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Monday, February 28, 2011

Playtime.

Tomorrow is my photography class and they have given us the challenge of finding pictures of something that is BLUE.

You think blue... there are tons of things that are blue.  However, this was somewhat of a challenge for me.   I felt like an idiot not being able to find anything blue.  I had convinced myself that the swings in the park around the corner were blue. Nope.  Not blue. Good news is, I DID get a pretty fun picture I wanted to show you.


Now you will just have to come back tomorrow to see what I finally found that was blue and worth showing off.  Wish me luck! Hope the class likes it too!


Sunday, February 27, 2011

Blog of the Month - I need YOUR help!

Hi Friends!

I've been nominated for blog of the month and was wondering if you could help me out by going to this page and voting for me?

You may or may not have noticed the little FTLOB button on my page, but it's been going on all month for February and it would just make my month if I won. I'm up against some pretty tough competition so don't get distracted and click theirs, okay? Okay!






I would very much appreciate it and it takes about 2 seconds...The contest ends at the end of February (aka tomorrow).  So hurry while you can still vote!

Thank you from the bottom of my heart!

LuLu

A Little R & R

Last night I had a great night with my besties (Mandi, KJ, and, Kara)!

Mandi and I made an attempt to kick the night off at a new restaurant nearby, however, BECAUSE it is brand new the wait was two hours so we opted to go next door to Ingredient and have dinner and a few beers as we waited to meet up with the other girls. 

Later that night we went to Capital Grille and tried the famous drink called Stoli-Doli. One word. YUMMY.  Another word... HANGOVER.  

We ended the night with lots of dancing and having fun, and woke up today with embarrassing memories of those dance moves we thought were the best anyone had ever seen. 

That leads me to right now.  RIGHT NOW I'm feeling less than thrilled I had three Stoli Dolis last night.  I walked into my bedroom to this.....


This is exactly how I feel, but she is cuter. 

Saturday, February 26, 2011

What a Wall

About two years ago when Lisa and I moved into our house we both soon realized we had very few pieces of furniture along with ZERO wall decorations.

I was lucky enough to get passed down some furniture from my parents and inherit their style for the next few years as far as the furniture problem went... however, we still had bare walls.

Fast forward a year, still with our bare walls, except for those frames hanging up with strangers' faces still smiling in them, and a huge space above our couch we were dying to fill. That year, my mom had purchased a great wall decoration that she couldn't decide if she loved or not.  I helped her out tremendously, I LOVED it! I also knew the perfect place to put it. Problem solved!


Friday, February 25, 2011

Need a Night Out?

This weekend Snapfish has a great offer going on.

This weekend, create any of their one-of-a-kind photo books, cards, or other personalized gifts to spread your Snappiness and they'll treat you to a $25 Restaurant.com gift certificate

Order at least $5 in photo gifts, then use coupon NIGHTOUT at checkout.The NIGHTOUT coupon will deduct 1¢ from your total. This confirms you'll receive a $25 Restaurant.com gift certificate via email a few days later.

Order today – this delicious offer is one per member and ends February 28.*

Happy shopping and eating everyone! 

It's Time.

The past couple of months have been rough.

I've gotten two separate phone calls from my mom telling me that first, back in mid-January, our family cat Misty couldn't move.  She just sat on my bed in my mom's house meowing and my sister went to go see what was wrong and Misty couldn't stand up.  I knew over Christmas something was going on because every time Misty stood up she lost her balance.  At first, I thought it was humorous because I thought she was just getting clumsy like me.  Then, when my mom and sister told me about Misty not being able to stand up, I knew. Misty was 14 years old.

Misty and my other cat Mia have a lot in common. At home, we called Misty crotch cat.  Sounds weird, right? She would always jump up on our laps and lay between our thighs and stretch out as far as she could and pass out. Mia does the same thing, never have I know a cat to do that.  But they both did/do it.



