tired moody

I'm soooo tired! DSE was a blast and a lot of work. I got home at 10:30 Saturday night and slept until Sunday at 8. Then it was off to church to help with the primary program. After church Tyler took a nap. After dinner we headed out for a drive. I was trying so hard to keep from falling asleep too early. I was having fun with the camera and my crazy shirt kind of pushed me in that direction. All I need now is black hair and bright blue highlights. Have you heard of Bam & Jim's Posing School? It's a hilarious spoof that Bambi Cantrell and Jim Garner put together. Just thought I'd share and please laugh right along with us!




My sister in law came over tonight and we had fun in the studio creating these fun images. We call it an executive session because it's so much more than head shots. check them out here

Digital Scrapbook Experience - Friendships

I had an absolute blast at DSE and I'll write more about it later. It was a dream come true to teach for them. Here is a page I made about friendships. I was excited to finally meet Tiffany Tillman and Lori Anderson. I spent a lot of time talking with Anna and making sure we both got our wheat free meals! It was comforting to see someone who else who fights with food intolerance/allergy issues. And I can't tell you how much I adore April. She's brilliant and she loves being a mom. She is super easy to talk to. It was as if we had never been separated by the miles. She is an incredible friend and the kind of person that makes me feel at ease with who I am.

In the photo below:
back row:
April Anderton, Candice Stringham, Tiffany Tillman, Laura Vanderbeek
front row:
Lori Anderson, Jessica Sprague
other:
Anna Aspnes

Digital Page Link for DSE students

Here is the link for this page under what's new at CottageArts.net

Don't forget to enter the code your received at DSE to make it FREE!



Free newsletter sign-up and order/download tutorial at CottageArts.net

Free Newsletter sign-up: Sign Up Here
Order/download tutorial: Tutorial Download

Digital Scrapbook Experience Texture

If you are taking my Photo Editing: Perfecting People Class you will want/need this texture.
If you are not, download it and have fun anyway!
And it's a transparent .png and will take a bit of time to get because it's a few mb's



And you'll need to download this image and bring it with you if you want to learn how to head swap.

Glow Sticks

Last night we went to my nephew's birthday party. I was so glad when he gave each of his cousins a glow stick and balloon instead of candy. Thank you D*! My husband took these great night shots of our children when we got home. I love how they turned out!

click on image to see it much larger

I'm feeling so domestic...

So...I crochet, scrapbook, cook, clip coupons sometimes, etc but I've never done this before.

I have a cool Mother In Law

I feel bad for people who don't like their in-laws. I'm pretty lucky. My in-laws are fabulous people. And my mother-in-law has had this dream of making these for a while. Each family bought a barrel, so there will eventually be 5. We bought them from a neighbor for $10/each which is a super deal. Then my mother in law bought the tires and had the frames made. We are going to paint ours before it's attached to the welded part. We are thinking of making different attachments according to holidays or celebrations. Fun!

Pumpkins

We might end up with some pumpkins after all. Well, at least 3 of them anyway. Do you remember this? The little baby pumpkin with the closed bud on the end now looks like the one on the right in this photo:

The pumpkin on the left is a Spirit bush pumpkin.

My Family

Yesterday my sister's oldest daughter and my parent's oldest grandchild, entered the waters of baptism. She really is a great example to the rest of the grandchildren. Her father baptized her and then confirmed her a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints. We believe that children are innocent before the age of 8 and are baptized only after reaching the age of accountability. Afterward we paused for a few photos out in front of the church. I love the photos of my Dad and my son. Makes me all teary eyed. Precious memories indeed. We were only missing one family member. Chris, we love you and missed you!

Camping - a first this year

We normally spend our summer weekends up in the hills. Well, not this year. It's just been non-stop. Tyler and I added up the miles spent traveling (and this does not include errands, driving to work, etc). We are each up around the 6,000 mile mark often traveling apart from each other! That's a lot of time spent in the car for each of us. Anyway, we finally made camping a priority. Haeley spent a lot of time drawing camping pictures while in the Jeep. We took a few minutes to get photos of us together as a family and then it was time for tin foil dinners and roasting marshmallows over the fire. Then I let Haeley take a few photos. I love handing her the camera. Even better? Sorting through to find the treasures of her work. We really had fun and CJ slept through the entire night - a first! Maybe we can do this again...

Thank goodness for timers! We celebrated 10 years of marriage in August. What wonderful blessings have come to us through being together. My husband and my children make me a better person.


