Still Moments 4.4.14

 

To me, there is absolutely nothing like starting my day off with a warm drink.  It's one of my few daily rituals that I stick to.  I also realized this morning that it's one of the few Still Moments that I have everyday and it always starts the day off right.  My morning usually starts very early and there is something about making coffee or pouring tea that calms, rejuvenates, and prepares me for the day ahead.  It's a time where I contemplate the dreams that are still on the edge of my consciousness and turn my thoughts to what's in store.

We all need morning moments that speak to us whether it's coffee, prayer or meditation, or maybe lacing up your shoes for a run.  What is yours?  I encourage you to revel in your personal still moment this morning and start today feeling reawakened.

Snapshots

 

As a professional photographer its incredibly important to me not to forget to capture my everyday life.  Don't get me wrong, there is a side of my brain that never stops taking pictures.  I see them EVERYWHERE and try to capture the most I can.  But there are times when I get so focused on work, bookings, editing etc, that I forget to take a breath and look around me.

Like at this little guy, who is just begging to have his picture taken...

Seriously...

He loves the camera.  I was surprised how comfortable both my niece and nephew were with the camera.  I don't get to see them as much as I would like to so I was a little worried they would shy away from it but instead they went right for it.  Which made my heart happy.  I would love to look back years later and have many photographs of these normal moments in their lives along with the great achievements.

I'm sure there will be times when they get tired of their crazy Aunt with the camera but in some way I hope it teaches them to keep doing the things they love, to struggle through the mental blocks and fatigue, and to strive to make their passions happen even in ordinary moments.  So for now, I plan to just keep clicking away.

Still Moments 1.27.14

 

It's been awhile since I've contributed to the Still Moments series that I've been collecting.  But this moment hit me the other day. What is more still and than a quiet house and a cat appreciating a sun beam?  I don't know, there's just something about it that is peaceful.  Pets themselves bring so much comfort and peace to our lives.  I try to keep my crazy cat lady tendencies to a minimum but it doesn't mean that I don't appreciate our pets.  There are times when they drive me nuts but at the end of a bad day they can also be a great comfort.  I know many of you feel the same way.  So enjoy a cup of tea (or maybe something stronger) and cuddle up with that pet today.  Here are a few of the "runners up" for the still moments for this entry.

Sisters

Many of you know I'm a big fan of The Pioneeer Woman.  This week on Pioneer Woman Photography she is hosting a contest for photos of "Sisters."  Now as she mentions, and we all know, there are many women in your life that can qualify as sisters who may not actually be your blood sisters.  I grew up without sisters, although I love my brothers, I always missed out on having a sister.

So it got me thinking about all the ladies in my life who have meant so much to me.  I've always gotten along with boys a little bit better because I'm a bit of a Tom Boy, but there are some woman that I just couldn't live without.

The more I researched on my computer though, the more I realized I don't have pictures of myself with these women, or even pictures of them at all!  Many of these pictures are buried somewhere in our house and not digital.  Many of them I'm the one holding the camera, or, embarrassingly enough, I just didn't take a picture!!  While researching this I realized that I don't even have pictures of just me with my sister in laws.  Now maybe this is a sneaky conspiracy on their part to avoid my camera (I'm catching on Pockets and Olie).  But this is just sad folks.  Why did I not take the time at a photoshoot, wedding, or get together to turn the camera around and document a time with these ladies I love?  Things are gonna start to change, and I'm warning all you ladies out there...be prepared.

SO here are a few of the ones I could find on my laptop.  NOTE: If you are not in this selection it does NOT mean I don't love you or consider you my sister.  It means I either didn't take a picture with you recently, or it's buried in my basement.  Perhaps I will do a little digging and scanning and find a few of these blasts from the past.  There may be an update to this post comin' your way shortly.  Until then, enjoy these.

If you have a lovely lady that has meant a lot to you in your life, feel free do a shout out in the comments.  I'd love to hear your stories and adventures.

The Long Winter

It's been a surprisingly cold winter here in Tennessee.  Usually we don't get snow, or ice, or snow and ice together.  But a few weeks ago, just as the Christmas season was kicking off, we woke up to this. Speed Racer gave me the out to not go to work, but I could see the gleam in his eye...he wanted to try out the Range Rover in the snow.  So as I put on layer upon layer of electric underwear, it's toasty, Speed Racer braved the snow and ice to take a couple photographs.  I can't say we really sacrificed a lot.  I road to work in a truck with heated seats, a very warm heater, heated windshield, and heated steering wheel.  Needless to say, I got to work early.

Easy Veggie Soup

This is a super simple recipe for veggie soup, that is delicious.  Obviously, because I'm sharing it with you!  We're continuing with our fall theme with this recipe (even though it's still hot here) so snuggle up and enjoy the warmth this recipe brings. I like to freeze my extra veggies (you know those ones that you really don't know what to do with and they're about to go bad?) and keep them in a container just for soup.  Sometimes I get an interesting mix of veggies but this one contained onions, lots of mushrooms, carrots, celery, and green pepper.

*Side note, I made this dish at 6:30 am....that means you can do it anytime.

So, first get your slow cooker out.  Add to it three beef bullion cubes and 3 cups of water.  Next add a big can of crushed tomatoes (mind had basil added) and a small can of tomato paste.  Throw in your mixed veggies whether they are frozen or fresh.  Then season with 1/2 t. basil, 1/2 t. oregano, 1/2 t. salt, 1/4 t. pepper, 2 teaspoons of garlic, and 1/2 t. of jalapeno flakes (if you like a little extra pep!).  Turn the slow cooker on low, and let it heat throughout the day.  If you are using fresh veggies you may need to be careful that your veggies don't get too mushy.   Around 2:00 this afternoon, I came back home and tasted the soup.  I thought it needed a little something else, so I added about 2  T. of Worcestershire sauce...this give it a little bit of a smokey flavor...yeah.  And there you go!

