Few and far between

Since we've taken on the task of replacing nearly 1,200 square feet of carpet with wood flooring it's been BUSY at our house. Well, busy and dusty. But, now that the job is nearly complete and the stacks of flooring are getting smaller I'm starting to feel like this project will be complete before the summer. At least the floors will be done, the baseboards I talked James into doing- the big, fat pretty ones- are going to drive us up a wall with how hard they are to get looking good on some of the crazy angles in our house. Ah well, the end result will be worth it, I'm sure.

All of the flooring work has meant Kinsley spending more time with my sister so we can get a few more hours of work in on the floors during the weekend. Here's the most recent picture of my gal, my love, the one who sang us Itsy Bitsy Spider and the Baby Bumblebee song tonight (a first at 28 months! She refused to sing before now, too shy). She went to the ranch on Sunday to get some time outside in the wonderful weather. And look, Maddie-licious is walking!

Gratitude

"Let us rise up and be thankful, for if we didn't learn a lot today, at least we learned a little, and if we didn't learn a little, at least we didn't get sick, and if we got sick, at least we didn't die; so, let us all be thankful."- Buddha

I've been doing some thinking (and unthinking) between the busy moments these last few weeks. I find that in the whir and buzz of daily life I've forgotten to breathe and give myself time to just be present. In the unthinking moments I've realized very clearly that I've been caught up in doing and not caught up enough in enjoying and being grateful for all that I have in my wonderful life. It's not about being happy after I've achieved something more because I have all I could want right now.

A few weeks ago I came home convinced moving back to Texas was the worst decision James and I have made to date. It was a woeful pity party on the couch in which my anger and resentment continued to grow because I was so unhappy with daily life and everything was beginning to pile up with the floors in a state of disarray, wanting more out of my professional life, wanting more for James, trying to keep up with Kinsley's extracurricular activies and her being sick.. there was so much energy focused on being unhappy I was unable to realize how blessed we are. In a way I'm grateful for those moments on the couch because what realize now is I needed those moments to remind myself that I'm right where I belong and at the end of the day my biggest concerns pale in comparison to more grave concerns and I should be thankful for that.

Sheesh, kitchen sinks are versitile-

1/800 since it's a little hard to see, had to play with the curves to get it to show

testing shutter speed in our kitchen sink (not including pictures of the strange looks from the girl).

Don't mind me!

Just playing with AP at the kitchen table! All three were taken on my kitchen table and shot at 1.4, 3.2, and 5.6. This little exercise makes me love my 50mm 1.4 lens even more than I already did.

POTD January 19, 2008

Helping Daddy make risotto.

50 mm @ 2.2, 1/125, 800 iso- adjusted curves, upped the contrast, resized to 5x7. Is it totally obvious two days with a sick kiddo has taken all of my energy? LOL, I'm just glad to have my healthy, happy girl back!

Valentine's Day Ideas

I went to Target yesterday at lunch and found they have adorable mailboxes in the dollar spot. I'm going to count up how many children are in K's class and figure if I can go that route or if I'll do little bags. I saw this recipe on Parents and I think I may have to make them, who doesn't like sugar cookies and candy?

And I'm contemplating joinging in on "Time to Make the Doughnuts" event. I've been wanting to make doughtnuts and what better excuse than a doughnut event?

POTD January 16, 2008

Here is the original and then after I played with it. I ran Ren's Soda Lite action on the photo, reduced the opacity on the light layer and upped the contrast a bit. Then I resized to 5x7. I hated that I couldn't get one full length of her running so I cropped what little of her shins I got in the original. Opinions?

POTD January 15, 2008

This is our eldest dog, Hatcher Bear, our first Weimaraner (we have him, the grey, and a blue female). I was playing around with f stops on my 50mm 1.4 and since it was dim inside I went pretty low. Looking at it now I think I need to try again and go up more so I can get more of his full face in focus, not just his eyes.

