Day 315

Work-related stuff had not gone very well for me yesterday, so my sister brought me these lovely Carnations to brighten my Wednesday. I've been enjoying their beautiful colors all day.

Day 311

I'm still working on fleshing out some other flowers for my project that started with the large daisy last week. I came up with this little guy, and I think it's a keeper. We'll see if I can make him some friends.

Day 303

Tonight I'm at a special Metal Night at my favorite bead shop. By knowing the right people, I managed to talk myself into a spot at the sold-out event while doing the anniversary bracelet on Sunday.

I have a vision for a special piece. I made a pattern (or at least the framework for a pattern) last night. I've been working on what size to make the actual piece, and have settled on a fairly significant 3-inch diameter.

At this point in the evening, I have drawn, cut and started to shape the two layers of the flower. It's really nice to be able to make use of the vast selection of tools and bounce ideas off someone who has way more experience with this sort of thing than I do.

I can tell that I still have lots to do, but I am so happy with and proud of my progress to this point. It's so nice to be able to say that I both designed and made this and to see it coming to life.

Day 268

I am shooting a wedding tomorrow, and it would be an understatement to say I'm nervous. This will be my first wedding as "the" photographer. I was basically the last minute second at my brother-in-law's wedding, and I didn't have time to stress about those pictures. It's been a year or ten since then.

Tonight was the rehearsal dinner. I spent a lot of time (and photos) working on figuring out the lighting. This is one of the bride that I really liked.


And I played some with the flowers they had bought for the bouquets tomorrow. I really love Dahlias.

Day 224

The excessive heat from a few weeks ago has done a real number on our front yard. I was surveying the damage this afternoon and found this cute little flower poking up through the browned out leaves in our center planter. Maybe if we get some good rain in the fall, some of the plants will make a recovery.

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 215

My oldest wasn't feeling well on Saturday night, so I decided to stay home from church with the kids yesterday. Rob went without us because he was playing that morning. When he came home, he brought me these lovely tulips for our anniversary. They were looking so pretty this afternoon that I had to capture a few of them.

Day 197

Better than a month ago one of my coworkers asked if I wanted some day lilies, and I thought, "why not?" Except I soon realized that he wasn't offering to plant them as well. So they sat in a bin by the side of the house for a while.

Before we went on vacation, I took them out of the bin (still in the 50 gallon garbage sack) and brought them to the back of the house where they'd get less sun. I soaked them down and hoped they'd still be alive when we got back.

This afternoon, I went to check on them, and was surprised to see that they're actually blooming. Talk about bloom where you're planted! Imagine how well they'd do if I put them in some dirt.

So I should plant them, but I don't make any guarantees that it'll be any time soon.

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 186

There are all sorts of lilies in bloom here right now. This is one I saw while we were at the zoo with the boys. I thought it was rather stunning.

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 167

It was a nice, mild day today and perfect for a trip to the zoo. We were able to go with our friends and spent several hours eating a picnic lunch and exploring the exhibits.

We walked by the rose garden on our way out, and the awesome smell from the roses drew us in. I only got a chance to take a couple of pictures because we needed to get on the road to avoid rush hour, but I really liked the coloring on this one.

Day 162

There were all sorts of gorgeous flowers around the resort. I was killing some time while waiting for the kids to get all of their stuff loaded on the bus, so I took some pictures. Believe it or not, this was actually taken with the little point-and-shoot. The ones I took with the DSLR were overexposed and didn't have the detail that this photo has. I thought this turned out just stunning!

Day 152

I'm participating in a large consignment sale this week, and this evening was the pre-sale for consignors. The location where the sale is taking place has these gorgeous large flowers around the side of the building. They almost look like silk flowers, but they are real. I had a few moments to take some pictures while I was waiting for my friend to check out.

Day 148

I met my mom during my lunch hour to take Paul to preschool, and there were these beautiful flowering trees in the parking lot where we met. My mom spotted them and told me, "I know exactly what you can take a picture of today". She was right.

Unfortunately, I left the DSLR at work thinking I wouldn't need it, but the point-and-shoot did a pretty good job. I was trying to play around a bit with a different angle, and I'm happy with how this shot turned out.

Day 140

I had a little bit of trouble with the picture for today because I tried a few things and nothing really jumped out at me as working the way I wanted. I think I'm picking this one because the little guy in the photo is hugging the heck out of me right now.

I was taking some flower pictures, and I noticed Matt walking around in the background. I really try to pay attention to the entire photo and not just the subject, so I started to move when I thought it would be kind of cool to keep him in the background out of focus. I didn't quite get the composition I was looking for, so I don't love it, but the idea is there. I'll just have to try it again some time.

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.