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.

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.

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!

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. ; )

New four-week set: Entwine.

Inspired by this image & influenced by the flickr group: inter}{twine.

For the next four weeks, I’d better go hunting. ; ) I’ve had this picture for a little while now & I decided this morning that I would base my next set of Tuesday posts on this idea.  I hope everyone enjoys (and that I don’t run out of creativity!  lol).

Happy Tuesday!

Good news. The client/ordering section of my website can now process credit cards!  : )  I’m very excited about this because I know that’s much more convenient for most people.

I’m going to go eat my lunch now (left-over stuffed peppers – yum).  Have a fabulous Tuesday!

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!)

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!  : )