Breathing new life

Into this blog ! I know I know Ive been blog slacker...but I HAVE been extremely busy with life, church, etc. I've had quite a few photo ops recently but none more important that this... My church, New Horizon, sponsored a Feed The Children food drop that fed over 300 families in the surrounding area. I just do not have the words to express how moving and humbling this experience was. I am so blessed to have been a part of this.

Leah Rade, our community pastor, summed it up beautifully.."I Love Math !!! What does 15,000 lbs. of food & toiletries + 400 lbs. of bar-b-que + 1500 stuffed animals + 300 children's books + 400 breakfast biscuits + 300 bunches of flowers + 350 cups of hot chocolate + 75 awesome volunteers...equal?
310 families in Durham and Orange County will not go hungry today!!

Barn party shoot

My friend Sandra at www.overthetopfarm.com made a few changes at her farm recently and as a result, she had an open house. She asked me to photograph the event. What fun ! Her mom and I got the food already and then I got busy taking photographs. She had a great turn out and I got some awesome pics.

Walk in the woods

Two saturdays ago, I got up and took myself to Occoneechee Mountain in Hillsborough. Its funny, I grew up in this area and never knew about this, how can that be? During my hike I went to the peak but I was unable to find a clear lookout. Last night at community group (www.Newhorizonchurch.tv) one of the women was talking about hiking and told me where the trail was that leads to a lookout. We are planning a hike there soon ! yay !

When I was coming down I did run into this. I love love the glory of fall when she shows all her colors.

Funkytown/lost my mojo/ or another why I havent written lately

Wow what a couple of months. Been a few ups and downs. Some of which left me in quite the funk. HOWEVER Before I hit funkytown I had an awesome visit in Minnesota with my friend Desi. I usually go there about once a year and last years visit was very hard and sad as thats when her mother passed. This years visit was quite the opposite we were both in a good space and I havent laughed so much or felt so loved by her and her friends and family ever.


I really got my redneck on when we went "up north" this trip which included going to stock car races (Ryans nephew was racing for the 2nd time in his life he did awesome !), huge bonfires, lots of alcohol, riding a 4wheeler, shooting hoops (with a PURPLE !!!! basketball OMG I WANT ONE, and lets not mention that its been a really long time lol) and swimming in the pit!

I have tons of pictures but my fav is the pit where we went swimming in the pit. You had to jump off the side to get in, and it took me a while and after a few words of encouragement (thank you Melinda for your words and Ryan for your safety net) I was able to jump in. Wow ! Here is a picture of Ryan jumping off the cliff:




Later on Ryan couldnt believe I was my age lol and thought I did a hell of a job keeping up with the youngsters that they are ! (late 20s).

Back in Minneapolis Desi and I went to japanese gardens and I got some lovely shots there.



I havent picked up the camera since I got home. Whats up with that? Im hoping that the fact that its finally not 500 degrees outside and my fav season, Autumn, I feel inspired again to create some magic with my camera.

Its hip to be square

Ive been busy lately ! I am trying to get geared up for my floral shop stuff and Im stuck on baby pictures...I need something (well pictures ! lol) that represents "baby" for that section of the floral shop. For that matter Im also trying to figure what represents funeral and wedding, in terms of photos for the walls that will also be for sale... any ideas would be greatly appreciated ! lol

In the meantime, I had this photo printed today, in 12 x 12 ! Its only my second attempt at a square photo.. I ll be curious tomorrow when I pick up the print how I like it.

Hair today...

So Saturday, my sister finally talked me into getting my hair cut by Preston, her hair dude thats cut her hair for the last 13 years. Its about a 25 min drive away and I always thought she was nuts for driving that for a hair cut ! It was about 100 degrees out and my hair was looking pretty bad so I decided to go for it.

WOW what an experience ! We get there and the music is cranking (93.9 was really jammin) . Everyone looks happy and im thinking well ok. There were some women who were older that I was who were in various stages of getting their hair did so I figured I would live. One of his clients came in and brought him a bottle of wine (cold !) so we opened that and started sipping some wine while we waited (and danced around lol)

My sister went first and I pulled out my camera and took a few pics: The first is Preston saying TAKE THE PICTURE ALREADY

Dont ya just LOVE his smocks !?!?

And here he is doing the fluff the back of the hair dance


Amazingly enough my hair turned out GREAT and I had a very fun afternoon. Cant wait to go back !

edited to add: I tried taking my own picture to show my haircut but they really sucked. I ll try to get one posted soon :)

puppy chronicles

or affectionally called puppeth and a variety of other names !

I was home this week and so the puppy took naps out of crate, he made himself a new bed ! Man, they sure dont make beds like they used to !