Last night, I get another call from my mom.  The second call.  I knew this one was coming as well, but still didn't make it any easier.  My dog Maggie, who is 12 years old, is being put down to sleep today.  She's had a long happy life.  In fact, she has outlived her mom and all her brothers and sisters.  Must mean we treated her right. The funniest thing about Maggie... she was a big black lab and would squeeze herself under our coffee room table every night when we watched TV in the living room. Every now and then she would let out a big sigh as if to let us know that she was still there and we were boring her.  Well...that is what I always thought. One other thing... EVERY time I tried to take a picture of her she would cover her face! Hilarious, except going through all my pictures to get a good one to show you all how cute she was had her face covered up most of the time.  I still love this picture though.  It's Maggie sunbathing on our lawn chairs by the pool :)



Now it's time. It's time to say goodbye to the last thing my family had together as a whole, pre-divorce.  Time to look forward at all the things to come.

Thursday, February 24, 2011

Snow... Again!!!!

Are you kidding me?

It is snowing AGAIN in Kansas City.  We had this beautiful weather last week, heck, even yesterday it was pretty dang nice outside and now... SNOW. Just when you think things are looking up.

The one up side of it snowing again is that there can never be too many pictures of snow.  So many variations, so many different things that can get snow covered and beautiful.

What about just the snow?  Without looking down on the ground, up the neighborhood hill you are going to attempt to make it up in your car, or even your car that is covered in snow that you are dreading scraping off in the morning, snow in itself looks so pretty when falling from the sky.

Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Foodie

This weekend when I was at home I got to chow down on some GREAT meals prepared by a fantastic chef.  My Mom.

She was raised in Louisiana and picked up all sorts of great recipes throughout her life that I have the benefit of learning. However, I am someone who HATES spending more than 20 minutes on a making a meal and having to do grocery store runs throughout the week to make sure I have all the right ingredients.  I prefer to hit the store 2x a month, picking up the necessities (milk, bread, cereal, pasta, frozen dinners), and then running there again in between if I ABSOLUTELY need something for a meal I am dying to have. Are you the same way, or am I just that lazy?

Getting back to my point, I love Caesar salads.  I especially love the Caesar salads my mom concocts when I go home.  This time however, Walt and I got in at 8:15 for a late dinner, and she didn't have the time to put one together. Sad.... right?

I wasn't going to visit home without getting a great Caesar salad in my belly, so I opted to make my own.  Turned out pretty great if I do say so myself, and the family loved it! Shocker! I ended up making it three times this weekend believe it or not.  One of the times being a trial period where I didn't coddle my egg and just threw the whole thing in the batch and ruined it. Oops.

I decided that BECAUSE  it was so delicious (not sure if it is very healthy, I'd assume not), that I'd share my steps with you.


Want to know how to make it?

You will need:

  • Hearts of romaine lettuce (packaged or make fresh like I did)
  • 3/4 cup of olive oil
  • 3 tablespoons red wine vinegar
  • 1 tsp of worcestershire sauce
  • 1/2 tsp of salt
  • 1/4 tsp dry mustard (you can find this in the spice section in the grocery store)
  • 1 clove of garlic crushed 
  • 1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese (I freshly grated it above)
  • 1/2 lemon
  • 1 egg (yolk after coddling)
  • Freshly ground pepper
  • Anchovy paste (optional)
  • Garlic Croutons
Now for the directions:
  1. Break up the lettuce if did not buy packaged
  2. Pour olive oil, red wine vinegar, dry mustard, worcestershire sauce, salt into a large salad bowl
  3. Add crushed garlic clove and a squeeze lemon 1/2 (stick a fork in the center and squeeze to get the most juice - see above)
  4. Coddle your egg (not cuddle like I initially thought), boil water and place egg in the water for 1-2 minutes.  Remove with a spoon and run under cold water. Break the egg and put yolk in a separate bowl to avoid dropping the yolk in the sink or egg shell in the salad (see above).  Add the yolk into the dressing bowl with other ingredients
  5. Add anchovy paste if you want
  6. Stir ingredients and add romaine lettuce.  
  7. Add remaining ingredients (pepper, parmesan cheese, and garlic croutons)
  8. EAT!!! 

Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Introducing "I See, You See" Tuesdays

Megan, over at ChasingDavies, and I started our 8-week long "Introduction to Digital SLR" photography class at the Kansas City Art Institute tonight.  The class runs for 3 hours every Tuesday and we are given projects every week to take all sorts of pictures having to do with what we learned in our class.

