31/365

Chances are, if you've seen me in the last month this is what you saw:

 

Well, get used to this look - we still have 11 more months to go!

I am super excited to have made it through the first one though :) Many thanks to all of you who have let me know that you're checking in from time to time to see what I've been up to (and to all of you that haven't let me know, but I just know that you are!) Keep the comments coming... they totally make me keep at it.

So, what's in store for next month? Well, I will be following along with Kelly Willette's "the Joy of Love" e-class. Kelly will be sending daily photography assignments to everyone in the class and I'm sure I will be posting my class photos here for you to see. It's not too late to sign up for this class if you are interested in this sort of thing. And the best part is...it's FREE! Just sign up, get the email assignments and lessons, and follow along. Pretty easy :)

Other things in store for this month are (in no particular order)...my birthday {the BIG 3-0}, a trip to Disney World, Valentine's Day, Ground Hog day, my Dad's birthday, a couple of kiddo friends birthday parties, Extreme Makeover Home Edition (Feb. 20th 7pm) airing the house we built in December, and I'm sure many more things. Fun, fun! Look for more tomorrow ;)

30/365

Home again, home again... I had a wonderful, relaxing weekend in Decatur, but I am happy to be home with my hubby and kiddos. It's always so nice to see them after I've been away for a few days.

One of the best parts of a solo trip is having a quiet, peaceful plan ride without wrestling small children. So today I have cloud pictures for you! I can feel the excitement from you ;) Stay with me here. please.

When I first looked out the window and pulled my camera out this is what I saw.

A nice smooth carpet of white fluffy cool whip! And the bluest sky. Truly peaceful.

Then the clouds started getting a little darker and eventually I saw this.

It may be hard to tell from this picture but there is a dark wall of cloud here. I wondered is it raining directly underneath me? It was just so strange to see this nice white layer of cloud and then a complete drop off and wall of dark cloud. Hmmm...

Then we went through the clouds and had quite a bit of turbulence. I had the thought that it was like we were crawling through a bag of cotton balls trying to get out on the other side. Anyone else have other ideas on this?

So, after we went through the clouds we were between cloud layers. It was a little strange and definitely beautiful. I'm always amazed at the ways God displays his creation.

Then I saw this. It looks like waves splashing up on a beach!

Are you still with me??? really? well here are a couple more.

Goodnight!

29/365

So, today is day 29. Do you know what that means?? I have passed day 28 and I am still blogging daily. Has this become a habit? I can't honestly tell, but I think there's a good chance it's going in that direction seeing as how I'm sitting in my friends house, in another state, after a long day of doing "girls weekend stuff" and still making a point to get my blog post done for the day. Hmmm...something to think about.

I can say that I do make an honest effort to get my camera out every.single.day. And I will share with you that the pictures I take are not always great (or even good) and they don't always have a great subject or reason to them. But I will post at least one, every day to have something to show for the day.

Today Becky and I did some eating, some shopping, we went to the spa, we went to dinner and we went to a show (Bring It On, the musical :)). This was a fun day! I took very few pictures of the day, but I am happy to say that I enjoyed myself, even without having pictures to prove it!

Here's one I took in Boogaloos, a shop in downtown Decatur with some really cute clothes and jewelry.

These are the fun, funky lights in the restaurant we had dinner in, Krog Bar. (a Kevin Rathbun place)

And here is what can happen when you ask a waiter to take your picture for you...not a good idea in hindsight!

28/365

Guess where I am this weekend??? Atlanta, Georgia baby!!  Woohooo! Can you tell I am excited? Ok, really I'm in Decatur but it's really close and I flew into the Atlanta airport so that counts right? And Decatur is a really cute little suburb. You can walk to local restaurants and there are some really neat shops to check out.

So, what am I doing here? Hanging out with one of my best friends, Becky, and her husband Graham and dogs Trooper and Tucker. Eric was so sweet to send me away for the weekend for a much needed R&R break from the daily home activities with two small kiddos. I really love staying at home and raising my kids, but sometimes you need to recharge ;)

So, tonight we (and by we I mean Becky and Graham, I just watched) made dinner, talked and ate in their fabulous newly renovated kitchen. I think it's been a little while since they renovated it, but it's the first time I've seen it. Becky made Coq au Vin from The Pioneer Woman's cookbook. It was delicious! She also made a baked brie and ginger citrus appetizer that was wonderful on French bread.

