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Since the boys made it to the blog yesterday, today is my sweet girl's turn. We were sitting outside opening the mail this afternoon and enjoying the beautiful weather when I decided I needed to start breaking out the camera more often! Especially when I was noticing how striking her little freckles across her nose and cheeks are. I was wondering how that would look on her as she gets older and as I uploaded the pictures to my computer my first thought was that she looks just.like.me. So, I guess I know how she'll look! haha! Anyway, enjoy this little cutie today :)

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Practice makes perfect, right? Today I spent nap time practicing some newborn posing. Only thing is, I don't have a newborn so I had to use one of Taylor's baby dolls. And unfortunately, she doesn't move quite like a real baby, but the upside is she doesn't cry or demand to be fed either :)

I find that I love looking at newborn portraits. I think that I would love to take them, too. What I need is some experience with real, live babies to know for sure. (Yes, I have two children, but I didn't get my camera until a month before the youngest was born so I had no idea what I was doing then.) Anyway, a good friend of mine has graciously agreed to let me photograph her newborn soon so I want to be ready. I'm only putting a couple of pictures from my practice session on here so that it won't be too weird if I'm posting "real baby" pics in the same poses soon :)

She has WAY more hair than any newborn I've ever seen!

I love this turquoise bowl. In my family all of the children are traditionally bathed in a blue bowl similar to this one as newborns. There's usually a lot more crying involved :)

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Here are a couple product shots of the favors handed out at the Mardi Gras themed birthday party. These are sets of sidewalk chalk paints made by Sidewalk Sensations. They are easy to mix and fun to paint with outside. You can even order custom tags for them! I thought these were so cute and such a fun idea for a party favor.

They come packaged with a paintbrush!

How cute are these little tags?!?

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Our little friend, Anna, is having a birthday soon and I caught a couple of sweet pictures of her today at her party. It's always fun to see the anticipation and excitement on the faces of little ones. Especially when there's cake involved!

I love how she was awaiting the arrival of her cake as we all sang to her.

Such a sweet girl!

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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!!

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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 :)

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More Macro Monday!! haha :) I was inspired today by the post on the Clickin Moms blog, "A Macrolicious Tutorial", by Kathryn.  There's some great information there on how to put your macro lens to its best use and get those macrolicious shots. I love that word...macrolicious. ha!

Macro photography can be a whole new world of things to try and a new way of looking at the same old objects. I set about my house today trying to find things that might be interesting up close. First, I looked at the flowers. Then I realized that all of the indoor plants are fake (or faux, if you prefer :) ) I have an indoor cat and two little ones that would love to take apart any real greenery. So, since I didn't want to show you dust covered faux plants, I passed. Then, I tried to take close-ups of our hermit crab, Scady. (guess who named him...I mean 'her')  Well, Scady didn't take kindly to me waking 'her' up and quickly hid in her shell every time I moved the camera even slightly. She was acting like such a hermit!

Finally, I caught a glimpse of my china cabinet and decided to try that out. It has a light on the inside of it, which is helpful with picture taking. I love the clean, graceful lines of the cups and saucers. And still, 8 1/2 years later, I love the baby blue accent plates. Our china is Lenox Courtyard Gold. It's discontinued now, but luckily we were blessed by so many sending us pieces in our early, early years that we have almost the whole collection. The china is a creamy ivory with a white damask pattern around the edge and the accent plates are ivory in the center with pale blue rims also decorated with the white damask scroll. (I will probably be informed that it is not truly a damask pattern and that is ok, I just don't know what else to call it.) Aah...I really should use these everyday. We did use them at Christmas when all of Eric's family was over. I think I'm getting off topic...

So, this is a photo blog and I've spent three paragraphs rambling. On to the pictures! Oh, wait. I have to tell you the answer to last nights macro trivia. Well, Ms. Jennifer, (ahem...my only commenter) you were absolutely correct! Those pictures were of the baubles from my necklace that I was wearing yesterday. And that I have tried to wear almost everyday since I found it at the Ann Taylor outlet in Round Rock. I love that store! (anyone ever wonder about me having a daughter named Taylor??) haha!