Tonight, we just went through the basics and learned a little more about our cameras, which in itself was worth the price we paid to take the class! I took four pages of notes.... welcome back to school/learning!

Anyway, we had to go around and share 3-5 pictures we have taken so I went sifting through my blog posts to find half decent ones, in fear that everyone there would be somewhat professional and kick my pictures out of the water.

Of course, I get called on to show my pictures first... I immediately started sweating with nervousness knowing that people would be seeing my pictures AND for the first time I would see the look on strangers' faces revealing what they REALLY thought of my pictures.

It went surprisingly well, and everyone was nice enough to give me a little compliment here and there.  But I tell you what... I will have to get used to talking about my work in person as opposed to you guys and gals.  YOU are who I'd prefer to share them with because you are all so kind AND, not gonna lie, I can't see your faces/reactions to a bad picture so makes me feel a little more at ease :)

So here we are, kicking off the class with a bang! Stay tuned next Tuesday when I reveal what our project was for this coming week.  I'm pretty excited about it!!!

Photo OF Me taken by Megan
Photo Taken BY Me of Megan
 Catch up on ChasingDavies to see how her classes are bettering her photography skills as well!

Monday, February 21, 2011

Hars

Now for my other temporary roommate this weekend in Tulsa... her name is Harley. She is my little sister's boston terrier.  

The weekend consisted of Max and Harley running around the house like maniacs chasing Mia.  Poor cat, right?  I'm pretty sure she antagonizes the dogs and takes off to see if they can catch her.  Staring down at them from on top of the counters/shelves.

Anyway, back to Harley.  My sister called about two years ago with this silly idea of getting a boston terrier puppy.  I thought it was a HORRIBLE idea since she was still in college (going to nursing school) and living with three other girls. I thought too expensive, and would take up too much time.  Of course, Katie got her anyway. Hars turned out to be the sweetest boston terrier ever.  Every time her and my sister come visit and we sleep in the same bed, Harley wiggles her way under the covers and passes out between us at the bottom of the bed all warm and cozy.  Took a little getting used to, but I eventually have gotten used to it. 

She's pretty darn cute isn't she?


Took about 75 shots to get these four.  I, of course, had to get Katie's approval and she is very protective of her puppy and how she looks on camera for all the world to see. 


Sunday, February 20, 2011

It's Me. Max.

After putting up yesterday's post, I realized it was only fair to introduce you to the rest of my furry friends in Tulsa.

Meet Max. It's my mom's little Maltese she got about a year ago.  He is cute and cuddly, but not very bright if you ask me. 

We found him when searching through local ads in the newspaper about two Thanksgivings ago.  My sister, Katie, was adamant about convincing my mom to get a puppy.

We started off at the pound, which only led to my mom having a near anxiety attack because she wasn't wanting a new puppy.

Then we went back to the drawing board, the local ads in the newspaper.  Katie circled multiple types of dogs, english bulldogs, maltese, yorkies, all the small dogs she could find.

I KNEW I didn't want to have an english bulldog around the house because I wanted something somewhat active, so I said " Mom, you know that when you get older people are going to start comparing you to your dog, right?"

Yep.  That did the trick.  Down to the maltese and yorkie puppies.  We went to a man's house who had both.  Most of which were scrappy versions of these dogs, until I saw Max.  He was cute and fluffy and had a big personality! My mom fell in love and immediately whipped out her check book.  How could she resist this him?





Saturday, February 19, 2011

Blue Eyes

It was BEAUTIFUL here in Tulsa today, so we opted to go to a new restaurant, called Blue Rose, down the street for lunch. It was a pretty cool place, however, due to the lack of water in our river the view could use a little work.

When we were leaving, this cute little guy was looking up at me with the cutest little puppy face and BRIGHT blue eyes.  I just couldn't resist to capture him on camera.  If someone made me choose between if I was a dog or a cat lover... I honestly don't think I could choose. I mean you've met Mia, but look how cute this little guy is.  His name is Maximus, can't get any cuter than that!



p.s. I can't believe the owner could just leave this cute little bugger sitting outside on his own.  Part of my wanted to take him as my own, however, his feet were HUGE and he will definitely be a giant bundle of joy here soon and not be able to fit in my tiny little house!

