Entries categorized as ‘Photography’
Stair Bookcase Waits So Patiently
I had mixed feelings about stair bookcases when I first heard of them. I didn’t quite get what they would be used for and what items they would be able to hold because books or knick-knacks just seemed way too heaving to sit on a stair. And, the thought of leaning a stair against a wall might look too warehouse like, not to mention someone might be tempted to climb it! Well, things changed when I saw one at a model home during the time husband and I were looking to buy a house back in Summer ‘09. I didn’t fall in love instantly. I kind of just checked it out. It was cute and held some small size vases and photo frames. There may have been a few books on it as well. As time passed, I started to slowly have a liking for it and its use. It was actually appealing and gave a clean look. The more I thought about it, the more I began to really want one. BAD. Husband on the other hand took some persuading but in the end, he liked it too.
It’s mostly empty right now leaning gleefully against the east side of the great room wall awaiting patiently for goodies. The time will come.
Dearest Sweet Plants
My plants are like peace keepers. They keep me peaceful and relaxed. All I do is water them weekly, trim them when necessary, repot when necessary, and smile at them from time to time and they grow so nicely, lively, and green. I’ve had my share of plants dying on me like the African Violet that I got as a gift. It bloomed a few times and once even, it bloomed flowers that were white and bluish. Then, there was the plant I bought from the groceries store that was pretty tiny with flat round leaves. I rarely paid attention to this plant and never repotted. It died on me quickly. I tried to save it but it was too late. I wasn’t prepared to buy this plant and shouldn’t have but I know better now to only buy plants when I am ready to care for them. Just like a pet or a baby (okay, not quite). Those were only two examples but there were quite a few more incidents. I also enjoy giving clippings or pots of my plants to friends and family. I’m hoping to prune the money tree soon and give some away (because I don’t have a lot of real money to give away, this should suffice. J/K. I’ve had family members ask for a pruning).
The photos above are just some of my plants. The last photo is the money tree soon to be split apart and gifted. I think it’s ready though. It’s kind of whispering, “When will you prune me? I’m growing too tall and might fall over. Please do it soon. I don’t want to fall over. Plus, you promised you’d share me with your family.”
NOTE: All photos were taken by me with a Nikon D90 using the 55-200 mm lens, all in manual mode. No photoshop was done except to crop.
♥
Categories: Photography · Reviews
I call her my Dutch-ess.
♥
Categories: Art · Photography
Orchid on window shelf in kitchen – 2009
About a year ago at my old job, I took home this gorgeous orchid. I didn’t have any idea as to how to take care of it. The blooms fell off but I kept it anyway just in case. I did some online research but they didn’t help because I was clueless as to what kind of orchid I had. So, I did what I knew best. I watered it and kept it near sunlight. Last month (November), it bloomed! I took photos hoping to post them but with the holidays, other things came up. So finally, here is the photo (above) with three buds bloomed. Currently, all buds are bloomed.
Categories: Photography
Kylie – 2009
Looks like we will be having a white Christmas. It is snowing! I’m glad that I got all my Christmas shopping done and Christmas cards mailed out. Yesterday, I also got all my food shopping done for Christmas celebration at my parents house, and for making treats!
Here’s what’s ahead:
Christmas Eve: Drop off some gifts/treats at a few friend’s homes. Head over to husband’s parents so the girls can open gifts from their grandparents. Head over to the church for mass. Kida will be singing with the children’s choir throughout mass. That reminds me…Kida needs to get a gift to take to the alter! Shoot. I almost forgot! Return home to set cookies and milk for Santa.
Christmas Day: Make a few dishes to take over parent’s house. Pack Secret Santa and white elephant gifts to take over parents. Eat, open gifts, and be merry.
Later today, when husband gets home so he can watch the little one. I’ll be making some treats with Kida’ help. I got this great recipe from a blog I recently became of fan of that I’m going to attempt. Cross fingers that it turns out perfect.
