photography

March 6, 2023

A year of Diptychs…so far

This year I decided to step out of my comfort zone and do a weekly challenge on Instagram. I figured it would be good for my creativity. For the most part, I’ve shot during the week specifically to make a diptych, but sometimes I’ve pulled from my archives to put the two photos together. I’ve only missed one week of the challenge, and that was due to being at the TSA State Conference. So why a diptych? What the heck is a diptych? A diptych is a set of two photographs used to tell a story. Below are my entries for the year…so far. I’ve posted the first nine weeks below. You’ll notice that I skipped week 8. If you’d like to follow along, follow #ourdiptychyear over on Instagram/

Week 3 Sunrise, Sunset Hutchinson Shores, Florida

Week 4 Paradeco Coffee, St. Petersburg, Florida

Week 5 Orange Blossom Cafe, Bradenton, Fl

Week 6 Emerson Point Preserve, Palmetto, Florida

Week 7 Backyard Views, Palmetto, Florida

January 3, 2023

Happy New Year I’ve been knitting!

Happy New Year! I know we say this every year, but I can’t believe that the last year flew by. I had lots of personal changes, all good in 2022, which is definitely an improvement from the previous three years. I’ve also picked up my knitting needles again, and knitted this lovely wrap for my mother-in-law. When she was here in May for my master’s graduation, I offered to knit her a wrap. Over the years, I have knit her several things, and the last wrap that I made her, became moth food. She was so upset! I had her pick out some yarn from my stash, and she chose this lovely Madeline Tosh Vintage yarn. I belive that the colorway is Esoteric. The color is more true in the top right photo, but let me tell you, that yarn is a dream to knit with. It’s wonderfully smooshy. The pattern is Anica and I knit 35 repeats instead of 38 as the pattern calls for. My mother-in-law is tiny and this blocked out to be the perfect size for her. I knit this on size 6 needles. I think if I knit this pattern again, I would go up a needle size or two for a looser knit. This is an easy knit, perfect for evening knitting, and great as a first shawl project.

The second thing I started, is a pair of Christmas-y-themed socks. I had wanted to have these knit before Christmas, but I was trying to finish Anica, so I didn’t start these until after I had finished the wrap. The yarn is from Must Stash Yarn in the Reindeer Corn, Michigan’s Favorite colorway.

I love this yarn. It’s self-striping and delightful. I have several other skeins by her waiting to be knitted up. I thought that I’d have time to knit three pairs of Christmas-themed socks…I think I was delusional! These socks are almost finished and are going to my sister when I’m finished with them. I’m hoping to finish them up before I go back to work on Friday. I’ll cast on another pair once these are finished. I have another skein from Must Stash Yarn and then one from Nomadic Yarns. (the sock bag in the photo is also from Nomadic Yarns) I’ve never knit with their yarn, but I’m excited to get those on the needles. I also have the Carrie blanket on the needles that I started in the spring, but as it has been too hot to knit with bulky yarn sitting on my lap, I put it away until now.

Also coming up are two hats. One for Amanda and one for me. We are headed to London and Paris in early March and based on my research, even though it’s early spring, it can be chilly, at least for these Florida girls. When I was in Alpharetta for Christmas, I stopped in a brand new yarn shop called Unwind Knit Studio and picked up two skeins of worsted-weight yarn. I’ll post those skeins when I can get a good photo in the daylight.

I’ve also been picking up my camera more and I will post those next. If you want to follow me on Instagram, you can follow me by clicking HERE.

January 16, 2022

A snowy, long Weekending Part 1

As we were not able to make it to Atlanta to see my in-laws over Christmas, we drove up on Wednesday to take advantage of the long weekend. You might want to grab some tea, coffee, or beverage of your choice because this is going to be a long one. We packed a lot into a few days! I’m going to break this into two parts.

We drove up on Wednesday night so that it would give us a full day on Thursday.

On Thursday, we spent the day around my in-law’s house. We all had some work to do, and wanted to rest since we didn’t get in until nearly midnight on Wednesday. Amanda, Nana and I visited Valor Coffee since we wanted to return since our first visit in 2019. It was just as good as we remembered!