Friday, February 18, 2011

Road to Tulsa

I'm really looking forward to this weekend.  Walt and I are headed back home to visit my mom and sister in Tulsa for the 3 day weekend which is much needed in my opinion. 

I'm looking forward to some good home cooking, seeing my Tulsa friends and just some R & R. 

To kick off the weekend, Walt was a gentleman and offered to drive me and Mia home.  This gave me the freedom to take pictures whenever I wanted.  I immediately knew I wanted to get a picture of the sunset on the drive home.  I patiently waited, because that's all I could really do during a 4 hour drive, and then there it was,  this beautiful sunset. 


Great way to start off the weekend if I do say so myself. 

Happy Friday everyone! 

Thursday, February 17, 2011

Mr. Moon

I made a pathetic attempt last week, when it was cold and snowing, to capture the moon behind some trees.  Then I showed Walt my picture options and he told me I could do better than that.

So... here I am, again, trying to capture Mr. Moon behind some trees, coincidently right in front of Walt's house, and I THINK I got a pretty good shot. After reading Barb Phillips post about capturing the moon, I wanted to see what I was capable of.  Although it didn't turn out nearly as cool as hers, I still liked it a lot.

No worries though... I start my photography class next Tuesday and my Nanna and PaPa are sending me their old SLR to learn with along with my Canon G11 so hopefully I will begin to surprise you all a little bit more :)



Goodnight lovers.  Goodnight Moon.

Canvas Deal This Week!

I got an email last night from CanvasOnDemand, and if you subscribe to their emails I'm sure you got it too!

But for those of you who don't currently subscribe (you should), because you hear about all the great deals they have on their canvases. 

This week they are having 20% off your entire purchase with the code: BEAT20.  Offer Ends: Sunday, February 20th at Midnight so get it while you can!

Could be great for a birthday present you have coming up, or a little somethin', somethin' to spice up your walls in your house!

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Grab My Button!!!

So this has been a long time coming and took me a while to get a half decent looking button that people may or may not want to display on their blogs... but I finally did it!I would LOVE for you to grab my button for your blog and would feel honored!

A Candid Life

When I Least Expected It

I got a fun shot!

I was in the car the other night and was trying to get a picture of my friend and instead of just getting her face, I got some cool bright lines going across her face. Then I realized I could possibly get a cool picture if I just tried getting the street lights while in the moving car. This is what I came out with, which I LOVE, and came out way better than I had ever expected!


Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Some Things are Deceiving

Last week I went to lunch with my friend Sarah to this place called Lu Lu's,  which is a thai noodle shop near my work.

They recently opened a new location which is much more vibrant and open than their old location,  and it also has some unique decorations that I just loved and wanted to share with you. 

Now what do you suppose this is? 


Well yes, I know they are wood stumps.... but they are also wall decorations!!! 


Isn't this great? I thought this was a unique, creative way to fill the walls in the restaurant.  It makes you take a second look and think... "How can I do something like that in my house?" Right? 

Too bad I live in a rental and there is nowhere to do anything like this in my house :( Guess that is why I take all these pictures, so someday I will have something to look back on and figure out fun ways to decorate my future home! 




Monday, February 14, 2011

Didn't Get What You Wanted for V-Day?

Win $100 to >ShopBop.com to get what you REALLY wanted!

ChasingDavies is hosting a giveaway starting today through February 27th!

Be Mine.

Or hers...

Little Lisa pulled through again for me today.  She was kind enough to help me create a Valentine's Day related post today.

I figured since it's been a trend having her on here every Bachelor Monday, it would be fitting to have her be featured in my official Valentine's Day post today.

It has been BEAUTIFUL outside lately and is only going to get better and I love it! The sun was shining bright yesterday making it a perfect tool for my project.  Megan had suggested this one so props to her for a great idea it worked out even better than I had imagined.

