I don’t have a whole lot of commentary today.  (Yeah, I know and I was getting so good at it!)  : )

My next week and a half is packed pretty full, but most of it will be fun. : ) And you’ll be seeing some of it here!  (Excuse me while I celebrate).  But for today, enjoy this simple little image. And the fact that I think we’re finally seeing Spring around here!  : )

Enjoy your Tuesday.

I really love cacti.  They’re pretty & oh-so-deserty.  Oh, and they’re hardy little plants, so I’m pretty sure that’s why they’ve survived our oddly cold winter. So, add a spider web to that coolness and I’m a happy girl. Spider webs are very pretty, delicate and skillful. Of course, I hate the spider part, but the webs are pretty. So I was super excited to take this image:

Did you get a good look? When I downloaded this pretty little thing & pulled it up to get a look bigger than my 2 inch LCD screen I realized that the friendly spider not only made it into the photo, he (or she) brought along a helpless little fly friend.  Neat, right? Even neater is the fact that I didn’t know that creepy arachnid was there, so I didn’t even have to go to the trouble of freaking out while getting a pretty shot. Yay!  : )

Have a lovely (real) spider-free Tuesday.

We had snow (again) this week!  Wowzers. 0_o

And because of that lovely white powder, my husband’s graduate classes were cancelled & we got to spend some time together.  It was an early birthday present to me.  : )  Yay!

No, he didn’t make a snowman without a jacket. : )  His mommy taught him better than that. He just took it off when we went inside to gather the finishing touches to the snowman & my camera.

Here’s our finished snowman. Check out  his super colorful scarf & mittens. : )  Yeah, they’re mine. Cute, right? I hope they don’t catch on fire when he lights up that grill, though.

Here’s his face detail. You can see his snow-nose and snow-chin.  And that’s an apple slice for his mouth.

And, finally, me and our friendly snowman. Do you think he knows I’m giving him bunny ears?  (Don’t worry, you can laugh. No one else will know).  : D

If you’ve been getting snow recently, I hope you’ve enjoyed it. And maybe even had a day off to make a snowman!

So, since it’s still cold, cold *cold*, I decided I’d see how I could take advantage of the situation instead of whining about it. Or at least whining about it less, lol.
So I got out in the cold & after spending about 5 minutes straight trying to take pictures, I returned to my car with a red nose & frozen fingers & a bit of condensation on my camera’s LCD display from pressing my freezing cheek to it.
So I changed my tactics. If the weather was going to attack, I’d just return to my fort (aka car), get warm, and then venture out again for another go. So that’s what I did. Over & over. Though I did drive between excursions, so the scenery changed. : ) It kept me sane and at least slightly less cold.

And through the exploration, I decided I’d run a 4 weeks series of Winter’s Nature. Spring/Summer doesn’t have a monopoly on pretty nature, so I hunted some down.

Look!  Baby pinecones!  lol. (I have no idea if that’s what they really are, but they sure look like it!)

The “frame” on the image is thanks to Rita over at Coffee Shop Photography’s Free Actions. I’ve loved this bordered look for a while & thought I’d try it, especially since she made it so easy, though you should still check the tutorial so you know exactly how to customize it. : )

Happy (Cold) Tuesday!  Enjoy the weather as much as possible.

This little tree stump bridges the fence between our neighbor’s yard and ours.

Every time I look at this image, it makes me think this tree has a nose (please, someone, tell me that they see it, too), which leads me inevitably to Ents & Narnia wood nymphs. What can I say? I love fantasy. And since I’ve now brought up a literary topic, may I just say that Terry Pratchett is hilarious. I mean, he used to read the dictionary for fun as a kid — how cool is that? (And I mean real cool, not sarcastic cool, just in case you couldn’t hear my tone over the internet). I mean, I was an English major, after all, and there are just certain levels of cool that go with that. ; )

Happy Tuesday!

It has been raining (and freezing) a lot this winter. When the weather is like this, it’s not only bad portrait weather (Who wants their hair all frizzed out because of the weather?), but it’s much easier to stay inside, you know, where it’s warm.

So, with all of this picture-less weather, what’s a girl to do when she just got a new camera?

First, she gets something warm to drink.  Vanilla Carmel Tea, Coffee & creamer, or Apple Cider, it doesn’t matter too much as long as it’s tasty & warm.

Then she slips into her super-cute new rain boots.  Which she loves. A lot.

Then she hunts around the neighborhood and finds some winter details.  Neat seed pods, right?

And, then, hiding behind the winter pods, she finds some surprisingly pink berries.  Seriously, they were that pink.  Haha, I found you, you hint of Spring time!

Finally, she gets very, very cold (and a little wet) and decides it’s time to get home before her ears get so numb they give her a headache.  And snuggles up with a book, and, of course, another warm cup of yumminess.

Rainy weather, I love you. But couldn’t we get a few consecutive days of temperatures over 55?

Entwine #2.  I hope you enjoy how I’ve interpreted it this week. I mean, what could be more figurative than a set of wedding bands? : )

Aren’t those bands lovely? (And, no, they’re not mine & Chris’ — ours are silver because I love silver more).  : )  These are a set that my mom inherited from a family friend that she let me borrow to take some images with.

I love macro images like this and it’s one of my favorite things to capture at weddings: the details that make the day unique.  I think it’s those little things that the couple takes time to plan, but can still miss in the busyness of their day.

Well, enough philosophizing from me, Happy Tuesday to All. ; )

I love the sky in this image – it was seriously so perfect for this shot (and others… you just wait!)

Wouldn’t this shot make a gorgeous canvas? (Check these examples!)  Seriously!

More on Ryan later, when he gets a full post…

Now, I have another question for you, my blog-readers.  I’m thinking of changing my official watermark. If you’ve never noticed it, check out any posts that aren’t Tuesday Posts, like this one or this one.  I want the watermark to be subtle but readable, and I’ve begun to decide that my old watermark had trouble achieving that (plus, it works much better on the bottom corners than the top corners but if the image has grass or pebbles or any texture in the bottom, then it has to move to the top).  So, I was thinking I might simplify to something more like the watermark in the image above.  After all, it’s the New Year, right?  And a whole new decade.  Changing at least a little something seems logical. ; )

Anyway, if you have any opinions, give me a comment.  : )

That’s all for this Friday.  I have some processing to do and some fun to have with my husband (his school starts back up  next week).

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!