Beautiful song

WOW. This is my new "favorite, second only to O, Holy Night" Christmas song. There is a bit of talking at the beginning, but if you are patient, I promise you'll be blessed.

::thank you Jeanne for the tutorial!::

Freaking out a little

I just completed a HUGE Christmas card order. Well, huge to me....624 cards to one person. Last Thursday I got a phone call from someone asking to see examples of the cards we offer. After asking a few questions, I found out this is a client that Meredith photographed the day after Thanksgiving. She mentioned to them that I do custom cards, so they gave me a call. This family lives in Alabama, so I haven't met them, but I have talked to the wife/mother on the phone and through email over the past week. After I got the design approved by them, they told me how many cards they wanted. ::gulp:: That made me a little nervous. I called Meredith to thank her for the referral, and made the comment that I don't think I have known 624 people in my ENTIRE LIFE! She told me to google the people and that would explain everything.

Oh how I wish I hadn't done that.

I won't tell you the two words I said, but they start with "holy" and end with "crap". ;o)

To quote Meredith, let's just say, "Yes sir Senator. Anything you say." ::gulp again::

I don't know whether to be thrilled or throw up, lol.

Things that make you go hmmmmmmm

Number one: Why have my neighbors left their rugs hanging on my fence for 3 months now? The first day or two they were there, I thought, "Hmmm they must be doing some deep cleaning in their house." Now I just wonder why they didn't just throw the darn things away! They have been rained on and faded from a summer of hot sun. Hmmmmmmmm. And no I'm not asking them because this is the house where the crazy burglar lives!

Number two: How did this Target bag get way up high into a tree in my back yard? I know it's not MY Target bag. I wonder how far it traveled to get there, I wonder what fabulous items it held when it left Target, I wonder if this person was shopping there the same time I was one day.

And I wonder how to get it down....

Number three: How do you lose a saucepan, when you are the only person living in your house? This one really has me puzzled, and more than a little perturbed.

Very Cool

Remember that tree picture I posted a while ago? Well I got it printed on canvas and made a gallery wrap out of it. It looks so pretty in my den!

But that's not the cool part!

A friend of mine saw the photo and asked where I got it. I told her I took the picture, and she liked it so much she asked if I minded if she used it as the starting point for a design for a wall quilt hanging she was making her husband. It was just the shape she was looking for. I told her of course I didn't mind! And that picture above is exactly what she made! Isn't it beautiful? She's so talented. It doesn't show well in this photograph, but she added beads to parts of the branches, (click on the photo to see it larger) and it's just stunning in person!

(that's the cool part!) :o)

Sunday Ramblings

Just going through some pictures, and doing some computer work this afternoon. This is one of the flowers my brother gave me for my birthday. I loved the way the back of it looked, so I snapped this shot. I printed one out, and I like it so much I'm going to find a funky frame and stick it in my house somewhere. Now I'll get to keep the flower forever!

It's amazing how we sometimes only look at one side of things, and never truly appreciate how much beauty lies on the other side.

Today was the choir's first day back after taking the summer off. It felt good to get back into the swing of things. I love the friends I've made there so much. They are true blessings to me.

I decided to bite the bullet and get that tree picture (a few blog posts down) mounted on canvas. I ordered a gallery wrap, so it doesn't need framing, and it's probably going to go up in my den. Although, my bedroom might need it more. It's a 20x30, so I'll have to see where it looks best. When I was speaking with the developer on the phone, she told me it was a great picture! That totally made my day! I mean they are an out of state company, and they ONLY develop professional photographers' photos. For her to compliment my picture took me completely by surprise! Anyway, I digress. My fabulous 20x30 gallery wrap canvas is supposed to be here tomorrow!!!!! I am so stinking excited to see it. I've only seen the picture on the computer, and I'm anxious to see how it translated onto canvas.

Another exciting thing that happened, is I got hired to do another scrapbook! I made a scrapbook for a friend when she had her baby a couple of months ago. She loved it so much, she wants me to make one for her sister in law who is having a baby in November. FUN! I can't wait to get started on it.

OH!!! I also got my very first website order this weekend! That was fun! ha! Things are rolling along nicely lately.

I'm a lucky girl.

Another year older

I love my birthday. :o) And yesterday was no exception!

My brother was the first to call to wish me Happy Birthday. He always calls at the stroke of midnight just so he CAN be first. Even when he was in Iraq he would. Unfortunately this year, I didn't hear the phone ring. HA! But pesky...uhhhh...persistent soul that he is, he called back at 7 in the morning, and was still the first!

My mom then called and sang(?) a little piece she put together on the fly, much to her coworkers' dismay. :o)

I got two original birthday songs from Meredith, which is a tradition between the two of us. Her Birthday rap she left on my answering machine this year will go down in history, hands down, as the most creative of all time. What a riot. Then she had a short little song to sing to me on my way to work, that went like this (complete with a country twang):

Fried Chicken
Country Hog
It's your birthday
HOT DOG!!!

