Vintage Santa

One of my favorite ornaments I bought myself. I love old fashioned Santas .... love Santas period. I have a collection of Santas from around the world, too. I might have to take some pictures of some of those.

 

Bottoms Up

another view of my ornament from when I was a baby.

 

Christmas Memory

I grew up in a house where the ornaments on the tree each had a story behind them. We did not worry about color matching or giving our tree a "theme." Our tree was all about us. I have carried that tradition into my adult life and actually handed it over to my MIL in that I give her a "personalized" ornament every year for her birthday which is three days before Christmas. I started this about two years before my husband and I got married. This picture is of an ornament that I have had since my first Christmas. My mom wanted ornaments she could hang down low that would not break so I could touch them. My first Christmas was just 17 days before my first birthday so I was already toddling around. The ornaments my mom bought were plastic with Christmas trees inside them. There are only two out of a set of six left. Three were just like this one and three were yellow tear drops with green trees. My brother has the only yellow one left. My children know the story behind this ornament and the only reason it is not hanging on the bottom of the tree this year is because they were afraid our puppies would knock it off and use it as a chew toy. But, it is still where I can reach it and touch it, which is the point anyway.

 

Are You Done Yet?

My Izzy girl wanting me to put away my computer.

 

Ornament Tops

It is that time of year again. Time to get out the Christmas decorations and make my home cheery and merry. I love this time of year and everything that goes with it. These are ornaments on a wreath my mom made me. I love the rich colors of them.

 

Dresser Drawer

Laundry Basket

This is the door on the cabinet of our entertainment center.  It's a hand me down from my husband's parents.  My husband had to have it.  I did not want it.  But, I have to say I do like the storage in it, so it's not all that bad. 

Panel Door

This is the door to my bedroom. We put in white six panel doors not long after we moved in to our home. That was 16 1/2 years ago. I would not do it again. Dust clings to them and sits in the bevels of the panels and it's just annoying as all get out.

 

Acoustic Ceiling

This is an entry for the theme: patterns.  This is what the ceiling in our house looks like.  It was a major pain in the butt when we first moved into our home.  We spend two days scraping it off our master bathroom and bedroom ceilings because we didn't really want it, only to find out pain was not going to stick to our ceiling after all our efforts, so we had to pay someone to come in and "blow it" back up onto our ceiling.  To this day, I really, really, really dislike it and would not buy another house with it.

Fluidity

My entry for this week's theme... liquid

2nd in Division

My son played his third season of football this year. Last year his team did not win a game. This year we got 2nd place in our division and went to the playoffs. We played for a spot in the super bowl last week and lost. Today is his last game and we're playing for 3rd/4th place over all in the league (4th grade). Our team has lost 3 games and the team we're playing has lost only one.

My Donkey

Ever since the first time I saw Shrek I have wanted a talking Donkey. I LOVE LOVE LOVE the character of Donkey. Well, this may not be a talking donkey or even a real donkey, but he sure does have his own character and I love him. We bought him at the Gypsy Caravan back in May.

Fall Flower Embelished

Played around in Picnik with this photo.

Group of Photographers

The leader that was in charge of our Mother/Daughter dinner asked me to take a picture of all the leaders. So, I helped all the leaders to get in position and when I turned around to walk back to where I needed to stand to get the photo, this is what I saw... actually they all kind of startled me... was not expecting a crowd behind me as well as in front of me!

Mother ~ Daughter

This past weekend was our annual girl scout Mother/Daughter dinner. It was a pj theme. I always do the pictures for our Mother/Daughter dinner. This is one of the leaders and one of her daughters. I thought this was such a fun picture, I wanted to share it. Some day they are going to let me pick the back ground, though.

A View of a Yard

Effects of Fall

I have always considered myself very lucky to live in a part of the world that sees all four seasons, that gets the advantage of all four seasons. I love watching the seasons change and seeing the changes take place in nature. Each season has it's own beauty. Fall is no exception, for if we cannot see the beauty in the endings of things, it is impossible to actually see the beginnings of things.

Home

This is my entry for the weekly theme. I chose to do this because this is the house that my husband and I bought when we'd been married just 7 months. On November 12, 2011 we are celebrating our 17th wedding anniversary and still living in this home. This is where we are raising our children in the same town we grew up in. This is where our marriage has had it's ups and downs. But, most importantly, this is the home where we have grown together and have fallen even more in love than we were when we first got married.

Hee Haw

In For a Landing

Crash Area

For anyone who is not familiar with swim meets this is called the crash area. It's where swimmers and their families (those who are not working the meet) "crash" between events.

Going to a swim meet is not like going to a baseball or football game. Most of the time you must plan to be there most of the day. You take chairs with you. You take a cooler with snacks and drinks with you. The kids bring stuff to help keep them busy, i.e. DS, books, coloring books and crayons, puzzles, games, laptops, iPods, etc. Swimmers have clothes, extra goggles and swim caps, a couple pairs of sweat or pj pants, some kind of shoes like flip flops or crocs, robes and/or sweat shirts, blankets, at least 4 towels each, sleeping bags, etc with them too.

Camera:	Fujifilm FinePix HS20EXR
Exposure:	0.0333 sec  (10/300)
Aperture:	f/2.8
ISO Speed:	1250
Focal Length:	4.2 mm

Processed Swimmer

I used an online editing ap to complete the editing process with this picture and it seems to have removed the exif info from the photo.  So, I do not know what exactly it is.  If I had the patience to search among the 4000 pictures I took at this swim meet I would go find the exif info on the original, but I don't have that kind of patience or energy.  Maybe if I find it while I'm working on other photos, I'll come back and add it, but probably not.  ;-)

Blanchette Bridge

This is the bridge I cross every day on my way to work. They are going to be closing it soon to rebuild it. It's several decades old as it was the first bridge to connect my town with St. Louis County. It's going to create some major traffic nightmares while it's closed for a year. I will have to add about 6 miles a day to my commute in order to cross the other bridge in town.

Camera:	Fujifilm FinePix HS20EXR
Exposure:	0.01 sec  (10/1000)
Aperture:	f/2.8
ISO Speed:	400
Focal Length:	4.2 mm

Entry

Camera:	Fujifilm FinePix HS20EXR
Exposure:	0.0167 sec  (10/600)
Aperture:	f/3.6
ISO Speed:	640
Focal Length:	10.1 mm

Streamline

during our two day invitational swim meet

Camera:	Fujifilm FinePix HS20EXR
Exposure:	0.0133 sec  (10/750)
Aperture:	f/3.2
ISO Speed:	400
Focal Length:	5 mm

The Start

Camera:	Fujifilm FinePix HS20EXR
Exposure:	0.0167 sec  (10/600)
Aperture:	f/3.6
ISO Speed:	640
Focal Length:	10.1 mm

Diving In

Camera:	Fujifilm FinePix HS20EXR
Exposure:	0.0167 sec  (10/600)
Aperture:	f/3.6
ISO Speed:	640
Focal Length:	10.1 mm

Morning Comes

Took some pictures on my way to work again this morning. I will be very glad when we move the clocks back this weekend. I really do not like it being so dark still at 7:15 in the morning.

Camera:	Htc PC36100
ISO Speed:	111
Focal Length:	4.57 mm

Verdigris

Camera:	Fujifilm FinePix HS20EXR
Exposure:	0.01 sec  (10/1000)
Aperture:	f/4.0
ISO Speed:	1000
Focal Length:	14.9 mm