Happy Halloween!

Our pumpkin this year was a gift from Paige and her mommy. Paw Paw and Paige carved it together. We decided at the last minute this afternoon to decorate a lot for Halloween. It was so much fun and a perfect night. It was chilly, foggy, full moon and while we were decorating, we could hear coyotes howling. Spooky!!! Here is the jack o' lantern in all his glory!

Cinderella was our only trick-or-treater. Here SHE is in all HER glory! She's making a scary face for me in the mirror. I took about 20 photos of her tonight and only about three of them were in focus! Just too much excitement, I guess. But we enjoyed her visit so much and haven't laughed so much in a long, long time.

We had a wonderful Halloween.

Blount Park Outing

We have a very beautiful park here called Blount Park. Above is just one area of the park with the red bridge. A lot of photographers bring their subjects here to photograph engagement photos, children's photos, etc. because it is such a beautiful location.

Today I took Paige to the park just to have a picnic and play ball and enjoy the day. The day before Halloween, we had a beautiful, sunny 80 degree day!

We took a big blanket, got our "picnic" lunch at Chick Fil A (ha!), took a big ball plus a bat, ball and glove, about four stuffed animals, books, some bread to feed the ducks and, of course, my camera. :) We gave Mommy a day "off" to sew in peace and quiet.

Hammin' it up for the camera while we were feeding the fish, turtles and ducks. I think Paige ate more of the bread than she fed the creatures!

I wanted to include this photo because I thought it turned out so unusual. Paige is always noticing the flowers, especially wildflowers (aren't children wonderful?) and she's constantly picking flowers for me. Here's a wildflower she found and I snapped just as she was handing it to me which distorted the hand giving the flower which I think emphasizes the gift. :)

As Paige would say, it was a beautiful day!

A Visit From Cinderella :)

Had a visit from Cinderella today. She and Paw Paw wanted to carve a pumpkin together. Here they have removed the top and I don't think they're enjoying the "aroma" of a pumpkin! ha!

I think I took over 40 shots of Cinderella but she was so excited and had so many treats today that only a few were not blurred. Her school Halloween party was today. I think her mother got better photos than I did. She also had pictures of Tinkerbell and Snow White along with a cowboy and an astronaut. Cute, cute, cute!

Laundry, Reading and Sewing Today

Just using a public photo today. Nice shot of a beautiful autumn day which is what we are having (when it's not raining - we've had a lot of rain lately!).

I was going to read all day today and try to finish a book in a day but the laundry had to be done and my sewing machine kept calling me! Had a good day.

Brother Bob's Birthday!

Today is my brother-in-law's birthday. His wife, sister, my husband and I met for lunch to celebrate. Above are the siblings:)

Brother Bob and wife, Kay:)

Brother Bob and Moi :)

Life's A Beach!

I haven't posted in a few days because we went to the beach. Left on Thursday, the 22nd and got home last night, the 25th. We had a good time. For me, it was relaxing and just getting away for a few days.

The guys played golf every day and one of the women played with them. We "girls" just relaxed and did go out to eat a lot which was good. We went to some consignment places the first day and the shopping I loved the most was traveling to Panama City to a very nice quilt shop. That was the highlight of my trip!

The photo above was taken at a little secluded area that I'd never seen or visited. I really enjoyed this, too, with my camera. I have a lot of photos from this little hike we took thru a trail on an island. It was very swampy but well kept.

Looks like a great place to spend the day reading a book or doing some needlework with an iPod, doesn't it?

An Electrifying Day!

All I have to say is WHEW!

An Inspiring Day

I took this sweet little angel to her Mother's Day Out today. This month she is staying an hour afterwards for art and really seems to enjoy it.

While she's in MDO, I usually go to Books A Million and relax just looking around. I am taking a 12-wk. course (on my own) to help the creative process called Finding Water by Julia Cameron and it is wonderful!! Today my assignment was to go to a children's book store and look for an hour through children's books. It was quite an experience. Not what I expected at all. I was SO inspired and it was very interesting to see what books I chose. They parallelled what I choose in adult books! Very interesting.

Celebrating 82 Years!!

I didn't post yesterday but we did go to my mother-in-law's 82nd birthday celebration at my brother-in-law and sister-in-law's home. The meal was fantastic, like a big Thanksgiving or Christmas meal! Emily, Garrett and Paige came and as you can see, Paige loved helping Maw blow out her birthday candles.

It was a fun family time and we're so happy for Maw's 82nd birthday. I think she celebrated all week with her friends, too. Her birthday was really the 17th but she just kept celebrating. The more they come, the more special they should be. I wonder what it feels like to be 82. Happy Birthday Maw!

A Shocker!