P.S. Being home with my two girls gets crazy almost all the time. They never listen and time-out is getting old. Kylie always sneaks away and refuses to get back against the wall. Kida always gets really angry and talks back. She has threatened to run away like a million times and her recent threat was “I’d rather get eaten by a wolf than be in a warm cozy house.” LOL!!! They always want candy…cookies, gum, ice cream, etc. You name it. When I say no, Kida starts threatening that I don’t love her. Even though I allow Kida to play on the computer for about an hour and sometimes longer, she still gets really upset that I don’t allow her to do anything else. Did I forget to mention she gets to watch T.V. for an hour or two as well? The only time that she is calm and friendly is when she is scrapbooking or making treats with me. The fun of motherhood.
Categories: Family · Photography
Thanksgiving 2009
This year, we enjoyed Thanksgiving with friends. Husband, the girls, and I first had brunch at our home. We had ham with mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce (recipe from Martha Stewart) and steamed broccoli. The girls shared what the were thankful for. Husband and I also shared what we were thankful for.
Kida posing for a photo. Before brunch, we spent some time outdoors getting photos for the Christmas card.
Kylie eating Cheerios and holding her baby doll at Shazia’s house. Josh was practicing his lighting and quickly snapped this one. It was blurry but I toned it down by using sharpening in Photoshop.
Here, I’m talking to Kylie while Josh took a practice shot. Again, he was testing the lighting. Can you tell I seriously photoshopped this? I’m not telling. 
The table setting at Shazia’s. It was so beautiful just like something from a magazine.
The turkey, cranberry sauce, salad and buns. The turkey looked delicious but I’m sorry to say that I didn’t eat any of it.
Leg of lamb. It was so good! I’ve had lamb before and both times, I didn’t like it. The smell was too strong. This lamb was so tender and there wasn’t any smell. It was the best I’ve ever had!
Kida had a really great time playing with Shazia’s two sons and Sendie’s daughter. She asked me if she could spend the night at Shazia’s house. LOL! Everytime she has a great time at someone’s house, she wants to spend the night. Kylie spent most the evening running from Shazia’s cute 2-year-old daughter but just before we left, the two girls were dancing to Indie music!
Categories: Family · Food · Photography
Kylie’s Hand At One Month – April 2007
I’ve got a few projects going on. One of them should be to clean the house but it isn’t. After leaving my job, I thought I would at least have some idea of what I’d want to do with my time besides watching my two girls. I find it strange that while I was working, I had all these ideas and things I wanted to do but just never had time for. Now that I have that opportunity, I don’t know where to start or what exactly I had wanted to do. I guess at first I was unmotivated. Actually, I think I was just trying to adjust to not being the one to bring home the bacon and also to change pace. I really have no rush to be anywhere fast now.
Here’s my list of projects:
1. Organize digital photos starting with 2007 photos and then going backwards until all are completely organized (printed or ebooks). Once that’s done, work on current photos I’ve taken with the last year until now.
2. Organize the 5 scrapbooks I currently have. Use up the cardstocks I currently have as well. Work on a new scrapbook using a technique that I am new to (this is pretty much all I can say about this project right now).
3. Clean out old clothes or clothes that are no longer being worn. Currently, I have 2 large trash bags and a box full of the girls, husband’s and my clothes. Once all the clothes are bagged, I will either send them to the Goodwill or give it to the Knights of Columbus.
4. Create an etsy account and sell jewelry that I’ve made so far. I created an etsy account a couple of weeks ago but did it incorrectly so I had the etsy team delete it so that I can start over. I’m going to make a few more jewelry pieces and plan how I will be shipping these out in (box, bottle, or bag) as well as plan out some other little important things before doing so.
5. Put up more books to be sold on Amazon.com. I’ve got about 9 books or so out there that I posted last week and none of them have sold yet. I hope they do soon though! I also have a ton of CD’s I’d like to get rid of.
My plan is to get all these done before the new year.
Categories: General · Photography
View from master bedroom – November 2009
It seems like it’s been awhile since I’ve updated on the house. Things are going smooth. The construction guys are really working hard on getting the outside of the house completed before the cold hits. Within the last couple of days they have:
1. Completed the siding on the house.
2. All windows are in.
3. Garage door is in.
4. Heating system in.
5. Roof completed.
Earlier today, they were in the process of pouring the rest of the concrete for the driveway. We should be getting snow by tomorrow or this weekend so I think they are trying to get the concrete in before then.
