superheroes....

• Met up with some photographers in the Raleigh area this weekend to take photos of some adorable kids dressed as superheroes. Check out some more photos on my photography biz blog.
• We had a quiet weekend otherwise. Andy had to do a little work stuff to get ready for his station's yearly audit. His big part of the audit was today and he said everything went well - yay!
• I had a good time babysitting my friend's 8 month old baby on Friday....and she ended up talking me into helping them out on a regular basis - a couple mornings every week for a while since they got custody of her quickly and weren't able to find a daycare yet. But she is a pretty good, laid back baby, and our dog, Maggie, did really well with her, so it should be fine.

Happy Monday!

friday photos and a few apps....

Friday.....I seem to either take a lot of iPhone photos or not many at all. This week I didn't take too many, but here are a few:

• Checking out a park to do a photoshoot - found this fun field with lots of tall grass that I think will work out great.
• I had a bad migraine. all. day. Wednesday. I tried to go out and do a few things and then had to chill on the couch the rest of the day. Our dog, Maggie, didn't mind - she sat on my lap most of the day.
• Spying on my husband thanks to this app I was trying out - hoping to use it as a baby monitor while I am watching my friend's baby for a while today and probably next week some. It works pretty well as an occasional thing - I set my computer up and the computer cam live streams or can take a snapshot and send it to my iPhone which is what I was looking for - there are a lot of phone to phone type apps but this is one of the few computer to phone ones I found that were free.
• And a display board I put together to help out my women's Bible study group leader. Thankful to have a small paper-cutter - otherwise I am horrible at cutting straight lines!

I heard about a fun app this week called Postal Pix - it's an app that lets you print your iPhone and instagram pics easily. 

You just open up the app, pick out the photos to print and you can pay through paypal. Super easy and pretty cheap. Not sure about the quality yet - I ordered a few and they should be sent to me next week. I'll let you know how they turn out - but seems fun for a few of those photos you end up really liking from your phone.

Happy Friday!

colorful life....

Sometimes I love Craigslist. Sometimes I don't - it's gotten weird and there are a lot of crazies on there. But this week I loved it since I posted my basic Singer sewing machine up on my local arts and crafts sale board and had it sold that day! I wanted to sell it since I just didn't like using it that much - I kept having issues with the tension and just ended up not using it because I always felt like it was a pain to use. And also because I saw, read the reviews, and ended up buying this the day before I sold my old one:

A new, computerized sewing machine. Love it. So much easier and fun to use. And I love the newer technology - push a button and it knows what you want to do and what weight fabric you are working with. I've already hemmed a few pairs of pants that I've been needing to get hemmed (story of my life...I am so short!). It's not a high end machine by any means - there are much fancier and sturdier machines out there...but it's a better machine than the very basic one I had was. And it was on sale and not too bad at all after I sold the other one.

It's a nice addition to my studio - which I recently cleaned up. Still needs some organizing though. I have a lot of art, craft, and sewing stuff in there! 

Besides just hemming pants, I wanted a new project to do with my new machine. Even though I had a horrible migraine all day yesterday....I went out to Jo-Ann's and got some fabric and started cutting out some of it tonight. Love these bright, cheery colors - guess I wanted some happy while I was feeling so horrible yesterday! I'll show you the project when I get it finished....maybe....as long as I do actually finish it and as long as it turns out decent.

family weekend...

This weekend we had some cold and rainy weather! I was planning to go out and shoot at two different events with photographers....and neither happened. One was early Saturday morning and when I woke up to get ready to go, it was raining outside and I didn't want to go shoot in the rain. So I fell back asleep. When I woke up a little later, it had stopped raining and some of the photographers did get together and get some fun shots....oh well. The other event was on Sunday with some of my Raleigh photographer friends - it was freezing cold on Sunday and we had been planning to take photos of some kids and just didn't think it was a great idea to have them out in the freezing weather for a few hours so we postponed that one until next week I think. So no photography this weekend. Hopefully next weekend will be better!

