Point you in the right direction!

Just a reminder that I have taken all my toys and moved over to   

One Crafty Mama.  Cheers!

Stormy sky & my kitchen remodel

There were some impressive sized clouds looming about in the sky yesterday evening.  I just couldn't resist giving my new camera a whirl in a low light situation.

Loving, my new Canon 50D by the way.  I haven't decided if I am back on board for doing the picture a day project.  I do miss taking pictures everyday, but I do not miss always having my camera with me.

I have decided however to merge this blog into my One Crafty Mama blog.  I will still feature my photo's just like I do here.  However, I'm not sure if my followers will come along for the ride when the merge happens.  So you can either take your chances or head over to OCM and follow me there.

Also, I finally got around to posting before and after pictures of my kitchen remodel.  Head over to One Crafty Mama to check them out.

Sporatic shots!

It has been awhile hasn't it?

I pretty much gave up taking shots for my 365 project. I'd get a shot here and there, but since shooting without my DSLR became such a drag I gave myself permission to stop the project (for the time being).

Good news for me is that I finally bit the bullet and purchased a Canon 50D. It should be here in a week and I can hardly wait to start using it.

In the meantime, here are some shots from the few days I did feel like shooting something!

Day 273 {The last of the harvest}

I thought the harvest was over because the tomato plant dried up.  Imagine my surprise when I came out and discovered this baby waiting to be picked.

Day 272 {Cooking love}

So many people I know say they won't ever buy anymore cookbooks because they can just get recipes online.  I do use the internet for recipes, but I'm not sure if I could completely give up on cookbooks. 

Day 270 {Funny sign of fall}

We have an enormous pile of cardboard in the back yard just waiting for me to take to the recycling center.  I thought it was kind of funny to see this pretty leaf sitting on the ugly pile.  Fall is here!

Day 269 {Singing it twice}

Fifteen years ago today I gave Jim the one gift he could never "re-gift"........Reid!! 

Day 268 {HOT HOT HOT}

Goodness gracious!  We have had the coldest summer on record and then wham-o, we were hit with a heat wave.  Of course this heat wave had to come on the day that Reid had a field hockey tournament.

We sat from 9:00 a.m. until 3:00 p.m complaining about how hot it was (93 degrees) while watching the girls compete in three hour long games.  The girls were absolutely exhausted by the end of the last game.

Day 266 {Getting ratty}

I am one of those women that loves her purses to death.  I usually find one I like and use it until it gets too embarrassing to walk around in public with.  This is my current falling apart purse.  Isn't it cute??

Day 265 {It's final done}

My kitchen is D-O-N-E.  Doing a little happy dance!  I promise to do a real post with tons of before and after pictures as soon as I get my new camera.  So that will be in a week or so.  :)

Day 263 {More projects}

Another reason I was so busy was that while I was trying to move everything back into my kitchen I decided that one of our bathrooms was in need of a face lift.  The walls had this linen fuax finish from many moons ago and I was ready to see it go.  We also needed a new toilet.  That project led to me repainting all the baseboards in the house.  So you can see why I haven't been around much lately.

Day 259 {Are you kidding me}

A few days after we moved back into the house our four year old washing machine bit the dust.  I was so annoyed and after remodeling the kitchen the last thing I wanted to do was go out and spend more money on a washing machine.

When I took this picture you could say that I kind of felt like the room looked.....frazzled!

Day 258 {Butterfly whisper}

Kate kept chasing this butterfly around the yard trying to get it to land on her and it finally did.

Day 256 {Fah....ling}

We were over at my moms picking up the last of our things and Reid thought it would be fun to stick her head in a box of styrofoam peanuts.  Look how freakishly long her fingers look in this shot.  Some might argue that teenagers are a bit like aliens......I'd say this picture proves it.

Day 255 {Refinished glow}

We were finally able to get back into our own home after having it tented for termites and having the floors refinished.  Let me just say that I about cried the first time Xena scratched the surface with her big poodle nails.  Anyone want a slightly used standard poodle??

Playing catch up!

I never imagined that my life would get so busy and be so boring that I would loose interest in my 365 project.  But it happened.

We were out of our house from September 3rd to the 13th.  We were living with my mom.  I didn't feel comfortable leaving the dogs alone for too long so I stuck close to her home, without a lot to do.

