Memories, Dreams, & Reflections 2012

I participated in the Memories, Dreams, and Reflections bloggy linkup for 2 years in a row, but it completely slipped my mind this year. I didn't blog much during the fall (first trimester, yuck), so I wasn't seeing the usual reminders from Ashley Sisk!

However, when another blogger/photographer's post about it popped in my newsfeed, I was compelled to do it last minute. So, I spent some time the past few days looking through photos from earlier this year. It felt good to see the progress I've made, and how hard I was working to master new techniques. I would love for my friends and fans to comment on their favorite photos!

1. Me...
and my pretty kitty.
Hubby took this photo in December.



2. I love you
My baby boy.
Hubby took this photo in December.



3. Still laughing
My cat, attacking the snow.
December



4. Winter wonderland
December



5. Birthday
November - my 27th birthday, and my last one wearing my childhood Birthday Star crown.
Starting in 2013, my son will be wearing it!
I can't remember who snapped this one for me, probably hubby.



6. Friends
My twin nieces.
Best friends.
February.



7. I was inspired...
By everyone's pretty holiday bokeh photos!
December.



8. Spring fever
April



9. Travel or Vacation
I couldn't pick just ONE photo from our amazing trip to Dublin, Ireland.
So I made a storyboard.
August



10. Summer days
My cat loves to sit outside on warm summer evenings.
August



11. A day in my life
Watching hubs and Katniss love on each other.
May



12. All smiles
My dad snapped this photo of me and hubs after our gender reveal party in December.
We had just found out that our baby is a BOY!



13. Autumn harvest
October



14. Family or home
December



15. Celebrate
This is the cake from our gender reveal party in December.



16. Let's do it again
Hubs snapped this shot of me with 3 nieces when we went down to TN to visit them.
That aquarium is amazing!
February



17. I miss you
My beautiful goddaughter!
Haven't seen her since July and I don't know when I will get down to TN to see her again.



18. Beautiful
I LOVE purple flowers! Such a beautiful color for a flower.
July



19. Dress up
No better occasion to dress up than a wedding!
My MIL snapped this shot of me with my hubs and one of my besties.
May



20. Macro
May



21. Holidays
December



22. My favorite
My baby girl, my favorite kitty!
December



23. Don't ever change
Hubby... Oh, I love him!
My MIL snapped this for us in September.



24. Just because
The world could use a little more peace.
July



25. Hopes and dreams
“If you could have one wish, what would it be? We all have hopes and dreams that we do almost anything to make real. And if we get lucky, and our wish is granted, maybe that's what we call happiness.” ― Sakura
September

Texture Tuesday - Spring Bud

For Kim Klassen's Texture Tuesday challenge today, we are supposed to add text to our photos.

I chose a photo of a bud on a tree and added a quote about spring:



It's actually almost summer here in the Hudson Valley of New York, but I've been holding onto this photo to post here for awhile. Just needed an excuse! Added a bokeh texture from Shadowhouse Creations, a scratched texture from KK (mad love), and the quote, and it was perfect! Here are my layers:






EDITED: I've hit 100 followers! I wanted to take a quick moment to thank everyone who is following and hopefully reading my little blog and looking at my pretty pictures. I truly do appreciate the support from all of you, and all of your nice words and comments. Spread the love!

Texture Tuesday - Peaceful Sky

For Texture Tuesday this week, KK said we could use any photo, any texture, as long as it's one of her textures.

I used a sky shot that I took in Boston a few weeks ago. I used the peace texture on soft light blending mode at 100%, increased saturation, decreased brightness, and increased contrast. I also burned the word Peace in the texture to make it stand out.





I know I haven't been posting often lately. I have been trying to spend more time with Jon and my family and friends. I try to leave my laptop at work at night, rather than bring it home. I've also been much busier at work lately, for a variety of reasons. Basically, I'm in the slow process of shifting blogging and facebook lower on my list of priorities.

In addition, I've been battling the worst case of allergies I've ever dealt with. I never had any issues with pollen allergies when I was a kid, so spring was always my favorite season. This is the first year that I've felt like this... This being itchy, watery eyes; 10-12 sneezes a day; runny nose; itchy nasal passages; scratchy, dry throat; itchy ears; foggy brain... It's like the pollen has taken up residence in the various canals of my head. I can feel it inside me.

You might hear from me again soon.... Who knows!

Tieing up Loose Ends

The purpose of this post is basically just to update everyone on some little things in my life. If you are reading this in a reader, I'd highly recommend that you click over and see my new header. I'm celebrating spring!

Wedding update: My invitations arrived a couple weeks ago, and they are perfect! They are simple yet stunning, no extra ribbons or cards, no outrageous designs. Just one folded sheet, one insert, and one envelope. (Well, technically, 2... outer and inner. But I'm told that's necessary.) And I'm so happy that the red ink is perfect, not too bright or too dark.

HOWEVER. I am not looking forward to addressing all these bad boys by hand.



Onward. A few weeks ago, I posted photos of the 2nd bathroom in our condo. I finally finished decorating it as I planned, with 3 small square frames and scrapbook paper.

My plan:


How it turned out:


Thank you, iPhone, for some crappy photos. You can't really tell, but the left-side frame has blue & green striped paper, the middle frame has green polka-dotted paper, and the right-side frame has blue tile paper. It looks much cuter in real life.

I also decided to use the small white shelf that I had originally bought for the bathroom, in the dining room. I am almost done with my black and white gallery wall; I am waiting for one thing to come in the mail (something I ordered from etsy), and then I just need to fill up one spot that is approximately 12" x 6".

I completed the April 2011 photo hunt!
CLICK HERE to see my photos.

And last but not least, Menu Plan Monday!



