" {Mz}Cellaneous - Maryville Missouri Photographer"

Things I don't "Get" and one thing I do

2012-02-13T23:27:00.000-06:00

There are a few things over the years, that on greater thought, I just don't "get".

It's not that I think they're wrong, or anyone is wrong doing them, I just don't get the reasoning behind it if you really sit and spend some time thinking about it.

For example:

I really don't get music. (I'm obviously the only one.) I say this as someone that was in choir for years, one of those years being swing choir. It's not that I don't really get it, it's more the logic behind it. Think about it - we make a ruckus on noiseboxes like guitars, drums and violins, then we shoot frilly words out of our mouths at the same time.... and we idolize those that do it well. Heck we devote entire shows to it. If you stop and think about it, it's very *strange*.

Since we're talking about strange, let's talk about dancing. There's something else that if you think about the concept of dancing (throwing your body around the room in time with *music*) it just seems so odd. Proof in point, look at a photo of someone dancing, it always seems kind of crazy looking.

Something else I find kind of weird, is humans needs to domesticate an animal and call it a pet. What thought process did someone have to capture a wild dog, tame it, and then invite the wild animal into their home? Or worse yet, a wild CAT, with it's sharp claws and pissy, uppity attitude? Who thought THAT was a good idea? (not saying I don't like the outcome - I have a pissy cat and an uppity cat that rule this house).

I've also thought sports were strange. Not only do a bunch of guys get together and throw around some sort of ball (unless it's soccer and they kick it around), but people clamor to watch it, and to top it all of we pay millions to players in the process.

Does that not seem *weird* from the outside looking in?

But there's one thing I know I've always been able to "get".

Art.

The idea of seeing something beautiful that pleases the eye, and the need to take it home and put it on the wall completely resonates with me. The need to *create* it has always been there for me since I was a small child.

When I was a young kid, my mom became a painter (oils) and she taught me how to paint. While other kids in Jr. High were getting allowances, I was selling simple paintings of unicorns (hey it was the 80's). I would also sell drawings for $2.00 to my friends (and sold a ton of them), so it was no shocker that much of my high school time was sitting in Mr. Hunt's art room creating whatever the latest assignment was.

Sculpture, acrylic paintings, things made with plaster were common themes. Our senior year we had no assignments - we just created whatever we wanted to create. One thing that always stuck with me was watercolors.

I've come to realize over the years that watercolors are some of my very favorites. That soft feeling with transparent layers of colors leaves me imagining what the scene really looked like.

Gene and I are members of the Albrecht-Kemper Museum of Art in St. Joseph, MO. Obviously I've always been a fan of art, but on his own, gene has acquired an affinity for art also. While I'm a fan of impressionism, Gene loves the renaissance style.

Our house is maybe ... a little hodge podge.

Anyway, right before Christmas, the museum announced a watercolor class for adults and I told Gene that's what I wanted for Christmas.

Last Tuesday, I went to my first art class in *cough*20*cough* years.
I was the second to the youngest person there.
It was fun!

We learned a few techniques, came home with a little bird painting we made and I've been painting up a storm since.

Every day it's something new - sometimes I'm finding artwork of other artists and trying to copy it (it's a good lesson), or maybe trying to figure out a technique. My second painting since the 80's, was the starfish above.

I love feel of the water and the paint. I love how it flows, and letting it do it's own thing is part of the art. It's like the paper is creating the art, and you're there just watching to see what it creates.

Yesterday I made this goldfinch, my favorite bird (inspired by the work of another artist) and it got me to thinking about an old dream of writing and illustrating a children's book someday.

So I think I will.

I need a theme.

Who's with me?

I have a long, LONG way to go and it's probably something I would just make for myself and call it done. But it would be a wonderful thing to pass down to my own kids and grandkids.

Then there's that part were I become a millionare and people fall in love with me.

You know... more than you already do.

:0)

Hush.

There's no way to put this delicately....

2012-02-06T23:17:00.000-06:00

Say you're walking through the parking lot on the way to the gym.

No, I wasn't actually going to use the gym. (bahahahah).... no I was going there to drop off some photos.

So anyway, you're walking through the parking lot, and suddenly you have the urge to burp. You know.. the *loud* burp. The one that rattles windows from 32 feet. That one. (This is a quite a skill between my and my sisters - I'm a punk compared to Torrie and Amber). Yeah, I know... I failed the school of ettiquette.

So when you get this overwhelming urge, I suggest you turn your head to the left and the right before expelling said burp.

My apologies to the guy going in to work out, that had that look of shock on his face when I turned around.

He should meet my sisters.

{and no, this post has no photo - how do you photograph a burp?}

ETA: I found a proper image to illustrate a burp:

How to get a chicken to stop crapping on your deck.

2012-02-03T16:59:00.000-06:00

One of the down sides to having chickens is the poop. Yep, if you let them range, they're going to crap a lot. It's like having 16 small dogs at times.

Throw scraps off your deck and after a while they'll start to associate the deck is the magical place where all food comes from. Especially the good stuff like bits of t-bone steaks and red cabbage.

(Yeah, that's what I thought too).

So anyway, in the process of going on explores looking for food on my deck, they have a tendancy to crap there. It makes going in and out the door interesting - kind of like a treasure hunt.

Or walking off a plank.

Gene finally discovered the one thing that will keep the crap off the deck.

The yellow broom.

No, not for sweeping (well, that too), but when a grumpy glass man swings it around his head and it makes a "woooosh" noise (and it flies out of his hands and hits the house), the chickens freak OUT *bwaaaaack* and will run until they are out of breath and can run no farther.

Which is about 50 feet.

Then, leave the broom on the steps and the dirty little buggers will never approach the deck again.

So when you visit me, you'll have to jump a broom. But be happy because that means you won't have bird crap stuck in your favorite pair of sketchers.

And with this post, my "to edit" folder is empty.

2012-02-02T22:34:00.000-06:00

Pretty things.

See them.

Tale from the clothesline - true story.

2012-01-31T21:39:00.000-06:00

Yes it's that time of year again. You know, time to hang out the laundry.

Wait.
What?

It's January?

That's what I thought too. I think this winter is trying to get me to forget about winter two years ago *but I'm too smart for that*

(fyi I just misspelled "smart" har)

Here is that same clothesline, almost exactly 2 years ago.

Winter... I'm on to you, you fickle beoytch.

But I mean that in a nice way, don't punish me please.

Missouri Sunset Haiku

2012-01-27T22:21:00.004-06:00

So I've done the whole cow, chicken, turkey haiku thing, now it's time for another Missouri staple... the sunset.

pink to blue to black

a psychedelic rainbow

good night missouri

ok, that was too serious how about this one....

boogieman cometh

the critters come out at night

hey! watch out chickens!

pretty picture pretty words
so awesome mah writin's be

I'll keep my dayjob

Day got Murried.

2012-01-26T14:11:00.003-06:00

See cute couple here:

totally worth it.

Where manufacturers are going WRONG!! aka I'm gonna be a millionaire someday.

2012-01-25T21:58:00.000-06:00

I recently succumbed to television advertising. Yes, sometimes that crap works on me. Most of the time it's just commercials for Olive Garden or the lure of a good bacon cheeseburger at Burger King. But this time, it was makeup at the wallsmart.

Yes, this radiant, beautiful angelic face does not come to me naturally (I just make it look so easy dammit).

So I decided to pick up this "Instant Age Rewind" foundation and give it a go. After all, who couldn't use a little age rewind.

Let me say I LOVE THIS CRAP!

No, it's not because of the spf 18, it's radience, it's firming or not because it rewinds pretty much anything. I still look pretty much the same except it's harder to see that blotch on my left cheek when you squint. I would, however, love to age rewind back to 1987 and ask myself "WTF were you thinking!!" (and I'm not just talking about rolling my jeans at my ankles and backcombing my hair).

No, what I love about this stuff is it smells like cake batter.

really.

Which got me to thinking... that could really be an incentive for us short, fat, ugly women to put some makeup on our faces and spiff ourselves up. Maybe make eyeliner smell like chocolate and blush smells like strawberry pop tarts too.

Contemplate on that for a moment... I'll wait.

OMG, I am so effing smart. Why aren't I richer?

(I already have the beautiful part down pat)... haters gonna hate.

Now if we could just talk the deoderant manufacturers into making shaving cream smell like apple pie and mens' deoderant smell like bacon, the world would be a much better place.

How to make a munchkin omlet

2012-01-20T13:58:00.001-06:00

We have just come out on the other side of our first molting season with the chickens. What this means is that the chickens will grow a new set of feathers, or part of their feathers. They might even get nearly nakie in the process (brrrrr). However, ours did not. Just your standard naked chicken backs.

In the process of growing a new set of feathers, the chickens have to save most of their energy for feathers, not much left over for eggs. It was a frustrating couple months as our egg production went from 10-12 a day, down to 1-2 a day. We almost lost our our egg clients!

So finally a few weeks ago, our daily egg count started to rise again, which is almost as egg-citing (har) as that first egg. But kind of like that first egg that you'll get, sometimes a little weird one will pop up.

This time it was a super mini.

It was about 1/4 of the size of a regular egg, not much bigger than my thumb. I felt confident there was no yolk in there. Of course, I couldn't sell it to someone else, so we saved it until it was time to have Saturday morning breakfast.

Yep, no yolk. Not much of a breakfast either.

Only a couple months until chicks show up! Nope, we're not hatching our own this year (well, if they want to maybe). We're going to buy chicks again to raise a new set! Yay!

Boo chicken dust and chicken poop in the house.
:/

10 Notable events

2012-01-19T11:51:00.001-06:00

1. A little critter came to my house over the weekend. There was much spoiling.

2. I have a cold. I'd like to blame the usual type of carriers - critters (see above) but I think this one was all me.

3. I was going to enter a photo in an art exhibition at the museum we're members of, but, I'm a moron and thought today was the last day to enter - it wasn't. It was Tuesday. :(

4. I'm currently on my "no meat" quest. No, we're eating meat, I'm just shopping from my freezers. I haven't bought ANY meat in about 3 weeks. I could in theory make it probably 2 more weeks - but this means I'd have to eat salmon and I just don't think I can do it.

5. I'm avoiding a job I have to do - talk to my telephone company AND my cell phone company. Every time I get on the phone with them to change services, I about pop an artery.

6. Did I mention I have a cold. May I whine?

7. I may or may not have company this weekend and my guest room looks horrible. I have a cold. I want to sleep.

8. I had an ice cream sandwich for lunch.

9. Maybe I should cave and buy some meat.

10. Grocery shopping today!

Lil' nugget picture

2012-01-17T21:47:00.001-06:00

About a week ago I visited my sister and her new little one Talyah. Of course, I couldn't resist taking my equipment with me to get a few shots. We did ok for about 9 frames.

Really, just 9 frames.

Most of them look pretty much like this shot.

There's a reason why I don't do many newborns - I can't handle the stress. LOL.

I also know I can't handle 3 1/2 year old older sisters either. God Bless my sister, the woman is an absolute saint.

;)

Holy cute!

2012-01-13T11:44:00.000-06:00

Ever meet someone that was so unbearably cute you could hardly stand it? Read more about Lauren and Lyle's shoot on my Cease Fire Studios blog.

Stuff that rocks! The future is NOW

2012-01-11T22:46:00.003-06:00

For Christmas my loving husband bought me one of these bad boys. Love!

Wait. He didn't buy it for me.
I bought it for myself.

He just said "go buy it" after I kind of insisted it's really what I wanted that instead of the stuffed bear he was thinking of getting me.

No. Not a big old teddy bear.

A big stuffed taxidermy bear on a log. That hangs on the wall. Staring at me with it's cold dead eyes, only to awake and eat my face off as I sleep. wtf?
Yeah that's what I said too.

Rest assured, I love that guy. He does have some pretty big quirks at times. I still have not mastered what he's thinking. I'm sure he says the same thing about me.

So anyway, pretend like you're old like me, and adventure to the inner recesses of your memory banks. You there yet?
Yeah, I lost part of mine back when I had toddlers too.

Anyway, I remember as a kid, thinking about the future and what things might be like. I realized the other day, that the things I thought about were like the Kindle, nearly inconceivable, yet here we are today sitting on our couches or in a coffee shop chatting with people around the world, reading a book on a tiny screen.

Before you know it, phasers will be standard issue.

This is so amazing really, the stuff that it can do. I have downloaded a couple dozen apps which allow me to see things like the weather at a glance, the phases of the moon, keeping track of what I eat (meh), etc. Almost anything you can imagine.

It's also connected directly with Amazon so it's easy to download books, magazine subscriptions, music, etc. Like... too easy. LOL.

I now have a subscription to 3 magazines that I don't normally get the paper version of. I think it fixes a problem for me! I can keep magazines virtually forever if I want to, and there's no clutter.

Of course you can use it for the really useful stuff too. Like youtube and angry birds. :)

Tanner got me a really cool cover very close to this one and I bought a stylus which I have found very necessary with these apparently huge fat fingers of mine. The ones I bought are actually pretty good and a reasonable price. No worries if I lose one.

Anyway, I highly recommend the kindle. I absolutely love it! I know the ipad is pretty awesome too, and I thought about it and I think I'd prefer reading books on the smaller "book sized" screen. Plus it would fit in my purse.

I don't do big floppy purses. bleh.

When you think back to man landing on the moon (and I do believe that we did), think about this for a moment. There's more power in a kindle, then what it took to accomplish a space mission.

Think my kindle could get me to say, Florida? It snowed here.

Nebraska Furniture Mart is an EVIL PLACE!

2012-01-06T10:10:00.001-06:00

This past weekend (New Years), we were invited to spend New Year's Eve with some friends of Gene's from high school. However, when we got there the only people we knew were the hosts.

I know.... branch out and meet people right? Except the part where I suck at it. So we hung out for a few hours and then headed back over to Gene's parent's house to spend the first bit of 2012 with them. It's ok, we met great people, but honestly since I was designated driver, I was the sole sober person in a sea of lushes. I was ready to get out of there.

Now something you should know about me, is that I'm a harasser. I'm the person that will poke at you endlessly for a seemingly minor infraction for my own amusement. (My poor husband has no self-esteem anymore).

I've been harassing my mother-in-law (Hi Carol!) about her couches for some time now. Not because it's horrible... just because I can. ;)

(Don't worry, she still loves me.)

(god I hope so).

You see, the couches have lived a valiant life. There's been a lot of butts planted there over their life span. Every time I sit on the loveseat, I feel sleepy, so we have determined they must be made of chloroform and puppy fur and do some mild harassing about it in the process.

(maybe she doesn't love me. Maybe she tolerates me greatly)

So we discuss couches, etc. I determine that I'm taking my in-laws furniture shopping sometime in the future, because you know, it's always easier to spend other people's money.

(Well, even if she doesn't love me, I am pretty sure she knows I'm joking)

We end up chatting until the wee hours of the morning, off to bed because Gene has determined that 1-1-12 we're going to Nebraska Furniture Mart. (just me and him). If you don't know what NFM is, it's a spin off monstrosity from NFM in Omaha. Man this place is HUGE. Every type of furniture, electronic, appliance, kitchware known to man. It makes ikea curl up in the fetal position.

As a person that generally hates larges stores, I haven't been a huge fan. However, they have camera equipment there and not the walmart variaty crap either. Like high end primes lenses that I can ohh and ahh over.

So I was in.

We're walking around the store (somewhere in our 3rd mile), I am mentally spending my In-law's millions and millions (of yen) on cute furniture that meets their criteria. Then we both spot "it" at the same moment. It's a lovely chair made of microsuede supermodels.

No, really. Cindy Crawford made it with her own bare hands.

OK, maybe she just authorized it, but it had her name on it.

Anyway, cream colored microsuede in a classic streamline shape. It meets every criteria of furniture I have.

Must be firmly stuffed. No floppy pillowbacks
Must have narrow arms. I hate taking up valuable real estate with big fat arms.
Must be classic shaped - preferably mid-century modern feel
Must be a completely impractical color.

Because, you know, we have a teenage boy, 2 cats, a glass man that comes home head to toe filthy nearly every single day, 4 granddaughters and 16 CHICKENS. So you know, "cream" is a totally practical color.

Within 3 minutes, we both determined we were buying it. Nevermind we drove a jeep that day (without the trailer). I announced that I knew for 110% sure it would go into the jeep.

We buy it. We even pay extra for the scotchguard and warranty. (because someone needs to be practical). Drive around to the loading dock and empty the car:

Yeah, all my other shopping excursions, suitcases and such just lay there all over the ground at the loading dock in NFM. Glad I didn't have something totally embarassing.

So after waiting what felt like forever, they come carrying out a box.

Wait what? A box?

That thing was NOT going to fit, but I'll give them that they at least gave it a half hearted attempt. Finally I instructed them to remove the box and shoo, because they were going to break the back glass in my jeep. It doesn't matter if I'm married to a glass man at that point, that glass is expensive!

So finally, after some wrestling, cussing and brute force, we got the puzzle piece to fit. You see, it looked a LOT smaller on the show room floor. Maybe because the showroom floor is like 800,000 sq ft or something, and my house is 1500 sq ft?

And my jeep is like 12 sq ft.

We get it home, cuss a lot more because that motha is heavy! We almost didn't get it through the door (and don't get me started about the red scuff of paint or the tiny tear in the fabric on the back corner!!!!! Yay for dry cleaning solution in a can!)

Behold.

It's so purdy. I want to marrrrry it.

I had to rearrange all my furniture and ditch the rocking chair that never gets sat in. We will dub this the no-spaghetti chair. In fact, we might dub it the "no sitting" chair.

Except by me.

Because I'm special.

So anyway, the point to this long story which could have been told in 4 words "I bought a chair", is this... This was my penance for giving my MIL a hard time. Not only do I go out to browse and end up with a chair I don't really need, it's completely impractical in the process.

I r smartz.

Traveling down dead bread road

2012-01-04T11:20:00.000-06:00

I have found I have this new, uncanny ability.

Let me explain.

I live out in the boondocks. Not really BFE (which for you that don't know, that stands for bum eff Egypt. Except if you live in Egypt you say "bum eff Idaho" so we're even), but far enough out that it's a real pain when you run out of milk.

In fact, Gene and I had to compromise. When we were first dating, we talked about living out in the country. I always said I wanted to live pretty close to town because I didn't want to drive 14 miles for a gallon of milk. He said he didn't want to live near barking dogs or thumping stereos and if we were out of milk, you could eat cereal with *WATER*.

wtf?

yeah.... uh, no.

So we compromised. We live 8 miles out and I've been known to add a tiny bit of water to my almost full bowl of cereal (with milk) to get me by.

So anyway, to get to my house you're going the same route as people that live in Iowa. We get a lot of shoppers down here because we gots one of them thare wallsmarts and they don't.

My point to this is that lots of people in Iowa drive pick up trucks. Lots of people with pick up trucks put their groceries in the bed of the truck. Lots of people with groceries in the back of their pick up truck lose groceries out the back when they turn north and pick up speed.

