365 Days of Linda

August 23-31

2010-09-01T09:00:00.000-07:00

Hi friends. I'm here to wrap up the end of August today. So let's get down to it, shall we?

For Monday, I was really feeling the urge to photograph something, and I happened to notice the light hitting this piano just right. It's still not perfect...but it's much closer than other attempts I've made at capturing this shot!

Most of my month has been consumed with unpacking and setting up our new apartment. Tuesday I finished setting up all my movies, books, and craft items. I love that I actually have a little craft spot now! :)

Wednesday I set up the decorations on our fridge. lol I know it sounds silly, but I really love looking at the side of my fridge now. :) I just love having all these wonderful moments nearby all the time! It makes me smile.

Thursday I finished up my little game room. I set my old TV up with my old Nintendo systems (a N64 and a GameCube) inside the cat room! lol So now I can easily play my older games without making too much clutter in the main room, plus I get to snuggle with the cats more when they come to hang out. :)

Friday morning I got a quick shot of Griefer looking out the window. It was a bit too bright...but I found a new preset in Lightroom that I really like, and it gave it a nice, kinda artsy feel to it. I kinda like it. I especially love those blue eyes of hers. :)

Saturday we finally had our apartment warming party. :) Lots of my closest friends were able to come, which meant soooo much to me! I wasn't able to get too many shots...I spent more of my time drinking and catching up. lol But I did get this hilarious shot of my friend William being goofy. :) I love my friends! I'm so happy they were able to come out to see our new place and that they all liked it! It really meant a lot to have them there. :)

Sunday we took things easy...the apartment's finally together, the party was over, and it was time to just relax. Here, Sampson shows us how it's done. lol He looks like he had a great time at the party as well! :)

I also got this great shot of Sampson. He loooves to lay on the floor with his paws stretched out like this, kinda like Superman! I didn't get a good head down shot, but when he yawned I knew I had the shot I wanted for the day! lol

And for the last day, a shot of a leaf on the tree in our store. I really liked how you could see all the little lines on the leaf....and the way the lights in the background look.

So, August is now over. It's hard to believe there's only 4 months left to the year. It's definitely been an interesting one, and it's got lots more to deliver. I've been very blessed at work....they've given me a bit of a budget to get some new studio equipment, and so I know I have lots of fun coming up when that all starts arriving. I just really hope I'm moving in the right direction, being exactly where I need to be, being present. I think I am. :) Have a great month, friends!

August 16-22

2010-08-27T12:39:00.000-07:00

Hi friends! :) I have another week's worth of photos to share with you today!

First off, I wanted to share my little dolphin. This little dolphin has been with me since early high school, if not before then lol....but everywhere I go, I have to have my dolphin hanging from a light somewhere. He was one of the first things I put up when we moved in. :)

Then, this pretty flower! I wanted to get some cool macro type shots...this was the closest I got. But i still like it! I like that I was able to get most of the little parts in the middle of the flower in focus.

Last Wednesday, Jon made another lasagna. And boy, was it tasty! :) My man is such a good cook....sometimes he gets himself a bit overloaded in the kitchen, but he always turns out good food. This was no exception. :)

Thursday, we had a teacher breakfast at my work. This was for piano teachers in the area to have a nice breakfast and learn about our revamped teacher program. So if you know a piano teacher...Steinway has a good program to help them out! lol

Friday I got to go over and see my little kiddos. :) My niece Dalilah is walking now!! I just had to see for myself and get some video of her. Gosh she's so proud of herself that she can walk now! lol And her brother Tristan wanted to play a bit...so they were rough housing on the couch a little. :) It was pretty funny until Dalilah decided she'd had enough and sat on Tristan's face trying to get off the couch! lol

I noticed the sun shining over the clouds, and got lucky enough to catch some sun flare! This picture makes me happy. :)

Sampson still loves drinking out of faucets. lol Especially out of the sink now....even though he doesn't really fit in there! lol I don't know how it's comfortable for him, but this is where he wants his water from, so I make him happy! lol :)

Well, have a great weekend friends!! :) I sure do love Fridays. :) I will have the last week of August ready to share with you all on Tuesday, I hope!

August 8 - 15

2010-08-23T13:06:00.001-07:00

Hi friends! :) I hope this blog finds you well! Things have certainly been crazy since my last post...but somehow I'm managing not to get too far behind! lol Let's see what's happened since my last post.

I just bought myself a new little dish scrubber, and I was bored doing some dishes on Sunday. And so I used my new scrubber and made myself a fun little design on a tray I was cleaning. lol :) I love being so silly and girly! It's just fun. lol

Monday I had to take some pictures of the entryway of our main showroom in Dallas...and so I'm sharing one of those photos! In case you've ever wondered lol...this is what you'd see walking into our Dallas store!

On Tuesday, I had the great privilege of getting to do little Morgan's 3 year old pictures. :) I met up with her mom and dad Manna and Shawn and another little family, Morgan's friend Alyssa and her mom Erin, out in Southlake. We went out to Le Popcorn, a really cute little candy store in the town square to shoot some pictures of the girls, and then walked around by the gazebo and let them run and play together. It was so much fun. :) And the girls are so adorable! I think they're some of the cutest pictures I've been lucky enough to take. This is definitely one of my favorites - getting her first few licks of a lollipop! :)

We've had these happy little flowers out on the trail behind my work for awhile, but I hadn't gotten a shot I really liked yet. This past week, I finally did. :) I love yellow flowers!

This I shot out the window, for all my King of the Hill fans. :) lol It's the Mega-Lo Mart! :) I drive past this every day on my way home, and it always makes me smile, even though it's obviously not the "real" place. lol It's close enough for me!

Then Friday, Jon and I went out to QuakeCon to see Master Pancake Theater. If you've never been....it's a lot of fun. :) The computer room they have there is just ridiculous...you walk into the ballroom and it's just rows upon rows of computers set up just for gaming. :) And Master Pancake Theater is hilarious. We saw them two years ago at the same convention, and I'm so glad we got to go again. They cut quite a bit of the movie "The Matrix" down, but the parts they did cover were really funny. I can't wait for next year's!

Saturday I caught my handsome little man taking advantage of all the unpacking I've been doing by relaxing on top of one of the big boxes. lol Such a handsome little boy!! :)

And Sunday, I was able to get the last of my bathroom set up! We had to get a few things...a new showerhead (for better water pressure - still not fantastic, but much better than it was!), a new shower caddy, and a little towel holder. Now all I need is a new shower curtain and I'm all set! lol

Well that's all for now friends! :) I'll have the next week's post up hopefully on Friday! It's been really hard to keep going with this project lol...so much changes and goes on in life that it's hard to keep making yourself remember to take a picture and to get them posted! But I know by the end of the year I'll be happy I did. :) Have a great week everyone!

August 1 - 7

2010-08-09T13:44:00.000-07:00

Good afternoon, friends! :) Is it really August already?!? Geez time just keeps whizzing on by...

Today I've got my first week's worth of pictures to share with you. I'm slowly but surely getting things unpacked and put away...which means my pile of empty boxes is growing. lol However, the cats happen to love this fact! Here's Griefer not 5 minutes after I emptied this box lol...what a little stinker!

The next night, we made our first dinner in the new place! And boy, was it tasty too. :)

The kids are loving the new place. Enough that Tomorah let me sit near her with my camera and taunt her by sticking my hand in her face, and she didn't run away right away. lol Can you tell she's kinda pissed at me though? lol

Wednesday, I finally got my closet set up!! :) This makes me happy. There's so much room....all our clothes could really fit on just one side of the closet, but I wanted it to look fuller. lol Everything's even sorted! Now let's see how long it stays that way lol...

Here's the pretty Griefer girl. :) Sittin' on her Daddy's lap!

After I finished with the closet, we had this huge wardrobe box that was empty. Jon flipped it upside down. And before too long, Tomorah had a fort! lol :)

Then Saturday, we went to my friend Jeremy's place to celebrate his birthday!! It was a great night if simply hanging out with very dear friends and celebrating a life. :) I didn't take very many pictures that night....I was more into actually being with the people I was around, being less of a spectator and more of a participator. But I did get one shot of the birthday boy!

And that's how my first week of August has been so far. lol :) Stay tuned for next week's blog! I've got a super cute photo shoot coming up tomorrow, so there will definitely be something worth checking out on here! :)

July 19 - 31

2010-08-05T08:38:00.000-07:00

Good morning, friends. :) I hope today is going really well for you all! Today I'm going to finish off the month of July! I managed to get a lot more work done yesterday than I had thought I could, so thankfully I'm a bit ahead. :) Gotta take advantage of it! lol

First, we have this really pretty flower. I needed to take a walk, and this was the one that stood out to me. Such nice petals!

And then - a heart cloud! Sort of. lol It was more of a heart half a minute before I got outside...but then I noticed that the little cloud just below it was a heart shape as well! So it still worked. lol :)

Here, part of a piano keyboard. I still can't find just the right ways to photograph what I want others to see in the piano parts...but I think I'm getting a little closer!

While I was packing for our big move, I found one of my all-time favorite books: Just So Stories by Rudyard Kipling. I loved this book growing up. And this page is from my favorite story, about how hedgehogs came to be. :)

And here is our new place! Without any furniture or anything lol....we've got so much more space now though, plus a fireplace and the nice vaulted ceilings and lots of windows. I love it a little more each day. :)

This is our new sunroom. Which really has become the cat room. lol But it works really nicely for them. We had to give up our view of the pond...but we can see one of our pools, so I guess it works out alright. lol

Shortly after we moved, we went to have dinner with Jon's family at PF Chang's. And for once, I actually got there first! lol So I entertained myself by photographing one of the giant horse statues outside. He looked kinda scary! :)

The cats have really settled into the new place well. Tomorah was the one who had the hardest time...she's my girl who's most set in her ways, so I knew moving to a new place would be hard on her. But she's come around pretty nicely. :) She was comfortable enough to give me a piss off look, at least! lol :)

Sampson, of course, is completely happy already. lol And I finally managed to get a cute shot of his feet while he's sleeping...I swear he was a kangaroo in another life. lol So sweet. :)

Griefer's loving it too, though she really misses being able to go outside. There's really no grass or anything nearby for us to take her on a walk for...and you can tell she wants out there so bad. We might have to find a park nearby where we can start taking her lol...

Another night, Jon wanted more Chinese food, and so we went to Pei Wei. This is some delicious sweet and sour shrimp!

And finally, my little friend Morgan's birthday was at the end of the month, and her birthday party was this past weekend. This little girl is the first baby I ever held in my life...and she's already 3. It's just not right that time goes so fast. lol I love this shot though - blowing out her candles just like the big girl she's becoming! :)

She's definitely a girly girl too - all night all she wanted to play with was one of her new makeup sets. lol And this adorable Cinderella wig! The bangs should be fixed lol...but she's still one of the cutest girls I know!! :)

Thanks for being patient with me, friends, and for not forgetting me! :) I'm hoping August will be a much better month for me. There are lots of plans going into effect and lots of busy work going on, but it's all going in great directions. I'm so excited to see what's next. :)

July 9 - 18

2010-08-04T09:44:00.000-07:00

Hi. Remember me? I'm the girl who runs this silly mess of a blog. :) I'm sorry I was gone for so long...July kind of knocked me over for awhile, but I'm back up and running and ready to get caught up! I have to admit that I missed quite a few days in this month...I was sick for a week and then we moved, and so things got pretty confused and behind for a bit. But I've worked out make up pictures for them, and things are good again. :) Now then - I want to share some of my month with you! :)

One of my favorite little boys in the world, my nephew Tristan, had his birthday the beginning of July. So the first full weekend, he had a little party at Leapin' Lizards, a giant bounce house area. It was pretty ridiculous. lol But the kids had a blast, and that's what counts! It was really a lot of fun. :) This was the only picture I could get Tristan to stand still and pose for lol - and I was lucky I got this one. Gosh he's so cute though. :)

And then, the birthday boy gets a kiss. :) This adorable little girl is a friend of his from blastball (t-ball but younger lol), and apparently they like to hug and hold hands and trade kisses quite a bit! It was so sweet. :)

Then that Sunday, I did a mini photo shoot for my friend Chastity and her girls. She has an inside joke with some friends of hers dealing with pictures of people with mustaches...and so we got all the girls 'staches and took a picture! :) It was a lot of fun...we met up at Roots Coffeehouse (which was very tasty too! Nice place), took a few shots, goofed off, and just had some fun. :) Her oldest Teal made things so easy for me - she was all about having fun and posing! It helped everyone else have fun too. :) This was my favorite group shot!