Then we moved back in and my life has been consumed with putting the house and the kitchen back together and fixing up a few other rooms in the house.

I plan to get back into the swing of things next week........wait, I think I said that a few weeks ago!!!

Life......sometimes it just gets in the way of frivolous fun!

Day 254 {point and shoot}

Holding my point and shoot under the flowers and shooting into the sun/sky!

Day 253 {Critters}

I let the dogs outside early in the morning and found a family of raccoons watching us!  This family sometimes keeps my mom up at nights running around on her roof.

Day 252 {Varsity}

I didn't get a chance to mention (or did I?) that Reid made the Varsity field hockey team.  They only had 5 spots and 12 returning JV girls trying for the spots so we were real proud of her.  These three girls are Reid's BBF's!

Day 251 {Sunrise}

This would be the view of the pacific ocean from my moms back yard.  This shot was taken very early in the morning and I thought the sky looked so pretty!

Day 250 {First day of school}

I never do double shots, but the girls start times are so far apart that I can't get a first day of school (morning shot) of them together.  They are posing on the rock that my siblings and I always posed on for our first day of school shots.

Day 249 {Flip flop tan}

We didn't have much of a summer this year.......but I did mange to get a flip flop tan line!


Day 248 {Dad's door}

Labor Day BBQ at my Dad's. 

Day 247 {Stretching}

What can I say......not feeling very creative today.  I need my DSLR!

Day 246 {Bath time}

Getting clean for staying at my moms house!


Day 245 {Not appropri-Kate}

Kate really thought these shoes would be ok to wear to 7th grade!  She is 11 going on 21.

Day 244 {One Crafty Girl}

Reid created this necklace hanger out of an old picture frame my mom had in her collection.  She did a crackle finish on the frame and then painted metallic paint over a piece of plywood we bought at home depot.  She printed out pictures or friends and "weirdos" to decoupage on the surface.  I would have skipped the pictures.......but it was her project so I let it go.  :)  It looks really cute hanging in her room.

Another point and shoot series!

Day 243 {VIP only}

This is why my girls never complain of being bored.  They make their own fun.  Well, in this case, Kate made her own fun.  She created a VIP section on the side of the house.  You can't see it, but Molly has a VIP membership tag on.  She is member #2380.  Over 2,000 members and I have yet to be invited to join.

Day 242 {Coleman rocks}

I'm not sure what model stove this is, but if you ever are in need of a really good cook stove, this Coleman model is awesome.  It has made cooking in the garage somewhat bearable.  Oh who am I kidding.......cooking in the garage sucks.

Day 241 {Yummy}

Getting some shave ice at the dance festival.  Always a yummy treat!

Day 240 {Attack Poodle}

One thing I have discovered about my point and shoot camera is that it take cool motion blur shots in low light situations.

Day 239 {Sand castles and sisters}

On Friday, the big girls had the day off from Field Hockey practice so we headed to the beach with friends.  My friends daughters are tan.......mine are not!  But together they made one awesome sand castle.

Day 238 {Bad combo}

When this restaurant opened up all I could think was "Really?".  Sushi and frozen yogurt?  Someone had a dream and apparently couldn't decide which one to go for.

Day 237 {Sunset in paradise}

Not to shabby for a point and shoot camera!  All my sunset shots were gorgeous.  I picked this one because I like the surfer silhouette.  It adds a little something different to the normal sunset shot.

Day 236 {Trip to the nursery}

I am not a big fan of gardening.........but I want to be.  We are having our house tented for termites this coming Friday.  As soon as it is done I am going to spruce up the front yard.  It should be fun.  Now if I can only make sure to tend to the new plants so that they don't die on me.

The point and shoot is back!

Day 235 {Farewell}

If you have been following along you know that I found my battery recharger on Saturday morning and was back in business with my trusty Rebel.

That was until Saturday evening!  I put the battery in, took one shot (see day 233) and got an Error 99 message.  I did what I was supposed to do to reset the camera but instead of being back in business I was greeted with a dead camera. 

When we got home and I took the camera out of its bag it was hot to the touch.  Something tells me that a hot camera is not a good sign!

So now I am doing research on getting a new Canon.  I'm leaning towards the Canon 50D.

