Hugs & Shrugs: Mugs & Ice Cube Trays

HUGS: 1) My new Longaberger Candy Corn Travel Mug; it is festive, functional, and fits my hand like a glove, 2) the hype of vacation; planning for four nights and five days of sun, sand, and wedding celebrations - yeehaawww, 3) the people who comment on my blog posts; in a weird way receiving comments makes me feel validated as a 'blogger' and that people really a] read my blog and b] like what I am doing.

SHRUGS: 1) People who put an ice cube tray back in the freezer with only one ice cube in it...seriously, if you are not going to use that last piece of ice, pop it in the sink then FILL the ice tray back up before you put it back in the freezer, 2) Elusive milk cups in my car; nothing is worse than being able to SMELL the milk cup but not being able to SEE the milk cup... blat! 3) the hype of vacation; the thought of leaving my sweet pea and my husband for four nights and five days keeps creating a lump in my throat.

Happy Sunday!

Jeffrey - Maine Senior Portraits

Everyone has those ’kids’ in your life who will always be little kids to you, no matter how old they are, how many kids they may have or even if they have a better job than you, to you, they will always be little kids. Jeffrey is one of those ’kids’ to me.


I first met Little Jeffrey, gosh 14 years ago, back when he looked like this:

Cute right? Yep, he was a cutie; he was 4 playing outside in the dirt with Tonka trucks and Matchbox cars, he was a shy little guy who didn’t say much (at first) and most of the time was stuck like glue to his Dad’s side. Jeffrey’s Dad, Jeff, is a good friend of my husband, so over the years I have spent a lot of time with both Big and Little Jeffrey‘s. I have watched Jeffrey race mini four wheelers, graduate from a 50cc to an 85cc and finally to a 125cc dirt bike, I have watched him catch fish and pull ice fishing traps up for a dozen guys with no gloves on, I watched him grow into one of the most level headed, handsome, friendly, polite, and fun loving person you will ever meet.

As I look at these pictures today, I can’t believe how much he has changed… He has come along way from Tonka Trucks and Matchbox cars, but to me he will always be Little Jeffrey.



Blat to Look at That!

Expanded archery season in Maine has begun, which means from time to time, my husband will leave for an over night in hopes of shooting ’the big one’ (a deer). Humph, you may think. Well I think, YeeeHawwww!! Although I absolutely loathe sleeping alone in our bed, I do however love any excuse to eat a box of mac and cheese for supper, turn on my favorite tunes and sing at the top of my lungs as I stir in the powdered cheese…it also means once my little sweet pea is down for the night, I get some MEEEE time!


A few weeks ago I was in a craft store and found these drab, although functional, pocket calendars. Being only $.99 I couldn’t help myself but to pick one up and think ‘I can fab this up’. And that is exactly what I did. It all began with said ugly pocket calendar...

Then I went to my scrapbook ‘vault’ (which is honestly just an unorganized shelving unit) and picked out some cool paper, some paper doilies (which is from another project I will post about in a few days), stickers, a few brads, double sided tape, ribbon, and some little flowers which you may recognize from a previous post. And so the creative juices started to seep from my pores…

I removed the calendar from the clear plastic case, measured the size of the calendar and used those measurements to cut my background paper, and then reduced the size down a 1/2 inch on each side and used that measurement to cut my frilly paper, which I then centered and layered on the solid brown paper.  Then I cut a piece of ribbon for the front and taped it to the back, which the mildly horrendous picture below shows.

After I secured the ribbon, I folded the card sock in half and taped on my doily with the letter "A" on it, and using a brad I adhered a little flower to the front. Then I slipped my new cover inside the plastic cover and slid the calendar underneath it, flipped it over, and this is what I saw.

A pocket calendar that went from "BLAT" to "Look at THAT!"

A fun little project any one can do.

Happy Monday!

Fun in the Sun

Sadly, we have arrived at today.. Yes it is Sunday, but not just any Sunday, today is the last Sunday of Summer 2010. So pack away your pool floats, beach towels, picnic baskets, and bathing suits and pull out those rakes, wool sweaters, fall decorations, and space heaters. Don’t cry, together we will support one another through yet another loong, loooong, Northeast Winter.

Let's pause for a short prayer and pray those bathing suits fit us next year... Amen!

Moving on.... So, I am going through some of my summer photos (organizing, none the less) and came across these fun pictures. This was a random day where it was too nice to stay inside, so with no destination in mind, my girlfriend and I packed up the diaper bags and minivan and headed to Belfast. If you live in Maine, or visit Maine, I highly recommend, first stopping at Dunkin' Donuts and grab yourself a little caffeine companion and then stop by this little park which is right on the ocean and spend an hour or two and let the kids go nuts!