The week of the 12-18 I took as a break....lots was going on at work and I was trying to get it all sorted before the next week, when I was going (so I thought) to be packing all week. And then life happened. lol So for this week, I'm sharing more of the pictures from the trip I took that weekend up to Oklahoma for a joint birthday party! Tristan turned 3 on the 5th and my little Dalilah turned 1 on the 21st! Hard to believe my cute little niece is already 1....so we went up to Oklahoma for a little birthday shindig with my mom and stepdad and our family up there. And now you get to see more than just one picture from the trip. :)

First up - Tristan and Dalilah discovering the cat door. lol Dalilah is a crawling machine now, and before too long she's going to be walking! But she was looking out the door and trying to get her hand through the cat door, so big brother Tristan came over to help her investigate and try to get himself through the door. lol :)

Then I have a super sweet shot of my brother with his daughter. :) It's still hard for me to think about the fact that my younger brother is a father lol...but he's a good one. :) Dalilah sure loves him!!

This is one of my favorite shots from my trip. Dalilah got a little teapot and cake set from my mom, and she was in awe of it. lol Here she is, trying to fit cakes into teacups and figuring out how things work. She's just so adorable, I want to love on her so bad! lol :)

For the kids, we had a pool party at my aunt Gail and uncle Bob's house. They had so much fun. :) Especially Tristan, once he got over his fear of not being able to stand lol...he found himself a good step and was being a water fountain for me. :)

Their pool is really nice - it has these little waterfalls all around it which I like, and of course the kids loved. lol Anything that helps Tristan splash he's gonna enjoy! lol

And then, my absolute favorite part of the weekend - Dalilah and her first birthday cake. :) I have NEVER seen a little girl devour their first cake like she did! I was so proud. lol :) Just look at how excited she is! She's clapping for herself and her own cake! lol There was no hesitation - we sat her down, and she stuck her hand in. lol At one point she was even making "mmmmm" sounds lol - she liked it that much! :)

She also stuck her knee in the cake. lol Dalilah is just awesome. :) This little cake monster fills a spot in my heart I didn't even know was there! I can't wait to see her again. :) She's just always so pleasant and fun to be around! Look at that icing-covered grin...how could you not love her??

Ok friends, that's all I've got for now! I'll have another blog up in the next day or so to catch up my third week of July. Before too long I'll be all caught up again! :) Thanks for sticking with me. I know there's only a few of you who check this out, but it really means the world to me that you do! :) I wouldn't be moving forward with my photography if it wasn't for the support I have of my dear friends. You guys rock!

July 1 - 8

2010-07-12T17:02:00.000-07:00

Greetings, my small band of followers. :) I hope you're having a wonderful day! I have my first 8 pictures of July to share with you all today. And surprisingly enough, they sort of follow a theme! lol :) I had wheels spinning this week, big time.

The beginning of July means mostly just one thing to people - the Fourth. Even in marketing materials. lol Our sales pitch at work this month centers around the USA, and I really loved the way they showed it - a little piano drawn like a flag! It just really stood out to me. And so I started my week showcasing this. :) There's so much that this picture says to me as well, simply by the name. The name Steinway has renown, it has power, it has a history and tradition. You know the name when you hear it. And it's always been made, entirely by hand, right here in the USA. For over 150 years.

Friday I went over to my friend Manna's house to photograph some cakes for her. I'm so proud of all the amazing work she's doing! :) This girl has real talent, folks. I decided to showcase her festive cake for the weekend, themed for the Fourth. It made me think of all the wonderful things about this holiday - firecrackers, parades (especially marching band uniforms - the twist around the top made me picture my old uniforms like crazy!), smiles...happiness. I really love seeing my friends finding their perfect "thing" to do with their lives, that thing they truly enjoy doing. And Manna's finding it. :)

And then there's the flag that the entire world knows. Our stars and stripes. We hold this symbol higher than most any other. One of the things I like most about it is that it's a symbol that means something to everyone, yet doesn't always evoke the same thoughts and feelings. For me, it's another sign of tradition and history, a sign of belonging to something much larger than yourself. It reminds me of community and unity. What does it evoke in you?

And of course, fireworks. It just doesn't feel like the Fourth of July without fireworks. This year I got to try something new - setting my camera up on a tripod and playing with long exposures. It was a completely new experience for me, something I've been wanting to try for awhile but have never had a reason to. Fireworks were the perfect excuse. This one was my favorite. :) And having this new experience, risking trying something I haven't done before, gave me a bit of courage and confidence. It added a bit to the thrill of the night.

However, after I started processing these earlier pictures, my mind was taken over by the idea of freedom. All the ones I'd liked had shown me glimpses of freedom - the freedom to come to a new land and start a new life, to find what you love and do it. Freedom that is fought for and given to us, that is meant to be celebrated and remembered and learned from. And so I went with the idea - and I didn't have to go far. Just outside my office I found the first bit of inspiration that went along with the idea in my head - the freedom to choose. A junction. And every single one of us has the freedom to choose which direction we go in, where we go in life. We can change it any time we like. That's some freedom, right there. :) And one we quite often forget we really have. There is always lots to consider - but there is always a choice.

We also have the freedom to simply soak in beauty. Tuesday Jon and I were approved for a new apartment in Dallas, and we're moving near the end of the month. I can't begin to explain how awesome this is for us - we're literally doubling our space, it's much closer to work for me, and it will give us room to gradually set up our own studio. But I will miss having this cute little pond behind us. I'll miss this tree that hangs down to the water and the pier. So I took the moment that I had and simply enjoyed the colors in the sky and the reflections of the water. My heart smiled a little bit, I have to admit. :) I felt a bit lighter, and knew I had a decent shot.

And then there's Tomorah. We were just watching a movie Wednesday night and I happened to glance to my side, and the sight of her just sprawled out on the floor made me smile. She was so comfortable, so content, that she had no problem stretching out and relaxing right next to me. So Tomorah has a little freedom of her own. :)

And finally, I have a picture that I took at work. This, my friends, is the bottom of a grand piano. Haha :) I'm lucky enough to have the freedom of constantly extending my job to what I want, of being able to learn about the things I want in my own way and then apply them almost instantly. And all of this I can do at work as well as at home, because whatever I learn can help them as equally as me.

Also, this shot shows me the incredible craftsmanship that goes into these pianos...the simple, smooth beams and the grain of the wood, the particular care that goes into choosing the materials that are used and exactly where they're placed and how and what size to make them to create the most wonderful piano possible. And they have the freedom to do it. They've fought for it, worked for it, loved it, changed what didn't work and continued what worked best, no matter the difficulty. And they've kept it. :) That's something to aspire to.

And so that's some of my ideas about freedom. lol :) I've been thinking about this a lot lately anyways, since I'm finally getting the freedom to move to a new place, even though it's only half an hour from where I am now. It's just close enough that I can still easily see my friends and family, but far enough that I can truly stand on my own and feel comfortable. It's somewhere I'll finally have the space to grow and do the things I've been wanting to do, to start working with Jon towards a future that should be very bright while simply enjoying our everyday lives to get there. And I can easily still see the ones I love and be there for some of the great memories, as well as finally contribute a space to see each other. :) I'm getting the freedom to fly, to spread out and see what I can really do. I'm getting to grow, and I couldn't be more excited and blessed. Scared, as well, but mostly excited. lol :)

Thank you so much, anyone who's gotten this far. I know I'm a rambler. lol ;) But I'm very thankful for you all, and I hope you have all the blessings in the world until we meet again!

June 21 - 30

2010-07-06T09:17:00.000-07:00

Hi, my few lovely followers. :) Boy, do I have some catching up to do! lol Things are certainly getting crazy....but I think good things are on the horizon. For now, let's look at the last week of June. :)

First up is a picture I took of my new makeup and brush. :) My awesome mom got me a set of bare minerals as a starter kit for my birthday...I've been needing a good new brand to try out. And since it was so new, I thought I'd use it and see what kind of artisticness I could get out of them. I'm pretty happy with my result. :)

Next up is a picture of my dad (technically taken on Thursday, but like I said - craziness. lol) This is quite possibly the first time I've really ever taken a picture of my dad. Which sounds crazy - but it's just not something we do a lot, and we don't see each other all that often. But I sure do love him. My dad is a good, good man. I was really lucky with my parents. :)

Wednesday I went out with my good friends Sarra, William, and Manna to a place in Ft. Worth called the Mellow Mushroom. And holy crap, was it good. lol I forgot my camera, which annoyed me to no end since I've never been to this place...but I managed a quick shot on my phone. It's a pizza place with loads of fresh ingredients, and you can even make your own pizza. That's what we did - this pizza is bacon, spinach, and thai chili chicken on a olive oil and garlic base. Easily one of the best pizzas I've had in my life. :)

Thursday was my brother's birthday, and we went to the Rangers game to celebrate. It was a small group, mostly family, but lots of fun. And the Rangers won, which makes it even better!! :) My dad got them to put Jason's name on one of the big screens wishing him happy birthday, and they gave him a little gift set with a shirt and helmet and lots of other fun things...I snapped this grin right after he got his set. :)

Friday night we had a recital at work from a Steinway artist, Dmitri Ratser. I stayed for the first piece he performed and shot some pictures. It was a really nice recital from the piece I heard...he's a very talented performer. And he was lots of fun to photograph. If only there was a way to silence my camera's natural sounds a bit more!! lol Shooting recitals is always a bit hard because it's so insanely quiet in the hall - you hear every little sound.

There's a little park behind an elementary school near where I grew up in Euless. And it has this seriously old bridge. I LOVE old bridges. I don't really know my attraction to them...but I am completely drawn to bridges. So I finally went out and found the park again and took a few shots. You can tell how overgrown it's getting...but it's still standing.

Sunday I spent a few minutes at a park with my friend Brandy and her little man Gideon. And I got this super cute shot of him on the playground. I need to shoot at more playgrounds. lol :)

Monday I had to take some pictures of a used piano we just got into the store, and so I tried for a slightly different piano view than I've shot before. It's getting harder and harder to find the angles and focuses that I haven't been able to show well already. But it makes for a nice challenge. :)

Now this has a story. lol :) Saturday night, I was home alone with the cats, and Tomorah was staring at the corner by the window. Finally, I noticed that there was actually a bug up there she was staring at. After literally hours of it moving just a little, and sneaking around, and Tomorah giving up watching a minute before she could have reached it, the stupid thing got to the TV, and I could tell it was a cockroach. (I HATE cockroaches.) So finally it climbs on the TV, I can brush it with the broom, and it flies to the front door. Tomorah's almost on it, I brush it down the door a little more so she can reach it...and it goes right between the frame of the front door and the water heater door. Tomorah tried to get to it...but her paw wouldn't fit. lol Eventually I managed to spray it twice with carpet cleaner, and it ran covered in foam under the water heater. I put a towel under the bottom of the door and prayed it went to die. lol This sucker was fast, friends. And gross. And it honestly took hours for this all to happen. lol

So Tuesday morning, I wake up and see this on the front door. :) Apparently the night before, the cats had finally coaxed the roach out and were playing with it, still alive. (Note to self - use better cleaner than carpet next time. lol) And Jon eventually got it and smushed it and flushed it. My hero. :)

Then Wednesday, the last day of June, I got this awesome game. I haven't stopped playing it since. :) It's just so much fun! Like being in a small virtual parody of the actual stories. lol

Well, that's my catching up! lol :) I will have another blog up much sooner covering the Fourth of July weekend...but for now, my wrists are tired, and I need a break. lol Have a great day friends! :)

June 11 - 20

2010-06-22T09:48:00.000-07:00

Hi friends. I'm back. :) I had a pretty great vacation...too short as always lol, but it was nice and relaxing, which was definitely what I needed. Let me share some of my pictures with you. :) There was a day or two that I didn't shoot anything...but there were a few days when multiple things happened, so I just spread them out a bit. lol

The first night of my vacation I went to see my friend Lauren and her pal Gideon. Lauren's one of my online soulmates lol....we just kinda get each other sometimes. And she doesn't live around here, so when she comes it's always a fun treat! We had a great night of dinner and gaming. :)

That Saturday, my high school friend John had his commitment ceremony to his man, Shawn. It was so much fun. :) And I'm so happy for them!! It was very simple and straightforward, Manna made their cake which looked and tasted amazing, they had some good food, lots of dancing...all in all just a really good night. I'm so very happy for them. :)

Look at my pretty Tomorah sitting outside. She always looks so pretty outside. :)

Monday I went over to my brother's for a few moments, and got to see the always adorable Dalilah. :) She's crawling so well now!! And she still gives me the funniest faces. lol

Tuesday Jon and I took Griefer out for a walk, and went to play on the swings. I got Jon to jump off and he did it with amazing height. lol

Wednesday was my birthday. :) I got so many birthday wishes online it was ridiculous...but lovely. I don't really mind that half of them were probably only because facebook reminds you! lol But I didn't end up taking any pictures that day. Jon and I went out to Red Robin to get some yummy dinner and I was going to take a few...but forgot my camera battery at home. lol So instead I took a picture on my phone of the delicious watermelon margarita that I got. Sooo tasty. :)

Thursday I didn't end up taking any pictures either...so this is where it gets a little stretched. lol This picture is from Friday night. My mom came into town and went with me to look at some apartments which was really awesome, and then my brother and his family came to her hotel and we all went swimming. It was so adorable to see Dalilah swim for the first time! She's a splashing fool, I tell you. lol And Tristan is a hoot in the pool as well. I really liked this picture...both for Dalilah's grin, and the kinda grin/scary face Jason's making as well. lol!

