I have recently booked a couple of clients and now I feel like I need to nail down a name and a logo for myself(cart, horse, completely wrong order). I have TONS of ideas for logos but most would cost me lots of dollars to get done right. For now I am trying to find something that I can love as a logo until I make some money and can get it done right.
Also I am trying to pin down a name. I think my name sounds boring so I wanted something different. I came up with a few but my favorites are Windy Hill Photography, because we live at the top of a very windy hill, Hilltop photography because my Grampy had a store while I was growing up called Hilltop Market or Blackberry Lane Photography because our very windy hill is COVERED in blackberries.
So my kind blogger friends I would love your opinions on any and all logo and name related stuff.... oh and you can comment on my photo too. :P
At least the ones that are home. Grady is still off on his adventure, although we did receive a postcard today from one of his counselors(is that right sp?). Apparently they recently had to do a 1.6 mile portage through shin high mud.... so glad I wasn't there for that. LOL He is fitting in well and having a fabu time according to the counselor. YAY! I took these photos Friday night while we waited for the fireworks to begin. We get there a few hours early so we get a primo parking spot. This means lots of time for me to play with the camera. :D LOVE Amanda's action on the shot of Gavin, I did some adjusting to her process but still her action. I might get that one printed up as a canvas. Lilia blows me away every time I take photos of her, that girl knows how to work the camera.
Thank you to everyone who offered their sympathies on my Grammy's illness. She passed on Saturday, her children all were there for her. I am sorry she had to leave but happy that she was not left here to suffer through months of unnecessary pain.
Three weeks ago my Grandmother was diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer as well as bone cancer. Since then she has steadily gone downhill and now we are looking at the last few moments of her life. I have spent a few days with her this week, taking care of her, talking with her, and laughing with her. She told me the story of how she met my Grandfather, and how they became engaged. She told me how proud she was of me and my kids and made sure that I knew how much I meant to her. Mostly we laughed. I am very lucky to have spent these last few hours with her.
Live in the sunshine, swim the sea, drink the wild air. ~Ralph Waldo Emerson
My kids have every advantage that life today has to offer while at the same time they have idyllic places like this to live their childhood and make memories. This is our local swimming hole, that is if you discount the Atlantic. We spend almost every summer afternoon swimming here, jumping off the bridge and seeing who can do the coolest tricks off the dam. Perfect summer days as far as I am concerned.
I have to add a big thank you to Amanda(ndjane) for sharing her awesome action that I used to process these. :)
Our task must be to free ourselves... by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature and its beauty.
Albert Einstein
Gavin LOVES animals. He has always been my child who brings home snakes, frogs, turtles and bugs. The chickens do not escape his need to hold all the creatures of the earth. I kind of think the chickens and snakes, bugs, frogs, turtles etc., don't mind, they know an animal lover when they meet one. :) And as usual someone else has said it so much better than I.
Nature teaches beasts to know their friends. William Shakespeare
I know everyone always comments on Lilias sweet freckles but I think Gavin has the cutest freckles of them all..... on one side of his face. LOL Yup, his freckles are only on one side, the other side is almost freckle free. How cute is that?
and Mummy's happy. She rode half way(or better) home with her cabin Mom and I was in a panic until we picked her up in Portsmouth. Then she talked non-stop until we got home 5 hours later. It was ok though I had missed her voice around the house. They called from the road when they left camp so that we could time the pick up. When I answered the phone I was expecting the cabin Moms' voice but instead I got this little "Hi Mummy" I am not a crier but I almost lost it right there. She was only gone 5 days, I am in so much trouble when she goes off to college.
Lilia had an observation about her ride home She says " In their van they had 4 screens for the DVD player and we watched some movie with music in the title" Daddy "The Sound of Music?" Lil "YEAH!! it was weird" Daddy and Mummy in unison "The hills are allllive with the sound of muuuusic" Lilia " Um yeah, don't do that again" Daddy and Mummy "Do a deer and female deer, ray a drop of golden suuuunnn, mi a name I call myself, fa a long long way to ruuuuun" all sang in falsetto for Daddy Lilia "you are sooo weird, anyway they all sang along together to the movie. They are entirely too nice"
She was almost disgusted by the niceness, poor kid is jaded already and only 10 years old. We are a sarcastic lot around here it's how we show love. I totally LOLed over the whole "entirely too nice" thing.
I have been playing with photoshop a ton this past couple of days. I really want to have a consistent pping style/styles this is what I have come up with. On warmer photos it really WARMS it up and on cooler photos it adds just a touch of warmth, at least that is what I see. I have been told that they are overexposed and slightly green so now I am wondering if my monitor is totally whacked. The overexposed I can totally see but I just don't see a green cast, do you?
