Our weekend project!

This weekend we went to the Salisbury Festival and one of the booths featured tons of brightly colored hula hoops in all sorts of sizes.  The coolest part? They were homemade!  We were inspired and being the impatient sort I talked my husband in immediately going to Lowe's to buy supplies. LOL


To start off, all you need is some irrigation tubing (ours cost about $13 for 100ft), some couplers (we bought a pack of 10 for less than $4), and duct tape in whatever color or pattern  you choose. :)  I've looked online and I've seen other people just tape the ends of the tubing together, but we found it easier and more sturdy to use the couplers. 

First, you need to decide what size hoop you want--I made mine about 3ft in diameter, my littles' are closer to 2 1/2 ft in diameter with Mia's being on the smaller end.  To use the couplers, you have to heat one end of the tubing to soften it up a bit (but not too much!) and then quickly shove it in. LOL

One side down!

Heat the other end and push it onto the other end of the coupler to make the hoop.  There you go! 

Now all you have to do is decorate! 

As you can see I made mine rather simple.  The smaller hoop is Mia's right before we began to wrap the tape.  

I will be honest and say it took me awhile to get that hang of wrapping the tape (as evidenced by these pictures) and I'm still not that great at it. LOL  Luckily, my kids love me (and their hoops!) anyway. :)  

The finished product:

The hoops are much sturdier than the flimsy ones you can buy at the store and have just enough weight to them to make them easy and fun to use.  As you can see, I don't have any shots of us enjoying our hoops but that is because I've been to busy playing with my kids to get the camera out. I would call that a success.  :)

(A note: I have considered filling the tubing with sand to make a weighted hoop but that will take some patience.  I'll update if I decide to try it. :) )

Mia in Dreamland

This week's theme at I Heart Faces is By The Book and it is probably the easiest one I've ever had. I knew immediately what image I wanted to share. As an added bonus I was inspired to play around with it a bit using some texture and I really like the new result. :)

All my kids love books. Reading has long been a love of mine (I'm never without a book and my to-read list on Goodreads is hundreds of books long) so I am thrilled that my kids find joy in reading, too.
I took this picture earlier last year when Mia had been quietly playing in her room and I found her sound asleep with the book splayed across her body. It was just so sweet that I couldn't resist.

Best Face 2011

2011 was a crazy busy year for us. We finally moved. The kids were busy in school and while I got my camera out from time to time, it was not nearly as much as I'd have liked. Hopefully, I'll do better this year. :)

Not only do I want to work on getting out with my camera more often, I want to try harder to expand myself by participating in more challenges than I did last year. And starting off with the best face of 2011 challenge at I Heart Faces is a good way to do that.

Which means I've been sitting here going through all my shots from the last year, and I find myself stuck on this one.

It just makes me laugh. The curlers in her hair, the expression on her face and the way she is peering over the tops of her glasses. It's the not best photographically-just a simple snapshot taken on a whim-but it is the one that makes me smile the most.

The rest of the fall shots

I did get some shots of my other kids last week, too. Even more impressive I got a group shot and one of my going on 13 year old. I guess miracles to occur. LOL

I love Anakin's expression. So true to him. And they are all looking at the camera. And smiling. It may never happen again. LOL

Claudia is as bad as me when it comes to having her picture taken, so I was so happy that she agreed to sit for me. She's growing up so fast.

This shot is a little over exposed and isn't perfect but I love the interaction between my littles. They are so cute together.

I didn't get too much in the way of shots of Anakin. As you can see he quickly tired of me (he wanted to go play soccer with some other kids we met there. LOL)

Choice Two

This is the other shot that I took of Mia last week. I have to be honest and say the main reason I love it is her pouty face. You wouldn't know that within seconds she was jumping up and down laughing. She is such a drama queen. ;)

I do also like the background colors. :) A little more variety and depth of color.

I'll share the rest of the shots in a little bit. For once I even got a group shot!

Autumn Splendor

First, just let me say that I love this week's challenge. The colors of fall are my absolute favorite and if it wasn't for the cold, I'd want it to be Autumn forever.

Now, let me tell you that I've had the hardest time deciding which photo to enter in this week's challenge. I've even asked some online friends to vote on it because I just couldn't decide. My youngest is such an easy kid to photograph since she just loves being the star. She's so dramatic which meant I ended up with one shot where she's pouty and forlorn and one where she looks so excited and happy--how do you choose?