Saturday was a very fun filled day...and it fills in the rest of my weekend pictures. lol The beginning part of the day (the activity I'm using for Friday's picture) my family had a little picnic at Chisholm Park. My mom got Tristan a bubble gun. And he was so excited. lol Though he kept shaking it up and getting impatient and thinking it was broken until it worked again 2 seconds later lol....but he still had a blast. :)

Then Saturday night some of my friends came with me out to the drive-in for my birthday celebration. It was so much fun. :) Two of the little ones I love got to come as well, and I was so happy!! Especially that we got in...last time we came out it sold out 3 cars in front of us!! But we planned well and got there with plenty of time to get in. :) Got to see Toy Story 3 which was so cute!! Overall a very successful birthday celebration...best it's been in years.

And then Sunday, my last vacation day, I took a snapshot of the amazing delicious cupcakes Manna made for me. :) She cracked me up when she brought them over on Saturday...apparently on the way to my place, there was a slight wasp scare and the box got dropped and cupcakes got all turned around. lol So they look a little messed up. But oh man, are the freaking good. lol A little bit of cream filling in the middle too....I still love them!!

Well, that's what I did on my vacation. lol Pretty tame to most people...but it was wonderful for me. So wonderful that I almost cried at the thought of going back to work on Monday. lol But, such is life. Hopefully someday I'll be in a position where I can spend more of my time the way I really would like to!

June 7 - 10

2010-06-11T13:47:00.000-07:00

Well hello there friends - long time no speak!! lol :) Here are my pictures for this week! It's a bit cat themed lol....you can tell what was on my mind this week!

Monday I got this adorable picture of Tomorah. :) Every so often she humors me and sits still while I take her picture a few times...and this was one of those nights. So cute. :)

The next night, we pissed her off. lol! Tomorah is not a cat that likes to be held. She'll tolerate it for about half a minute before you start to get her warning hisses. This was during the hisses. lol :) Clearly she is not pleased. But she got treats afterwards, so she was ok. lol

Wednesday Jon went to take a nap in the evening...and when I went in the bedroom a bit later, he was laying down curled up with Sampson. I just had to get a picture. I woke him up lol...but I didn't care. They were just too sweet together.

Then Thursday, I went after work to watch my girl Brandy play volleyball. :) It definitely proved to me that I've still got a big confidence issue...but it also proved that I'm making progress towards getting rid of it. Which is good. :) I had to watch through the fence and was a bit too nervous to get close enough to shoot through it. lol Needless to say, I didn't end up getting many shots I felt were worthy of keeping...but this action shot was pretty cool. :)

And we're all caught up!! :) Horray! lol This next week is going to be absolutely wonderful - it's my birthday week and I've got the entire week off from work!! It's going to be a full week of living my dream life - sleeping in, playing games, taking pictures, and having fun! :) I wish I were able to actually get away somewhere...but it's going to be wonderful nonetheless. I'm not sure what I'm doing on my actual birthday yet...but I'm sure there will be documentation. :) I'll see you all in a week or so!!

May 28 - June 6

2010-06-08T14:44:00.000-07:00

Hi friends! :) This blog is ridiculously late lol...but it's here!! Let me give you a quick rundown of the fun I had this week.

Friday was the day we headed out to go tubing in New Braunfels. We didn't end up leaving until late in the day, so we didn't get in the campsite until late...but I did manage to get a nice sunset shot over the tops of all the cars. lol It always amazes me how many hills are in that area.

Saturday was the reason for the trip - the river. :) And it was pretty fun. The river was pretty high this year, so there were actually quite a few rapids and most everyone ended up with bumps, scrapes, losing things, or sick lol...but I do think everyone had an overall great time. :)

My poor Jon was one of the ones who got sick...he was fine all through the river, and then once we got back something hit him bad and he got really sick that night and the next morning. So, sadly, we ended up leaving really early Sunday morning. But, I did manage to see this gorgeous sunrise. I honestly couldn't tell you the last time I actually saw a sunrise. lol So this was nice. :)

Monday I was off with nothing to do. So I took a little walk, and happened to find this butterfly.

Tuesday was the first day of June, my birth month!! :) It's also Tomorah's month on the calendar. So, of course, I had to take a picture of my desk with her pretty face above it. :)

The next day we had some storms....and I finally got a chance to go out and try to catch some lightning on camera. I haven't done this in awhile...and I was rewarded. :)

Thursday was my dear friend Manna's birthday. :) So our whole gang got together and had dinner at Buca in Southlake. (It's where Manna's roommate Shawn works, and he was working that night lol) Some of you may not know this, but these girls (Sarra, Manna, and Steph) are basically my sisters I never had. And any time we think of it when we've got a big get together, we take a picture. We're called the Fearsome Foursome. lol :) And now, we get to add Manna's daughter Morgan to our little group, and become a Fivesome!! So this picture is incredibly dear to me. I absolutely adore these ladies. :)

Friday....well, Friday I forgot to take a picture. lol!! But on Saturday, I went to hang out with Sarra for a bit. Manna and Steph and a few other friends had gone down to the river this weekend so Sarra and William were watching Morgan. So I went to hang out with Sarra and see Morgan and snap a few pictures. This is one of the best I got - coloring time! :)

And I really adore this picture - she was so intent on coloring her picture that she didn't even notice me. I just love her curly hair. :) She's such a fun little girl!

Then on Sunday, I went to my friend Kristen's baby shower, which was actually pretty fun. It was a small little group, only 6 girls, but we played the usual games and got to see Kristen in all her cuteness. Good times were had. :) This is one of my favorite shots - we were about to start the "how big around is she" game, and so Kristen was modeling for us so we could have an idea. lol She's such a pretty mom-to-be. :)

Well, that's all for the moment friends...another blog will be coming here shortly to catch myself back up. lol :) That one shouldn't be quite as long though!

May 24-27

2010-05-27T14:16:00.000-07:00

Happy Thursday, lovely friends!! :) Just 4 pictures to share with you today!

Monday night I got this ridiculously cute picture of my men, Jon and Sampson. :) Sampson is the easiest cat in the world to pose when he's happy lol...and he was definitely a happy boy this night. Just chillin' in Dad's lap gettin' some lovin'! lol :)

The clouds looked amazing Tuesday morning, so I did my best to get a good shot. I've rediscovered a love for cloud pictures and the best way to shoot them....they will probably show up more and more. lol

Wednesday, I took a leap of faith. I turned in my move-out form for my apartment complex. We don't have a new place lined up yet...but we sure as heck better find one now! lol Only 2 more months will this place be home, and then I get to try somewhere else...I'm a little freaked out because I don't have a place lined up already, but I'm pretty excited as well. We need this.

And today I decided to try some different ideas on some piano pictures. My creativity is blooming again and giving me all sorts of ideas of things to try....this is just one of many to come. :) I thought it was a nice, interesting view of the piano legs, a part that is pretty easy to overlook. I felt it needed to be showcased. :)

That's all for now, friends!! I'm leaving early in the morning to go camping and tubing for Memorial Day weekend. :) It's going to be so fun!! Hopefully I'll come back with lots of fun pictures as well! Have a great weekend, everyone!

May 15-23

2010-05-25T14:07:00.000-07:00

Hello, my lovely readers! Thanks for checking in on my blog. :)

This post covers last week, from Sunday to Sunday. So let's get started!! Last Sunday, I got another wonderful surprise visit from my little Dalilah. This time I got a video of her crawling, since she's figuring it out now, and this cute little snapshot of the world's cutest grinner. :)

Sunday was a busy day, and I ended it one of my favorite ways - with a comic. :) The one I'm reading through right now is a series called Preacher by Garth Ennis. Most definitely worth checking out!! It's a great read. Plus, I realized I hadn't taken a shot of my new phone yet, so I included that as well! Two of my favorite things, right here. :)

Monday was a sad day. :( My dear friend Jeri's brother passed away just the week before, and Monday was the funeral. Lots of people couldn't make it, and so they asked everyone to wear Cowboys gear for the day and send in a picture. I did, but I wasn't looking so great that day lol so my picture for my project is merely the shirt. I still wanted to honor his memory though.

And then, simply because she was there, a sweet picture of Griefer. Such a pretty little face!

Wednesday I needed an idea. And somehow or another, I ended up with these two items. Both of these are from my Granny, my dad's mom, who sadly passed away when I was younger. There's only one other item I own from her. So I really kinda like this picture...it makes me think of her and feel like she's still a little piece of me. :)

Thursday I went out for a walk around the pond, half to get myself back into exercising, and half to see any baby ducks that might be around. :) This is the best shot I got that day...one of my favorite trees right next to the water, causing an almost lagoon effect. I love it.

Friday, Jon got a beard trimmer which came with a crazy amount of attachments. So, being Jon, he stuck half of them into his hair. lol And I simply had to get a shot. It was too funny. :)

Saturday I got lucky and saw this squirrel sleeping in the tree right outside our window! It was so adorable. I think he'd found just the right location to see and hear what's going on around him and still be able to sleep happily. He came back again the next day to the same spot. :)

And Sunday, my babies were being sweet and laying down next to each other. This is not something that happens incredibly often. lol Tomorah is a girl who very definitely likes her space. But sometimes she lets Sampson get a bit closer to her than usual. And then my heart melts. :)

Thanks for following, friends!! I'll have a post up later on for this week's pictures...and then I'm going out of town for the weekend to go tubing with some friends. It should be a truly great time. :) I haven't decided if I want to risk bringing my camera with us or not...it's a giant campsite and ridiculously crowded Memorial Day weekend, so we might just bring Jon's backup camera. But either way, we'll hopefully get some fun pictures. :)

May 8 - 14

2010-05-20T11:39:00.000-07:00

Happy Thursday, friends!! I hope this blog finds you well. :)

Today I'm sharing my pictures from last week with you. I'm finally all caught up! lol So let's get right to them. The first picture is from last Saturday, when Jon, Jeremy and I went to see Iron Man 2. It was awesome. :) And this is where we went to see it! lol Taken before they asked me to take my camera out to the car so that I couldn't steal their movie lol.

Sunday morning, I decided we needed donuts. And so I went to get some. :)

Monday I decided to try using my on-camera flash with a bit of the technique that Jon had told me about as far as how to set the camera...and Sampson was a happy subject. All I had to do was turn the faucet on for him and he could've cared less that I was there. lol That tounge sticks out far, let me tell you!!

This was taken during my drive home on Tuesday. There's a section of the highway with lots of these flowers scattered about...it's really quite something. Someday I might actually stop nearby and try to get some decent, not moving pictures of them. lol Because there are huge sections of them.

Wednesday night, Jon brought some of his work home with him. lol My man is so smart with computers, it's ridiculous. So, of course, I took a picture of him working on something. I just love watching him work sometimes. Love that big brain of his. :)

Thursday I caught a quick snapshot of Sampson sleeping in the kitty box. Which really, is just an old mailing box that all three of our cats happen to love. lol So we made it even better for them, putting a blanket inside and all their toys on the side. They fight over who gets to sleep in it. Sampson wins more often than not. lol

Friday it poured. Thankfully, it had slowed down quite a bit when I was ready to leave work...but not slow enough that I couldn't get a shot of some water ripples in a parking lot puddle. I love water ripples. They make me happy. :)

And that's all I've got for you for now, dear readers!! I'm going to shoot for having another blog posted on Monday with the rest of this month so far. At least I'm on the current week now! :) lol I hope you all have wonderful weekends!!

May 1 - 7

2010-05-18T12:35:00.000-07:00

Hi friends!!! I'm back!! :) And boy do I have some pictures for you! lol

The pictures in this blog are for the first week of May. If you remember, I decided to take a break from shooting for this week, so I took all these pictures the week after...but still on the same day. lol So they count. ;) Either way, enjoy! This first is one of my new favorites - Griefer and her reflection watching the birds outside. She was so entranced!

And then she got to go outside and eat some grass. And boy, was she happy. lol Here she'd turned almost predatory, stalking the yard for the absolute best grass stalks. lol

And here's my sweet niece. :) I got a surprise visit from her, so of course had to take a quick picture! Even when she's sleepy and eating she's the most adorable girl in the world.