I shocked my husband today and did some work outside! ha! Just went for a little stroll around the yard to breathe in the cool air (which is now very cold!) and saw so many things that needed to be done outside. So I went into the garage and got the clippers and trimmed the crape myrtles, stacked up the trimmings into a pile, pulled up some dead flowers in a long planter and thew them away, swept the porch, and brought in the outdoor pillows to wash. It was about 45 minutes of work, not much.

But, a SHOCKER to my husband! Gotta love it!

I Need to Pay Attention More!

I went for kind of a meandering walk today around 10:30 to 11:00 just looking around to see what I could find interesting in our yard. This was the most amazing thing I found, I think. These "pods" were all over the ground underneath our small magnolia tree that is right next to the house.

I was just looking over the magnolia tree and then looked down on the ground and these were everywhere. I've noticed them when they're green and on the tree right before they bloom but never knew they turned like this and fell to the ground. Then I noticed the beautiful red seeds (and some white) in them. I never knew this existed! How interesting and how beautiful!

I'm so happy life is still full of surprises and things to learn. I will start paying attention more!

Fair Day!

The sky was NOT this blue today at the fair! I played around with color because we had such a good time, I just couldn't stand to post a photo with the grey skies. It never rained on us for the 7 to 8 hrs. we were there, but the threat of a storm brought us wonderful breezes and cooled things off very nicely.

I think we covered everything pretty much that we could that was age appropriate. We looked at the exhibits, had cotton candy, fudge, ice cream, hamburger and fries, rode just about every ride that Paige was "qualified" to ride, watched the sea lion show, went to the petting zoo, visited with some old friends we saw, and saw a puppet show at the end. I'm sure I left out something but we had a great time and everyone should sleep well tonight:)

It just wouldn't seem like Fall without going to the fair.

Reflexology Again!

Of course, these sweet little feet are not mine. They belong to my granddaughter. But I had another hour of reflexology today which was heavenly and made my feet feel this young:) I would recommend it to anyone!

As for my post yesterday - my youngest daughter informed me in her comment that it was funny that I posted Rudi's photo because the day before was his birthday. I didn't realize that but that was the day that I took his picture! ha! Happy Birthday Rudi!

Playing Around

This is one photo that I made while just playing around with using old and new equipment together to try to get macro photos.

Very tired tonight. Stressful day driving on the highway today. A man ran me off the road this morning and it just seemed like there were so many crazy drivers out there. I just couldn't wait to get home and "nest" on my couch. whew!

Orange, Orange, Orange!

Out and about today and saw this cute pumpkin patch.

Happy Fall Y'all!!

The Boat

This is our backyard. And this is straight out of the camera! I did not do anything to this photo which is amazing. I saw that clouds were in the sky and it looked like it was going to be a beautiful sunset so I just walked down to the water and waited. Then when the color started appearing, I just started shooting and thought the boat would make a good silhouette against that orange water and sky.

I really, really like this photo!

Yard Sale

My youngest daughter and I had a yard sale today and did twice as good as I expected to do. I think she was pleased, too.

So we decided to do it again tomorrow afternoon after church and reduce our prices on what's left. We'll see how that goes.

Great Day! Hard work but great day!

Strange Day!

"It's a beautiful day, Paw Paw." That statement will make you feel so bad when you wake up with the devil in you as I did this morning. I don't know what was wrong with me! I was in such a bad mood. Johnny left (for which I don't blame him) and took Paige to the park and then when they got home, rode the 4-wheeler. During that time, I cleaned, cleaned, cleaned and then I started feeling like the devil was leaving me! ha! I felt so much better.

I also got hot and sweaty and it WAS a beautiful day. The sky was a beautiful blue with beautiful white clouds and a breeze blowing, in the 80's, so I asked Paige if she wanted to go swimming. The water temp was 80 degrees and it was just a little bit chilly but the sun was so warm that it really felt great. We went swimming in October! You know you're in the deep south when you can go swimming in October when people are decorating for Halloween and Fall! ha!

So, all in all, it ended up being a beautiful day (just as Paige said). Out of the mouth of babes:)

Calgon, Take Me Away!!!!!

Those of you out there who are old enough to remember this phrase and this commercial know what this means! I'm am exhausted. Still have work to do. Woman's work is never done! I'm eating and going to bed to have peace and quiet and read and gear up for the weekend. Keep Paige tomorrow and yard sale Sat. Church Sunday. Whew!

I've been working many, many hours getting ready for a yard sale lately. I hope it's going to be worth it. Worked just about all day today.

I needed to get the photos ready and on a disc for the director of the concert I photographed last week (program pictured above). I just haven't had time to work on them but hope to get it done and in his hands by Sunday.

