Tuesday, January 31, 2012

HBD...

To my very best friend in the whole wide world - Happy, happy birthday Bob!  May we celebrate many more special days like today (and tomorrow)!

To Bob's parents - thank you for raising such an unbelievably kind, caring, considerate, gentle man as you did.  I am truly blessed to call him my husband...without him, this life would not be the same!  I am forever grateful to God for the incredible journey our lives took all those years ago in order for our paths to cross!

Saturday, January 21, 2012

A thief among us...

Yes, we have a thief among us.
  • He is black with cinnamon highlights
  • Weighs approximately 5 pounds
  • Will abscond with just about a.n.y.t.h.i.n.g. you drop, and I mean anything!
  • and he is as quiet as a stealth, sometimes we even call him Stealth because of his sneakiness! (He's right there in plain sight one minute, then disappears the next and takes whatever you may have dropped along with him.)
One of his most favorite things to steal is as follows (no, not the green frog):

Speaking of stealing things, just last week, I unpacked a candle from its packaging that the woman at the Hallmark store wrapped ever so nicely for me.  I quickly grabbed what I thought was ALL of the packaging and threw it in the garbage and then proceeded to take the candle (Vanilla Lime, in case you were wondering) to the bathroom and light it.  Not long after, I could hear a certain SOMEONE under our bed shredding some paper product to pieces.  He's smart like that - goes right to the middle of the bed where no one can reach him.  Sure enough, that's exactly what he did.

I figured oh-well, just another "under the bed mess" created by Quincy that Bob will have to clean up when he gets home from work...we've been down this road a couple of times.  I keep telling myself that I need to look online for some funky under the bed gate to prevent you-know-who from going under there in the first place but keep forgetting to do it.  (Note to self: check online for one of those thingy's I just described!)

Sure enough, when Bob got home the contents of what originally was a paper bag were shredded into itty bitty pieces...that explains why Q kept appearing throughout the day with little shreds of paper hanging from his mouth!

Lesson learned:  don't turn your back on anyone possessing Stealth like qualities or you'll be sorry you did!

Friday, January 20, 2012

Me and my pal, Q...

Actually, Bob was practicing with our new camera.  I prefer being behind the lens instead of in front of it!!  :-)  (Sometimes you just have to take one for the team!)

Thursday, January 19, 2012

Blowin' in the wind...

Tuesday, January 10, 2012

Saturday "Sitting" (of sorts)...

I was extremely fortunate this past Saturday to "practice" more photography skills on my very dear friend, Heather.  She is pregnant and wanted a way to document her pregnancy - something I jumped at the opportunity to help her with!

It's a win, win situation - she gets a cd of images out of the deal and I (hopefully) develop some skills and some sense of style throughout the process.  Here is a little peak of one shot using a variety of photo finishing techniques...
(Photo taken using 18-55mm lens.  My 50mm JUST arrived yesterday - can't wait to test it out!)

Thank you Heather for the time you spent with me on Saturday; for your patience with me throughout the day; for your willingness to allow me to share this photo here on my Quincy blog and most of all for allowing me the blessing of being part of such a truly amazing event in your life!  I can't wait to take baby photos in July! (Thanks also to Bob for helping guide me with my settings...over the phone, no less!)

Ok friends, let me know your thoughts...bring on the critiques (but be nice!).  :-)

Monday, January 9, 2012

Photo Hiatas for Quincy...

Last Friday, January 6th, was absolutely G.O.R.G.E.O.U.S. here in Central PA (temps in the 50s) so I thought I'd take advantage of the warm weather and venture outside to practice some photography (and give poor Q a break from me sticking my lens in his face all the time).  I challenged myself to use the aperture priority setting on my camera and I'm really glad I did because I had so much fun even though I wasn't sure what my pictures would look like in the end.

Here's a preview (you can click on each image to enlarge the image if you want)...



The last picture may just be our Christmas card next year!  Think how neat it would look with some snow on the branches (thanks Jenny for letting me photograph your flower pot and tree!).  So far, I'm having a blast with my camera and can't wait for my 50mm lens to arrive!

Looking forward to sharing more photo adventures so stay tuned! ;-)

Sunday, January 1, 2012

Duck, duck, GOOSE...

Ha, you probably thought this post was about one of your favorite childhood games, right?!  Sorry to disappoint you but it's just about a cute little squeak toy.  ;-)

I thought I'd practice taking some shots of one of Q's new toys that he got for Christmas, Mr. Goose!  There's soooooooooooo many new things to learn (and retain which is more difficult now that I'm approaching, cough, cough - 40!).  I love this shot where the goose is in focus but Q is blurred in the background looking on (bokeh effect).  In this photo I got brave and ventured away from the "auto" setting and used the aperture priority setting with f stop of 4.5 using an 18-55 lens with plenty of light (2 side lamps and one ceiling light) which seemed to work well.  Ok, enough of the tech talk!
Happy New Year to everyone!