You don't. You make others do it for you. Hopefully, they chose well. I'll post the other shot in the following post and you can vote, too. LOL

As you can see this is the happy shot. This is my favorite, I only wish there had been more of the autumn colors in it. However, we seem to be overrun with yellow trees, not enough of the deep orange or reds which have always been my favorites. :)

Homecoming

This past weekend was Homecoming and Claudia had her dance on Friday night. She had so much fun and just loved her outfit I helped her put together and her hair and make-up that I did for her. Made this old mom feel like she was doing a pretty decent job, after all. ;)

I think she looked quite lovely. And for a change she actually let me take pictures of her!!! (Yes, that does deserve three exclamation points. LOL)

My little girl is growing up. *sniffle*

Portraits

Last week I did a quick mini shoot of a young man to give them to his mom. He was so much fun to work with and really had me laughing. We did a few shots out behind our new house (score!) and we went into town and got a few shots there, too.

The best part for me was that I was able to explore and find some new fun places to shoot (love the archway!) and have learned from the experience and found things that I will definitely do differently next time. :)

Wedding Shots

In September I was asked to shoot a small wedding and I lost my mind and said yes. LOL

Truly, it was such a fun experience and such a lovely ceremony that I felt very lucky to have been a part of it. Everyone was just fantastic, and I was so happy to do that for them. :)

Playing catch up!

So, I haven't blogged in awhile. I'm sure you've noticed. Or maybe not. LOL

School started and activities started and I feel like I haven't sat down since August. Today, I thought I do a few short posts to catch up and share a few shots that I've taken since I last posted and try to get myself back on track. :)

First up is a cute/funny shot I took of Mia last month. She participated in our town's Little Miss Fire Prevention contest (if there's a stage, she wants to be on it!) and I put some bendy curlers in her hair to boost her natural curl.

I just love that look on her face! I'm not sure if she was more bothered by me interrupting her computer time, or me taking her pic while she was wearing curlers!

Mia's New Glasses

A couple of weeks ago, Mia had her yearly check-up and of course they did the vision and hearing screening. Well, imagine my shock when Mia tanked the vision screening. I've never seen her be anything other than overconfident so seeing her so unsure was a real eye opener and I couldn't believe that I had no idea there could be an issue.

Of course, over the following week while waiting for her eye exam, I started noticing all the little things like how she'd scoot up to the computer screen or rub her eyes a lot. And maybe that's why she's always running into things! She's not klutzy (or not totally klutzy) she can't see! LOL I felt a measure of guilt and relief the whole time.

So last Tuesday afternoon I took her in to have her eyes examined. The Dr was really great with her and she really did well following his instructions and answering his questions. And it was soon obvious that she did need glasses. The Dr wanted to fine tune her prescription though, so we came in early the next day and he double checked everything and determined that oh, yeah. She does need bifocals, also.

We ordered her glasses and today they were in. Mia picked the frames out all by herself, and she has progressive lenses because the Dr thought they would be easiest for her to adjust to. She wore them all afternoon and evening and seemed to do just great with them and is being very careful. <3

Unfortunately it was a very, very rainy day so I was only able to get a few shots while waiting at the bus stop for Anakin. As you can see, she's still her silly self, but I just can't get over how grown up she looks all of a sudden.

The good news is that the Dr is hopeful that her vision will improve and she may not even need them after awhile. She goes back in six months to see what progress is being made. I just hope she doesn't get upset if she ends up not needing then anymore. She really likes them. :)

White

This week's challenge at I Heart Faces is the color white used in a color photo. I'll have to admit this one stumped me. I certainly never try to dress my kids in white. It'd be filthy in seconds. LOL

I looked and looked and found very little in my previous photos that featured the color white. And with school starting and a hurricane bearing down on us, I really didn't have much time to think of any creative set-ups. So I'm gonna cop out and share this pic.

This was taken the first time I shot a little baby. Luckily, it was for fun and for getting used to working with such a little one. He was the most awake little thing, though, but so sweet and calm. I was lucky to be able to experiment a bit with him, but he had no interest in sleeping--he was much too interested in this new crazy person. LOL I learned a lot about what I want to get and do if I ever have the chance to play with a tiny baby again, so that was cool. Good thing I'm really only in it for the love of photography as I still have lots to learn and experience. :)

Meet My Litle Friend

So this week at I Heart Faces is pet week. We don't really have a pet unless you count the stray cat who has adopted us but isn't into being cute or posing for pictures. Mostly she just wants you to give her food or she'll try to trip you coming down the front steps.

I do however, love animals. I love going to the zoo and shooting. The birds are big favorites of mine. And I love insects. Ladybugs, and grasshoppers, bees and butterflies. I've showcased them all a time or two here. Ooh! Or there's Assateague and the wild ponies! I love those too.

So. You can imagine my difficulty in choosing a picture to share for this week's challenge. I finally decided on a shot from this afternoon. I really couldn't resist. I love the colors and the bokeh. I only wish he wasn't so shy and would have shown his face more. He's a beauty, though.

Enjoy!

Cue the hate mail. ;) (The brave may click for a larger view.)

