This week Christina and I chose LEARN. It seemed appropriate since Christina is so enveloped with school lately. A take home test goes better than she thought. Yay! And for me, to think that there would be a chapter on how to "be me" seemed too good to pass up!
Hope your in this week for Team Up Thursday!
Christina and I chose hands this week and we each looked at them from a different perspective.
I like hands. Some people like legs. Some people like feet. I happen to think hands are interesting. Hands are unique. I love those gritty black and white shots of aged hands that look like they are hard worked. The ones with wrinkles and liver spots that have so much character in them. There are the strong hands of a parent that radiate protection and love. The often dirty hands of a child that explore with such curiosity. And the soft hands of a baby that provide him/herself comfort and show so much potential. Hands tell a story about each person and leave me with questions about their lives in any scenario. I like hands.
What did you show this week for Team Up Thursday?
Signs. A person could go in many directions with that theme. Christina took the mysterious route. Signs of a new puppy? Ahhhh, she had me at tiny wet paws! I love this adorable showing of whats to come. I on the other hand took the obvious route with just a picture of an actual sign. I couldn't resist the UGLY MUG!
Hope your in this week for Team Up Thursday!
Christina and I were a little behind this week for Team up Thursday. I don't think we picked a theme until Tuesday! We ended up choosing FOOD because I thought it would be easy. Ha Ha on my part since I hadn't been grocery shopping in a couple of weeks!
Christina and Nadia had this one down though. Ants on a log...How fun! Ooey gooey tasty peanut butter with celery and raisins. A great nutritious snack. While I on the other hand, may not have real food in the house, but we have donut holes! It's like our naughty obsession in this house and a quick and easy breakfast for Ella before school sometimes.
For more "Team-Up Thursday" diptych's, head over to Megan's
I've fallen in love. It was instant and it was powerful. In person and through the lens. The second I looked into his...or was it her (don't judge, we didn't get that close.)....eyes, it felt like the rest of the world had disappeared. I kept clicking because I wanted to remember every single second of that moment. All the noise in the room went silent and I could only see the gentleness in his eyes. His long flowing eyelashes were reminiscent of Mr._Snuffleupagus. How could I not get a warm and fuzzy feeling? His beauty took my breath away. His sheer size and ease of movement was amazing. There was no fear. He was in the spotlight. I was in awe. The moment was surreal. I've fallen in love.
Changes. We all go through them many times in our lives, and since Christina and I were away from the challenge for a few months, we thought we would show you some changes that have happened in our lives.
Nadia. Beautifully growing Nadia. That's what Christina is portraying in her shot. I LOVE the wonderful mother-daughter relationship they have. They are like two peas in a pod! I know over the last few posts Christina has made, I have commented on how big and tall Nadia looks. She has really lost alot of her chubby little baby cheeks from the early days of the blog and is turning into a beautiful little girl. Sweet Nadia....You get more and more beautiful with every post!
In my shot, I opted for the obvious. Little girl + new baby = Busy Mama...and loving it! The relationship Ella has with Olivia has already bloomed into something wonderful. Olivia could be screaming her head off and once Ella comes into sight, the whole world is better. Even more so when Ella almost rips her arms off and makes Olivia dance. Oh how she laughs. I absolutely love having two little girls, but more so, I love the relationship that they are going to form as they grow up together. I know it wont be all happy pink and pigtails forever. They will probably be at each others throats at some point. But I am enjoying this love while I can!
For more "Team-Up Thursday" diptych's, head over to Megan's
There's a couple of anniversary's happening lately in my life. One of them caught me completely by surprise, while the other is the reason I am here.
The first anniversary is my parents. 10-10-10 is my parents 39th wedding anniversary. I am so happy and proud to have them in my life and in Ella and Olivia's life. We built the addition on our house just over a year ago for them to move in, and it could not have worked out better. I love how much we are able to share and be there to help each other out when needed. Keith and my Dad play games online together many nights. We often used to joke about my Dad being upstairs while Keith is downstairs and they are fighting each other in a game. At the time we didnt know it would really happen. :0) My mom is retired so she is home all day, as are the girls and I. We often go out to lunch and make those 5 weekly trips to Target (Its an addiction, I swear)! Ella just adores them and when Olivia gets a little older, she'll be right on Ella's heels crawling up those stairs to see her Amoo and Eppay every day too. We are all so glad to have them here, and wish them a wonderful anniversary.