I hate to see my Rebel go, but as you can see by the worn off grip on the handle, it was a well used. 

Day 234 {Drink and a bath}

We gave Rusty a bath on Sunday.  Wouldn't you know that the first thing he did after he was set loose in the pasture was to roll in the dirt!  He made sure to get both sides nice and coated in dirt before he ran off to eat some grass.  Stinker!

Day 233 {The last shot}

I took the memory card out of the camera and was surprised to see that the last picture I took with the Rebel actually came out.

You see, as I took this picture the shutter opened and didn't close.  When it didn't snap shut I knew immediately something was wrong and turned the camera off.  So of course I thought this shot would be a blurry mess.  I was pleasantly surprised to see that it wasn't.

So for the time being we are back to only taking pictures with my Nikon coolpix......which by the way is giving me a lens error if I try to use the zoom.

Point and Shoot (me) series!

It is Saturday morning and I set out to look through every nook and cranny in my car for my battery recharger.  Jim came out to help and within a minute he found the charger.........in the exact place that I had look (TWICE).

Here are the shots I took this week with my point and shoot!


Day 232 {Green thumbing it}

Here are some of the flowers the girls planted.  Believe it or not, planting the flowers was the girls idea.  I let them pick out what they wanted and they did all the work.


Day 231 {Back to School shopping}

Kate admiring one of her new back to school outfits.  Now lets just hope the pants aren't high waters by the time "coldish" weather creeps up on us.

Day 230 {Summer is flying by}

Soon enough labor day will be here and summer will be over for another year.  The girls are looking forward to getting back into their routine and seeing their friends on a regular basis!  I'm looking forward to some alone time.

Day 229 {Dinner}

Who says fast food always has to be bad for you?

Day 228 {Kitchen remodel stand still}

Here is a shot of where the kitchen progress sits.  The concrete counter tops cracked so we had them removed and will be getting granite (3 week delay).  The floors won't be refinished until the 7th of September (4 days out of the house). 

So it looks like we have at least another three to four weeks before we are cooking in our new kitchen. Insert very loud G-R-O-A-N.

Still plugging away!

Here are the last three shots out of my Rebel before the battery died!  I still haven't found my recharger, but then again I haven't had time to look for it. 

Writing my to do list: Search high and low for battery recharger!

Day 227 {La la la la la la la}

If it was possible for a horse to cover it's ears and say "La La La La La" so it couldn't hear what you were saying this would be the moment for that.  Thirty minute limit to grazing......so unfair. 

Day 226 {Eggcellent}

Just a shot of a basket of eggs on display at the farmers market.  Omelet anyone?


Day 225 {Getting dirty}

The girls planted the flowers we bought the other day.  We only have one pair of "girlie" gardening gloves so the girls shared them (each using one glove).  :)

There is a bit of a back up on the I-365

My battery charger went missing a few days ago and as luck would have it the battery died right as I was attempting to download a weeks worth of shots.

I haven't had time to do a nook and cranny search to make sure it is really lost (which would be very unlike me) before I order a new one. So for the time being I have to use my Nikon point and shoot (gasp). 

Here is the first three pictures from last week that I managed to edit.


Day 224 {A little bit of color}

Flowers at the nursery. 

Day 223 {First remove the cob webs}

It has been such a mild summer that we have only gone to the beach twice.  That is unheard of!  It is warm now so I suspect there will be some more opportunities before school starts.

Day 222 {Dear sharks and surfers.......we are heading home}

We headed down to take a chilly walk on the beach with the dogs.  The sun was nearly down and the life guards were closing up shop.

Day 215 thru 221

Day 221 {Cool flowers}

Day 220 {Cave babies swim feet}

Kate's feet are getting close to her adult size, but they still look cute to me. I should go back and count to see how many times I have featured Kate's feet in my 365 project. I can think of at least two other times.

Day 219 {Sunset stroll}

Day 218 {Summer reading}

Day 217 {Dinner out}

My mom took us out to eat at a new to us Burger joint called "Five Brothers." The burgers were pretty darn delicious and the peanut appetizers were a novelty.

Day 216 {Peachy}

Day 215 {Garage sink}

Oh how I am getting tired of stooping over to clean dishes in my garage sink. Not too much longer....must hang on!