Friday, December 28, 2012

A Manger and Snowflakes

I took a few pictures of my Christmas manger scene, and several of the snowflakes gracing our Christmas tree.  My mom gave me the manger figurines, which are papier-mâché and belonged to my grandmother.  She had purchased them from a Ben Franklin; are those stores even around any more?



I love the snowflake ornaments on our Christmas tree.  I've been collecting them for a number of years, and hope to have the tree completely decked out with them one day.  I also collect glass icicle ornaments, but have just five or six of those.  They are definitely treasured!

The below snowflake is one of about ten, and they're new this year!  Fernando bought them on our trip to Wisconsin with friends to purchase a Christmas tree.  They're actually gold, but in this image are reflecting the pink hues of the lights.



The below snowflake is one of six or seven which were the first of my collection.




In addition to the snowflakes on the tree, I have snowflakes gracing my fireplace mantel.  We decorate the mantel with branches cut off the lower trunk of our Christmas tree (disposable decoration!), then randomly place on it some crocheted snowflakes given to me by my mom.  We also place a few red bows, add a candle in the center of the mantel, and everything looks Christmas-y.


And finally--it snowed this morning (the morning of this post)!!!  It has since stopped, but at least we received a dusting of white.  *happiness*


Treasuring life's moments,
Christine

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Monday, December 24, 2012

Project 2012 -- Week 51

Project 2012 -- Week 51
December 16-22


Welcome to my Project 2012 weekly post!  This is my time to look back over the past week, 
choose seven favorite images I've taken, and share them here with you.  
If you have a project you're working on, please leave a comment 
so I can visit your blog and see what you're up to!



Wow--I almost didn't take any pictures this past week!  Almost.  It's kind of nice that business slows way down for me during this time, so all my focus can be on my family, my home, and the Lord at His birth.

These biscuits will probably make it on my family blog in the form of a recipe.  They were tasty, though a little dry due to my overbaking them.

[351] Garlic parsley biscuits

This picture of me is cheating for Project 2012--Danny took it.  :)

[352] Christmas me

Sometimes the sunsets out my kitchen window are fantastic, even with power lines and telephone poles.  You have to get creative with the camera to capture them properly.

[353] Another suburban sunset

Then it was back to my beloved macro lens to capture some images from our Christmas tree.  The figurines in the manger scene below are from my grandmother; she purchased them from a Ben Franklin store a looooong time ago.  (Are those stores even around anymore??)

[354] Manger scene

[355] Snowflake sparkle

[356] Red snowflake

This year, I've been using 3M poster strips--they attach paper to wall (or other surface), then are easily removed without damaging the surface.  Yep, there's my plug for 3M Command Adhesive, lol.  It's so fun to decorate with people's greeting cards and pictures!  (Oh, and I love the bokeh!)

[357] Christmas greetings

If I don't post tomorrow, Merry Christmas!


Treasuring life's moments,
Christine

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Wednesday, December 19, 2012

Winter Stroll

Knoch Knolls Park.  I've visited there before (see here and here).  Now, on a warm Sunday afternoon at the beginning of December, Fernando and I decided to take a stroll down some of the paths here.  The scenery did not disappoint, even at the beginning of winter.

Looking across the bridge

I spied a fisherman fly-fishing in the river!


I think the below image is worthy of a card.  I may just have some printed.




I'm not a big fan of shooting into the sun, although some photographer achieve great results using this effect.  I must say, though, that the below image turned out beautifully!


I took several shots of the sun as it set.  I just couldn't choose one; the colors were so pretty on this winter day, and the trees stood as stark spindly shadows against the light spread across the sky.






We headed a little farther along the path, then turned around and retraced our steps.



In one clearing, there were picnic tables and a chiminea backing to the woods.


We came to the wooden footbridge across the river, and it presented a pretty scene.


At the middle of the footbridge, the view was sweet and peaceful.


Looking in the other direction, the other bridge stood out against the colors of the setting sun.


I think that I've collected several images which will be turned into cards.  *happy smile*


Treasuring life's moments,
Christine

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Monday, December 17, 2012

Introducing Misses J and M

In preparation for this portrait session, I purchased two wooden letters from Hobby Lobby.


Now, I'm not a creative person, as far as decorating and crafts go, but I figured two wooden stained letters would be cute.  At the actual portrait session, I set everything up:  apple basket, blanket, real apples, and finally, the two letters.


Well, that was sure cute!  But it'd be much cuter with two cuties inside the basket.  Which is what I did.


Miss M leaned over a little, with her head resting on her sister.  It turned out to be, I think, the cutest shot of the day!


We got the girls situated in their Bumbo seats (I'm going to have to invest in those!) and proceeded to spend a bunch of time trying to get them not only to look in the same direction, but to smile.  Boy, was that hard!




Their mom wanted some shots of them on the couch, so we used another blanket and tried to get them to smile.  I kept the below shot for fun--don't you just love how babies love their fingers?  :)


The below shot was our best effort while they were on the couch.  I think these girls are adorable!



