• coffee,  Kiki Mac Photography,  Louisiana,  NaBloPoMo,  Road Trip,  Travel

    Road Trip Part 3, Home

    After a very quick trip to New Orleans, we headed home to Dry Prong. Yep, you read that right, I am the Village of Dry Prong. When I lived there, I think the population was somewhere around 325. I think that is slightly low, but that was what was on the road sign, so who really knows. Regardless, my family is still there and I love going home when I get a chance. I know, you’re going to ask, what the heck kind of name is Dry Prong? Well, way back when the village was founded, the family that settled there accidentally set up shop on the dry prong of Big Creek. The one that went dry every year. Probably not the smartest move if you wanted to build a mill, so the eventually moved to the side that had water all year, but the name stuck. My dad served as mayor for eight years, my mom served as alderwoman for twelve years, and my cousin, Shane Davis is the current mayor. Anyway, more on that in a bit, so we headed out of New Orleans, passing by the Super Dome. (Geaux Saints!), headed north.


    This way to Dry Prong…we actually went up I-49 instead of 167. It’s faster because we don’t have to stop in all the little towns for stoplights….and speed traps.

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

    It is not a trip home unless we stop for Shipley Donuts.  When we fly in, Mom is usually waiting with a box for Amanda. We stopped at the Exxon station on McArthur Drive forome donut holes. Happy Amanda. (PS. I just found out that Shipley is building it’s first location in Florida…about 15 minutes from my house!)s

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

    Of course, we had to do a coffee crawl in Alexandria. We hit up Crave and took a few pictures of the artwork downtown.

    My sister took a day off from work and we headed to St. Francisville. It had been years since I’ve been there, but it is such a pretty town. It’s home to the famous The Myrtles Plantation. Known as one of America’s most haunted houses. My uncle has stayed overnight there and can attest to some very mysterious things happening.  We didn’t take the tour, but we did get a few photos.

    I love Louisiana towns and St. Francisville has the cutest bookstore named Conundrum Books. What could make a bookstore even better? Meet Buster the Bookstore Dog. Of course, we were missing our fur babies, so getting to love on a dog was a bonus.

    Sadly, all too soon it was time to head back to Florida, and we headed out dark and early.

    Taken sitting in my mom’s driveway as I cried like a baby.  It was such a fun trip. The first part busy, the second part, not so much, just hanging out with my family.  Amanda and I did the trip back to Florida in one day, driving straight through. Amanda drove the entire trip, despite me begging her to let me drive.  Guess she didn’t want anyone driving her precious Minerva, not even her mother! I can’t wait to do it again, and we are already planning for the next trip.

  • Daily Life,  Florida,  Kiki Mac Photography,  Travel

    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.

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    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.)

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

  • Daily Life,  Kiki Mac Photography,  NaBloPoMo

    The Day After (NaBloPoMo Day 9)

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    It’s a new day and we can make it what we want. Last night’s election has caused shock waves across the world (including my own house) but it up to us to change the status quo, for us to flip the script and for us to change the direction of our country. One man or one woman does not define America, 350 million men, women and children of different ethnicities, faiths, orientations and income levels, define America. We have to listen to one another, help one another and be kind to one another. We have to stop the hatred, stop the rhetoric and stop all the behavior that divides us. A house divided cannot stand, and right now, the United States is pretty well divided. This is not who we are. Fear is driving us, rhetoric is driving, hate is driving us. We are stronger when we are united and the sooner we realize that, the sooner we will move forward as a country.

  • Daily Life,  Kiki Mac Photography,  NaBloPoMo,  Southeastern Guide Dogs

    I’m Tired, so you get a photo. NaBloPoMo Day 5

    Busy day finishing up the TSA Leadership Conference, getting home, and promptly crashing on the couch.  I took a two hour nap then started watching The Crown on Netflix.  I’m not going to spoil it, and will do a more in depth review when I’m finished. Meanwhile, how about a puppy photo to tide your over until a proper post on Sunday.

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  • Daily Life,  Kiki Mac Photography,  NaBloPoMo,  Southeastern Guide Dogs

    10 Things About Me

    My lovely daughter, has a new blog over at Peonies and Paperclips and her post today was 10 Things about Me. I had done this years ago when I had my old blog, but haven’t updated it, so since imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, here we go.