Oh, and just in case you're wondering. He was in the middle of lunch and was less than thrilled with my taking his picture at such an inopportune moment. He did not eat my face though. And he cleans up after himself, so bonus!!

Planning Mischief

This week's challenge at I Heart Faces is "beautiful eyes" and it was so hard to pick a picture to submit. I'll admit, I may be biased, but I do believe my children have the most beautiful eyes ever. LOL And how do you choose from the gorgeous blues my daughters are sporting or the chocolatey brown my son has?

In the end I chose a shot of my youngest. You'll recognize it from my header. Mia has gorgeous blue eyes but in the end I chose the black and white version of this shot because I think it brings more attention to her eyes. With the color version it is easy to be distracted by her strawberry blond hair and busy plaid dress. Either way, her eyes just sparkle. Possibly with mischief.

She's probably plotting world domination or something.

(Click on image for larger version)

Black & White for Pioneer Woman

This week's assignment for Pioneer Woman has been black and white. Yeah, so I don't do B&W all that often. Which is a shame because it can really bring out beautiful details in a photograph. It's just out of my comfort zone so I shy away from it.

But this week I decided to challenge myself to get out of my comfort zone and experiment with B&W and then I entered some that I liked into the contest. Shocking enough, this morning one was chosen to be a part of group 5. LOL

I'm always so honored to see one of my photographs chosen alongside so many beautiful shots. :)

The small Bathroom

Back to the ugly house again!

The other bathroom in the house was probably the grossest thing I'd ever laid eyes on. Some of it was unspeakable filth, the rest was the awful wallpaper and fixtures.

And did I mention it was gross? I mean guh-ross! LOL

This bathroom is actually in the part of the house that was added on. This is nice because not only can you enter it from the house, but you can enter it from what was once a patio that has been enclosed, also. It's nice for when we're all outside or when the kids get absolutely filthy (with mine that's often). We can enter or I can throw the kids all straight into the bath without tracking it through my nice clean renovated home. :)

After:

It's so much nicer and brighter in there now. And I love the new bathtub. It's nice and deep. :)
I still need to buy towel racks and things for both bathrooms, but I'll get that done soon.

Amelia in Dreamland

A few months ago I walked into the kids bedroom to find Mia passed out asleep with a book across her lap. She just looked so sweet there, fast asleep, that I couldn't resist taking a picture. It makes me happy that my kids love books so much. <3

My new kitchen

The kitchen in the ugly house was just like the rest of the house-butt-ugly. LOL

It was dirty, dingy and dated. It's oddly situated but very open. It's in the very center of the house, which I actually kind of like and even though we'll probably want to put in new cabinets and things one day, it looks pretty great with the facelift we gave it.

Before:

Please ignore random odd boys mugging for the camera. LOL Though they are certainly more interesting that those ugly brown cabinets and gross floor.

In process:

The room had been painted and Jason and his friend Billy made me new cabinet doors. They just needed paint to match the cabinets. As you can see, Jason is pretty proud. :)

A quick shot of the red color before the touch up painting was done. LOL

Now:

Please excuse my mess. LOL I've moved the boxes in but haven't started unpacking. Here you can see the finished doors and my nice, new floor.

It just amazes me how much brighter and cleaner everything is now. And how much I love it. I love my black counters and sink, and the walls and cabinets are such a light gray that they look white without the blinding effect. It's softer, somehow.

Really, it's just lovely.

Ugly House Updates

I did remember to get some shots this weekend so I wanted to do an update of a couple of my previous posts.

First is the master bath. (Original post here.) I grabbed a quick shot of the outside of my shower. I didn't get an inside shot because it's well, dirty. LOL It's yet to have been cleaned out since everything was finished so it's all dusty and dirty and gross. But here's the outside to give you an idea. Weird angle because of the way the bathroom is shaped, sorry.

Next up is the girls' bedroom. Mostly it's Claudia's bedroom because I can guarantee that Mia will want to be with Anakin more often than not. Well, we got the shelf up in Claudia's closet and her dresser is finished so I started unpacking her stuff and putting all away. I couldn't resist getting updated pictures because it's really making it seem like our home, now. :) (Original post here.)

Claudia's bed is going to be set up to the left. This picture is weird because the room really is wider than it appears. LOL (Side note/brag: Can I just say I love this pic only because my reflection makes me smile. For the first time I can really see the difference that 30 pounds makes. I curve in instead of out! ;) LOL)

A couple shots of Claudia's closet. I still have to pick fabric to make the curtain we are going to hang instead of putting up doors. And that is her bedspread on the floor. It's going to be so much fun picking out all the decorative little touches to put up in her room. :)

The dresser. It has been completely refinished. I sanded it down completely, painted it and redid the handles. It looks a thousand times better and I can't wait until she gets home and sees it.

So that's my update. I still have lots more pics to share so I'll post another room soon!