Next - my gorgeous Tomorah. I love this little girl so much. I couldn't get by without her. Seriously. And I love when she gives me this look. This look that says "Mom, what the heck - can't I sit by you for just a moment without you doing something to bother me?" lol :)

This drew my eye - the piano pedals on a new piano in the store, still wrapped and with the key wrapped in as well. It just looked really cute for some reason. I think it's the key.

This picture I snapped because I really liked the medallion. They're so detailed for such a small little piece of metal that goes inside the piano. And a great reminder of how much work and love goes into each of the pianos in our store. It just amazes me sometimes.

And finally, a cute little pair of dandelions. I was leaving for work and just happened to notice these two on the little patch of yard between the apartments and the cars. So, of course, I stopped to take a quick shot. They were just so cute - I couldn't help myself. lol

Well, that's all for now friends! I'll be posting another blog later this week with last week's pictures! It feels good to be back on my game now. :) I'm still learning and still getting frustrated, but I can definitely tell that the break I took helped recharge my batteries! Hopefully interesting situations present themselves to me this week. :)

April 28-30

2010-05-07T09:14:00.000-07:00

Hi friends! Let me update you on what's been going through my mind. :)

I've decided to pick a few random pictures from April to finish up the month. I was only missing three days, so I figured this should work well. And then next week, I'll be doing double posts to make up the first week of May that I've missed. This time has been great for me. I'm feeling the pull to take pictures again. And I was able to get myself a new phone, so I've had time to play with that and get some things like my email and flickr updated and organized, which I've been meaning to do for forever and just never have until now. lol I think my format might change a little bit...but we'll get to that later. For now, let's enjoy some baby duckies. :)

Aren't they cute??? I just love baby ducks. :) I kinda have a thing for little monkeys, as well. This one in particular. He might be my favorite little monkey ever. :)

And, even though this picture is for a Friday, I'm uploading it on the weekend that happens to contain Mother's Day. So it seemed appropriate to honor my mom. :) My mom....well she rocks. Looking back on the years I was growing up, I can appreciate even more how hard it must have been for her to raise my brother and me on her own. Yes, things were constantly hard, and we did not always get along or see things the same way. But I know without a doubt in my mind that my mom did the best she could for us and always loved us. There's nothing more I could ever ask from her. :) So thank you, mother dearest. I have all the love in the world for you. I only hope that someday I can be as strong as you've been. And maybe someday give you a grandchild who's just as cute as little miss Dalilah. lol :)

So friends - here's my gameplan for the next few weeks. I'm organizing and updating my flickr account today, and I'm going to have a set on there for my Project 365 pictures. I will be doing my best to upload each day's picture on the next day to that album. And then once a week, most likely on the weekends, I'm going to come here and do a blog with all my pictures for that week. I think this will take a bit of the load off my shoulders during the week so I can focus more on getting actual work done and simply getting the pictures ready, and then when I have more free time on the weekends I can share with you all and blog about the week. :) I'll post my flickr account link below - if you'd like to see the pictures as I finish them, follow me! Otherwise, I'll see you all in about a week for a super long blog. lol :) Be safe, have fun, and spread some love!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/lilykat08/

April 23-27

2010-04-30T14:41:00.000-07:00

Hi, dear readers. I'm so sorry I'm so far behind! Let's catch up a little.

Last Friday Jon and I got to have a little family time. His brother Pat and his girlfriend Jeri (also my friend, who actually met Pat through us lol) came over and brought their newest addition, a little baby kitteh! :) She's so freaking adorable - I haven't been around an honest to goodness kitten in a really long time, and it was so sweet to see that itty bitty body and the way they play and move around. She really liked me too - once she got tired, she curled up right next to my side and on my leg and was completely content. I want a new kitten so badly now. lol

Saturday was an original JGB show!! It was refreshing. :) Sadly not a great turnout, mostly close friends...but that can sometimes make for the most enjoyable shows. :) Sure makes me miss the Firewater show days though! The Kessler Theater, where this show was at, was a pretty nice little venue, newly renovated though it's near a not-so-great part of town. But, since it's still so new, the lights weren't completely set up like they should be for a real show either. So, it made for interesting photographical situations. lol This is one of my best natural captures of the night - a real true laugh from Kayin. :)

Sunday was my honey's birthday. :) We didn't really do anything special - Jon's not the biggest fan of celebrating his birthday - so we mostly relaxed and simply enjoyed some time together. We also went out for a walk around the park, and I snapped a shot of him. Gotta have a picture of the birthday boy on his big day, even if he doesn't care so much. lol :) I love this man!

The next two days were quiet days as well, with little inspiration. So, as usual, I turned to my sweet cats. :) They're always doing something I feel I need a picture of! lol

Watchin' the birds lol....look at that intent look on his face! Sampson was meant to be a bird watcher. :)

Sad to say, but I have still fallen behind on this little project of mine. It's hard to actually take an interesting picture every day! lol Plus, Jon went out of town this weekend with his family and took my camera with him, so I was only left with our backup camera and no charged batteries. So I took a little breather for myself and just let myself not shoot from Wednesday until Sunday. I'm going to make these pictures up in the next week or so, and just do a few double posts so at the end of the year I will still have the right number of pictures and they'll all be individual pictures and not simply doubles. I know for at least a little while I'll still be a bit behind. There are just other things I need to spend time on as well. :) So I might end up switching up my posting format a little bit...either doing a weekly post with all my pictures, or just simply sharing the pictures, or something. I haven't been able to decide yet. I only know that I need to work on a few things - my focusing in pictures, slimming down my choices and not keeping so many random pictures, and my time management. I'll be keeping you lovely few updated. :)

April 21-22

2010-04-23T14:45:00.000-07:00

Hi there friends. :) Please forgive this slow-moving girl!

This past Wednesday and Thursday were pretty typical of what my weeks are becoming. Wednesday Jon and I went for a barefoot walk/run, and I've started bringing my camera around with me. It makes me feel a little like the group in "Yes Man". lol But it's been fun. This week, I snapped a shot of Jon tossing his yo-yo into the air to wind it. The picture didn't come out nearly as cool-looking as the actual yo-yo did against the sky...but it works. lol :)

Thursday is small group night, but this week we took a little break and simply spent some time together. So I brought my camera. I usually leave it at home...when I'm going to small group, I really prefer my whole attention on what we're talking and reading about, but since I knew we were taking an off week, I went for it. Thankfully, Brandy's little man Gideon loves to have his picture taken. lol :) I just love coming over, because he's always SO excited to see me. When I walked in, he yells "Miss Linda!" and runs over to give me a hug, and then proceeds to tell me that he'd been waiting for me all day. Just warms your heart. :) And then he decided I should see his super-cool bunny glasses. lol And so I did!! :)

Well, that's all from me for now friends! My next blog should be coming to you very, very soon!! I'm working on the pictures today. :)

April 16-20

2010-04-21T13:50:00.000-07:00

Hello lovelies! I hope this Wednesday finds you all well. :)

I now get the chance to share some completely adorable pictures with you!! As I said, my mom and stepdad came into town this past weekend, and we all had a blast! It was definitely a busy weekend, but so much fun and so worth it!

Friday night, I went with my mom and my brother's girl Bridgett to a game night at one of my mom's friend's houses. It was pretty fun! We played a little Keeno, had some snacks, and it was just a nice overall girl night. We had Tristan, my little nephew, with us at first, until Jason came to pick him up and bring Dalilah by for a quick hello. I just LOVE the expressions she makes! This one just cracked me up - especially with her cute little ladybug outfit!

Saturday was Six Flags day. It was sprinkling and cloudy most of the day, but we still got a chance to ride quite a few rides, and the kids had a blast. They were both passed out within minutes of being in the car on the way back. lol This is one of my favorites from that day - Tristan on the carousel at the very beginning of the day! :)

Sunday was a bit of a double whammy. First, we went to Chuck E. Cheese for a little birthday party. One of my mom's friends has a little boy named Riley who just turned 2 on Saturday, so we brought Tristan and Dalilah and let the kids go nuts. They loved it. :) Even Dalilah got to go on a little ride! lol We also figured out that she really LOVES sweets. lol Here she's just taken a bite of cake that's just a bit too big for her little mouth! lol Gosh, she's cute. :)

And then Sunday evening (which I'm using for my Monday picture, because the weekend stole all my creativity! lol) we went to a place called Freddy's. Holy crap, was it tasty. I definitely want to start going there more often!! And close to home, too. :) But I got a sweet little shot of Tristan and Dalilah together - we had to sit Dalilah on the table since she can't stay in a chair yet, but I just adore Tristan's little grin! He's such a handsome boy, with a gorgeous little sister!

And then Tuesday I took off to catch my breath lol and get a few things that needed to slide on the weekend taken care of. It was also the day Jon decided to give Griefer a bath. lol She just loves to sit in the bathroom while you're showering...we think she likes the steam and heat. And so he pulled her right on in and gave her a good cleaning. She spent about half an hour afterwards cleaning herself and getting all the extra water off lol but I think she was happy about it! You can still see the wetness of her fur in this picture. lol :)

Well, that's all for now friends! Have a wonderful evening! :)

April 14-15

2010-04-16T12:39:00.000-07:00

Hi friends! It's Friday! :)

I've got a pretty fun weekend coming up! My mom and step-dad are in town for the weekend, so we're having some family time....t-ball and softball games, Six Flags, picnics, just spending time together...it's going to be so much fun. :) And such a great opportunity to take some pictures! I can't wait to come back on Monday and share some with you all. :)

Until then, let me share my photos from Wednesday and Thursday. Jon and I have started barefoot running. I know, might sound a little crazy, but in all honestly it's the best way to run. Jon started partway through last week, and I started joining him this week. So we went out Wednesday and did our quick little run around the Boys Ranch pond. Afterwards, I knew I wanted to take a picture - and this idea popped into my head. I definitely want to try it again sometime, probably before we run instead of after so there's more color in the sky lol but still...I love it. :) Geez, I'm such a romantic. lol

Thursday, I might have mentioned before, is my small group night. We've been reading this book called "So Long, Insecurity" by Beth Moore. And man, has it been rough getting through the first 7 chapters. lol It's a very, very good book so far...but opening yourself up to all the roots that insecurity has in your life, letting yourself realize them and letting them come to the surface, can most definitely make you feel completely vulnerable and emotionally drained. Thankfully, we read chapter 8 last night, the beginning of the healing section of the book and learning how to deal with our insecurites so they cease to become issues for us. And she focused on one specific verse that is really meant to encourage us and help us realize that we're never as naked as we feel. :) And so last night, I just had to take a picture of it. I need the reminder around. :)

I hope you all have a truly wonderful weekend. :) Talk to you all later!

April 8-13

2010-04-14T14:42:00.000-07:00

Hi, friends. I hope life is treating you well. :)

Today's blog will be slightly different. I have to confess - I've kinda slipped a bit in my project this week. As I've explained a little before, I've been dealing with a ton of emotional crap that I'm trying to straighten out in my life. And I'm at a point where I've dug up quite a bit of it, but I don't know where to go from here yet. And so my last week or two I've been feeling about the most vulnerable that I've ever felt in my life. So needless to say, it's been hard for me to focus and get my pictures done quickly. I've also hit a little bit of a photographer's block, I suppose lol...I need new things in my life to photograph. Thankfully summer is coming and I'm getting some new opportunities...but during the week, it gets painfully dull. I'm trying to learn a few new things, yet even that takes time that I simply have trouble finding and enjoying. So I've hit a bit of a plateau. I know I'll get past it and continue bettering myself and my passions...but for now, it's freaking hard. lol

So today's blog won't have the usual description of each picture. I'm simply going to share them all with you, and let you all enjoy them for how you see them. Some feature people and things you've met here before - some won't. But I enjoy all these pictures. And I hope you will too. :)

Ok, maybe just one small note. lol :) This is the sweet Zoe Bella, my friend Ashley's little girl. Her first birthday party was this past weekend, and I was so excited I got to go and finally meet this adorable little girl. She was a hoot. I love getting pictures like this one. :)

Farewell for now, dear friends. I'll be back sooner rather than later. Promise.

