Memories, Dreams and Reflections...

Life for me has been a whirlwind since the beginning of the year. We closed on our house and we moved; I have been packing and unpacking boxes; and then I lost my job, so I am job hunting non-stop. Needless to say, my mind cannot stop going. Today, my dear, sweet husband has asked me to take a break from things and try to relax. This is just not in my vocabulary, but I am giving it an honest try for the rest of the day. It has given me a good chance to FINALLY post all my pictures for the Memories, Dreams and Reflections Challenge that Ashley Sisk hosted. Better late, than never right?

Me!

So here I am. I took this image one day before I started work, just messing around with my camera phone. Isn't it amazing the pictures you can get with those things these days?

I Love You

This is my husband doing what he loves - fishing. I took this picture when we were on our summer vacation to my house on Banker's Lake in Michigan. I am afraid he doesn't really look much like this anymore, since he is now sporting a set of chops on his face. I have yet to get a good picture of him with them, but I will one of these days.

Still Laughing...

Here is Little Ladybug on her birthday. Once she opened this bear, she would not stop jumping on it and loving it. She was very possessive over her new friend. Looking at this picture just makes me laugh remembering how she reacted to him.

Winter Wonderland

We have had a lot of snow here in NC this past year. It is crazy when you think about it. As I am sitting her typing this, Miss A is off school on a "snow day." This picture is from the snowfall that occurred mid-February.

Birthday

There were many fun birthday memories this year, but this is one of my favorite birthday pictures. I just love how Booger's cheeks are all puffed blowing out his candles and if you look in the background you can see his friends all helping him too :)

Friends

A friend of mine is getting married this May at Childress Vineyards in Lexington, NC. This past May we all took a trip there to do a wine tasting and just tour the grounds. This is a picture of her and her bridemaids that I took. They have all been friends forever and I just love how it turned out. I will always remember the day and the fun we had.

I Was Inspired...

Little Ladybug always inspires me. She is just too cute and smiles come so easy.

Spring Fever



Travel or Vacation

This summer while we were at Banker's Lake Miss A learned how to kneeboard! I was so proud of her. I must of snapped a dozen pictures of her while she was out there riding around the lake. I know it doesn't look like she is having a fun time, but I swear she was!

Summer Days

Living in the middle of NC, we are pretty close to the ocean which makes day trips pretty easy. After a day at the aquarium, we stopped at the beach so Miss A could play in the sand a bit before we started our trek home.

A Day In My Life

I've shared this picture before. This used to be a daily thing for Mr. Miso and I. I would put on my makeup as I got ready for work and he would sit on the sink and watch me. Unfortunately, the sink at house is not nearly as big, so he no longer is able to sit there and watch me.

All Smiles

This is Miss A's real smile. It is hard to capture it most days, as she is in the "I don't like my picture being taken" stage of her life.

Autumn Harvest

The leaves on the trees took a long time to change colors this year, so I couldn't get any really good pictures of Miss A with the pretty colors in the background. If you look real hard you can see the colors reflecting in the lake.

Family

This is my grandma and Aunt Nina. They are two of the most influential women in my life. They are so strong and wonderful. I wish they lived closer to us...

Celebrate!

My SIL and her fiance got married this year! It was a small, but sweet ceremony. This is one of the pictures that I captured right after they were announced husband and wife. They are just too cute together.

Let's Do It Again... & I Miss You

My mom turned 50 this past year and my sister and I threw her a "surprise" party. The largest surprise of them all was that her three sisters all flew down from up north to celebrate with us. Because the family is all in separate states now, it is very rare that we are all in the same place at the same time. It is super hard because at one time we all seen each other weekly. I know that picture isn't the best, but you can just tell from the smiles on everyone's faces what a great time we were having...

Beautiful & Dress Up

Another one of Little Ladybug. This is her all dressed up before her dedication at church. My little muse...

Macro


Holidays

The only Christmas shot I got of Miss A this year. It is kinda sad when I think about it. That partly has to do with the fact that we didn't put up a Christmas tree and I wasn't really in the spirit.

My Favorite

This is another shot of my SIL's wedding. It is one of my favorites from that day. I took this as they were walking to the ceremony. They were both so calm and just taking in every moment.

Don't Ever Change

There are certain things of Miss A I would like to change, like the attitude she is developing and the fact that she is an utter slob (she really is), but for the most part I really don't want her to change. I love her just the way she is :)

Just Because...So There!