Campfire - perfect for tinfoil dinners and roasting marshmallows


I love quaking aspen trees.


Photo of berries by Haeley


That sleeping bag is almost as big as he is. I wish I had a video of his face when I rescued him from it. Pure relief. Hilarious!


Photo by Haeley of her brother


My sweetie!


I stayed to keep the campfire attended while they went for a walk. I love photos of people going places.

Decorating for fall

I love decorating for fall. And this year, we grew some of our decorations. We even shared some with Grandma Patterson. Anyway, I spent about $2 on assorted pumpkin seeds this year. Here are some of the small ones that are ready early.

It's the little things in life...

Really. This may not seem like much but I am so grateful for this. Wheat Free Pizza Crust - and it is absolutely DELICIOUS! The brand is Chebe. That doesn't happen very often. My husband even made the comment that he couldn't tell that it was wheat free. I made the comment that this would make a great item to add to our 3 month food storage supply. It says you can even make a bread bowl out of it. Hmmm...I'm thinking about broccoli cheese soup when it gets a little colder.

Las Vegas Baby - ok so it was for photography classes

So after photographing on the Green River, Tyler and I arrived home in time for me to wash everything and re-pack for my trip to Las Vegas for Skip's Summer School - a 4 day and very intense 8 am to 10 pm photography school. I really learned a lot, but missed the speaker I most wanted to hear. I spent the evening in the ER. We went to a place to grab dinner (I brought breakfast and lunch foods and snacks because of my food allergies - but without a place to cook my own food, I wasn't about to try dinner that way as well.) Anyway, I ordered a milkshake and asked them to make it a plain chocolate milkshake sans wheat/malt/ etc. Didn't happen and I went into anaphalactic shock and had be rushed to the ER. I couldn't swallow and it was so painful. Then I got so sick to my stomach from the shot of benedryl from the paramedics. And I was mortified to be surround by security in the middle of a busy restaurant - especially when I started to cry. Anyway, my roomie and new found friend Nancy stayed by my side even though I urged her to go to class. She was a true example of the Savior. I now carry epi-pens with me where ever I go, because if it can happen to me - it probably will. My goal is to keep it from happening whenever possible.

Needless to say, I found my reason for photographing again. I lost it somewhere about 4 years ago when my health became a challenge. I am slowly making progress on it and I am so excited I could jump out of my skin. It's going to be good. I'll keep you posted!

So here I am with my awesome Uncle Tony Dude who gave me a priesthood blessing in the ER. I couldn't be more grateful!

All sorts of NEW things

And we have a new pet. My 3 year old took this photo right after I cleaned the fish tank. The walls are covered with bubbles. But you get the idea. It's a blue and red beta. I'll have to share my daughter's drawing of her fish. It was more expensive but cleaner than a gold fish for sure. She is good about feeding him. So far I like this fur-less pet.



And my son started preschool today. I ran some errands while he was there and I kept checking in the backseat to see how he was doing. There was a hint of relief mingled with a hint of panic. He is my baby. What can I say?


So my daughter started another school year. They really do grow up so fast.

Catching up - Green River trip

first of all, if you have a business, don't be afraid to ask a photographer if they'll photograph it for you. Professional images for your brochure, website, etc really go a long way with people. And it's surprisingly more affordable than you think. Sometimes we'll even photograph your business for trade. We completely enjoyed our trip to the Green River to photograph Dave Hardy's fly fishing drift boat business. My dad, who is an avid fly fisherman, sat here at my computer tonight just drooling.

I'll post more later, but here a few. We photographed mostly for Dave, but we were the 'models' so to speak which is funny because Tyler had never picked up a fly rod before in his life. Guess who caught the most fish?

Can I blame it on the fact that I was recovering from pneumonia and taking lortab at the time??? probably not...

But I think I've talked my Dad into giving us a few lessons so we can go again.

Featured at Canterbury

My work has been featured on the Canterbury Blog today! I'm super excited. Let me know what you think.
Go to their blog to see even more! Canterbury Reception Center Bountiful Utah Wedding Blog

Willard Peak

I wasn't up to much after the county fair and so Tyler drove us up to Inspiration Point. I am recovering from pneumonia and still have no voice. He hiked after these Mountain Goats after we parked the Jeep. Tyler is an amazing hiker. His lungs can handle just about anything. He amazes me. Afterward we looked up mountain goats on the internet. Let's just say I'm glad he didn't get too close! I LOVE the photo with the baby goat in it!

