kids are so funny, but i personally believe ( and i am sure i am biased ) that my daughter is one of the funniest!
i was cleaning house, which still does not look clean... when i looked outside and saw K fast asleep in the shaded area of our yard. i was shocked! my child does NOT lay in the bug infested grass!!! so I grabbed my handy dandy cam and set out the back door for some "caught in the moment" shots... little did I know this grass fairy was not fast asleep but was in full blown "ready to get ya!" attack mode!
so I caught a few of what I thought were "awww such a sweet innocent angel baby" images....

and then......

little stinker!

This year one of my goals is to take 1 picture for each day of the year, so at the end of the year I will have a photo book of 365 pictures. I have seen a TON of other photographers do this and I want to do mine a bit different so I will be making a photo book with a page for each week, that is about 52 pages. I am great at taking pictures but HORRIBLE at keeping up with them and printing them. SO... my other goal is to collect all the pics I have taken over the years of my Kensey and create a photo book of each year ( I have 7 years to catch up on! ). I will be posting my pages for each week on this blog and I hope it will inspire you to get your camera out and start snapping your own 365... you can start anytime! You can follow my 365 here!

"Time is too slow for those who wait, too swift for those who fear, too long for those who grieve, too short for those who rejoice, but for those who love, time is eternity."
                                                                                                                                 ~Henry Van Dyke




This Thanksgiving my "little" brother and his girlfriend came to visit. I was so happy to see how in love the two of them are. You could just see how much they love each other in the way they talk to one another, look at one another and in just being  together. I was so happy I had a chance to take some pictures of them and I am secretly hoping ( *wink* ) that maybe these will be their engagement pictures....??? Kensey needs some cousins!

It is always a treat to photograph Miss Savvy but I must admit it is getting a bit harder now that she is so used to having me around! She knows that when that camera comes out she must run from it and do whatever she can to not be in my frame.... not really but it sure seems that way! None the less, I always ooh and ahh everytime I edit her pictures.

“When we consider the blessings of God—the gifts that add beauty and joy to our lives, that enable us to keep going through stretches of boredom and even suffering—friendship is very near the top.” — Donald W. McCullough

Thanks to my bestie, Lynsey, we were able to get our Fall family photos done after church today! I was so excited to see all the pictures on my computer screen - they all turned out so good! Lynsey you did wonderful :). I just love how their pictures turned out as well! They are such awesome friends to us and I could not imagine our life without them when we part ways :( I figured it was about time to get a "family" portrait done of all of us and even though I had a bit of trouble with the tripod and the kids were getting restless... not to mention the dads.... I am so happy I got the one picture that I did! I cannot wait to frame it and hang it up!

When we consider the blessings of God--the gifts that add beauty and joy to our lives, that enable us to keep going through stretches of boredom and even suffering--friendship is very near the top.

--Donald W. McCullough

Thanks to my bestie, Lynsey, we got out after church this morning and got our fall family photos done! I was so happy to see the photos on my computer screen! Lynsey did such a wonderful job! I love how their family photos came out as well and we are so happy to have them in our lives. I figured it was about time for a "family" photo of us all and although I had some issues with my tripod and we had somewhere to be, I am happy with the one photo that I did get :).

I had quite the adventure today - venturing out in J'ville for some antiquing with my good friend Lynsey! I found a bunch of goodies and was very happy with my loot :). I picked up THE MOST ADORABLE NEWBORN PROP EVER!!! For an insane price... I cannot wait to put a baby on it!

Moving on... for those of you remember when I was Ordinary Morning Photography ( way back when ;) ) and my logo was an umbrella, you may remember my love for umbrellas and how I just love to incorperate them into a picture! I found my fav. so far! This one has BIRDY'S! I also got this for a great price at the same shop as the scale.

Here is the umbrella in action...

Looking back on my past posts when I showed you some of my other goodies I picked up on one of my many thrifty adventures... I have a table runner that I grabbed from the same store I got K's cute bedroom table and an adorable little vase that I got for only 1.00!!

