Bread of Life

I made some Italian herb bread in round loaves.  They were as yummy as they were beautiful.

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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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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Project 2012 -- Week 47

Project 2012 -- Week 47

November 18-24

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!

Thanksgiving week is a huge photo producer in my world, and this year was even bigger.  Jacob came home from school, we baked and cooked together, our family celebrated Thanksgiving, we went Christmas-tree-hunting with friends, and finally ended the week with a little house decorating.

We started the week with a get-together so that Jacob could spend the afternoon after church with his buddies.  This is how they started their afternoon:

[323] Boys will be boys

Jacob also helped me bake pies all afternoon Tuesday.  I glanced over at one point to see this:

[324] When boys are baking

The day before Thanksgiving looked like this:

[325] Autumn fog

Here's one image I took on Thanksgiving day, at my parents' new home.

[326] Thanksgiving table

Our friends have invited us for three years now to go up to Wisconsin with them to cut down our own Christmas tree.  We have so much fun together!

[327] Christmas tree farm

Tree-cutting was short this year due to the 18-degree temps (with wind chill).  We warmed up in the car, though, on the way to the Mouse House!

[328] Mouse House

I took the below shot through my car window on the way home.  The sun was so pretty shining through the clouds!

[329] Wisconsin landscape

You may recall that my 17-55mm lens went kaput last week.  All of the images I've taken since then have been with my 50mm lens.  Using one fixed lens has been extremely challenging, and sometimes frustrating, but mostly rewarding.  I've really been stretched, but I'm also desperately trying to figure out how to afford a new lens before Christmas--there are so many picture-taking opportunities coming up!


Treasuring life's moments,
Christine

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Project 2012 -- Week 45

Project 2012 -- Week 45

November 4-10

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!

This was another restful week, with one big shock at the end--I think my 17-85mm lens is permanently on strike.  After doing a Littles Portrait Session with my 50mm lens, I tried to take some sunset pictures with my 17-85mm, and received an "Error 01" message that the lens was failing to communicate with the camera.  That had happened once or twice recently, but but was always resolved with turning the camera off/on.  I've tried the lens several times since that sunset, and it's a no-go.  It is my kit lens, and the lens I use for everyday shooting--which, as you know, I do a lot of.  Sorry to whine here!  But, I'm about to research getting a new lens, and soon so I can keep up with my skills, my blogs, etc.

Okay, I've ranted and now it's time for pictures!

This first one is not the actual ballot; our county provides sample ballots online, and we printed several out to go over and mark up so we were ready to vote.

[309] Voting Day

[310] First presidential election

Danny (above) was excited to vote in his first presidential election.  He wasn't so excited to learn the next day that every candidate we voted for lost.  We were redistricted into a liberal district, and now have liberals representing us at all levels of government--from local to national.  Welcome to Illinois politics.

I've been "downsizing" my spices, using smaller jars for those spices I use less frequently, in order to make room for all the jars on my little spice rack.  I've still got some jars on the top of the rack, but it's working pretty well so far.

[311] Spice rack

Here's the larger view:

[312] Kitchen spices

I found a bag of Andes mint chunks in the freezer, and figured I'd better make some cookies with them.  This was the recipe on the back of the bag, and they are dee-lish.  (It was a basic chocolate chip recipe, using the mint chunks instead of chips.)

[313] Mint chip cookies

Remember the "M" and "J" letters from my last Project 2012 post?  I stained them and brushed a cost of polyurethane on, and here they are below all set up at the C. home, ready for twin girls!  Yes, the apples are real--I'd rather have real props if I can, and don't they look just lovely?  I can't wait to show you the images from the shoot--I got some beautiful shots!

[314] Portrait props

Right after the above portrait session, I drove over to a nearby park to catch what was going to be a spectacular sunset.  Kit lens on, click the lens--error message.  I already ranted about it above, so no re-hashing it here.  I stuck my 50mm on and captured this shot--still beautiful, though not as wide-angle as I would've liked.

[315] Sunset at the park

All in all, some basic and regular shots this week.  I'm learning to trust the Lord with my photography--both professionally (try shooting natural light on a dark, stormy afternoon in a back living room!) and personally (my all-around kit lens...).  He knows what's best, and I'm trying to trust Him for a solution.

Here's to this upcoming week, for both you and me!  May our cameras be trusty, and our pictures be inspiring.


