Week 24 in Pictures

Is it just me or do these weeks seem to be flying by?  We were pretty busy this past week preparing for Vacation Bible School, which is next week.  A friend loaned me her Silhouette machine to cut out a gazillion shapes that we need, which really helped.  She was sunning herself on a beach somewhere so she didn't need her machine.  :)  I almost hate to give it back because it is pretty cool, but I sold my Cricut machine a while back because I didn't use it.  So what would I do with a Silhouette?  Besides, I'd rather save my money to buy a new lens.  :)

We're also adapting ourselves to Doug's new Monday-Friday daylight schedule.  As you can imagine, it isn't really that hard.  :)  He surprises me some days with how early he gets home.  And he's getting lots of stuff done around here.  Except that back splash in the kitchen.  Not that I don't keep asking.  :)  I'm really hoping we get it done soon so I can show my before/after photos of our kitchen.  I could show them now, but I really want the kitchen to be completely done before I do.

Anyway, let's look at what I photographed last week ...

{Sunday}

After having five Monarch caterpillars die due to parasites, we finally had one successfully form its chrysalis!  Yay!  That's reason enough to celebrate!  Here's hoping it makes it to butterflyness!  (The chrysalis is now getting dark so we're hoping for a butterfly soon.)

{Monday}

The local fire department came to fill up our pool today.  Even though the water was freezing and it wasn't super warm outside and it was raining, the kids still got in to swim.  They are so excited to have a pool this summer.





{Tuesday}

After realizing I hadn't photographed anything yet today and it was getting late in the day, Nick and I walked around looking for something to photograph.  We came across these daisies that the sun was hitting just right.  Linking up with and then, she {snapped} ... 


    


{Wednesday}

We took advantage of the not-so-hot day and our membership and visited the zoo again.  While visiting the sea lions, they seemed very interested in Alex and the apple he was eating.  It was so fun to watch them interact.


{Thursday}

Nick found this little bird in the yard that didn't move away when he got close.  So he came and asked me to bring my camera.  It still didn't move when we all approached it.  We were even able to pick the little guy up.  I actually think it might be blind because its eyes look very strange.  Of course, they wanted to keep it.  And of course I wouldn't let them.  And I made them go wash their hands 18,000 times.  :)


{Friday}

Doug decided to try the pool.  He's threatening to splash me if I don't stop taking his picture.  :)


{Saturday}

My nieces, Jordan and Christy, came over to swim with my kids today.  Every time Christy got out her little teeth were chattering and she was covered in goose bumps.  But after a few minutes of warming up, she'd get right back in the pool.  She loved it!





Have a great week!

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Week 3 in pictures

Near the end of 2011 when I was reaching the end of my second year of Project 365, I was determined I wasn't going to do another year.  I mean, what could I possibly photograph that I hadn't already?  But I'm really glad I decided to go ahead with another year.  It gives me the incentive I need to pick up my camera every day.  Especially on gray, gloomy days like today when the last thing I want to do is take pictures.  I enjoy the growth I'm seeing in my photos - the getting it right (or at least better) IN camera, which requires less editing on my part.  Editing is not high on my list of favorite things to do.  I get bored with it pretty quickly.  And no one likes to do something boring, right?  :)

Anyway, you're not here to read my ramblings, so on with the photos!

{Sunday}

Alex had a blast trying out his new snowboard.  He fell off a lot, but he kept right on trying.

This is my "active" photo for Inspire Me's Be Inspired Project.

{Monday}

I had to go grocery shopping this week since Doug has been working so many hours (he's usually the one to do our "big" shopping each week).  While at the store I treated myself to a bouquet of flowers.  Unfortunately all they had were different colored daisies.  Now I love daisies, but I was hoping for more variety.  Maybe this week.  :)

{Tuesday}

Just playing around with Keira's nail polishes and my 50mm lens.  One of the other photos I took of them ended up in this week's Scavenger Hunt.

{Wednesday}

I dusted off my sewing machine to do a little mending.  One of my goals for 2012 is to learn how to sew and actually finish making something.  I don't know what yet.

{Thursday}

I put another bird feeder right outside my office window in the hopes that I could get a closer photo of some birds.  This little guy popped in for a snack just as I was sitting down at my computer and he stuck around long enough for me to capture him.

{Friday}

It is a rare thing for me to be up when the sun is rising.  Especially when the kids have a 2-hour delay for school.  But this day I was up.  If only for a few minutes to take a couple photos then go back to bed.  :)  We may not have had a beautiful sunset this week, but the sunrise was pretty spectacular.  I'm glad I got up for it.

This is my "start of the day" photo for P366 Rewind's challenge.

 
{Saturday}

We got a few inches of fluffy snow Thursday night/Friday morning.  Then late Friday night another front came through that dumped another five inches or so.  This time it was wet, heavy snow.  Once we finished shoveling out the driveway (took me almost 2 hours!  man, are my shoulders sore!), we had some fun sledding in the back yard.  Then later in the day we went to a friend's house and did some more sledding (those photos coming soon).