And this is where my new uncanny ability comes in.

I'm a bread loaf spotting MACHINE. I can't stop myself from going back to pick them up because now it's too funny not to.

Yeah.. I know... it's certainly redneck of me, picking up road kill wonder bread. But if it helps you sleep at night, I don't eat it. I bring it home and feed it to my chickens! Although I admit there's been a couple times it was tempting - you could tell it had only been there for minutes. LOL.

Hamburger buns, texas toast and plenty of wonder bread. The chickens have said thank you for the 13 loaves I found in 2011. (All of it was from this summer til the end of this year). I'm going to break that number in 2012. I think that's going to be my new year's resolution since I can't seem to keep any other ones.

Because of this, I have dubbed this little strip of highway "dead bread road". It stems from a story my husband tells called "dead dog road" but trust me, you really don't want to hear it. The ending is exactly how you might suspect.

Who wants a peanut butter sandwich!?

Grilled cheese?

anyone?

hello?

A message to the future

2012-01-03T00:09:00.001-06:00

It seems appropriate that this is the last photo that I took in 2011. The sun sets on 2011.

Dear 2011,

I'm kind of sad to see you go, but at the same time, I'm not. Onward and upward! You were incredibly good to me in some respects, and in others I'd really like to kick in in the junk.

Over all, you were mostly kind and thought provoking. You made me happy and appreciative. You reminded me of what's most important and inspired me to make more of my life. So enough though a couple times I wanted to break up with you, I have decided that I'll keep you and claim you forever.

Love,

Lana

****

Dear 2012,

I have high hopes for you. You're barely here already and I know you'll have much to get accomplished in your 365 days left (it's a leap year). Being fresh and new always leaves you with excitement of the possibilities of the new year, and this one is no different.

I expect you to be kind, but not too mansy-pansy. I expect you to be profitable but not gluttonous. I expect you to be strong but not too hard. I expect you to be creative and not too small-minded. I expect you to be righteous but not pompous. And I hope for you to be happy, with no expectations at all on what route that will take to get there, because at the end of the day, the journey is half the fun.

Love,

Lana

My "little girl", had a little girl

2011-12-30T10:38:00.002-06:00

I have 2 little sisters, and I'm sure for the full purpose of making me feel old, my sister Torrie had her second child yesterday. My other little sister, my mom and I all went to KC to see the little nugget come into the world. Sadly babies are on their own schedule (what is up with that?) so Amber and I had left to head home, only to get a call that the baby was coming...like..now!So we went back.

I'm proud to say that I took Talyah* Colette's first photo ever.

(I think)

{8lb 5oz - Colette is Amber's middle name, so if you don't like Talyah's name ... suck it.}

*Not sure if this is how they are going to spell Talyah (pronounced Tal (rhymes with Pal)-Yuh), they hadn't decided yet when we left.

Pretty sure Amber is now at bat. She's gonna need to break the 17 year no boy streak.

And then the dust settled at the Cease Fire Ranch

2011-12-28T12:33:00.000-06:00

And the stockings were hung, by the .... dining room hutch... with care.

The decorations filled the house...

Well, not really "filled" so much. As many decorations as I could fit in one trip in the jeep. I totally got lazy this year. I actually liked that I had less to mess with, but missed some of my decorations that didn't make the cut. Next year, we should have a garage HERE, so it will be much easier to store things.

Not a creature was stirring... cuz he got tucked in, like every good cat.

Just in time for a good morning breakfast (no pics) and then a feverish gift opening.

The traditional "Mom got me clothes" parts were ok, because well, they needed clothes.

Jingles got what he wanted.

and Gene got what he wanted. Pajama Jeans.

No. Really.

Don't forget the traditional "making of the pipe bomb" part of christmas!!!

Gene was spoiled this year - a mattress topper, an awesome shaving set, some clothes, accessories for the jeep, nice gifts from the boys. I got spoiled too - a new kindle fire (and a cover for it), a shark mop (it's ok, I wanted it), a pretty mother of pearl bracelet, candles and an address book. Tanner got a boatload of clothes and a cool do-hicky that lets him watch all kinds of internet goodies on his television and a stereo for his car, which was a gift from Seth. I think Seth beat us all this year.... go Seth! I don't think he'd admit it but I think he likes his brother more than he puts on. ha.. Seth made out well with a fishing rod, 4 cases of pop (thanks Tanner) and an amp for his electric guitar. (apologies to his neighbors).

This was the first year in the history of all years that I didn't keep a list of what I bought or what I'd spent. I just sort of threw money at this "problem" (I was so busy this year) and amazon is a BAD THING. lol. Needless to say, everything was wrapped in amazon boxes this year.

We not only had breakfast, I made a big fat ham for lunch and we laid around and watched movies for half the day. It was a good day.

{Don't get your panties in a bunch, Tanner was really just working on his new stereo}

Happy Holidays!

2011-12-25T07:00:00.000-06:00

Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, and Joyous New Year!You are all a blessing.

And here's what you don't win....

2011-12-21T21:21:00.003-06:00

We recently entered a big contest... YAY!

We didn't win... BOO!

However, we felt it worthy still of sharing our entry because we're proud of it! Check it out.

5:08 p.m.

2011-12-21T08:00:00.000-06:00

The best part of the day.. those few minutes between day and night.

From this day until it's sweltering hot, our days will grow longer. Spring can not come soon enough.

12 days of Better Christmas Photography - revisited

2011-12-19T00:02:00.000-06:00

{Christmas circa 2010}

Today my mother and father in law came to visit and have a bit of a "Christmas". It was just them, Gene, Tanner and I, so it wasn't a big to-do.

Last night, at 1 a.m., I finished the last touches on the Christmas tree. Yep, I'm just not all that much ready for Christmas. Frankly I don't have one gift wrapped, no lights on my house and I settled for 1/2 of the decorations this year (what fit in the Jeep, made it).

I think this is the part where I'm supposed to say "Bah Humbug".
The truth is, I don't want to be that way. This year has been exceptionally trying to say the least, so I've been going out of my way to find things to put me in the holiday spirit. Giving a little more, sending a secret gift, sending piles of cards, etc.

Last year, I wrote the 12 days of better Christmas photography and I thought I should share it again with you this year. No time to rewrite it all, but worth a second read. Hopefully it will make your Christmas photos a little more enjoyable. I promise to take my camera out a couple times this Christmas!

Day 1 - Get closer
Day 2 - Photographing Christmas lights
Day 3 - 25 things to shoot at Christmas time
Day 4 - Be Prepared
Day 5 - Better Photos indoors
Day 6 - Shooting snow
Day 7 - Shaped Bokeh
Day 8 - Get a real camera
Day 9 - Custom white balance
Day 10 - Group shots
Day 11 - Before and After
Day 12 - Put down the camera

Winter in diptychs

2011-12-17T12:00:00.000-06:00

Winter is here.

enjoy.

Trash to Treasure - Bling Guitar!

2011-12-16T21:45:00.004-06:00

It's been a while since I've had time for a trash to treasure!! I have one coming up in the next couple months that might get me banned from the family. (There's a teaser if I ever heard one). Maybe this will save me...

Every year for Christmas, my sister Amber goes out of her way to always make me a nice gift.My nice homemade gift making skills were super lacking this year so I was wracking my brain trying to come up with something cool.

I had bought Amber a guitar at a garage sale over the summer. It was a beat up acoustic guitar that would only be good for display (her shop has a rock and roll theme). Being the horrible sister I am, I kept forgetting to give Amber the guitar and I had it for months and months.

Worked out great for me in the end, because I got to thinking, maybe I could paint something cool on the guitar or bling it out somehow.

BLING!

That was it! Immediately I went out on Amazon and bought a POUND of rhinestones. Do you know how many rhinestones are in a pound of rhinestones?

All of them.

I dragged the package into the house, ran to the store and got a bottle of
Aleene's tacky glue (hands down the best craft glue ever made) and started gluing.

It's that easy. I just drew on my design (which were some flames), filled in an area with glue and then stuck on the appropriate colored rhinestones.

{I forgot to take a before pic, so here's an almost before pic}

{Picture by Amber because I'm a moron and also forgot to take an after pic}
{don't be judging}
{Also don't be hatin'}

It's not nearly as hard or as time consuming as you might think. I did big portions of it when I got a phone call or needed a quick break. Sometimes working on a couple square inches at a time. I would guesstimate it took me approximately 3 hours to cover the whole front and the end.
After it was all done, I realized there were some gaps so I went back and filled in some of the smaller gaps with some tiny white rhinestones. After everything was dry, I brushed on glue on the stem (is the the right name???) and covered it with Martha Stewart Agate Green Glitter because that's what I had on hand.It really is a simple project and it turned out really cool and sPaRkLy!

FYI: I doubt you'd be able to play the guitar any more, I'm sure this totally ruins it, so don't try it on your good stuff.

Difficulty - Beginner

Costs:
$2.00 - guitar
$15.00 - rhinestones
$6.00 - little white rhinestones (not required)
$1.00 - glitter (costs more for the whole bottle but that stuff goes a LONG WAY!
$2.97 - Aleene's glue

$26.97 for the whole project and I reserved my place as best sister EVAH!

My sister has the BEST SISTER!
;P

What's in my (camera) Bag??

2011-12-13T11:21:00.000-06:00

I get asked a lot what equipment I use, what are my favorite lenses, where'd I get that bag, blah blah. So I thought it would be fun to share with all of you what I use to shoot weddings, portraits and just everyday stuff for myself!
Canon 5D Classic -This is my main body that is a nice little workhorse. I've been really happy with this camera and will probably use it until it can't go anymore. Many professiona photographers use this camera and never upgrade from this point.

Canon 50d -This is my second camera - which is what Gene shoots with exclusively. I really like some of the features of the 50D and if I were going to just buy a camera for personal use, I would probably go with the 50D for the price.It is a crop sensor so that has some good points and some bad points. For pro work, I prefer the 5D.

Canon 135mm F2 - This is by far, my favorite long lens. I use it in dark churches to grab every bit of light possible - from the back of the church. I hate being part of the ceremony (in fact, I won't be no matter what) so I try to stay back with this lens.

Canon 50mm F1.4 - This is my newest lens in a medium range. I Looooove this lens. I'm sure I'd love the 50mm f1.2 more, but it's a bit of a price jump between those 2 lenses. However, the 1.2 is an L lens so I'm sure it's totally worth it! The F1.4 is on my camera pretty much all the time as my go-to lens.

Canon 50mm F1.8 I also have the 1.8 version which is usually the first prime lens most enthusiasts will purchase. Quite a little kick in a $100 lens. I think that's the "suck you in" lens. LOL Anyway, the down side to this lens is that I used it one day, and the next day it fell apart in my hands. That's not uncommon. However, I had it 4 years before it happened so it's not the end of the world for $25/year. I certainly got my money's worth.I ended up with this AGAIN after a "discussion" about lenses with Gene. (long story). So I have 2 at the 50mm range which is fine because Gene uses this lens a lot now. In fact, at some point in my life, I'll have 2 of everthing. GET OUT.

Canon 35mm F2 - In the slightly wider range, I really like the 35mm F2. It was my go-to lens on the crop sensor (felt more like the 50mm really) but when I went to full frame I realized I really liked the medium range better. Gene uses the 35mm now more than I do although it's great in tight spaces while the bride is getting ready.

Canon 70-200mm F4- This is my longest range lens and my first "big" lens purchase. I don't use it a lot now that I have the 135mm (mainly because of that F4). I really should have held out and bought the F2.8 L but I was way too scared to drop so much cash so early on. Now I'm contemplating selling this piece, but every once in a while I pull it out for a nice long shot and realize that I'd probably miss it.

Canon 17-40mm F4 L - This is my widest ranged lens. I'm sort of ehhhh about it. Sometimes it's awesome, especially for those big wide sky shots I like to share. I used to really be into wide shots, but over time I've moved away from that. I almost exclusively use the 17-20 range. 17mm on a full format almost has a fisheye feel to it. Lots of distortion around the edges, but that's really kind of cool too. Just depends on the look you're going for. Sometimes I feel like this lens is soft, which IMO is annoying considering it's F4 L. I will probably keep it for now, but I will someday down the road sell it and go for the 24mm f1.4 prime.

Canon 18-55mm kit lens - Yep, I actually have my kit lens in my bag. Just for clarification, it's in my big rolly bag, not my bag on my shoulder. I still used it for semi-decent shots of rings, but since buying my extension tubes I really don't have much need for it anymore. I just keep it in my bag "just in case" Really, for a beginner walk around lens, its really not a bad little lens. I feel like I got much better close up shots with it than anything distant. My landscape shots were always soft, but I could get a nice sharp macro(ish) with it. Regardless, you can't use this on a full frame so don't try!

Canon Speedlite 430EXII - My flash is the speedlight 430EXII. I really need to pick up some more of these but will probably hold off until spring. These are pretty awesome flashes, although there is an upgraded version (580EXII). I've been fairly happy with the 430 so I will probably stick with that for now.

Shoot Sac Camera bag - This is my camera bag that I take with me on shoots. I really love this bag. It's made of neoprene and I don't worry about my stuff falling out. It's also not too big and bulky, really tucks close to my side. I have a strap cover on it, and the only thing I don't like is the cover slides, so I need to pin it on. I have a pretty burgandy cover for it, but I almost exclusively use the black cover. Sometimes when I'm out someplace doing sightseeing, I will ditch my purse and put my phone, cards, checkbook (yes I carry one of those still!) in one of the pockets.

I have a lot of other little misc pieces here and there, and someday I'll share those with you too. I also need to work on my "wish list" lol, you know in case my husband wins the powerball sometime soon.
YES!

So if I show up with 2 Mark II's and a huge bag with $20K in lenses, suspect something big happened.

You gave her a WHAT?

2011-12-08T20:53:00.001-06:00

As I walked up the ramp leaving the building, my foot made a "ching.... ching... ching." noise, kind of like a mini pair if spurs.

But only on the right foot.

We shook hands, said our thank yous and when I got to the car I lifted my foot to find this:

My shoes were packed with multiple bullet casings.

Yep, when everyone else is at church (ok, none of the heathens we know, but lots of good god fearing folk), we were off at the gun range.

Why? Well, other than good clean fun, we were there to take the test for our conceal/carry class. Yep, in true redneck fashion, we want to carry guns (and legally too!) all the time. It's something we've wanted to do for a while, and have recently felt like it was an important thing that we get accomplished.

It was actually quite fun, but as I hadn't shot for a while, I was kind of nervous. I also admit to cheating off of Gene's written test on a couple answers, which was a MISTAKE because we both missed the question. LOL.

Surprisingly, I know more about parts of a gun than I thought I did.

huh.

You have to qualify, which means you have to shoot 50 rounds at 21 at a paper homicidal maniac. Then, you get to shoot him another 50 times (ish) with a revolver and a semi-automatic. And I say him, because hellooooo..... do you see earrings on my paper guy?

no.

Once you shoot a big fat hole in the middle of your guy, you have passed your test and now can apply for a license barring any problems with your mental state or criminal history.

*cross your fingers for me*

Gene, being a show off and a former cop, of course shows me up. Douche. All of his holes are in the important part of the paper maniac.

Mine on the other hand.....

Well, I maintain that one up there by #7, while out of the "important zone of 9" is still a good shot because I feel confident I hit the juglar.

It'll be a slow death.

Sorry.

Oh, and now I want a semi-automatic pistol for christmas.

really.

BTW, thanks for the kind words Tuesday. I feel better and feel less like killing people, which is probably a good thing considering I don't have that CC license yet. ha.

Good night and good riddance

2011-12-06T23:38:00.001-06:00

Ever have one of those days, where you know around 9:30 a.m. that you probably should just have stayed in bed? And you got up at 9:05?!
Yeah, it's been one of those days.

I can barely up the muster to put my clothes on, let alone anything else. A foul, stinky, "I hate the world" kind of mood I tell ya. I had a blog post planned for today, but instead I have decided to sleep it off - like a bad headache that won't go away.

More tomorrow.

In the meantime, enjoy my dark, moody photo which kind of illustrates my mood.

What's an extension tube anyway?

2011-12-01T21:59:00.001-06:00

If you love close up/macro photos you may already know that a macro lens, even a cheap one, is going to set you back hundreds of dollars. I totally will admit that I've had one on my amazon wish list for several years now, but the truth is, I really need other lenses more.

Gene sells jewelry online, and I really struggle with getting a great shot that shows the details of the piece.

Introducing... the extension tube.

An extension tube is just that. Basically a tube that moves the lens away from the camera base. There's a couple different sizes that you can buy for a canon mount, but in reality, you can make your own out of some black pipe and some hose clamps.

However, I really wanted my camera to take readings while I got the shot so I went for the OEM product from Canon which costs around $140-$175. A virtual steal when it comes to "lenses".

Essentially, what happens is that it moves the lens away from the body which reduces that minimum focal distance. My 50 mm lens before was 1.5 feet minimum distance from the object, but now I can get down to about 4 inches from my subject.

Here's a couple examples of what the extension tube can accomplish. Both photos below are as close as I can possibly get, no cropping of the image.

As you can see, the focal length greatly affects also how close you can get, but on some items you may not want to get that close so you can choose a lens with a longer focal length.

This has greatly improved my close up shots.

You don't want to forget, that with any lens, you need to narrow your aperture to increase your depth of field. This will guarantee your subject will be nice and crisp. You'll have to give up something else in return though - you'll need a lot of light the more you narrow your aperture. (just increasing your ISO will cause grain unless you have a 1dx. Which I don't)

My over all evaluation is that the ext tube was a great investment for my return. Not the same as a macro lens, but pretty darn good anyway for what I need to accomplish. If you're looking for a good photography gift for someone, this is a winner.

If you'd like to read more about extension tubes, here is a great article.

A different spin on a senior photo

2011-11-30T16:29:00.001-06:00

Now for something... kind of different.
Paige's senior photos.

Evaluating another photographer's work

2011-11-24T09:24:00.001-06:00

I got an email on facebook from an old friend from high school. "Do you have the historical society on your friends list? They just posted a photo of your family."

It took a matter of seconds from getting that email, until I requested being added to the group of other people sharing the heritage of our hometown. The curator, Sandi, had acquired boxes of negatives from a 40's/50's era photographer. Lovingly she scans each one, and shares the results with the group. Many people seeing relatives long passed.

In this group of thousands of photos, were a few taken of my dad and his siblings as young children. The above photo I've seen before, that's my dad on the upper left. He's the oldest boy. The only one missing is his older sister who was living with my great-grandmother out of state.

Most would look at this photo and see their family...
"Uncle's tooth is missing"
"Look how she dressed them as twins, even though they're not."
"What's up with the high waters?"
"Love the pomade dad."

As a photographer though, I evaluate other things...
"Posing is pretty bad, but great considering 5 kids under 10"
"What happened to Uncle's hand? Horrible crop."
"What's up with the random chair?"
"Off camera flash? I see you have problems with that too."

