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 !

"pottery sale today"

My friend Lainie and I were out and about on Saturday, we had some definite errands to run but both of us spied a "pottery sale today" sign about the same time and went HMMMMMMMMMMMM. So after of our scheduled stops, off we went to find this sale. We drove and drove and drove down a pretty country road, but no pottery sale signs. I finally said well it mustve been LAST weekend or something ! We started looking for a place to turn around and another "pottery sale today" sign was spotted ! We happily turned in... it was a winding dirt road, in fact so winding that I started humming the banjo song to deliverance. Finally we spotted a garden, guarded by a nice post top













We got out to see that he was also guarding some tasty raspberries










Then we spotted a nice metal flower in the woods














Our next site was the LOVELY pottery studio ! Oh it was so cute ! I was just in love with the building. The potter was there, Cora Willow, who was renting the space from a friend. I think shes done a wonderful job with the place, not to mention I loved her pottery.








I bought this piece, it was a second but I still liked it. I also bought another piece but I cant post it here, because its a gift for my sister and she will read my blog :)

Wings

As parents, God entrusts us with these little beings that we are to nuture and grow and then let go. Even with the ups and downs of life with children, nothing prepared me for this moment in time....




The contrast of emotions is striking, so happy to see the accomplishment while the knife goes through the heart to know that its more than a baby step; that she truly is out in the world now.



As been said, the days are long but the years fly by...

home invasion cont'd

After a LONG day of graduation festivities (more on that later), I was cleaning out the fridge to make room for cake, took out the pizza box and also apparently dropped a carrot (he kept trying to eat it and kept spitting it out lol). I turned around and this is what I saw (sorry for the blurry nature of the pic, I was in a hurry before the terrorist moved)

HOT HOT HOT

MAN ! This record heat (100+) is absolutely killing me ! I never thought that hearing that the highs later in the week will be in the lower 90s would sound good, but I cant wait lol

Inspite of the opressiveness of the temps, I did manage to snap a few pics, I was playing around with one of them and cant decide if I like this effect or not.





These I am planning on redoing the shoot when I can get there in the morning or later in the evening when the sun isnt so direct. This is quite a striking patch of cactus ! (or is that cacti?

home invasion (or why I havent posted much lately)

Wow its almost June ! But not quite so at least Im posting in the month of the May, we dont have to mention how long its been since my last post....

Lots of news ! In mid April I attended a meditative photography workshop and it was SO amazing. I learned so much ! It turned out some other folks didnt show and I got 2 on 1 instruction. I left there with a good appreciation of my craft, with compliments about my abilities and a chance to work with Paul on some horse portraits. Im so jazzed !

Now, on to explaining the blog title, THIS is why lately Ive been so busy !




O M G I forgot !! I forgot how much work this is ! I forgot how much POOP this is ! But I also forgot how much fun it is. I dont know who came up with the rule, but I think its true, once you have a baby (of any species) in the house, you always have to have a baby in the house! Since MY baby is graduating highschool in 2 weeks, I guess it was tim eto add another one. At least I dont have to send THIS one to college !

April !

Ahh April , Spring , My birthday month ! Time to take stock. Most folks do that over New Year's I think, but generally I'm so wiped out from the holidays that by the time New Year's gets here I cannot form a coherent thought. Lately I've been using my birthday as a time for reflection, goals, hopes, dreams etc. Regarding this past year, I think I have grown by leaps and bounds actually ! While I know the inner work can only be done by the person themselves, I can say that my new found sense of self had a lot of help along the way. My friend Desi turned me on to a WONDERFUL blog http://www.happiness-project.com/happiness_project/ and I cannot begin to tell you what a difference this has made in my journey. I also have a bedside full of books, some that I finished, some that I didnt, some I just read and some I highlighted. What's interesting about highlighting is looking back later, sometimes I look back and I've nearly highlighted the entire book lol

It's just the first of April so I am beginning to compile my lists. There will be more on that on a later post.

Here is my latest photo, I am so happy ! Ive been trying to capture this particular piece of nature for a while now. Enjoy !

My latest photo

I picked daffodils at my moms last weekend and ofcourse I took pictures :)

Welcome !

My visions for this blog is that it helps me overcome the "I dont have anything interesting to say" voice in my head that likes to rear its ugly talk just when I click compose.

This blog will contain a smattering of my photography, my spiritual journey and my life.

I hope you enjoy the glimpse of this woman.

Taking a deep breath and clicking the ominous orange button....