This is Shadow hiding in one of our moving boxes. And no I didn't Photoshop in her tongue or the fact that our moving boxes were from the ABC store :)

Hopes and Dreams
There are so many hopes and dreams that I have for 2011. Right now the main things on my mind are to find a job and to get our house organized and not have boxes and bags everywhere. If I were to put a lofty dream out there, it would be to upgrade my camera to a Canon, perhaps to a T2i. Like I said, it is a dream... But who knows, maybe by next year at this time I will be posting my first pictures with one???

The Paper Mama Challenge: Family

I was doing so well with my participating in a challenge a week... and then our router broke. And all of a sudden I couldn't get online with my laptop and I was all off balance. But now I am back in business, I think. I just need to get back in the groove.

So my first order of business is to post my picture for The Paper Mama's Weekly Challenge. This week it is to post a picture of your family. This was not an easy task for me to do. I have so many pictures to choose from. Do I go with your typical family shot? Something staged, where everyone is looking at the camera? NOPE! Not even close! In fact if my Aunt Patti finds out that I posted this picture she is likely kill me... hehehe.

This picture is from my mom's 50th birthday party and it just makes me smile when I look at it. My Aunt Patti was teaching Miss A how to do "the bump" as we were all dancing around the living room during the party. I just could not help grabbing my camera and capturing the moment on forever.



For more Family pictures, head on over to The Paper Mama :)

Scavenger Hunt Sunday

It's time for Scavenger Hunt Sunday with Miss Ashley Sisk (sorry, I spelled you name wrong last Sunday Ashely). I almost didn't get my pictures this week because I was down with a migraine all Saturday which is when I planned to go out and snap my pictures. I know, I know, shame on me for putting things off until the last minute, but I was REALLY busy last week with work. Luckily for my mom, sister and I went to the Carolina Christmas Show on Sunday which turned into a WONDERFUL place to capture pictures :) I even got a jump start on the December 2010 Photo Challenge List.

1. In My Home

My MIL gave us this plant when my husband and I moved in together. She started growing it when she got pregnant with my husband. It is called Drunkard's Dream because the the little segments look like little bottles. I can't wait until we move into a house and can give it a space of its own. Right now it is living in my daughter's room because we don't want our kittens to mess with it.

2. It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like....


I almost posted a picture I had of leaves on the ground for this picture, but then it snowed on Saturday and I thought I needed to get a bit more of a Christmas spirit :) This is from the Carolina Christmas Show. There was a little place where a bunch of Christmas trees were displayed and it was hard not to get in the holiday spirit when you seen all of them in one place.

3. Sweet Treat
Okay, you can't exactly eat this sweet treat, but I saw this table scape at the Christmas show and it made me smile. It was a Dr. Seus theme with a center piece full of bubble gum and these mint topiaries with lolly pops! So beautiful! I almost posted a picture of it fully colored, but then decided to do a selected color one. I only wish the lolly pop on the topiary was a colorful one.

4. Time


So my grand idea for time was a table full of watches, but ofcourse there wasn't one. The closest thing I could find at the Christmas show was some watches that were hanging. Bonus points since they aren't all showing the same time?

5. Everyday



Every morning Miso, our little boy kitten, sits on the bathroom counter and watches me as I fix my hair and put on my make up. He has done this since we first got him. He is my little shadow in the morning :)

The Paper Mama Challenge : Black & White

I think I am on a roll with the photo challenges :) Either that or I am just inspired right now. My plans are to try my best to enter one photo challenge or at least post one photo that I have taken a week. Can you all - if there is anyone out there actually reading this blog - try to hold me to this? Hopefully, I will be able to keep this up through 2011 and my photography and composition skills will grow.

So this post is dedicated to The Paper Mama's Weekly Challenge. Her theme for the week is "Black and White." I don't know if I have already said this, but I love turning photos into black and white. I think it makes a good photo really stand out and it can disguise things in a photo that you didn't necessarily like.

This picture is one of my favorites of that I took of Little Ladybug while we were at the Christmas parade. She didn't keep her Minnie Mouse hat on for very long, but she looked so cute while she kept it on!

Be sure to sure head on over The Paper Mama and check out some other stunning Black and White shots from a lot of talented photographers!

November Photo Hunt Challenge

There is a monthly photo hunt challenge that I found thanks to Miss Sisk. She mixes in some of the prompts into her Sunday Scavenger Hunts.

There were 10 different things to photograph for November. I think I got all of them. They may not be my best works, but I accomplished them and that is what I wanted to do. It is an accomplishment, none the less....