Treasuring life's moments,
Christine

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P-2012 Week 10 -- March 4-10

Project 2012 -- Week 10

March 4 - March 10

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My Week 10 Photos

I had the opportunity for two outings this past week! The week started out with a warm-up, then ended on a cold note with yet another warm-up.  I had an hour to myself the first time, and a date with Fernando on the second.

For my first outing, I drove over to Whalon Lake to sit at the pier and enjoy the (super windy) lake.  There wasn't too much to take pictures of, but I got a few nice ones, such as the below.

 [64] Pier at Whalon Lake

Once it turned colder, I was indoors and happy to spend an afternoon baking bread for my family.

[65] Bread loaves

My photography class was the impetus for my second outing, a mini-date with my dearest.  We ran a few errands together, then stopped randomly at a little area with a walking path, pond, brook, and bridge to try to snap some S-shot images.  (I have to turn in three images by Wednesday evening.)

[66] Trees and brook

I tried to find some S shapes looking up into the trees.  No luck, but the view was really neat anyway.

[67] Treetop

Then we drove down to Lake Renwick Preserve, where we strolled along Turtle Lake and Budde Lake to look for more S-curves.  Below is a nice S-curve waddling into Budde Lake.  ;)

[68] Testing the water

I spotted this sleeping goose on an island in Turtle Lake.  I love the silhouette.

[69] Goose on Turtle Lake

I was blown about again in the wind that c-c-cold midday!  I had my 70-300mm lens attached, so I zoomed in a little to catch the rushes along the shore as they swayed with the wind.

[70] Wind in the rushes

Even though it was cold, I had a lovely time with my honey, just walking around and spending special time together.


Treasuring life's moments,
Christine

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365 Project -- #344-350

This is the time in my week when I look back at the images I've captured

throughout the previous week, and choose my seven favorites.

These seven--one for each day of the week--are featured below.

December 10 - December 16

I'm happy to say that this week's photos are varied, with both people and decorations.  But they all bring to my mind family and friends and the Christmas season.

As a courtesy (and because I love to), I shot a Ladies and Daughters Christmas Tea.  The table was beautifully set, and the ladies added to the decorations by bringing their favorite tea cups.  Here are three of the many images from that wonderful afternoon.

[344] Christmas gold

[345] Christmas tea party

[346] Gem

Next came a photo session with a couple who have a rather significant anniversary coming up!  The photo session came about after I searched through my whole year's worth of images, and couldn't find a suitable one which my parents could use to include with their Christmas cards.  We set up the shoot right in front of their family room fireplace--perfect.  They are a beautiful couple in every way.

[347] Hearth and home

I went to Costco on a stock-up run, and bought some cream cheese for some Christmas treats I wanted to make.  I bought what I thought was the equivalent of three 8-ounce packages.  What I actually bought was three pounds.  What to do with all that cream cheese??  Make muffins, of course!  I Googled a recipe, read through several, and found one that used ingredients I had on hand.  I modified the recipe a bit, added blueberries to one half of the batter and raspberries to the other, and after breakfast was over (and nothing remained), I tucked the recipe into my personal recipe binder.  It was definitely a keeper!

[348] Muffins for breakfast

My mom came down one morning, and the two of us spent mother-daughter time preparing part of our Italian Christmas dinner.  We had to fry pans going, both making the pancake noodles, while Joe grated mozzarella and fresh Parmesan cheeses.  I helped him get the rest of the filling together, and then I took pictures while the Master Chef--as I refer to her--put the individual manicotti together.  As usual, it will be a genuine, from-scratch Italian Christmas!

[349] Manicotti day

Finally, I spent a few minutes taking macro shots of my simple Christmas decorations.  I don't do much; I'm too practical to store a ton of stuff and spend the time putting it up and taking it down.  We have a tree and a manger, and I hang a few strands of garland.  And this year, I took some of the discards from our live tree, and used those boughs along our fireplace mantel.  My mom gave me some crochet snowflakes, and I scattered them throughout the boughs.  Pretty!

[350] Snowflake in spruce

I love snowflakes!  When I browsed the images of my decorations, I realized I had taken photos of snowflakes everywhere.  I collect them for our Christmas tree, and my dearie lets me splurge each year and purchase a new one or two snowflake (or snowflake-themed) ornaments for the tree.  I think I'll do a snowflake-themed post soon!


Treasuring life's moments,
Christine

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