Pioneer Woman Dog Photo Contest

There is a blog I (and thousands of others) follow called The Pioneer Woman.  The blog covers a wide range of topics including my favorite - photography.  Every now and then she has photo contests and this week her contest is for dog photos.  A combination of two of my passions - dogs and photos, I just couldn't resist entering photos of my dogs for posterity sake at the very least.  

Her contests always receive thousands of entries and this one seems to have hit a particular cord with people as I believe the entries have reached in the tens of thousands.  So far it seems her choices are favoring small dogs, but there have been a couple of Dane and Lab pictures as well.  Since my chances of being chosen are extremely slim, I decided Callie and Ben should at least be featured here.  Take a look at the three pictures I submitted, they may not be perfect, but I love them:

I also love these pictures of my pups, but have not submitted them:

 

I just took this next one of Callie on Wednesday and love it as it captures what they do much of the day!

Thanks for taking a moment to look at my furbabies!

8/52 - Project 52

I'm hosting March bunco this next week and my theme is Made with Love, so all gifts need to be made by us.  We have some amazing sewers and crafty women in our group and sadly, I am not one of them.  Despite being the host, I was at a loss for what to do.

After telling my SIL about the great free coaster deal from Snapfish, she gave me the terrific idea to use some of my photography work and make coasters as my gift.  Here are some of the pictures I selected for the coasters.  I just ordered them yesterday and had to pay $6.50 for shipping (our bunco limit is supposed to be $5) so I'm not sure they'll make it in time, but I have a backup plan just in case and am sure I could give these as a gift another time if necessary.  

Tell me, which one is your favorite and would you pick my bunco gift?

We were homebound due to sickness most of the week, but it made me smile when I came upon this sweet shot of my son admiring his "new friend" the ladybug.

Amanda - Mama to Three

My friend Amanda recently had her third, beautiful baby girl.  Amanda is one of those tall, long, gorgeous pregnant women and the best part is her loving and beautiful character that shines from within.   It was a pleasure to take maternity pictures of she and her fun family.  I really enjoyed meeting her husband Kevin and was touched by their obvious deep love for one another and their girls.   I hope you enjoy some of my favorites from this session:

So in love...priceless

So thankful little Charlotte has arrived safely and is being welcomed well by her big sisters!

Little L

A friend of mine had her little boy right before Christmas and in the hub-bub of the holiday season, we weren't able to do newborn photos of him until the end of January.  He was still cute as ever and we had a fun time trying to capture that newborn essence, despite him not wanting to be away from his mommy.  Here are some of my favorites:

Then there's just something about this last one that I adore, plus this hand-knit blanket was lovely!

7/52 - Project 52

Earlier this week I was running some late night errands and one of the stops was to Macy's to use a new gift card for some foundation.  It was minutes before closing time and for some reason the gal really wanted to give me the royal treatment makeover (um, maybe because in my sweatshirt and old jeans she could tell I needed it?).  I am pretty natural usually when it comes to make-up, give me a bit of foundation, mascara and chapstick and I'm good to go.  

On this day I didn't have anything on (I'd been home all day with the kids) so the Lancome gal had fun trying all their latest make-up collection on me, including dark teal eyeshadow and a liquid eyeliner.  It was something. :)  When I got home (nearing 10 pm) I decided to take some self-portraits of myself (for practice) before washing it all off.  Here you go, the many faces of me:

 Sadly my camera doesn't deal with low-light of high ISOs well, so these are very "warm"...

Clickin Moms

Since getting my DSLR camera last Spring I have spent oodles of time scouring the Internet and learning as much as I can about photography, photo editing and graphic design.  Much of that time has been spent participating in online photography forums and Clickin Moms has been the best!

A self-proclaimed, "community of women who have a passion for photography", Clickin Moms actually has plenty of men photographers as well and the entire community has photographers from all skills levels from amateur moms-with-a-camera (MWAC) to professional, amazing photographers.  Each day when I visit Clickin Moms I am left with at least one (if not many) valuable nuggets of information and boatloads of inspiration!

If you haven't checked Clickin Moms out yet, and you have an interest or love of photography, I'd encourage you to do so now.  The lovely folks at Clickin Moms is even offering 10% off your membership using the code: FRIEND for all who sign up before March 31st!  A great deal and an invaluable investment. Check them out by clicking on the icon above!

6/52 - Project 52

Better late than never, right?  Here is my photo for this week.  I just love our large windows in front and how our children can sit and look out, waiting expectantly for Daddy to drive up after work.

5/52 - Project 52

Healthy snack...

Not so healthy snack...