It was my birthday last weekend. Yay!  : )  It was a good birthday, in case anyone’s wondering. But I bring this up because of a present I got. It remotely fires my camera, which means self-portraits & family photos (that I’m in) are much simpler. I no longer have to click the button on my camera & then race to get into the image.  Now, I can point my little remote at the camera, click the button & after 2 seconds (so I can hide the remote in my hand), the camera takes the image. Nifty, right? : )

So, of course, I took my new toy camera equipment for a test run.

So these aren’t the most original/artistic images.  In fact, you can tell I’m laughing at myself.  But pretend like they’re fantastical, or at the very least, excuse me because I’m testing equipment. The remote is hidden in my hand by my sunglasses. It’s that small. Neat, right?

Of course, here’s an image of the remote (from Amazon) in case anyone is interested in experimenting for themselves & has a Canon EOS. (Click on the image to be taken to the Amazon page).  After my first test run, I’m very happy with it. It’s simple to use & so very worth the investment if you’re interested in self-portraits.

Canon Wireless Remote Control RC1 for Digital Rebel.  Works with Canon EOS cameras.

And, no, I’m not nerdy for asking for camera equipment for my birthday. I’m super-cool. (If you must laugh, do it where I can’t hear you).  ; )

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!

Well, after a hunt for green high heels that fit my specific requirements, I decided I’d try something new… and hope I didn’t fail completely.  I didn’t. : ) Which makes me very proud since I haven’t painted anything for 4-5 years, but I found a pair of canvas shoes on sale & dug out my old paints, to produce these:

The shoes started out as that subdued teal color (check the inside of the shoes) & I painted them a popping bright green.

Then I really tested my skills & tried to paint those little cameos. Believe it or not, the one I like best is the one I didn’t try to sketch out.  Figures, right? lol.

I stumbled upon this idea via this etsy shop.  If I had more spare cash laying in corners, I’d spend a lot more of my time on Etsy. lol.

And that’s what they look like on my feet – phenomenal, right? (Please ignore the bit of old nail polish peaking out of the shoe.  It will be removed by the end of the day, I promise. ; )  I still need to spray them to seal the paint on, and now that I’ve taken these shots, I see a few places I may want to touch up. Little things that I can’t see when they’re on my feet & I’m not studying them. : )

But all in all, I really am pleased. And now I have more custom-shoe ideas. Anyone got old shoes they want painted? ; )

Well, last post for the Entwine series. : ) It’s girly, I know, but I’m still recovering from Valentine influences, haha.

So, there are 2 things to be learned from this image: I like pearls (especially if you looked at last Friday’s post) and I couldn’t tie a nice bow to save my life. Seriously.

Though the lopsided-ness of this bow worked out for the image, if you want to do a photo shoot with me and need any bows tied, *bring a friend*!  Think I’m kidding? My mom  makes fun of my inability to tie bows. Ever since I was a little kid, even my shoes’ bows have been crooked (they tend to spin sideways).

I have figured out the cause: I tie my “underneath” knot, left over right and then I tie the bow right over left (or maybe it’s right over left & then left over right), but the point is that since I flip-flop my directions, my bows flip-flop too. And even though I know the cause, I’ve been tying bows wrong for so many years, I can’t force myself to fix it. Even if I concentrate really hard.

So lesson: teach your kids to tie straight bows & never, ever ask me to tie a presentable bow for you. ; )

Enjoy your Tuesday!  I will because the only bows I’ll tie will be on my shoelaces (and no one sees those because of my jeans… maybe this is why I hate to wear shorts & tennis shoes?)    : )

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?

Don’t get me wrong.  I love the rain & cold weather is nice… for a while.  It’s been cold a little long this winter and we’re only in January.  Of course, since we’re in Texas, it should clear up in a few weeks (haha), but I am looking forward to not having to dig a jacket out of my closet to do something as simple as run to the store.

As you can imagine, this image is a few months old.  I was digging through my archives, to delete some images that I never sorted through a while pack and stumbled upon this lovely.  In color, it’s not so fantastic, but after I switched it to black & white, I just love it!

In other news, I got my new camera yesterday.  It’s a Canon 7D.  I’ve been looking forward to upgrading for several reasons, but after taking some experiment/play shots last night, I plugged my new “toy” into my computer today & my image program couldn’t read the files.  After a moment of “oh-my-gosh-what’s-wrong”, I googled the problem & found the fix.  Thank goodness I waited a few months to get my camera (or else the update wouldn’t have been ready).  Everything is much better now, running just like it should.  Hurrah for my new camera!

Starting a New Year always makes me want to be fresh & organized… but that rarely happens what with the busyness of the holidays.  So, this year I wanted to show off my husband’s project. : )  He’s been cataloging our books (all the non-fiction, I can’t decide if I want my fiction categorized since I don’t know if it will split up my favorite books & authors, but eventually I’m quite sure I’ll give in)… Although it seems a little OCD since at the moment we’ve only *officially* got 2 bookshelves, I know that it’s a good idea for the future.  He’s going to be a professor (talk about someone who collects books!) and I absolutely adore the written word (evidenced by my majoring in English)… so knowing how to find books when we have more than 2 bookshelves is a good idea.  I’m just very glad that he’s the one putting in all the effort & not me!  : )

His bookshelf looks like a little library shelf… Ever since he started, I’ve been joking about how wonderful it would be if my office (when we actually get our own place) were like a library, with rows of books and then my desk in a corner…  only I’m half-serious with my joke.  I would love to work in that environment all the time… I just love books & having them all organized on book cases would make the room look clean even if my desk were a heaping mess, and it usually is!  : )

Happy Tuesday!  I hope there’s something that seems neat & organized & fresh for your New Year (even if it’s just that you cleaned the trash out of your car – which is also something I did… more or less!)

Okay, so remember this post where I said we almost never get snow?  Well, we got some!  On Christmas Eve (after it fell, my family drove to the desert for Christmas… I was sad to see the snow vanish), but a few days later we got a sprinkling of flakes again.  We got more snow on Christmas Eve when I had to drive away, but twice in 2 weeks is pretty good!  : )  Anyway, here’s my documentation of some snow… here, in Abilene… who would have guessed?

Look, you can totally see a snowflake falling!  : )

Footprints in the Snow.

I’m super happy with the water droplets.  Pretty, yeah?

The only downside to the entire experience was the realization that I have NO snow-proof shoes… so now I’m on the search for cute galoshes that also fit me… because I can wear them when it rains, too, instead of only twice every few years, lol.  If you know where to get some, let me know!

Oh, and by the way, Happy New Year!  Hope you have a fun celebration planned.