babies are delightful!

I absolutely love babies.

There is no doubt about that.

I mean, I AM a Grammy, right?

One thing I enjoy when I'm looking through the lens of my camera is seeing babies! 

However, I will admit that while patience has not always been my strong suit, it is a characteristic that one must possess to capture those sweet baby moments.  I have had to learn to be patient when photographing babies and young children and more importantly, try to project patience to the parents.

Of course we all love to see happy babies.  As a photographer, it is satisfying to capture that perfect smile, that sparkle in their eyes.

AND there are other times that capturing the complete opposite of a happy smile is just as memorable of a moment. This one of Baby Claire is one of my favorite shots of this session....and it was a favorite of her parents' too! What a fun memory her cute little temper will be for them to look back on (although I have a feeling her cute little temper may last awhile). :)

Sometimes, it's a detail...everyone loves baby feet, right!?

I happen to love this shot for the lighting. It is a favorite of mine and portrays such a strong emotion of peace and quiet. The perfectly sweet baby moment laying in daddy's hands. 

Sometimes a shot just "happens". I must say I was ecstatic when I discovered this gem on my camera. It was "THE MOMENT" we were trying to freeze in time. Daddy's favorite horse and Daddy's favorite baby girl. Could there be another more awesome shot?  No, it's not perfectly exposed or composed, but I have no doubt that this image will be an all time favorite photo of this family.

THAT is why I will continue to work on my patience when it comes to working with babies and their parents. It's worth every minute it takes to wait for a baby to calm down, move to another location, change clothes (and diapers!), and very importantly, ease the parents so they know I want to take the time to ensure we capture the moments!

"Shocolate Ship" Pizza

There is a great little pizza place in Highland, AR called Bia Maria's. They serve buffet style but have very unique flavors, such as chicken enchilada, loaded baked potato and buffalo chicken. They also carry more traditional styles as well, like supreme, pepperoni and sausage.  They also have several choices of dessert pizzas. I loved the peanut butter cookie, but as you can see Carlee is happy with "shocolate ship"!

The coolest part is that they bring fresh pizzas around to your table and offer you a hot piece while they ask if you have a favorite that you would like for them to prepare fresh. It is a relaxed family atmosphere with different sports showing around the dining room on the mounted flatscreens and an arcade a la Chuckie Cheese style where you can cash in tickets for prizes.  

On another note, I'm super impressed by Google+'s ability to put together these cute little gif's out of my automatically uploaded iPhone photos. I did not realize that happened and was pleasantly surprised to discover it this morning while pursuing my uploads for a specific photo. 

Much like my blog, I have not been a very active poster on G+, besides using the "hangout" for video calls with the other little cutie pie in my life and his mommy, but will definitely be using it more and more for this feature. Feel free to connect with me on G+ and I'll add you to one of my circles too. 

P.S. I'm in no way affiliated or being paid by Bia Maria's. I always like to share local places when I find ones worth sharing. We actually have several in my little community worth sharing. :)

Progress

High time to show the progress on Project House since the outside is {almost} done. Porches and a little trim yet to go.

From this:

to this:

 to THIS:

 Improvement. No?

I promise a better photo that includes leaves and grass. This was taken last winter while the guys were still there working.

A little more from inside soon. I've been working in the bedrooms trying to clean and prep for painting. There are some repairs to be made in places where there was water damage from a leak in the roof, but each day I am there working, it looks a little better. 

Dusting out the cobwebs

Wow, I cannot believe it's been almost a year since I have posted anything on the old blog. I am not sure why I quite posting altogether, but it makes me sad that I have neglected to write about the humdrum that is my life.

I must dust out the cobwebs and get back to sharing more on here. It seems that there are people who do visit from time to time and must think my life has either A. become so exciting that I don't have time to blog, or B. life has gotten so boring that subject matter is just not available anymore.  I'm here to assure you that option A. is just laughable! My life is definitely not boring either. I really cannot put my finger on a reason for my lack of writing, but I truly want to turn that around.

First, I must change that banner header! How funny that it's welcoming 2012 and here we are halfway through 2013!! Also, must update on Project House 2012  2013. No, we are not done. Yes, it was a larger undertaking than expected. Maybe Project House 2014? We are just doing what we can, when we can and hoping we get done before the kids put us in a nursing home!  I will update on where we are with photos later.

I have been developing my photography more and more and have been blessed with opportunities to photograph some lovely people over the last year. Time seems to be my enemy so I do not market too much, but I stay as busy as I want to with family and friends, and family of friends of those family and friends. I feel very fortunate to have this outlet that satisfies several desires. I love the creative side of it. I love that I'm in full control. I love that I get the chance to make new friends and interact with others. I really is fun!

Crafts and art has pretty much taken a turn into a vast, empty vacuum. Yes, I pin cool projects like the next girl, but getting those projects off the ground is a whole other story! I need to change this.

Grammyhood seems to be my favorite past time these days. Getting to spend time with the two sweetest babies on earth is truly blissful! So much love in my heart for Carlee and River!
They are my motivation. They are my joy.

A little more catch up to come. For now, napping is a priority!