Friday dawned cold and breezy. Joel decided to take my car in for service while we were here so I didn’t have to worry about it next weekend. It was due for it’s first service so it was easy to take it in to the local Volvo dealership. While that was being worked on, we took MARTA to the Georgia Aquarium. Fun fact, in the 26 years that my in-laws have lived here, we have never taken the train into Atlanta.

It’s been years since we have been to the Aquarium and we picked a good day to go. It wasn’t too crowded so we could take our time with the exhibits. It was a nice way to spend a few hours and get some good photos.

The adventure continued on Saturday when we went to The High Museum of Art. I wanted to see Picturing the South: 25 Years, but we missed the Obama Portraits as the tickets for that exhibition was sold out for Saturday. Interestingly enough, the photography exhibit is one where I DIDN’T take any photos. Well, I took a couple, but not like the other areas of the museum. We saw a mixture of classical paintings, modern art, folk art and African art. I loved that exhibit and could have stayed there for hourse looking at it. We were with my in-laws and needed to get back to prep for Joel’s surprise 50th birthday party. His birthday isn’t until the 29th, but his parents wanted to take advantage of having us here for dinner and cake!

Joel’s 50th Birthday

Ok, that’s it for now. I have to pack for our trip home tomorrow, but I still have the Sunday Snow Day to show you!

January 9, 2022

Weekending

Well, I actually had more planned to talk about, but I was stuck on a TEAMS call for my last semester of grad school (thank goodness) then got involved in sorting through my clothes and closet. I’ve lost about 50 pounds since July and lots of stuff needed to go. I had planned to drive to Winter Haven today to Four Purls, but put that off for another day. Hubby decided that since we missed Christmas with his parents, we would go up on Wednesday which resulted in me having to scramble to get time off and get some assignments turned in that are due next Sunday.

I think I mentioned in the last post that I am attempting Project 365 and thought that I’d share my weekly photos on Sunday. Since today is the 9th, there are 9 photos here, but going forward, there should be seven. Click on the photos for the full version. For full description of the photos, hop on over to my Instagram page. I’m looking forward to our trip to Atlanta and can’t wait to share our visit.

January 4, 2022

Happy New Year!

I hope that your New Year celebrations were fun (if that’s what you are into) and that your 2022 is off to a great start. Today was my first day back at school, it was a Record Day for teachers and tomorrow is our in-service day. Kiddos return on Thursday, which will make this week a very weird one for all involved. I have to say that I am excited about this year. I have some really good things coming up. I graduate from grad school in May for starters! With my master’s in Career and Technical Education, I hope to move mostly out of the classroom, or at least out of the position I am in. I am scheduled to take a new position next school year that would have me teach half-time and oversee a new program the other half. Hopefully, that will happen. I’m excited to pull out my knitting again and to be here on the blog more. I really have missed it and it’s been great to ease my way back into writing on a more consistent basis. I’m also going to sit down and come up with a posting schedule to keep myself consistent.

I’m not really into resolutions, because I think it’s a setup for failure, but I do have a few things that I’d like to accomplish this year on a personal level. I’ve already mentioned knitting and the blog, but I’m looking to start a podcast. I used to work in radio years ago and would love to see if I can pull that knowledge back up. I am also getting into more photography projects. I’ve challenged myself to a Project 365 so let’s see if I can actually ‘intentionally’ take a photo a day. I’m going to try to post them here on a weekly basis, but you can follow along on my Instagram.

I do want to share a couple of photos from a photoshoot I did in December. I’ve been photographing this family for seven years now and Lily wanted to recreate a photo from the first shoot that I did with them. The kids were in 2nd and 3rd grade and now they are in high school. Eli, the youngest, wasn’t born yet. In fact, their mom was pregnant with him in our first shoot. The first photo was shot in 2014 at Emerson Point and the second one was shot last month at Coquina Beach. We are actually going to go back to Emerson Point this year to recreate it exactly with the same point of view. Fun fact about the first photo, I entered it into the Manatee County Fair in 2015 and won the Paul Bartley Award for the photo that best represents Manatee County. Honestly, I had only been shooting a year, and this was such a proud moment for me. The last photo is of all three siblings.

Enjoy the rest of the week, hopefully in the next post, I’ll have a photo of my latest knitting project. It’s just getting started, but at least it’s a start!