@@

For dinner I went to Bonefish Grill, it was delicious! I went back to Mom's house after dinner and got PRESENTS! WOOOOOOOWOOOOOO I was spoiled more than I deserve, once again, and got some fabulous gifts. Mom got me some antique cameras, an old photography magazine called "Kodakery" (sounds like a fruity frozen drink to me!) a purse, candle, money (which I'm using for a fabulous new lens!!!), and a popcorn hamper HA!!!

Destin had mom get me some beautiful flowers. He said we would celebrate each others' birthdays the next time we see each other. Now, Chelsea Grace LOVES flowers. Anytime I bring flowers in the house she starts singing away. I can just hear her saying, "OH MOM!!! They are so beautiful!!!!!! Let me eat them!!!!!" Well when she saw me bring them in last night, she let out the longest and loudest kitty aria I've ever heard!! It was hysterical. The pictures above are of her singing to the flowers (and she won't take her eyes off them, as you can tell in the first one).

I would say it was a stellar day! Thank you Lord for these blessings: Mom, for always making our birthdays so special; Destin for being such a fantastic brother; and all my dear friends who always make me feel so loved. I adore you all.

This morning I had a photo shoot. I took some pictures of a precious 15 week old baby boy. I can't wait to get to work on those pictures. I'll post a sneak peak soon.

The accused...

Sure, she looks innocent enough, but don't let that fool you. She tried to kill me this morning.

A little background: For as long as I have owned this house, (going on 5 years now) Chelsea Grace has had this game of trying to figure out where I'm walking in the house, and beating me there. It's really adorable.

Except when she's wrong.

Which brings us to this morning. I was walking back to my bedroom after being at the front of the house. My hallway kind of "forks" at the end; my bedroom on the right, my scraproom on the left. Chelsea Grace must have thought I was going into the scraproom to check my email or something because she took off that way. But when she realized I was zigging while she was zagging, she whipped herself around and ran right in front of me.

And then she just....

STOPPED!

Right as I got to the doorway she stopped dead in her tracks. Now I always sucked at physics, but the one thing I did learn was that an object in motion tends to stay in motion.

Which is what I did.

In order to not step on her, I tried to take a bigger step to step over her. Well this freaked her out, so she took off running again. And that totally threw me off balance, because once again I was about to step on her! I ended up grabbing the door frame to stop from falling, which jammed my wrist, and as my leg went down I hyperextended my knee. Good grief.

And what does Chelsea Grace do while all this is going on? While I'm trying to not only save her life, but my own?????

She bathes.
@@

I guess when you have 9 lives, using one up isn't such a big deal.

Hot Springs, Virginia

This is a shot I took as we were coming back down the mountain the day after the wedding we were hired to shoot. There were so many picturesque farms, and beautiful landscapes. This scene looked like a painting to me, so I tweaked it a bit to make it look like one. You can click on the picture to see more detail. I took the shot pretty fast because the road was littered with dead snakes, and as we later found out the place was crawling with ticks! ::shudder::

Just playing around

Things are finally settling down a bit around here. All my spring weddings are shot, edited and uploaded for client viewing. All my work is done on the extra job I picked up for a little extra money, and that has been turned in. My house is still a disaster, but hey...baby steps.

So what's a girl to do with a little free time? Find a new endeavor, of course! My sweet friend, Melinda, and I are pairing up on a new project, I'll keep you posted as new details emerge. I think it will be fabulous, and creative and FUN!

I have so many pictures that I've taken in all my traveling in the last year. With everything so crazy, I haven't had time to work on any of them, I've done all our "paid" work first and then there never seemed to be time for the other stuff. This morning I forced myself to pick just one picture I would want in my house, and play with it. This is the picture I came up with.

This is a tree in Bay St. Louis, MS. I love this tree so much. I adore photographing trees, anyway, almost as much as I love photographing feet! ha! The older, more gnarled the tree, the better. Imagine the stories they can tell. This tree especially. This tree survived Katrina. As you can see it's right on the water, and that bridge behind it is a bridge that didn't fare as well. When I was there in December, they were rebuilding that bridge. Everything around this tree was demolished, there was so much damage. Concrete was ripped from the road; a tree trunk the size of a Ford Expedition was uprooted and lay in the middle of the street, roots and all. And this tree saw it all happen. I know I'll never know the reason this beautiful tree still stands there.

But I'm so glad it does. :o)

Only 2 weeks later!

Ok, so most of you know I won tickets to see Billy Joel in New Orleans a couple of weeks ago. At long last, some pictures from the Billy Joel Concert! Oh my gosh, it was such a great show!! I never thought I'd ever say this in all my life, but he bumped Elton John off the number 1 spot of greatest concerts I've been to! He's my new number 1. Can you believe that???

My friend, Cindy took these fabulous pictures. I was afraid to bring my big camera to the concert, thought it might get confiscated. I borrowed my mom's small digital, but Cindy's pics turned out much better! She had a pretty powerful zoom going on! She took some video of the concert too, but I can't get it to upload to photobucket to post it here. I'll keep working on that!