ETA I lied I do see a green cast on Grady, but I only noticed it once I got it uploaded to blogger. In photoshop it looks fine. Hmmmmmmmmm
I searched for signs of life all spring but had given up hope that my lovely columbine had come back this year. Then a few days ago I noticed some familiar leaves under the stairs. I thought for sure it was some kind of weed mocking me, making me think I might just have my columbine back. Then I saw THIS.
Bloom where you are planted. ~anonymous
Oh and please excuse my janky steps, they were supposed to be temporary and we just never got around to building new ones.
In other news yesterday we spent 17 hours on the road with Lilia and Gavin(well technically only 7 of those hours were with Lilia). We dropped Lilia off at gymnastics camp in western NY and then drove home. BLAH!!!!! She was SOOoooooo freaking excited I thought we were going to have to tie her to the roof of the car just to get there with our sanity in tact. We left Grady home because he was being picked up a little later in the day to be dropped off at his camp for 3 1/2 weeks! I cannot believe he is gone for that long, I almost turned down the opportunity for him to go when I heard how long it was. But this is a REALLY exclusive camp that he gets to go to for free. Every year they get a list of local kids as back-ups in case someone who signed up couldn't go. Grady was at the top of the list and got picked for the Allagash canoe trip, two weeks canoeing the Allagash and 1 1/2 weeks back at camp. So for now I have one child at home and I don't quite know what to do with myself.
Lilia says, peace out peeps!
And yes she had this much energy the ENTIRE way to NY.
I followed a link given at 2Peas to change my blog around and lookee and what I did! I got a bit carried away with my blog banner but I like it for now and I can always change it. :D
Then followed that beautiful season... Summer.... Filled was the air with a dreamy and magical light; and the landscape Lay as if new created in all the freshness of childhood. ~Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Yeah what he said. ~me
Big huge thank you to NDjane for her share of this super cool action. LOVE IT!!!! I think it is just perfect for photos of kids pretending to be chickens and American classics, don't you? :D Hey I gotta let have a little fun with the tools of the trade if I am ever going to get them to muck out the chicken coop. :P
Yessir, I officially have a high schooler now, not sure how it happened so fast, but happen it did. How is it that time can both go sooooo slow and so fast all at the same time? It seems like I was just sending him off for his first day of school yesterday and then, BAM!, he's done with grade school. I dread how fast these next four years are going to be.
Of course a I have to show a few photos of the man in his duds. He did look right shahhhp! That is once he figured out how to tie his tie. :D
He and his buddy were all smiles for once( if you have a 14 year old boy you know what I mean).
I finally got a decent shot of all three of my little heathens, decent meaning everyone was looking in my general direction and had something like a smile on their face.
Had to get one in of Izzy because she is getting HUGE! Plus I love the light in this one.
I don't know how some of you do it every day; kids, school, work, activities, housework, POTD etc etc etc. So, yeah, I have time management issues, not to mention lack of energy and drive. Booooooo to me! So this is what I have been up to over the last MONTH(I cannot believe it has been almost a month since I have found the time to check in here).
Gymnastics... the season is almost over, YIPPEEEE!!! This was Lilia's last regular season meet, she took first all around and the rest I can't remember. I promise it is not too long. :)
And this is her shot from States where she took First All Around, Bars and Beam and Third Vault and Floor. All with a badly pulled hamstring. Then baseball season has started up. This means not only do I coach gymnastics 3 days a week minimum, I also have baseball games and practices to attend 3-4 days a week. UGH!!! I can't complain too much because as hectic as it is I actually enjoy being busy.
This is Gavin's first ever Little League game(real baseball game ever for that matter). He got walked and then stole second and third and then came home on a hit. Stealing third! Made it!
Then just because working and raising three kids didn't seem to be enough I(we but mostly me :D) decided now was a great time for a PUPPY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
This is Isobel, AKA Izzy, Izzy B, Bratski and Wizzy. Her first trip to the beach.
I wish I could put a sound track to my new banner...it would go something like this: "peep peep peeppeeppeep peep". SPRING is here because the peepers are out in full force and my flowers are poking through the earth. I love this time of year. Peepers for those of you not in the know are little frogs that sing their crazy little peeppeep love song every spring. Once they start peeping you know spring is here to stay and there will likely not be any more icy morns or snowy days.