POTD January 11, 2008

My older sister, my only sister, Harvest. We may have had our fights growing up and in many things we are as different as night and day, but when I see her with her daughter everything in me is proud to call her my sister.

50mm, f/8, iso 400, 1/400

POTD January 10, 2008

James, my husband, usually picks Kinsley up after work so I have about 10-15 minutes to get our three dogs taken care of and shake work off before they get home. It's nice, it's exactly what I need after a day at the office. I got home a little early today so I got out my camera and snapped a few shots of my two favorite people walking in the door. I think my next focus will be on getting taller (somehow I think this might not be possible!) or learning how to take a picture of a 6'8" man. I forget how tall he is until I take a photo and realize I look up his nose a lot. This was the best out of all of them and it's because I have him squatting down a little. Good thing he thinks I'm so wonderful and doesn't mind any of my "could you just get a tiny bit shorter, no don't lean, can you squat?" requests.

XTi, 50mm, 1.4, 1/50 corrected in PS for tungsten lighting issues, I think my house glows orange! Maybe I should "focus on WB in 2008" lol.

Regarding Caldrea

I got hooked after smelling Caldrea products at Central Market recently. I hate odd or fake smelling cleaning products and while I still have some in the house I won't buy more now. Last night, during shooting the picture below I moved everything off the kitchen counters, scrubbed with a mix of the all-purpose cleaner and warm water, and oh, the smell was like heaven! Even better, it wasn't like I had to use a ton or had to scrub to really get anything off the stove- it came up like magic. I scrubbed the lower cabinets and the appliances as well. Sparkling. We have a semi-open floor plan in our house and it made the whole living room smell good. I am just a FlyBaby now, but I have a feeling this is going to be good for our house.

I know it's all natural, not sure if it's organic, but it's not tested on animals and I love that.

Oh, and you can buy it online at their site or drugstore.com and probably others. I bought through drugstore.com because if you have a mypoints or Upromise account you can get points of 3% back into your account. Can't beat that (especially when it can be a little spendy).

POTD January 9, 2008

Here's my newest "Focusing on 2008" picture. I'm putting more focus on things that make me happy. One of them is a clean home. I love my Caldrea too. It makes any job I have easier because one whif of Ginger Pomelo and it doesn't seem like such a chore.

I will admit, I am not all that fond of this picture. It was already dark outside and the lighting in the kitchen is awful. I adjusted the curves but it came out so gold.

50mm 2.0, 1/100

POTD- Focus in 2008

My focus this year is on being a wife and mother. My husband and I keep throwing around the idea of expanding our family later next year, closer to when our daughter turns three but I'm still not convinced if it's the right time. So this year I'm going to focus on us as a family and being a mom and trying to decide if it's time to expand or if three is the perfect amount for our family for another few years.

I adjusted the curves and also used Teya's Clean Convert action.

Hats off to 2007

I'm a little late but here is my niece, the littlest Stars fan in the family.

Last wreath hanging

*updated to add- thanks for the comments! It's an "icicle" wreath I got from Michaels a few years ago. I just got really close to the icy beads.

Happy New Year

Only four days late. I'm still trying to catch up from having over a week off work. I'm starting to compile all of our info for taxes. I think I may use Turbo Tax and do them at home. I'm a Quicken freak so I think that may help. At a minimum I got one of those "try it for free" deals so I onyl have to pay if I decide to print the forms out. May as well see what the damage is this year and brace ourselces rather than crossing our fingers under the table.

Martha, of course, has another fabulous month of organization ideas. I'm slightly excited about the possibilites. Perhaps I can convince the man to build me something. Oh, and thinking about that makes me think of childproofing. We're having such a hard time figuring out what we can do upstairs that will make it so Kinsley can't fling herself or anything else through the cut outs in the wall that look down into the living room. It has to be sturdy, obviously, and I'd rather not spend tons of money on it. I know, that's a huge request.

I haven't said it yet this year but I love my camera. Kinsley and Madeline, my niece, are below.