Day 217

These are probably past their prime, but I noticed these little flowers on one of the shrubs that lines our driveway. It's the sort of shrub that I wouldn't have thought had blossoms, but I was pleased to discover that it did.

Day 194

It is our last day in Michigan, and I let my oldest choose what we did today. He really liked the beach and the splash park, so that's where we went. It was really windy, and as we were leaving I noticed the tall grasses moving in the wind and decided to grab a shot or two.

Day 192

There was a huge storm that came through the area this morning. As we were loading up the car to go to the beach, I noticed the lilies were very pretty covered in drops of rain. I stopped for a moment to snap a picture.

Day 189

It was not easy to figure out which picture to go with today. I took the boys to the Frederick Meijer Gardens and Sculpture Park today and took bunches of pictures. It was a really fun park and the boys had a blast. I was a bit concerned that it would be something I would be dragging them to, but we literally spent hours playing.

I'm going with the picture today because I thought it was unusual. It's a flower on the head of a cactus. The coloring is really interesting, and you don't see too many flowers on cacti.

Day 181

I was really pleased to see we had a Hydrangea when we moved to the new house because it's one of my favorite plants. With all the cold and snow we had last winter, I thought for sure that it was dead. I was very surprised when I noticed it was blooming and looking quite healthy.

Day 168

I noticed this Foxglove on the edge of my mother-in-law's yard, so I thought I'd catch a couple of pictures. I liked how this one turned out.

Day 137

I was getting ready to go to church this morning and when I went to put on my watch and ring, I could not find my wedding ring.

I have a metal allergy where I will get irritated skin rashes if I leave my ring on all the time. I will always take it off at night, and I often find myself taking it off to do the dishes or after I wash my hands because water aids the irritation.

When I couldn't find my ring, I didn't worry too much at first. It's normally with my watch, but sometimes I end up taking them off separately. My hubby and I checked out all my usual places, but we weren't able to locate it and needed to leave for church.

It felt really strange to not have my ring on, and then I tried not to worry about where in the world I might have left it. Some time in the morning I had the idea that I might have put it with my jewelry because I'd been wearing a bracelet or two on Saturday. When we got home, I discovered it was in fact in a drawer with my other jewelry.

Before I found it, I kept thinking that I really don't have any pictures of my wedding ring other than one that was taken at the reception. So I decided I needed a current picture (not that the ring has actually changed any), and I wanted to play around a bit with my macro lens.

Day 136

It was a gorgeous day today, so we ventured out to the zoo. I found a pretty good parking spot on the street after driving all over the last time the boys and I went, so we just went directly to my free parking spot and walked the 3 or 4 blocks into the park.

On the way, there were some trees with beautiful flowers. I quickly snapped a couple of photos while my boys walked ahead. I'm going to break my one-picture-a-day rule today because I really liked both of these.

Day 130

I was playing around with the point and shoot camera in my mother-in-law's garden. Some of them turned out kind of neat. I liked this one, but I really debated on another one instead even though it wasn't perfect. It had kind of an ethereal look to it.

Day 129

Rather accidentally I found out that the tulips were still going to be in bloom this weekend, so it was easy for me to decide what I wanted to do for my Mother's Day activity. It was pretty windy, but still a very lovely day. I'm really happy with how a lot of the pictures turned out. I really liked this Parrot Tulip.

Day 119

My parents' house is a lovely place to be this time of year. They have a group of Azaleas that have grown into a shrub that produces the most vivid red blossoms. This morning I captured the rain on the flowers as I was dropping off my youngest.

Day 117

My parents have a Flowering Dogwood in front of their house. It's starting to get quite a few blossoms. Here is a picture I took as I was dropping the boys off this morning.

Day 113

I was able to install the new case I bought for my iPhone from one of my favorite techy, gadget shops tonight, and I love this new case!

The reason I bought it is because it has this lens in the case that allows you to take clear macro photos. And it works awesome! I generally stick to the one-photo-per-day rule but today it just wouldn't make any sense without two photos.

This is without the macro lens

This is with the macro lens

Sorry I didn't manage to figure out anything more creative to take a picture of, but this little dime was on my desk. (Not sure how it got there, and I'm pretty sure it will not last there much longer.)

Aside from the cool macro lens, the case also comes with a touch screen protective film, which I've wanted since I bought the phone. With two small children, and well, my complete lack of coordination, it's a must have. I can't even begin to understand why the touch screen still works with the film, but it's still great.

And probably the best thing about this case is that it was $5 less than my first case, which had absolutely no features other silicon buttons that eventually pop out and go missing. Definitely a great buy.

Day 111

I was looking at this tree in our back yard this afternoon, and noticed that there was a snail hanging out among the branches. I didn't know that snails climbed trees.

Day 109

I had a hard time figuring out which picture I wanted to use today. While I like the composition on one quite a bit, I thought the exposure is a little washed out. The other one has the opposite problem. I'm going with the one that has the better composition.

There are so many fantastic flowers out in bloom right now. One of my favorites is this bush, and to be completely honest, I have no idea what it's called. But I love the sweet fragrance these little flowers give off. This particular shrub has huge bunches of these flowers.


If you're curious about the other picture, then feel free to check it out.

Day 100

My littlest one decided that he was not interested in a nice, long afternoon nap like older brother was, and he wanted to be up to play with mom. So while I was playing with him I decided to grab the camera and explore some settings, angles and zooms.

I liked several shots for various reasons, but at nearly midnight, I'm deciding to go with this one. I'm drawn to the bold colors, and you can see a fuzzy Matt in the background.

Day 98

Paul spent the day with his "Barb Grandma" today and while he was showing us what he did in the woods, grandpa pointed out some wild Trillium that was blooming.  I had to get some pictures.

Day 95

I'm kind of starting to realize that I like macro photography. I like to try to get a close-up shot and hopefully take a little bit of a different angle on it too.

We went for a walk this evening, while out at my parent's for dinner. We were surprised to pass by a holly tree with bunches of berry fruit on the branches. Either it didn't get the memo that spring is here, or it's been too cold lately.

I thought this picture had a great contrast of color.


You can also view one of my other photos that didn't make the cut today.