Cache County Fair

Today we met Tyler at his office and ate sandwiches, apples, and cheese. Then we loaded up the Jeep and drove over to the Cache County Fair. Haeley had entered 2 photos (children can enter 2 - adults can enter 3) and Tyler and I both entered 3. I really wanted Haeley to win 2nd place or higher and so I was so nervous walking to the Art Exhibit. Let's just say that the judges are usually art judges and not photographers. Haeley about jumped out of her skin when she saw that the photo I took of her received Best of Show. I started talking about her sunflower one and this cute little old lady standing there got the biggest grin on her face and told her where to find it and that she was going to love her ribbon. So we ran back there and WOW! Best of SHOW!!! Haeley got Best of Show on her photo too! Tyler got 3rd place on all 3 of his photos - which really is my fault. He couldn't decide which pics, so I ordered them all in 5x7 and stuck them behind glass. As discovered today to win the PRO division you have to go with a matte spray and no glass and larger- which is also why one of mine did not place at all. It just looks more professional without the glare from the glass and typically larger sizes place higher. The only problem is that they want standard sizes no larger than 16x20. So guess what? We want to sell large prints so we order large examples. And truth be told a 16x20 is small. I did the photo of Haeley as 16x20 because it would fit a frame in her room and it's a close up of just Haeley. We did Haeley's sunflower as an 11x14. It was super fun to see her so excited! After that we went to see Erin at the Sheriff's booth and she gave them both stickers and pencils. Then we went to see Angie's daughter's lamb and 4-H blanket entry -congrats to Arissa! Her blanket is going to state and her lamb did extremely well. Congrats to Grandma Sharla on her 1st place win with her delicious butter horns! I rode on the Ferris Wheel with Haeley and Coleton. I've never been on a ferris wheel before. It was kind of cool (now I'm regretting not riding it Chicago) and my little ones loved it! Got some fun pictures. And last of all we took a drive up to Willard Peak tonight after dinner. Love having a vehicle that will get us up those rough roads. We handed Haeley the camera a few times too. We really need to do that more often. I'll post those later!

My garden ... what a blessing

HK shelled all of those peas. Some of them were extra big - oops. The smaller they are the better they taste. On Saturday I sat on one end of the table with HK at the other end. I worked on snapping the ends of all the beans I picked. I picked 3 and a half pounds (1600 grams) of bean that morning. They are just starting to reach the right size for picking. HK and I enjoyed an hour of talking and working together. She actually worked the entire hour. She is learning that being provident is an important life skill that is very rewarding. She dropped a few peas and we talked about being careful and how every pea counts. One pea may not seem like much, but it adds up. Just like one row of peas doesn't really amount to much (may be a $1.50 worth or one bag of peas from the store) but when you take into consideration the corn, peas, snow peas, red and yukon gold potatoes, red, green, and walla walla onions, squash and zucchini, cucumbers, roma, plum, and big beef tomatoes, basil, lavender, cabbage, carrots, spinach, and four types of pumpkins - well, it adds up. It's so worth the work!

Here you can see the shelled peas, the always out of control zucchini plants, my red onions (I'm going to have to plant some more spinach so I can enjoy my red onion/spinach/feta cheese/bacon salad.), and my genovese basil plants. I found that the basil did better planted right in the ground, rather than trying to transplant it.


Here you can see the 1600 grams of green beans, my best cucumber plant, the beautiful white blossoms of the jalapeno plant and an up close view of the basil's curly leaves.



Our first crook neck squash! And the sun setting near the mountains (I was messing around with manual mode). We may or may not have a jack-o-lantern pumpkin this year - but at least there is hope with this little guy showing up FINALLY! And I forgot to delete some of the photos but this is the echinacia I bought on clearance - it's a perennial, so next year it should look a million times better.


The corn silk is just now showing up, as well as the tassles. Again, playing with my camera settings - low f-stop of 4 something. Walla Walla onion - I never saw this on my yellow onions last year. Can you say SALSA?

Again I forgot to delete some of these but I love the view from the upper section of my backyard.


Carrots and grass clippings, a baby Spirit Bush pumpkin, three baby Pumpkimons, and looking west over my garden.


9 half rows of green bean plants, the last of my snow peas, finally a sweet slice cucumber, and the ultra amazing cone flowers (all things denote there is a God - I so believe it when I see beauty in nature)


Squash plant, two pics of our out of control lemon thyme (want some? it transplants easily) it's just over taking my rock stairs. And last but not least - Roma Tomatoes! Every branch is loaded like this. Again: SALSA time is just right around the corner!