Since then I've been doing a bunch of spring cleaning, and re-organizing. I'm trying to declutter. Ha. Good luck with that.

I also got a new mattress last weekend. I really like it, it's so comfy! I'm hoping it will help my back. It will be nice to be able to sleep all night and wake up in the morning pain free.

I think that's all I have to add right now. I'm sure I'll think of something else as soon as I log off, but you'll just have to wait until next time! Have a great night!

I'm very sad. I killed a bird today. I'm a bird murderer. A Burderer!!! :o(

Craft day with mom was fun, I didn't get as much accomplished as I would have liked, but that's ok. There's always next time. Some friends are supposed to come scrapbook at my house Saturday, so I can get some work done on my books. I'm tired of all this stuff just accumulating. I'm ready to get it all where it belongs...in the scrapbooks!!! Then I can accumulate MORE STUFF! ha. just kidding.

Kinda.

The brisket turned out pretty good, if I do say so myself. I took it to the family tonight, they seemed very excited. But I found out the mother is back in the hospital in ICU. She's having such bad pain, and a high fever and fluid in her abdomen. They are running tests to see what it could be. Right now they suspect gall bladder. That has to be hard. She's away from her new baby, and in ICU, the husband is home from the Marines on leave, and the whole time she's been in the hospital and ill. He's running back and forth between the baby and his wife. Keep them in your prayers, please. Sounds like they really need them!

I think that's all I have to blog about today, happy Monday everyone!

Look at my new lamp! I got it tonight at Hobby Lobby, and I just love it! It looks so cute in my den on the bookcase. I wonder how long it will take Chelsea Grace to notice it and decide to "play" with the little danglers?

Tomorrow my mom is coming over and we are having a craft day. We decided we are going to get a head start on Christmas this year, and each month to 6 weeks we will have a craft day, and work on our projects. I hope it helps me at Christmas this year so it's not as hectic as this past Christmas. I'll let you know how this plan goes. ha.

After we finish our craft day we are going to see a movie Mom has been wanting to see: "Because I Said So". Should be a fun filled day!

I'm also attempting to make a brisket tomorrow. If it turns out ok, I'll have dinner for mom and me, (HA!) and then I'll take some to a family from choir that just had a baby. Cross your fingers for me, I've never made one before! Then Sunday I have church, and choir orientation (I'm the choir photographer, so I have to be there to take everyone's mug shots) and then, the rest of the day I may sit on the couch and catch up on my Tivo playing list!

Have a great weekend!

WOW! I can't believe it's February already! Before I know it, it will be Christmas again! Guess I better start shopping! ha.

I decided to put a couple of pictures of my mantel on this blog, because it makes me feel cozy. I change it up every so often, it's an easy way to redecorate without a lot of money or effort. I do the same with my kitchen table, I change it out with the seasons or occasions. I have discovered I'm addicted to dishes, glasses, candles and placemats. Expensive addiction, and it also takes up SO MUCH SPACE! ack!

I've been working on the blog for the business. It's shaping up, but still needs work. I have to input all our information, and also have a TON more pictures to add. It will definitely be a work in progress. I surprised Meredith with what I have done so far, and she was so excited! It's great to work with someone who's so encouraging. Of course it never really feels like work with her, we are usually cracking up every time we are together. We think so much alike, we've decided we share a brain. Sucks for her, ha!

I have so many things on my to do list, that blog being just one of them. I decided this weekend would be a productive weekend, but tomorrow I have church, a baby shower to attend, plus it's Super Bowl Sunday, so not much work will be done tomorrow. So that leaves today. And what am I doing? Blogging. HA! I'm such a procrastinator lately.

Well I'm going to get busy, wish me luck! I'd like to knock at least 2 things off my list today. Hopefully that's not too ambitious! Here I go.......but first I need some breakfast. :o)

Inaugural Blog!

Well this is my very first blogger blog! I have been blogging on MySpace for the last few months, but decided to practice with this site for awhile. If I can get the hang of it, I'm going to set a blog up for our photography business. You know, just a place people can go to see our work, without us having to email them stuff all the time. We are eventually going to have a website of our own, but until time (and our budget!) allows, this may be the way to go!

I am slowly getting the hang of it, thanks to Jen! She spent a good couple of hours last night trying to help me figure things out. I figure when I want to learn how to do something well I should go to the master, and Jen seems to have mastered her blog area! Plus she is so patient and giving. It was a win win for me, not sure Jen got the best end of the deal though, lol.

It's absolutely FREEZING here tonight, I think it's supposed to get down to 22 here. I think I'll go make myself some hot chocolate with the hot chocolate maker I won playing Bunco. That's a picture of it at the top of my blog. It's called the "cocomotion" which cracks me up! It makes really good hot chocolate and it's super fun to say! That's two great things in one! ha.

Stay warm, everyone!

Kel