Husband and I were concerned about the extended deck. We had thought that it would be bigger than what we saw but the sales person showed us the blue print and it’s meant to be a small deck. I was bummed initially but I think it will be okay. We are planning to put a stone deck in from the walk-out and extend it out as far as possible. I’m also hoping for a small piece of dirt for gardening.
On Monday, when we met with the landscaper, he pretty much just wanted our thoughts and ideas on how we wanted the front lawn to look like. He scribbled a few of our ideas on paper and said that he will get back to us to show us a layout of what he thinks we would like based on the information we provided him. Since our neighborhood is covenant controlled, there are particular trees, flowers, and bushes that we have to choose from and since there are thousands of varieties out there, it only made since that he would put something together to show us. I asked if I could have an area on both sides of the garage parkway for planting annuals and he jotted that down. 
Categories: Home · Photography
October 2009 – Sunset Through Great Room (by Josh)
Intention and desire is kind of like one’s goals. I used to write a list of my intentions and desires and after so many months and/or years, I’d go back to my list to see if they happened. Most the time they did. When they didn’t it was because my intentions weren’t really there. Maybe it was someone else’s intention that I wanted but not purely one of my own.
I remember after college and working odd jobs, I was getting very frustrated with everything. I didn’t feel like I fit in anywhere job wise. One day, I decided to write in a handwritten journal about my dream job. Not a pipe dream job but a realistic one. I jotted down the things I wanted. They were still general ideas because I didn’t have a strong feeling as to what I wanted to be doing. So I wrote down something along these lines: “…to work on a computer and with people I enjoy working with for a long time.” Yeah, I know. It’s general but at least it was something along the lines of what I wanted to do daily. Well, that dream came true. I was hired by a college where at first I did administrative work. Most days, I was preoccupied with computer work, mostly data entry. Then as I moved up the ladder, I began to work more with the user end of databases. At some point, I logged between 4 to 7 (maybe even more) databases pulling reports to advise students with and also submitted data into these reports. I spent about 90% of my time (and some days even 100%) on a computer. The group of co-workers I worked with where wonderful too. One day, I looked back at my journal and re-read my dream job description and I was shocked. I was doing exactly what I had intended to do. I was truly amazed !
The law of intention and desire does work. Getting the job I wanted as mentioned above was only one incident. There were many before and there were many while I was working. The intention and desire has to be wholesome to the individual though. Like I mentioned earlier, some goals weren’t accomplished because they were not my goals. The outcome was more to show off than to grow into who I would become. That’s why it was difficult for me to actually write down specifically the career I wanted because I didn’t know exactly what I wanted to do. So I wrote down a general idea of what I would like to do and it took me to a job that I was excited to do.
The law of intention and desire also led me to find my husband but I’ll share that another time. This was of course, before I even knew such a law existed.
The Law of Intention and Desire: Inherent in every intention and desire is the mechanics for its fulfillment. Intention and desire in the field of pure potentiality have infinite organizing power. When we introduce an intention in the fertile ground of pure potentiality, we put this infinite organizing power to work for us. 
I will put the Law of Intention and Desire into effect by making a commitment to take the following steps:
- I will make a list of all my desires. I will carry this list with me wherever I go. I will look at this list before I go into my silence and meditation. I will look at it before I go to sleep at night. I will look at it when I wake up in the morning.
- I will release this list of my desires and surrender it to the womb of creation, trusting that when things don’t seem to go my way, there is a reason, and that the cosmic plan has designs for me much grander than even those I have conceived.
- I will remind myself to practice present-moment awareness in all my actions. I will refuse to allow obstacles to consume and dissipate the quality of my attention in the present moment. I will accept the present as it is, and manifest the future through my deepest, most cherished intentions and desires.
Reference: Deepak Chopra – Daily Devotion
Categories: Healing · Photography