April 2-7

2010-04-07T14:19:00.000-07:00

Hi friends. Man it's been a busy week already. lol :) Work has been a little nutty so it's taken me a few extra days to get my pictures fixed up and ready to be posted...but here we are now! :)

Friday's picture is a new one of my little Griefer girl. She was being so sweet that night - she let me get a nice little close up of her cute face. The blacks and whites on her face make it really hard to do clearly! But I think this one does the job. :)

Saturday was a bit of a first for me - I took pictures of a gun. My friend Tanner had just gotten an old World War I pistol and really wanted some pictures of it to share with people, so Jon and I packed up our stuff and went to hang out and get some pictures done. Jon ended up taking over a lot of it lol - it was really nice to see him working the camera again. :) I took a few, but it was definitely weird for me - guns kinda freak me out, and the whole time a small little part of me kept waiting for something bad to happen with it, even though I knew the boys there knew exactly how to handle one, and even though it of course wasn't loaded. lol So I was pretty happy with myself. :) This was one of the ones I really liked - for some reason I kept going back to getting a shot down the barrel. Maybe this is why I kept freaking myself out. lol :) But it's cool!

Sunday, of course, was Easter. And even though this year's turned out to be really quiet and I didn't get to do all that I wanted, it was still a very blessed day. How can it not be?? :) So for my Easter picture, I shot these - Robin Eggs! Not much better than Easter candy. lol :)

Monday I was feeling the pull of the pianos again, and I keep going back to this new D we just got in - it's the largest concert grand piano there is, about 9 feet or so. And this baby is gorgeous. Hardly any prints on it yet since it's so new, a beautiful deep gold color on the inside...I know I'll be coming back to it a few more times. I thought this was pretty neat though - I've always played with the reflection of the keys , but this one worked really nicely since it's so clean and new. Still not quite the angle I want - but one of the best reflections I've captured.

Tuesday, I have to admit it - I forgot to take my picture. lol I've gotten very caught up in the excitement of Glee coming back on next week, and it was LOST night...and I just sort of forgot. lol So today when I went out, I took a few extras. Thankfully, I had a few that I liked, so I really wanted to share more than one. lol :)

This one makes me want to be on a pond. I'm pretty impressed it wasn't on one. lol I actually liked that it was pretty dark - I think it adds to the nice, calm feeling. It certainly makes me think of happy, calm places and the sound of water lapping against a shore. :)

And this one, I have no clue what it is - but I'm in love with it. I want more pictures of them. They're just so cool! lol Very nice, pretty purple color, but with all those little bitty flowers on the stem as well, and the wonderful green background, which I happened to get nicely blurred. This is definitely a new favorite picture. I was hoping for something different today, and I think I found it. :)

Well, that's all for now friends! I hope you all have a wonderful rest of the week! :) Thanks for staying with me!

April 1

2010-04-02T14:38:00.000-07:00

Happy Friday, dear readers! Is anyone else as excited for the work day to end as I am?? lol :)

Just a quick little picture for you today. I would like to say that I am VERY happy I didn't have to deal with any sort of practical jokes yesterday. lol! I'm not a big fan of having jokes played on me, so it's always nice when an April Fool's day can go by and I don't have to deal with anything. lol Thankfully, it was also Thursday, which gave me the chance to stop by and see my sweet little niece Dalilah before my small group! My brother has just moved into a complex on the same street as my friend Brandy I do my small group with, so it worked out really nicely. Poor little Dalilah's teething bad now lol...she's got her first two little teeth in on the bottom! But it makes her not so happy most of the time. lol :) I could only stay a short while, but this was my favorite shot I got of her yesterday - you can read on her face how painful it is for her!! But she was still pretty happy to see me, I think. Hard to tell sometimes. lol :)

I hope you all have a wonderful Easter weekend!! I know I'm looking forward to seeing my little girl in her Easter outfit and getting some super sweet pictures! There are so many wonderful things to celebrate about this season....I hope you all get the chance. :) We are each and every one of us a gift and ridiculously blessed!

March 29-31

2010-03-31T14:30:00.000-07:00

Greetings, my lovely readers!! I hope you're all doing just wonderfully today. :)

Goodness, it's hard to believe March is already over!! I'm pretty happy I've been able to keep up with this project so far. :) I've missed a day or two but always been able to have a shot fill in, which makes me feel good! I'm still beginning down this photography journey that I've been on for over 2 years lol but things are finally, slowly starting to come together. :) Since I haven't shared on here yet...I've been invited to become a Getty Images Contributor on Flickr! Getty is basically one of the largest, most well known, and trusted collection site of stock photography around. You can only contribute by invitation. So it's a pretty sweet deal. :) Soon I should actually have some of my photos up for sale and will actually hopefully be getting paid for them! I never really thought I'd ever make any money from my photography. So this could be a great step in the right direction. :) Now if I could ever decide on a font that's really me! lol

And now, the pictures. :) Monday was a pretty lazy day, though it shouldn't have been...but I did get this cute shot of my little Sampson taking a nap. I just love the way he pulls his paws into himself when he's really relaxing. So stinking cute. :)

Tuesday I had to do some quick shots around the store, and so I took a few extra of a brand new 9' concert grand we got in. This baby is freaking gorgeous. The gold of the plate inside is just incredible...you can see a little of it here with the tuning pins. It's so smooth and pretty!

Today's picture was inspired from two different sources. On a site I follow, thepioneerwoman.com, they're doing a photo contest with the theme green. So I knew I wanted to get outside and see if anything stood out to me. And also, my friend Justin Goode had a picture he's got listed in the Getty collection of a really neat closeup of a dandelion. And so I had to see if I could do something similar. lol :) Thanks for the inspiration, guys! This is what I ended up with, and I rather like it...not quite as close as I'd like, but the closest I could get. I just love these little petals - they're so feathery and cute! I want to fly on them like they do in the movie A Bug's Life. lol :)

Well, that's all for now friends!! Thank you all SO MUCH for following me on this journey of mine. :) Here's hoping the next three months will keep getting better for all of us!

March 24-28

2010-03-29T14:37:00.000-07:00

Ahh, it feels good to share with you all again. :) I didn't mean to take so long between posts, but sometimes that's just how it goes!! Thankfully we're all here now. :)

Only a quick little shot for Wednesday...a sweet close up of my little Griefer. :) So pretty!

Thursday I had to get to work an hour early to cover phones during our company sales meeting. Now that the sun is rising a bit earlier, I actually got to see a sunrise! lol So of course, I snapped a few shots during my drive. This is one of my favorites...an interesting sunrise over Dallas!

Friday was a bit bittersweet. I went to the memorial service for my stepmom's dad, Gil Desha. I didn't know him very well, but it was still somewhat sad to be there. Thankfully they did a very nice little service and luncheon after, he was definitely well loved based on the attendance of people, and everything went pretty smoothly. Though the lights did go off twice during the service. lol I thought it only fitting that my Friday picture should be one I took while I was there. I know he will be well remembered.

Saturday Jon and I took a quick walk out to the Boys Ranch with Griefer and let her get some grass eating in. lol I've never seen another cat who loves grass quite as much as she does. This was one of my favorites - a rare clear shot. I got some really cute ones of her eating and peeking through bushes on my Facebook as well. lol :)

Then Sunday, I gave Tomorah and Sampson some catnip. lol Tomorah always goes nutty for catnip. And thankfully, I was close by with my camera this time. :) She started playing with the chair like she loves to do. I don't know what it is about chairs, but she just LOVES to attack the leg and use all her energy trying to destroy it. lol Gosh, she cracks me up. :) There are more cute ones of her attacking it on my Facebook as well! This was a favorite, though.

Well, that's all for now friends!! Thanks for stopping by and staying with me. :) More pics will follow soon!

March 20-23

2010-03-24T12:29:00.000-07:00

Good afternoon, dear readers!! Thanks so much for your patience with this post. :)

I think I mentioned it, but Saturday was our 4th annual St. Patty's Day party. :) And holy cow, was it a blast. Just a bunch of good friends, getting together to drink and celebrate and simply have fun and enjoy each other's company. We talked, we played some songs, we laughed....it was just a really fun night. The only thing I was not totally happy with was my camera settings. lol Naturally, once I stop being able to pay complete attention to my settings, things can get a little odd. I got some really great captures of people I think...I just wish I'd had my camera set better sometimes. I honestly don't know why I changed settings for some pictures, and they all came out a bit grainer than I would have preferred. But it was a learning experience. lol And I know my knowledge, though it's definitely there, isn't engrained in my brain well enough to do it without completely thinking yet. Overall, I think I did alright though. :) This picture pretty much sums up the whole night...and us. These people are my second family. :)

Sunday, naturally, was one of the laziest days I've had in goodness knows how long. lol However, I did get a sweet shot of Jon and Griefer. Griefer's a funny girl...usually you move one foot towards her and she's off running somewhere else, but every so often she really wants to be loved on and petted. And Sunday afternoon was one of those times. :) She was eating it up!

Monday I went back to flowers. lol :) My little orchid is amazing me...my last full batch of blooms died at least a month ago, but two little ones stayed behind and bloomed late. And now, right when those two are about to die, a few more new ones have shown up! It's like the never-ending blossoming of my orchid! lol

This spring has been really great for me so far. I've been wanting to capture more of the colors and the flowers actually starting to bloom...plus, it gives me a reason to get out from behind my desk for a few minutes and actually get some walking and sunshine in. :) Tuesday I found this really cute little tree starting to bloom, and I just loved the mesh of the purple flowers with the little green leaves! I'm betting it'll be really beautiful when it's fully in season. :)

Well, that's all for today friends! I've been feeling like I'm running low on inspiration around my apartment, so I'm not really sure what I'll shoot for today...but hopefully something interesting will come up. :) At least it's starting to help me keep a more particular eye out for interesting things and ideas!

March 17-19

2010-03-19T15:14:00.000-07:00

Hello, my dear friends. :) I hope you're doing well today!

Just a few quick shots for you today. I know Wednesday was St. Patty's Day, but I really wasn't feeling it then. lol So I ended up with this nice smooth picture of a medallion inside one of our pianos. I rather like it. :)

Thursday, I decided to get myself a little exercise while at work, and so I walked down a street or two and got to a gas station near our store. While I was walking, I took a bunch of pictures of all the flowers and trees that are starting to finally bloom again. :) It's becoming so pretty outside!! I especially like this picture I got of this tree...I can't stand the way these trees smell, but I really love the way they look!

And today, Friday, I was blessed enough to see a ladybug. :) I love them!! So freaking cute.

Well friends, that's all for now!! I have a nice friend-filled weekend coming up, and I'm very excited. :) Hopefully I can gather some courage and actually get some good pictures of some real honest people! lol :) Have a wonderful weekend, loves!

March 11-16

2010-03-16T14:08:00.000-07:00

So, it's Tuesday. And I suppose some of these pictures are a little late. lol But, they're finally here! Let me tell you a tiny bit about what's been going on with me.

My weekend from Thursday through Sunday was really very quiet. I was able to go out and see some friends Friday night...but otherwise, Jon and I played it very quiet and kept mostly to ourselves. And you can tell from my pictures. lol Here's my pic for Thursday, a nice little sunset behind a little patio set someone has decided they don't want anymore. lol I love how green the grass is getting!! I can't wait for Spring to fully come.

Friday was the only day I really saw anyone. And it was definitely the highlight of my weekend. I got to see two friends I haven't seen in a little while, and I got to hear my favorite boys play. Hardly anything can beat that. :) It was also very nice to be able to share some of my ideas with them and get even more confirmation. You never realize quite how much it means to have people be so supportive of you until you feel like you've been missing it for awhile. :)

Saturday and Sunday were very simple - a quick trip to the grocery store, having fun with the cats, and playing Final Fantasy XIII. lol :) I tried to get my logo together for Positively Linda as well, but there was not much advancement on that front. lol I did get some sweet new kitty pictures though.

I absolutely adore the textures on Sampson's little nose. All those itty bitty little hairs, and those colors...I just can't get enough of it.

And now, I'm going to share with you all something that's been weighing very heavily on my heart for quite some time. I have an incredibly severe case of insecurity. I've had it all my life, to be honest. And though I've tried random different things to get around it, and though there have been long stretches of my life where it hasn't bothered me, it's always been simmering there below the surface. And now, finally, I'm at a point where I'm ready to kiss it goodbye.

I've recently started a small group with my new friend Brandy. Right now it's just the two of us, but it's already been SUCH a blessing. I've been missing this sort of connection - this weekly meeting of females to care for each other and help each other grow and mature - for quite some time now. And I'm so glad we've realized we share the same desire and got it started. :) We're reading a book right now by Beth Moore named So Long Insecurity (You've Been a Bad Friend to Us). Holy cow, am I in for some major changes. We're only a mere two chapters into the book, basically only covering the introduction and some broad definitions, but I can tell that it's the right time in my life to be reading this, to have the chance to learn something from it. It's all about helping ladies in particular find their own security in themselves. Not relying on a man, or on friends, or family, or random strangers even. But simple security in myself and who I am.

I can't wait to see where it leads us. But, simply by the nature of this beast and the utter control it has over my life, it's going to be a very uphill battle. But you know, the best things in life are rarely easy to obtain. So there will be lots of times I'm struggling. And the only thing that will get me through it is my desire to be on the other side, stronger and better than before.

