texas in the spring = heaven on earth!

After the cold, hard winter we had here, I was determined to spend some time in my home state of Texas this spring. The last time I was down there for spring was when my eldest child was 4 months old, which was 5 years ago! Too long!

I loaded up the kiddos and headed south. After all the winter rain they've had, everything is blooming and fresh and green and gorgeous! Quite a change from the brown and dry look we get used to seeing down there.

Of course, one of my main objectives was to take tons of pictures of the bluebonnets. I had several shoots with friends and family, and also got some pics of my kiddos, which I'll post next.

Happy spring!

peace in the pasture

Last night, I finally went through some of the pics from this past fall when I took the kids down to Texas for a visit with Nonna and Boppa. We went for a walk in the pasture with Nonna and the dogs and, somehow, everyone under 3ft tall wound up swimming in the stock tank, even after they had received clear instructions not to do so.

fifty followers (pssst....it's a giveaway!!) TIMES UP!

Really?! I have 50 followers???!! Awesome! When I started this blog, it was just to keep my family (most of whom never even check the blog) up to date on the kids and our goings-on. Early on, I posted to a group about blogging saying that one day I'd like to get to where I had 20 or so people regularly checking the blog, and that I'd like to branch out and blog about crafty stuff, tips, and cooking, etc. I've gone through periods of neglecting my blog and periods of blogging mania, but in the end, I am happy with what I've accomplished! Of course, I think I could be doing so much more, but for now it works for me!

One thing I pride myself on is never, ever, not even once, have I asked anyone to be a follower. And now I have 50! I am so humbled and grateful and promised myself that once I hit 50, I'd do something special to celebrate. Soooooooo......

I would like to GIVE AWAY one of my photographs! I've had a few for sale in my etsy shop, but no takers yet. They would make a wonderful gift or a nice little decoration for your bathroom. :)


You can choose any photo you like and I'll print it in an 8x10 for you. You can choose from the pics listed in my etsy shop or you can go browse my flickr for other shots. I have a folder of nature shots which would be a good place to start.


The GIVEAWAY will end on Sunday night, Dec. 6th at 10pm and I'll announce a winner Monday morning. Just leave me a comment...maybe mention which pic you'd like!

Thank you all so much for your support! I love blogging and sharing all the crazy things I do with you!!!

Get those boys and ghouls gussied up!

Capture your little goblin as his or her alter-ego with a Halloween Mini-Session! This limited time offer includes your 20 minute session PLUS your professionally enhanced images on CD for the special price of $50!


I have spots available Friday, Saturday and Sunday for the weekends of October 2-4 and October 16-18. All shoots to take place in Bellevue, Nebraska at a special outdoor location. Contact me for details! Grown-up spooks are welcome too!

sundays are fun days

We had an open house today, so we spent the afternoon doing a little window shopping. Along the way, we hit the pet store for the zillionth time to check out all the critters, which is the kids' favorite thing to do to waste time. The twins recently destroyed their shoe storage, so their cowgirl boots have been resurrected. They wore them today with little dresses and looked so cute!

Tonight, I took them out to East Peoria to a little park on a hill that I recently spotted. It's gorgeous and I will definitely be using it as a location in the future. We didn't get out there until about 8pm, so it was quickly getting dark, which = a lot of blurry pictures. We'll head out there again for some more shots. I have some huge 16x20 frames to fill!

After pictures, I treated them to sundaes from McDonalds, which is right up there with Disneyland on their list of awesome places!

Hello people! More randomness and another GIVEAWAY!

Sorry I went a little AWOL, but we were on a mission to find a house! We found one, but we still haven't gotten the offer papers from our realtor (ahem!! hurry!!!) so that we can start the process of negotiation. Keep your fingers crossed that all works out! We are in a pickle with our current house, so that's something we're hoping works itself out soon as well.

Anyway, today at The Maternal Lens we are GIVING AWAY a fabulous set of textures by Unik Design!!! They are absolutely gorgeous and any photographer would love to have them! Head over to TML and sign up to win! There's also a surprise freebie for those who stop by. :)

If you aren't familiar with using textures in photography, it's such a fun thing to experiment with. It can really change the look of a photo and add tons of depth and interest. You can find free textures on flickr.com or you can even make your own. In your editing program, you just place your texture (it's basically just a picture of something textured) on top of your photo as its own layer, reduce the opacity so that your photo peeks through and then erase away parts of the texture layer where you want your image to remain clear and sharp. These photos were enhanced with some of the textures that TML and Unik Design are giving away.

BEFORE

AFTER

BEFORE

AFTER

Sign up to win so you can play too! If you are interested in purchasing new textures, I highly HIGHLY recommend these by Unik Design! They are just gorgeous!

Here's a few other recent random flower shots. I keep taking them, but they haven't been making it off my camera!