M Family Session

Remember when I shot this Sweet Pea?
Well, guess who was lucky enough to shoot big brother and expectant mommy?
Yep, me!
To see MORE and BIGGER photos from this shoot, click here.
Or, you could even follow me over at:
http://tracilordphotography.blogspot.com/
(That would really make my day!)

Thank you M Family for the opportunity to do a family portrait!
I look forward to meeting your newest little one in a few weeks!

Mosaic Monday - Pink & Green

Linking up over at Mary's Little Red House
for Mosaic Monday.
Be sure to check out all the other lovely linker's mosaics!
From my garden: (top left going clockwise)
Matilda Gutges (hydrangea), Oakleaf Hydrangea,
peony and Geisha hosta.

Thanks for stopping by!
I also welcome all visitors to my photography site - here!

Spring Decor - Part I

Finally! I'm hoping to successfully link up to Mary's Monday Mosaic tonight. She hosts this at her blog Little Red House. I have long admired the creative and fabulous bloggers who participate in Mary's weekly feature. Be sure to check them out here.I've included a few more shots of our mantel. I've fussed and fussed with this and I've decided to let it go. You see, I try to maintain a symmetry on our mantel and this time it just didn't work out. See how my apothecary jars are not the same size? I also wanted to paint some larger eggs to put in the hurricane on the left. It didn't happen. So I put off this post long enough and said "the heck with it". The bunnies are made from vintage handkerchiefs and they remain my favorite Easter decorations.What took the longest was the shelves to the left and right of the fireplace. I completely cleared them off. (Even dusted them!) I looked all over the internet at professional designer sites, bloggers' home photos and retailers for some inspiration and guidance. There was a ton of great stuff to look through! And of course all that research takes time...so my next post I'll share some pointers from those who really know how to decorate.Thanks for stopping by and if you're coming via Mary's Mosaic Monday, I hope you'll come back!

Happy Gotcha Day!

A celebration of our son, who began our family life back in 2002.

Picked for us by God and the angels at Cradle of Hope.

An adorable chunk of love who was instantly a Daddy's boy.

Not yet walking, but always busy.

So eager to be fed, he'd kick his feet, wave his arms
and hold his mouth open like a baby bird.

The son we'd always dreamed of and are blessed to call our own...


Happy Gotcha Day, Jackie-baby!
We love you!

P.S. If you are or know of someone considering adoption, but they want to speak to someone who has been through the process, please feel free to give them my e-mail.

Bedroom Board & Batten or WOO-HOO!

BEFORE

Maybe the title should be "What Was I Thinking?!" I remember being impressed with myself when I matched up a border with a wallpaper from another manufacturer. That was 12 or so years ago.
And cherubs! If you know me, then this might be shocking. In my defense, we were just married. I dunno. I should just let it go and show you the "After".You can find a tutorial here. There are a lot of things I am able to do myself, but power tools simply are not "my thing".Before this treatment, I was thinking I needed to paint our bedroom furniture. Now I see the previous "dirty khaki" paint color was a terrible match for our wood. Now I think it pops nicely against the white. The paint color above is now "Bird's Nest" SR211 by Valspar. Here is another blogger who had the same treatment done in her bedroom. I opted for the bedroom because ours lacks any architectural interest and I wouldn't have to worry about the kiddos knocking into the woodwork.

Thanks for visiting, friends!

Homework

My online photography class is over and I miss it. I loved getting a lesson each week with clear and concise ideas, photos illustrating the teacher's point perfectly and then finally the assignment. I learned so much and would highly recommend Maggie Holmes' online courses.
However, the in-house models I was using tired quickly of helping me with my homework assignments.

Example A:Ella is so sick of this...

Example B:

She couldn't get the dog in the shot, so now she's sick of it, too.

To the rescue - my good friend, Heather. She generously agreed to volunteer her time and be my "lighting" homework assignment model.Did I luck out or what?
It was a great learning experience for me. Plus it helps having someone incapable of taking a bad picture as your model.Out of the whole session, I think there were maybe four shots I didn't edit.An example of how back-lighting, if properly exposed can produce stunning results.
(I was taught from the beginning to never have the light behind your subject.) Who knew?

Heather and her fabulous hair - holy cow!A huge thank you to Heather for her help, patience and feedback! I can not even tell you how fun this was for me.
This experience also made me think about how often we (moms, women, the family photographer) are not in the shot. So even if you don't go and have a whole session of photos taken, make sure you get in some shots as well.

And so you know I follow my own advice:portrait by our son, Jack

Get into the picture, friends!