This is my "I dreamed a dream" photo for My 3 Boybarians P52 challenge.  I dream of the day when all three kids and the dog will cooperate and look at and smile for the camera.  :)

On another note, I may not be around too much for the next couple weeks.  We are remodeling our kitchen (YAY!) and I have some serious, um, reorganizing to do to prepare.  This has been a long time coming and I'm so looking forward to having the kitchen done.  It is the room you walk into when you enter our home and it is truly the ugliest kitchen ever.  Literally falling apart.  (You'll see that when I post the before/after pictures). But since it is the most-expensive room to do, we saved it until last.  We now have enough money saved up to do it, so we'll have a new kitchen and NO DEBT when it is all done.  That's the only way to go!  I'm so excited!


I could also use some crock pot recipes since I suspect my stove will be out of commission for a while and we don't want to order pizza every day.  Not that the kids would mind.  :)  So if you have a great crock pot recipe that you'd like to share, please do!  If it is a link, you can share it in the comments.  Otherwise shoot me an email ... kvensel {at} gmail {dot} com.  Thank you!!!


Have a fabulous week!  Go take lots of pictures!

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Wild & Wonderful Wednesday #10

Hello!  And welcome to another Wild & Wonderful Wednesday!


Well, we have been praying for snow.  Not because we need any additional precipitation, because we've had plenty of rain lately.  But because this is winter.  And when you live in Pennsylvania, you expect snow in the winter.  And in the fall.  And in the spring.  :)  But aside from a few brief snow showers here and there, nothing has really stuck around for long.

Until now.


It started snowing yesterday and continued overnight.  We woke up this morning to a good 6 inches of snow on the ground.  However, there was no school delay, which really surprised me since it was only about 16 degrees when Keira had to catch the bus.  I was pretty excited about the snow until I went outside and felt just how cold it was.  :)


But out I went anyway.  To help Doug shovel/sweep the driveway and to snap a few pictures, of course.

Honey, being the snow dog that she is, was in her glory.  She LOVES the snow.  It doesn't matter how cold it is, she wants to go out and play.  So we did.  A little.

     

Alex was having fun helping sweep the porch.  Once he pushed all the snow off, he jumped in the pile he made ... naturally!

The wind would whip the snow up from time to time.  And the sun was in and out all day.

Once he was done sweeping, Alex decided to go make a snow angel.  I don't know what Honey was doing.  Making sure he did it right, maybe?  

Alex asked me to photograph his angel.  He did pretty well!

Later in the day Honey and I went for a brief walk.  Brief ... because the wind was really blowing and my fingers were freezing pretty quickly.  It is really hard to change your camera settings when you can't feel your fingers.  :)  Even with two pairs of gloves on.


Right now the thermometer reads 7 degrees, which is kind of funny because the low for today was supposed to be 14 degrees.  Tomorrow is supposed to be a more tolerable 31 degrees, so hopefully we'll get outside to play some more.

Now it is your turn!  Link up your Wild & Wonderful photos below.  

Just a few things first ...

1.  Grab my button for your post and link up below (or at least use a text link) so others can find out about Wild & Wonderful Wednesday.  (I reserve the right to delete links that don't follow this one simple rule.  K?  Thanks.).

2.  Link up your post URL (or Flickr photo URL), not your blog URL.

3.  Photos must be yours please.

4.  Try to visit and comment on a few other linker uppers (mine too please!  It is just rude to link up and not comment, don'tcha think?).  We know how much everyone loves comments!  

5.  You have until Saturday at midnight to link up!

<center><a href="http://kimberlysperspective.blogspot.com/"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfwwyaMEvjZkk1W2QvexI3Mq6nMxsLltPDHIZ9MGgTqe6vRUdZBrqjZkUU5MSlwqcNCqKkln6_IfbLazBDkdcnTctpPuYXZ1vFqN06YX7wkpoTJiIkvHB0dH7VlNb3nMGT-3GxFBHjrk0Q/s1600/Wild-and-wonderful-wednesda.jpg"/></a></center>

I will do my best to visit each of you this week.  I do always try, but sometimes life just gets in the way.  Please know that I appreciate each and every one of you that link up with me each week!


Also linking up with these lovely ladies ...

               

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Christmas Bokeh

Doug bought me a bouquet of flowers the other day and I finally had a chance to photograph them.  Or at least one of them.  :)

I've been playing around with shooting in B&W instead of always converting to B&W in processing.  This started as B&W and then I added a layer of light purple at about 70% opacity.

             Be sure to check out the Holiday Bokeh Party & Giveaways @my3boybarians - link up for a chance to win some great prizes! Tracey picked this as one of her Top 5 favorites this week!And this photo was picked a favorite at Earth Wonders!

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Gratefulness ... Edited

Happy Thanksgiving!  We're probably stuffing our faces with turkey and all the fixings right about now.  Enjoying our families and counting our blessings.  So I'll get right to my edits.

If you missed my SOOC shots, you can view them here.  I'm being lazy and not adding them to this post.  :)

I did all the usual stuff, clean edit in ACR, slight adjustments where needed.  Then I like to use The CoffeeShop Blog's Baby PowderRoom action for the eye define layer, so I did that on each.  Erased a few blemishes and cropped the last photo to remove Honey's leg.  :)  Some sharpening and that's it!  I love that my SOOC shots are getting better and require less editing!


I hope you are all having a wonderful Thanksgiving no matter what you are doing!

Linking up the last photo to show off your shot.

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