{Never before seen photos of my family, around 1946-ish)

Then I remembered that we all start somewhere, even if it was 60 years ago. I will reserve MY early work to scare away mice under the house.

But as I looked at other pieces of his work, I saw something else. Here was a guy (because there weren't many female photographers back then) that was really trying to push the envelope. He was shooting in people's homes, yards, and in their daily surroundings rather than a studio. I'm guessing he didn't have one.

He was experimenting with posing and with light.

He was taking on jobs with people I know were lower income (my family probably being one of them, hence multiple trips to this photographer as evidenced above).

He worked sometimes in shallow depth of fields (which blows my mind).

He sometimes worked with odd random props.

It was then that I realized, that the man was a visionary, a man ahead of his times. I've looked at thousands upone thousands of vintage photos in my life (I have a collection), and I've never seen work like his. Most photos you will find are either snapshots, or they are studio shots. I don't ever remember seeing work in a family's home specifically, or while they are playing in the yard.

These are things you see now, 60 years later, and he was doing things things either out of desire our necessity. I'm assuming necessity since he had no studio.

Then I realized, that he and I have more in common than I could imagine. Technically his work might need some work, but the vision is the same. Make people happy. Give them what they can afford. Go to them when you don't have a place to put them. Work on the technical aspects to do your best. Improve your work 10-fold.

And for that, I give us both a pat on the back.

Let's try something... different

2011-11-19T20:46:00.003-06:00

Recently I had an epiphany. A big one. One about my life, something that I hadn't really hadn't considered before.

I realized that many things that I do, centers around trying to recapture the happier parts of my childhood. I didn't have a horrible childhood, but it wasn't exactly great by most measuring sticks. What's the point into going into lots of details really?

I never realized that the Christmas ornaments I choose, the places I vacationed to, the gifts I bought for others, were just a way for me to relive those happy moments one more time. Or maybe, an attempt to make an old sad moment, and make it into a happy one. Imagine how difficult it was for me to stumble across some of my childhood books in an antique store - I wanted to take them all home with me. I was even making life long decisions on where to live based on these ideas!

I have since realized that I can let some of this stuff go. Where would my life lead me, if instead of looking backwards sadly or happily, I looked forward with curiosity?

Things I've done on tradition alone, I've let go. No longer am I tied down to do anything, just because that's what I've always done, or what I've always thought I should do for some reason.

One of those small events I've changed was photos - of all things. Every year as a child, I remember the day after getting our school pics back. Everyone would bring all their school pics to school with their signature on the back to trade. I still have almost all these pics of my old schoolmates.

So when the boys were little, I kind of wanted them to live that moment too. Except here in Maryville, it's either not done, or really not a big deal. Finally this year, we decided to just completely forego photos all together!

After all, he has a mother that's a photographer right?

I realized that I like these so much better than the crappy ones the school gives you. I have an opportunity to make them look more like Tanner's personality and at the same time, they got to be Tanner's childhood memories.

Not mine.

Frankie says relax!

2011-11-13T22:38:00.003-06:00

{sunset over SW Iowa, 11-6-11}

I made it to the other side.
I'm so happy.

No, I didn't die or anything. I just made it through hell month, I mean, October. A million shoots (ok, a lot), several weddings (one in Oklahoma, next day one here in NW MO), and lots of editing. I still have editing to do, but the shoots will die down, my back will heal. My feet will rest. My butt will probably get wider (even though I'm working it off!)

There is peace in my head, and housekeeping to be done.

relaxxxxxxxx... ahhh.

I promise to post more now that I have my life back!

You'll regret asking me what I've been up to.

2011-11-08T00:12:00.003-06:00

I decided to step just a little out of my comfort zone, and push more towards a goal I have... to sell my art/nature photos for people to decorate their homes. I printed up 2 photos. My favorite, and Gene's favorite (because he kept pestering me!) as 16x20's and then added them to my booth.

It felt like a small victory.

And if they sell, I won't make hardly anything, but it'll make me all super happy anyway ;)

I need a little more exiting set up.

In other news:
1. I have a crapload of work to do this week.

2. I have a student coming here to my house to job shadow Wednesday and I feel like a bomb went off. I'm going to scrape the worst of it into a corner. I'm seriously considering hiring a housekeeper.

3. I felt my first earthquake on Sunday. I was sitting in my office chair and it started wobbling. I thought the cat was rubbing it and looked down, no one was there. Then it kept wobbling. Come to find out, that earthquake in OK, made it all the way to MO.

4. I felt my second earthquake on Monday. See above. I told Gene "There's another earthquake! I can feel movement." he said, "There's nothing moving." (kind of indigent.) Ha. Should have bet him a fifty.

5. Said earthquakes were in Oklahoma.

6. Btw, I'm going to Oklahoma later this week. yessir.

7. Meetings with brides left and right lately. Everything is a time crunch it feels like. Things are good on the business front, but I feel like I'm getting less and less stuff in the rest of my life done. (hence: housekeeper)

8. Finally got everything sorted with the insurance company from the August 21 storm. I had to have a minor tantrum to finally make it happen. Other people had completely new roofs and siding and I didn't even have a stupid check yet. Not cool.

9. Which means some huge changes on the homefront here next summer. I don't know how we'll have time for it all. I'm hiring contractors - apply within. (but only if you actually show up and don't do crap work - do those exist?)

10. Two payments left on my last credit card and I'll be credit card debt free. First time since 1988! *get out* *Elaine shove* Next in line: The house.

11. My trusty old Neon is in the shop for the entire week. It has a minor transmission problems. *I do not want a new car. I do not want a new car.*

12. Shoot in Nebraska city on Saturday, in Creston, Iowa on Sunday. I feel all worldly except for the part where it's just Iowa and Nebraska.

13. Speaking of worldly, I wasted 1/2 hour today looking at vacation packages to Dominican Republic. All I could think of was someplace warm. I'm already wussing out on winter.

14. Gene and I were talking the other day about how neither of us had ever had caviar. We spent some time online looking at caviar for sale. The very next day, we were offered caviar at an event we went to (weird) and now we totally get it. That could be an expensive habit.

15. I could keep going but I see your eyes are getting droopy.

16. So are mine! Almost 1 a.m.! Nite ya'll!

Like a ninja. A short, fat, middle aged ninja.

2011-11-04T08:58:00.003-05:00

I'm here.
I'm like a ninja, always in the shadows then POW.. there I am.

Or maybe I'm just really crazed at the moment.
"at the moment" *snark*

It has been nuts here and I'm so happy October is over! Yay. I know, that's so sad, but it's always the busiest month of the year with weddings and people wanting their Christmas photos. Now we'll be super busy processing photos to get Christmas rush orders out. I feel a little bad being neglectful over here, but really I wouldn't have much to contribute other than "Oh, I processed some photos today" or "Oh, I took some photos today." or "Oh, I put the cat on the floor 47 times from blocking my view today."

The only exciting thing about winter coming is the fact that I'll have lots of time to get some other things done that I haven't had time for for a while. Like some trash to treasure projects, working on my blog, cleaning my house.
bleh.

Would you like some dust with your dust?

2011-10-31T21:20:00.002-05:00

It's that time of year again. All the fields turn to barren wastelands so the winds can whip through my house as fast as possible....

You hear a noise, look out the window and see this in your back yard....

And breath dust and sweep dust and wash dust....

and more dust....

But at least someone is happy about it....

Trash to Treasure - Union Jack Dresser

2011-10-25T23:25:00.003-05:00

About 2-3 weeks ago, I found this pretty cool dresser at a garage sale for not a lot of money. Very sturdy, needed love, but looked like it was probably a very nice piece of furniture at some point.

I could not decide how to revive it. I didn't want to just paint it white or blue or something uninteresting. I'd seen some dressers on better after blog that had some designs painted on the front. I wanted to paint something too! So as I lay in bed one night, I used it as an excuse to keep me awake.

It hit me...

I'd paint a union jack on the front! BRILLIANT!

How I did it, is below.

It took me about a week to do, painting 15-60 minutes at a time, then waiting for that coat to dry before moving on to the next. Definitely one of the better transformations I've made yet!

I really want to KEEP IT. hah. I'm still looking at my house and trying to figure out how I can work it in. I can do it... I can. I swear.

Please don't buy it.
;)

Little blessings come in big packages

2011-10-24T22:25:00.004-05:00

{Missouri Sunsets are the best!}

Lately, we have been feeling pretty darn blessed in our lives. Good things keep coming our way in the best possible ways. I've learned over the past few years, that when I need/want something, I just put it out their to the universe and wait.

Sometimes it's a few days, sometimes it's a few months, but whatever we need just seems to come, and it comes at a great discount. I'm not sure why this has been happening so much to us except I'm not going to question it too hard. You know, gift horses' mouths and all.

So today something I've been considering for a long time has happened. To truly succeed at this business, I need to expand our coverage area. Don't get me wrong, my coverage area starts in Maryville, and ends somewhere around South Africa. I'll go just about anywhere except Iran or something.

Sorry our Iranian friends.

But the truth is, short of having a storefront in South Africa, it's really difficult to break into those territories with just a website. I have had some success in our surrounding large cities (Omaha and Kansas City), but I want to become a regular *force*.

About 2-3 weeks ago, I attended a conference held by the PPA (Professional Photographers of America). The ironic part of this is, they'd been sending me emails to attend for weeks, but a few days before, they offered me a free ticket. (thanks universe). I decided it was worth a trip just to see what happens.

What happened was there was a very successful photographer in a similar market as me. She is very good at marketing (and I LOVE marketing). She hit so many of my "buttons" that I realized we needed to pop on it and make it happen finally.

Sooooo......
Today, we signed a lease on an office space in St. Joseph, Mo. We'll be located at 7th and Jules in the Mo-Kan business development building. It will mainly be a meeting space to meet with clients before and after their sessions. We have an office and use of a big beautiful conference room for large groups families, etc. We'll sometimes be able to do small mini sessions if need to in this space.

We are so excited!
This is a big jump for us! We predict big things.
Photos coming soon!

But that's not all. In the spring/summer, we'll be breaking ground on our new studio right *HERE* at the Cease Fire Ranch. Yep folks, you'll be able to come right into our studio to have your portrait taken even in December - which is HUGE for us. There will also be outdoor studio spaces here which I'll work on over time including cool props that you'll only be able to get at Cease Fire Studios.

Photos with chickens are no extra charge.

How to set a light pole in 15 minutes flat

2011-10-18T23:39:00.002-05:00

1. Get your ginormous drill lined up to where you want to drill using your handy dandy remote control gadget (and we thought playing atari would never come in handy as a life skill.)

2. Dig for a couple minutes until you can't see the drill anymore. Pull it out and spin it backwards really fast. Wheeee.

3. Use the arm that holds the drill, to pull a brand new pole off the truck. One lonely little guy aims it around as everyone else watches.

4. Little to the right. Little more.... sweet.

5. Line 'er up. Get it straight.

6. Dump the dirt back into the hole and use a jackhammer to jam it into place.

7. TaDA! Chickens will love that pile of dirt around the bottom. They'll probably love all the fat worms living in there.

Now... Who would like to come and dispose of the old pole for me?
Anyone?
Hello?

PS. No electricity to it yet. Just a pole.
Kountry life it is excitin'.

Bridges of Madison County

2011-10-11T23:45:00.005-05:00

For years, I've had something simple on my "bucket list" that I've wanted to accomplish.

Back in the 90's when the movie/book "The bridges of Madison County" came out, I absolutely fell in love with them both. It's such a romantic and tragic story all at the same time that has stuck with me for years.

Since then, I've always wanted to visit the Bridges, which aren't really all that far from me (a couple hours) but I've never made the trek... always something more important going on. Always something needing done. Always think of it late in the year.

But not this time...
this time I was thinking about a trip we'll be taking later this year to the Amana Colonies and realized we'd be near Winterset, Iowa. While looking up the bridges, I found out that this past weekend was their Covered Bridges Festival.

Friday night I kinda hemmed and hawed that I didn't need to go, but Gene was hell bent that I was going - even though I'm positive he didn't want to go. (he was kind of grumpy, but kept it to himself lol).

We hit ever single bridge - all six of them, and saved the best for last.
Each bridge is in order of how we visited them, and my goal with each bridge, was to get a unique or different type of shot for each one.

The bridges are all covered on the insides (and some outsides) with graffiti, most of it is sweet and romantic.

I spotted this truck from across the bridge as we pulled up, and I said "It's just like the truck from the movie!" When I got home, I blew up the photo, and it even said Kincaid Photography on the side. Apparently, this truck sits in the yard of Francesca's house (we didn't go there :( )

The photo on the right was taken through a knot hole in the bridge, you can see the new bridge through the hole.

I could only find one.

I love this badass photo of Gene... in front of a romantic covered bridge.

That's his happy face.

Cedar bridge is featured on the cover of the book and also where Oprah filmed her show. It was also burnt to the ground by an arsonist and rebuilt around 2003.

I happened across a couple here, snuggling together. I asked them if they wanted their photo together and took her digital camera. I couldn't help myself, and taught him how to dip her. (it's an important skill all men need to know). I also made him admit - for the first time - that she was his girlfriend.

;)

Hi, my name is Lana. I stir the pot and make people get out of their comfort zone.
I'm also a pot stirrer.

It's also the only bridge you can still drive over.

In the book, Francesca leaves a note on Roseman bridge for Robert to come to supper any time the white moths fly. I spur of the moment decided that I wanted to leave the same note for Gene in the same spot that hundreds of others have left love notes.

I may or may not have gotten choked up and teary-eyed a wee bit.

This is the spot, where Robert Kincaid (Clint Eastwood) discovered the note on the bridge.

Gene left me a note, but said I couldn't share it on the internet. I don't think he wants anyone to know he's a romantic and a softie.
(please see: Bad ass photo).

We arrived kind of late. In fact, I thought Gene was going to wipe out on the backroads trying to get there (it's very winding and difficult to find - which is funny as that's how Robert met Francesca - looking for directions.) We arrived as the sun was just falling behind the trees and it was growing darker by the moment.

The up side to this, was after about 10 minutes, we were the last 2 people there.

It was perfect, and magic and I didn't want to leave. I had my very own Robert Kincaid, on my very own covered bridge. All to myself.

I love that guy.

Part of me wishes I'd fulfilled that little dream I had of being married there at Roseman Bridge. I'd thought of it for a long time. I still might make Gene marry me at that bridge. I'm thinking that if I marry him in every state in the country, he's stuck with me because it will cost a fortune to get a divorce. lol

Oh wait.. I already married him in Iowa.
damn.

It's not all sweet and innocent.
Gulp.

Well, it started out kind of nice anyway.

Trash to Treasure - chalkboard frame formerly known as Jesus

2011-10-07T23:19:00.003-05:00

So the other day, I was at a garage sale and found this cool picture of Ashton Kutcher....

Oh calm down.

I came to the conclusion a long time ago that God has a great sense of humor or he wouldn't have given me powers of sarcasm. Either that or I'm going to hell.

So anyway, I really liked the frame Jesus/Ashton was in, but he's not a big seller. My original plan was to toss the picture but Gene about had a fit. Said it was tantamount to burning a flag.

*scratches head*

I decided that Jesus/Ashton still had to go, but being the recycler I am, I decided instead he'd still be there looking over everyone ... like usual (except Charlie Sheen. I'm pretty sure Charlie is going to hell).... instead of tossing the pic, I'd secretly turn him into a chalkboard.

Easy peasy.

(forgive me father for I have sinned....)

First I had to remove the weird brackets on the back to get the pic out. It was printed on a super heavy duty cardboard material that I thought would hold up well to paint.

Look how purdy it frames the junk in my living room and the island that needs cleaned off!

My original intent was to paint the frame, but I really liked the color that it already was. If I were going to paint it, I would probably be my go-to turquoise blue color in which I probably should just buy a case of spray paint.

I bought a quart of chalkboard paint at the wallsmart. $9.97!! Crazy. Imagine how annoyed I was when I found out you can add some sanded grout to latex paint and it will do the exact same thing. That must be what I found in the bottom of the paint in a huge lump.

You must use a nappy brush to paint your surface. I think that I would have been just as fine with a pad brush instead.

Wait for it to dry, pop the pic back in and voila!

See how simple that was?

And Jesus/Ashton didn't have to go to the evil landfill. He also watches you from his secret cloaking device.

Always judging you.
Keeping you in line.

win win!

Frame: $1.00
Paint: $10.00 (can use on a multitude of projects, so I will call this $1.00)
chalk: .97 (I had some I'd kept for probably 5 years. Finally tossed it about a month ago. sigh.

Grand total: around $3.00
Skill level? A blind monkey could do this.... so I only had a moderate level of difficulty!

Share your trash to treasure links!

Good night Missouri

2011-10-06T23:03:00.002-05:00

My favorite part of the day.
Shortly after the sun falls behind the horizon.
The sky fades from orange to blue to indigo.
People jetting off to places unknown.
Beautiful orange trails following them.
Evidence not only of where they've been,
but where they're going.
Yet, it's still a mystery.

Why can't skies be like this all the time?

Devon's senior photos!

2011-10-05T10:45:00.000-05:00

If you'd like to see some more beautiful senior photos of Devon, you can check them out on my business blog. Sheesh I'm almost posting over there more lately. lol

I have a secret

2011-10-04T22:19:00.003-05:00

I've been a faithful reader of postsecret for around 5-6 years now. I've seen every single postcard from the beginning. It's my Sunday ritual, instead of going to church, I go to the House 'o Postsecret.

Can I hear an amen?

So when I scrolled down through the schedule to see if Frank might be coming to Missouri, and actually saw the world "Maryville" I was ecstatic.

I showed up early to pick up my tickets - which were free (you can't beat free!) and planned on talking Gene into going with me. Once in a while he'd read the secrets with me, but he does not worship at the altar of secrets like myself.

About a week ago, I showed up early and sat in the parking lot. I had no idea how busy it might be, and I didn't want to be early - but I didn't want to lose my seat either (it was general admission). I waited about 20 minutes, then finally went in to wait.

Slowly more and more people filtered in, then there was a line, then 2 lines - big ones.

Yep, it was official...
I was the oldest person there.

Well, unless you count the professor, or student adviser or whatever she was.

Frank appeared with little fanfare, but to a auditorium full of adoring fans. He just talked. Shared some more post secrets, some stories and a secret of his own. Frank cares deeply about reducing suicide rates and has raised a lot of money for the Hopeline which has saved countless lives.

At the end, 2 lines formed of people coming to share their secrets. It was emotional hearing people pour out their hearts - I admit that maybe I shed a few tears.

One person sharing touched me very deeply and I will never forget him. He approached the mic in a plaid shirt, and a fedora that he pulled down nearly over his face. You could hear how scared that he was, but he was doing it.

I hope that he see this. If you are his friend, could you send him a message for me? I looked for him afterwards but couldn't find him.