What do you guys think about this cool collage!! I think it came out great and it's a neat change up from just posting one picture at a time on here. What do you think?

Happy Sunday!

Homework - Silhouettes

Yes, another Go4Pro Homework Assignment! Leah from G4P has teamed up with the fabulous Heather Ward and issued an assignment on.... silhouetted photos! And this time there is a prizzze involved (queue the choir). Heather will ‘guest judge’ this assignment and the artist of the image she selects will receive a little sumpthin, sumpthin from her shop of actions. For those of you who do not know what actions are, they are sort of like a macro for photoshop that make an "Ehh" image a "WOW" image and can make processing time go from 122 hours to 50 hours, pretty much when they are used correctly they can be a photographers BFF.

Now for all of you who follow this little bloggideedoo know I tried my very first silhouetted image just a few weeks ago and shared that image with you in this post. This was my first stab at silhouetting and I am not going to lie, I have a lot of room for improvement on these. So I am passing in this image with my breath held, hand shaking, ready to bolt for the bus... and hoping a little sumpthin' sumpthin will come out of it!



As a side note, I think I have done more homework for Leah in the past couple weeks, than my entire Junior & Senior year of high school!! 

Shooting Something Different

I typically stick to photographing people, but every once in a while something comes over me and I feel the urge to photograph my surroundings. Today was one of those days. Enjoy!

 

Maine Senior Portraits

I had so much fun photographing Leanna’s senior pictures this weekend. She was such a good sport as we ventured in and around and all around the town in the search for cool and unique shooting spots. She even let me experiment with a few props!

It is no secret that I follow the Go{4}Pro photography blog and last week they had a guest blogger, Angela Richardson. Angela’s guest blog was mostly about how to incorporate props into your images (tastefully). I don’t mean stuffed animals or fake flower arrangements, we are talking about antique chairs, headbands, hats, even a chandelier or two. If you are having a hard time envisioning what I am typing about, check out her web-site here.

After reading her guest posts it inspired me to try using a prop or two in my own shoots. I don’t have an eclectic stash of antique chairs, or vintage hats or headbands, but I have a dining room chair. So with a few raised eyebrows from both my husband and Leanna, I hauled it down a flight of stairs and I threw it in the car and with a reassuring glance, told her not to worry...all the while I was thinking, what the heck are you going to do with this thing!!

Once we got shooting it all sort of fell into place. Here are a few of my favorite images from our time together. A huge thank you to Leanna for being such a good model and for giving the chair a shot – I hope you love these images as much as I do.

Wait for it.... another prop!

We found this pitch fork in the garden while walking to these sunflowers.

I love how just the small element of the handle showing and the way she is holding it,

changes the feel of the image.

At the end of our shoot Leanna boyfriend showed up. I knew she wanted some pictures of the two of them, so I ceased the opportunity to try out yet another style I have been wanting to try... silhouetting.

Not bad for my first try!

Banana Snacky Thingys

For anyone who has ever had a baby, heck if you have ever babysat a baby, you know things can go from good to bad or clean to disaster in the amount of time it takes you to switch the laundry from the washer to the dryer.

This happened to me yesterday, I was in the midst of cooking supper, doing laundry, and trying to catch the weather man's bit about the upcoming Hurricane, when I heard my washer shut off. Baby E was toddling around, the hamburg was just starting to brown, and the water was not quite ready for my pasta, so I darted to the bathroom/laundry room to switch over the load. I was gone for mayyyybe all of 1 minute 16 seconds and when I came back to the kitchen this is what I saw:

A trail... a trail of baby snacks... who could it be?? How could it be?? I was getting closer.

FREEZE! Yes, I was on top of the counter when I took this picture and yes I am 87% she was taking mental notes on how I hoisted myself up there.

At first I was a little mad, I mean, those snacks and their crumbs were everywhere and with the amount of snacks scattered, I am pretty sure this was a brand new container. But luckily, she agreed to help with the clean up.

Annnnd managed to sneak in a couple bites here and there.

I said at first I was mad, but then I saw her little face and saw the drawer she took the snacks out of still half open. All I could image was what must have been going on in that little head when she saw me leave the room. "Oh, Oh, Mom is gone, where are those banana snacky things, oh they are in here, can I open the drawer? Oh I can, Owww man they are at the bottom. If I get on my tippy toes, yeah those are toes, I think they are toes, I bet I can get them. YAY I can get them! Now how do I open them, ahhh like this! Mmmm there are so many in here, whoops I just dumped them out, ught ooo I hear my Mom coming, look cute and she won't be mad."

Happy Wednesday!