please click on them to see them better. Oh yeah, and please leave a comment :)

I GOT IT!!!

I GOT IT!!! Can you see what I got?? I have been wanting it forever and now I have it.....I could not be more excited. I will be posting some pics after I learn how to use it. See you later, I am going to play!

Looking forward.....

It has been a couple of weeks (maybe more :( ) since I posted anything. Well, I did finally have the yard sale and, of course, it was a rainy Saturday, so we did not have a great deal of traffic. And even less buyers..lol! Laura and the girls and Mandy came to help me since Mac was at the Habitat House most of the day. They stayed with me almost the entire time. Jo and Carly were very good at keeping my mind off of the fact that we were not selling much. At the end of our day, Brian and I dragged most of the stuff back into the garage in the hopes of a sunny Saturday soon. If it does not happen before Thanksgiving, all the yard sale stuff goes to GoodWill or Amvets!! I have promised Brian that it will not stay in there longer than Thanksgiving. I made a couple of hundred dollars and I figured it was more than I had when the day started, so I was okay with it. The very next weekend I had the craft show at our church. I was skeptical that I would not make much there either. But, I actually made enough to get PHOTOSHOP!!! YES!!!! I am so stoked about that. I have wanted it since I got the computer, but could not afford it. Now I can. I have decided to get a back up hard drive before I invest in more lenses, so that I won't lose anything else...ever, I hope!! I think I have enough for both Photoshop, the hard drive AND a wireless router :) Go, Me.....uh huh, that's right...I will be 'putering in style then!
Now to more important things. I can't wait until Thanksgiving. I always get so excited when it is time to go home. I love seeing my siblings and all our families and their families...there are actually quite a lot of us now. My sister, JoAnn called me today and told me she is expecting 41 of us to be trying to vie for beds in three houses. JoAnn's, Leigh's and Scott's homes will be overrun by relatives. And we love it...they may not,though. We are grateful that they allow us to come in and make our messes and they love us and take care of us while we do it...lol!! We have such a wonderful time when we are all together and we don't get to be together very often. We laugh and eat and play and eat and shop and eat and talk and talk and talk and ...oh yeah, did I say eat??
I really love me family and am so thankful for them all.

Have I mentioned my friend, Kate, lately?? She is the friend that let me join her on one of her baby shoots. (No baby in my life...not until June anyway!) It was super fun. She and I both have a love for photography and have dreams of making a photo business come true. Kate is well on her way. She has already had lots of shoots and is in constant demand from her friends. (Now I have to take a note from her page and get my butt in gear and do the same thing.) Kate has a wonderful family and I adore the fact that she loves being creative with her shots. I am so jealous of her because she has ordered a great lens that I would die to have :( She will see a marked difference in her shots when she gets it. She and I both are learning as we go. I am very happy that I have someone like Kate that I can bounce ideas off of and learn from. Can't wait to work with her again! Kate, love ya, girl, and keep up the great work!!!

So, here is my plan for the next few days: Buy Photoshop
Rent the lens I think I want
Shop for gift for Carter
Finish special order from craft show
Clean up Casey's bedroom
Get rid of extra junk (not saleable)
It is raining cats and dogs here tonight so I am going now to enjoy sleeping in the rain :)
Here are a few pics of some of my relatives. Pic #1 JoAnn and Mike, #2 Leigh, #3 Scott and Carter, #4 Beautiful tree from our neighbors yard.
Goodnight all...and please leave a comment if you visit...I love to hear form you :)

PLEASE...Just one sunny Saturday!!

I have been waiting for the last 4 weekends for a sunny Saturday!! I have not been able to have the dang attic sale!!! I have got to get this stuff out of my garage!!! Next weekend is the craft show at our church (St. Stephen Methodist on Sardis Road) But, I can't even concentrate on the craft show until I have cleared out the garage! I am having this yard sale because I want some expensive things.........
Adobe Photoshop CS4, and a Nikon 24-70mm 2.8 lens, and a Nikon 105mm 2.8 lens, and a Nikon 70-200mm 2.8 lens and just for kicks I'd like to have a Nikon 50mm 1.4 lens. Yep, that is what I want.......and man, they are all out of my budget. I hope by having this yard sale I can get a jump start on saving enough money to at least get the Photoshop. The lenses will have to wait a little longer. Boo-Hoo!