Not much of an exciting menu this week. Jon is away at his new job's corporate office for training, so I'll be eating dinner alone for 2 weeks. I made a big 7-layer salad this morning, and we have some leftover pizza. Later, I'll split the salad up into smaller portions and put it in plastic containers. Honestly, that's about all I have planned for this week.


If you want to join in with the weekly menu planning, head over to Org Junkie every Monday!

Getting to Know YOU... is BACK!!!

Remember the Getting to Know YOU meme? It was run by Keely over at MannLand5. She ended it a few months ago, and I was very sad.

But now she has decided to start it up again! YAY!

And with a new button, too.



Here are this week's questions:

1. if you won the title of miss america, what would your platform be? Public education. Our nation's teachers are underpaid and underappreciated. They should not have to take the blame for students who come from illiterate homes, and thus do not understand the importance of education.

2. outdoorsy or indoorsy? outdoorsy, even though I love my home comforts. I told a friend recently that if there were no bugs outside, I would live outside.

3. pajama's out in public..classy or tres tacky? I have to admit, I wore pj's to high school on dress-down days (aka no uniform days). Once I started college, however, I quickly realized how unprofessional and immature it looks to wear pj's out in public. The only exception is going to a pharmacy if you're sick and need medicine.

4. what's your favorite room in your house? When I lived at my parents' house, it was my bedroom. In my little condo with Jon, I honestly like each and every room!

5. nook, kindle, or book? Book. There is nothing that can replace the solid feeling of a book in my hands, the pages in my fingers, and the sound of the paper whispering its story to me.

6. would you rather wear the same outfit for a week or not brush your teeth for a week? Same outfit! I hate the feeling of gummy teeth.

7. what's your favorite blog at the moment? MannLand5, for bringing back GTKY!

8. lately i've been daydreaming about.........? Babies... Well, I've been daydreaming about babies since I was 15. Something else... My wedding!

And I'll end with a photo for Allie's Happy Monday challenge. This week's theme is Spring. My mom bought these pretty spring flowers to dress up her dining room.

Taken with my iPhone and edited with instagram.

i heart faces Challenge - Barefoot Week

This is Angie and Amy's week off, so we get to focus on something OTHER than faces. And it just happens to be something I LOVE to photograph - bare feet! Well, I should clarify. I don't mind taking photos of my own feet. But I really can't stand other people's feet. Baby feet are fine, and I don't mind kid feet too much, but anyone older than, say, 4 - keep your toes away from me, please!


Angie and Amy chose to focus on bare feet this week because they are supporting a great cause, Soles 4 Souls.


This is a "Nashville-based charity that collects shoes from the warehouses of footwear companies and the closets of people like you. The charity distributes these shoes free of charge to people in need, regardless of race, religion, class, or any other criteria. Since 2005, Soles4Souls has given away over 7 million pairs of new and gently worn shoes (currently donating one pair every 9 seconds.) The shoes have been distributed to people in over 125 countries, including Kenya, Thailand, Nepal and the United States." (Source)

This charity reminds me of 2 things. One, TOMS shoes. This shoe company is AWESOME. For every single pair of shoes that they sell, they give a pair away to a child who has none. I think this is so incredibly generous of them. As soon as I get a job that pays a bit more than pennies, I am buying a pair.


Speaking of incredibly generous, the other thing I was reminded of is actually a group of people. A band. Hanson. Yes, the MMMBop kids from 10 years ago. They are all grown up, and now they spend a great deal of time helping others. They have started their own organization called Take The Walk. People all over the country (and all over the world) are organizing group walks. For each person that walks one mile at these events, Hanson then donates one dollar for various causes, whether it is drilling water wells, building schools, or providing access to medical help. They have even teamed up with TOMS to donate more shoes! One of my very best friends organized a walk at our college last year. We had over 150 people show up, and then the school donated an additional dollar for each walker. It was an amazing day.


Whether you are donating shoes or money, or just walking for a cause, go do something. Help someone who isn't family or friend. Do something for others that doesn't benefit you AT ALL. It'll leave you with this feeling that I can't even describe. Sometimes, I feel small; I am only one person. How can I possibly change someone's life for the better? To think that the mile I walked, helped to build a school for African children. One small donation, one short mile, one pair of shoes can go halfway around the world just to make one child happier. YOU can make a child happier, and give them a reason to hope.

Trust me, it's a great feeling.




I am linking up with Leigh vs. Laundry and her meme, The Happiness Project. What is making me wildly happy today? Helping others.

Also, beachy toes.


And sunny toes.

YouCapture - Sky

YouCapture is run by Beth over at I Should Be Folding Laundry,
and this week's theme is sky.


Winter sky

Spring sky

Summer sky

Fall sky





And now, a bit about writing. I tried out NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) in November of last year. This a challenge of sorts in which everyone writes a 50,000 word (175 pages) novel in 30 days. I was very confident that I would be able to get it done. I started off writing everyday, sometimes more than the planned ~1,670 words per day. After about a week, I faltered. I tripped over the plot, the characters ran away, and suddenly, I was left with just a quiet setting, no rising action and no climax in sight. I stopped. Even after I took a few days off to simply look around, maybe find some hidden conflict, I couldn't get back on track.

I ended up with just over 12,700 words. Wow, I am horrible at this whole "meeting a goal" thing. I guess traveling for work made me busier than I thought.

Life goes on.

Now, I am gearing up to participate in the same event, only run by different people. This one is called BuNoWriMo (Burrow Novel Writing Month). Same goal - 50,000 words in 30 days. I was going to simply continue the first novel, but I've been reading through it. As much as I want to finish it, I feel like pushing myself to write it when I'm not ready, is just going to make it worse. I'd rather go back to it when I'm ready, and when it's ready for me. Until then, I've got several other ideas. I just have to pick which one I want to write!