On our way back home!

Long time no blog! We have been enjoying our stay here in the midwest, but as my grandma told me last night, all good things must come to an end. Here are a couple of pictures I took yesterday in a field full of yellow flower---weeds! I was disappointed that I took them at the wrong time of day, lightingwise, so they aren't what I was "envisioning" at all. Plus, we were on the side of a busy road and the kids werent wanting to pose, so they were hurried, but I think otherwise, they were fun.

If you look closely, you can see the oldd corn stalks. Its a corn field normally.

(Sorry they are cute off here, flickr always cuts off the end of the photos when I post them on blogger.)

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Lensbaby and New Necklace

I got a lensbaby for my birthday last year and havent gotten it out as much as I had thought I would (and as much as my husband would like). It was kind of initimidating to me and I didnt know as much as I do now (not that I know that much at all now) so I never reached for it.

Today has been kind of an eh day for me. I dont feel like putting all this laundry away or do dishes from lunch (ok and breakfast) and I dont feel like anything else that makes a mess, so I took my camera outside and started shooting pictures of the plants around me. 

While I was outside, I remembered I made this necklace this morning after I got home from errands with the boys and thought how pretty it would be on one of the sunflowers blooming (we have a few now!)

Then I decided to take a deep breath and try the lensbaby again. Its been awhile. Played around with the settings and got this: 

I thought it would be fun to play around with it in photoshop too.

So I still need to work on the focus point (its manual focus) but I think I may be getting the lighting right?! Its a little bit dark still but its a start! Now I am excited to keep working with this lens.

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Baby Cocoon

Last week, whenever I got tired of sewing, I would do random projects here and there. This was one of them:

Yep! Thats Charlie Brown! He's in a knitted baby cocoon for a photography prop. I have seen them on Etsy and love them but are a bit too pricey, so I made my own on a green knifty knitter loom. Score :) I am going to make another with a thicker natural yarn. This was a quick test run.

Thanks Charlie Brown for being such a good spot!

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Don't worry!

What a beautiful day! Spring is in the air! We Arizonians are enjoying not having the heat just quite yet (although we were teased with some last week and I couldn't take it anymore and turned the ac on a couple of days in a row). 

One of the things I really struggle with is worrying. Ugh. Worry.  Money, family issues, health. And you turn on the news, and that never helps.

God is so good to us, though!

Matthew 6:25

 ²⁵"Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? ²⁶Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? ²⁷Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?

 ²⁸"And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. ²⁹Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. ³⁰If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? ³¹So do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' ³²For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. ³³But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. ³⁴Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

One of my favorite flowers are daffodils. There is just something so magical about them.

The other day, I bought two pitiful bunches of daffodils for 1.50 a piece. There were ten in each bunch. They were not stored in water or anything, just cut, bundled and laid in a pile. I thought, "why not." I never buy cut flowers because I prefer them in the pot so they grow grow grow but this was  just too hard to resist. I wanted to see what happened with this sad bunch of daffodils.

I got them home, cut the ends off and stuck them in water, and in just a few hours, they had bloomed. So beautiful!

It's so hard to not worry, because we want to be in control.  But knowing that my God can do something as simple as opening these flowers to show their beauty, I know that I am loved so much more than that. I need to give Him full control. He takes care of everything, even if its not in our time line, even if its not how we want it. He knows best.

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Fun Pictures from Goldfield Mine

Took a little drive to Goldfield Mine today. The boys had never been, and I was hoping there would be a lot of wildflowers in bloom....there weren't, but we had a lot of fun hanging out!







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Life is but a vapor

First off, today was a convicting day. The sermon from church really struck me, and then we went to a memorial service for a coworker of Micah's this afternoon.  He was only 29. 29 is so young, and so unexpected. It really makes  you think about whats going on in your own life and your own heart, because you just don't know when its your time. Time is so much shorter than we think. 

 whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away. James 4:14

...and a picture.... because time really does fly.

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Kitchen Collage

I just wanted to show what I have been working on for a few days now...from an old piece of glass off of our old coffee table into a collaged piece of 5 years of memories displayed on our kitchen wall. I am so glad we saved that glass. It was going to be our new desk but it was too big.