This was one of the most fun portrait sessions I've had in a while!  The babies were so easy to work with, and even though we all worked hard to get them to smile, we got some beautiful images.


Treasuring life's moments,
Christine

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Project 2012 -- Week 50

Project 2012 -- Week 50
December 9-15


Welcome to my Project 2012 weekly post!  This is my time to look back over the past week, 
choose seven favorite images I've taken, and share them here with you.  
If you have a project you're working on, please leave a comment 
so I can visit your blog and see what you're up to!



What a busy week!  I wasn't caught up in Christmas stuff, necessarily, but I was busy with lots of other things.  I've gotten used to using my 50mm lens for shooting, but I seriously miss my basic lens.  I'll definitely need another lens next year, as shooting a wedding may officially be on my calendar!

The below is my phone upgrade.  Going from my beloved, but dying, flip phone to a smart phone was a huge step for me, a super-non-techy person.  But after about ten days with my new phone (as of today), I find that I'm loving it.  I do very basic things on the Internet--email, Facebook, and Pinterest--and I can access all of those from my phone.  Although, there's nothing like an actual keyboard under one's fingers.  :)

[344] My phone is smart!

My cayenne turned out nice and red this year!  It made for some very pretty cayenne pepper flakes.  The process:  cayenne plant, pick peppers, string and dry, cut stems off, process with stick blender, store.  Yum!

[345] Cayenne pepper

One really, really nice feature of my 50mm lens:  an f/1.4 aperture!  On a whim one night, I experimented with bokeh.  For some reason, Danny decided to cover himself with a blanket.  *goofy*

[346] Fun with bokeh

Well, it was a bunch of hype, but since Fernando happened to be home for lunch on Tuesday, 12/12/12, we set up the camera with the timer and captured a shot at 12:12pm.

[347] 12:12 on 12/12/12

Thomas is a goofy young man.  However, he's a great thinker and sometimes uses his noggin to design some very interesting things.

[348] K'nex crossbow

There's a wedding coming up, and I'm actually thinking ahead for it--though not much!  A gift--ack!  But at least I took some pictures and will use one of them, probably this one below, to create wedding cards.

[349] Wedding lace

Finally, I did spend time on one Christmas item--making cookies for our church's Christmas Hymn Sing on Saturday night.  I found a friend's photocopied recipe for cream cheese spritz cookies.  I had never made them, so decided to try it.  I have a Pampered Chef cookie press, and the cookies turned out beautifully.  Here they are, below, waiting their turn in the oven.

[350] Spritz cookies

Life has taken a sudden turn this past weekend, and many things may be changing for my family and me.  I'm so glad that I have peace through Jesus, His gift of salvation, and the rock solid assurance that my Father in heaven has my life and times in His hand.  I'll share more as events unfold, I promise.  Please have a beautiful week in the Lord!


Treasuring life's moments,
Christine

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Monday, December 10, 2012

Project 2012 -- Week 49

Project 2012 -- Week 49
December 2-8


Welcome to my Project 2012 weekly post!  This is my time to look back over the past week, 
choose seven favorite images I've taken, and share them here with you.  
If you have a project you're working on, please leave a comment 
so I can visit your blog and see what you're up to!



The week started off gloriously warm, in the upper 60s.  This is not normal for Chicagoland, but after last years very weird winter, I no longer rule anything out.  Fernando and I took advantage of a beautiful late afternoon by strolling through Knoch Knolls Park.  Again, my 50mm lens is pretty much what I use for all my shooting now, until I can obtain a new lens.  It's still challenging, but I'm learning how to frame my images better, especially the scenic ones where I'm limited as to what I can capture.

[337] River in evening sun

[338] Sunset through the trees

When Joseph and I went in to Oberweis to pick up milk for the week, I noticed a turnstile of recipe cards.  One for eggnog cookies caught my eye, so we thought we'd try making them for a get-together at the end of the week.

[339] Cookie time

[340] Eggnog cookies

The recipe said that I could roll out the dough and cut out the cookies, but it didn't say I needed to refrigerate the dough.  A little internet research helped me out, and the cookies were gorgeous.  Yeah, they also tasted good.  They were soft, and tasted sort of like a sugar cookie, but with a hint of nutmeg.  I don't like eggnog, but these cookies were good.

The next images are from the luncheon that a Godly lady from our church hosted for ladies and young ladies.  Eight of us packed our Suburban to make the hour-long drive down to Lori's home.  She really likes the beach, the ocean, and everything about them, and her home reflected that love.  She and her husband have six sons, too!

[341] Ladies lunchon

[342] Christmas table

[343] Plate of food

The food was outstanding, and I came home with memories of a beautiful afternoon, awesome food, great conversation, wonderful fellowship, and Christmas carols sung in our car.


Treasuring life's moments,
Christine

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