I was struggling bad on Monday. I honestly couldn't find the energy to really care about anything. I didn't want to work on my photography business. I didn't even want to look over these pictures from the weekend, much less anything honestly work-related. I started seriously doubting whether I really should be trying to make money from taking pictures, along with doubting just about everything else in my life (my weight, my friendships, my love life). I very much felt like I had this choice before me, and had no clue where to go.

Thankfully, as these things go, I woke up today feeling much more sure of myself. I still have a long ways to go, and I'm nowhere near the places I want to be with so much of my life. But I've remembered that as long as I can go home at the end of the day and spend some time relaxing with the ones who truly love me, I can do the work I know needs to be done. My ideal life of simply doing nothing but playing video games and laughing with Jon will probably never be full time lol but I do know that I can get a little piece of it every day. And that makes me smile. :)

Spring is coming. Things that have long been asleep are starting to wake up and bloom. This is the perfect time for me to be transforming as well. I'm a little like my cute plant - new little leaves are blossoming. I can't wait to see what sort of flowers I'll be able to produce in time. :)

March 9-10

2010-03-11T11:36:00.000-08:00

Hello, dear friends. I hope you're all having a good day so far. :)

Two quick pictures for you today. Tuesday's picture is one I actually set up...it was getting to the end of the night and I hadn't been inspired by anything, until I noticed some of my seashells from Boca Grande, FL on my counter. I'll definitely have to mess with photographing these again...I didn't quite get what I wanted from most of my shots, and there are lots of shells (and I do mean lots lol) that I would like to get some really neat shots of. I did like how this one turned out, though. I almost wish I had something else beside them for comparison...this shell and the sand dollar are really much smaller than you'd expect. :)

Wednesday I decided to follow a random inspiration. I was almost home from work, driving down Central, and I noticed the birds. If you live anywhere remotely near me, you'll know what I'm talking about. :) There are literally hundreds of birds that all flock to the same areas in the evening. And on this night, they were mostly all on the grass between the gas station and a nail salon. And so I took a random whim and pulled into the parking lot to take some pictures. It still amazes me that they barely noticed I was there...but once they took off, it was almost like being in the movie The Birds. I'm lucky I didn't end up with any droppings on me. lol :) I snapped away like crazy, and ended up with some pretty crazy shots of a ridiculous amount of birds.

That's all for today, friends! I'm not sure what my inspiration will be tonight...but hopefully I'll have something fun to share. :) I know I'll get to see my Josh Goode Band friends again this weekend and possibly some other friends or my niece, so I'm hoping for lots of confidence and inspiration this weekend for sure!

March 5-8

2010-03-08T14:04:00.000-08:00

Today's post will be a short one, friends. I have to admit I slacked a little this weekend. It was a very quiet one, and because of that I just wasn't really inspired at all.

Friday's picture is another that I will soon add my name onto as an ID picture. I just think it's really cute.

Saturday and Sunday run a bit together...I didn't manage to capture anything I liked on Saturday, so I ended up with two rain pictures from Sunday. I did have fun trying to capture the raindrops and ripples they cause, though.

And for today...well, today I simply needed to remind myself of something. ♥

Have a wonderful evening, dear readers. I pray all sorts of blessings fall on you this week. Goodness knows we all need it. :)

March 3-4

2010-03-04T12:54:00.000-08:00

Happy Thursday my lovely readers. :)

Two quick photos for you today. My Wednesday night picture was again provided by Sampson...he's my little inspiration for the week, I suppose! lol I gave this picture some definite editing, because I wasn't having much luck getting the white balance the way I wanted...but I think it worked pretty nicely for it. He's my little Superman. :) lol!

Today's picture was fun for me. :) I'm working on fixing up my photo sites and getting a logo together and all that...and so for at least one of my sites, I wanted an ID picture. And I've always really loved the color of the walls in our bathroom here at work. And so, I have myself a bathroom camera picture lol...but I don't think you could really tell without me saying so. :) I used a preset that my wonderful Jon made awhile back on the picture too, and it worked really well on it. I like this picture much more than I expected to. :) Soon it'll have my name on it too!

Well, that's all for now friends! I hope you all have a wonderful evening. :) I will have more exciting updates soon!

March 1-2

2010-03-02T13:53:00.000-08:00

Happy Tuesday everyone!

I've been working on some design elements with my photography the past few days. I'm trying to get myself a nice way to export my pictures to add a little border around them and have my name on there...so they look more professional, and I get a little more credit. lol :) Nothing to show for it just yet...but I'm definitely getting closer. Pretty sure I've got myself a name, anyways. :) And soon I should have the borders and font and all that fun stuff figured out! I never really thought of myself as going into the photography business, and I suppose I still don't...it's really more for my personal tastes, and so I can try to sell a few little things here and there and keep all my pages looking uniform. My goal is to have it all done by the end of the week, so we'll see if that happens and how it looks. :) There's lots to consider!

It's weird being a photographer sometimes. (It's weird even thinking of myself as a photographer without mentally adding in amateur or something similar, but that's another story. lol) You get an odd mix of being able to be an object of attention and of being totally in the background as well. Because most people will notice when someone walks up to them wearing a big camera around their neck, or is snapping away on the side of the road. lol Yet the photographer is so rarely in the actual work that they do...you are always focusing on something other than yourself. It's definitely interesting, and it's been a good journey for me so far. It's most definitely helped increase my confidence in myself...when I'm having a truly on day, I have less issues with getting myself in there and getting the shot I want. But I'm still not great with being recognized as such. lol Definitely been a learning experience in more ways than I imagined. :)

So - pictures! :) I almost forgot my picture again last night, and then Sampson provided me with the perfect opportunity. He loves the laundry basket. :) And he was being so funny....I gave him a little stuffed mouse to play with and he was running himself in circles inside the laundry basket attacking it. One of the cutest things I've ever seen. :) Even better when he accidentally threw the mouse outside of the laundry basket, and Tomorah zoomed in to grab it and carry it off! Oooh, my cats are so funny. :) Just can't get enough of Sampson's cute face.

Today features my favorite sign again. :) I wanted to get a better shot of my initial one, and then I remembered - spring will be coming soon, and the flowers will be blooming! So my better picture will come once everything starts blooming and being pretty. :) It's going to be glorious. However, I like this shot too - just a nice perspective.

Well, that's all for now friends! Have a wonderful Tuesday everyone! :)

Feb 26-28

2010-03-01T12:09:00.000-08:00

Hi friends. How's this rainy Monday treating you so far?

This past weekend was a bit of a revelation weekend for me. A lot of it is still weighing on my heart. And Sampson's picture from Friday is definitely how I've been feeling today lol. :)

Overall, this was a pretty decent weekend. Yet I'm disappointed with myself as well. I got a flat tire driving home on Friday which was not fun but thankfully wasn't all that bad at all, and my dad was able to come right away to help me change it. Still not a fun thing to happen when money is so tight. So much of this weekend was spent thinking of money and how to better use what I have and how to get more and simply do better for myself and Jon.

I had to come to terms with myself over some facets of my personality. I can sometimes be a very flaky, unreliable friend. I can very definitely be lazy. And I procrastinate like no body's business. I have random bouts of bad social anxiety. And I'm shy and soft to boot, too. Most of these are not really good things to be, I don't think. But I have to be okay with them. I have to accept them about myself, because it's part of who I am. And then I can work on changing them, tweaking them, controlling them. And so I'm working on them, working on being truly happy with myself. It's definitely a lifelong process. :) But at least I'm at a point now where I can see when I need to accept something. I'm certainly becoming more aware of the movements of my heart and what feels right. I often have this certain little phrase from a letter I once read pop into my head when I'm finding flaws in myself..."I love you completely for who you are, but I love you too much to leave you that way." And this is where I find myself. Working on loving myself completely for simply who I am, so I can work on the things that aren't quite right and remain confident that even when I fail and don't move forward, I still love myself. :) So to all my friends - please forgive me for being me. :) I honestly try and honestly want to be the best I can be for you all!

Ok, now that that's off my chest. :) My two main highlights from the weekend, that made it truly better than it could have become. Saturday was my dear friend Megan's birthday party. Nice, low key get together to simply celebrate a life. And of course, there was a Manna cake there, which is always nice. :) This is one of my favorites of the few shots I took that night - the birthday girl with her cute little cake!

My other highlight came on Sunday, the most draining day for me. Jon and I have decided that we're going to teach our cats to do tricks. :) We spent awhile on Sunday watching some videos of other cats that have learned all sorts of tricks and ways to do it, and we started with a little training session to teach our cats to sit. Griefer and Sampson actually started to pick up on it pretty well. Tomorah is a bit too much cat to really want to do it just yet lol...but I think she might come around a little. I'm a bit annoyed at myself...I had a video of Griefer being taught to sit and her actually picking it up, and without thinking I deleted it when I took the other pictures off my card this morning. :( Hopefully I will be able to get another one soon. For now you can see all three of our babies paying close attention to Jon as he tries to teach Sampson. :)

Well, that's all for now friends! I have plans for myself this week to try to start kicking some of the things I don't like to the curb...so we'll see how that goes. :) I'm working a lot of finding a name for my photography and making myself a watermark so I can start posting some of my photos for selling purposes and see how that works out. You might see some new things in the way I post pictures soon! :) Have a wonderful evening.

Feb 19-25

2010-02-25T14:39:00.000-08:00

Hi friends. I'm so sorry it's taken me so long to get this latest batch of pictures up - just seems like things keep coming at me lately and it takes a few days before I get a chance to catch up! Hopefully I can keep it a bit more steady for awhile and there won't be such long posts. lol :)

So - this past weekend wrapped up my heart theme. On Friday, I went to hang out with my friend Brandy for her birthday. It was actually a really nice time - Brandy and I are sort of new friends, and it's nice to get to really discover another person and see what we have in common. During the course of the night, I noticed that she had some paper towels with hearts on them...so of course I stole one to use. lol I ended up taking a little figurine Jon gave me for Valentine's one year and tried my hand at a nice silhouette shot. This is what I got.

Kinda cute! :) Saturday I decided to try my hand at another type of picture I've seen lots of but have never tried before...a ring with a heart-shaped shadow on a book. :) I will one day get a perfect picture like this - I'm not sure how they get the rings to stand straight up so you can actually see the top of it! lol But for now, I love this picture just the same. Even set it to a nice little passage from one of my favorite books, The Wedding by Nicholas Sparks. :)

Then on Sunday, I couldn't help but focus on the actual ring that I used. It was my Granny's wedding ring on my Dad's side of the family. It's one of only 3 things I have from my Granny, and sadly I'd almost forgotten about it until I got my idea on Saturday. So I just had to find a way to feature the ring itself. I wouldn't be surprised if this ring pops up again sometime. :)

Monday I took a personal day. And it was just what I'd been needing. A little glimpse into a part of the life I really would love to have someday. I managed to catch this moment with Jon and Sampson...Jon was reading and teaching himself things (lately it's been music mastering and physics and string theory lol...geez my man's too smart for me!), and sometimes Sampson likes to come sit with him and get himself some pets. And pets he got. :)

Tuesday was a busy day for me at work...we had Steinway Hall Day on Wednesday, and so Tuesday was spent half catching up from missing Monday and half preparing for Wednesday. Needless to say, it was hard for me to take a moment to catch a breath. lol But I stopped long enough to take a quick shot of my super cute new socks and shoes I got this month. :) My old work shoes were completely falling apart! These new ones are much cuter and more comfortable. I'm in love with them. lol And I managed to find a really great deal on knee high socks at Payless Shoes...2 pairs for $3 and a 20% off coupon, plus everything's buy one get one half off. So I managed to get I believe 8 pairs of socks for right about $10. It was greatness. :)

Wednesday we had Steinway Hall Day...basically just a day full of meetings, learning our marketing and sales plans for the year, listening to the president of Steinway Americas talk about a new line we just launched, things of that nature. Pretty interesting. But my biggest excitement was coming home to realize Jon had found me these. I've been craving Smarties for a few weeks now, but can't seem to find them anywhere. Jon couldn't find any either...but he did find these. And holy cow are they big. lol But oh, oh so tasty. :)

And finally we come to today, Thursday! Whew. Today I roamed the store for a little bit this morning and just shot what stood out to me. This picture comes from one of our new Boston pianos. I've tried to get a shot of something like this before and never really liked it...but today, it worked with me.