Dear 22 year old:
I want you to know that even though you are terrified, you are so brave. You've already accomplished more in your short years, than I could ever muster the bravery to do myself at 42 years old. I'll live vicariously through you... or maybe you'll inspire me. Maybe we'll meet by accident on campus some day.

Best of luck to you always,
Lana

Andy..... Opie.... Dinnertime!! It's apple pie time.

2011-09-27T14:33:00.002-05:00

I kind of have this obsession with small town America. I'm searching desperately for the perfect small rural town. You know, it has a little grocery store, but you can still get fancy cheeses. It has more businesses "up town" than "down town". The algebra teacher has 7 students in her advanced class and most people sleep not only with their door unlocked, but probably standing wide open too.

It also needs to be warm there in the winter.

So that rules out the perfect town (otherwise).
Nebraska City, Nebraska.

I love this place. It feels like 1967 - only without racial unrest. I totally expect Andy and Opie to come around the corner any moment and Aunt Bea following them with a fresh baked cherry pie.

It's also home to Arbor Day Farms so that means the scenery is pretty nice. But what's more important is the wine. Yeah... like.. booze. They make the best Apple wine on the planet and so we decided we'd make the trek there over the weekend to get a couple bottles -which kind of turned into a case of wine.

I feel like such a lush.

My favorite part of Neb City is main street. It's very long - about 6 -7 blocks long and hardly any empty storefronts. Not just chiropractors and insurance salesmen either (apologies to those ppl). It has lots of cute shops like gift shops and antique stores, but it doesn't FEEL like they are catering to tourists.

I think they have caught on, to the feel that they are putting out there as these murals have appeared on the ends of some of their buildings. Old looking advertisements painted right onto the brick.

Arbor Day farms is on the edge of town, and so beautiful.

It doesn't, however, look like the above photo right now. heh. I kind of doctored the fall leaves in because I missed most of it last year.

We hurried to the lodge because the serve really great food there and we wanted to make lunch. However, we didn't plan ahead very well, and had to go 45 miles in the WRONG DIRECTION. There's no place to cross the Missouri river between St. Joseph, Mo, and Omaha.

Really.

That's like a 3 hour drive between those two locations as the crow flies. It took a 1.5 hour trip, and turned it into a 3.25 hour trip.

We still went!
(we really like wine)

I had the bison burger and Gene had the Reuben sandwich. Both were excellent, and I don't even really like reubens!

We hung out, antique shopped, bought a case of wine - which was half filled with their new apple pie wine. (Think flavorful apples with a cinnamon kicker.. mmm... warm).

See you soon Nebraska City. As soon as you figure out that -20 deg in January issue, I'm in.

Went on a treasure hunt!

2011-09-21T09:44:00.002-05:00

A few weeks ago, Gene and I went to Topeka for the weekend.

Yes, that's terribly exciting isn't it? LOL

We had a groupon for a hotel in Topeka, and one of our friends was celebrating his 50th birthday (surprise party!!) so we combined the 2 things together, threw in some antiquing and made a weekend of it all.

In the process of antiquing, we ran across an odd little shop with no price tags run by a little old man. He was quite a character and regaled us with stories of antiquing. Too bad we couldn't stand their much longer as we were sweltering in the shop with no A/C.

One of the things he told us, was that he attended the 600-mile garage sale every year and made a killing. It went from St. Joseph, MO to Denver. Interesting, I'd heard of it, but didn't realize it was in St. Joe.

Well, he was wrong. I did a little investigating and it's really called the Hwy 36 Treasure Hunt and crosses the entire state of Kansas. (FYI, there really is a 600-mile garage sale called the 127 corridor sale).

We decided to go for it, and in the process, we'd take the trailer with us. What's the point of finding a great deal in the middle of nowhere, if your trailer is 250 miles away back home!!

What we quickly realized was a couple things:
1. We should have started out earlier. We left from our house, and by the time we hit the antique booth to drop off a couple things and stumbled across a great garage sale, we didn't really get to hwy 36 until around 9:30 a.m. Mistake.

2. I pictured a lot of vendors along the highway at key places, but really, it boiled down to a lot of towns TRYING to have town wide garage sales. When you're not local, that's kind of hard to find... so we just followed signs when people had them out.

Garage sales were everywhere, and we actually had better luck than when we're at home. We wanted to stock up on some merchandise for our booth to get us through the winter - and now we have a dining room full of crap that needs to go into storage. BLECH.

We had fun, would probably try it again with a different angle (like driving way out into KS, spending the night and then getting up at the buttcrack of dawn to head out towards home).

My favorite find of the weekend, however, did NOT come from the treasure hunt:

{cat for sale}

It came from the store where we have our booth! This awesome sweet little chair will be a great prop for families and seniors! Small, light weight, cute and fits in the back of my jeep with no problems!

When we get the studio built, it will be seating in the waiting area/prop for photos.

Which, I don't think I shared. Gene and I are planning on breaking ground on a studio here at the Cease Fire Ranch in the spring! It might take a while to get done, but we're moving in that direction and I am SO HAPPY about it I can hardly sit still.

Of course, I'll keep you updated - and invite you all to the opening party. Hopefully that will happen sometime this decade!

People are good.

2011-09-20T22:04:00.003-05:00

It seems sometimes that we live in a world of constant reminders that people are not so wonderful to be around. Flipped off at a stop sign, terrorists, politicians (sometimes they are almost one in the same), entitled snots, thieves and liars.

How sad of an opener is that? :/

But despite what some people show themselves to be, I truly believe that most people are inherently good people. I give you these case in points.

Case in point #1: The above photo was taken by a man named Frank Glick. He captured this beautiful bald eagle sitting on a tombstone at Fort Snelling National Cemetary earlier this year. Quickly, the photo became viral after he shared it with the widow of the man who was buried there. I read a story about this photo and Frank talked about how he was overwhelmed with all the email he's received. I decided to email Frank and tell him that I thought his photo was beautiful, and offered up any assistance if he needed it (free of charge). I gave him some suggestions on how to reduce his "work" load. Within minutes Frank had emailed me back thanking me for the kind words and asking me for my address as he wanted to send me a print free of charge.

About a week later, an envelope came in the mail and I had my own personalized print of the eagle.

Frank is good people. We need more people like Frank.

Case in point #2: I've been reading Kal Barteski's blog forever. I've been there since before her oldest child was born (and she just went off to her first day of pre-school the other day!). I started out reading for her art tips, but ended up staying for the little bright spot that Kal puts out there almost every single day. Plus cute girls and adorable dogs don't really hurt either.

Kal is almost always super optimistic in her blog (we all have a day once in a while no?), sending out positive vibes to us every day. Kal is my first stop of the day, kind of my coffee. I gave up caffeine but kept Kal.

The other thing is, that Kal is an incredible artist. I wish I could sit and watch her paint, her paintings look like they were just created on a breeze. I have a couple small prints, a magnet or two, her book she wrote a few years ago. Well, the other day she posted a contest, asking us what we were celebrating over labor day weekend. Either by random, or by choice, I was one of the winners of some cute little signed Kal prints shown above.

Sometimes when you win stuff on the internet, you don't actually GET the item you won. *sadface*. It just never shows up, but I knew that wouldn't be the case here, and in about a week, another wonderful envelope appeared in my mailbox with TWO awesome prints.

Thank you Kal. You rock the awesome sauce.
GO!!

Case in point #3: A couple weeks ago, I was going out on a senior shoot with a cutie from Iowa, and her mamma too. Her mom's name is Marie, and we actually have had several really fun conversations as we graduated at the same time, from the same area, and it just so happens that Marie works with the sister of a guy I had a ginormous crush on for like, several years. (long story) lol.

So anyway, I'm on my wait to take them out into the wild countryside for awesome photos. They are following me, and I'm stopped, making a left at a weird corner. I pull up so I can see around a curve in the road, and I think Marie must have thought I was going.

BAM!!

Marie nailed me. Shook me up pretty hard, made my neck hurt like a son of a gun right off the bat. My jeep came out GREAT. Marie's truck? Not so much. Jeep was happy to hear about that crash test rating. lol (sorry Marie!)

Anyway, she felt really horrible - but it was ok, that's why we call them *accidents*. We went on and shot for the night, Marie was embarrassed as heck, but we made the best of it.

The next day, I get a call from the florist saying they wanted to deliver some flowers. I knew instantly who sent them. ha! This sweet fall arrangement sits on my island. I had Gene going for a few minutes. I told him thank you for sending me flowers that was so sweet of him. ;) Had him thinking some random boy had a secret crush on me.
Sigh.

Sadly I'm not 17 anymore.
Not that that happened to me when I was 17. ;)

Case in point #4: The same day the flowers show up, Gene says "close your eyes, I have a present for you". You see, it was nearly time for my 2 months present.

what's that?

Well, we've determined with my birthday, valentine's day, Christmas, Mother's day, etc etc - that I'm due a gift about every 2 months.

I like this schedule, but I'm trying to push it up to every 6 weeks.

Anyway, out of the blue he gives me this cute little feathered rooster, just because he thinks I'd like it, I do, because it makes me think of my Roo. Roo is supposed to be named Roofus, but I call him Mr. Mooster because that's what my niece used to call her mooster, I mean rooster.

So you see, in a world with quite a few big brown turds that seem to make the news, or show up up on my favorite forums, or in my address book, I feel confident in saying that most people, are good people.

I have proof.

********************************

I, however, have been a bad blogger. Lately I've had other things on my mind and not been in the notion to blog. I have lots of good blog posts in my noggin, but when it comes time to put it "to paper" I feel very "mehhhh". Forgive me ;)

I will try to step it up a bit so I can relieve my own guilt.

Abby and Jim's Wedding Story

2011-09-15T22:55:00.002-05:00

This is what I've been doing all week!
Whew.

So many photos.
Super awesome wedding.

Dad and Jesus

2011-09-14T15:48:00.000-05:00

There is just something about this image, taken shortly before his daughter's wedding, that I love so much. I want to tap Dad on his shoulder and ask him if he's ok. Maybe he wants to tell me the rest of his story? Maybe he just wants to be left alone with his thoughts, and so that's what I do. Left wondering what is weighing heavy on his mind at this moment.

Jesus sees him through.

He's how old? what the.....???

2011-09-12T22:51:00.003-05:00

Guess who is almost a legal adult...
yet isn't.

HA!

Oh the power I still behold over this child. ;) He started out in this world as my sidekick. At 2 weeks old, he was in his carrier every day on the way to my shop with me. He'd sleep in the back room until he was big enough to crawl around and break stuff.

Happy 17th Birthday to my widdle baby boy. Love you Tanner - even more than Jingles (but I will deny I ever said that if you tell).

Sometimes he still crawls around and breaks stuff.

Boys.
ugh.

;)

Trash to Treasure - Bed to Bench

2011-09-07T11:37:00.004-05:00

I've been really into trash to treasure lately, I suppose this winter it will calm down a bit when I can't get outside for ohhh.... 6 months! sigh.

I've had this idea for a while, I've seen someone else do it and wanted to give it a shot. It's taking an old bed frame and creating a bench out of it! It's easier than it sounds, and it only takes a couple simple tools to do it.

#1. Start by finding a bed frame that's seen better days. Mine was found at a town wide garage sale for $1.00. It's a twin size, not too big, and full of potential!

#2. Next step was obvious. It had to be cleaned!! I didn't care if it was going to get wet (no pledge here) as the finish was bad, and I was going to be painting it anyway, so I just hosed it off.

#3. Primer is your friend! Don't bother these old pieces unless you use some good primer or you'll be painting over and over again.

#4. What color!??
So exciting.

#5. Spring green! Yay!! It's so springy... and.. uh... green-y.

Oh wait...
It looks like crap painted on, it really looks more like neon yellow. Blech....

#6. So I ended up with turquoise blue, which is my new go to color. Sadly I couldn't find a can of this that I loved, so I had to *mix my own*. Oh yes I did. Not only did I do it, I did it twice because I didn't have enough, and it was so close you couldn't even see my brush strokes.

Go me.

So in this step I needed to cut my foot board in half to make the side rails. First I cut it exactly in half, but realized the seat would be too deep so I re-cut it so that the sides were 19" deep. I used a simple jigsaw to cut these lines.

#7. I then screwed the sides to the ends of the headboard. It's starting to look like a bench! I ended up cutting a little bit off of the foot board sides to make them a little lower to rest your arm on. I did this with my miter saw. Ignore the dirt, at this point it's been outside for a while. LOL.

Forgive me, July was 100 deg like ... every. single. day.

#8. I then cut rails for the seat sit on. I screwed this part in from the ends. Be sure to do all of this on a flat surface. It's hard to get it nice and square out in your yard ;)

#9. Using my miter saw again, I cut a whole bunch of slats to fit across the seat. Normally I might pick something different (a solid piece or 2 long boards, etc) but I already owned this wood - so it was FREE.

#10. I had to carefully cut around the shape of the bed to make the end slats fit perfectly. I then used my palm sander (you could use just sandpaper if you wish) to sand the cut edges of the boards to keep people from getting splinters. I then just painted the sides of the boards as I figured it would go quicker that way. (it did)

#11. Shoo bee!!

All the slats are then carefully spaced (I used a nail as a spacer) and screwed from above into the cross rails. It probably would have looked better if I would have been fancier and screwed from below, but it really wasn't THAT big of a deal for me.

#12. After all the slats are down, I then painted all the flat surfaces of the seat, but it's been a long summer (this took me 3 months here and there.... no really). The blue parts went through the hail storm so it took a tiny bit of a beating. Ok, a big bit of a beating so I had some touch ups to do. I also realized I needed to reinforce some of my joints on the original bed with some super long screws!

I also needed to fill in all the screw holes. At first I wasn't going to sweat it, but there ended up being quite a few and I didn't like it, so I had to fill them!

TA DA!!
I added a few handmade pillows and it's done! I think it's really adorable how it turned out, and I believe it will end up in our antique booth. Hmm... think I can talk Gene into letting me keep it?

I also found another bed frame at a garage sale for FREE.. only it's fancier. oh la la. lol (Although, I might save it for when I get my studio though for boudoir shoots). I'm sure you'll see that one someday too.

BTW, bench for sale - chicken not included.

Quick, cheap and easy jumbled cord fix!

2011-09-06T10:08:00.003-05:00

I once heard a saying, that things can be quick, cheap or easy, pick 2 of those, but never 3. So if someone had something that's cheap and easy, it won't be quick.

Finally, I found something that is all three!

I was having a personal crisis of sorts. I hate lots of cords laying around. Not only is it visually unappealing, it's just makes everything look dirty and annoying, it probably wasn't very safe either.. It got to be a problem with too many things sitting at this one outlet in the corner of my kitchen. Gene's charger for his drill would be out, there would be a phone or 2, then throw the house phone into the mix and it was a mess.

One day I said "I wish I had something to hide all these cords" as I turned my head to the left. I'd bought this little canister at a garage sale months before because it was so darn cute. I had no idea what to use it for, but I was thinking maybe a plant.

It worked perfect! Just stick all the cords in when not in use and put the lid on gently (don't squish the cords!) Cost? 50 cents! I probably could have done it even cheaper if I'd just looked for something I already had (but isn't that kind of what I did?)

Instantly clean.
Ahhhh.... Oh, and now I see I need to do some touch up paint in that spot.

crap.

A conversation with a frog {and a frog haiku}

2011-09-03T16:30:00.002-05:00

"oh, my! Hello there froggie. What brings you to my back door?"

"yes, excuse me mum." (all frogs have british accents btw) "I'm looking for me dinner thank you."

"oh, well, I've only see a bunch of moths around here. Thousands. You're welcome to any of them you'd like."

"Der de der, dum de dum. Don't go mindin' me, just passin' through."

"Mmamlahh mah dathhh hittthh dat sppptttte"
('Oh my that hits the spot' - his mouth was full).

"belllllllllllllllch"

gee, and here I thought the brits had more class than that!

I believe this event calls for a frog haiku.

So sticky, so green
A visit to my back door
SNAP! dem bugs be dead

Copyright Lana. Don't be usin' that man, or I'll sue you and stuffs. That's primo material I'm saving for my memoirs.

Trash to Treasure - easy peasy painted tchotchkes

2011-09-01T00:10:00.004-05:00

This will be the easiest trash to treasure project... like... EVAH. If you can't do it, it's only because you're under 18 and can't buy spray paint yet.

First you find yourself a really cute tchotchke. It doesn't have to be a pretty color, or even in super great condition. Don't look at the color, look at the shape and texture.

I picked an owl, because I seem to have an owl fetish. No, this does not mean I want family to buy me owls for Christmas. I don't need 97 owls. thankyouverymuch.

The only other thing you will need, is a can of spray paint in your favorite color. I choose krylon ocean breeze blue as I'm on my "turquoise is the new pink" phase of my life. I've gone through 3 cans of this stuff this summer.

You could use a cheaper paint if you wanted, but this isn't too high priced - I believed I paid around $3.50 a can.

1. Make sure your item is clean. You may just have to dust it, but if it's been in a kitchen getting greasy, you my have to give it a good scrubbing. Don't worry if you scrub off the finish, that might even be a good thing.

2. If it's shiny, you might have to use some sandpaper to rough up the finish a bit. Mine was fine the way it was. It's just ceramic.

3. Spray! Remember, several thin coats are better than one thick one.

4. Be careful with letting your item dry TOO long between coats. This paint tends to bubble if you let it cure overnight. I ended up having to give it about 4 coats from different angles. (This pic is after coat #1)

5. Done! It has a whole new life now as a lil' friend on my desk!

Why would you want to do this? Well, solid painted figures are kind of on trend now. (look at me, using trendy catch phrases). It's a great way to spruce up an old collection. To recycle something that was going to go to the garbage can. To show a little love to something that grandma had displayed for 20 years, but is otherwise kind of ugly.

Plus, when you take an item and make it one solid color, your eyes are now forced to admire the shape and texture of the item, instead of the quality of the previous paint job. It's a fun design tip!

If you can't spraypaint for some reason, you can do this with a regular old paint brush too, so it is a fun project for even the kids. Try pulling a group of different shapes, textures and sizes together (completely random) and then paint them all the same color. You now have an instant show piece or collection for your mantle, centerpiece or desk!

Show me your paint makeovers!

Amber and Chris - a tiny piece of their story

2011-08-30T00:22:00.002-05:00

If you only ever read one post on my photography blog, make it this one.

Stuff I love a/k/a My decor is full of randomness

2011-08-24T12:30:00.002-05:00

"Fill your home only with things you love." - Tip for decluttering.

Problem: I love everything!!!
No. Really. So many things I see just make me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. In turn, I want to drag it home so I feel warm and fuzzy all the time.

Did I mention that my taste is all over the board? LOL. I realized this today while shooting these photos. I wanted to share 12 of my favorite recent acquisitions.

