Foto Friday ~ Some "Rain Rain Go Away" Inspiriation

It is essential to our well-being, and to our lives, that we play and enjoy life. Every single day do something that makes your heart sing. - Marcia Wieder

Since love grows within you, so beauty grows. For love is the beauty of the soul.
- Saint Augustine

Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement. Nothing can be done without hope and confidence. – Helen Keller

Risk-taking, trust and serendipity are key ingredients of joy... -- Rita Golden Gelman

If a little dreaming is dangerous, the cure for it is not to dream less but to dream more, to dream all the time. – Marcel Proust

Quote-eful, Thought-ful, Foto-ful Friday

“Only as high as I reach can I grow, only as far as I seek can I go, only as deep as I look can I see, only as much as I dream can I be.” ~ Karen Ravn

That quote makes me think of these pictures:






I have my last wedding of the entire year, before my bff's wedding in Sept. I'm kind of nervous. I'm not usually nervous, but I am. It's my cousin's wedding and I want her pictures to be perfect. I want the pictures to be perfect every time, but I just want to end my wedding year on a bang. A good bang.

My hubby and kids will be there and I think that makes me especially nervous. Well, not so much nervous, but anxious. I have to not only pack an overnight bag for myself, but the kids, too, and then also pack up all my photography equipment, etc. I had a dream last night that I forgot some of the most important things. The battery for my camera and I only brought one memory card. Not that I could use that memory card because without the battery, I can't even turn on the camera to take a picture. Hopefully that's just my conscience reminding me not to forget those 2 very critical things!

It's going to be a quick trip down to southern Illinois. I wish we had more time to really enjoy the trip. It's where Neil and I went to college and we haven't been back there for years, and it's one of our very favorite places in the world. It's nothing extra super fabulous, but it's where we spent lots of time together every day, experiencing parts of life that would mold us for the rest of our lives. I loved college. I think he did, too.

The neat thing is, one of my college classmates, also a graphic design major, will be second-shooting the wedding with me. I haven't seen Patty for a couple years now. She just graduated last year with her Master's in photography. So this will be a fun experience for both of us. I'm really looking forward to seeing her and what she might teach me. (She's completely opposite from me in how and what she shoots. She's very abstract and modern, so I hope some cool things that she does will rub off on me. I'm always up for learning new photography tricks, skills and poses.)

“Only as high as I reach can I grow, only as far as I seek can I go, only as deep as I look can I see, only as much as I dream can I be.” ~ Karen Ravn

I need to post-it note that on my camera bag :)

Happy weekend, my friends!

Flowers make me happy.

And so does summer,
and bright colors,
and flowery scents,
and gardening,
from which I get the love and appreciation for from my mom (thanks, mom!),
and sunlight,
and the pretty light at dusk just perfect for taking any picture,
and bokeh,
and perfect evenings,
and pretty pictures,
and friends to share those pretty pictures with.

Happy Love Thursday and Happy Foto Friday.


photos courtesy of my garden, courtesy of me :)

My little gardeners.

First of all, it's a new day ------ yay!!!

Over the weekend, and what a beautiful weekend it was, we went to a few places looking for mulch and a few flowers for our front yard landscape. I don't want to spend too much on flowers this year . . . I usually end up spending about $300-$400 each summer . . . I am a sucker for flowers . . . anything green and growing, and even half dead flowers I sometimes buy because I feel sorry for them, anyway, that's another post. I do want great curb appeal this year, so we're concentrating on the front yard mostly, and trying not to do too much in the back yard this year. (We'll see how well I stick to that!)

Anyhow, the kiddos had a great time looking at flowers. I love it that I get to get them excited about picking out, and planting, flowers. I just adore gardening. And I think they might have that little love growing inside of them now, too.

I told Noah that he could find one flower to pick out, buy and take home. So when he did find that perfect flower (a gerber daisy which was covered in mud from the rain), he was quite proud as you can see.
Then we headed to another place and Maia found her flower(s). She, too, was very proud and excited. You should have seen this little wobbly girl walking around carrying these two flowers. She seemed to have caught everyones eye. She is adorable, I must say. But I guess I'm her mommy, so I'm suppose to say that, right?


Aren't they the happiest little gardeners you've ever seen?