Well, there we have it friends! I hope you've enjoyed this glance through my past week. lol :) Hopefully I can update again much sooner this time! Have a wonderful evening, loves. :)

Feb 17-18

2010-02-18T14:55:00.001-08:00

Two new heart pictures for you today. :) My first one was a little creative fun from me lol...when we buy pizzas from Walmart, Jon always has to take the meats off and rearrange them so it covers the whole pizza to his liking. So last night, I knew I wanted pizza, and I got it out and started taking the meats off to arrange them. And I got the bright idea to fit my theme into it. And I came up with this:

I was pretty proud of myself. :) In hindsight, I should've used just one meat for the heart and put the other around the rest of the pizza, and maybe I could've seen it once the pizza was cooked...but I like it this way too. lol :)

Today I had to take some pictures of used pianos we've gotten in. And while I was going around the store, I noticed the music rack of one piano in particular. It could almost be snakes lol...but it's not. Just beautifully crafted wood, into a shape remarkably similar to a heart. :)

And we're all caught up! I finally finished the rest of my pictures from my 4 day weekend last week, which makes me incredibly happy. I kinda went a little overboard, so it took awhile to sort through them all and get them done, not to mention doing all my regular work tasks as well. Big weight off my shoulders now! :) Have a wonderful Thursday night friends!

Feb 16

2010-02-17T12:31:00.000-08:00

Today's picture has a special place in my heart. Once upon a time, too many years ago, I was in high school. lol :) And when I was in high school, I had a best friend. Her name was Sarra. And I can happily say that we're still close friends to this day. :) During our senior year, Sarra gave this to me - a sweet, beautiful candle, handmade and with one of our favorite song verses written on it. It's been through a few moves and rough patches over the years, but it's held up remarkably well. And it had a heart. So it worked perfectly for my theme this week. :)

It was really sweet taking a picture of this candle that's been in my living quarters for about 10 years. Last night brought me some difficulties in my personal life, and taking just a few minutes away to focus on something so sweet really helped me feel better. I still love my Sarra. :)

Feb 8-15!

2010-02-15T14:26:00.000-08:00

Hi friends!! I've missed you so! Let's play catchup, shall we? I have quite a few pictures for you today! :)

At the beginning of last week, a website that I follow had a photography assignment - to submit your best picture featuring a shallow depth of field (in other words, a picture where you're focused on one little thing and everything else in the picture is blurry). So the first part of the week, I took a ton of photos trying to get a new, good picture. I ended up not being truly happy with any of them, submitting a picture I took in December, and not getting picked at all. lol I did manage to get a few cute shots though. On Monday, I got this one of Sampson - It would've been much better if I hadn't cut his ear off, but I just love the focus on his little nose. So cute. :)

On Tuesday, I tried again with a little figurine my mom gave me when I graduated from UNT. I never could get it to work quite like I wanted...but I loved the little quote on the bottom. It was definitely something I needed to hear, and something I need to remind myself of. :)

Wednesday I tried for the last time. The closest I ever got to a picture I truly liked was this one. It was one of those moments, right before I decided to be done for the day, and the paper caught my eye. It took quite a few shots to get the focus where I really wanted it, but I got there. Still lots that could be better about the picture....but I got the basic idea I wanted. :)

Then came Thursday. And the snow. Oh, the beautiful, glorious snow.

It was falling literally from the moment I woke up until I went to bed. I believe we got over a foot of snow, which is pretty unheard of for Texas. Naturally, I wrapped myself up and went to take as many snow pictures as I could. And I learned it's hard to catch the snow falling down. And to keep yourself steady and patient enough to get the shot you want when it's freezing and wet outside. lol It was so much fun though. :)

And to make it even better, it was still all over the ground on Friday! So of course I went to explore again. And I managed to find a really nice little forest-like place by my apartment. It was so gorgeous. I could sit and watch the snow falling and the way it beautifies things for hours.

Saturday was rather uneventful, given the snow of the previous two days. lol I was able to go out and get some errands done finally, and mostly I just relaxed around the house. But I ended up going to my brother's for a little bit that night as well, and I got to see the most adorable little girl in the entire world. She had to have known I was there - Jason put her down to bed almost an hour before I came over, and within minutes after I got there she was up. And she always has a grin for her Aunt Linda. :) Always. I'm telling you - she'll get carried into a room. She'll see that I'm there. And bam - the grins start coming. It warms my heart like I wouldn't have thought possible. :) Look at her - how could it not??

And finally, we reach Sunday. Which also happened to be Valentine's Day. Jon and I played it pretty quiet this year - it's hard to really get each other gifts and go out to do things when money's so tight. I gotta say though - we stay in in style. :) We took our time, just enjoying each other's company, and then we made dinner - blackened ribeye steaks, homemade mashed potatoes, side salads and dinner rolls. All completely delicious. And a nice wine to pair with the steaks as well. Tonight, since we ate so late last night, we're making our dessert - brownies with powdered sugar. :) All in all, a very sweet night. I'm definitely a lucky girl. And Jon's a lucky dude. lol

Which finally brings us full circle and back to Monday!! I've decided that for this week, I'm going to start one of the little projects I've been wanting to do. This week will be heart themed. :) I always love finding pictures of familiar shapes in unexpected places...and I'm going to do my best to capture everything heart-shaped that I can find this week. I am cheating just the tiniest bit for today's picture lol...I actually took this on Friday. But I just had to share it with this collection. And it's still recent, so I think it should count. :) It's just so cute! I couldn't believe I actually found a tree with a marking like this. I couldn't resist it. :)

Have a wonderful night, friends! I should be back very soon with another fun picture for you. :)

Well...

2010-02-10T14:34:00.001-08:00

I promise I haven't forgotten or been slacking, friends. lol I'm just a little behind this week. I may not be able to get the pics for Mon-Thurs up until Friday...depending on what the weather does tomorrow. I only have my pics on my work computer, so if it's snowing (fingers crossed!! lol) I won't have them to work on. But, I do have pics to share. I've been trying to stay good. :) I will get them up for you all to see soon!! Until then - smile and be safe. :)

Feb 5-7

2010-02-08T13:28:00.000-08:00

Well, it's Monday again. And a cold and rainy one at that! So here's a little blog and a few pictures to try and clear away some of the grossness of outside. :)

Friday was my friend Justin's birthday, so a bunch of us went to hang out at his place before they headed out on the town. It was a great night full of lots of laughs. :) Our little friend Morgan came for a bit, people were all together that don't get to see each other too often, and all in all it was just fun. I was pretty proud of myself too - I actually took my camera and tried to get pictures of everyone, which is a big thing for me. Usually I avoid taking pictures of people over the age of 5 or so. lol So it was a good step. :) This was one of my favorites from the night - Morgan had just touched the ceiling (Justin's really tall and the girl knows it lol she asked him to help her reach the ceiling) and she was so proud of herself. lol Gosh that grin just kills me!! She's gonna be a heartbreaker for sure. :)

Saturday was much quieter - just Jon and myself most of the day, until Jeremy came over to have some game time with us. For awhile the boys were talking music - Jon's started learning how to make a lot of things electronically, and once he gets hooked on something, he doesn't let go. lol So while they chatted a bit, I snapped a few pictures. And I think I got a new favorite. :) Jon and I certainly have our differences and a different way of viewing the world...but somehow we're still drawn together, time after time. I love him so much.

Sunday was a hard day for me. There are always lots of emotions churning inside my heart, and Sunday decided to be a day for a lot of those to take hold of me and not let go. Thankfully, I had a little company on the couch most of the day. :)

I'm not sure what I'll do for today's picture. I'm hoping inspiration will hit later tonight. A bit of those emotions are still trying to pull me back down...maybe somehow some creativity will come from it all. lol :) Have a happy evening, friends!

Feb 3-4

2010-02-05T09:21:00.001-08:00

Happy Friday, my lovely readers! :) I hope you all have wonderful things planned for this weekend! I have 2 pictures for you today.

My first is now one of my absolute favorite pictures I've ever taken. I can't explain it...when I walked into the store on Wednesday I was feeling a really strong urge to take some pictures. I needed something artsy, something that stood out to me. And so I set my stuff down, grabbed my camera, and spent a few minutes wandering the store and shooting a few pics. This was one of the very first I took that day...and it's by far the best I got. I just love it. :)

Every time I take pictures in my apartment, I can't wait until I can move somewhere else that has more room and better lighting. lol Now most any apartment lighting isn't going to be fantastic...but we have such a small amount of light in ours. It makes photography with no flash very difficult. However, I can't help but do it anyways, and do the best I can with it. :) I got this shot last night....the cats constantly follow anyone into the kitchen, hoping for a little bit of a treat. lol And Tomorah is just so stinking cute when she's begging me for something. She just gives me this look, and I fall in love with her all over again lol...how could you not??

Well, that's all for now, friends!! I will have some more pictures for you all on Monday. :) I have a nice, fun, guy friend filled weekend coming up, and I'm so excited!! It's going to be lots of good relaxing fun. :) I also have some photo project ideas I'm working on that show up here soon. :) We shall see!

Feb 1-2

2010-02-02T10:17:00.001-08:00

Horray!! I made it through a whole month!! Now to make it through another one! :)

I almost messed it all up last night. lol It hit about 11:30 and I realized I hadn't taken a picture for the day yet. I'd been playing around with iTunes all night, cleaning up my playlist and making some new ringtones, and so I went down the cheesy side and did this little shot with Jon's headphones and my one and only UNT sweatshirt. It's totally corny, but I still kinda dig it. Of course I had to make a heart with the cord as well. I just couldn't resist. lol :)

Today's picture is has a classy feel to it. I noticed one of our uprights actually used silver writing for the name instead of the usual gold, so I decided to use it and take a nice, clean shot.

Sometime this week I should be heading to one of our other stores to try and get some showfloor pictures, which should be interesting. I've been trying to get a nice showfloor picture of our Dallas store for awhile, but it's not set up the easiest way. So we'll see how that goes. Our Plano store where I'm going to take pictures is a lot newer and has much nicer details on the inside, so I feel it should be a bit easier. It's a challenge I'm happy to take on. :)

Jan 29-31

2010-02-01T15:12:00.000-08:00

Hi friends. I'm so sorry this post is a little late - time seems to be moving entirely too fast for me lately. lol :) But here we are now!! So let's review the last weekend in January. Geez, I can't believe we're already a month into 2010! Ridiculous.

This weekend was a busy one for me. Friday night I went over to see my friends Steph and Tanner and give Steph her copies of the cat calendar, since her little girl Kittie was in it. Jeremy and Jeri came over as well and we ended up having a little movie night and some good times. I got this quick little snapshot of Steph's other little girl Zoey laying on the floor...once the excitement of seeing people was over with, she wasn't real interested in anything else I did. lol

Saturday was a pretty lazy day in the Thompson household. I went to see my friends Brandy and Jeri for a little girl night, but otherwise....the day was mostly spent playing Batman Arkham Asylum. lol :) I did however get a really sweet shot of my little boy Sampson sleeping on the couch. The way he curls himself up and covers his face is just too precious for words.

And on Sunday, I delivered more calendars. lol I went to see Manna and Morgan and get them their calendars and finally give Morgan her Christmas present. :) And then after dinner I went to see Sarra and William and get them their calendars and catch up a little bit. The Poppe household is full of animals. lol And so while I was there, I of course had to take some fun little snapshots of some of them. I actually managed to get all 3 of their dogs in one picture! Of course, there was the added incentive of a ball involved to keep their interest, but you know. :)

All in all, a very busy but fun weekend. It's going to be a busy week as well - I'm going to try to get the cat pictures all posted this week, but there's quite a few to go through and work has been busy as well, so we'll see how far I can get. :) I'm still pretty impressed I made it through a whole month taking a picture every day! I can definitely tell it's starting to get hard...I'm wanting more new subjects for pictures, more new ideas so I can keep it interesting. Trying to stretch my imagination, if you will. We'll see what fun February will come up with. :)

Jan 28

2010-01-29T13:39:00.000-08:00

Happy Friday, friends. :) I hope you're doing well in spite of this suddenly freezing weather!

So, last night we had a concert at my store, and I took pictures. It was definitely a learning experience. lol But I had fun. :) I haven't been to a recital like this in quite some time. The group is Trio Con Brio, consisting of 3 TCU professors - John Owings (piano), Misha Galaganov (viola), and Gary Whitman (clarinet). There was also a painting made of the group by an artist named Donray that was on display.

Still, it was my first to shoot...and though I got some decent shots, there were lots of things that could have been done better. I am very much a slave to my nerves, and though I'm trying to overcome it, they mess with me more than I'd like. I got really frustrated before the concert trying to test my shots and get everything working correctly, and it makes me want to rush and lose my focus. I managed to calm myself down mostly, but the damage had already been done. Thank goodness my wonderful man Jon came on only 3 hours of sleep to help me. :) He made a big difference. This ended up being my favorite of the whole batch - very nice feel to it.

