My life is SOOOO together right now

First, I lost my cable cord to download photos from my camera, I’m a tard.

At what stage do most pregnant women get sick of questions about how they are feeling? For me, it was about day two after I told people I was pregnant. It’s one of those questions that people feel obligated to ask, and I am then obligated to answer. The raw truth? I don’t feel like it’s been that bad. My hips occasionally hurt now, it feels like a brick has landed on my uterus, I get acne and eczema in the most random places that I never did before, I’ve thinned my hair out twice since being pregnant (I’m not worried about balding), my nails have always been fast growers, I HATE stairs with a crazy passion, every time I lift my leg up for one it makes me feel like I have to go to the bathroom again. Oh – and please don’t EVER stop a pregnant woman on the way to the bathroom, this could result in a serious crisis that might require a clothes change. I bet you wanted all that information. You’re welcome for the education.

Brighter news on the pregnancy front – I’m officially 10 weeks away!! That’s right, 1/4 fourth of this saga to go. That means 10 more weeks of work, 10 more weeks to get our baby room ready, 10 more weeks to sell stuff. We have a rug that I bought, I’m trying to secure a crib, but not yet successful. AND, lots of prezzies are being purchased. I’m overwhelmed by the amount of love this little one is going to have, super overwhelmed. When you’re the first grand baby on one side, the love is abundant. Especially since I have FOUR brothers that are all in serious relationships with spouses, fiances, girlfriends that love babies. Adam’s side is equally excited about the baby. It’s been a long time coming. This April we will have been married 6 years. Can’t believe we’ve been together for almost half of my life…that is a long time. If you know us, we do everything in a thoughtful manner. Some people might have felt that 6 years is a long time to wait for babies, but this is when it’s right for us, and we couldn’t be happier. Also, I spend $20 on clothes last weekend for the wee little one at thrift and consignment shops and got probably 15 items. LOVE IT! Our wonderful Aunt Pam and Uncle Joe also gave us 3 boxes of things, clothes, shoes, burp rags, all stuff we need!

Speaking of 6 years, we’ve got a two night stay out in Leavenworth planned for it. I’m very excited about it. We’ll see how my huge pregnant self handles the drive of 2.5 hours, and how often I make stops for the bathroom 🙂

I finished my friend’s quilt, her shower was last Saturday. I was absolutely in love with it and hoped to share it here, but dang cable cord! I’ll share soon, and you’ll be impressed, too!. If I were having a girl, I would have kept it, just sayin’. Last night, Adam sat with me while I planned the baby quilt for our Baby. I want to get that done in the next week. Hopefully I can work on the binding on the drive down to Portland. I hope it turns out cute, cause that would be awesome. I also have to pillow cases I need to make. I bought fillers at IKEA.

I’ve rented two lenses that arrive on Friday for my camera. Hopefully I get to play with them, and decide which one I should purchase to take great baby photos! I’m heading over to buy another cable cord this afternoon. Luckily, there is a camera shop 5 minutes away from my work, on foot.

I finally did it…

I signed up for The Photographers’ Workshop, by Karen Russell.

Yes, my stomach hurts from spending that kind of money because honestly, we could have spent it on other important things. I think I have to live though, and dag nab it, I deserve it. I work hard, and need to play hard too. I’m super excited to learn and explore and push myself to grow!

For those of you who don’t know, Karen Russell is a pretty awesome lady. She’s a real person, with real life struggles, and real life victories. I like that. She’s been inspiring me since as long as I’ve been reading blogs. My best frien,d Becky, turned me on to her, and I have loved her ever since. Also, she doesn’t know it yet, but we could be the best of friends. We’re kindred spirits of sorts.

Photo Booth Fun

AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH! Had some fun with the kitties last night and Photo Booth. This program always makes me laugh to the point of tears. Wouldn’t this make a great Halloween card? I think so, maybe spookify it first.

That's actually Wicket, but all you can see is his eyes, kinda erie, eh?

I noticed I’m much better at updating this thing when I’m not working…oh well I guess. Did you know that they started selling film in 12 exposure increments? When the heck did that happen?!

We're totally perfect for each other...

Anyway, I’ll have a nice update on Saturday for you 🙂

Photo Basics

Canon Rebel XT

Let’s start it off with a nice little spendy piece I own. The Canon Rebel XT (now they have the XTi or something or other out). This was a wedding present from my DH. LOVE IT! It came with a stock lens, that I didn’t really think was that great. Upon the recommendation of one Karen Russell, I invested $80 in the 50mm lens. It’s a fixed lens, but well worth it. It does great in low light situations, you just have to get used to being the zoom.

Oh, and my amazing friends husband gave me a 300mm zoom lens. Yeah, that’s right, just gave it to me! I took it to a graduation, but the graduation was lame and held in a gym, so the lighting was VERY poor. Which, incase I need to point it out, is not conducive to beautiful photos with a zoom lens. There is a ton of white noise.

Digital vs. Film; i prefer digital because you can manipulate images, see the raw image right away, and save on printing costs. HOWEVER, there is nothing like a film photo done by an amazing photographer. I’m not amazing though, so the quality of film is wasted on me.

Gorilla Pod

i have a tripod, which is great for a stationary picture shoot or something, but let’s face it, nobody wants to lug a tripod around. I’ve already made a huge sacrifice in upgrading to a larger camera in general. This one does not fit in my purse well. Instead, i own a Gorilla Pod which fits nicely into a backpack, and you can wrap the legs around anything.

I work on an iMac, which organized all my photos. I have not yet decided if I like the way it seems to categorize my photos (chronologically and by event). I do need to start burning discs of the years/months to get the ones I don’t currently need off my computer. I run Photoshop CS right now, it’s okay, but I’m not really a Photoshop whiz. I know how to use actions, and that’s about it.

Some things I’m working on right now with my photography: using different angles to take a photo, finding the good lighting and taking more pictures in general.

What training do i have you ask? NADA!! Well, that’s not entirely true. I took a 2 day class through BCC for continueing education. It didn’t do a whole lot of good, but gave me the basics I needed. i then got into a 12 week, free course online over at 2Peas by a Joanna Bolick. Very nicely outline different things, and you can work at an indepent speed (since the class is no longer live). I printed the whole thing out and keep it as a reference. You can find the class links here.

Always Start With A Bang

In honor of this new blog, I thought I would start off with and FAQ about something I enjoy. Since I don’t have very many blog readers, I’ll ask myself questions.

First Topic will be photography. What do I use, what do I like, what would I change, etc. Look for more later!