On the same note....I work from home for my company and my boss asked me if I could come into the office the other day to have a meeting. He told me it was about one of my duties that is probably my least favorite thing to do in my job. So whatever, thats fine. I was going in anyways to have lunch with my friend Stacy. I asked my mom to watch the girls and I was on my way in.
All was pretty normal. I get along with my boss really well so the normal joking around ensues. Also, Stacy was there working and waiting for me to get done with my meeting to go have lunch. I said hi to a few people along the way to the conference room and my boss and I took a seat while waiting for one more person to join the meeting.
Then the door opened and there wasnt just one more person walking in, there was about 7 or 8 people walking in. In the span of about 1/10th of a second as I saw all the people standing there, my mind went crazy and stupid all at the same time. Is it my birthday? No, its not my birthday....Was I getting fired and this was a going away party? No, thats not reasonable. Crap! There's the president of the company....but wait, there's Stacy too....What the heck is going on?!
Come to find out, they were surprising me with a gift for being with the company for 10 years. I was blown away. Rendered speechless. I absolutely thought I was in there to have a meeting. They presented me with a plaque and a fantastic gift. They handed me a bag, which itself was a new camera bag. Inside the bag was 3 lenses. I KNOW!! I am still freaking out when I think about it. They got me a Nikkor 70-300mm zoom lens, a fisheye and (brace yourself...) a 650-1300mm lens. A total paparazzi lens! Along with the bag and lenses were a set of 3 filters, lens cleaner and a lens cap keeper.
I must mention that about a week or so before, my friend Stacy told me that her aunt had a camera store that she had closed and she had a bunch of lenses that she thought she could get for really cheap. She wanted to know which lenses I was interested in as a combination present for my birthday and Christmas. I found it a little odd, as she had never told me before that she had a family member with a camera store....since I am into photography and all. But never the less, I gave her a list of a few lenses I would like, thinking that maybe if they were at a really good price, I would buy some for myself too. This was all a lie to get information from me. I was played the fool! They made a sign on the computer saying, "Stacy's Aunt's Camera Shop Closing Sale One Day Only 10/5/10." There was no aunt and there was no camera shop!
As they presented me with my gift, they pulled out 3 large pieces of paper and layed them on the table. Stacy and my boss had gone onto my blog and put together a few collages of my photography to show everyone. I think that was what got me the most. The time that they took to put them together and the thoughtfulness that went into it blew me away. In that surreal moment, it was as though I was suddenly having my first exhibit! LOL. All kidding aside, it was a fantastic surprise and I could not have been more thankful.
I havent even tried out any of the lenses yet, but as you can see from the pictures accompanying the post, I have been loving the weather and colors around here. Keith and I are going to take a nature walk tomorrow with the girls and I hope to get some good pictures. It is supposed to be close to 80 degrees tomorrow!
I have no idea where 2010 went, because here we are in October already. The season up here in Minnesota is moving along quickly. Just last weekend I was taking pictures of the leaves and they had just turned yellow with a tad bit of orange. Here we are on Thursday and the pictures I took yesterday are almost full on red.
As I was shooting yesterday with one of my new lenses (70mm-300mm...more on that in an upcoming post), I zoomed in and saw this leaf flickering in the wind. A heart. A perfect little heart was inside this leaf. Ella and my Dad were standing there with me and my Dad said, "What a creative little bug to have eaten a perfect little heart." Creative indeed!
Christina provided a picture almost completely opposite of mine. It just goes to show how different things are down in Texas this time of the year. I love this view with the lines directing my eyes to the bails of hay on the right. The way she processed it gives the image a baron and deserted feeling showing the end of the crop season. Even though there are no bright yellows, oranges or reds, you know the cooler weather has set in and it is FALL.
