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.

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.

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!