Okay, four paragraphs later...here they are:

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Can you guess??

I had some fun playing with my new macro lens today. Eric gave me a Canon Macro 60mm, 2.8 lens for Christmas. It's lots of fun. Very neat to see the little details up close in small objects. I've heard it's also good for portraits, but I haven't had a good opportunity for that yet. So, check these out...I'd love to hear your guesses on what it is...it's not very hard really :) Leave your answer in the comment box! I'll give the answer with tomorrow's post.

Also, check out the bokeh! I just love it on these!!

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Today hits the two week mark! Yea! I've heard that if you can do something for 28 days it becomes a habit...so halfway there? We'll see. I do know that I have to consistently remind myself each day that I need to look for photo ops or try to create one. And I have been taking lots of pictures each day. Many that I do not care to ever share. 

Today was kind of a lazy day here around the house. So lazy that my best pictures of the day are of my dog, Yogi, laying on his blanket. Being inside the house is a major victory for Yogi. He is normally a backyard dog. We live on 2 acres and a large part of it is fenced so trust me, he's not being mistreated. He even has a pool that he uses way more than we do. Or at least he did until I got the Katchakid net for it! It has been really cold here lately (for me anyway, I do not like cold and this is Texas...where it should always be warm!) so he has been spending an unaccustomed amount of time in the house. Our older dog, Max, passed away in his sleep last month so I've been feeling a little sympathy for Yogi anyway. Add to that the cold weather and I should just give him a key :) So here he is...the dog of the day...

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The kids and I took a trip to the Children's Museum today. We had a fun visit and got to explore pretty much every area. We started off at the water exhibit where the kids can splash around with water toys. Jacob looked at me like, "Can I really put my hands in there and not get in trouble???" Then he went a little crazy splashing and I had to put the camera away for a bit. Other than the water, I think his favorite place was the "dirt" pit with all of the toy trucks.

Taylor had lots of fun too, but I didn't get many pictures of her since she was always running off to a different area and I had to monitor what Jacob was putting in his mouth! They were playing together pretty well at the sand area and I was thinking of how sweet it is to watch them play together and how neat it will be to see them grow up together.

The other funny thing that happened while we were there...another mom came up and asked if I was shooting in manual. I said that yes, I was trying to and she went on to tell me about how she had taken a class but she didn't even bring her camera with her because she's too scared to try. I told her this and will share it with anyone else reading: don't be afraid of your camera! My pictures do not always turn out. And yes, I tend to edit them before I post them here and they are still not always great. But the whole point as a mom with a camera is to capture those moments in your family's lives. Yes, if you're doing this for a living, you should have some knowledge of your camera. But the vast majority of you are moms...with cameras...so use them!! And when you look back a year from now or 5 years from now, you will be glad you have these memories...even if the white balance is off a little :)

...climbing off my soapbox now :)

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My photography assignment today was to take pictures of one of the recently updated model homes of the home building company my husband works for. They've redone the kitchen, all the cabinets, floors, doors, etc. on this house. Eric asked me to take some pictures for him to use for the newsletter and since we were traveling most of the day, it was good to have an assignment rather than search for inspiration! The remodel is not quite complete. There's still some work to be finished and then the cleaning and decorating, so please excuse the dust in the pictures!!

I also learned a new photography trick today. I really don't like the way a flash blows out areas of photographs and distorts the lighting but sometimes you just plain need some more light! I kept getting pictures where I could see the flash reflecting off of the wood cabinets or windows and it was bugging me. So, since I've read about using things to soften your flash, I found a kleenex in my bag and held it over my built in flash and it worked! The flash added the light I needed and the tissue softened it enough to make it look natural. Of course, I didn't think about this being a blog topic at the time and I deleted the "bad" pictures so I don't have before and afters for you. Maybe next time! And if you have any other flash tips for me, please leave a comment! I would love to hear some :)

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This one is a little late in getting up on the blog. Not because I didn't take pictures yesterday (I took lots of pictures yesterday!), but because I was out of town and we were so busy and I didn't even get back to our hotel room until after midnight. So, I figured since it was already the next day, it could wait a few more hours while I got some sleep!