I hope you all have a great Valentine's Day, or if you celebrated early this weekend with your lover hope it was spectacular!

Sunday, February 13, 2011

Who is Impersonating Who?

I apologize in the lag time in getting yesterday's post up....busy day.  I felt like it was non-stop going all day, which at the time I didn't have a problem with, but today I am just exhausted.

To make up for lack of yesterdays post, I will give you a run down of my day.

A friend of mine, Tricia, invited some friends to go with her and her boyfriend in a limo to Lawrence to go to the KU vs. Iowa State game.  KU KILLED Iowa State to say the least.  On our way out, my other friend Lindsay and I stopped for some photo ops.


Pretty sure we got some strange looks as I snapped away as Lindsay posed as a Jayhawk, but it sure was fun(nny). All and all part one of my Saturday was a complete blast and I loved every minute of it!

On to part two.  Lindsay and my SECOND limo ride for the day.  I know what you are thinking... who does this girl think she is bragging about two limo rides in one day.  Well, to be honest, that is two limo rides more than I will probably have for at least another year, so yes, I am bragging about two limo rides in one day because it was AWESOME!

Steve Serrano from Mix 93.3 was kind enough to give Lisa and her friends a limo for the night! We went down to this thing called "The Bitter Ball" downtown which was... interesting. When you walked in you had to pick our your color wrist band based on your relationship status.

Green = Available
Orange = Proceed with caution
Purple = One night stand
Red = Pretty much insinuates don't even think about it




We all opted for one wrist being red and one wrist with one other color, just in case any creepers tried any funny business.

All and all. Great Saturday with great friends :)  Hope you all are having a wonderful weekend with this amazing weather! 

Friday, February 11, 2011

Love Letter.

Still pondering some V-Day ideas? I feel like now that the big day is getting closer I keep getting these random ideas that pop in my head, or someone tells me about, or I run across something in someone else's blog that gets other thoughts flying through my head, you get the point.

I love when that happens and then hate when that happens because it's never ending.  How do you know which idea to go with?

I love the idea of a love letter.  They can be long, short, straight to the point, dance around the reason WHY you love someone, from a secret admirer, from your crush, from your loved one, from your family.   If you have the ability to share with someone just how much you care about them, why not write it down and let it be known?

I took a similar approach here.  Straight to the point. "I love you with all of my heart." It encompasses all of my feelings in a short sentence, but has so much meaning behind it.

Thursday, February 10, 2011

Bite Out of Love

Well.... close enough. 

Trying to be creative and think of some other unique ideas to help you show off your love for someone, I opted for a healthier approach at love. 

I grabbed a few colorful apples and got cutting.  With a plastic knife I carved out variations of hearts and messed around with different backdrops and formations to see what I could come up with.  Turns out...a yoga mat makes a pretty good backdrop. 

With a little Photoshop tricks I ended up with this...


With Valentine's Day Around the Corner

Why not try out a canvas for your V-Day gift?  CanvasOnDemand is having a sale right now 22% off your purchase using the promo code: Art22

Just a thought :)

Wednesday, February 9, 2011

hi lover.

I apologize for my delayed post today.... I had a going away party tonight for my friend Sarah since she is leaving to go back to Houston which I am extremely sad about, but happy for her!  She promised trips to Austin and that we would still keep in touch so I'm holding her to it.  You would, wouldn't you?

Any who, I freaked out for a moment when I got home because I knew I needed to hold myself to the promise of posting every day, or at least attempting todo that this year...

I came up with this idea a while ago and sat on it because I didn't know if you'd even think this was worthy of a post... BUT..  sometimes what other people think overpowers us when we should really just do the things that make the most sense to us at the time.

This is another V-Day related post.  I love this because it really is homemade and anyone can do it.

I have these red plates from Target and was trying to think of what symbolized Valentine's Day. Sugar. Sweets. Hearts, Love. You get the point.....

Well all that encompassed in ONE equals this:


You will need... 


To get this!!!

I admit. It's not perfect, but it's an attempt to show someone that they are worth giving the extra thought when thinking of V-Day! 

Tuesday, February 8, 2011

Love is in the Air...