1. Home Sweet Home

Okay, so I don't have a picture for this one. I really wanted to put a picture of my husband's feet up. But I never got around to taking one :(

2. Thankful

I am thankful for family. Even if they won't sit still long enough to give me a decent picture. This is a picture of Miss A, my cousin and my sister. They are all goof balls and no matter how many pictures I snapped of them, I could not get one with all of them looking at the me with smiles on their faces! So much for a "Family" picture!

3. Family

Here is some of my family - The family that is that came down for Thanksgiving that is. And really the only way I could get a picture of all of them is when they were sitting down eating. The only other member that was missing was my Aunt Nina who was also taking a picture of the group of us :)

4. I Ate This - Thanksgiving Edition

This is our spread for Thanksgiving. We are not a formal family. We are more a "Come and get it!" family.

5. A Turkey

Here is our turkey on Thanksgiving. This wasn't pretty, but man it was yummy. I almost didn't get a picture because my dad was in a rush to cut it up.

6. Something Hand-Made

This dress was made by Cakelady for Little Ladybug to wear on her 1st birthday. I swear there isn't much that Cakelady can't do! She is super talented!

7. Something Hot

What isn't hotter than some Dunkin Donuts coffee on a cold fall day? And it was yummy too! This is one of camera phone pictures :)

8. Something Cold

This is the infamous Little Ladybug. We were all a bit cold on the morning of the Christmas parade, hence her super cute Minnie Mouse hat! I actually entered this photo into The Paper Mama's Black and White Challenge and she picked it as one of her favorite photos! This is the first pictures I have ever taken that has ever been awarded anything, so I am really happy about that!

9. Something Orange

My "Something Orange" was an orange car featured in the Raleigh Christmas Parade.

10. Anything Goes (Any photo you take in November!)

One of my favorite pictures from this November... Miss A and my grandma playing with some legos during her visit here to NC. It a special moment that am glad I was able to capture on "film."

Scavenger Hunt Sunday

I am not quite sure how I stumbled upon Ashley Sisk's site called Ramblings and Photos, but if you haven't ever seen her photos she is AWESOME! I wish I was as dedicated a photographer as she is... maybe in 2011?!? Each week she puts up a new list of items for people to look for and photograph each week and each week I tell myself I am going to find all the items and photograph them. I have been doing this for over a month now, and you can see how many times I have posted on Sunday with my items... ZERO!!! So this Sunday, even though I am short one item, I am going to post my photos. I blame the fact that my family is down...

1. Black and White

I love turning photos black and white. This photo, however, I must admit I ended up taking with the "black and white" setting on my camera photo. I find that lately, since my phone comes with a "8 mega pixel camera" on it, there are times when I can get away with taking pictures with it and do a bit of minor editing in PhotoShop and actually be pleased with how things turn out. Don't get me wrong, I won't be turning in my DSLR anytime soon, but when I need to snap a quick picture and my phone is handy, I find that it will do the trick.

2. I Ate This


This is another picture from my phone :) Something I ate this week... SUSHI :)

3. Historic

Okay, this is the picture that stumpled me. Let's just pretent that I had picture up here of historic car, which I thought I might of taken at the Christmas Parade (but, obviously I didn't). Or some lovely historic landmark that we took my family by while they were visiting us here in wonderful NC.

4. Off Center



I took this picture of Miss A while we were at her Girl Scout adventure at Umstead State Park. My cousin joined us for the afternoon of cabin clean up and turtle hunting. It was wonderful having her along and Miss A loved being able to spend the extra time with her older cousin.

5. The End



So I had two different pictures lined up for this prompt. One was the end of the Christmas Parade (a.k.a. Santa) and the other, as you can see above, is my chihuahua's bum. Honestly, this one makes me smile more, so this is the one I choose.


Be sure to visit Ashley's site and see what creative picture's others came up with this week :) Oh and she is also hosting a give away for one of her beautiful pictures, so enter for that too!

Love That Shot - Link-Up - Nov 11th

There are so many shots from Little Ladybug's first birthday party that could choose from for this week's Link-Up over at Love That Shot! I took almost 200 pictures that day :) I cannot wait to make some series photos out of her smash cake!

I ended up choosing this picture because of how fascinated Ladybug became with her new teddy bear after she pulled it from the bag. Just look at her face. She has not let anyone near that bear since. She loves her new pal and I LOVE THIS SHOT :)


For more great pictures from talent photographers, head on over to Love That Shot.