We had a great time yesterday traveling to the Dallas area for the Cotton Bowl. My husband and I met while we were attending Texas A&M and we love to go back to football games as often as we can. We were able to get tickets to the bowl game since we have season tickets. The Aggies have finally had a good season and it's been a little while since we've been to a bowl game so it was very exciting to get to go. Unfortunately, we did not win against LSU, but we had a great time anyway!

Jeremy & Kendal

Our view at Jerry World. Not bad for sitting at the very top of the stadium!

That's me & my hubby! (does the bag look familiar??) And no, I'm not pregnant...even though this picture looks otherwise!

Our friends Jeremy & Kendal went to the game with us. They live up in Mansfield and Jeremy works in Fort Worth. He recommended The Ashton Hotel to us and it turned out to be a great place to stay. It's a cute little boutique hotel in downtown Fort Worth and let me tell you, downtown Fort Worth is a very lively area. There was even a line for Glee auditions wrapped around the block when we left this morning. The sheer amount of restaurants and shops amazed me. We had fun just walking around checking it all out.


The Ashton was such a neat place to stay. I took some pictures to share with you. It's registered as an historic building (read: tiny bathroom) but they have worked around this by putting a large claw foot bathtub outside of the bathroom. Sounds weird but it was cute! They even had real keys for the rooms. Not key cards like most hotels, actual keys with a brass key fob. I like the little touches. Things like having a robe and chocolate chip cookies laid out for you when you return in the evening (or wee hours of the morning.) Bottles of water and a filled ice bucket waiting for you. The tv swiveled to face the bed instead of the sitting area. Little touches, but noticeable. I would highly recommend The Ashton Hotel if you are ever in the Fort Worth area.

The beautiful claw foot tub.

Small bathroom, but very nice inside.

View from the tub to the bedroom.

Eric trying out the chaise. Sitting area behind him.

A real fire escape! I know...I get excited about weird things.

Robe & cookie laid out for us as part of their turn down service.

A nice, small touch that sums up the Ashton experience.

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My Sweet Husband gave me this great Kelly Moore camera bag purse for Christmas.

Cell phone is always within reach...no more digging around for it!

An inside view. The only thing missing is my camera...which I sorta needed to take this picture :)

Thought I would show you what all normally goes inside (plus camera.) This also gives you a size comparison.

Great craftsmanship throughout. I'm loving my Kelly Moore bag!

Quick Kelly Moore Camera Bag Review for you: I have been researching camera bag purses for months now. I even attempted to make one myself. When I finally had to make a decision, I chose this one, the Kelly Moore B-Hobo bag in mustard. Let me tell you, I absolutely love it! It was definitely a good choice for me. See, I am not a professional photographer who goes out to photo shoots and needs to take a lot of equipment with me. My area of business right now is in photo editing which lets me work from home. But I do love to have my camera with me at all times. I have two kiddos to take pictures of plus group events with the girls, family gatherings, etc. Add to that this 365 project and I'm a mess! 

Normally I carry a diaper bag/purse around but lately, as my youngest is getting older I really only need diapers and a few other things for him. So, I've been carrying my Coach bag with everything stuffed in it, but there was still no room for a DSLR (especially mine, it's a 50D!) Plus, my husband threatened serious consequences if he ever saw me throw the "expensive camera into any diaper bag."

The Kelly Moore bag is great because it has the protection of a camera bag, the dividers like a diaper bag, and is as good looking as any Coach purse I've ever owned. It has tons of room and still feels lightweight when I carry it loaded down. It also came with a strap that will go across the body if you need it. And since the straps are removable, I use the strap "hooks" (can't think of what they're called) to clip my keys onto my bag. The one thing I cannot stand is having to dig through my bag for my cell phone or keys! With this bag, I have my cell phone in an outside pocket and my keys attached. Problem solved!

So, if you are looking for a camera bag purse, I would highly recommend Kelly Moore. She has several styles and colors to choose from, even some for men. I had a hard time deciding on the color and style but was helped a lot by the video segments she has on her website that show her giving bag overviews and showing how much equipment will fit into each one.

So, this is my "Sweet" post for the day. Thank you to my sweet hubby!!