1. little blue deer planter. It's turquoise blue (my new fav color). It's antique and it's a DEER. I mean, come on.. how could I go wrong?
2. Mean owl face pillow. srsly. He's pissed about something. Probably people keep sitting on his face.3. Deer pillow. It has a deer. three. of. them. It technically has a price tag on the back. No one loved it in my booth as much as me, so I brought it home. poor deer.
4. Orange duck. It does nothing. it sits there on my desk. It stares at me. but.... buttt... he's cute.

5. My peanut trinket box. It's a big silver peanut.... to hider smaller peanuts in? I dunno, it spoke to me.
6-7. Watercolors. Bought at separate times, from the same booth. I've always had a soft spot for watercolors.
8. LOVE this huge terrarium. This was probably a bad idea, but it was such a good deal, and sooo pretty. I see lots of succulents in it. I also see it taking up a huge chunk of my counter space so it might find a new home when I grow tired of it.

9. A statue. Gene is into art (paintings and sculptures). He fell in love with this piece. It was sold as alabaster, but I think it's actually a composite alabaster material. No, it's not gay ... I think it's either Cain and Abel, or it's a roman god wrestling thing. I'm leaning towards wrestling as it's Italian.

10. Gene brought home this plate to add to my western kitchenware "collection" that I didn't realize I had until I hung the plate.

11 and 12. I bought the painting at the top first. It's so sweet, I have a soft spot for cows. (if you haven't noticed). #12 was a happy accidental find. It seemed so perfect with the first one, that I had to get it too. I decided to hang them with no frames, raw edged canvases between the bathroom and the guest room. They fit right in with the cowboy stuff next door.

So now I think that maybe I need to determine what "our style" is, so that I don't drag home so much stuff that I love. (I make it sound like I'm sitting under heaps.. I am not). If I go in with a style in mind, that might keep me from buying something I really don't "need" only because I Loooove it.

I love mid-century modern, quirky bordering on cartoonish. Gene loves renaissance style art. Surely there's a compromise somewhere in between or am I delusional?

Don't answer that.

If you hate spiders, you will not enjoy this post... you are warned!

2011-08-23T21:52:00.003-05:00

So apparently after the storm, this place was the coolest thing since sliced bread. Our theory is, that all the flowers are wiped out from the storm, and everyone is hungry. They had a truce for once, so everyone could get a drink before starting back in to air combat.

Sunday morning, we woke up to this:

She'd built her web right across our window, which is right next to the humming birds. Yep, she's pretty large, at least 3"-4" across with her legs. Big enough to eat a hummingbird.

Apparently hummingbirds are a curious creature.

They would fly up to check out the spider. I'm sure that was the STRANGEST looking hummingbird they'd ever seen!

EVER.

And when they would, she'd reach out to "touch" them. Personally, I think she wanted to give them an extra special face kiss.

Gene BADLY wanted to get these shots, (most of these photos are by him) so he went outside so I could check my aperture (depth of field). In the process, this happened:

The verdict is in, THIS is the strangest hummingbird they've ever seen!!

FYI: spider got moved to the garden so we didn't have to see Wild Kingdom at work in our front window.

Go to hail!! (Maryville Mo Storms)

2011-08-22T22:06:00.004-05:00

"Soon, it'll be just a memory. In fact, someone, some foolish person, will probably think it's a tribute to this city, the way it keeps changing on you, the way you can never count on it, or something. I know because that's the sort of thing I'm always saying. But the truth is... I'm heartbroken."

~ Kathleen Kelley (Meg Ryan) in "You've Got Mail"

The landscape of where I've lived for 25 years, seems to be changing almost minute by minute. As a person that desperately hates change, and wants to live in 1954, most of it is disheartening to me.

We have long standing buildings burning, then being torn down:

And long standing buildings being turned into parking lots and drive through banks - next to the main bank, right down from their other drive thru bank:

This dirt lot used to be a movie theater, it was the first I ever went to that had more than one show at a time. Last time I went, it froze me out, so I think it had good AC too. It didn't make it once the 5-plex came to town:

Then there's the "sculptures". We have 2 new ones of the the left photo. "Welcome to Maryville" - I'm pretty sure it'll say something like that. Waving at people as they fly by on the bypass. Then, the downtown revitalization brought some modern art sculptures around the square. They aren't bad. They are just.....
Different.

I wonder if people 150 years ago when they were building some of those buildings, or streets, or the college, or other things that I seem to be pining over, thought the same things. "I hate change, what's wrong with dirt streets. Dirt streets are fine!"

Sigh.

But sometimes it's not man-made. It's nature made, and we all just have to sit back and "enjoy" the ride. That's what happened last Thursday night. Gene fortunately got home from work a couple hours early. We'd just finished dinner and was watching a bit of TV when I finally decided to pay attention to the weather bulletin at the bottom of the screen.

There were heavy storms northwest of here, and they were traveling southeast at 40 miles per hour. "Hey, that's us!"

Gene: "What?"
Me: "The weather, baseball sized hail coming.... that's us"
Gene: "That says Shenandoah"
Me: "It says it's traveling southeast of Shenandoah. You know what's southeast of Shenandoah? US!"
Gene: "oh"

Within minutes the sky went from cloudy to "nighttime". Tanner (fortunately) ran out and put the chickens in the coop, before he could even get back inside, it was pouring down rain. Then the wind.... then the hail!

But that wasn't all, once we made it through wave #1, a second wave came a couple hours later, and it was worse than the first! Reports are, that they reached 100mph winds (which is a level 2 hurricane). We should have left. We should have gone to the neighbors, but instead we sat on our couch waiting for our demise.

My house has never shook so hard. The interior walls were moving and you could hear the wind trying to pull the roof off of the house. In my fear, I started to text my friend Dan from Council Bluffs "how long will this last" as he'd just gone through it. "About a half hour" he returns.

a HALF HOUR?

Did I mention I was doing this in the dark, as we'd lost power?

Then, I couldn't even use my cell phone, and my connection to the outside world was pretty much lost. I could feel my blood pressure rising out of nervous fear, I had to get some advil even to relieve my impending headache.

Soon, it dwindled to nothing more than a heavy thunderstorm. With nothing else to do, and the worst of it being over, we went to bed around 10:30. Sometime in the night, the power came back on, and in the morning, our town looked like this:

The north side of most buildings had the crap beat out of them. Trees gone left and right, not to mention 100 year old barns and camper trailers here and there. Insurance companies had to call in disaster teams if that gives you an idea of the damage. We had quarter sized hail, some people north of us had baseball sized hail.

We were not unscathed. Like I said before, there's some upsides to living in the country in a bean field (the view is awesome, the quiet is deafening), but the down side is huge. We have almost no protection, so whatever we're given, we're required to just take it like a man.

Part of our brand new roof is ripped up. I have a feeling the whole thing will need to be replaced.
My windows are beat up, and my screens are gone.
The chicken coop fence is blown half down, and the coop siding took a beating - my house siding took a bit of a beating, but it's not horrible.
My AC unit looks like someone kicked it.
My lawn furniture is bent to hell.
Water came through 2 rooms in my house.
My brand new gutters are all beat up! (extra grrr)
My shutters are broken.
And the pole my street light was on blew over.... which was a telephone pole, so that's SCARY! We didn't even hear it go down it was so loud!

But you know what? We're ok. And so were the chickens. Wet, but ok.

The next day, even the clouds looked strange.

It's pretty safe to say, that every single plant took a beating. Most of the crops around us are gone. GONE. The beans next to us look like a min tornado cut a path (about 50 feet from my house). Someone reported a tornado right were I live. No confirmations of that, but I wouldn't have been surprised.

Even the grass was flat as a pancake!

The smell the next day, it was horrible! Cut grass is supposed to smell good, but beat up soybeans smells like cut grass times 1000.... too much!

Ours wasn't the only house affected:

I think it's safe to say I NEVER want to do that again. As well as our house held up, I hope that pressure isn't put on it again for as long as I live here!

Maryville, Missouri is safe. We're safe.

Go to hell hail.

The 'S' Family Portraits

2011-08-18T10:02:00.001-05:00

It started out as a maternity session, morphed into a family/kid session, and by the end, Charlotte and I were besties.

See the rest here.

Hummingbird Haiku

2011-08-17T08:20:00.000-05:00

We have several fat and sassy hummingbirds at our feeder by the window again this year. They don't like to share much.

To celebrate the angry fatties, I give you....

Hummingbird Haiku

Little hummingbirds
Staking claim to the feeder
Not so little now!

Little peewee birds
Full of fight and attitude
Someone needs xanax

Birdy seems so tense
Angry birds got nil on you
But this isn't a game!

Why custom white balance is so important!

2011-08-16T11:10:00.001-05:00

White balance is the process of removing unrealistic color casts in your photos, so that something that is truly white in person will appear white in your photo also.

Our very sophisticated eyes are great at judging what is white under different light sources, but cameras often have difficulty with this process creating blue, orange, or even green color casts. This is difficult to correct AFTER the fact (trust me), so lets try to fix it ahead of time by setting a custom white balance. It's easy!

Gene and I went to a nice restaurant at the plaza in KC over the weekend. I usually take my camera as I like to grab a pic of the fancy foods. It was 8 p.m. and the light was almost gone for the evening so I shot under their incandescent lights. Incandescents have a tendency to make digital images very yellow/orange if you don't set your custom white balance.

This is the first image I got by using AWB (auto white balance):

I have the sudden urge to sing the oompa loompa song.

This is a straight out of the camera shot. It's horrible and should be tossed in the trash. I have "rescued" photos like this before when desperate, but they never really look just right.

There are settings on your camera that will do this automatically by just selecting cloudy day, tungsten lights, flash, etc. Incandescent light function, however, never seems to be "just right". This is when I will use a custom white balance.

I realize that I have a big white tablecloth in front of me, so I can use it to set my white balance easily. Using AWB, I take a photo of the tablecloth to use when I set my custom white balance.

I then use my menu on my camera to to go the white balance settings. It asks me to choose a photo for white balance and I pick the one of the table cloth. I'm telling my camera "this is white". The camera will do the rest to adjust the colors in camera.

The after photo:

Except for it being a little out of focus (I was shooting at 1/13 of a second), it's a million times better. This is also a straight out of the camera shot.

If you pay close attention in the before and after, look at the windows behind Gene. There is natural light coming in the windows behind him. In the top photo it looks very natural, and in the bottom photo the windows are very blue. That's because the camera is pumping a LOT of blue into the photo to make up for the yellow lights.

In a mixed lighting situation, you either have to live with this, or fix it in post processing. Because this is just a personal photo of us, I probably wouldn't bother to fix it. If it was someone's wedding photo, I might mask out that area in photoshop and put a little bit of yellow back over it.

You can buy cards that you can carry in your purse, pocket or on a lanyard around your neck to help set your white balance (they'll be white and 18% gray), but I usually end up finding something white on my own and setting my white balance with that as it gets me pretty darn close to where I need to be.

Think that you don't have a DSLR so you're fine? The truth is, that even cheap point and shoot cameras have a white balance setting on their menu. Yes, you will probably need to look at your manual. Lost your manual (like I always do)?? Google the name of your camera, model number, and "manual" and you'll probably be able to find that information as a pdf file online!

If you'd like to learn more about white balance, you can get much more technical information and explanation here.

More technical info on white balance.

All the voodoo - that yudu.

2011-08-16T08:28:00.000-05:00

I've been eyeballing a Yudu machine for about 2 years now. What's a Yudu? Well, it's a home version of a screen printing machine. About the size of a really large printer or scanner, it can sit on a table and do pretty much everything you need to screen print pretty much anything in one small space.

As awesome as it sounds, why did I wait so long?

Because it's retail of $300 and I just didn't know if I'd get THAT much use out of it. However, Gene keeps watching the Yudu infomercials (yes really) and kept talking about the silly thing. On top of that, my sister lost her t-shirt supplier, so she was looking for one too.

A couple weeks ago, while Gene and his son Michael went into the largest computer parts store I've ever seen in my whole life, I decided to duck into Michaels craft store next door. I looped the entire store before I noticed a pile of Yudus at the front for $99!!

I quickly called Amber, and she wanted one, then I got ahold of Gene and we bought one too.

It was a treat seeing Gene, Michael, me, a large suitcase and 2 yudus in a jeep wrangler. *WE DID IT*

It seems kind of scary, there's a lot of steps so we put it off a while. Sunday, we had nothing we had to get done, so we dragged out the machine. The process takes a while (there's a lot of drying) but it was worth the wait because it's AWESOME.

The shirts look like we bought them from a screen printing shop. So very excited about this. Gene has already decided he's going to try to sell a few to some friends. Really, the possibilities are pretty endless of what you can screen print.

Very worth $99. Very worth $300 (if you use it a lot).

Cons:
-Doesn't include EVERYTHING that makes it easier.
-There's a lot of extra buying required for down the road.
-The supplies are kind of expensive
-Only comes with one color of ink - black
-Kind of slow to get set up. (goes quickly once you get your emulsions burned)

Pros:
-It's fun!
-You can actually buy aftermarket stuff from silk screening sites much cheaper.
-Saving $$ in the long run by printing my own shirts, bags, boxes, etc etc.
-It's full of awesome!

Rock Chalk TIGERS.

2011-08-15T16:21:00.002-05:00

I've been to Lawrence Kansas (home of KU Jayhawks) two times in my entire life.
I've gotten 2 parking tickets in my entire life.

Do the math.

I'm starting to think that Jayhawks don't want ANYONE visiting from Missouri. Hmmfpt.
Missouri Tigers ROCK!!!!
:p

(truth is I could give a crap either way).
Spent Saturday visiting with Gene's youngest granddaughter Bailey in Kansas. Had lunch with her and her mamma and bought some school clothes for her. Then, hit a pile of new antique stores (my debit cart is melted) and then Plaza III Steakhouse down at the plaza for dinner.

Despite 3 officers on every single corner of the plaza, the *Mayor* still got a gun pulled on him an hour after we left - across the street.
eep.

Once again, wondering if I should tag this post with "the good life". Maybe I should start a section called "the suck life" lol.

PS. KU sucks.
sorry.

PPS. My ticket was only $3.00. Gene was way more pissed than me.

Instant Ancestors

2011-08-13T00:58:00.002-05:00

I'm sure it will come to no great shock to you, that I'm fascinated with photos. No, not (just) my photos, but photos from long ago. Long, LONG before I got serious about photography, I was collecting antique baby photos of other peoples children - probably long since grown old and gone.

Mostly, I was attracted to unusual kids, or kids with toys, photos that told a lot about the person in the picture etc. Eventually, I stopped. I had a good sized collection, and was not displaying it. It was getting out of hand. (btw, where did I put those photos??)

However, every once in a while a photo will catch my eye and I can't stop myself from taking home someone else's ancestors. The photo above really caught my attention. Normally you don't see a situation like this in an older photo. Normally a photo is a fairly serious event, but they were friends, all together, laughing and having fun.

I paid a grand total of $1.00 and brought the photo home. To be honest, it got stuck in with some things for resale and I kind of forgot about it until I opened a box recently and found it again.

I've been wanting to change my tags over to something different, and decided I'd scan some of my antique photos as tent signs and hang tags for my items. Plus it would be cheaper than buying tags! I pulled out some of my favorites - including this one - to put on the scanner.

As it sat on my desk the back finally struck my curiosity. Normally the handwriting is really hard to read from back then. Why did they write so small, and so scripty?
Tangent: Did you know that some schools are no longer teach cursive? No. Really. OK, so kids don't learn to write it.... don't you think they should be able to read it?

I felt a little like one of those kids. Slowly making out what was on the back of the photo, which was actually a postcard. 2 cents to mail it on February 6, of 1919.

"Dear Fern:
I trust you recall the day this was taken. - Was pleased to note by Hamburg paper your school and pupils had won such a generous number of prizes. - After five weeks back in civil life I am gradually becoming accustomed to the change and sort of getting back to earth, although it was rather irksome for a time. - Lots of the boys are coming back now and a goodly number from here were wounded in action. - Would be glad to hear from you.
Elmer A. Webb"

In Fern's handwriting you see the names of the other people in the photo:
Mrytle Larson
Phoebe Mitchell
George Dean
Lettie Brown
Girl from Thurman
Fern Wagner

If you hold the photo, just right to the light, you can see that Fern's photo has been circled. (far right). I suspect that Elmer, fresh home from WWI, had a bit of a crush on Fern. He circled her photo. He complimented her. He tugged on her heartstrings over the war. He asked to hear from her again.

And just like I sometimes do with people now... when I see some girl who's obviously got a crush on some boy - sometimes I wait until she leaves and I tell the guy. "you know, she's got a huge crush on you. You should ask her to dance."

Sometimes it works.

So I say, Dear Fern, please write Elmer back. He kind of put feelers out putting his heart on his sleeve. (he's a boy, they don't do it very well).

PS. Fern is a lovely name. If I were of baby making age, and had this insane desire to create (demon spawn) with the lovely hubs, I'd consider Fern for a girly name. Sadly, it will probably only be a cat's name.

My house needs more walls.

2011-08-10T18:17:00.005-05:00

{Before}

Except for the cat. The cat is still there.

Yep, I decided that these 3 pictures had hung there long enough over my (former) couch. They are 3 years old, and my photography has greatly improved since then. Plus, Gene bought me 2 pieces of artwork for my birthday/anniversary so I had to find a home for them.

But something unexpected happened....

My living room seemed to brighten up greatly! I wasn't really planning on that part, but it makes me wonder if my obsession with black, is also driving my obsession to have every window shade open too. Hmm.

Yep, I have a cover on my nearly *brand new* couch. After I got it, I realized that a light cream color was probably a bad choice for those of us that still eat spaghetti on the couch.

Crazy no?

I'm looking for more permanent alternatives.

Anyway, Gene has really gotten into art also, which is kind of strange that my husband wants to go to art galleries and museums now. You'd never be able to tell to look at him he's just so damn metrosexual now.

It only took 8 weeks, a mat cut wrong (despite the instructions) and a lot of cussing, but the art is up.. and staying for a while. Well, except for the art lights I have to add. Other than that.

Oh... and the hole repairs in the wall, that too.

And the paint touch up.

GAHHHH!

Keysa and Andy get married

2011-08-09T14:37:00.002-05:00

It's official. Well, it's been official for a while now, but I'm officially sharing their wedding photos.

I didn't die after all!

2011-08-08T00:00:00.001-05:00

I did it.

I made it through the gauntlet of weddings for the summer. I thought for sure for about 10 minutes on Saturday, I was going to die in the heat, but I didn't. I do think I made a deal with the devil to lose some weight though.

It'd be worth it.

I'm not out of the woods, there is plenty of editing to be done, but I do get some of my life back. yay!

I can actually POST again.
(Sorry about that part).

Tried and True - Banana Bread

2011-08-04T13:54:00.005-05:00

Every once in a while, I get on a banana kick and have to have one or 7. But here's the deal, bananas have to be JUST RIGHT before I'll eat them. "Just right" means that they are slightly green, firm and a tiny bit bitter. Once they get a brown spot on them from the ripening process, I'm out!