Tomorrow we have big plans to eat, shop, eat, go to the spa, eat, and go to a show. Can you tell I'm ready for a big day of eating?? I'm just really excited for a girl's weekend and catching up with a good friend that I haven't seen in too long. Have a good night!

27/365

Playing in the sunshine...These may seem a little boring to you, but I was making an attempt today to capture the sun and have a natural lens flare in my pictures. Here's what I have to share...

I was loving the shadows from these tall pines in my front yard :)

26/365

We had a frost here this morning and I managed to get myself out in the cold to snap a few photos of the ice crystals. So neat! These make me love my 60mm macro lens :) and these have zero editing because it's 1am and I'm tired!!

Some small ice crystals.

This is frost on the arm of one of our Adirondack chairs.

Ice crystals on a piece of grass.

And I want to give a shout out to my good friend, Juli, and her new baby Gibson. I got to visit with them for a short time today and love on little Gibs for awhile. He is so sweet! Here's one pic I got to snap today quickly. I hope to get back over soon and capture some more of this sweet little boy. Thanks Jules and congrats!!

25/365

These girls are definitely best friends! Taylor was sooo excited that her friend, Kinley, was going to come over to play today, but as she told her Daddy this morning, "I'm not getting too excited, in case her mommy changes her mind."

I was happy too, for my friend Jess to come over for some mommy talk and camera talk during nap time :) We both took Spanki's Camera 101 class and took some time today to play with prime lenses while trying to get our kids to actually look at us while we had our cameras out! Here's one from today of our girls...

24/365

23/365

If you haven't seen these before, make sure you look for them the next time you are shopping for candles. I found these at a little shop in Marble Falls, but I have since seen them in lots of places. These candles are made by the Swan Creek Candle Co. and they are made out of 100% American Soybean Wax. The best part is that they smell delicious! Oh, and they are super cute. I love the rustic, worn look on each one as if it's been sitting out in the garden for awhile. I seriously thought these were flower pots the first time I saw them! Each 'flavor' has a different style and color but they mix together well and I believe that you can even buy wax refills for them so you can save the pretty container.

22/365

Wow! That one word sums up today. I had the opportunity to spend the day with Spanki Mills, the fabulous photographer (who is amazingly talented - she did Jacob's newborn pics for us!), and 8 other incredibly fun gals today. Spanki held a Camera 101 class that was super informative and interactive. She provided two gorgeous models, Breigh and Griffin. These girls were so much fun and so natural in front of the camera!

We spent the first part of class going over the basics and then headed to an old downtown area to get hands on practice. Then we ended the evening at a restaurant going over all of our questions. It was such a great day and I'm sure will take many more days for everything to sink in!

Here are just a few of the uuhhh....over 400 pictures I took today! I only had time to quickly edit 5 but you'll get the idea.

21/365

20/365

Shoes?...Really??

Well, today was super busy for us. I spent the morning at the salon washing all that gray away :)  (Sorry, no pictures of that.) Then our family spent the day together and ended up driving all over the city. It was such yucky weather out that I didn't even think to get the camera out. I was just trying to protect my kids from the 100 mph wind every time we got out of the car as well as stop the crying from the bloody nose my son gave himself by smacking my phone into his face. I'm so glad we got to spend the day together...but sometimes it's a workout!

So, tonight when I got a message from a friend asking if I was going to post today, I asked for ideas and she gave me the subject of "shoes." This is probably not nearly as artistic as she would have made it, but it's what I got in the few minutes that I spent trying to get my assignment done. My current favorite pair of dressy shoes and a couple views of my shoe shelves. These pictures don't really even do it justice, but it's a glimpse. Some of you will totally understand and I'm sure some will think I'm nuts. Have a good night!

p.s. I'm taking a class this weekend from the fabulous Spanki Mills, so after that maybe you will see some pictures worth taking a peek at over here! ha! :)

p.s.s. these are completely unedited tonight :)