With all of K's new * should I say old? * things in her bedroom, I just had to grab her this chenille bedspread! It has a few stains on one side of it but you cannot see them on her twin sized bed.

and an apron made from vintage fabric!

What? You didn't think that I went out and did not grab anything for myself did you? Of course not! I found two lovely pyrex dishes for an unbelievable price at two seperate shops...

and ( AAAHHHH ) THIS!

I must say, I am loving that teal wall in my kitchen for this prop photo session... don't you?

Before I go, I must list the shops that I visited today so you can check them out for yourself, however, let me warn you that the place I got the scale, umbrella and vase from was a wonderful shop and some of the things were very pricey but amongst the high end items were treasures such as these. BUT - if you are going to shop there be ready for a lecture if you are going to use your plastic ( visa, master card, etc... ) b/c appearantly us "young generation" needs to wake up and carry some cash ( tee hee .... I won't mention which place but if you go, you will know! ).

Oliver's Antiques ( my fav! ) - J'ville
Jackson Square Antique Gallery - J'ville
The Other Store - J'ville

I will leave you with a little smile - this is not from a store but from my Grandmother who found out I like owls over the Holidays and brought this cute little trivet to me... I just think it is a "hoot"!

spring project 2 : painting the kitchen

welcome to my side of the camera! i love to blog but i hate to keep up with more than one lol - i have numerous blogs but seem to only keep up with my photoblog. from now on, i will posting a little segment i call " our nest ".

well it started off with a wonderful idea to "brighten" up the kitchen and add some of the clean retro designs that I adore so much... it ended in a very brightly painted kitchen that kinda gave me a shudder every time i walk into the kitchen...

kensey absolutely loves it! i know one of these days she will look back and say "hey remember the time my mom painted the kitchen teal on a whim?" you know what? those are the memories that i love best about my own mom... the crazy and funny things that she did as i was growing up are the little things that make me smile to this day!

i have decided though, to paint all the walls white except for my bay window area - that, i will leave teal. i plan on building a window seat there and really think that the brightly colored wall will be a nice touch to whatever i decide for fabric for my seat cushion and pillows....

on a lighter note ( haha see how i did that? ) i am debating on if i should paint the cabinets white as well?

This past week I have been on a treasure hunt! I, along with some great friends, visited a few antique shops and flea market/thrift stores in our area. I found the cutest little cottage table for K's room! The tag says 75.00 but I actually paid 50.00 which originally came down from 200.00! She and I plan to re-design her room as a project for while Tom is gone and we are leaning more toward a "chic-cottage" feel. I am very excited and this table was the perfect find to get us started! Of course we have some "organizing" to do and she has my old computer so we have to figure out where that will actually go... but is it not the cutest!?

Speaking of Kensey and treasures... she found these chives that grown wild in our yard and decided she would spruce up her floral arrangement in her room - hey if she wants her room to smell like onions, that is her deal!

I also found some adorable props for my photography business, a cute little umbrella at an antique store for only 5.00 ( eeep! ) and the neatest basket that screamed "PUT A BABY IN ME!". I bet people in the store passing by when I say " Oh! I could put a baby in this! " think I am crazy lol. I cannot forget to mention my best find yet... this fantastic retro orange travel suitcase for 15.00, sadly, I found it at another thrift store later for 5.00 but that one did not have this neat artwork done to it. Can't you just see a baby laying inside of this with the top up???!!!

I must say the picture does not do these items justice but just wait until I shoot a session with these props! Oh yeah - you can barely see it but there is a wooden plate to the left of that basket I got for 4.00 - also for a baby to lay in ;).

. I had to get a little somethin' somethin' for myself! I am into this retro phase right now and plan on re-designing my kitchen/dining area to look retro - mod and found this neat GE original, cord and all... AND IT WORKS! Only 10.00 - now to find a spot where it won't look tacky with the cord hanging down... hmmm...

Lastly, but not leastly - my cheapest find yet and at the Goodwill in J'ville! This adorable vase for only... wait for it...   .99 cents - AND IT IS A TIFFANY & CO.!!!
* is that expensive? haha it sounds expensive *