Inside Project House 2012

Beware, some images in this post may be shocking!

Just because I have not posted about Project House the last couple of weeks doesn't mean there has not been some progress!

While I was in Florida last week, James and crew got the new metal roof put on.  I had a hard time deciding on colors for roof and siding, but ended up choosing a neutral brown tone metal and a gray siding with white trim.  I know....boooorrrrring!  Just didn't want to get too carried away and become outdated in a few years.  Siding is ordered and hopefully we will have it up soon.

They also took down the brick half wall that was on the front of the house and tore off the back porch.

Before

After 

Yay, no more brick!

So today, we began the daunting task of working inside.  However, before we can do a whole lot, there is tons of clean-up that must be done as you will see from these next few images.  I just wanted to get good "before" shots of all the rooms before they were touched so we could really appreciate the finished project! 

 (yes, you are correct, there is no floor in the living room!) 

Saved insulation from the missing floor we presume. 

(WHY would someone save this????)

There was some roof leak which cause damage inside. 

So, today we got all the carpet and padding out (as well as all that fantastic insulation) and started taking out the carpet tacking.  We also discovered a weird floor issue in one of the bedrooms that puzzled James, but I know he will figure it out!  The A/C we are still unsure about - the wires have been cut, so it was a hot day to work.  Luckily the house has an attic fan (one of my favorite features - we had one our house growing up) so there was a little airflow.


I also put out mouse/rat poison and foggers so we could make sure there are no varmints or creepy crawlies taking up residence. 


More to come!

The arrival of River

Again, I have neglected my dear old blog!
BUT, I must say these last two months have literally flown by.
July 1st, really????

I have so much to catch up on with photoshoots, Project House, etc, but my biggest news is this little guy:
Welcome grandbaby #2, River Jacob on June 16th in the wee hours of the morning.

I know it's normal to think your own are more beautiful, but really, is he not the most precious thing ever????

I mean look at that sweet smile! :)

Here he is with his sweet momma! 

I've never seen anyone so excited to become a Mom. I know she is going to be a great one too. 

And, here I am in Grammy Blissdom! 

I am truly blessed to have these babies in my life. 

I just hope I can be a good Grammy to them. 

I want to teach them family values, Christian values, how to make messes...then clean them up,
fun arts & crafts, snuggling, silly songs & dances, that it's okay to cry, and how to love unconditionally.

My heart is full!

Journey

I want to share a project by one of my very dearest and "bestest" friends, Karla Rush.

Karla and I have about a 10 year history.

We met when she became my boss as I was hired at my previous employer.  She quickly became not only my mentor, but also my very close friend. I cannot even begin to list all the highs and lows we have experienced together, but there have been some really really good times and some really really bad times.  The awesome thing is that we have remained very close through it all.

Many people have not know that Karla is a super talented singer. Along with her multitude of other God given gifts, her soft, sweet angelic voice is amazingly soothing.  I have known this for quite awhile as we have had some fun karaoke nights at she and Fred's. :)

I am so proud of Karla for following her dream and having a CD made. I was also honored that she asked me to design her CD cover art for this project.  After she and I discussed the music and the title of the CD, we met and did a quick photoshoot and then we worked with the company who duplicated the CDs and put together the packaging and I am excited that she took delivery of her completed product this week!

If you are a fan of old time gospel hymns like Amazing Grace, The Old Rugged Cross and I'll Fly Away, you should purchase yourself one of these. I must say, they are a steal at $5 and they can be purchased through Karla's website through Paypal.

Here is a sample of Journey: Ain't No Grave.

ProjectHouse2012 has officially started

AND so it begins...

This weekend we started our little project.  There is so much to do, but we merely worked on the yard. It needed (still needs) a lot of work, but at least it is presentable for insurance purposes.  We also had to clean up lumber and brick that had been deposited on the carport and back porch. 

I snapped a picture when we arrived Saturday morning:

As you can see, it is a hot mess!  That brick wall you see above is in fact leaning out from the house, but that is all coming down anyway for new vinyl siding.

If you think it looks rough out here, I must tell you that lumber was once the floor in the living room!  Yes, there is only floor joices left in the living room. (we'll save those shocking photos for another day.)

Let us look at something nice:

Yes that is view from the house looking toward the road.  There is a great pine grove across the road. Very pretty.

Okay, back to the hot mess...this is one of the little outbuildings.  It is not bad and we don't know yet if we will try to repair this or start fresh.  For now though, it will be like this

AND this if after day one with hard work from myself, hubby, Alex and her friend Travis.

James and I spent Sunday afternoon working more on the yard. He wanted to finish with mowing and weed eater and I worked on trying to get that pesky vine-y stuff under control that you see taking over the right corner of the house. That stuff is crazy! The root system is in the ground and it's going to take some work to get it out.  I also put out tick, flea, and other pesky insect granules because rain is forecasted.  

Here is the end of day 2:

Oh, and we did encounter one snake this weekend...a baby copperhead. :\  Hoping its momma has decided to take up new residence!

This is from my Instagram feed.  I plan to utilize IG to help document #projecthouse2012 in real time. Feel free to follow me. I love me some Instagram!