So I have priced at least some of the stuff I am selling. I can't even get to some of it to price it because there is so much of it piled up!! I took some photos of some of the boxes and tubs to post. I just hope at least some of it will sell quickly. I have Christmas things, baby things, toys, stuffed animals, framed pictures, puzzles, craft items, books, more books, and more books. I am also selling all the cross stitch models that I stitched when I had the design business. Oh, you did not know I had a business...yep, I did. I designed and sold counted cross stitch books and leaflets for almost 12 years. It was a very lucrative business and one that I could do at home and be here with my children. I loved it. I traveled and went to wholesale shows to peddle my wares. I was able to do that because of my sweet sweet father-in-law. He allowed me to do the shows by keeping the children and helping Brian while I was away. When he died, I did not even want to keep going with the traveling. It was not comforting to have a friend or a babysitter come and take care of my kids. By that time, the shows were farther away from our city and took longer and longer away from my children. So, I made the choice to stop traveling with the business. As we all know, if they don't see your goods, the buyers don't buy! Eventually I was not making much money, so I officially closed the business. I still had a lot of inventory and all the sample models of the cross stitch patterns. They are all lovely models. I had them made into pillows or trays or quilts, but most are framed really nicely. I spent a fortune on good framing...have you priced framing lately...OMG!! It is out of this world expensive!
It is my hope that someone who really knows their value will show up at my sale. Keep your fingers crossed for me. :)

There are a few shots of what was taking up all of my time just a year ago this October. That is right, Mandy and Rik have been married for one year now. I can remember the wonderful day like it was yesterday. It was warm and gorgeous. It had been raining for days before the day of the wedding, but that day, even though it was a bit soggy, was the most beautiful day. The rain meant that we had to take their ceremony indoors, but even that did not faze them. They were both so happy and so excited. Friends and family were all there to support and show their love and it could not have been a better day. Yes, there are always things that happen at any event, but nothing marred their happiness. My daughter looked beautiful and radiant. Rik did not stop smiling at her the entire day!! They are very very happy and celebrated the one year by painting their kitchen...lol. They have done so much work in their home. We are very proud of them for working so hard.
I am now looking forward to our niece, Elizabeth's wedding next June. She is going to be another gorgeous bride.

And the last photos are from our yard and our neighbors. Hate to admit it but fall is here. I don't like fall...it means that really cold weather is right around the corner. I am not ready for cold weather..actually I will never be ready for cold weather..LOL!
Hope that you all have a great weekend!! Please leave a comment if you visit :)

Great photo day!!

Today I babysat for my friend Nicole. Hannah is her 4 year old that is absolutely adorable. (One minor problem that I will talk about later.) Nicky knew that I would take some pics of Hannah since I rarely get to see her when we are not all in the middle of something, and she gave me her camera to use. Well, her memory card was full, so I just HAD to use my own camera for some cute shots. She was dressed in the cutest dang outfit on. She wore a black t shirt over an orange long sleeved shirt, black and orange striped tights and a black tutu!!! SOOO CUTE!!! I loved her look and to top it off she had on black boots. I was in photo model heaven. Now comes the problem..Hannah is harder to get a decent photo of than anything I have EVER tried to shoot before . I knew she was a bit of a challenge from the last time I took some shots of her and Cole, but dang!! I had to really work to get the few really decent ones that I got. I adored her cute smile, but it was pretty elusive for my camera today. The child WILL NOT look at the camera. She will cut her head around but her little eyes are no where near looking at you or your camera....lol!
DAMN! I can't get blogger to upload my images, so I will try again in an hour to finish uploading my shots.
Okay, it is working now. I managed to bribe Hannah with some bubble gum and she came outside more than once to let me take some more shots. She made some of the funniest faces while I was shooting...lots of them were scowls at me cause she was ready to NOT be smiling!! It was hard work to smile and look at me...according to Hannah. She is a sweet child and very special to me. Thanks, Hannah Banana, for being my model today!!
Okay, n ow for the continuing saga of the attic sale. ow that I have decided to have it this weekend...of course, it is going to be raining Sat. morning. So, I am waiting till next weekend. Please keep your fingers crossed that I cna hold this dang thing, cause if I can't, Brian is going to wring my neck for having all the crap in the garage!! He offered to pay me if I would not have it..LOL! I really want to see if I can make enough money to buy Photoshop..or at least a good start for it. I also want to buy a new lens for my camera..yep, or maybe two! ( I wish!)
I did not get to exercise yesterday or today and I swear I feel like a big ole slug!!! I will be there tomorrow if I have to crawl to get there.

