Trash to Treasure

It's been awhile since I posted a trash to treasure so here's what I've (thanks to John for helping me with the dangerous part) been working on for a little Valentine's day decor

Full Moon

Tonight was the full moon and as we were driving home from Lynn and Jesse's I saw this church with the moon shining so bright behind it and asked very nicely for him to turn around..... "OMG TURN AROUND" yep that's how nicely I asked, and he did. :)

Now getting the photo was another story, the church was so tall and there was a house in the way so I would be like a peeping tom if I backed up far enough to get the full church so I laid in their driveway (yep laid down, not even kidding) with my tri-pod leaning back on me just so I could hold it still enough. Totally worth it.

Here is the color version

Missing Teeth

Our Miss El is beginning to loose teeth faster than she can grow new ones. I have a story for you, her mother doesn't find it very amusing but I do. El is getting some papers back for re-do, not finishing her work, lots wrong, in too much of a hurry...... Shan asked her what was going on in school that this was happening. She says "I miss my grandma so much, I can't concentrate"..... that's my girl!!!

So they came to visit, not that Shan wanted to give into her silliness. I on the other hand think I was having a hard time concentrating too since I hadn't seen my Miss El or Garrett-Man in a while. :) Here is the photo of 2 gone and 2 more really wiggly.

Inside the Bag

Okay girls you asked.... here is the inside of the camera bag. I have to figure out how to arrange the dividers but everything is so cozy and comfy in there no matter how you do it. The bag looks wide in the photo but when you zip it it's no bigger than a purse..... of course bigger than any purse I have ever had in my life.

Now the question is how did I take a photo of the inside of my camera bag when my camera is in the bag...... that some creative photoshopping!! Okay, it's my 2nd camera, 1st SLR, that I still have, I have my first camera a 35mm too, they have taken up residency on my closet shelf. I'm on my 4th camera and dream of a 5th.

Triple Play Tuesday

Tuesday's have been Self-Portrait Tuesday, Photoshop Tuesday and now Happy Tuesday, tonight you get all three. I got a fun present in the mail and had to fill it up on my lunch hour. I got a new camera bag, my old bag could not zip anymore so when I would take my camera with me I flung it over my shoulder and hoped nothing would fall out. Most days I just took the camera and a spare lens with no bag, it was easier. Now this bag I can fit my camera, my lens, my external flash, my manual, a pen, notebook, filters, cleaning cloth, note cards, my lunch, a bottle of water and zip it with room to spare.

Here is Self Portrait Happy Tuesday

And for a Triple Play here is a fun artistic Photoshop version of the same photo

I was on the waiting list for this bag for about the last month, I got an e-mail that they were again in stock, I ordered it and they were sold out within 1 hour of the e-mail. It is fantastic and I'm so glad I responded as quickly as I did, gotta love that Internet shopping. :)

Green and Blue

Love the reflection on the table.

New Snow

Our snow was a melting and actually getting really brown and gross with all the warmer weather. This morning we got a fresh coat of white heavy snow to brighten things up again.

Thank you for all your prayers for Jesse, Lynn and Mallory, they have some good news. It's been a long couple weeks for them. You can read their updates here. Thank you again for all your prayers.

Hearts

My sister Starla and I made these hearts with Adam one year when he was like 5. They were a Martha Stewart thing and we wanted to try it. I still have them and put them up in our windows every year. I'm not sure why the girls didn't do this with us....

Color

I love the HGTV show "Color Something", it used to be called "Get Color". She designs a color wheel with all their favorite things and lets them pick their paint colors based on the color wheel. I did this when painting my kitchen and it was so much fun and by using the color wheel I painted my kitchen a color a don't even like, Eggplant Purple. But since I had green already on the floor and counter tops, purple is the neighbor to green and they look great together. I've since learned to like purple, must be dark like eggplant though.

I'm not ready to do any painting yet in the house but I wanted to snap a few pictures with some fun colors so I did the color wheel again and got lots of great color coordinating photos. Here are two of my many favorites.

I did have them all laid out in a color wheel circle but had to stand on top of the table to get everything in the photo so I smashed it all together. My eye goes right for the green area and then the aqua. I did a color personality test and my results were..... I like color that come from nature, I enjoy looking at the colors from walks in the woods and on the beach. My colors are green, blue and brown.

Sunflare and Margaritas

Gotta love sunflare and Margarita Slush..... John informed me tonight that I have drank an entire bucket in one week. I had some help don't believe everything he says.... not much help but some and there's still some in the bucket, not much but some. Kinda like putting the bucket of ice cream back with about 1 scoop left in it... and then wondering who did that when someone else finds it. I never do that :)

I can't help it, sunflare makes me want to enjoy a summer drink.