This is #1 of about 135 photos I need to work on and then get transferred to a disc for the music director of the Capitol Sounds band/orchestra by tomorrow night to give to him at choir practice. There aren't enough hours in the day lately. I have been so busy with so many different things. This is almost a post just to have a post tonight. My year of turning 60 is almost over and I really would like to have it printed in book form to keep if it's not too expensive. But I will get to work tomorrow working on these photos. This is a photo of the First Baptist Church in Montgomery where the concert was performed right before the sun went down. It is a beautiful building and, of course, I love the dome. But I'm so tired tonight this will be cut short. Tomorrow is another day.

Every Day is an Adventure with Paige!

One adventure after another over here! Today Paige got into my "bowl" of lipstick and chap stick. At first, she got out some cherry chap stick so I wasn't worried so much. Then she found a little sample of Avon lipstick hidden down in there and I took her to a mirror and showed her how to put on lipstick and rub her lips together, etc. She really liked it and seemed to be satisfied so I left the bedroom, thinking she was putting the little tube of lipstick back in its place. The next minute here she comes with this! ha! I just ran and grabbed my camera and asked her to smile like Cinderella and this is what I got! Priceless!

Happy Fall Y'all

This weather is wonderful lately! Enjoying the cooler temps AND sunshine. Am going to get up in the attic today and get out my fall decorations. The one pictured above was a gift from my little angel:) I just love it! Thank you, Paige!

Hope everyone is enjoying Fall! It's my favorite time of year.

Still Wrong

On the way to a birthday party today for a cute little one-year old, I read up some more on the polarizing filter and I still don't have it right but I'm too tired to go into it tonight. *sigh* I will on another post.

I went up to my sewing area to sew after I got home from the birthday party and 9 hours later (!), I had NOT sewn a stitch! I spent that long cleaning out and organizing all the junk I have up there but I really got a lot accomplished and have got it better organized than it's ever been. I have just a little, tiny bit to finish which I hope to do tomorrow. I just can't concentrate to work in such as mess as I had up there. I had emptied out the entire closet. But now the closet is all clean and organized and everything labeled and sorted. It is so nice :)

My legs and feet are aching from staying on them for 9 hours but it will be worth it all to go back up there tomorrow to finish up the little bit left and sew in an organized space. Hopefully, now I can get something productive and creative done!

P.S. - The photo above was another one using the polarizing photo yesterday which turned out good. I didn't take a photo of my sewing closet or sewing room. I need to so you can see how organized it is. Now to keep it that way!

Polarizing Filter

Well, I am sometimes known for doing things "backwards". ha! But. . . that's the way I learn a lot of times. This is an example:

I read a brief note about polarizing filters and I still haven't read a lot about them. When I went to the camera shop yesterday to have my cards put on CDs and cleaned up for this photo session with the band/orchestra, I bought a polarizing filter. The employee there (who teaches photography classes) did give me a little "crash course" on it before I bought it. It's main purpose is to prevent glare and, he said, unwanted side light from coming in. He said it would make blue skies a more intense blue and take glare off green leaves on trees, etc.

So. . . I got home today and grabbed my camera, put the polarizing lens on and got outside during the golden hour. I took photos of the sky and clouds and it was a beautiful day to do that. There were so many beautiful white clouds and at that hour, some of them were tinted in pinks and oranges from the sun.

Most of the few I took turned out really pretty and I could see a difference but tonight as I was reading a little more about this lens, the correct way to use it is at a 90 degree angle to the sun or having the sun to your back. One of the photos I took with it was looking straight into the sun as it was setting!! I did notice that it was more difficult to find a "stopping place" when turning the filter on that photo. It was still a beautiful photo. But do and learn. That's me!

The sun was to my back with the above photo. I love it!

One more note: The author of the photography book I'm reading said the ONLY way to get a great photo is with a polarizing lens and good luck! ha! Can't wait until we have another rainbow!!

I Decided Not To Sit It Out!

What a great experience I had tonight! I photographed the Capitol Sounds band/orchestra of about 55 musicians at the First Baptist Church which was huge. It was a last minute thing because the director only asked me last night if I would do it. At first, I hesitated and then I decided, what the heck, I'll do it.

So I went to the church during the day today to learn my way around and look at the lighting, etc., talked to a friend that I admire her photography about it, talked to a guy who teaches at a photography shop, and took their advice. It was very well lit so it was really no problem. I haven't "played around" with the photos yet because I took 135 of them and that will take a while so I just posted a group picture of them right before they started performing. It was taken from the balcony. The stain glass was beautiful and I got some shots of it. I also took one shot outside during the "golden hour" that I think is beautiful - another dome!

We were enchanted by three women musicians, an organist, a trumpet player, and a soloist with the most wonderful voice I've heard in a long time - a powerful voice! It was just beautiful! I was doubly blessed tonight because I heard beautiful music and got to do what I love (photography) while listening. I will post some more photos from this shoot because some of them I really like. And all because I decided not to sit it out but to dance!! Life is full of opportunities and I am learning to start taking them when they come up!