macro jewelry

Took a little time to do some macro jewelry shots.

 mother and daughter rings

 Turtle necklace

 art deco necklace

 til we meet again

 eye of the tiger

Mickey is so Charming

Healthy Recipe, Avocado cucumber salad

I love avocados! In fact my whole family loves avacados.   I make the absolute best guacamole around! but there is a limit to how much guac one can eat.  I also like to put sliced avacados in my salad.  But i was trying to come up with a way to eat them as a side dish with dinner, or as a nice lunch.  This salad is really good stuffed into a wheat pita pocket, or along side your favorite dinner item.  We had it with a roast last night, and it goes really well with grilled chicken.  Try it, I promise you will love it as much as we do.

2 ripe avacados
half cucumber
2 tbsn red onion
half chopped jalepeno
juice from a lemon (or lime)
one small roma tomato

Dice everything and mix together, add a pinch of salt.  Easy peasy, and so delicious!

life as we know it

I never got to finishing my blog posts about our wonderful trip to Disney World.  Complications came up and life became very hectic.  What is most important in my life, became very prevalent.  I decided to not try and stretch myself so thin, not push myself so hard, and just do what was most important.

 So what does that mean really?  It means I am backing off from the business of photography.  All the logistics just became too much for me to deal with at this time.  It means photographing people I care about, and doing it for the love of photography.  It means alot less time on the computer.  It means dedicating my life to being healthy and happy.

I have made some really huge life altering decisions in the past 2 months.  And life is changing, and I am happier, and healthier, and things are looking so good to me.

Change is scary, and can be very hard to do.  There is no doubt about that.  But embracing the changes I needed to make, and being my normal stubborn self, my life has greatly improved.  I put so much more trust in God, than I knew I was capable of.  I still feel like somehow I have control over everything, and get arrogant enough to think I can outsmart Him and do it my own way.  But I am really putting all my effort into putting all my faith in Him and giving my entire life to Him.  Saying the prayer "Your will be done" and trusting  His decision for the next step in my life, helped me let go of all my fear and worry.  Knowing that He has forgiven me for all the mistakes I have made, and all the bad choices.  And that He will always be there loving and forgiving me, even when I don't love or forgive myself.

For a long time I was arrogant, I thought well that could never happen to me, I am healthy.  I had no idea that my body was on the way to betraying me, after I had betrayed it for so long.  I never expected to go to the doctor and get all the bad news, that I received   I had no clue I was so sick, when i thought i felt just fine.

My dad told me, that he knows I can change my life, that i can make it all better.  He told me, I am strong willed and stubborn, and if i can accomplish all that I accomplished through my photography, he knew I could do whatever I set my mind to.  He told me to just put all the effort into myself, that I put into my photography, and I will see big differences in my life.  Knowing that my dad has faith in me, has probably been the thing that kept me going the most.  I promised him, I would fix this.  I have only made 2 promises to my dad in my life.  The first one, was to quit hurting myself, when I was a teenager.  I saw the pain in his eyes, after he learned of my nasty little secret.  And I never hurt myself again after that.  I guess this new promise is kind of the same.  I promised to heal my body, and live a long happy life.  Because I heard the pain in his voice, when I told him my diagnoses.

Its been 6 weeks, since i decided to make a change.  I have lost 23 lbs, got my blood pressure under complete control, all my other blood levels came down to a normal level(sugar, cholesterol), and my heart is doing really well.  I still have surgery to look forward to, but i can go into the surgery now, knowing im healthy enough to go under the knife.  And its really just the beginning for me.  Not only am I eating healthy, but I work out almost every night.  I love working out.  I love the way it makes me feel, i love the energy i get from it, i love the tension release.  I love just turning on my playlist and hitting it hard, til im sweaty and out of breath.  But most of all, I love watching my heart rate.  It never gets too high, no matter how hard I push myself, and it recovers so quickly now.  I can retain a normal heart rate in less than 30 seconds!

I am trying not to take anything for granted, trying to put all my faith in God, and trying to be the very best person I can be.  I guess those are the keys to true happiness.

Disney World 2013. Day 1 So magical!

Here you leave today and enter the world of Yesterday, Tomorrow, and Fantasy.

That little plaque, having above the entryway to Magic Kingdom really says it all.  Entering, you leave behind the real world.  And when leaving and entering back into the real world, is almost a culture shock.

