Ice Skate

My birthday is next week, so my sisters-in-law gave me my birthday gift a little early so I could hang it on the front door for the holidays. I just love this big ice skate and had to "embellish" it a little by adding white marabou feathers along the top edge. I am so lucky to have four wonderful and thoughtful SILs!

Thanksgiving Turkey

We've had this little Turkey decoration since the boys were little and every year we save one of our small halloween pumpkins for this. The wooden feathers and head are hot glued to wooden skewers and stuck into the pumpkin and the scarf is tied on to hide the stem. Isn't he cute!?!

A Few of my Favorite Tunes . . .

I always look forward to the Christmas season and listening to all my favorite holiday music. I am forcing myself to wait til after Thanksgiving to begin playing this music in my car, my office, my home etc... I made several of these CD's to give to my friends last year at Christmas time. I used some of my scrapping supplies to make the tags and CD labels.

Happy Halloween!

Here are a couple of the latest additions to our halloween decorations. These were taken near sunset, so they have a warm cast to them.
This little witch greets all of our trick-or-treaters. My yellow mums look a little sad - I guess they don't like the colder weather we're having!

Lots of texture . . .

These were taken with my 60mm macro lens. I just love the texture and the pink & green in nature!

Wilderness Perk

Wedding Words . . .

We attended my cousins son's (my 2nd cousin??) wedding outside of Sacramento a couple of weeks ago. The wedding ceremony was beautiful, the bride was gorgeous (groom too!), and the weather was perfect! I can understand why so many people want to live in California - beautiful weather and the scenery isn't bad either! We had the best time visiting with relatives we hadn't seen for years!

The reception table setting, complete with the evening's menu . . .

The main course . . .
Chocolate wedding cake with mint mousse filling & white chocolate ganache . . .
Gorgeous flower arrangements . . .

Wilderness Park

I felt like taking photos this past weekend even though the weather was gray and gloomy. These were shot at a wooded park area between rain showers. I did not do any hiking, biking or horseback riding while I was there, just photo shooting! I'll have to go back on a nicer day for some biking.

Red, White and Blue . . .

Another shot of Old Glory from the 4th of July.

Star-Spangled Banner

The theme this week is "patriotic", what could be more patriotic than the American Flag? I always get a strong feeling of pride when I see this flag on display.

This was taken on the 4th of July at the entrance to a golf course. I think I like the cropped version better.

Marching In Motion

Oldest son J's girlfriend, C plays the piccolo in the university marching band. They had an informal "welcome back" performance at the stadium Friday night, so ds and I attended. This sort of fits the theme "body in motion"!


They have a competition called a "drill down". The director calls out commands very quickly and they have to follow directions or leave the field. C made it about halfway through, but the winner was a fellow "pic" player, so they were really excited - jumping up and down screaming!

Holy Family Shrine

This is the Holy Family Shrine overlooking the Platte River valley in Nebraska. It was very hot and sunny the day I visited, but cool inside the visitor center and chapel. The outside area was peaceful and quiet - very calming. It was nice to get away from the noise of the city in this quiet countryside location.

The entrance to the visitor center and the passage to the chapel are planted with native perrenials.

There is a stream of running water that flows under the floor of the visitor center and continues to the chapel, where it flows into a pool beneath the altar.

The chapel entry facade is made of western red cedar and the web of trusses interlace like waving wheat in a field.

More Face Painting

Here are more shots from my friends face painting session. This was a high school fundraiser and the decorations for the event were incredible. This was the entrance to the first gym.

This is the entrance to the second gym where the dinner was served.

Here are about a fourth of the tables in the gym. Each table had a centerpiece and each place setting had a silver mask. Very colorful!

And one last painted face. . .

Face Painting

A friend of mine has a face painting business and she asked me to take photos so she would have examples of her work. These were taken a few months ago and I really didn't know what I was doing! The lighting was terrible, they were taken in a school basement, but at least they show some idea of her work. She uses bright paints, lots of detail and glitter. I would like to go with her another time and try photographing again!

This was a high school fundraiser. They were serving a very elaborate dinner, so they had students dressed in costumes provide valet parking for the event.

Zinnia

More flowers, this time from my garden. I always like to plant zinnias so I can have cut flower bouquets throughout the summer. The colors are really beautiful this year, red, pink, yellow and orange - but I don't know how much longer they will last as temps will be in the 100's this weekend! Yikes - I'm heading for the pool or an air conditioned shopping mall!

Pink Roses

Our neighbors are out of town this week, so I am in charge of watering their flower garden and pots. I snapped a few photos last night after watering. These roses are such a vibrant shade of pink, I just love the color!

Playing With Fire

Playing around with shutter speed and tungsten WB setting. All are using a tripod. We have a glass-top coffee table in our living room, and I set these 6 little glass votive cups (a find from TJ Maxx) on it and turned all the lights off. I love the reflection in these and the warm "glow" from the tungsten setting.


This is taken at SS 1/60.

Taken at SS 1/8.


And my favorite... taken at 1.6 sec.
Another angle . . .
A crop . . .

HOT off the grill

We use our outdoor grill a lot during the summer. Last night we made teriyaki chicken kabobs with mushrooms, corn, and squash and a couple of jalepeno peppers for ds #2. So, not only was the grill HOT, the peppers were HOT and it was HOT outside!