My next post may not be until Monday - Jon and I finally finished our 2010 cat calendars this week, and so I will be very busy trying to deliver them all and catching up with some friends. :) Who knows what fun pictures I'll have when I return! Next week will be cat week for me on Facebook...since the calendars are done, I'm going to be posting all the pictures I took that didn't make the calendar. So if you're a friend on there, be sure to check it out!! I hope you all have a safe and warm weekend! :)

Jan 27

2010-01-27T12:24:00.001-08:00

Happy Wednesday. :) Just a quick shot for you guys today - I got to work a little early today and couldn't get into the store, so I took a short walk down Katy Trail behind my work. I found this cool tree trunk covered in leaves...nice, kinda artsy feel to it for me.

I'm a bit nervous for tomorrow - we're having a concert at my store, and I've offered to take some pictures. It should be a ridiculously good concert. But I'm nervous, and I hope I can get some good shots without bothering anyone. lol I don't shoot people much yet - I'm too slow for most people's patience. lol Concerts tend to work well though, since the people I'm photographing aren't paying any real attention to me...just have to hope I can get everything to work with me and set up correctly, and that I don't completely fold and end up with nothing good. Hopefully I'll have something nice to share with you all from it! :)

Jan 25-26

2010-01-26T13:57:00.000-08:00

Alright, kiddos. Things have finally calmed down here enough at work that I can get this last post out. :)

I didn't do too much photography wise yesterday. Jon and I got caught up watching Heroes (we had an episode to catch up on before the new one yesterday), and then by the time dinner was done...it was bedtime. lol However, I did get this shot of the gorgeous sunset. I'm a little obsessed with sunsets. :)

Today...well, today's been a little odd. It started off filled with worrisome thoughts, late to work, missing a meeting, and finishing up tons of projects that randomly got thrown at me. Thankfully, I have some wonderful friends who shared a little joy with me and fixed the emotional part. :) To help calm myself down even more, I took a little walk behind my office for lunch and took a few more shots of the walking trail. And I got a closer view of my new favorite sign.
It's kinda helped a little today. :) Here's hoping something fun and wonderful comes my way tomorrow to inspire me a little more! Have a wonderful afternoon and evening my friends. :)

Jan 22-24

2010-01-25T14:38:00.000-08:00

I'm sorry this post is so late, friends. Things have been rather hectic the past day or two.

Friday night I decided to head out to Fort Worth to hang out with my Josh Goode Band friends again. It was just what I needed that night too - the bar was pretty empty, which meant I got to actually talk to the guys during the breaks and help pick the songs they played. Plus, my friend Rachel came, which is always a nice surprise - she was a fan when I first became a fan, and it's always nice to be around people you've known for awhile. This ended up being my best picture of the night.

Saturday and Sunday both were pretty quiet. We just got a new couch from our friend Jeremy that we've put by the window. And the cats absolutely love it. It's like their own cushy playground. lol And it gives them easier access to the window. It was so nice on Saturday we had the window open, which meant all 3 of them were climbing up there all day to smell outside and watch the little animals. Tomorah's turned out to be my favorite - she's simply the most gorgeous cat I've ever laid eyes on. Though I might be a little biased. :)

Sunday we were supposed to do a photo shoot for a friend's band, but they never contacted us or responded. So I decided I was going to go down to the park behind our house, so I could still get some fun new pictures. Jon came with me and decided to bring Griefer with us on her leash, and we had a nice little walk. Not to mention some lovely sunset pictures.

Monday's post will be on it's way shortly. First, I have to get some of this work done. lol

Jan 21

2010-01-21T11:41:00.001-08:00

Today will be a short post. My heart is feeling very emotionally heavy today. No particular reason, so no reason to worry - nothing's happened. Just one of those days, I suppose.

I tried to play around some more with my flute last night, but it wasn't working quite like I hoped. Again, just one of those times. lol However, I did get this shot that I really like. I'd taken one similar to it on my first shooting attempt - but this version is a bit more in focus. I really love playing with little details in a picture - like how I purposefully placed my flute on this music so it was right by the 'molto espressivo' section. :) Just a little more meaning to the picture!

Jan 18-20

2010-01-20T14:53:00.001-08:00

Greetings, friends. :) I hope you're all doing well! Today's post covers the first part of this week - Monday to Wednesday.

I decided to take it a little easy on Monday and didn't end up taking too many pictures. However I was blessed with a pretty sunset on the way home, so I dashed down to the pond behind my apartment and took a quick picture. It was so pretty, I couldn't resist.

Tuesday night I was feeling a bit more camera-friendly again, and I decided to try to get a few close ups of my cats. Tomorah's ended up being my favorite - she just has the most beautiful coloring that goes so perfectly with her seriously green eyes. I couldn't get her to completely look at me lol - but I still adore this picture. I think it gives her more of a vogue look. lol

And for today's picture - my new favorite sign. I decided randomly to take a quick walk outside my work in downtown Dallas. I was hoping for a cool shot of the Dallas skyline that I could see, or a new one of the sign on top of our store. Neither of those ended up working. lol But I discovered this walking / biking trail right behind our store, and got a few cute shots. And found this sign. I will definitely be shooting this sign again. :)

Well, that's all for today. I hope you enjoyed it! I think tomorrow's post will be a bit musical again! :)

Jan 17

2010-01-18T13:30:00.000-08:00

My lovely friend Manna gave me a bag of her little girl's old clothes a few weeks ago to pass on to Dalilah, my sweet little niece. Yesterday I finally brought the bag over to them and looked through them to see what all would fit. lol Lots of really cute clothes in there, and they should all fit too! It's always such a joy to stop by and see my little niece though...she's just getting into the grinning and giggling stage, and it just fills my heart every time I hear her laugh!! She's such a happy, silly little baby girl! I managed to catch this hint of a grin...

She gave me a few bigger ones, but they were harder to catch on camera. I did figure out that she really likes it when I act like I'm eating her toes. lol :) I love that I can one hand my camera and use my other hand to tickle her or something to get her to smile for me though! Certainly makes it a little bit easier...now just to work on guesstimating where the picture should actually be centered so I get more that are good photographs and not just cute snapshots lol...

Have a wonderful day, my small band of readers! :)

Jan 15-16

2010-01-16T12:27:00.000-08:00

Today is a special treat, my friends. I have 3 pictures to share with you! :)

Last night was a pretty great night. :) Jon, Jer, and I headed out to the Granada a little late, so we missed the first new JGB song or two. Talk about sad. However, we got to hear a few other rockin' new ones that I can't wait to hear again, and two favorites, Desire Lead the Way and Turn the Tide. As for the first show with my camera - I'm reasonably impressed. I still want to try another - my boys weren't headlining or playing all night like I'm used to, so I kind of had to walk in, enjoy, and start shooting. I tend to do better when I work slower than that. lol But, I did get some great shots I think. Like this one. This one gets me bad. I will eventually seriously fix this one up and probably get a large print of it. It's just too cool.

I also got to try out my HD video, which worked ridiculously well. I was hand holding it the whole time so it's got a pretty natural bit of shake to the videos, but the audio quality and the crispness of the video are pretty awesome. I got a good part of Turn the Tide, as well as some of a little song called Be Alive by this lady here, Dana Harper.

It was her CD release party last night, and let me tell you - she rocked it. This girl is only 19, but she has a killer voice, and from what you can tell from her stage presence, a seriously sweet heart and fun personality. And Josh helped write a lot of her stuff, and he was so very excited - and I absolutely adore seeing my boys so ecstatic for things. This picture really captured a lot of the feeling of the night. :)

So this morning, I'm sitting here reading up on a blog and thinking about uploading and looking through my pictures from last night. Tomorah's happily chilling in the papasan chair I have. And then Sampson decides that HE should be the one in the chair, and so he joins her. And all hell breaks loose. Tomorah is NOT a fan of being super close to others, as you can see. lol

Oh, I just love their expressions. lol :) They never cease to entertain me!!

Tonight Jon and I are going to print up some cat calendars that we made. :) I went to my friends and my family and photographed their little felines, and we designed a super cool calendar for everyone. I seriously can't wait to have them printed out and be able to share them with everyone, and have it displayed on my wall at work. :) It's just so cute!! lol So until next time - have a blessed time! :)

Jan 14

2010-01-15T10:04:00.000-08:00

Last night, I got a wild hair up my butt and decided I wanted to try to take some pictures of my musical instruments. I have a very pretty Miyazawa flute that I got a few decents shots of, and this beautiful guitar my Josh Goode Band boys signed and gave me. I still haven't figured out the best angles and lighting and such for my flute yet...but I know it'll show up in an upcoming post. :) Today I felt my guitar deserved the spot, since my boys are playing a new original show tonight!! And I do love them all very much. :) There's just nothing like good live music!

Have a wonderful weekend, my few lovely followers!

Jan 13

2010-01-14T13:31:00.000-08:00

Meet the sweetest, silliest, most prissy little kitty in the world - my Tomorah. :) One of her absolute favorite things in the world is catnip - she just loves to roll her face all in it and get it all over herself lol...as you can tell. :) She definitely steals my heart!

Jan 12

2010-01-13T13:35:00.000-08:00

Today's post is for my friend Justin. :) He's leaving for San Diego on Thurs, and he'll be gone almost 4 months for an internship. I'm so proud!! So I went to go see him one last time before he leaves last night. Lots of fun was had. :) And I got this adorable picture of him and his pup Duke! I'll miss ya, Justin! Stay classy! lol

Jan 11

2010-01-12T08:44:00.000-08:00

Jan 11 - Our little Griefer!! I learned last night that I can set one of our external flashes on my camera to an auto mode (my camera and one of the high end Canons are the only ones that can be set like this) and it only flashes once...which really helps when trying to photograph a cat who likes to close their eyes a lot. lol So I got a good chance to see Griefer's gorgeous baby blues!

Upcoming photo excitement - my absolute favorite band, the Josh Goode Band, is playing at the Granada theater this Friday. This will be my first show with my new camera. Ooooh man I can't begin to explain how excited I am, both to see my boys play (they're playing completely new originals!!) and to test out my camera with a band. Bands are hard - always seriously low light, always moving, flashing lights usually from the stage....it's not the easiest thing. But I absolutely LOVE it. So hopefully I'll get a killer shot for this weekend. :)

I hope you all have a wonderful day!

Jan 1-10: The First 10 Days

2010-01-11T10:41:00.000-08:00

Hi there! Welcome to my first post. :)

I've decided that this year, I'm going to do Project 365. It's an easy idea - simply take a picture every day, and post it. The problem comes in not letting everyday life get in the way. lol I've decided I want to do this for a few reasons: 1) It would be neat to be able to record a year through pictures of the things and people in my life and the few new experiences sure to come my way, 2) forcing myself to take a decent picture every day will help my photography skills and knowledge to grow and mature, and 3) I've been wanting a good project I can enjoy that will help me work on some follow-through. Not to mention I was just able to buy my first ever DSLR camera for Christmas. So here I am. :) It's going to be a long year, But I feel like good things are coming, and I can't wait to share them with you all!

In the crazy aftermath of Christmas and New Years and getting my camera and all that jazz, I've taken a few extra days to get started and organized. These are my first 10 pictures for my first 10 days. Each day I will post the picture from the day before - gotta live the life before I can share it. lol :) So my last post should be on Jan 1 of next year. Along with each picture, I'm including a caption - something to give you a little insight into the picture. Some pictures will be meaningful, some interesting, and some just plain silly, but they're all a part of my life. :) So let's get started!!

Jan 1 - Some black eyed peas!! Always good to start the year off with some prosperity and good luck. :)

Jan 2 - Mustard seeds. "I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there' and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you." - Matthew 17:20

Jan 3 - My friend Justin's dog, Duke. He's one of the sweetest dogs you will ever meet. He wanted his picture taken so bad, he was posing for me. lol :) I couldn't resist.

Jan 4 - My gorgeous orchid. Jon got this for me our first Valentine's together, and this is the 3rd blooming since. :)

Jan 5 - I got my new camera today!! It's a Canon Rebel T1i. I'm so in love with this camera it's ridiculous.

Jan 6 - Inside a Steinway piano. Thanks to my new lens, I can zoom out and capture even more of the piano at once than I ever could before.

Jan 7 - Pins inside the piano. I just love how orderly they are. Plus, 16 is my birthday number, so I always like it when that number randomly appears. lol

Jan 8 - Pretty sunset on the drive home from work. My camera is so lightweight compared to Jon's - I can actually use mine one-handed in the car if I'm ridiculously careful. lol

Jan 9 - Jon & Tomorah. Oh this picture cracks me up. lol :) Poor Tomorah was not wanting any extra attention that night....but Jon didn't care. lol

Jan 10 - My orchid. 10 little blooms this time around. :) Soaking in the light of the sun...