The weather outside is almost snowy (it turned more sleety this afternoon), but its still very pretty.  I’ll have some shots for you of the loveliness on Friday. : )

But for today, I hit the archives to find an image that I could convert to black & white (which my brother requested for Tuesdays a while back).  I think the texture here is just… fun!  (And for once I mean the texture of all of the elements in the image instead of the type of texture I add in post-processing).

The image is taken with some dried flowers from the bouquet that my sweet mother-in-law sent Chris & me as a house warming present.  The vase is a present (it came with other matching vases) from my aunt years ago that I finally got to put up in my house. And the ring is mine. : )

Happy Tuesday.  2010 is coming quickly!  : )

Merry Christmas to All!

Yes, that’s right, it’s his horse (the blue one) and my horse (the purple one)… or at least the horses from the correct years. : )  And they go beside each other on the Christmas tree every year. And then they go back into the box beside each other, too.  : ) I don’t want them to get lonely.

Aren’t they adorable?  We have at least a dozen and they’re all wonderful.

Now, it’s Christmas Day so go enjoy it!  : )

Merry Christmas!

” ‘Twas the Tuesday before Christmas

and all through the blog

not a creature was stirring

not even a … frog?”

I’ll have to work on that.  But while I think about it, here’s something I know is properly enjoyable and Christmasy!

My husband’s grandmother gave him (& his sister) an ornament every year.  You know the ones?  That are special edition and are released every year with the same theme yet a new ornament?  Well, for a while he got planes.  I love them. : )  Which is why we put them on our little tree… Before the airplanes, he got rocking horses (which, though I love the airplanes, I love the horses even more)… you’ll have to wait a few days to know why that’s relevant. ; )

4 Days till Christmas!

Okay, so I don’t know when “Christmas Time” officially starts – I know for stores it’s actually beginning BEFORE Thanksgiving lately.  That’s a little much for me.  It used to start, at least for me, when school let out (which is actually today for public schools), so we’ll go with that. : )

Since the season officially starts today (according to me), I’m sharing a little holiday cheer.

I hope everyone is looking forward to the holidays. Christmas is, after all, exactly 7 days away.  : ) I’ll share more of my kind of cheer into next week.

So, this image makes me think of the quote from Ecclesiastes 1: Vanity of vanities; all is vanity. Of course, that’s mostly because of the brand name (which is fabulous brand, so don’t get me wrong).  : )  Anyway, I was loving the shadows on this image.. and then, of course, as always, the nice little bits of texture. : )

It’s getting closer & closer to Christmas.  Chris and I set up the Christmas tree yesterday & wrapped presents. We went shopping together for each other’s presents this year, which we haven’t done before.  It felt a little like cheating, but it was fun because I actually managed to drag him to a store with me. : )

Well, more Christmas shopping to do today. I hope everyone’s a little further in their Christmas planning than me, haha.

Happy Tuesday!

Well, we got about 1/2 inch of snow here about a week ago… can’t ask for more than that in Abilene, right? : ) At least not in a regular winter.

So, all this lovely brown grass is what I consider a “Winter Wonderland”… and the cold, cold wind. I thought, after living in Lubbock & walking to class in the freezing cold, I might become immune to it. But, no, the fact that the biting wind still gives me a headache if I’m out too long hasn’t changed. Which is why I love scarves & mittens & beanies. : )

Now, how about less of the rambling and more of the picture showing?

As you can see, these images were not taking in our powdering of “snow”…. it all melted within a few hours.

So, as I’ve said before, I’ve always been fascinated by self-portraits… I’m glad I tried them for that run of Tuesday posts… I maybe became just a little better at them. : )  I like doing them myself now a lot more. Now I just need a remote for my camera instead of the self-timer… then I’d feel super-duper awesome, lol.

You know, despite the lack of snow, I still think the Texas winter is very pretty… lots of nice warm colors (not just whites & blues, lol)… even if it is dead grass, it’s still a nice, friendly brown color!

When I was little, my parents shared a little pond with the neighbors & it was surrounded by cattails.  They were so cool & they made puffs, something like dandelions, only bigger & fluffier.  They’re gone now, since the pond dried up & then they got ploughed down.  But I still remember winding through them as a child. They were awesome!

Well, a few weeks ago, my husband bought me a pretty bouquet of wild flowers (which are undoubtably my favorite) and in the midst of them is a cattail. Yay!

As you can see, I’m still loving the grunge on images… and this one has a LOT of bokeh (also known as Depth of Field – which means all the blurry unfocused-ness). I just love bokeh. It’s so pretty & creamy. : )

Happy Tuesday to all!

Thanksgiving. : )

We only took a few shots & half of the family was out running a”Black Friday” related errand.  I’ll be bringing my photo stuff to the next family gathering, as well, so we can get that family group shot that Terry wanted… isn’t it funny how we forget to do that until the last minute & then someone is in a hurry so it either doesn’t get done or one of the family members looks a little grumpy?  lol. I’ll definitely try to get it done earlier next time we see everyone so we can actually fit it in.

Tyson & his Granny. I know you can’t see her face well & I almost didn’t post this one, but I just love the look on his face!  You can tell he loves her… and I just couldn’t pass that up!

Yes, that’s right, it’s me, my hubby & Tyson. : ) I got Tyson to say “cheese” with me, which was absolutely adorable!  I don’t usually recommend the “cheese” trick, but he liked it.

Terry took this image. And she did a wonderful job since I handed the camera to her, said “press that button” and forgot that most people have no idea what to do!  haha. But she did a perfect job!

It was a fantastic Thanksgiving!

I’m a bit behind on posting (again) but in my defense, it’s holiday time & my husband’s final crunch time (for at least 2 weeks) and I’ve been trying to help him get his work done. I’m his “typing bot”, haha, because when he gets his ideas going, he dictates to me & I avoid his love of typos. : )

Otherwise, we had a wonderful Thanksgiving with my husband’s side of the family (I’ll have a picture or two of the cuteness that is my nephew Tyson to post soon). Yummy turkey, stuffing, green bean casserole, that’s right, all of the goodies.  And my pumpkin cheesecake came out right this time! : ) I also got to try some Apricot White Chocolate bread… it was awesome!  Thanksgiving is a wonderful time for food.

Also, on Saturday & Sunday, we got to see my side of the family when they came back through for a bit.  Noah has gotten bigger, for sure. 3 months already. And he opens his eyes up *really* wide when he’s watching something specific – including the wall.  It’s so cute!  I can’t wait until he starts to talk… (I admit it, that’s one of my favorite ages, who can resist those half-formed words?)

Well, I have a paper to proof for my husband (on Thomas Aquinas, yikes!)…

Enjoy the rest of your Tuesday!