Miss Ladybug came to visit...

...and as always, we welcomed her with open arms (and, you know, focused camera lenses...). :-)

Formal Gardens...Silly Girl!!

One word Wednesday!!!

September!! :-)

my brown eyed girl

Same girl...different hat...the blooper post!

Jim is out of town. He left in the dark of night sometime between Sunday and Monday...and we won't see him again until tomorrow night. Lia seems to take it a bit harder these days when her dad is gone...it really seems to upset her routine. She has told me several times, close to tears that she misses him...and it breaks my heart a little each time she says it!

She has been a tremendous help to me in getting up and ready for school. Usually, since I have to be to work by 7:30, Jim gets Lia breakfast and drops her off. Well, I am proud to say we have both been on time to school Monday and Tuesday. One more day...I keep telling myself...one more day.

I have tried to keep her busy to pass the time and today we baked "sLickerdoodles"(Lia mispronounces snickerdoodle so cutely!)! It is probably a good thing we don't have sLickerdoodles around all of the time. Lia adores that cinnamon-y goodness...and if we had more than two dozen left, I feel I would have to schedule some sort of sLickerdoodle intervention. The pull was strong, peeps...I cut her off at three. Not pretty. It hurt this Mama's heart to see my baby taking orders from a cookie...

I was so happy to see that warm sunshine this afternoon...and thought I would take a few photos of my little sLickerdoodle slurper...but you know, she wasn't really feeling it. It seems like the more I learn about photography...the worse I get at it. I am hyper critical of my photos lately...they just aren't "right"...and I am really struggling at the moment with that...

So take a moment...and enjoy my blooper reel from this afternoon's ill fated attempt at a decent photograph!!!

I got a few that I like...









But by far...I got mostly "blooper shots". For instance...this one...I should probably be afraid,right? I have seen the future...and I am worried for those teenage years...



More concerned with the thread hanging from her hat...(I really should have clipped that...I actually didn't realize what she was doing until I looked at the photos!



Finally...she went from a silly girl with a cheesy smile...



...to a girl just wanting to know when the sLickerdoodles...and the photo shoot... would be done! (this is my personal fave...she DOES NOT get that expression from me. Really.)

Another from Friday...

Update: I've had a few people ask me about the specific preset I used for this picture. I downloaded it for free from this site. I think there were a few offered, but the one I used for this photo is the preset for a "High Key Effect". I tweaked the color levels slightly after applying the preset.

I edited this picture in Lightroom using a preset...and then just tweaked it a little bit. Normally, I like a fairly clean look with my photos, so I am still not sure I am in love with this...but I think it works okay. While I really liked this image straight out of the camera, Lia's face was a bit blurry...so the softening through the rest of the photo kind of camouflages that...at least a little...

Fabulous Friday.

One silly, cooperative gal and some serendipitous sunshine was too great an opportunity to pass up and I got some really cute shots after school this afternoon.



I am struggling a lot with black & white conversion. While I really LOVE B & W (in fact much of my wedding was shot in B & W!)...I cannot seem to get the "mood" I am looking for in my own photographs. I am a Lightroom novice...and picking up a few things here and there that are helping. This is one of the many attempts I have made in the past few weeks...



Not perfect by a long shot...but moving in the right direction!

We have a jam packed, fun filled weekend planned...so we will see you all on the flip side! Happy Weekend!!

The pettiskirt bug has bitten...

I have been drooling over pettiskirts for some time. Every time I saw a blog with pettiskirt goodness...or a photo on Flickr...I thought that I would have to get one...or two for Lia. She is a girly girl to the core and is most happy dancing through life in some sort of Princess finery. And just as I suspected, Lia was thrilled when that box arrived at our front door this week.

So despite the somewhat wet and dreary conditions here in the Northeast...we just had to give our first petti a photographic test drive this morning...

Do you like my hat?? (we know YOU do Aunt Carolyn!!)

I only looked away for a few minutes to mix a meatloaf for dinner...

...and she had been stamping on paper so nicely...







As you can see...the repentance was written all over her face...oh wait...that's just ink!! :-)