A Weekend in Charleston, SC

It's Labor Day weekend once again, and as tradition dictates, I'm visiting Jenny in lovely Charlotte, NC. Jenny always thinks of delightful things for us to do on my trips down to visit, and last year she came up with a doozy. We were going to head to Charleston, SC for the weekend. We went on a cemetery ghost tour, shopped til we dropped in the huge open-air market, and spent a day at Isle of Palms swimming in the ocean and catching some rays. We're headed there again today to fill in the gaps of what we didn't get to do last year. Here's a picture of Me, Kelli (Jenny's fabulous roomie) and Jenny in front of the Pineapple Fountain in Waterfront Park from last year's adventure :-)

What my dog does all day

Lexie is the great bug hunter. All day everyday, she goes around looking for bugs (and bunnies) to hunt down. She's pretty awesome at it though - no fly stands a chance in our house. I came home the other day to find her intensely staring at the window...

This cracked me up - she tried to get that darn stink bug for about 1/2 hour. I'd love to hear some of your crazy funny pet stories - leave a comment!

Lexie - the most awesome Rat Terrier on the planet

drum roll please..............
It's my pleasure to introduce you to my baby. This is Lexie. She's hilarious and sweet and my shadow. We got her when she was 12 weeks old and weighed only 3 pounds. She's now 1 year (and some change) old and weighs close to 12 pounds. 

A Triumphant Return

Hey...remember that one time when I used to post pictures every friday?  And I even had a name for that "weekly" posting?  Photo Friday?  Any takers?

Yeah, I hardly remembered myself.  But, I'm bringin it back, baby!



Here is a shot from a drive earlier this spring on the Blue Ridge Parkway here in the lovely mountains of North Carolina.  No leaves on the trees yet...but I loved how the sun looked in this photo.

Enjoy your weekend, everyone!

Things to do in winter

Go to the zoo! It's practically empty and the animals are so active. This tiger spotted a bird and the intensity on her face is just amazing.

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Holiday Hangover

Is anyone else still feeling slightly exhausted after the holidays?  I know it's been a week since New Year's Eve, but I have to say that all the present buying, travelling, and hoopla kind of took it out of me...and this is how I feel:

Poor Snicky was obviously exhausted after all the partying we did when I was at home for Christmas.  One of my favorite things about her are her little paws - how adorable.  This is how I've felt all week.

Sneak Peek!

In the spirit of keeping my 2011 goal progress going strong, I did some work on my portfolio today.  I have to say, I'm pretty happy with it.  I just need to get some newer ones in there and do Kelli's photo shoot as well.  Oddly, I felt like I had more to choose from than I remembered.   I was definitely very relieved!  Here's a little peek at some of the pictures that will most likely be in my portfolio...



Definitely one of my favorites from Brooks & Adam's wedding in August 2010.

This is from Erin & Jake's engagement shoot, also done the same weekend in August - so sweet!

This was from the first wedding I helped shoot with Monica in February, 2010...it's been almost a year, and I feel like I've learned so much since then.  Can't wait to really get things started!

How patriotic!

I'd like to introduce you to Independence, the rescued bald eagle from the National Aviary in Pittsburgh. Isn't he majestic?

My new favorite way to use actions...colorized orchids

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How Sweet...

is this picture?  This is from the latest wedding that I assisted Monica with (see "links" sidebar for her website).   Also, I've been MIA on Photo Fridays, so I owe ya'll one!  Or two.  Or possibly three by now.

This one was taken during the vows at the ceremony...a bit artsy fartsy, but more than a bit cute.

PS - I just posted a picture of Rose from our photo shoot on the Pioneer Woman's latest Holiday Bokeh assignment - hope it makes it on her website!  Ah!

A Rose is a Rose ~ Photo Shoot

There is really nothing more delightful than pictures of a beautiful person.  And as her best friend, I can tell you that Rose is beautiful both inside and out.  Here are some pictures from our fun photo shoot this past weekend - I'm sure there will be multiple posts regarding these photos, but these are just a few (probably will end up being about 10) of my favorites!