The thing is, you often end up with a pile of really brown bananas that even GENE refuses to eat. That man will eat pretty much anything before he'll let it go in the trash. Canned peaches from 2006 and frozen freezer burnt wings from our wedding anyone?

Soooo, if I buy too many bananas, I have to make banana bread or risk a mild heart attack when he sees them in the garbage bin.

I decided that I'd probably need to make some banana bread or shoo away some blow flies.

I picked banana bread.

I have a pretty tried and true banana bread recipe I've been using for um... 20 years now. (as you can see from the many stains on that page). I received this cookbook as a wedding gift (the first time around) and it's one of the few things I still have and use from back then. My best friend's mom was on that cookbook committee and this was her go-to gift for a few years.

I'm not going to show every single step of the process, but I did want to make a point. Recently I read someone say that they never put the cup into the flour and press the flour into the measuring cup, they SPOON it in and it makes much nicer breads.

Hmmm.

I tried it, and it's kinda true! Think about it, if you press it into your cup, you'll force more flour into the measuring cup.

I'm also a very fly by the seat of my pants kind of cook. Maybe that comes from getting ~~old~~ experienced. I usually only use one measuring cup so I don't have to wash more. I eyeball the measurements.

oops

Don't forget to cream the sugar with the eggs and shortening. I seem to ALWAYS put the sugar in with the dry ingredients (I even had to make myself a note.. see up there?)

Which is funny considering I accidentally did it again.

Mash your bananas. Again, flying by the seat of my pants. I put in the amount of bananas I HAVE. if I have 2, it's 2. If I have 4, it's 4.

Stir only until all the dry ingredients are moist. If you made it out of high school home ec, you should know that. But if you don't, then I'm telling you it's the fastest way to make your bread peak to high and crack.

It's still edible though. ;)

I stole the idea of using a bundt pan from Pioneer Woman's banana bread recipe. I made hers a few times but it made SO MUCH (4 cups of flour?) that it flowed over and made a mess in my oven. I'm still smelling burn banana bread when I cook.

You'd think I'd clean it out.

bwahahaha.

Mmmmmm... delicious.

or as my oldest used to say when he was little "kulicious"

I didn't wait for Gene to get home. I did all the work after all, shouldn't I be rewarded? I mean, if it wasn't for me and a few blow flies, there'd be no banana bread at all!!

srsly.

Warm melty butter and life is complete.

Geraldine's Banana Bread:
1 3/4 cup flour
2 3/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/3 cup shortening
2/3 cup sugar
2 eggs (beaten)
1 cup mashed bananas
1/2 cup nuts (optional)

Mix dry ingredients together and set aside (not the sugar!) Mash bananas with fork, measure and set aside also. Beat shortening with sugar and eggs until fluffy. Add flour mixture; alternate with mashed bananas. Add nuts. Mix only until dry ingredients are moist. Pour into a greased loaf pan. Bake at 350 deg for 40 minutes.

(Geraldine actually said 1 hour 10 min but that's WAY too long in my modern day oven!)

***********************

In other news, I lost internet again for a couple days. I'm pretty sure some day I'm going to snap, burn down my ISP and kill all their dogs.

fer reals.

I'm feeling broody too... I mean... moody

2011-08-01T11:36:00.005-05:00

Last week I told you that I had a hen that had gone broody and a promise that I'd share some updates with you.

What is "going broody"? Well, a hen pretty much decides on her own when she's going to hatch out some chicks and when she's not. (Too bad some humans can't get this down pat lol). One day, she'll just plop down on a herd of eggs and defend her little nest until she hatches out some chicks which takes approximately 3 weeks for the type of hen that Momma chicken is. (she's a barred plymouth rock).

We are now at the beginning of our third week, so soon, if she did it right, we should have some wee little chicks soon.

This video shows you how Umm... irritated a momma hen will get with you to defend her nest. Don't worry, she's actually pretty easy going. LOL. (no chickens were harmed in the taping of this video).

I'm probably doing this all completely wrong, and will have to do some scrambling to accommodate a bunch of new chickens, but hey, what's life if you don't fly by the seat of your pants right?

Anyone?
Hello?

Bailey's senior photos - Marilyn Inspired

2011-07-29T11:24:00.002-05:00

Hey!
I'm workin' ovah 'ere. (that was done in my best Italian accent.

Kinda did some different kind of stuff for Bailey's senior photos. You can check them out over here. There are a LOT of Marilyn Monroe inspired photos.

Before and Afters - the Magic behind the camera

2011-07-28T11:16:00.003-05:00

I won't go too much into Bailey's senior shoot because I have a BUNCH of photos to share (this afternoon??!), but I will say she's been dreaming of being made up as Marilyn Monroe, who she idiolizes, for years now.

This was just one of 9236 awesome photos. OK, maybe not QUITE that many, but still, culling photos last night was almost painful.

However, sometimes things don't go exactly as how you see them in your head, so you have to do some work to them. I wanted to show you how drastically different the before/afters were on this photo.

Straight out of the camera shot, vs full edit shot.

Kind of embarassed by my SOOC as it's kind of dark. I realized into the shoot that I needed white behind Bailey, so I added a reflector behind her as a backdrop. However, I really liked her expression in an earlier shot. I pulled the background from a later shot and used that around her head. I then pulled photo into lightroom and added fill light for the dark side of her face. I then used the infared preset which blew out the fur completely, so I pulled it back a bit with recovery and reducing the brightness. I then pulled it into PSP to fix any blemishes (I don't use photoshop for this, I really like PSP and have used it for 10 years, I can work fast in that program).

This is one of the few photos I MIGHT add a white vignette. I had one on, and liked it, but I lost too much of the hands so I removed it.

And this is where I'm going to admit something else.... I don't shoot RAW. Ever. I only shoot JPG and I've yet to have a problem ONE time with it. I suck at change, I like things the way that they are, and this is what works well for me.

My point is, that jpg is way more forgiving that people give credit.

If you have any before and after shots, feel free to share your links!
(and like I said, probably this afternoon/evening I'll have photos of Bailey up!)

Hannah and Sam are married - St. Joseph, Missouri Wedding Photography

2011-07-26T22:22:00.002-05:00

Hannah and Sam are newlyweds. Shared more photos than I EVER have for a wedding! (Probably because it's one of my favorites so far!). See more of their photos here.

Spotted in SW Iowa

2011-07-26T20:48:00.000-05:00

On the way home, bellies full of ice cream, Gene spotted and photographed this:

There's just something to love about fly-over country and our extreme patriotism.

and corn.

crickets chirping

2011-07-26T12:45:00.005-05:00

When Gene and I got married, we went to our pre-marital counseling as required. Personally, I enjoyed it because I love the big lug so much. Gene on the other hand, kind of dragged his feet. "Can't we just find someone that won't require it?"

"No. I want Tim to do it."

"Grrr"

So every couple weeks, we'd meet up with Tim and talk about relationships. Tim would ask a few questions about each other, about family, about our desires for the future and most of the time we were pretty much on the same page.

One of the questions was about what the other really "needed" in life. Color me shocked when Gene wrote down that I needed alone/quiet time. I'd never said this to him, I suppose he picked it up on his own. Maybe it was all that time hidden away in my scrapbook room he figured it out. ;P

After 2 weeks of small people, large people, weddings (4 weeks), heat, noise, etc etc etc. I needed peace.

Quiet.
Solitude.
Zen.

Yet, I wanted to "do something" on Sunday. Just Gene and I. He suggested we drive all the way to Des Moines and go antiquing, but I wasn't really feeling a long car ride and a lot of walking. Instead, I suggested a trip to my hometown (20 minutes away), a trip to the lake with a picnic and the opportunity to shoot photos "not people".

On our way out of the lake, we decided to go on a big of an explore and took an off road. Quiet and hidden. We weren't supposed to be there, but the pull was too great. Plus it was Sunday, no one was going to be slapping us with a ticket on a Sunday.

At the end of that road, it lead is right back into the lake, where the sign read "no motorized vehicles beyond this point". Ooops.

My only other requirement for the day was a stop at my childhood ice cream place for a peanut butter malt (not a shake). We sat out in the shade getting brain freeze and petting the neighborhood cat.

It's moments like this that make me want to move back to my podunk hometown.

All because of peace. Quiet. Solitude. Zen. It's a little like moving back to 1974, but in a good way. But the downside is that it's maybe a little too close for comfort to people from my past, so I'll stick with my 2 acres in BFE.

It's so hot, the chickens are laying hard boiled eggs

2011-07-25T22:29:00.004-05:00

Yowee.

Yeah, it kinda feels like we've been walking around on the surface of the sun the past few weeks. My A/C has been in overdrive and I'm really not looking forward to getting my light bill this month. I feel kinda like a sloth. Kinda said a little hallelujah when my 2 latest brides didn't want to go outside for photos (I actually talked one into 5 minutes). Even the pool is hot. It was kind of a tactical error, buying the pool cover that keeps the pool hotter. Kinda felt like a stock pot getting in today.

On the up side, my clothes seem to dry faster on the line.

Go me, trying to be all positive and stuff.

I totally get the appeal of Southern California now - sorry guys I still don't want to live there. However, I'm now open to the idea of living north in the summer, and in Texas in the winter.

I'm kinda serious.

Trash to Treasure - Homemade China cabinet

2011-07-22T00:06:00.004-05:00

Today's trash to treasure was kind of a happy accident. You know, when you don't plan something at all and it just sort of falls into place like you tried. The truth is, if you tried you'd fail miserably.

At least that's how it works for me.

Anyway, I started by finding a cute little dresser at a garage sale for next to nothing. I decided I'd paint it a cute color and add it to our booth at the antique mall. However, I temporarily left it rough "shabby chic" style.

The next weekend, I found this little cabinet at a garage sale with a glass shelf. It needed a little love but it also, was a steal. If I would have asked, he would have given it to me for free to make it go away.

The cabinet used to have a door at one time, so there were hinge marks where it had been. My plan was to paint it and put it in our booth too. That's when I had an epiphany!

If I put the 2 pieces together, I'd have a really cute little china/knicknack hutch!

Gene thought I was nuts. Mainly because the dresser had to come back home. Oops. Sorry dear.

Gene had to take the glass shelf and grind out a chip (shell) in the edge. We're lucky that he has access to this type of equipment. If you don't, just go to your local glass shop and ask if they can smooth out an ugly shell. Depending on how deep it is, they might be able to make it look better (they can't put glass back in, it'll just be ground smooth). It shouldn't cost much for them to do this for you!

I got it home and decided to paint it all one color. I was super stoked about the very unusual color I picked...

Wait for it!!

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WHITE!

Yes sorry, I am really that lame.

There was lots of sanding, taping, filling of a few holes, priming and then FINALLY a coat of paint. Prep work kinda takes the fun out of it!

It was around this time, that I realized that the top piece, was going to be too big for the bottom piece. That through a wrench in my plan for a few weeks til I figured out a solution.

Solution came in the form of a pre-glued ponderosa pine board from Lowes. Gene cut it down for me to size.

I also realized that the topper piece was not sitting flush on the bottom, so I flipped it up to remove some little nail type "feet". This gave me a chance to see all the places I missed painting (sigh).

The new pine top was supposed to be painted also, but we decided it might look cooler with a two-tone look. If we hated it, it could always be painted later. We have tons of this color of stain - it's called fruitwood. It's also a real PITA. Everytime I stain something, it's a different color.

This time being a very acceptable golden honey color.

We then attached the top with some power grab adhesive and several finish nails set below the surface and filled with putty.

The finished product!

It immediately went to our booth (we had to do some creative arranging to make it all fit in the back of our Jeep). I kinda of forgot to take a photo before I left, oops, so I took 2 photos since I couldn't get back far enough for one.

In the end, Gene thought it was awesome, the girls all wanted it for their rooms and I decided to add a little $$ to my asking price. (it's at Kat & Company in St. Joseph if you're interested in it - #38).

Difficulty: I give it an intermediate since we had to cut a board. If you wanted to do a project like this and don't have tools, you can have them cut boards for you for a small fee in any lumberyard.

Costs:

$1.00 - Top cabinet
$3.00 - Bottom Cabinet
$15.00 - board for new top
$3.00 - paint (was $10 but plenty left for muliple projects)

$22.00 - total cost!

I think this would be so cute for a little girls room for her collection of ponies or something cute! It would also be nice for a small collection, in a house that may not have a lot of room for a traditional china hutch.

Share your trash to treasure links too!

It. is. aliiiiiiiiive!

2011-07-20T21:25:00.003-05:00

Sooooo, I've kinda had some issues this past week. The biggest being the fact that I had no internet access for 8 days. Yeah, I was having some DT's. After lots of swearing and calling Century Link every name under the book. Customer "service"? Notsomuch.

Lied to repeatedly. Yes please!

The best thing to happen was have a "supervisor" treat me poorly. Once I spoke to his boss, everything was fixed within 24 hours. Fancy that.

Anyway, since I missed so much time, I am going to give you the quick run down of life at the Cease Fire Ranch this past week. You'll get a really good grasp of how boring I really am :p

-If it couldn't get more sucktacular, my central air can't keep up with the heat. Hoping that's all it is because my A/C hasn't shut off hardly at all for days. :/ Even with being topped off on freon. Apparently A/C guys are scarce. Kinda hard to get one to show up! In the meantime, my light bill will probably hit a record high.

-Shot a wedding on Saturday for the daughter of Gene's co-worker. It was hotter than hades and I was secretly estatic she didn't want to do any pics outside.

-Broke up about 328 kid fights.

Invited a friend to spend the night. Like 4 girls wasn't enough. Mack was in his own personal hell.

Lost a tooth. The first one ever. She talks now with a lisp. Grandpa paid her $2 for the tooth. I think he's hell bent on keeping it. (how do I insert a befuddled look here?) Shortly before this (like 3 minutes) I had to break up a fight and have a therapy session. It was a very exciting 10 minutes.

Adorable cat alert!

-Have a chicken that's gone broody. That means she's going to sit on a clutch of eggs come hell or high water and dammit you better not touch them. I did anyway because I wanted a head count. My apologies to the 3 that were sacrificed before I figured out she was broody. Don't think there won't be chicken updates.

Set off fireworks. Grandpa completely sucked the fun out of it. Sometimes he's way too bossy.

A Canuck showed up at my house. Actually, a "honorary" Canuck. (he married a Canadian and lives there). This is Michael, my husband's middle son. We've not seen him in around 4 years. He wanted to come back for his class reunion and made a vacation out of it.

Took pictures of a cute girl to finish out my series of little grandgirls hanging on my wall. Figured out she's a camera ham.

-Speaking of pics of cute girls. I took more shots of Bailey (the senior, not the grandchild) on Tuesday night. Super awesome Marilyn Monroe inspired shoot. More of those pics coming soon.

-Sent a clutch of small children on their way to their grandma's house in Arkansas. They should be there now. Miss them, but enjoying my clean carpets and peacefulness too.

I think that should catch us up. I feel kind of reluctant to tag this post with "the good life" because I've had stress headaches for 2 weeks now.

Now to return to our regularly scheduled programming. I have a trash to treasure to share tomorrow!

Soooo.. I've kinda been busy.

2011-07-11T23:43:00.003-05:00

In the past few days I've:
Shot a wedding - one of my best ever
Cleaned my house (which was pointless)
Shot a senior - can't wait to share, she drove an hour and half just for me
Drove to St. Joseph ...... twice

Came home once with this:

Well, not that.

I see you doing the math in your head.
1,
2,
3,
4?

For those that have been following along all these years, yep, there's a new 4th granddaughter that we never had the opportunity to meet before, her name is Bailey.
Long story.

There is a whole hierarchy shift. There is drama. There is some Lana therapy, and Lana threats of holyterrorifyoudon'tgotosleep! There was even a lost tooth.

But mainly there is lots of swimming, watching movies, pestering the cat, and getting a little too sunburnt. Oops. I forget sunscreen.

More tomorrow, I have to share some photos. I'm getting backed up! So much awesome raining down around here.

Trash to Treasure - Lawn furniture

2011-07-06T21:48:00.003-05:00

A couple months ago, Gene painted our deck. In the process it was all cleaned off and I told him it would look really nice if we put some furniture on it.

Rather than go to the store and buy a set, I decided to just wait and see if I could find something decent at a garage sale. Literally, a few days later, I pull up to a sale and they had FOUR patio chairs, without cushions, otherwise great condition for three whole dollars.

Three dollars!

I'm in!

I knew that the most expensive part was going to be finding cushions for them, but I knew also, that if I waited, something would fall into my lap. A week later, it did! Here's how I fixed them up into something super comfy and kinda cute for my yard.

Left: We started with our basic patio chair, nothing fancy, but in super condition and sturdy.
Right: I bought 3 cans of spraypaint (krylon hammer finish) and painted them, pretty much exactly the same color. haha. I really stewed over the color too. In the end it was a good thing because I didn't have to worry about being perfect with the paint. You can see it's a slightly different sheen.

Know what this is? Take a wild guess. This is the cushions I found at a garage sale. I knew I'd have to alter it, but it might just work!

Figured it out yet?

It's a church pew cushion! That's not blasphemy is it? It's not like I stole it, I paid the church in their garage sale for it. hah.

One cushion was just long enough for 2 chairs, so I had to cut them in half. Not as hard as you might think, I'm not a perfectionist. I just folded it in half and cut on the fold. I then went back and cut back the inner padding approximately 2 inches to make room for the folds at the end.

I then folded over the raw edges 1/4" and pinned them together. The ends were carefully folded in, and the tie was added before sewing. It was difficult to sew across the open end as we're talking 4 layers of upholstery fabric.

I broke two needles and I'm not done yet! arg.

Left: This is what I used for ties. I used to sell twill tape in my scrapbooking business and this is left over. It would be better if it was red, but it was FREE so that makes it awesome. Plus it's much sturdier than plain ribbon.
Right: Approximately 23" from the top, I tacked 2 additional ribbons to tie to the bottom of the seat.

DONE!
Ok, maybe slightly ghetto, I wanted to sew across the fold but it was way too thick. In the end it saved me hundreds of dollars AND it's comfortable, so that's what matters most.

Difficulty: intermediate. You should know how to sew by hand very well, or have a machine. Otherwise all straight line sewing.

$3.00 - 4 chairs
$10.00 - 3 cans of spray paint
$1.00 (yes really) 2 church pew cushions
$0.00 - twill tape

Total cost for new set of patio furniture:
$14.00

A week later, Gene found a nice coffee table with a slate top, metal legs and we added that for a complete set. It's fun, and easily cleanable when the chickens poop on it. :/ That was $20.00, so $34.00 for a complete set.

So excited! My first "official" trash to treasure ;)
More soon! I have 2-3 projects in the works.

Please share your links to your favorite trash-redo.

One more time, and this time with FEELING!

2011-07-06T08:58:00.003-05:00

OK, that was fun! Let's do it again!
Haha. Having my SITS day, just so happened to correspond with a day that a well known photographer linked up to my blog from facebook, AND I had a blogher link on the long weekend from Pioneer Woman's site... so I had a LOT of hits yesterday. Technically not my best traffic day ever, but the day with the most comments ever.