A Very Good Day

I have been so excited to share with you what happened to me recently, but I had to wait until I received my "prize" to show you. Yes, I said prize! I entered in a give-away over at Mary's Little Red House. You all remember Mary, I expressed my admiration for her work in this post. Well, she is now selling her prints on etsy, here. And winner, winner, chicken dinner....I won! No skill was involved, just pure luck. Here is my selection from Mary's fabulous shop:copyright Mary Carroll
(don't make me hunt you down!)

Isn't it beautiful? I love it!
Well, the same day I saw I had won a print, I got a box from my Ma-Ma. What could this be? Sneaky, she is! I called her as I opened it and to my surprise were a set of milk glass dessert plates.Apparently, Ma-Ma was cleaning out and organizing her basement and came across these plates given to her from my grandmother, Mia. Who is the whole reason I started collecting a few pieces of milk glass. Milk glass like this:Does this piece look familiar? It's part of the reason I picked the above photo from Mary's selection!
Be sure to come back as I share how these two pieces inspired my January decor. In the meantime, head on over to Mary's shop!
Thanks for stopping by and Happy shopping!

P.S. Notice the length between my posting? Well, this organizing bit is really puttin' a kink into my blogging! Thanks for returning and I am grateful for your comments!

Back to School - sort of...

For Christmas, my sweetheart of a hubby enrolled me in an online photography class being taught by professional photographer, Maggie Holmes. Here on her blog, she offers beginners and advanced photographer workshops as well as actions. She has been terrific and I'm hopeful I can finally learn to shoot fully manual with my camera.
Anyway, I'd like to share with you some shots I took for part of my assignment this week.I think they are pretty cute. Good news is, you too can freeze your subjects in mid-air! If your camera comes with a "sports mode" (often shown as a running figure on one of the dials of your camera), you just have to switch it to that symbol. Don't save it just for sports photos, either!
Here is an older photo, but one of my favorites:
This mode will also freeze water in mid-air:
Even a photo such as this could be shot in sports mode:So go catch some action. And happy shooting!

The Game Plan a.k.a. Resolutions

(via Martha Stewart)

Oh, where to start? I'm feeling re-energized, renewed and resolved. Like so many others in bloggerland, I feel the new year is providing me a fresh start. I started writing down resolutions and felt compelled to add a "Be" column and an "I Will" column following my "Goals" column. In short, I've got a whole resolutions flow chart thing goin on. I've done this because just writing down the goal is not concrete enough - I need to include how (the "I will" part) and the change (the "be" part) I need to make in my lifestyle if I truly intend to reach these goals.
Here's an example:

GOAL
Organize house
.
BE
daily with my organizing habits
.
I WILL
organize one drawer or shelf,
find a permanent home for 1 thing,
file 10 pieces of paper,
keep a donation bag in my closet and get rid of 1 piece of clothing each day

As you can see, I've got some very concrete steps to keep my resolutions on track! Of course, I also have a flow chart for losing 20 pounds, but I won't bore you with that. (And I need to get to my chiropractor before I start with that game plan.) More importantly, let's get to...

Ella's Resolutions:

Make nice with the UPS man.
Cut back on the Milkbones.
Give chipmunks a chance.
Look cute.
(Who am I kidding? Done deal.)

Finally, I've got to link you up to Leigh. She wrote up an inspiring resolutions post here. I also love my dear friend, Bethany's "Year of the Yes" found here.

Inspiration

I have been so inspired by the talented photographers over at Lens Us Together, that I have to share what they have motivated me to try and link you up directly to some of their awesome sites!
Some brief background as we start. I value my sleep. With two young 'uns who must be at the bus stop by 7:00 am, my night owl tendencies and a husband who travels Monday through Friday, I covet my sleep. But after seeing the shots being taken by these ladies, I was determined to get out and catch the early rising sun and the fabulous light which comes with it. Yep, I spent two hours one day shooting landscapes and nature shots when I could've been comfy cozy back in bed.
Look what I would have missed:These shots were inspired by Mary over at In a Soft Light and Simple Things.
She is my Landscape Idol. Back when I got my first camera, I was crazy for landscapes, but extreme lighting situations befuddled me. I'm still befuddled, but now I'm digitally learning how to cover up, I mean correct my mistakes. Back to Mary...her photographs have such a dreamy, peaceful feel to them. Check out this one and this one to see a couple of my favorites. She also has a feature called Mosaic Monday on her third blog, Little Red House. I've lost a few morning hours clicking on the links of everybody who comes there to share their own mosaics.
Next up is Caroline from NoWordz and Whimsical Whispers. Her photographs are breath taking! I love her use of textures and the way she finds beauty in everyday objects.
Be sure to check out the black and white of apples on NoWordz which is just awesome (but I can't link up for some reason)! I mean, apples...really? I love it.
I took these:
after seeing this incredible photo of Caroline's.
She also has her first book for sale! You can preview it here or click on the "Buy the Book!" button at the top of her NoWordz site. Talk about a great gift for a photography enthusiast! Are you listening, honey?