I like how it turned out. It was hard to pick 65 pictures that best described our last 5 years of marriage, but I think I did ok. When we complete our family, I might even be able to add more pictures later on down the road.

What I used:

glass from coffee table (felt so good to reuse!) 

my pictures and printer (so I could customize my own sizes)

modge podge-what a pain on glass!

vinyl "family" but could use rubons and stickers

mirror hangers

(And I have to admit, I was going to go cut some fresh flowers in a little vase and make everything on the table cute and dressed up, but then....I skipped.)

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Cool Photo Find

on Yahoo. My husband sent me this photo this morning and I thought it was so neat, I wanted to share!

Barn and Stars

It looks like a painting. And the stars are wild!

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Michelle's Head Shots

Last week, I was asked to do some headshots for Michelle. I think we got a lot of really great ones! Here are a few (ok, a lot). 

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Testing some headshots on my sister

Last Friday was pretty overcast and I needed to check lighting for some pictures. My beautiful sister let me (didnt have much of a choice...not that she minded :)) take some quick shots of her.

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Camera Strap Cover

I have had my eye on those fun and super cute camera strap covers for awhile, but I just didn't want to shell out the money for one...then I got an idea that surely I could just make one for myself, right? I could have figured out how to sew it and all that, but then I got another idea that I bet someone else had a tutorial and I could just go from there...

Sure enough, I came upon this one....Made By Petchy. I didnt follow it exactly, but it was fun to make. It was also so gratifying to do it myself  (I am an instant gratification gal). I will definitely be making more of these!

PS...this fabric is what I have now used for: a baby sling, a boppy cover, a diaper and wipe case, headbands, a tool organizer and now a camera strap cover (I dont think I am missing anything). Its my favorite fabric ever and I think I have just about used it up. Its got such a fun velvet detailing. Its a pain to work with, as it is slippery, but it always looks nice when it is finished.

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Mmm... Oranges....

My brother in law Matt always says that no where else can you get such good oranges than you get in Arizona. (He should know, he is not only a world traveler, but a former resident of Florida and now resides in California!). I didnt really understand until yesterday (I used to live in Florida), when I picked one right off the tree and ate it. 

Yesterday we had the opportunity to go pick as many oranges as our little hearts desired! Micah's sister got us a nice hook up! I have never had oranges that taste this good and sweet. I am loving it!

Oh I have big plans for these oranges. I am going to make orange marmalade from the ones in the green bag..those are sour oranges. I am going to make orange juice and orange dessert, orange chicken, candied orange and maybe orange sugar too. The possibilities seem endless!...and if anyone in this house gets sick this winter, its not because we didn't have vitamin C!

Right now, I have some orange potpourri on the stove and it smells great! 

orange peels

1 cinnamon stick

cloves (I didnt have whole cloves so I used ground)

Fill with water and simmer.

Great use for the orange peels that we didn't put into the compost!

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2009 Plans/Resolutions

I never like to make resolutions because I can never seem to keep them!

I am planning on working on a few things this coming year. Some of these things are (in no particular order)...

• getting in shape
• eating better as a family
  
• working on and continuing our goals of "being green"
• learning to knit
• getting to know my camera better
  
• drawing closer to God
• working on our finances
• being more thrifty

One thing I am excited to be working on is keeping a book for myself for the whole year. Thoughts I have, stories to tell, events I go through, etc. Along with this will be my picture a day goal. Each day I will take one picture that represents the day, my thoughts, whatever is going on in my head! I am hoping it catches on and it is something I can stick with throughout the years. What a neat thing to be able to look back on as we raise our family and live life!

What kind of resolutions or plans do you have? Do you stick with them? Pin It

I {heart} Christmas Tree Pictures

Early this morning, before the sun was even up, there was a loud crash in the house. I still have not figured out what it was, but I never did go back to sleep after. I woke up with a pretty bad headache too, so I slipped out into the living room. After awhile, I whipped out the camera and played around with my lensbaby lens that I have no clue how to use.

I have a long way to go with photography. Especially with this silly lens. I got a couple of fun shots with it though:

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