So since I didn't take a picture of my slush you get to see the sunflare and make your own Margarita slush and drink the whole bucket by next week. Deal?

Miss Mallory

When you're this darn cute it doesn't matter how many sweet potatoes you have on your face.

Happy Lights

I love candles, I could light them every night and I have enough of them to do that.

I do have favorite candles like Yankee Candle "Midsummer Night", or now a new favorite is the WoodWick Candle "Fireside". They pop and crackel just like burning wood and they smell great. I got my first one as a gift from a friend when I left my job, I've since searched high and low for where I could get them.... yep I found em' and have another one. The photo is of my red t-lights they make me happy for Happy Tuesday.

Step Back Monday

The weekend had me taking tons of macro shots of the frost but I remembered my step back Monday and took a few from a distance, here is one of my favorites.

I don't ask this often but I am going to ask you to keep our son-in-law Jesse, along with Lynn and Mallory in your prayers. My motherly instincts has no idea what to do for them besides pray. Right now all we can do is wait for the next step. You can read her story here.

White and Black

Working on getting my whites white and my blacks black SOOC..... This is SOOC, I can't believe that I used to let my camera decide what white was.

First flight into the real world

So we moved the young one out today. Geeze boys are so different than girls..... my girls had boxes packed, lists written, times set, and we knew what was going on, this one.... is soooooo different. I don't want them to all be the same but some organization would be nice. We got him moved out and his apartment looks as if he will have all the comforts of home just like the girls did. Seeing where they will live and making sure the sinks, floors and toilets are clean makes all the difference in the world. Now I'm sure they won't stay that way for long but at least I know it's not someone else's mess. Now the big bedroom is once again empty..... this is the 3rd..... or 4th..... or 5th time (Shannon liked to come back a few times). So far only wet eyes, no falling tears but that might happen this week when I have to clean up that room..... oh boy you can't even imagine.

I love my kids more than anything on earth, however we didn't raise them to live with us forever (but they could :) ) so when they move out and make their own life we have done our job. They all have made us very proud.


We love you Adam and I hope school this semester goes well for you without the long drive or not having to get up so dog-gone early in the morning.

Frigid Friday

What's better than having a afternoon drive home with a camera and then supper with Lynn, Jesse and Miss Mallory. Had a great time with them and watching Mally become the baby with 16 arms..... put a plate of Mexican in front of that girl and she's all hands. Sorry sweetie it's chicken noodle and sweet potatoes for you!!

The weather has been warmer in temperature but feels more damp and cold but makes for fabulous photos.

Frosty Winter Day

Today was beautiful outside.
How can you not love the winter months when they are sprinkled with beauty.

Favorite Skaters

Sneak peek for my two favorite frozen skaters. Good luck on Saturday.

Happy Brain

I like to use the right side of my brain, especially when the left side is tired. Back in High School my right side brain would have painted this photo.... now I have to rely on the camera and Photoshop. Which brings me to the Happy Tuesday, I am happy when using the Right Side of my brain. The other day Lynn and I walked through the art supplies at Micheals. Her and I could have looked and felt the paint brushes for hours and then we got to the oil paints..... Oh boy the heart skipped a beat. I want to paint so badly when I'm in that aisle, don't even open the oil paint and smell it..... it's all down hill from there. I haven't been able to shake the painting itch since that day so let's just paint a picture with my camera and photoshop.

Step Back Monday

So this shot isn't really step back material but normally I would have used a shallow depth of field (blurry background) but I wanted to show alllllllll the flowers that I didn't cut down before they were covered with snow. Birds have to eat something in the winter time, now I'll have twice as many of these buggers to throw away in the spring. My garden gets one seed dropped on it and 50 plants grow.

Beautiful Site

What a beautiful site. Looks like it came right out of Wyoming or Montana......

Okay so I drove my truck about 2 miles down the backroad. I love the smoke coming from the house above the trees on the top right and then more smoke coming from something about halfway down the right side between the trees. Those levels make it look like your in the mountains.

Red Berries

I love my red door and windows.... I'm so glad that we went with them, especially in the winter.

Fridgid Friday

Tired of this cold yet?



I am

More snow and Red Bull

Today I traveled with Adam to take care of 2nd semester stuff and to sign for his apartment. Yep, he's moving out this weekend. Even through this kid is never home I'm going to miss our talks when he gets home, after we're already in bed and he likes to jabber about everything.