November 3, 2018

Eye Candy Friday

Taking a cue from Carole over at Carole Knits. (I’ve read her blog for YEARS), I present one of my favorite photos from my Washington DC trip, the Capital Wheel at the National Harbor

October 8, 2018

Weekending (Blogtober Days 6 &7)

I was remiss in posting yesterday, but hopefully this will make up for it. I shot Puppy Raiser Day at Southeastern Guide Dogs yesterday. Puppy Raiser day happens with a dog is matched with a handler and the people that raised the dog gets to come meet the new handler and see the pup that they raised. Here Mendy (on the right) is looking down at Wrigley, a Golden Retriever, that she raised. To the left is Wrigley’s new handler. They became fast friends and I know they will continue to stay in contact.

Today, I met up with Chip and Chris and Irwin to take some photos of Irwin before he goes back for formal training in a couple of week. We headed up to Tampa to the Riverwalk area and explored Armature Works and had lunch at Ulele.

The guy up top is real and is pedaling his bike to make gin.

: So serious

: Can I play with you?

: I love Dad.

: Cute alert!

: Irwin makes a friend.

While we were waiting for our table at Ulele, Irwin made a friend and showed off his cuteness.

My lunch, Chip’s lunch and Chip’s Frose’

: Fire roasted chicken, saffron risotto and wilted spinach.

: Beet Salad

: Frose’

Dog sculptures and a Humpty Dumpty sits atop Ulele…hope he doesn’t have a great fall!

Around Ulele, there are these vintage storybook characters. The owner of the restaurant spent $100,000 restoring them after he bought the characters from the now closed Fairyland area at Lowry Park Zoo. I loved seeing these decorating the area. In addition to Humpty Dumpty, there’s the Three Little Pigs, Jack and Beanstalk and Alice in Wonderland. I highly suggest that you get to Ulele a little earlier than you plan to eat and explore. It’s so pretty and peaceful. You forget that you are in the middle of Tampa.

Well, that was my weekend. I have a guest blogger post going up on another blog soon. I’ll let you know when that’s up and you can check that out. Hope everyone had a great weekend and I’ll see you tomorrow!

January 3, 2017

An Artsy Afternoon in St. Pete

Last week, my inlaws came into town from Atlanta and not wanting to sit around and stare at each other all day, we took a short, 25 minute trip over the Skyway into downtown St. Petersburg to the recently opened Chihuly Collection on Central Avenue.

I have loved the work of Chihuly for years and it is such a joy to be able to see some of his pieces up close. The original Chihuly Collection was located a little farther south on Beach Drive, but October saw a new, dedicated building open. The space is open and airy, and the rooms where the sculptures are located are kept dim with specialized lighting illuminating each piece.

This one is probably my two favorite shots of the day. (All of these photos were taken with my iPhone 7plus…I didn’t want to take my Canon 6d..fear of banging it into something…lol)

Joel said this one reminded him of a balloon animal!

After our trip through the Collection, we walked across the street to the Morean Arts Center Glass Studio and Hot Shop. Your ticket to the Chihuly Collection also includes the glass blowing demonstration at the Hot Shop. You MUST go. This is a wonderful 30 minutes demonstration where a piece of art glass is made from start to finish. The two gentlemen who gave the demonstration were so entertaining and spent time afterwards answering all of our questions. My husband enjoyed it so much that he wants to go and take one of the glassblowing classes. I took a ton of photos, so I put them in a couple of collages plus two of my favorites.

Paulie clearly loves what he does.

After the twirling, he ended up with this:

Tools of the trade.

And finally, after all that, we had lunch then headed back home, but first we had to stop at our favorite dessert bar, Swah-rey. Hands down, Swah-rey has the best cake, minis, tea, coffee and best of all…Pupcakes for the pooches. We almost always make a stop on our way out of St. Pete, and as you can see, Swah-rey minis make Amanda a happy girl.

If you are in the St. Pete area, give these places a visit. Click the links for more info.

If you’d like to see more of my day to day photos, please follow me on Social Media. I’m fairly active on Instagram! You can click on the icons at the top of the page.

(Not a sponsored post, I just wanted to share things that I love.)

