the pure interest

A wedding I photographed at our church on Saturday, June 21. I was really happy with it - only a few hiccups. I’m starting to really enjoy the power that my HUGE flash offers, even though its a bit unwieldy. I still have so much to learn. But I have two more weddings booked for the summer!!! I never thought I’d go here, but I’m really excited about it.

I’ll tell you what, being accountable on the internet is pretty exhausting. it’s hard to believe I’m already on day 6 of this. Only 5 more days to go (counting today). Yesterday went really well until a big picnic we had with some friends at Aaron & Kelly’s - again, thanks guys. It was so much fun! But, I basically threw rules out the window and ate normally last night. Sometimes I think it was worth it, other times I regret it because I was fighting waves of nausea all night due to eating more in quantity and more fat then my body has had in a week. I think I DON’T regret it way more though - everything was soooo good. And truthfully we had a lot of fruit and veggies - the main splurges were a hot dog, a little too much ranchy cornbread salad, a cupcake, a piece of cheesecake and a bit of cookie cake. (do you see where my main weaknesses lie?)

The picnic was great with little kids running around all over the place!! I’ll tell you what, kids are way funnier then adults, and they don’t even mean to be. They just… are. From Candace screaming with laughter when Brian peaked out from behind a corner, to watching she and Eli enjoy a classic game of “ring a round the rosie” (little do they know where that originated), Logan calling his mom and dad old, and Camden actually ENJOYING playing with Connick! 

Ok, the fact that all of those names are represented on the internet, INCLUDING THE DOG, freaked me out a little bit.

Back to business. Weigh-In today. 4.2 lbs less then Monday. Water retention, bloating, etc. aside, that is good news. I’m seriously impressed with myself. This morning I’m feeling a little bit off, sort of queasy (maybe as a result of overeating last night?) But excited to workout for the first time since Tuesday!! The busy-ness eliminated that possibility for three days!! Ok enough…

Day 6 Menu:

Breakfast: Feta, Black Olive, and Tomato mainly egg white Omelet (for me just eggs, tomatoes and feta)

Snack: Fruit & Cheese

Lunch: Turkey and Hummus Pita (I don’t even own hummus)

Snack: Peanut Butter & Banana Protein Smoothie

Dinner: Grilled Ahi Tuna Salad (no on tuna, probably use shredded chicken instead)

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Have a great Saturday everyone! the plans for me today are workout, clean, shoot a wedding, some web work, and do a lot of yardwork.

This is an old picture I took of cherry trees a few years ago (surprise, right?). It’s peaceful to me.

In June, I actually have some “profit” from freelancing, and I was deciding between a Wacom tablet or the new Microsoft Office 2008 for the Mac. After reading some not-very-good reviews on Office 08, I decided on the tablet. I ordered from Amazon one that had decent reviews, was medium sized, and not ridiculously costly - so I am excited to work with it. It’s supposed to be here today! I hope I can do some new types of illustration and it gives me some more freedom I’ve been looking for.

I went roller blading by myself last night, and it was ok. The only things I hate about blading/walking at the penninsula are the clouds of gnats. I had to have breathed some in because I would notice I was plowing into them way too late! I did 6 miles in 45 minutes, which meant I was going relatively fast. When I sat down in the car I wasn’t sure if I could get my blades off I was so exhausted . . . but somehow managed to. Then, I went home, had some veggies for dinner, and did “3T - Totally Tubular Turbo” . . . yeah, sounds cheesy but it’s a great workout using resistance tubing for weight/strength training. About 30 minutes after being done, I noticed I was having trouble lifting my limbs and walking up the stairs. I guess it can truly be said that I beat myself with working out yesterday! But I needed it so I am glad!!

This was mainly to make up for the fact I went to Olive Garden yesterday with my sis and my hubs and had the new Chicken Milanese. I did give about half to Bri and Amy, so that was good. But it was unbelievable. Worth every calorie, bite, and bloated feeling afterwards.

Also LOST last night? Wow. Some questions got answered, which was crazy, but somehow I have a really hard time putting it all together still. I depend on the short reviews for stupid people so I can sort of get a handle on what I saw!

Tonight we have small group which is always a pleasure, and I think some new folks will be joining, so I am excited about that! Brian and I also need to find an air conditioner this weekend, which needs to be a priority, and I am searching flyers for the best deals.

Oh and update: I have no accent, because Erie is awesome:

Have a happy Friday everyone!