Disney World is our vacation of choice, in this house.  If we are not at Disney World, we are planning our next trip there.  We already have the next 2 trips in the planning phase.  I dont know if its a sickness, addiction, or just a deep love and appreciation for the magic within.  My first trip to any disney park, was in 2006, when my daughter was 1 1\2.  We took her to Disneyland, Ca, on a trip out west to visit family.  This trip was good, but it wasnt until 2008 when we visited Walt Disney World, Fl, that we became true Disney enthusiasts.  We make it a point to try and get a trip every single year.  

Our last trip, was less than magical for me. I was in a pretty bad place in my life. The trip brought more dread than joy.  This trip however, I was determined to have a great time.  We planned out the whole trip, made reservations, put aside some extra spending money, and basically prepared in every way we could think of.  Including going to walks, to get our bodies ready for the hours on your feet every day.  We got a pretty awesome deal on the hotel, and upgraded to a moderate resort.  It was a first time at a moderate! We chose a Royal Room, at Port Orleans Riverside.  

The hotel was fantastic, they really make you feel at home.  My daughter loved the fiber optics in the headboard, and the magical Genie lamp facet in the bathroom.  I loved the waterslide and hot tub at the pool area.   My husband, well he loved the whole experiance.  It was so fun to watch him go down the water slide like a big kid! He can be too much of a grown up sometimes, and its so nice to watch him unwind, relax, and just be a kid again.  Our first day there, we had a cast member sing HAPPY ANNIVERSARY, over his loud speaker, and another cast member stopped to give my daughter 5 packs of mardi gras beads.  

Our first day in the parks, we decided to go visit Epcot.  Disney is having "limited time magic" and our first day, was the last day of Epcots special magic.  Epcot was having a winter wonderland in the Canada pavilion, and we were headed over to see the snow, and special characters.  On the way around the world, we stopped at a pin vendor, to buy some collectors pins.  We stepped to the side to admire our purchases, when these HUGE doors open just to the side of us.  I had no idea what was happening, because usually when giant doors open, there is a parade coming.  Seeing as though there is no parade at Epcot, i was shocked at what I did see.  

A courtyard filled with characters.  We didnt stop and visit them all, because we knew we would see big names like Minnie, and Pluto, at some of our Character meals. We did however, make sure to stop and see the less seen of the Disney faces. Max, and Goofy. Baloo and King Louie from Jungle book. Stitch, because he is my absolute favorite! Wendell from Country bears, Mr Penguin from Mary Poppins, Genie from Aladdin, and Turk from Tarzan, just to name a few.  Raffiki was also there, but my daughter wasnt really interested in him.  the doors were open for about 10 minutes before they closed them off to the public.  It truly was a perfect timing situation for us! 

Compared to what we just experienced  Disneys limited time scheduled magic, just didnt seem as extraordinary.  But it was still neat seeing the snow, and winter dressed characters all together.

I was so happy, and filled with the spirit of disney magic.  I walked around the whole day with a goofy grin on my face.  I knew the rest of the vacation had better be pretty awesome to live up to this day.  

2013

Its a new year, and like most of us out there, I have plans for changes in my life.  Last year, I spent a very good portion of my life stressed out!  In an effort to find some semblance of peace, I kept trying to change things and alter reality.  It didnt work.  It really took me stepping back from everything, just stopping, and breathing.  In the end I found what I was looking for, I found my answers.  I had to stop trying to make things MY WAY and let God show me His way.

Going into 2013 I felt at peace.  I knew what I wanted out of this coming year.  I knew what God had meant for me to do.  I have said in the past, that God gave me this gift (photography) I am going to give it back to the world.  That means not worrying about money, and appointments, and success.  It means finding the beauty God put into this world.  Beauty in people, and nature.

I have been so blessed in my life, and have taken it for granted.  I plan on passing the blessings along this year.  Sharing my gift, and my love with all those around me.

My first time. Sneads Asparagus Farm

Since this is only our 2nd Christmas in Virginia, we still havent quite found "our places".  Back in Michigan we had a place to go buy pumpkins, a place to go cut down our Christmas tree, a place to pick apples.  We had places we went religiously for all occasions.  Some of these places are places I grew up going, and some   are places we found together as a family.  I admit it is hard leaving all you have ever known, and having to start fresh.  Last Christmas we had no clue where to go, and very little money to work with.  So we went to the local nursery and picked a pre-cut tree.  It was a pretty tree, and did its purpose, but a big part of the fun of Christmas is searching through fields of trees, finding the perfect one and chopping it down yourself.  Getting all covered in tree sap, getting needles in your gloves, and your hair.  I love it!

