the pure interest

One of my best friends, Christy, finally got her playmate - a baby 9 week old cockapoo puppy named Violet. She was a little lethargic and tired this weekend, but when Kristin and I went to visit her we still got some adorable pictures. I wish I could do animal photography for a living sometimes! Christy was just glowing in the pictures - if she is this happy with a puppy, I can’t wait to take beautiful photos of her with her newborn baby (when the time comes)

I downloaded a photoshop action and had some fun with these… you can see how they’d be great for wedding photos or dreamy nature shots. I thought they were so cute for Violet! You obviously have to be careful with these things, but hey, it was fun!

This is a ROSE BUSH. It always freaks me out how plants start out SO tiny.

Seriously - Christy? Hello? Model?

This looked even cuter through the lens!

I love this picture!! My Nikon would NOT auto-focus. I still don’t know why. So excuse my slightly perturbed expression.

Happy Friday everyone!

sidenote: It is 12:40am. I stayed up late getting some of the many things done that need to be done this weekend - I’m really glad I did, because although I am tired, I am much less stressed now! Thanks to some crazy second wind I get around 11:45 if I can stick it out, I decided to blog. Anyway, I was typing something into my google search bar in safari and I saw this message:

UM….. WHAT?????

Zelda enjoyed the beautiful sunshine yesterday. She’s taken to a new spot lodged between a window and the armoire. I think she likes it because Tycho is pretty unable to get to her there, and she has the wonderful sunshine warming her. She cozies up in there.

And here are my two favorite photos/things from Niagara-On-The-Lake. Rest of the pics will come sometime this week! The tulips were unreal. So straight, so colorful, so organized. People were all over stopping to take pictures of them. This picture in particular exposed my butt to the entire street, but it was worth it

This was my favorite chair at the cottage. I never actually sat in it… but it was just, so beautiful, antique, perfect.

Plans are food at my parents tonight, and I plan on making an amazing fruit salad. Also we have an “Ultimate Chocolate Cake” from Wegmans. What are you up to? 

I finally got out to do a bit of photography yesterday at the ever-changing, ever-blooming, ever-colorful little Erie, PA sphere of a world I live in. It is just incredible how QUICKLY things are moving through their blooming/growing cycles. It was like, 2 weeks ago, nothing except a few crocus, then all of a sudden, leaves, trees, flowers, tulips, azaleas, cherry trees, pear trees…. one day I will own at least 2-3 flowering trees. I have my baby Kwanzan cherry tree replacement that came from Burgess yesterday, and I Plan to pot it again. This will be the third attempt and replacement from them. As a side-note, as tempting as their catalog is, I don’t recommend Burgess seed company. 75% of what they’ve sent me has died, and it’s not the case with plants I’ve bought from other sources.  Anyway without further ado…

Things making me happy around Erie

Things making me happy around my house

and things making me happy inside my house (and I think the cats too)…. sunlight.

Have a great weekend everyone.

I had a big long post on the Shout to the Lord song done on idol, not once, but twice… lol… but I just realized it doesn’t matter and I didn’t want to even share it because my thoughts are too confusing and bumping around in my head and I might risk making you guys never want to read again, cuz you’ll think I’ve gone crazy.

Just read Danielle’s post - I guess really, deep down, that summarizes some of the feelings that I was thinking, along with just one that I wanted to share - that Shout to the Lord is meant to be a worship song sung in a worshipful spirit, and it was written for that purpose, so used as a performance piece for the Idols to showcase their voice was what deep down bothered me about it.

But then again, if it was done excellently, was it worshipful to God anyway? Probably not, because God knows your heart and without love and a true spirit toward Him, it is a clanging gong. (scripture reference)… but:

Philippians 1:18 says, “But what does it matter? The important thing is that in every way, whether from false motives or true, Christ is preached. And because of this I rejoice.” So I guess scripture shot me down there

Regardless, Idol Gives Back was an amazing cause, and for sure, Jesus would be 100,000,000,000,000,000 % behind it. So, I hope if you were able, you did give.

See? Scatterbrained. This is why I deleted the other post.

A few other thoughts…

• Hmm.. why am I still awake at 12:15 am on a worknight? Because I had a Diet Pepsi with Lime after 5:00pm.
• I got pulled over on Grubb Road on my way to church tonight for going 51 in a 35. Oops - I seriously thought I was in a 45. Luckily my cop was nice. But not nice enough to not give me the ticket. $150 fine baby. But it’s pretty typical that something else crap-for-crap would happen to me in April. For some reason, April tends to be my worst month in the last two years.
• My full appetite is back and I’m hungry basically always. Hubby and I are back to ourselves now, and our house is in the process of been stripped, washed in hot water, and disinfected, so you can come back over soon
• The cat just jumped up and hit the mirror above our bed, it is swinging.
• Work is ridiculous right now, and I think I need to go in at 5am and stay until 10pm.

Anyway, HAPPY FRIDAY from kitties!

ah… to be that carefree

I had a beautiful easter with my in-laws and family who are still here. My grandma wasn’t feeling well enough to make it, but we did get to visit her and my other aunt and uncle later who couldn’t make it either… so we sort of had two visits that day. Other than eating way too much, it was awesome. Here are some pictures for you!  

• setting up my first blog through wordpress through a domain name by myself. Ok Sarah helped me a bit, until I found the right instructions!

• baking Rachael Ray cheesy corn bites for an after-wedding surprise shower in which I ingested way too may pieces of beautiful pink wedding cake.

• playing with my kitties

• joining snapFitness, since I’m really quite sick of the weight gain and I lost my broken elliptical a few months ago. I still love my turbo jam but my body needs more straight-up cardio and some zoning-work-out time (you know the kind where you just move but don’t think)
• cleaning then re-cleaning and then re-cleaning my house. How can two people be SO INCREDIBLY MESSY????

• talking with good friends
• feeling like an insane person at work and at home, procrastinating yet being productive, missing people, struggling with javascripts…
• celebrating kristin’s birthday with her at her house, and hopefully making her day a bit brighter with the surprise of *me* and springy flowers
• watching the piles of snow melt into disgusting dirty wetness and typical-march-erie-ugliness
• washing almost every textile in my entire house so prepare for my in-laws Easter visit (we are excited to see them!) Yes, all the below blankets were washed and Tycho has successful re-cat-allergized them.

• singing at church a lot and preparing to help for a beautiful Good Friday experience
• watching my husband do his first baby dedication, which he did incredible at, and watching him hold beautiful Lydia basically made me want to have a baby right here, right now. (photo courtesy of the parents)

 

 

 

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Is it really almost Easter, and seriously Wednesday already tomorrow?? I feel like my life is flashing before my eyes sometimes. I am excited for this holiday and remembering the point of everything I believe in. 

 

Well… thanks for sticking with this.

 

Love,

me 

I know that I have been pretty M.I.A. the last few weeks.

Basically my weeks have been filled with this: (Most designs and by Danielle and implementation by me)

Basically the main photo bar takes you to a new section of our site. The campaign billboards are around Erie and direct you here to read true stories from real people in our church from all stages of life. Who is grace? We are grace. I am grace.

and this: (looking at these now i see some dust on my lens and i’m not happy about it)

and this (first time i’ve witnessed them on a bed “together”):

and many other non-photographic elements including web updates, grocery shopping, budget planning, laundry, kitty playing, husband and friend time, worshipping at church, volunteering, life life life life.

Can’t wait to get back in the game!