Our Local Orchard

If you've been to visit us, you've probably been to our local orchard right down the road.
It's on a busy street in the middle of town surrounded by homes and businesses.
It's like a little oasis and has been there 100 years.

I love it when the blossoms are on the trees.
I love it when the FRUIT is on the trees.
But recently, I found that I love it when the snow is on the trees as well.

Seems impossible that in a few short months the flowers and leaves will be making their appearance once again!

And again...

...snow!

Yesterday I thought that it was over.
I took pictures of how beautiful the snow looks when the setting sun is on it.
We got about 10 or so inches over the past few days.

But I guess its NOT over!!

Snow!

Sometimes you do get what you wish for!!

That's an intersection there...really!!

Being a good neighbor...

Snow kitty!
He'll go through anything to be with us outside!

This snow was the epitome of powder!
Ivan and Jenelle both tried to build little snow forts, but they just wouldn't hold up.

Snowballs were nearly impossible to create...

...but fell easily from the branches!!

And just when the kids thought they were safe...this guy came out for a snow attack!

It's snowing again today.

I've run my errands.

I've got a pork roast in the crock pot and lots to keep me busy here at home...

Let it snow!!

Forgot to add...

...the adorable pictures that were captured on the same day as the pretty flower bouquet...
Time flies too fast my friends...

Too stinkin' cute for words!!

I Give Up...

I just can't post a picture and a blog entry a day.
I can't...and I really don't want to.
I'm just not into taking pictures of nothing.
Not when there's so much else to do and get done, etc.

Maybe another time in my life, but not now!
Oh well...12 days into the new year and I can already cross that resolution off!

I did make some time to play around with some old random pictures.
I messed around with this picture from 2005.
That didn't seem so long ago until I realized it's over 6 years!
I took this picture of Hannah holding some flowers at my mom's house.
I love the bright colors and the composition.

But I messed with it and I really like the results.
It reminds me of the 70's for some reason...the way the colors are faded...
And even though the flowers are faded as well, they seem to stand out more because the background is more muted.

Now what to do with it...

Coupons!

I finally got around to cutting out my Sunday coupons yesterday.

This week I only cut from two local papers.
Usually I buy two local papers and two Seattle papers...they have a larger selection of coupons.
I stopped at three places while running errands and they were all sold out.
It makes me wonder if I've missed out on something amazing, but I was sick of 'shopping' for newspapers so I gave up.

After they're cut, I sort them into their different sections in this binder.

Yes, I have joined the coupon binder craze.
But I rarely take the binder into the store with me.
I use it to keep my coupons much more organized here at home.
It takes a little longer than filing them all together, but its worth it.
When I make my lists, I can easily sort through my binder, add the coupons to the lists and head out for big big savings!
:)

Portrait of Cuteness!

It's so darn chilly outside and there's no colors, so it's hard to find motivation for pictures out there.
How do you cure that?
Add a cute (and willing) model with lots of pink!

I'm always reminded that you have to take quite a few pictures to get the ones you are looking for...
Thank goodness for digital cameras!

Here are a few of the outtakes...

Silly model!!

There was bright sun out, but we were in the shade because I didn't want the look of direct sun.
I needed to get rid of that shadow under her cap.

These are the two that turned out the best.
I wish I could say that I purposely did this or that to rid her face of most of the shadows, but I didn't do anything "on purpose".
Looking at the angle of the picture today I can say that I think having me at a taller height...and her looking up at the camera...caused the brim of her hat to lift and so taking away the shade across her eyes.
Maybe that's it.

But one thing is for sure...

She sure is a portrait of cuteness!

Grey Days...

...bleh.

It's cold and grey.
I'm getting sick of it.
I would love some snow to brighten things up!

Don't these pictures just scream dreary?!

Dinner Love!

Mix a few spices...

Rub them on a chicken...

And put it in the crock pot...

Done and delicious!!

Daily Posting

I'm trying to post something daily.
Not because I have that much exciting going on in my life...
...because I don't.

But just because its the new year and I feel like making an obnoxious amount of resolutions that I will never see through.

No...not really that either, but that does happen each year.

I just want to try and take pictures daily - and record them somewhere.
I think I tried this sometime last year...
But this year I am MOTIVATED by my new camera.
Here's a cool blog I'm going to add to my reading list called Mostly Lisa.
I'm scared though that I might want to start to BE her after a while...

Anyway!
Hold your breath - here's my post!



THIS is all that was left of the nasty rotting bananas that I featured a few days ago.
I made some muffins in the morning (12 of them) and by 7:30am, only one remained!
Let's do the math shall we.
11 muffins divided by 5 people means 2.2 muffins each.
That .2 part was hard to figure out to make it all fair.
Ha!

What I like the most about this picture is the "bokeh"
A new favorite word!
It's that beautiful soft blur that you get in the background of some pictures.

Here's another example of pretty Christmas light bokeh...
In this first shot, I underexposed the image...

And in the second, I overexposed it...

In both, the aperture was set at f5.6.
I zoomed in (67mm on the first picture and 100mm on the second) and set the angel fairly close to me while keeping the Christmas tree far off in the background.

Now off to read photography blogs get something productive done...
:)

Cat's Crib!

This is what Pounce looks like when I find him in his hobo house super fly crib in the morning.

He's got wall to wall carpeting, so all he needs now are some black lights and tunes!

Random!

Better get to baking bread today or these babies are going to actually dissolve soon...bleh!!
To add chocolate chips or not...that is the question...

and on a completely different note...

Isn't this a cool 'almost teenager' room?
Hannah got a new carpet from Santa and while she already had the lamp, Donald bought some colored bulbs for it..
Super fun!

Ahhh...

...back to school!
There are a few reasons why I say "ahhh".

One is that I can clean the house and it will stay clean - for an afternoon at least.
People aren't in the kitchen all throughout the day (who invented lunch anyway?)

But the main reason I'm glad that school has started again is that there has been way too much of this sort of thing...

I can see brain vapors leaking out.

A New Year

Maybe that's what Pounce was contemplating yesterday on New Year's Day.

He's probably like the rest of us...

...wondering where 2011 went and what 2012 holds in store.