what. two days in a row.....

i can do this. i can really do this. if i set my mind to it i can keep from editing my photos.

granted. it's painful and similar to when i was ten and my mom made me stop biting my fingernails.

but i can do this. 

speaking of TEN. this is my niece and she's ten TODAY.

we celebrated her birthday on sunday. and of course i made her jump for me.

and speaking of fingernails.....

after we finished eating cake we set off on a long walk around my sister's amazing and gorgeous property. acres and acres of it.

her property has old fencing everywhere

and

i couldn't get enough of it

and

the old fence posts were scrumptious 

when we finished our walk i told my niece how i really needed a great photo

representing her turning ten. she wasn't too thrilled about the idea.

but entertained me anyway

sydney was her adorable loving self and i couldn't help but shoot her, too

and

as my parents were leaving. click. i got them, too.

i'm not sure if you can read "eye language" or not

but this says

"enough aunt beth. you're driving me crazy"

*

happy birthday sweet girl. you are loved and adored.

it doesn't happen very often....

it doesn't happen very often 

that i use or even love my photos straight out of the camera

{sooc}

but

this past friday

the day was too perfect

to change any of the photos

from the way 

i originally saw them

*

just a late sunday afternoon quickie....

on friday

i met my friend nikki at the zoo with her little boy

and

as interesting as the animals always are

my camera was mostly busy with this little guy

~

if you have time, i have some other adorable shots over here

*

love is a gift.....

i hope this weekend finds you soaking up the love that surrounds you.

 too often, we take that love for granted and act as if it's never ending. 

let's not do that anymore. instead bathe in it. 

throw it up in the air and let it land on you like fairy dust.

dance in it. celebrate it. sit with it and really understand it.

listen to it. hold it tight.

love it.

*

overwhelming perhaps....

this time of year gives us the opportunity to take hundreds of photos. which i do. 

and 

then my computer screams "what the heck are doing" as i continue to load more and more photos while watching my memory space go lower and lower.

but 

don't think for a moment that i'm complaining about having too many photos to play with or the opportunity to take them. 

winter will be here soon enough and that's when the real whining complaining begins. 

when i mentioned my son's 20th birthday a couple of weeks ago, i didn't have a recent photo of him that i loved. WHAT. me. the girl who has a camera attached to her hand didn't have a recent photo of her son. that's just wrong. yeah. whatever. like i said. i didn't have one that i liked.

anyhow

i snapped this one the other day as he was leaving for work. and i kind of love this one.

back to the hundreds, well thousands of photos. 

this one is from last year and i don't think i ever used it.

~

that's just wrong. i think my new years resolution will be organizing all of my photos so that the ones i share here, with all of you, are from within the current year. 

the only problem with this is....well, i don't make new years resolutions

we ate dinner out last night and i snapped this with my cell phone 

while he was busy telling us about his cool keyboarding class 

where the teacher wants to be called by his first name. biff. 

ohhhh. farmer's market fresh mushrooms being sold by a fun guy.

peppers anyone

and

last but  not least in this post of true randomness....

this is how you dress when your badgers are playing a home game.

you throw on everything RED that you own and parade yourself up and down state street.

~ 

now this is where i could go into a huge story about how we be beat the pants off of nebraska last weekend. whooped them actually and sent them home crying. 

but i won't do that. 

that's just mean.

*

quilts and hot chocolate....

actually just a quilt and a sneak peek

*

more photos over here

some people can juggle....

i've tried it and have found it impossible

~

BUT

i do have the amazing talent of taking 

"christmas card photos gone wrong"

*