For more "Team-Up Thursday" diptych's, head over to Megan's
I am super excited to be joining up with Christina again for Team Up Thursday. I cant believe its been almost 4 months. I definitely had planned on getting back into it after only a few weeks of giving birth, but it just didn't feel right. Now that we are settled into a routine, I am ready to work with what's left of my brain and get back into the swing of it! :0)
Christina came to the table with a whole bunch of ideas for a theme. Appropriately enough for our first week back, we decided to go with Hello.
I love Christina's photo this week. I think it truly embodies the quote, "A picture is worth a thousand words." I told her that I cold totally see her setting the timer and getting back to Nadia as if she was "sliding into home base". The more I look at it the more I see. With Christina's eyes, you can tell she's smiling. Nadia's eyes look like she is making a surprised face. I love the grip C has on Nadia's hand. You can just see the fun that they had getting this shot....Plus its got great bokeh.
My image for this week simply shows what I've been up to in our time away. I have been playing with my Lensbaby more and more, which has been really fun. But the Lensbaby isn't the only baby I have been busy with. :0)
For more "Team-Up Thursday" diptych's, head over to Megan's
My mom and I took the girls to a Lebanese festival this past weekend. I brought my camera expecting there to be colorful outfits with dancers and live music. I was very excited, but there was none of that....at least not in the afternoon when we went. The band was just setting up around 5pm when we were leaving, so I think we should have gone a little later in the day rather than earlier. It was in the parking lot of a church and was put on by the parishioners. There was Arabic music played over the speakers...which I totally loved. There was also a silent auction, a big bouncy house/slide for the kids to play in and fabulous food.
My great, great Grandfather on my Mom's side came to America from Lebanon. While growing up I always had a sense of my heritage, but never became interested in it until my late 20's. My Mom and I often go to a Lebanese deli to enjoy raw kibbi, tabouli, stuffed grape leaves and stuffed kusa. It is a nice treat for us to go there because neither my Dad nor Keith like to eat our "funny food", as they call it.
So even though there was not much excitement while we were at the festival, at least we got to enjoy the music and the food!
Trying to get Ella to just smile like a normal little girl in front of the camera is another story! :0)
SMILE ELLA!
NO REALLY, JUST A REGULAR SMILE....
COME ON.....
JUST ONE SMILE FOR ME PLEASE.....
CAN YOU ACT NORMAL?
THANK YOU!
I got myself a little present that just arrived the other day..... The Shutter Sister's new book, Expressive Photography. I was finally able to sit down last night and look at it and I ended up reading it cover to cover. I just loved, loved, loved the whole thing, since it is jam packed with beautiful images and knowledge. It made me want to pick up my camera and start shooting.
Thank you Shutter Sister's for such a wonderfully inspiring book. I hope you get the chance to pick it up for yourself too!
Bored as hell? check
Mall? check
Vivacious 5 year old? check
iPhone? check
This is what happens when my child says, "Mommy, Look!"
Now, I debated posting this one, only because.....well, I'm sure you know......But the thing is, this one was actually the funniest of them all. Ella HAD to pose with these mannequins because she wanted to be bare foot like they were. So that's fine and all, but there was little to no room in between those mannequins and all I could do is hold my breathe and pray that she did not knock them all over as she made her escape! I mean really....Couldnt you just see them tumbling over as they scatter left and right and how freaking embarrassed I would have been? OMG.
Ah, Good times.....Good times.
Although my life is starting to look something close to normal now, this whole newborn stage really flew by way too quickly....especially when you know this one is the last. Out goes the sleepy and squishy newborn face and in comes the beautiful characteristics and personality.
Yesterday, Olivia was officially 3 months. She coos at us, her actions are as deliberate as they can be, she is sleeping at least 3 hours at a time and I am only getting up 2 times a night. Ella has even started watching cartoons for a bit before she wakes me up. Most mornings, that means I get to sleep in until 8am. I'm giddy about that one!
Yup, both my girls are pretty much growing up way too fast.
Note to self: Stop. Take it all in. Smile. Repeat.
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