I read them all! Thanks everyone so much for all the kind words. I'm King of the WORLD! OK, just Queen of the internet.

This afternoon, I'm starting a new feature on Mz-Cellaneous! Trash to Treasure. So excited, I have several projects in the works.

How I spent my Fourth

2011-07-05T11:37:00.003-05:00

Sitting on the bank of the lake, eating apple pie, singing songs stuck in my head (which for the record, were written by my husband), and shooting away.

As usual, some of the best fireworks of the night, were by mother nature herself.

To take better fireworks photos, I brushed up on my skills by watching this video from creative live.

How did you spend your holiday?

I can wait, can you?

2011-07-05T00:00:00.001-05:00

Did you ever wait so long for something, that you almost gave up hope?

Not ME MAN! I'm relentless.

When I was 14 I was an embarassingly huge fan of Michael Jackson. Ugly huge. Slap yo mamma huge. That also happened to be the summer of his Victory Tour that launched in all places, none other than Kansas City. Just a couple hours from my home.

It was hard to get tickets. First, you had to buy a newspaper that ran the slip to fill out and send in. It was difficult as we didn't get the KC Star in our area. Luckily, the Omaha paper ran it the next day. We sent in our money - which had to be in blocks of 4, and THEN it was a lotto system. We actually GOT TICKETS. The day I opened the mailbox and saw that envelope I was on cloud nine.

It was about a month until the concert, which might as well have been 30 years instead of 30 days. It was the summertime, so to kill time from all my anticipation - I cleaned. Yep, cleaned like a crazy child - without my mom asking. She was pretty much in heaven. Somehow this seemed to make time move a little faster, and it wasn't long until the concert of a lifetime came and went.

The cleaning came to a crashing halt. Sorry mom.

Well, today I waited again and something exciting finally came.

It's my SITS DAY!
Sits day it's my sits day, gonna be my sits day (I'm singing btw. uncover your ears).

What does this have to do with MJ?
Nuthing. Except to point out that I have stamina and drive to the levels of annoying those I love. :)

What is SITS? Well, it's a group of thousands of bloggers that got together and vow to encourage each other through commenting. I've found lots of cool blogs this way! "The secret is in the support". Every day, a new blogger is featured on the website and you have many, many new visitors. About a year ago (or longer), I got in line, never giving up hope that I'd make it to the front of the line. Imagine, I could have been at least 400 deep and finally made it :)

So anyway, let me tell you about myself!

I've been blogging since 2007. I started this blog as a way to encourage myself to become a professional photographer - which actually happened. After a while I realized I was doing a lot of talking about myself, and not enough about photography, so I split the blog into 2 and kept chatting it up here.

3 years ago, I married my tall and handsome part-time cowboy (he slings glass to make real money). He's pretty much the guy of my dreams - about 98% of the time. The other 2% of the time I want to bury him in the back yard.

Oh love.

I'm the mom of 2 boys, who aren't really "boys" any more, 19 chickens, 2 cats, 2 rats and a goldfish, oh and I'm a photographer.

We talk about photography of course, and well... chickens. I'm a crazy chicken lady. This is my pretend ranch on a sprawling 2 acres where I don't wrangle cattle, I wrangle chickens.

I love home improvements (most of the time) and document all of the decorating and home improvement projects here. I'm launching a whole new series on Trash to Treasure, well, tomorrow! (pretty excited about that)

Sometimes I pretend like I can cook and document it here.

But mainly I share stories of my life before and after chickens, funny things that happened, deep thoughts that I'm thinking that day, but mostly just smart aleck commentary. I like to ponder life over the clothesline here in small sky country (which is just like big sky country, um, only smaller. duh).

If you'd like to read more about me, and see my favorite posts of all time, you can visit my profile here.

I hope you enjoy your stay! Please follow our blog, I'd love to reach my goal of 250 by the end of the day! You guys rock!

oh yeah.. and MJ does too.. still.

socks, hidden letters, loneliness, etc. Stick with me, this is going someplace I swear.

2011-07-04T18:34:00.004-05:00

Does your house implode if you don't do ... well.. pretty much everything?
Yeah, me too.

I do a lot around here. In fact, my husband said just this morning that he keeps making a list and the magical refrigerator fairy isn't bringing the food that he keeps requesting. Personally, I think I should kick her arse.

About a year ago, I kind of was feeling, you might describe as, a little taken advantage of. I don't remember exactly what happened to make me feel that way. Maybe it was laundry on the floor every day next to the hamper, or possibly it was complaints that the towels were still in the dryer. Hmm.. I don't know.
:/ Sooo, essentially I got kind of pissed at that whole concept and decided that I wasn't going to do this whole "laundry" process by myself anymore.

Dumping unfolded laundry on Gene's side of the bed met with a huge failure. It just sort of got stuck back in a laundry basket until individual pieces are needed, or, until Lana needs the basket again. Finally, I decided that at the very least, he could put his OWN laundry away. Does that annoy him? Yeah, probably, but he's never complained about it.

Because that would be really, REALLY stupid.

In the end, I felt maybe a little less taken advantage of and that's a good thing right?

Well, a few months ago, I was particularly in love I suppose (or insane), and I was putting socks away for him in the sock drawer. Now, something you ladies that may not be married yet, or are early in your relationship, should really know about men is that their sock drawer is their secret hiding place.

I promise if there's something that needs "hidden" or put away for safe keeping, it's probably in the sock drawer. Don't ask how I know this information, just go look in his sock drawer and you'll know.

So as I was saying, I was putting away socks, and I guess I'd pushed laundry day to the limit so there weren't a lot of socks in the actual sock drawer. There were, however, lots of other "things" mostly cards I'd made him, a tie, a belt, etc etc. But something jumped out at me. It was a folded piece of paper, and I could see through the paper that it was a female's handwriting.

Now, don't tell me for one second you wouldn't have done what I did. I was instantly like "interesting... what is *this*" I open it only to find this...

It wasn't a letter from his boss, or a client... or a secret girlfriend (because he's still alive). Nope, it was a letter of sorts from me.

"My whole life I felt like there was something missing. I had a hole in my heart, even as a small child. Not long after I met you, I realized that feeling had disappeared. It was then that I realized even as a little girl, my heart was missing you. You are my very best friend, and I promise that I will always be there to love and support you for the rest of our lives together."

I'd thought it was lost.
They were the vows I wrote to him on our wedding day, and I wanted to keep them to scrapbook them. I was so mad at myself because I must have put them down someplace and lost them.

But I didn't.
He had them all the time.

It's all true.
As a child, I always felt lonely. I had imaginary "friends" to play with when I didn't have my friends around. As I got a little older, that feeling never went away. I was confident when I was about 9 that I was adopted. I think every kid goes through that stage, but I was doing math in my head, trying to figure out how exactly that would be true.

Because I looked very much like my parents and siblings, I finally deduced that it just wasn't plausible and for me, all things must be plausible.

One day, I watched a show that was about lost twins, and how people were once a twin, but one had died, and they still longed for this twin... even if they'd never known them, or if they'd died before birth.

That was it! I knew I was a lost twin.
End of story.
Done.
End of chapter.
Case closed.

I continued to believe this clear into adulthood as this empty feeling never went away.

After I moved out of my parent's home as an adult, I sent off for my birth certificate. I'd never actually SEEN mine. I knew that'd answer that question once and for all and I could have some closure of some sorts. I was so disappointed when it was marked "single birth" not twin, and at that point, I just settled on the fact that maybe there was a twin that died before birth.. because after all, this emptiness was still there.

Then one day, after I had known Gene for a while, I was thinking back on my life and it hit me, that feeling had disappeared! It was then that I realized, that this whole entire time of my life, I'd not been missing another sibling, I was missing my soulmate.

At five years old, when I was feeling lonely and talking to some imaginary person in my head pretending like they were real, I was really missing a man I wouldn't know for another 30 years.

In a way, he is my twin. Almost on a daily basis I'll randomly think about something, and he'll bring up the same thing that I was just thinking about. About a month ago, I decided on a whim to make him sheperds pie for dinner. Big deal, except I've NEVER made shepherds pie in my whole life. He's never requested it since we've been together. He walked in the door and said "Are you making me Shepherd's pie!?"

It scared the crap out of him when I said yes.

So there I stood over my husband's sock drawer, thinking back to how I felt all those years without him. I got teary-eyed when I saw that that little letter that I read to him 3 years ago today, was so important that he picked it up and saved it in his special "hiding place".

Today is our 3rd anniversary. It feels like it's been a whole lifetime (in a good way), and I wish it had been. He gave me my anniversary/birthday gifts at the same time, which were 2 awesome pieces of art. I gave him a mini weekend trip to the Amana Colonies because he loves antiquing so much.

He is the best friend I have ever had and I'm going to be with him for all eternity.

dude can't shake me.

This is the part where I have a existential melt down

2011-07-01T22:14:00.004-05:00

Something happened the other day.

Actually, it's been happening for a while, I just happened to notice that it happened while I wasn't paying attention... the other day.

I've been taking photos since I was allowed to have a camera. I took "real photos" starting in high school with a real SLR, but they were still just snapshots in most circles. To be fair, they were sometimes better than average snapshots... for someone that didn't know anything other than full auto mode.

4 years ago I started this blog with a mission, and that was to start a photography business. Over time, I realized I was talking a LOT about myself, and not enough about photography (I didn't have many sessions back then), so I split the business part of it off and that's how I ended up with this personal blog. Anyway, I actually succeeded in my goal. I practiced a lot (and still do).

At first I thought I was doing really good. I knew there was better, but I felt like I was keeping pace. I'll show you an example of some of my early work. (This is my sister, so she won't be upset with me if I share. I love you Amber! lol). At the time I was so proud of this photo, and now when I look at it I see 19 different problems I should have fixed.

But you know what? I'm still going to be proud of it. You know why? Because back then, I was doing it. I wasn't claiming to be trying, as I sat on my butt daydreaming about photography. Nope, I was actually out there DOING IT. There's a line from my favorite show "friends" where Monica joins a dance group. The instructor from the front yells "You're doing it wrong!" and Monica yells back as she tap dances away "At least I'm doing it!", and that's kind of how I feel about it looking back.

That's something to be proud of, regardless of my technical outcome.

The other day, as I was surfing some other photographer's website I had an epiphany of sorts. I just realized how much things had changed, how the look of my photos had evolved. How I feel like I really DO keep pace with photographers nowadays (and that I was delusional then). But the truth is, that photographers I idolized 4 years ago, I don't so much anymore. I've "outgrown" them. Not in a disrespectful way, mind you, but just in a "moving on" sort of phase of my life. It's kind of scary to move away from people that you respected so deeply, and fly without a net as you go at it alone.

Don't get me wrong, I'm still deeply inspired by other photographers. I'm still learning - we're always learning. If you're not, then you're pretty full of yourself.

In the past couple months, my photos have taken the biggest jump they've ever taken and I really don't know what happened. I'll be honest, it made me a little nervous and I felt a little ill over the whole thing. I mean, how does one just suddenly *see* the world in a different light? That's what you pay for when you hire a photographer, you're buying the way that they see the world.

So here I sit last week, having my own personal mini melt down of sorts, not that I really had any reason to have one to be honest. I was hours away from a really important shoot. You see, Bailey is part of one of my favorite client/families. Morgan, her older sister was a senior last year, and also part of a big project I put out. Bailey set in the back seat that whole time, waiting for HER turn in the spotlight.

And last week it was finally her time. I felt like I'd set the bar so high for myself that I was worried I might not be able to jump it, and if I did so, I would not only disappoint myself, but I'd disappoint Bailey who really was looking for something special.

I made a point to just get over it, and go DO IT. (at least I'm doing it!) and what happened was one of my all time favorite photos yet....

I feel like this photo needs a title.

Here's a beautiful young woman, that put a ton of faith in me (which is scary), trusts the way I see the world (which is weird) and we end up with a photo, that I'd be happy to hang on my own wall in a giant canvas.

So I guess I'm saying, thank you to all those people that trust me, even when I sometimes don't trust myself.

I promise you'll never see me melt down. I do that in my head. ;)

---------------------------------------------

Here's a few more from her session - which will end up with more photos than a wedding when we're done if we keep up at this rate. ha!

What's next from Bailey? Well, think Marilyn.

Yes.. that one.

We have a few castaways here at the Cease Fire Ranch

2011-06-30T00:05:00.003-05:00

So yesterday, I was joyfully (and I say that with great sarcasm) taking some chicken poop out to the compost heap. Yes, my life is THAT exciting. The truth is my chicken coop smells like... well, chicken crap.

duh.

On the way back to the coop for another load (yes there's many), I saw a chicken pecking at something out of the corner of my eye. I turned to look and saw the biggest spider of my life! Well, except for that tarantula almost crawled up my LEG in Arizona once. (true story). Other than that it was a huge spider.

I went in for closer inspection... cuz, I'm not askeered of spiders, but what did I find?

This guy! A big old fat crawdaddy.

Now, I was kind of impressed considering the fact that where I live is in the middle of a bean field, very flat with no water (well, except for that 3 inches of rain we got the other night). I always thought that crawdaddy's had to live in/near a lot of water. I mean, they look just like a mini lobster so you know, water seems to come into play here.

I scooped him up with the bucket I was carrying and he was kind of pissed about it. He kept saying "hhhhhhhhheeeeeeeeeehhhhhhh" to me.. very quietly, so really he's not all that scary. Well, except for his pinchers. A well placed pinch wouldn't go over very well - with me anyway. He'd probably love it.

Don't worry that I had *A* crawdad for dinner. I took his photo and then re-released him back to the wild. The "wild" being the grass under the propane tank that everyone seems to not notice when they mow.

Btw, he told me to tell you "hhhhhhhhhhhhheeeeeeeehhhhhhhhh"

My other castaway is kind of hard to see in these 2 photos. Can you figure it out?

I'll wait.

Done?

You're right! You're so smart. :) Ignore the pulvarized hosta plant on the left. To chickens hostas taste like... well... chicken. What we're looking at is that blurry plant on the left of the photo. In the right photo, right in the middle of all those grasses is my hidden pulvarized hosta, and also a tree!

This spring when we were working on the flower bed, we noticed that there was a twig sticking up out of the ground right next to the hosta. I was puzzled as I didn't remember planting something there, yet, there was this twig. I knew it wasn't a plant stake either. I was baffled.

So I did what every lazy gardner does.... I left it.

Imagine my surprise when a few darn leaves popped out! Now I'm a little excited since trees in my bean field chateau are kind of scarce. Oh, I have like 10, but most of them are only 4 foot tall. Plus, most every tree I plant eventually dies anyway, and here's one that just grew up willy nilly all on his lonesome!

He can't stay, of course, because it's so close to the house, which would be wonderful if it could stay. So eventually it's going to need to be moved.

That's where you all come into play.

Anyone ever moved a wild tree before? (feral woman, you tree wrangler, I'm looking specifically at you).
Any tips?
Does it have a tap root I should be concerned with? (it's either a red or a sugar maple)
Any certain way it should be dug?
What do I do to make sure it lives?
Do I wait a couple years before I move it?

Oh I'm all atwitter.

OK, not really... I mainly wanted to say "atwitter". However, I am kind of excited about a tree that is so darned determined to live, he set up home HERE. Sucka

Oh, and guess what!?

I'm pretty sure there's 2! That one is tiny.

In other news, it's my birthday today. bleh.

A wedding sneak peek - Keysa and Andy got married

2011-06-29T10:10:00.001-05:00

A mini sneak peek of Keysa and Andy's wedding.
I love these two!

A bumper crop this year

2011-06-27T10:38:00.003-05:00

I have apple trees. Exciting no? Except for the part were it literally took me like 2 years to figure out they were actual apple trees.

This is my ENTIRE crop of apples this year, and they are about the size of my big toe. (I have normal sized toes fyi). It seems a little disappointing, until you see this:

Right: The "mamma" tree growing apples. (which leans to the north because Iowa sucks. Ha.... I can say that because I grew up there)
Left: The "pappa" tree who donates the pollen to make toe sized apples happen.

I kind of imagine the pappa tree saying "Don't cut me down! I can do this, I swear!" Then the mamma tree says "gawd you are useless" (btdt)

I think I will celebrate their struggle and survival by making an apple pie. It'll be a pot pie sized sadly.

Sooooo... I have a question

2011-06-25T22:58:00.001-05:00

If crab grass grows pretty much anywhere, quickly and hardy, why don't we just have yards made of crabgrass?

I mean.. apparently it's working for me right?

Cocka-a-doodle-Roooooooo

2011-06-25T00:10:00.003-05:00

You know, I think we did a-ok in the rooster department.

This is Rufus, or maybe it's Roofus. I mostly call him rooster, or Mooster like my niece Tayen does. He's pretty easy going, no pecking feet, toes, legs, arms or eyes - all good things. He crows, but not so much that it's annoying. He is protective of his girls (all 18 of them) and quick to break up any arguments - or maybe he's just running over to watch. (you know how guys are wanting to watch girls fight over them. sigh).

When he thinks he's found something interesting to eat, he makes a little gutteral noise in his throat and everyone comes running... he always lets them eat it first. ALWAYS. I know the noise so well, that even I go and look to see what's on the menu.

He just has one downfall... He can't help it that maybe he's a little rough in the horizontal Chicken Dance, he can't help it if he has really big....
talons.

;P

I mean look at him...

What's a happenin' hot stuff.
{name that movie}

No wonder the girls crow over him... I mean.. swoon. They'd crow if girls could crow.

Slugbug anyone?

2011-06-22T15:01:00.004-05:00

about a year ago, volkswagen put out a series of commercials that was a throwback to the "slug bug" game. You know, see a beetle, punch a friend. Tanner decided he was going to start playing "red one".... "Green one". I frankly wasn't cool with that since I have no idea what car is a VW unless it's a beetle.

Cuz you you know, I'm a girl.

I explained the old rules (or just one rule at the time) to Tanner. "See a beetle, punch a friend".

It kinda caught on.

It took a little nudging, but I got Gene in on the act, and before you know it we'd just be sitting there chatting in the car and someone would say "SLUG BUG!" and you'd get thwapped. Sometimes hard.

So here we are, a year later and the rules of slug bug have developed on their own.

1. It's called slug bug, not punch buggy as the word "buggy" makes me irrationally angry. Don't ask, I don't know why either.
2. First one to call it gets the point.
3. Ties each get a point.
4. Miscall a slug bug (DAMN HHRs ... GRRR) and lose 2 points!
5. Convertibles are 2 points.
6. Vintage beetles are 2 points.

Of course, Gene sometimes makes up rules as he goes, like you have to call the color too, or that the first one to 10 wins. But mainly he tries to get a couple bonus points because he has to drive.

Never works.

Recently on our trip to Minnesota we came up with rule #7.