This year we discovered Snead's Asparagus Farm.  At first I was afraid to go there, because of the name. How could an Asparagus farm have great Christmas trees?  Well let me tell you, they have BEAUTIFUL TREES!  The whole property is beautiful! and they let you roam about it, as you wish!  I even heard Mr Snead say to his friend "there is a special jail for people like us, people who let strangers invade their property and not care"

The first thing that struck me was that its just that A FARM! I love farms.  I have always wanted to live on a farm.  We were greeted by Mr Snead himself, who told us the lay of the land, and invited us to wander about on our own.  And if he wasn't around when we got done, just drop our payment in the box by the porch.  A man who trusts the honor system in this crazy world we live in, is a hard man to find!

Aside from Mr Snead, we were also greeted by 5 beautiful dogs.  English shepard dogs, I believe.  Two of the dogs even followed us into the forest of trees, ball in mouth, trying to play catch with my daughter.  I later found out, while talking to Mr Snead, that only 4 of the dogs are his. Apparently one of the beautiful dogs, is a lost dog.  His dogs are so well known, someone found this beautiful girl, and thought she was his.  He is keeping her safe, until they find her real owners.

Then we happen upon an old train car, or semi car, filled with chickens!  It made me smile, because I grew up around birds.  My Grandfather, who lived down the street from us, raised chickens, pheasents, pigeons, and whatever other birds he could find.  Seeing chickens in a field of Christmas trees, makes me happy!

Along with the chickens and dogs, they also have horses and other animals.  I was looking too hard at the horses, when I tripped and fell over a metal box in the ground.  I hurt my ankle pretty bad, so I didnt get to fully explore all there was to see.  But from what I understand there may also be other animals back there.

Our daughter discovered the play house, decorated to look like a gingerbread house, the teepee and the tire/horse swings.

Then after all this, we still found our perfect tree.  Honestly its the best tree we have ever chopped down.  Its so big and full and perfect!

 It was an amazing experiance.  Im so happy to found "our place" to buy Christmas trees from.  I am pretty sure we will also make this our Pumpkin place, and maybe even our asparagus place!  I told Mr Snead we were going to set up a tent at the back of the property and just live there.  In which he replied " I was just saying yesterday, all you need in this country is a piece of land and a dream"

True Meaning of Christmas

  There are alot of things through life, that change what Christmas means to you.  Growing up and someone telling you Santa isnt real, Having a family of your own to create new traditions, losing a loved one, or even moving far away.  All these things can change Christmas' meaning in your heart.
  When my mom told me Santa isnt real, I remember crying my eyes out.  It broke my heart, and Christmas didnt mean as much to me since it lost its magic.  Until one cold Christmas Eve, a knock came on our door around midnight.  We opened the door to see a porch full of Christmas presents.  I was a teenager, and somehow I found the spirit of Santa still lived in my heart.   We werent very well off growing up, and that Christmas is one that I remember most.  Years following, when we were a little better off financially, we acted as Santa to other families.

  When my husband and I celebrated our first Christmas together Christmas again changed.  We decorated our little apartment with tinsel and lights, and started our own family traditions.  Joining 2 families, and 2 very different set of traditions has changed Christmas for both of us.  He has always believed a star should top the tree, and I always want my Angel atop the tree.  I have never seen a real Christmas tree, and he demanded we buy a fresh cut tree.  So now with our daughter joined in, we put our traditions together and create something that is uniquely us.  We cut down our own tree, and put an angel atop.  We decorate like the Grizwolds, and always try to give back to other families.  I wrap the gifts with colorful paper, and he follows in his Grandma's traditions and puts ribbon and bows on afterward.

                                                

  When my mother passed away 2 years ago, I never thought I could find magic in Christmas again.  She loved Christmas more than anyone.  Her birthday is just days before Christmas.  She always made Christmas a magical time for us.  Moving away last year from the only place I have ever known as home (Michigan) made the holidays even harder.  But When we were driving home this past Wednesday to Celebrate the holidays in Michigan, it all made sense.  We listened to Christmas songs as we drove.  Songs like "I'll be home for Christmas", "White Christmas", and "There's no place like home, for the holidays" all of a sudden meant so much more to me.  Driving across the country to visit family, to share a meal with.  Seeing snow on the ground.  Spending time with your loved ones. Giving someone a little piece of Christmas spirit.   Its all magical.  Its all wonderful.  Its all the meaning of Christmas.