Thank you so much for all your compliments yesterday everyone. They really mean a lot - when I post these things it’s not necessarily to get a bunch of praise, but feedback either way, and of course the positive stuff is always appreciated!

So I’ve decided to start a .mac trial (60 days - I like that they give you a full two months) mainly for the “Back to My Mac” feature, where you can connect and control two (or more) of your mac computers remotely. I’ve had this need for the last few months especially when sometimes I’ll end up needing to work on agency work from home, and I don’t have all the files, so I end up emailing them to myself, etc. It’s just not efficient. In theory, .mac allows me to have not only storage space online (which I can’t say I’ve been too thrilled with - a friend of mine and I use it to transfer sermon mp3s and it often crashes my computer if I try to copy too much at once), but remote management of both macs depending on where are at. You can do screen sharing, but I’d probably avoid this since on Mondays and Tuesday there is another designer sitting at this computer and I don’t think she’s appreciate her mouse and folders being taken over by me Anyway, for $100 a year, if this works, I think it will be super helpful and very worth it!

Anyone else have experience with .mac that they could weigh in on?

Thanks - and have a wonderful Wednesday! GE Shareowners meeting is today, (big deal in our town) so I hope to go down to the convention center later and get a look at all my agency and some other vendor’s in towns hard work in helping GE put it together!!

One of my first big freelance projects finally wrapped up last month, and I was so excited to have the real CD in my hands. I think the look of it really goes with David’s style. You can listen to him here, and pick up a copy of the cd.

I also completed some web order buttons and banners to go with the style.

Anyway - it’s been a really fun project, and I’m actually quite sad that it’s over. The good news is my husband and I are still working on our worship CD, and I’m pretty much ensured to be the chosen graphic designer on that job ;-), so I know there is another one on the horizon.

I’m sorry to my normal commenting-bloggy-friends that I haven’t been commenting lately, I’ve been really just scattered and haven’t gotten to many blogs. Also, it is so warm and sunny out I’m trying to be outside more than in!

Do you remember when I posted when I first started this blog how much I wanted one of these?  Well it only took 8+ months, but I finally picked one up from IKEA today! So far I really like it. The mechanism for putting it at a downward angle is a little annoying, because it’s either straight or down so much my mouse falls down. But other than that its really great and I love how I can raise and lower it so if I want to lay down on the couch I can put it at the right level, or if I’m sitting striaght up I can raise it to keep my back and a good posture.

• I’m also enjoying the new WordPress interface
• Saturday Night Live is actually quite amusing tonight
   

Next week I’m going to post about my kitchen renovation! It was only one wall but its been quite a project and so far I’m really excited about it.

I have been lucky enough to be bestowed upon by two blogger awards in the last couple weeks. Thanks Rachel and Michelle It made me feel very special.

Now to pass on the honor, I will just give both at once because if your blog is Excellent, it probably does make my day. I’m going to limit myself to 6 at this point although there are so many more. It is nice if you pass these awards along, but you don’t have to - although unlucky things will probably happen to you. (kidding)

Danielle

Katie

Amy

Molly

Derek

Abraham 

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You have may have noticed some new beautiful jewelry photos in my sidebar. I took these for a client about a month ago. This ring is totally unique. The diamond is suspended in the gold, and it actually has tiny tiny engraving on it that puts in the ID number and says “i love you” on the other side. It is so microscopic, I can’t even capture it with my diopters on my camera. Anyway I was happy with how some of these turned out, you can see the full gallery on his site. Amazing piece, Rob.

Have a great day everyone.

My great friend and techy mastermind Sarah (css and tech mastermind of global erie and interactive designer for the washington post) told me about a fun little web program that will really flip you out.

(: ɹǝʇʇıʍʇ uı unɟ s,ʇı ˙uʍop ǝpısdn ʇı sdılɟ ʇı puɐ ƃuıɥʇʎuɐ uı ǝdʎʇ noʎ ʎllɐıʇuǝssǝ

So like I said in my title, things are crazy. I’m trying to juggle a lot and trying to figure out the best way to do it. I know I can though - officially after this weekend my stance is “no” on anything extra, as one of the things I’m trying to do in my life is ‘ruthlessly eliminate hurry’ . . . it is near impossible though when you work so many jobs and are so involved.

And truly, I think that if I improved my time management, the situation would improve all around. So t hat’s on the list too.

Also I started working on a new desktop background, so expect that next week!!

Have a great weekend everyone.