October 13, 2015

Ten Things I Did Over The Weekend {Ten on Tuesday}

Lately, my weekends seem to be as busy as my regular work week. One would think that once you have an empty nest, things seem to slow down. Mine actually went in reverse! After my daughter went to college, I started really working with my photography and have a part time business. This has kept my Saturdays busy for many weekends and this weekend was no exception. So, without further ado, here are my Ten Things that I did this weekend.

Friday

Photosession with this sweet girl. Tucker is going in for training at Southeastern Guide Dogs next month and her raiser wanted a photo session.
Met up with a few Area Coordinators for SEGD that were in town for their annual conference. I’m friends with a lot of them on Facebook but don’t get to see them in real like that often.2.
Picked up Chinese food for dinner. It was after seven when I finally finished up with the session and coordinators, and I wasn’t in the mood to cook.
Watched Insurgent (again). It’s mindless.

Saturday

5. Went Purple Martin bird watching and bought some housing for purple martins. Beautiful birds they are, for sure.

6. Photoshoot with Carol’s sweet babies, Curry and Zoe, plus Cashew, who was sponsored by Publix.

7. Edited a newborn/family session that I had two weeks ago. (I really need to get that one finished up, but school stuff has been busy) This photo is from that same afternoon but at a birthday party. This little guy is three.

8.Contemplated working on lesson plans, and then decided that they could wait and I cleaned up a little instead. I used a great new cleaner I ordered from https://www.odorklenz.com/.

Sunday.

9. Church (Joel teaches Sunday School.) This is Lucy, a guide dog in training from Southeastern Guide Dogs. She is staying with us until Thursday.

10. Went to the movies to see The Martian. We went to the see it at the IMAX, in 3D and in the D-Box Theater where the seats move with the action of the movie. That was my first time in that type of theater and I thought for sure that it would make me motion sick, but it didn’t! The movie was really good and I found it a very enjoyable way to spend a Sunday.

The Sundial in St. Petersburg.

Bonus:

11. Picked up dinner at Locale Market to take home. Sauasage lasagna, foccacia bread and mac and cheese. So yummy.

12. Worked on the day’s events in my traveler’s notebook. I’m trying to get on top of journaling.

Hope you had a great weekend and for more Ten On Tuesdays, hop on over HERE.

June 22, 2015

Nola Day 2 Part 1.

Day 2 in Nola was really our only full day in the city,so we made the most of it. I think we walked over five miles that day, but we had so much fun.

(This is part 1 of 3)

Of course, if you are in New Orleans, you absolutely cannot skip Cafe Du Monde. Period. We started the day with beignets and coffee. Mom ordered hers without the powdered sugar and Amy and I got ours with light sugar. Take a look at the second photo…that’s ‘light’ powered sugar. Mom and I tried their frozen coffee because it was already hot at 8am, but Amy stuck with traditional black coffee.

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After our breakfast, we walked around the French Quarter. I think this might be my favorite part of the day. The Quarter is quiet, the streets are clean and the sun is coming up over the River. I can see why this place has such an allure.

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The rest of the morning was spent on the Hop On, Hop Off Bus. This two hour tour through New Orleans is a great way to see the city and the ticket is good for three days.

Top of the bus (the majority of the top is covered in a canopy to sheild you from the sun. The right photo is at the Basin Street Station. It was a the station that we got a random downpour. It rained for about ten minutes, then it moved on. It was fun!

Canvas inside the Basin Street Station. I loved this because it shows positive affirmations about the city.

Me on top of the bus. I bought a hat the Basin Street Station because like an idiot, I left mine in Florida.

Sites from the bus.

This former coal plant is used as locations in movies, most recently in Chappie, and the newest Planet of the Apes movie. It also appears in NCIS: New Orleans.

The trees in The Garden District are decorated with Mardi Gras beads.

Top R, Joan of Arc statue, Armstrong Park

Middle right, The Treme, The Super Dome

Bottom Right: McDonogh 16, Champions Square

Blaine Kern Mardi Gras Studios

Random sites around the city.

Stylish pup in the French Quarter and an old bookshop.

This is the interior of the St. Louis Cathedral. It was so incredibily beautiful and peaceful. It’s a nice, calming respite in the middle of what can be a chaotic French Quarter.

We did so much in one day that it is hard to put it all in one blog post. Day two of our great South Louisiana adventure will continue in the next post.