For my weekly gift idea for a Valentine's Day, I came across this picture when messing around online and fell in LOVE with it.

I love converse shoes... and love the idea of making something that would normally not strike you as romantic, romantic. It is who is behind the photo being taken and the extra effort they go to show someone how much they love and care for them.  With that said, I wanted to attempt a similar picture of my own with my very own converse shoes inside (since it's still disgusting outside here in Kansas City).


Props to Tyler Burrus for the photo idea and being an inspiration!  If you have a favorite pair of sneaks or something with laces (i.e if you're a runner and you and your significant other are active people could be fun to use your running shoes!) you can try it out yourself.  OR if you are interested I can send you this photo!

If you want to take it a step further.... this weekend I also came across this great blog Between the Lines which featured some awesome ideas for vintage style frames that you can do yourself which would look great with any picture!  I thought this was such a cool idea and cheap too especially if you hit up your local Hobby Lobby when they are having their 50% off frame sales (which I feel like is ALL THE TIME).

"Between the Lines" DIY Vintage Style Frame

Monday, February 7, 2011

Wishing...

...For two things:


  1. Lisa M. was still on the Bachelor so that she could at least make me feel like I was in Costa Rica with all the stories/amazing experiences they all come home with (i.e. If Alli and Brad sank on their date, how scary it really is zip lining in the rain, how awkward it would have been if Brad sent Alli home when they were stuck deep in that cave together - well that is just wishful thinking for my own selfish entertainment)
  2. That I was still in Cabo San Lucas where I took this picture for Lisa.  We've lived in our house for nearly TWO years and still have frames hanging up in our living room filled with random strangers because we've simply been too lazy to switch them out.  I thought why not kill two birds with one stone.  Get Lisa a "gift" from Cabo while I was there and personalize our frames a bit by framing it for her Christmas gift. 


Sunday, February 6, 2011

SUPER - Fans!!!

Let me be honest. I know very little about football. There I said it. It's nothing new, but I openly admit understanding football is just not wired in my DNA. 

The one thing I DO love about the sport is dressing up to support the teams :) My two friends Katie and Lindsay did a great job showing off their team spirit today for the Packers as they played in the Super Bowl.  Well done ladies, your team spirt got us a win! 



Here the two lovelies are showing off their enthusiasm for their favorite team! 

I played around with Photoshop because I didn't want their team spirit to go unnoticed in this picture! You go girls! 

Saturday, February 5, 2011

Venice.

Today I was unbelievably lazy.  I attempted to think of new pictures I could take today, but the thought itself was exhausting me.  With that said,  I am opting to show you an oldie but a goodie instead.  This is 100x better than anything else I would have posted today with my lack of creative thinking....



This is a picture I took back in 2006 when I was with my family in Venice, Italy.  I carried around my tiny digital camera and snapped over 700 pictures in 10 days.  Pretty impressive right? I told you I've always loved taking pictures!

Friday, February 4, 2011

Lovable Lucy

Back when I was in Denver, I had completely forgotten I had taken some adorable shots of Walt's family's English Springer Spaniel Lucy!

She is the sweetest most adorable dog ever! I am convinced the next pet I own will be an English Springer Spaniel.  Their lovable nature, energy, and goofiness just pull me in.  Who wouldn't love this dog?


Thanks to Megan (ChasingDavies) for teaching me how to do an animated gif to feature the oh so lovable Lucy for today's post!

Oh, and HAPPY FRIDAY EVERYONE!

Thursday, February 3, 2011

Winter Wonderland

So if you've kept up with the news this week, you already know that Kansas City, along with multiple other cities were hit but a huge blizzard Tuesday.  We got up to 15 inches of snow if you can believe it!?

One of my favorite types of pictures to take right now are snow-related as I showed off yesterday and the last snow storm we had. I love the glistening white and how the sun reflects off of it.  I love how you can make your own picture (like Angela and Matt did yesterday) by forming the snow however you want it, or throw snowballs at the camera and its explodes at the perfect time to catch a picture.

Yesterday Lisa and I did some experimenting since we were stuck at home and were getting some major cabin fever.  I had seen a picture a while back when I was looking at snow pictures other people had taken and I loved the idea of blowing the snow at the camera with bright pink lipstick to make the picture pop.