Saturday and Sunday was kind of a cold day and Brian and I really wanted some homemade soup. Since I had nothing...I mean nothing... in our cupboards, I thought, "Oh crap, I am going to have to go to the grocery store on the weekend!". But Sunday Brian told me he thought we had some frozen out in the freezer, so we took it out to thaw. The rather large very hard frozen container was no where near to being thawed out on Sunday evening, so I waited until Monday to try to get it ready to eat for our dinner. It was still a pretty hard lump and I put it in some water and in the microwave on defrost. When I tried to stir it, I thought...man, this stuff is thin for my veggie soup. After breaking it apart into smaller icy chunks and microwaving it some more, I began to stir it and realized that it was chili and not soup after all. That was all good cause that is a good cold weather meal, too. I did think it was a bit thin for chili so I added three or four cans of beans. I put it back in the microwave, this time to heat it up. After I took it out this time it was finally thawed and beginning to resemble food instead of a frozen mess. So,, of course, I had to taste it. I am SOOO glad that I did. It was not the taste that I had expected...you see, I had added beans to SPAGHETTI SAUCE!!! DANG!!! I had some quick repairs to make. So, out came the chili powder and a few tomatoes and chilies....and finally I had something that was edible! Whew! What a disaster..I should have just gone on to the store and not procrastinated. That will teach me.
It takes forever to upload these photos, so please leave a comment if you visit. To see them really clearly, click on the image. PLEASE leave a comment :)

FINALLY FINISHED!!

Thank Goodnesss!! I am finally done with the clipboards! And just in the knick of time...my poor fingers are blistered and raw from cutting measuring, gluing, smoothing, gluing again, gluing again, cutting, and tying!!! I really do not like making them cause they take so very very long, but I DO LOVE seeing them when they are finished..lol!! They are really cute. Now for a sneak peek for Brittany and Gail.
The other two photos are my playing with my camera. I took both photos with only my computer light on in my workroom. I have been eating a lot of meals up there while trying to get stuff done. The only time I allowed myself on the computer was once in the am to check my mail and AFTER I had finished a full day's work on the clipboards. So, last night I was finally checking my e-mail for the evening at 4:00 am!! Yep, that's right. I get into my work and never even looked at a clock until I finally realized the only thing coming on tv was infomercials. You know it is late when it is infomercials and nothing but infomercials for channel after channel..LOL! So, next week it is on to the yard sale crap. This afternoon and tomorrow Mac and I will get the rest of the stuff out of the garage attic and then organize the rest of the stuff we left up there. Not a fun task either.
So here are the sneak peeks and then it is off to the attic for me!
Please leave comment if you visit :)

Been busy!

My baby sister is on my tail again to update my blog. So, today I went out and caught Carly in some really cure red shoes and decided to take some photos of her. She was not a very willing participant, so the photos were not very clear, but a moving target is better than no target at all..lol!
I have still been trying to get some things ready for the craft show and clean out the garage attic for a yard sale and get some clipboards ready to make for my niece and sister. It is a mess in my garage and I do not look forward to having to price all the things we have taken down. I am making a huge decision to get rid of a lot of my old cross stitch models. The ones that I used to take to shows for customers to see are in the cases that I carried and displayed them in. I am hoping to sell them anyway. They represent a lot of years and a huge amount of time from my past. I just hope that the money will be enough to buy Photoshop...it is major expensive and I am major broke!!! I am also saving money for a new lens for my camera....YIPEEE! But, it is also uber expensive. I need to practice some more but I am tired of taking pictures of plants and grass. The girls next door are not always available and I am getting desperate to clean out my garage so I can practice some set up shots in there and see how the lighting is. I also have started to work with a friend of mine who does tutoring. Only one day a week and this was my first week. I really like working with the kids. I have forgotten how much I missed it after I quit working in the school system. I do love the kids and these are especially needy ones in the academic area. I think I will enjoy it immensely. (Thanks, Nicky and Kay)
Mac has been procrastinating helping me get the garage cleaned out and decided to start a couple of new projects....one is trying to grow grass in two areas of our yard that have never had grass!! Do you think watching grass grow is a good stall for helping me?? I don't.
So, here are some shots from the last few days....and Gail, if you can tell me what the last one is, I will try to have your cb's done before you come for the craft show....????
Don't forget to click on the photos for a better look and please leave a comment if you visit...thanks!! :)