His first semester was 18 credits/ work and driving back and forth. Now this semester he starts very early and gets done even later so adding drive time to that would be crazy, especially in the winter. During our drive home we seen many cars in the ditch from the black ice that we were driving on. We also seen a Red Bull Truck that had flipped over on it's side and when they flipped it back over the door gave way and Red Bull cans were everywhere. Adam wanted to stop and pick it up, I wanted to stop and take a picture..... we didn't do either since it probably wasn't the safest thing to do for either of us. It took forever to get home..... a pretty clear reminder that even though I will miss him during the week it is better for all of us.

I may not have stopped while on the highway but the back roads were a different story.

Busy

No time for new photos, I have had a very busy week so you'll have to look at the same cup of cocoa except with a different perspective.

winter is suppose to be a not so busy time of year....
kids leaving the house should give you more time....
yeah right don't believe it.

Happy Tuesday

So Tuesday's have brought me from Self-Portrait Tuesday to Photoshop Tuesday and now



Lynn thinks I should take picture of John every Tuesday...... hee hee hee

how about Happy Tuesday? I will post item that make me happy, in today's world as the news and jobs concentrate on the bad things or the negative we need to keep the things that make us happy at the top of our list.

To start out the 1st item of what makes me happy was suppose to be a bottle of Mt Dew, I seriously love my soda it's what makes me happy every morning, it completes my day no matter what happens..... It's my drink of choice. John now sneaks out of the house on the weekends and brings me home a bottle of Mt Dew, the best gift ever. So I tried to take a picture of my Mt Dew bottle..... not very interesting so Sunday afternoon I had a cup of Hot Cocoa with a Candy Cane and that's a second favorite and make me happy and also makes a much better photo..... I also put in Buttershots thanks to my friend L. :)

Happy Tuesday Hot Cocoa on a below zero day, with a kick!!

Step Back Monday

One of my photography improvement goals I have for 2010 is to take a step back and look at the whole picture. Sometimes a wider view tells more of the story and I seem to focus too much on the up close.

I will try to take Monday's to take a step back and look at the bigger picture.

Here is my tree that I love to photography, it stands alone on a slight hill. I like the look of it because it is all alone so I decided to step back and get the loneliness of it, it's also taken from the east/west road, I normally see it from the north/south road.

More bokeh

Gotta love being different, and it taste good too.

Ornament Mission Accomplished

The next little monsters came to visit today and they brought back their ornaments.... their mommy is so smart.

Here is Miss El with her "BLUE" cupcake. Her favorite color is blue and has a hard time with all the pink clothes that I buy her. She is wearing a blue sweatshirt, blue hairband, and blue earrings to match her ornament....

Here is Mr Garrett-Man, now he is the difficult one to take a picture of. I put him on the steps since I knew he was afraid to get down himself. He loves his ornament, he walks around with it all day, it almost took over the toothbrush but not quite the toothbrush came out later.

Mally Ornament and Doctor Visit

Every year I get the grandkids an ornament and then they have to have their pictures taken with the new ornament so after 18 years I can make them a book with all their special ornaments from Grandma and Grandpa. Sounds like an easy project and it was when it was only Elly and she lived with us... now that we've added two more the taking pictures of the ornament has become difficult. Too much stuff going on, too many presents, too many fun toys to play with. I totally forgot to take their pictures on Christmas so now I'll have to chase them down before the ornaments are put away. I got Mallory's taken, of course she wanted to eat it. Lynn and I have decided that Mallory's 1st Christmas is the year of ugly ornaments.... It took me forever to find anything worth buying this year..... I didn't even buy any for Lynn, Shan or Adam, I didn't think they would even notice but they did. Those ornament creators better sit back at the drawing tables and maybe by December they'll have something worth selling for 2010.

Lynn and I took Mallory to the doctor on Thursday afternoon. Mallory is really starting to know me and loves to stare at me just like she does to her mommy and daddy. Her and I bonded while we shopped before her appointment, then the doctor came in and she was scared of her so I comforted her while Lynn and the doc talked about Mallory stuff. She had a great appointment and then it was shots time.... I did this with 3 kids so it's no big deal right? Okay so two nurses come in and Lynn distracts Mally while I hold one of her hands. The nurses stab her, bandage her and run from the room. Mally is screaming, eyes closed, trembling, red face mouth open and Grandma has tears welling up in her eyes. Lynn is comforting her and talking to her to calm her down and take a breath. Mally finally stops crying so hard that her eyes can finally open, she looks at me and gets those grumpy eyebrows and screams...... she thinks I did it!! She will now not even come to me, I tried to talk to her and she turns her head. Those dang nurses no wonder they ran out of the room. Here is Mallory in her carseat while we waited for Mom to get back in the truck, this is before the appointment, she still like me then.

We walked through the store and people would stare at her, they would comment about the pretty baby. People love babies and they can't help but smile when the pretty baby wears a bright white hat with a big pink flower on it. :) She can stop growing right now, I love this age.