Poor Lisa was once again the subject of my photo shoot considering she is a lot better at blowing snow than Mia (my cat) is, and those were my only two options for this photo attempt. So thank you Lisa for being patient and freezing your little fingers by holding snow balls for me!

More Canvas Deals...

 Today's Groupon for Lawrence/Topeka just so happens to be online so anyone can take advantage of it:

It's $45 for one 16"x20" Gallery-Wrapped Canvas including S&H from CanvasOnDemand ($126.95 Value).
This is actually the same Groupon I purchased a while back and used for my Mia canvas.  It DOES NOT have to be that size listed above, you can choose any size and width as long as it falls within that $126.95 price.


Happy Grouponing!

Wednesday, February 2, 2011

Show the Love

Seeing as Kansas City got close to 15 inches of snow yesterday with the blizzard that blew through here, I thought it would be fitting to include a snow-related Valentine's Day gift suggestion today.

Angela texted me this morning with an idea for a photo she wanted to take relating to Valentine's Day and I LOVED the idea so went for it.

I walked up the street to her house this afternoon for a quick photo shoot.

Angela was rearing and ready to go.  She created a heart in the snow before I even got there!!! I kind of wish I would have seen her running in circles creating the heart and posting those pictures, but I guess these will suffice because her and Matt are so gosh darn cute together!

Angela making sure her heart is big enough to show Matt how much she loves him ;)
Sweet Kisses for the happy couple! 

Angela laughed hysterically throughout the entire shoot! So Cute

Now for the gift giving.... I have emphasized enough how much I love the canvas idea so that is ALWAYS going to be a recommendation for a gift.  But if you are looking to do something a little different and more personal I thought a cute idea would be a picture book to put on his/her coffee table.  This could be a bunch of different pictures from the past, this could be having your own fun photo shoot like Angela and Matt did (I'd be happy to assist with that...).  I mean what better gift to give someone than showing how much you love them because of all the happy moments you have had together.

For these types of gifts I would recommend Snapfish. I've received gifts from there and sent them myself and they have several options for the photo books.  Coincidentally Snapfish has some great deals going on right now for photobooks:

  • Save 20% off your purchase, use the code: welcomeback
  • 30% off photo books, plus 50 free prints for new customers, use code: babysbook
  • Free shipping PLUS 20% off photo books, use code: asbookdec

These should all work right now.  If you have any questions let me know, or if you want me to help brainstorm some other ideas with you I'm more than happy to do that as well!

Happy gift hunting, you have 12 more days to find that perfect gift!

Looking to Get Lucky Today?

ChasingDavies is hosting a giveaway for a $35 gift card to CSN stores. The giveaway goes from now until February 13th so hurry and enter!



Stay tuned for my post later this evening!

Tuesday, February 1, 2011

Rock Chalk Jayhawk - GO KU!!

This past Saturday I took Walt to the KU vs. KSU (K-State) basketball game in Lawrence.  This was part of my anniversary gift to him back in October which his friend Bobby (and his family) so kindly helped me get.

While at the game I wanted to get some great action shots since it's not often I get to go to these games not being an KU athlete anymore :(

Here are a few shots I came out with:

Location: Allen Fieldhouse, Lawrence, Kansas; Who: Thomas Robinson making an AWESOME dunk
Same image as above using Photoshop
I got SO excited when I got this shot! I went ahead and tried out some Photoshop tips I learned a while back from a tutorial I found online which was really helpful.  What do ya think?

I also managed to capture a pretty funny moment (well I thought it was):


Here is how I see this picture going down:
Tyshawn Taylor: "Ugh... sick... man did you fart? It smells AWFUL!!!"
Josh Selby: "Are you kidding me? Look at Pullen, he's aiming his butt right at us, what a foul move"

Yes... I'm mature right :) These would be my natural thoughts, I'd say I can't control them, but that would be a lie.  That would also not make for a good blog would it?

FYI - If you ever want copies of these images I am more than happy to send them to you just hit me up at lmajor9@gmail.com