Then there is 30 Days of Gratitude as Cora's theme for November on her blog, Heartfelt and Homemade. I had every intention of following Cora's lead on this one, but did I mention how much I love and need sleep? I have so enjoyed reading her posts each day. On some particularly long, rainy days, I have been pulled out of a funk by reading one of Cora's gratitudes. One of my favorites can be found here, but I highly recommend reading them all to find your personal favorite! Of course, each gratitude is accompanied by one of Cora's beautiful photographs.
Here is my precious Ella yet again. You can thank Kate at A Picture A Day for inspiring me to share my dear Ella more often. You see, in addition to her fabulous photos, you will see her fabulous dog, George. Ella was getting a wee bit jealous.

Finally, to see some ridiculously amazing family portraits, you need to visit Michelle (Shell) over at Wildflower Studio Blog. She is one smart cookie - picking a winery for a family session so mom and dad can do some tasting while the kids are busy being photographed. I have no pictures to show you - go visit her site while I pour some wine. See... she did inspire me!

Thank you ladies, for sharing your gifts and talents, for inspiring me to try new things and to look at things in a new light!

Quickie Card

Good news - I've kept my August resolution and am 4 for 4 in sending out birthday cards! Hardly a stretch to get 4 cards made, but maybe it's better that I'm eased into this deal.
I'm sharing this card because I just love this new stamp. It has incredible details! (Click on the image to enlarge.) I got it over at addicted to rubber stamps.com. If you don't have a local stamp store, you should check out this place. They run different promotions and sales weekly. Thousands of stamps to choose from - thousands, people! If you need a place to start looking, I'd recommend these companies: Impression Obsession, Inkadinkado, Magenta and Rubber Romance Stamps. No need to thank me - I'm happy to help! (wink)Once stamped, I used colored pencils to color in the cake. Who doesn't love to color? I actually think it's therapeutic. But I digress. Here's the inside:Cake Stamp: Impression Obsession (sorry there is no company name on the "bloomin'" stamp)
Patterned Paper: ki memories (quite old actually)
Edge Punch: Fiskars
Scalloped Punch: Stampin' Up

Thanks for stopping by and happy-stamping!

While here...

...we saw a plaque with this printed on it: "I'm not mean. You're just a sissy." My dear friend said (while laughing) "That is SO you!"
A friend is one who knows you and loves you just the same.
How true.
I have friends who have seen me at my worst, friends who have been with me through tough times and still they are my friends. If you're lucky enough to have a few friends like this, then you're lucky enough.

I want to introduce you to the friend who inspired me to start blogging - the same friend who declared that sign to be "so you." Friends, meet Bethany, of Borderland Traveler.

Her writing is thought-provoking, witty, entertaining and for me, educational. If I make it through a post of hers without copying a word down to look up, I feel like I've won the lottery! Words I've learned from reading Bethany's blog: detritus, gustatory, poultice (which has nothing to do with chickens - so misleading) and tincture. She probably does crossword puzzles with a pen. If you already were using these words - good for you! You really need to take a looksy at her blog.

See, B. has a gift for putting words together. Her stories about her four, yes, four children (feel free to gasp) are riotous. Check out this one for proof. How about this conversation recorded between three siblings? What a hoot!

In addition to being a talented writer, Bethany is a bold crafty girl. This is a recent fabulous project for her youngest one's room. While we've explored our crafty talents together, she is a perfect match for my "let's see how we should do this" attitude - saying "oh, let's just do it"! For her take on our crafty adventures, check out this post, where she so generously introduced me to her blog readers.

She's a true friend. A spirit-filled cheerleader, an encourager and one who always manages to see the silver lining. Who would have thought years after playing an ill-fated game of Pictionary together, we'd be such good friends?
Remember I said I have friends who've seen me at my worst? During that game of Pictionary, poor Bethany was on the receiving end of "I can't believe you can't tell what that is!", from yours truly. Yeah, I'm lucky this girl hung around. Lucky enough.In honor of B., I'm passing along this fabulous bookplate which I found here.
You can find loads more there and they are free for personal use. My son pointed out that the black and white ones would be fun to color in!
Thanks Bethany, for inspiring me! My writing will never compare to yours, but I'm so glad I caught the blogging bug!