Refreshing

I want some food related photos to hang in the kitchen. Here's an attempt at a micro shot.

ISO 800 SS 1/256 f/6.30 100mm

Cool Swing

Kenzie had a little trouble swinging with all the snow!

Foster's

Becca has been sick for several days, nothing serious, but she has been layin low and watching TV. One of the show she likes to watch is Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends on Toon network. I really like it too. Bloo is my favorite character, he's the little blue blob. Simple animation, crazy characters and plenty of witty sarcasm.

Lordy Lordy Dom is 40!

We celebrated with two of his favorite things: Beer and Steak!

Crazy Snow!

I admit I had no idea what I was going to post for a picture today, it just slipped my mind until a few minutes ago. It is snowing like crazy but it is dark out and I didn't want to drag out the tripod for a typical night shot so I put on the flash just to see what would happen if I screwed around a little. This is one of the shots, a bizarro psychadelic snowflake thingy. Pretty wild, huh??
ISO 1000 f/2.8 SS 1/64 63mm flash fired, compulsory

Icicle

I thought this icicle was cool. It is actually attached to our flag. We put the flag out for presidents day and then the wind blew it so that it stuck on the roof and got frozen there. (The flag holder is attached to the farmers porch) I tried taking pictures of the whole thing but they just weren't that great, too much background junk with the house, porch, roof etc. But this I liked. What I also liked was that the picture was taken around five in the afternoon and it was still light out!

ISO 400 SS 1/3200 f/2.8 40mm

Color

It is no secret that I color my hair. I do it myself about every six weeks or so and have been for several years so it has become a routine.

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Mr. Snowman

We got about 6 inches of wet snow overnight so we made a snowman today.

Bright spot

I found these nice colorful placemats for the kitchen today. Since I painted I of course feel the need to redecorate the whole kitchen, but these will just have to do for now. Still being in the midst of winter and another 5-10 inches of snow predicted overnight, this was just the bright little something I needed to get me through til spring!

Silly Kitty

I don't know why our cat prefers to drink out of cups rather than a waterbowl but she does. She dips her paw in the cup and then licks the water off her paw, it's cute unless of course it is your cup she is dipping her paw into because everyone knows that cats have poo-poo paws.

100 days of school

Today Kenzie celebrated her 100th day of school. She got to wear her PJ's to school and make this crown and get a badge that says she belongs to the 100 club and can count to 100 by 1's, 5's and 10's. She was very proud!

ISO 320 ss 1/80 f/7.1 50mm flash fired compulsory

Daytona

I enjoy watching Nascar and Daytona is the beginning of the season so I had to watch. This was obviously taken on the TV and the blur is intentional to try to capture the speed. Matt Kenseth won due to rain and he drives a Ford so I am happy!

ISO 320 ss 1/80 f/7.1 50mm flash fired compulsory

Love is...

Lobster!

Lap Dog??

Boomer tries very hard to be a lap dog but he's just a little too big.

ISO 250 SS 1/64 f/5.6 50mm flash fired, compulosory

Valentines

The girls have been busy the past couple of days making valentine's for their classmates and teachers. I got the idea for the teacher cards from Family Fun magazine. Their 'hands' are attached to a little bottle of hand lotion.

Made with Love

Getting into the spirit of Valentine's day I made the girls some heart shaped brownies. Last year I found some heart shaped silicone pans in Targets dollar section. I've used them for jello, cupcakes and now brownies!ISO 250 ss 1/64 f/5.0 50mm flash fired, compulsory

Ravioli

Ravioli is a staple in my children's lives and the sauce must be homemade, preferable by Nonna but mine is acceptable. Nonna taught me how to make it but hers is always better.

ISO 640 ss1/640 f/9 47mm flash fired, compulsory

Bedtime

Despite having their own rooms and their own beds the girls usually spend several nights a week in each other's beds. I have tried to discourage it because I know they each sleep better in their own rooms but I have given up on that and am just glad that they share such a close relationship and enjoy each other's company. As you can see Kenzie is not really thrilled with having her picture taken and has in fact just told her sister who kept squirming around, "Just let mom take the picture and get it over with."

Welcome friends

So I am slowly getting things back up on the walls after painting and
am feeling like switching things up a little bit. I found this Welcome friends wall decal on clearance at Target and decided I quite like it. I was actually looking for new curtains but no luck.

Bookworm

Being someone who loves to read myself, I love to see Becca enjoying books just for pleasure. Here she is this morning laying on the floor in front of the fireplace. Her current favorite is a series of books called Warriors about a clan of cats by Erin Hunter.
ISO 640 ss 1/128 f/2.8 57mm flash fired, compulsory

Miami Spice

This is going to be the new color in our kitchen-Miami Spice. The old color is canteloupe and it is the exact color of the inside of a canteloupe, not for everyone I know, but I liked. It was time for a change though and I wanted something a little darker hence miami spice.

ISO 800 ss 1/395 f/3.2 flash fired compulsory 28-75mm av mode

Sweethearts

I took some valentine's pictures of the kids with some cute lollipops I got at walmart. You can read all about that adventure on my other blog. Anyway I saw boxes of sweethearts and remembered getting them as a kid. I had also remembered seeing a cute picture of a close-up of a child's hand holding sweethearts with all the cute little messages and thought I could try that with the girls. Imagine my disappointment when I opened the box and saw the saddest bunch of sweethearts I had ever seen. Now I remember as a kid they weren't always perfect but I don't remember them being this awful. These are barely legible and some looked like they were already chewed on and spit out. I had picked up 2 boxes and figured the second box must be better. Wrong. So is my memory getting that bad or does Necco need to practice some quality control???

ISO 800 ss1/395 f/3.2 100mm AVmode

Kenzie and the Kitty

Every morning Kenzie has company for breakfast and lunch and it's not just her sister or me. It's the cat. Almost every morning I call Kenzie to eat her breakfast and every morning the cat beats her to her chair and spends the entire meal rubbing up against her. Of course she is just hoping for the leftover milk in her cereal bowl or for lunch it might be the leftover broth from a bowl of soup. I also wonder if she is just mistaking 'Kenzie' for 'Kitty'?!

ISO 640 ss 1/32 f/2.0 50mm no flash

They're back!

The turkey's came back today and I got a pretty good close up of one. I used a tripod because I find it hard to hand hold my 75-300 when it is fully zoomed, especially after two cups of coffee! Even though they are ugly I really enjoy watching them. They literally are right outside the kitchen window.

ISO 1600 ss 1/1328 f/5.6 no flash, tripod used.

Snow Fun

Here's a picture of Becca diving into the snow!

I was hoping to play around in shutter priority mode but by the time I got my camera the girls would only do one jump each for me. Oh well!

ISO 200 SS 1/395 f/14 28mm no flash

Hanging Out

Sunday afternoons are great for just hanging out. The girls enjoyed watching some You Tube videos on the laptop.

ISO 400 SS1/60 f/7.1 75mm flash fired, compulsory