7. Vintage convertibles are 3 points!

I proclaimed that this will be rare and is the holy grail.
Less than an hour later, Tanner slug bugs me for 3 points.

*headdesk*

I missed a photo, but the NEXT DAY, Gene spots one while out and about.
I got slug bugged again.

Damn rule.

As I walked past the owners of this beetle, I informed them that this was a 3 pointer. They were all "uhh.. that's *nice*".

Some people just can't appreciate a fine slugger.

Who else plays slug bug?

Bovine in the mist

2011-06-21T12:55:00.003-05:00

Just up the road from me, is a herd of cattle. On one side there are red ones, and on the other there are black ones, that's as technical as I can get when it comes to describing cows. If you've read my blog more than 7 minutes, you know that I kinda have a love affair with cows.

Once in a great while on my way home from a shoot there will be this pretty fog that covers the bottoms that we live in. There's a sweet spot in the light where it's almost gone, but not completely. To me, the cows look almost magical peeking in and out of the mist.

Saturday, on our way home from a wedding - exhausted from standing/moving/walking/crouching/carrying a 10 pound camera all day, I spotted the cows once again in the mist and said "wow, look at that!"

Gene, without complaining, pulls over and lets me go get all my equipment out for a shot.

I'm working on the pefect shot, but feel like I did "ok" for a first try.

Canon 5d
35mm
iso 1600
f2
1/30 of a second
handheld because I didn't have the adapter for my tripod.

You will be hungry by the end of this post. Promise.

2011-06-20T19:27:00.002-05:00

Friday, Gene had a doctors appointment in the morning. No worries, he still has that cob up his butt. :p

Anyway, so I suggested that he just take the whole day off and after the dr. appt since he'd be missing a half of a day anyway. It doesn't take much to talk him into vacation time.

We just so happened to have a couple groupons that I bought this winter set to expire soon so we decided we'd be eating fancy. Date day!

This is the Missouri River as it looked on Friday, if you are wondering about how we're doing, most of us are ok unless living along the river. (I don't) It's a mess, I'll leave it at that.

Our first stop making it into the city was Michael Smith's downtown.

It looks a little unassuming from the outside, but the inside is full of pretty light. This is important if you're a photographer... or care about light I guess. :p Beautiful and simple decor. I really liked the place. We did not feel crowded at all.

We started with appetizers and I had the soft spanish tacos. They are braised chicken, fresh avocado, manchego cheese, oregano and spanish olive with red pepper salsa. I ordered an extra so we could each have 2. Very good, and you could almost eat that for a meal itself. I'm glad I shared.

Gene got the torn romaine salad with garlic anchovy vinaigrette and parmesan croutons. It looked great, even with the anchovies. He said it was one of the better salads he's ever had.

I'll not be offended by that statement.

Here's the BEST PART. I decided to live dangerously and eat something I normally would not order. It's kind of fun to try out new things, even if they sound odd as you never know what you'll love.

For me Friday, that was braised rabbit. It is made with potato gnocchi, shiitake mushrooms and shaved parmesan. I have to tell you, that this is probably the most tasty thing I've ever eaten in my WHOLE life!

So happy I don't work there.

Really.

I had it with a glass of Leitz Riesling which was very good. I should have bought a bottle while I was there, because now I can't find it!

Gene ordered the pan roasted wild striped bass with peanut potatoes, sauteed spinach guanciale & red wine reduction. He also took this photo himself so this is why the focus is off. LOL. (he's still learning).

I tried it myself and for someone that does not like fish, I could totally eat this. It was delicious. (not as good as my rabbit. Sorry bass).

No great meal is complete (and over stuffed) without dessert!

Gene got the dark chocolate torte, and I can't remember what mine was called. It was a strawberry gelatin on a dark chocolate layer with champagne sorbet. This was the only part of the meal I didn't love. I didn't realize it was dark chocolate, and I'm just not a dark chocolate fan.

Please don't take away my girl card.

I went to the restroom before leaving and had to share with you the sink in the ladies room. The water drained behind the mirror. Very unique.

Over the men's restroom was a huge wine cellar I noticed as I waited for Gene.

I love you riesling. I'll visit you soon!

{Insert 5 hours of antique shopping and 1/2 hour of scrapbook shopping.}

Next meal was at Webster House. A very old, former school house, now turned antique store and restaurant. {FYI I didn't even know about the antiques}

I'm going to be up front. Both Gene and I felt like we were "sized up" as we came in for our reservation. I especially noticed it when the hostesses walked away to talk about us as they were deciding where to seat us... which was in the bar. The bartender was our waitress and she couldn't keep up with her whole 2 tables she had to cover.

I was NOT impressed as we were crammed in with all the bar people, and 4-5 other tables in a room that was not overly large, while in the next room, only one group was there.

Gene had the Pan-Seared Colorado Striped Bass with Fresh Corn, Mission Figs, Crispy Spanish Chorizo, Mache, Chipotle Vinaigrette. I'm just now realizing, he had bass twice on the same day.

What's wrong with that guy?

It was the chorizo that sold him. He said it was good, but not as good as the earlier bass.

I had the Cavatelli Pasta Verdure with chicken. {Leeks, Zucchini, Haricot Verts, Fresh Spinach, Extra Virgin Olive Oil, Parmigiano Reggiano, Lemon}. It was quite good and very filling. I had to take about half of it home and we shared it for lunch the next day.

I think what impressed me the most, was their bathroom. So of course, I took a photo. LOL.

Overall, consider the treatment we received, I doubt I'll go back there again. Michael Smith's however, will name a table after me when I die.

We then rolled to our car and drove our bloated selves home.

It was a fun day trip, in a city we've been to a thousand times, but saw things (and ate them) that we'd never seen before.

Day trips rock.

And now - for some Cow Haiku

2011-06-18T09:54:00.002-05:00

First some lazy chickens
Then a crazy fast turkey
Haikus for them all

She is majestic
This sweet, old cow chewing cud
Chew, burp, chew, burp, chew

Laying in the grass
Loving her life on the ranch
Squeezin' out babies

There she is again
Annoying photographer
Mooove out of my face

"She's" really a he
"She's" just thick in the middle
Kinda just like me

Hawt

2011-06-16T10:50:00.001-05:00

One of my new favorite photos. Love the focus point, the tiny bit of scruff on his beard, the almost kiss. I want a photo of us like this!

See the rest here.

DIY Chicken Saddles - Part 1

2011-06-15T14:31:00.002-05:00

I have a couple naked ladies at my house. Well, more than a couple really, more like 6.

It seems that when Mr. Roofus the rooster likes to "do his business" (aka the horizontal chicken dance) with the ladies, that sometimes he gets a little over zealous and pulls out some feathers.

MEN!

So what happens is, a few of his favorite girls will get bare backs. (you can kind of see above). This is not good because Mr. Roofus' talons are pretty sharp. When he comes back for round 17, he could potentially harm the hen by puncturing her skin as she has no protection. This can lead to serious and sometimes life threatening damage. Plus, I've noticed that the girls that have exposed backs are getting sunburned pretty badly. They tend to hid out under the jeep or under the apple tree most of the day. That can't be really all that much fun for them.

Really the only solution is to create a chicken saddle for them. This allows them time to regrow their feathers, without having to be removed from the flock. It also protects their back from rooster talons and other hens picking at the new pin feathers that will grow in.

I've been doing a lot of research to find the perfect saddle. Thing is, I can sew. I can sew very well. In fact, I can design my own patterns and be in the chicken saddle business by 6 p.m. tonight.

I just don't want to!

So there's the rub. I don't want to do all those things. ~~Eurethra!~~ I mean, Eureka! I found someone on the internet that made a simple saddle out of fleece. I found a cheap fleece blanket at ikea. $2.00 for a large lap throw that was very thin. I didn't want it to be big thick polar fleece as they have to wear it in the summer. Plus, it needed to be a nice light color to reflect heat. Super simple, easy peasy, no sewing, just a pair of scissors.

Oh hey, I have scissors (I had to look for 10 minutes but I did have some).

I gave it my first best shot, just going off some internet measurements:

9" long, 7" wide and 2 holes for wings.

The result?

One pissed off and humiliated chicken.

It's too loose, so I will need to adjust my pattern, plus I think I need to make a hole for the tail feathers to go through since the wind seems to blow it around a lot.

I imagine the conversation in the yard goes something like this:

Humiliated Hen: What is it!? Get it off get it off!!
Best friends: bwhahahahaha
HH: No really, get it off of me!
BFF: *breath* bwhahahah
HH: Get it off!! *distracted* Oh look, a bug.

Pardon me!

2011-06-14T10:48:00.000-05:00

Why is it, that every time I get this view of a chicken, I feel a little like I'm looking up her skirt?

Fully supporting a behemoth TV

2011-06-13T22:30:00.004-05:00

Gene and I really enjoy (for the most part) home improvement projects. Well, mainly the ones where we get to make pretty things. The ones where we (him) climb under the house for 5 consecutive weekends to replumb the house, yeah, those aren't all that fun.

However, in our excitement to create our little dream home here in small sky country, we sometime get our horses a little ahead of our cart. Meaning: Sometimes we buy our supplies long before we actually need them.

Case in point:

{please ignore the man behind the tv}

About 3 years ago, we purchased this antique buffet. We really liked it, and thought it would make a really awesome bathroom vanity for our master bath. Little did we know, we'd drag our feet for ~~months~~ years. What can I say? I'm really scared of tiling a shower. I feel very confident, I'm going to screw it up.

Out of sight out of mind right?

Well, this behemoth is a little hard to get "out of sight". For a year it sat in our dining room where it actually fit in quite well. Almost to the point where I thought of keeping it there for good. Then, we decided to build the library/bar and it had to go. So we did a little rearranging and it became our entertainment center for our behemoth TV.

I realize now, looking at the photo that it's a giant black hole up against that wall. oops.

While on vacation in MN, we went to Ikea. Yep... us lil' old rednecks don't get to them big ol' cities thar much.

While we were there, we found a simple and inexpensive mount for a televsion.... something else we'd put off since they are really expensive! $100 to hang my tv on the wall? What ever happen to a good old cup hook?

Saturday Gene and I got up early to go to garage sales. Actually, we HAD to get up early to take Tanner to work, but decided we should go to garage sales too. It pays to go early, I'm just saying.

One of our awesome finds was an antique buffet, Gene pretty much said sold without even confering with me. Our plan was to purchase it and put it in our booth at the antique mall. A threat of rain made us bring it in the house and that's when we realized that it was so much nicer than ours.

So we took it as a sign that we must rearrange everything we own (again) and make room for it.

{construction zone, please excuse the dust. Well, that's my excuse anyway}

And by golly, Gene also took a moment to hang the black behemoth on the wall.

Look! A horizontal surface to set things on. Ahhh... the possibilities.

The old black one will now go in our booth, and hopefully we'll break even on this whole deal. I'm not going to place any bets on that prospect though.

Turkey Haiku

2011-06-11T10:06:00.001-05:00

He sprints back to home

He thinks I'm gonna eat him
You go turkey, Run!

Extra Paranoid

For a bird that can not fly

They sure are flighty.

My sickly green thumb

2011-06-10T08:49:00.000-05:00

As someone who's gone from a decidedly brown thumb, to someone with a lightly tinged green thumb, I look at my wee little garden once in a while and say "hells yeah!" I seem to have mastered anything that is purple. Why? No idea, but my salvia is doing so well, I pretend that I'm a salvia expert.

Truth is, knowing my luck it probably would grow well in a rock. But regardless, I still feel good about it.

See? This purple "thing" is doing so well. Just wish I could remember what the heck it was.

This purple thing was part of the pound of wildflower seeds I threw out in April. It's the ONLY THING that grew. See? I told you I was good at purple.

Sadly it was only 2 plants out of a potential 25,000.

They probably should have given me more purple stuff.

It's not just purple though. This little tree seesm to be doing pretty well - considering.

Considering it sits in a corner and doesn't get much attention. It's doubled in size in 2 years - which means it's now TWO feet tall. At this rate, I'll have a 10' tree just in time to celebrate my 60th birthday.

(And everyone knows I'm just 28 now.)

It's not all glory though:

My poor impatiens.

Poor, sad imatiens. Or as I prefer to call them, my impatients. To be fair, I actually bought these plants LAST YEAR. Yes, I bought an annual last spring. I potted a few and set them on my kitchen counter where they lived all winter. They even blooomed a little. This spring I transplanted them to the outside garden and they didn't fair so well.

I prefer the indoors too.

They are kind of ugly, but fighting to live. Someone doesn't seem to mind much though....

I had a little visitor the other day, and didn't even notice until I'd stood there beside him for several minutes.

He appreciated the shower.

It's that time of year again!

2011-06-09T11:52:00.003-05:00

Time for all my couples to start getting their engagement photos done for summer/fall weddings. This past week was almost a blur.

Calee and Charles - see a few more of their sneak peek here.

Candi and Rico - see a sneak peek of their engagement session here too!

how to kill a beaver.... or a wombat... or a hedgehog or something.

2011-06-07T11:30:00.001-05:00

A couple days ago, in a fit of lawnmowing rage (because lawn mowing around here usually results in a near child like tantrum by the glass man), Gene happened across a hole in the ground. He then proceeded to tell me "hey there's a big hole in the ground over there".

I flashed back on my childhood for a millisecond remembering back to when I discovered the open hole in my own childhood backyard.

"Mom, there's a hole in the yard."
"oh, it's just a snake hole."
"no it's not, it's big!"
"yes it is, we have some big snakes." (we did, fyi. I found those too)
"No!! it's huge, you have to look!"
(repeat this for a while until I finally get my mom to look).

In the end, it was the top of the septic tank caving in.
Told you it was big hole.

So when Gene said there was a "big hole" in the ground, I had that sinking feeling that my own mother must have had when she realized what it was. I said "you sure it's not the septic tank?"

Gene: "uhh... no. It's 'something'"

He was right, it was 'something' indeed.

Something bigger than a snake and if you don't believe me, look here:

Yes, I threw a hanger next to the hole as a size reference. Mainly because I didn't know where a ruler was, and I was entirely too lazy to go look for one.

The thing is, this hole is just plonked down randomly in my back yard. What you should know is that we live in bean field - quite literally. I can see at least a half mile in most directions and we have exactly 2.32 trees on our property. There's no access to water (well, there's the leech field to the still working properly (knock on wood) septic tank). There's no food (well, there are a herd of chickens that run around here sometimes. And voles... there's always voles.)

Sigh.

OK, it might be something, but still the logistics of the placement of the hole makes zero sense, it was right out there in the open, with no easy access to chickens or sewer water.

We determined it was probably a ground hog or a fox. My lengthy (4 minutes) research on the internet suggested that it definitely WAS a bad spot for a fox to build a den. (Maybe it was a really stupid fox). Which isn't good if it was, you know that old story about a fox in the hen house? Yeah... not cool.

So we did what all good rednecks do. We decided whatever it was, needed to be kilt ded, and here's how the glassman set out to do that.

First:
Gather some newspaper, and a lighter. Shove it in the hole and set it on fire.

Second:
Use your wife's only dustpan to get it smoking and wave the smoke around a lot.

Third:
Gather your garage sale lawn chair with no cushion and a shot gun and wait for something to shoot out of the hole so you can take a whack at it.

{I'm strangly attracted to him right now}

Fourth:
Nuthin.

That's it. Exactly nothing happened. I kinda expected that to happen anyway, as in my head I shot about 7 holes in this theory but it was fun to watch regardless. From the safety of a telephoto lens FYI.

He was armed after all.

After investing about 12 minutes into this process. The glassman lost interest and did what I figured he'd do from the start.
He crushed the hole and peed on it.

No.
Lie.

If you want to have a deterrent for pests, have a male regularly pee in that area and the critters (may) disappear. Guess what. It worked.

No.
Lie.

Either that or the nagging groundhog/fox wife had this conversation: "Do you really expect me to hatch out a nest of critters HERE?? It's in the middle of nowhere and all we have to eat is voles and fast chickens. Don't even get me started on the sewer water, and to top it all off it SMELLS LIKE PEE! Now go find me something acceptable before I chew your face off."

At least that's how *I* would do it.

" {Mz}Cellaneous - Maryville Missouri Photographer"

Things I don't "Get" and one thing I do

There's no way to put this delicately....

How to get a chicken to stop crapping on your deck.

And with this post, my "to edit" folder is empty.

Tale from the clothesline - true story.

Missouri Sunset Haiku

Day got Murried.

Where manufacturers are going WRONG!! aka I'm gonna be a millionaire someday.

How to make a munchkin omlet

10 Notable events

Lil' nugget picture

Holy cute!

Stuff that rocks! The future is NOW

Nebraska Furniture Mart is an EVIL PLACE!

Traveling down dead bread road

A message to the future

My "little girl", had a little girl

And then the dust settled at the Cease Fire Ranch

Happy Holidays!

And here's what you don't win....

5:08 p.m.

12 days of Better Christmas Photography - revisited

Winter in diptychs

Trash to Treasure - Bling Guitar!

What's in my (camera) Bag??

You gave her a WHAT?

Good night and good riddance

What's an extension tube anyway?

A different spin on a senior photo

Evaluating another photographer's work

Let's try something... different

Frankie says relax!

You'll regret asking me what I've been up to.

Like a ninja. A short, fat, middle aged ninja.

Would you like some dust with your dust?

Trash to Treasure - Union Jack Dresser

Little blessings come in big packages

How to set a light pole in 15 minutes flat

Bridges of Madison County

Trash to Treasure - chalkboard frame formerly known as Jesus

Good night Missouri

Devon's senior photos!

I have a secret

Andy..... Opie.... Dinnertime!! It's apple pie time.

Went on a treasure hunt!

People are good.

Abby and Jim's Wedding Story

Dad and Jesus

He's how old? what the.....???

Trash to Treasure - Bed to Bench

Quick, cheap and easy jumbled cord fix!

A conversation with a frog {and a frog haiku}

Trash to Treasure - easy peasy painted tchotchkes

Amber and Chris - a tiny piece of their story

Stuff I love a/k/a My decor is full of randomness

If you hate spiders, you will not enjoy this post... you are warned!

Go to hail!! (Maryville Mo Storms)

The 'S' Family Portraits

Hummingbird Haiku

Why custom white balance is so important!

All the voodoo - that yudu.

Rock Chalk TIGERS.

Instant Ancestors

My house needs more walls.

Keysa and Andy get married

I didn't die after all!

Tried and True - Banana Bread

I'm feeling broody too... I mean... moody

Bailey's senior photos - Marilyn Inspired

Before and Afters - the Magic behind the camera

Hannah and Sam are married - St. Joseph, Missouri Wedding Photography

Spotted in SW Iowa

**crickets chirping**

It's so hot, the chickens are laying hard boiled eggs

Trash to Treasure - Homemade China cabinet

It. is. aliiiiiiiiive!

Soooo.. I've kinda been busy.

Trash to Treasure - Lawn furniture

One more time, and this time with FEELING!

crickets chirping