    1. I have lived in Florida for 14 years, but I still consider myself a Louisiana girl. The name of my blog truly describes who I am.  I am a Misplaced Southern Belle. Florida is not the South. It might be geographically Southern, but mentally, it is not…at least south of Tampa, where I reside.
    2. I have had this blog in some form of another since 2004. It started off as a knitting blog and evolved. It was even mentioned in Southern Living at one time because of knitting.   (I don’t knit that much at the moment. It’s hard to knit when it’s 90 degrees…in November.)
    3. I am a high school teacher and I teach English Language Learner students…and I don’t speak a foreign language. I joke that my students will speak English with a Southern accent.
    4. I own Kiki Mac Photography and I shoot part time. A lot of my photography evolves around working with Southeastern Guide Dogs where I photograph Guide Dog U when the raisers turn over their dogs for training and I photograph Puppy Raiser Day which is when the dog has been matched and the raiser gets a chance to meet the new handler.
    5. Speaking of Southeastern Guide Dogs, my family and I are puppy raisers. We raise puppies for SEGD and then turn them over after a year or so to be trained as guide dogs. We are on puppy number five. Yes it’s hard, but seeing what they do for people who need them is worth it.
    6. I have been married for twenty-three years and have one daughter and four dogs.
    7. I miss Louisiana and my family every single. day.
    8. I drink unsweetened iced tea every day. I think it’s an addiction.
    9. I used to write for travel magazines and got to travel the state and write about it. I miss that!
    10. I’m 44 years old and am a Leap Day Baby…yep, I’ve had 11 birthdays.

    Ok, so that is the quick and dirty 10 things about me.  Feel free to share 10 things about you and leave a link to your post in the comments.

  • Florida,  Kiki Mac Photography,  Southeastern Guide Dogs

    Raise a Puppy, Change a Life

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    In nearly two years of photographing Puppy Raiser Day, this is probably the one photo that truly defined for me why we raise puppies. If you raise puppies as well and you will like to make your life easier you should get a pet auto feeder that will provide the food to your puppies when needed. I know we talk about the want a puppy/need a puppy, but today, this sweet lady was crying before she even got to Carol and Bob. Carol got up and hugged her and they stood that way for several moments with her just crying. All I could hear was ‘thank you’ or ‘thankful’, I couldn’t make it out, but the sheer emotion of what this sweet lady was feeling was something that can’t be described. Treehousepuppies.com have pet reviews to read so you are clued up about everything dog related including information about different kind of dogs as the Alsatian dog. This is why we raise those puppies, and this is what I will remember when we turn in Aja next month. The feeling of making a puppie´s life better is incomparable, families have to understand that raising a puppy should be like raising another child, if you decide to have a puppy you should always give him the best, from buying the best heavy duty dog crates to giving him love each day unconditionally (meanwhile, Tiki has figured out that she knows these people and headed over to the bench…lol)

    For more information on raising a Rottweiler, or guide dog puppy, visit Southeastern Guide Dogs and click on Volunteer.

  • Daily Life,  Florida,  Kiki Mac Photography

    Milestones

    Earlier this month, our family celebrated a huge milestone. Our only child, Amanda, graduated from the University of Florida with a Bachelors of Science in Telecommunications.  She is now a producer at a tv station in Jacksonville.  With all of her credits from the International Baccalaureate program and taking summer classes, she finished a semester early.  It seems like yesterday that she was crawling through my papers as I studied for my finals. We can’t be more proud of her and lest this post turn too sappy, I wanted to post a few photos that I took that day.  Later that evening, my husband looks over at me and says, “I guess this makes us successful parents.”  You know what, I guess it does! Congratulations kiddo! Fly high!

    These are a few of the photos from graduation. I took some more formal ones and will post those in another post.

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  • Daily Life,  Kiki Mac Photography,  Ten on Tuesday

    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

    1. Photosession with this sweet girl. Tucker is going in for training at Southeastern Guide Dogs next month and her raiser wanted a photo session.
    2. 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.
    3. 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.
    4. 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.

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    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.

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    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. 

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    Bonus:

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

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    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.