See how yummy that is?  Beautiful? No. Yummy? Yes.

On another note, tomorrow will be the ill fated day of my tonsillectomy, so I will be MIA for at least the rest of the week.  I know it will be hard for you to go on without me, but at least you will have soup to keep you company.  I will be eating pop sickles, and mash potatoes, and lots of pudding.

10 Things...

about Fall.  Fall has taken hold of my heart and it won't give it back.  I know that it's a cruel mistress because really it's just the precursor to winter, but I'm going to enjoy it all the same.

So because I am enamored with fall right now...

And because someone greeted me with "Buenos Tardes" today...

I'm dedicating the next couple of posts to fall.  Hopefully there will be fall photos, fall dishes, fall deserts, fall colors, and anything else that pops into my twisted little noggin'.

10 Things I like about Fall.

1. The colors of the leaves.  I know this seems like a given but every year it amazes me.  It's like after August, the summer has burnt everything up and then finally, it all catches fire with a glory of colors.

2. Snuggling.  This is a trick I learned from my Grandfather, Chief Bald Eagle.  Colder weather means an excuse to get just that much closer to the one you love.

3. The food.  Do I even have to say it?  Pumpkin Pie.  Any kind of pie!  Sweet potato casserole.  THANKSGIVING.

4.  Fluff.  We keep our house pretty chilly and in the fall our cute little kitties become little fluff balls, and for whatever reason, it really cracks me up.

5. Clean.  Everything just feels cleaner.  Is that weird?  The air is crisp and fresh, after a rain everything just seems squeaky clean.

6. Planting bulbs.  This year I'm making an effort to really plan the garden for spring, so I'm excited about getting out there and getting my  hands dirty.

7. Hot Spiced Tea.  Nuff said.

8. Fires.  Obviously not the destructive kind, but bonfires,  and fires in the fire place.  :see snuggling:

9. Sky.  To me a fall sky is bluer, deeper, and could go on forever.

10.  Holidays.  This one is a little selfish, not because of presents actually, although they are nice.  I love that fall has several holidays close together (I'm going to lump Christmas in there too even though I know that's technically winter) because I love the opportunity to see my family.  I love that when it gets colder outside, and darker, we all huddle closer together, find reasons to celebrate, share in the bounty we have, and just try to make it through the winter.

Cows, Cow tails, and Cow pies

We all know it's not nice to make faces behind people's back, especially cow's backs, I prefer to make faces...TO THEIR FACE.  Okay, random I know, but I thought the above picture warranted a comment.  Moving on. As I have mentioned before, I live in a weird no mans land of city and country.  We've got cows, as you can see, but Target is literally 3 minutes from my house.  It's a little strange.  But these cows in particular always keep me entertained.  They're located on my way home and I constantly get to see new baby cows which I usually identify by screaming "BABY COW!!" out the window while I almost drive us into the ditch and Speed Racer tries to pretend that I have kidnapped him and he doesn't really know me.

This little family is so cute.  Big Bull, pretty Momma Cow, and cute black and white patched baby cow.

This lady was a curious one...

And a grumpy one...

And a pretty one.

Poor little guy was trying to avoid me and got caught all alone.

Most people who work with cows will probably think I'm crazy, but I think they're interesting.  Their faces have such great expressions that make fantastic pictures.  It made for a fun afternoon taking photos of some cows, cow tails, and unfortunately cow pies.

I know Magic

Levitation pictures can be really fun, or creepy, or elegant, or whatever floats your boat.  And if you have photoshop or another editing system, they are surprisingly easy to recreate. First you want to start off with two pictures: *side note you will definitely want to use a tripod for this.

Picture number one should just be a picture of your background, whatever that may be.  Now here is the super important part.  Once you decide on a background, angle, etc that you like, do not move your tripod, or you're going to make life a lot harder on yourself.

Picture numero 2:  A picture of whatever you wish to be levitating in the foreground on a stool, of some kind.  You ideally want something that isn't too elaborate.  It's hard to tell in this picture because the bench I used was very similar in color to the background, but the subject is laying on a bench.

Next in photoshop you are going to open those two photos and pull the foreground photo on top of the background photo and line them up so they are exactly on top of each other.  If you're having some problem doing this you can lower the opacity of the top layer so you can see the one beneath.

Next, create a layer mask on the foreground layer (you can do this by clicking on the icon of the square with a circle in it at the bottom of your layers menu) and using your brush start to paint over the stool, or bench.  You can see here that I went a little too far so I'm losing some of the subject's leg, that's no biggie!  Just switch your brush color back to white so you are adding back to the layer mask.  Work with it until you no longer can see the support feature.

Do a little tweaking with colors, etc to make the picture as eerie as you would like, I mean we are getting close to Halloween after all.  I think they are a lot of fun, and I hope you will try these out as well!

Moment of Zen: Le Kitten

I walked into our bedroom the other day to find this.  It was too adorable not to post about.  I wish I could be this relaxed when I sleep, Speed Racer would say that I am.  But this is just too much. So since today is cloudy and yucky here in Knoxville...

Since I am exhausted for some reason...

Since I am fighting a headache...

And since we all need more kittens in our lives...

I'm posting these photos for you.  Enjoy your moment of Kitten Zen.