What says spring more than bubbles, well besides peepers and new born flowers? :)
I need to find some more kids to photograph. I have a couple of families set up for shoots later on in the Spring but right now it is just me and Lilia. Gavin is a no go and Grady hides in his room every time I even walk by my camera. Soon Gavin will be playing Bball, that will give me something different to shoot. Until then I am afraid you are all mostly stuck with Lil. :D
On another note, my Grammy came to see me this weekend and bring me a birthday present. Usually I get a check for a little fun money but this year she had a package. When I opened it up I found a rather large jewelry box that held a strand of graduated pearls. My Grandfather, who passed 8 years ago, had given them to her 50 years ago. They still have the little slip of paper that is a Certificate of Guarantee. She had them restrung and had a new clasp added so that I could wear them with confidence, although I am not sure I will wear them often because of the value and I would feel awful if anything happened to them. Oh and that velvet box in that totally awesome greeney blue color... vintage. I think I am in love with the box as much as the pearls. LOL
A girl without freckles is like a night without stars. -- Author Unknown
A little girl can be sweeter (and badder) oftener than anyone else in the world. she can jitter around, and stomp, and make funny noises that frazzle your nerves yet just when you open your mouth she stands there demure with that special look in her eyes. A girl is Innocence playing in the mud, Beauty standing on its head, and Motherhood dragging a doll by the foot. -- Alan Beck
I couldn't find the words so I turned to the experts known and unknown. :) So titled because when I look at these photos I see both a little girl not much more than a toddler and a girl growing up way too fast.
One of the members of my family you have yet to meet. This is Loki bird, he is a baby cockatiel. We think he may have been abused at the pet store because cockatiels are supposed to be very social, loving birds and he is very skittish, especially of hands. He is starting to come around though, he will come up onto our hands sometimes if you have lots of patience and I think that eventually he will become the loving bird he was meant to be. He has learned the first part of the Mexican Hat Dance(the song) and is quickly learning the second half. He wolf whistles all the time and says "A prettttty boy". He loves Lilia's hair ties(what he is chewing on) as you can see by the look on his little face. When he squints his eyes and puffs out his cheeks it means he is VERY happy. He also gets this look when he is listening to classical music. I never thought I would love a bird but this guy is such a funny, sweet little bird I can't help myself.
I have yet to get good photos but we also have two budgies(Cosmo and Wanda) who are the cutest ever!! They are what got us started on birds. Now Grady wants to save his money to buy a conure(more like a parrot). You have heard of crazy cat people, I think we are fast headed for crazy bird people. :D
Life lately has me feeling like I am an old dog constantly walking uphill. All the practices, meetings, meets, work and special occasions(easter and my bday) have me feeling like this:
Lately you will see me like this more often than not. I am hopeful that tomorrow I will get just a moment of this:
In case you didn't know, this is Chloe, my 12 year old black lab. She is MY dog and I love her like mad.. how could you not? Look at that face. :)
I have recently gone back to work and it is kicking my butt, time wise. I am so used to having my whole day to get the housework done and have my computer time. Needless to say I have not gone near my blog for an entire week! ACK! I think I am finally hitting my stride again and getting my new schedule worked out. All this and all I am doing is substitute teaching at our local high school. I think it makes it worse that I never know when I go to bed if I am going to be working the next day or not. So far I have had 1 day off in the last week and a half. Which truly is a good thing because it means they like the job I am doing but at the same time I thought I would have a bit more time to ease into things. :D
Lilia wanted pictures of herself with her medals as I was trying to get my settings I asked Gavin to stand there for me. This is what I got.... I think I need to tell him his just my tester from now on. LOL This is such a Gavin look, half mad, half amused you never know with this one. Yes even in color his eyes really are that dark, he got lucky and got the true chocolate brown eyes instead of the hazel eyes the rest of us have. Doesn't he have the cutest little ears ever? or maybe that is just Mummy vision again, I do love them though. :) This girl loves the camera, can you tell? Most of the shots I got of her were totally hilarious but I can't post them because of the angle and the leo. Not that there is anything showing but it is still a little risque for my taste. These are not the best photos... in the first one her silver medal is turned around backwards and in the second one you can see my vacuum cleaner in the background. I am convinced now... I NEED a backdrop/backdrop stand.
Ahh yes, it is that time again for another edition of 'what did some kid ,I don't know, do over the weekend at her gymnastics meet'. :D Lilia did very well taking first place all round with a humongous 37.00! That is a big score for her and we are pretty impressed around here. Heck even her brothers are jumping on the "way to go Lilia" bandwagon. I wish my DH had gotten some better photos from the meet but these are pretty representative of the best we got today. :( Her individual event scores were 9.5 vault(2nd), 9.5 bars (1st), 9.15 floor (5th) and 8.85 beam(3rd).
I took this photo last week while we were out traipsing around the tree. I used the HDR program that someone on 2Peas had shared(sorry I can't remember who, but Thank you!). I gotta get that girl some Wellies.
