Spring in Bellevue

Perspective: Spring at Vanderbilt

Photography is more about creativity and perspective than equipment or "skill." The photographer's eye is trained to aim from artistic angles to capture depth in a flat frame... trained to compose a photo so that the simplest of subjects can be interesting... The great photographer's mind is bright and ever active.

Oh to be...

I am blessed to study on such a beautiful campus!

Love love love the cherry blossoms!!!

God is the master artist!!!

Love photos of things in a row for some reason... I always think that there is meaning in seeing the whole picture instead of focusing on the one tree or "thing" in front of you...

Finally learned how to focus and blur the background!

These next shots make me nostalgic in advance... these are my final days in school! (probably forever!!!)

I am such a HUGE fan of cherry blossoms and dogwoods... Shameful that we only have them for a short time at the beginning of the year.

This is depth.

Love Lesson from Lombard Rd.

This weekend I let my photography-bug run wild as my Honey and I traveled to Cousin Frank's for pre-marital counseling and family time... Here are the fruits of my hard labor :) Can't wait to see my improvement at the end of this ten week photography class!

My favorite take-aways from our first session left me feeling more confident that taking this "plunge" is a gift from God. To find a companion who doesn't complete you, but instead adds to your completeness and loves your soul, not just your physical appearance and temporal beauty....wow. It's breath-taking... I'm thinking of all the ways that I can do little things that aren't expected of me so that Chris always knows how much I cherish being his wife (in THIRTY FOUR DAYS!!!)

Can you tell? I'm just a tad excited to marry this man!

Art

December to Remember!

From my fabulous German Chocolate Cupcakes (delicious and baked with love by my honey).... to Mexican themed Christmas dinner, this has certainly been a December to remember. Here are a few of my favorite photos from Christmas 2010.

This year has had its ups and downs... Thank God that the good days have outweighed the bad days. He is SO good to me! Earlier this week, I prayed "Lord, just make everything alright..." and HE DID! He always does...


As I go into 2011 (a truly exciting year for me), I'm inspired to take the lessons and laughs only... I'm leaving the bad days where they are - in the past.


What will you carry with you? Stress? Old drama? Let it go... Live, love, and laugh often (there is a reason that expression is trite... it's a pretty great recipe for happiness).

He adds hot sauce... I add PEACH SALSA!

My little lesson this week was to [try to] savor the moments when my Mr. is away.... YES, savoring is better than sulking. This time that he left town for a few short days, I pulled out my recipe book and started looking for recipes that pulled me in. Sometimes, the dishes that combine fruits and vegetables turn him off... so what better time to try them?

I settled on Peach Salsa, a delicious cure for almost any bland dish... and its full of fruits and veggies! I love this dish because it adds color to every plate of food... My mama was always an advocate of pretty plating. She'd say, the first test of good food is visual appeal.

So.... I'll stop selling and just tell you what I did.

Chopped lots of tomatoes (about 6 or 7 roma tomatoes to be exact...)

Then added some chopped peaches, onions, green pepps, and even some chopped pears...

All together, then I added a dash of lime juice, orange juice, ginger, curry seasoning, salt, and two cups of sugar (little brown and little white granulated)...

Brought it to a boil, then let it simmer for an hour and a half...

 <-- and this is the finished product!

Even better over pan seared Tilapia! Yum! After all that, of course I offered a taste to the Mr. ... he still prefers hot sauce but I got a "that's pretty good" out of him.

Paint play...

For over a year now I have learned to love painting. I can think of a thousand excuses for not seriously studying art or exploring with my talent more - too busy, too broke (as long as I am a student I will always be too broke....). At the end of the day painting for me is still just "play." And for now, I am ok with that.

One day it won't be enough that I have never tried to paint with oil. I will not always be satisfied that when I try to paint a person, the face ends up looking cartoon-y. One day I will force myself to endure and be patient and not play....

But for now, its my fun little escape. And... that's ok. How do you like my cartoon-y lemonade girl?