We did have a fun time visiting with family this weekend. Andy's sister was in town for a concert and to visit some friends and she was able to stop by and see our house for a little bit. She also invited me to come out and do a little shopping with her and her friends. We had fun and even got to look around at some bridal stores - since she just got engaged last weekend! We are so happy for her and her fiance' and looking forward to their wedding this summer.

a photo I took of Emily and Josh in December

We also got to run up to Raleigh (even though I ended up not doing the photography thing) to see my Grandmother and cousin on Sunday. My grandmother had been visiting with my aunt and uncle and flew out of RDU airport. We got to go up and have lunch with her before she flew back to Texas. So nice to see her - hopefully we will get to visit with her again soon.

We wandered around Raleigh a little - did a little shopping - and then came home. 

Hope everyone else had a good weekend and a good Monday!

instagram friday...

Well this week was a lot better...I am finally not sick! And back to working out with my personal trainer yesterday. Not so much fun since I am out of shape and now horribly weak, but good to get to back to it. Here are a bunch of iPhone photos from the week....

1. Heading out on our road trip Friday morning
2. Charleston bridge
3. At Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. 
4. Delicious stuffed shrimp

1. Us at a pub in Charleson
2. Crossing the bridge into Savannah
3. Fun bed and breakfast we stayed at in Savannah
4. Loved the room - pretty and really comfortable

1. Us at Tybee Island
2. Fried pickles. Only in the south.
3. Made this Garlic Chicken recipe - it turned out really good! And of course lots of chicken leftover to freeze and use later.
4. Drinking tea and editing a few photos

1. This may not look like it....but I organized the freezer. And was so proud of that fact that I took a photo. I usually throw stuff in and shut the door fast - it was a disaster. Now at least it stays in place better and I can see what we have (tons of veggies and cheese). 
2. I was inspired by Charleston and made Pioneer Woman grits and pork chops - so amazingly good! This photo is of the grits being cooked. And I liked these grits - I think I just don't like the instant ones. 

Happy Friday!

more random road tripping...

After we left Charleston we drove down the coast on our random road trip. 

We checked out this amazingly old and large tree called the Angel Oak (Andy thought I was crazy for wanting to go see it, but it sounded cool and I was hoping to get some neat photos....but the gate wasn't open for another hour and we could only see it from a distance....so no good photos at all). We stopped at a roadside cider mill/store. And we looked around Hilton Head, SC. We were thinking about stopping there for the night, but weren't too excited by anything there....so we kept driving. We made our way down to Savannah. We found a fun bed & breakfast that had room and was pet-friendly - The East Bay Inn and enjoyed staying the night there. It was close to River Street and we had fun walking around Sunday evening and Monday morning before heading home.

Historic River Street

 Love the trolleys and spanish moss

We drove across the bridge to see Tybee Island

And walked on the fishing pier

Enjoyed a nice quiet (not too cold) morning on the beach

And then it was time to head home.

We had a great trip - it was fun and unplanned.

Andy said it was a great birthday!

a random road trip....

For his birthday, Andy decided that he wanted to take Friday off and go on a random road trip over the long weekend. So we packed up the car and started heading south Friday morning. We decided to head down to Charleston, since neither of us had ever been there. We drove off the interstate and stayed closer to the coast since Andy likes to drive the back routes and we weren't in any hurry to get anywhere. I was happy to ride and read a good book.

We made it to Charleston and stayed at La Quinta Riverside since it got good ratings and was dog-friendly. It was nice - not right downtown, but only a few minutes away. Charleston is a neat city - we ended up taking a carriage tour on Saturday to see some of the sights.

We wandered around, did a little shopping, and ate some really good food. We ate shrimp at Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. which was a fun place. And Andy got a T-shirt. We had lunch at a great pub called Tommy Condron's. And Andy had one of the best meals ever at Southend Brewery & Smokehouse - pork chops and grits. I don't even like grits, but theirs were amazing.

We walked around the Charleston harbor and saw the cruise ships.

Checked out the Citadel

We went over to Sullivan Island

saw Ft. Moultrie

 We stayed in Charleston Saturday night and then got in the car on Sunday to see where else we would go....