 

I like to call the above photo "Christmas Magic" - it was EVERYWHERE!!

That's all for now - more to come on this, and we have Kelli & Gina's photo shoots to look forward to as well!  Between these three girls, it's almost too much beauty to handle.

Photo Shoot Preview

I just got back an hour and a half ago from being at home for Thanksgiving.  BUT I couldn't resist checking out the  pictures from the photo shoot that I did with Rose over the weekend.  Rose was nice enough to be my model for the day...and it was a ton of fun, as evidenced by the photo below:

Isn't she lovely?  Rose and I love spending time together no matter what, but this was a blast.  Can't wait to get editing and add a full post of this!

Hope everyone had a great holiday weekend!

Snicky's Photo Shoot

Gina and I had some fun with Snick yesterday at Grandma's house.   We followed her around with a camera for a pretty long time...and got some great pictures.  Some really funny, some really cute.  I'll do a full post later, but I wanted to post for Photo Friday!

I Heart NC

Two years ago today, I moved to NC with my super fabulous roommate.  And she was nice enough to decorate the apartment whenever I was [restlessly] snoozing last night before yet another 4 am shift.  In celebration, the following things are occurring:

1. Reese's peanut butter trees will be eaten.

2. Flowers will be gazed upon (see photo).

3. Frozen foods that you can bake in a conventional oven will be consumed in remembrance of the time when we had only Mr. Oven and a pizza pan to cook with.

I'm keeping this short & sweet since I need to hit the hay again, but prepare yourselves to be hit with some fantastic holiday recipes this week and next.  Thanksgiving is just around the corner!

For Mom

When mom was here in October, she kept asking Dad and I to take pictures looking up at the leaves with the sky in the background.  So, now that my new camera is in action, I took another few just for her...which turned out way better than they did on my camera from college.  

This is actually the background for my laptop right now :) Happy weekend, everyone!

Bitten by the Travel Bug...

Do you ever get that itch to just go somewhere?  I used to feel like that a lot of the time, before I moved south.  Now that I'm here and I love it, I get bitten by the travel bug a lot less.  But sometimes it still hits me, and this week the itch to go back to California has been hitting me hard.  Just to visit, not to live...I don't need anyone getting upset!  Here's a small snippet as to why I wanna go back...

Cali is a little out of reach for me right now, but that's okay...there are plenty of place that are on my list for this fall/winter that are a bit closer to home.  Stay tuned for travel updates!

Day 29 - Thankful for Weddings

I love weddings.  I'm a hopeless romantic.  I don't really care who is getting married - odds are, I will get all misty-eyed and shed a few tears.  Weddings also give me the opportunity to watch television gems like Say Yes to the Dress and Four Weddings.  AND as a bonus, I love photographing weddings - something I thought I would like but wasn't totally sure I could handle until this year. 

Below is one of my favorite pictures from a wedding I assisted Monica with in August (see sidebar for her website). 

On a scale of 1-10, I'd say this is a full out "10" on the Romantic Scale.  Yes, there is such a thing as a Romantic Scale.

Fall at the Lake...

Not a whole lot really needs to be said about this one...

It's okay if you want to be jealous that I see this every day.  Happy Friday, everyone!

Day 18 - Thankful for Flowers

I was taking a walk today and  I happened to have my camera on me - Fall is gorgeous here, and I didn't want to miss an opportunities on this beautiful day!  I took this when I was walking quickly past a (still!) blooming rose bush.  How pretty!  Flowers make me happy.  And so do Fridays. 

Sidenote:  I'm also happy and thankful that Night at the Museum is on TV right now.  Love that movie!

Photo Friday!

Okay.  Truth be told, I was going to name this weekly treat "Photo Phriday," but I hate when things are purposely spelled wrong.  I also don't want people to think that I'm one of "those people" from Philadelphia who spell everything that actually has an "F" with a "Ph" instead.  That's not how I roll.  But anyways...I wanted to start sharing one of our favorite pictures every Friday.  What's better to close out a horrendous work week with than a lovely visual snack?

This is one of my favorite pictures from Davenport, CA...