Ginny the Cuddle-Bug

I had a lot to do during the day today, and when I finally remembered my blog I realized, for all the things I had to do today-I didn't do much, yet I was busy all day long. I hate days like that!

So I sat myself down to try to think of something to use as my photographic subject, and my dog Ginny climbed into my lap. Now Ginny isn't a little dog, her mama was a golden retriever & her dad was a "mystery dog" who was apparently black. Not to say she isn't a good dog, she's just different. She's more timid than I was used to with Sara, she's religious about chasing birds and squirrels out of the yard (I believe she wants to kill them-as I have received a couple "gifts" from her in the past) and she uses her front legs to "hug" things like I've never seen any other dog do before.

In some lights she is black, others brown.(if you look closely, she has a kind of golden sheen to her fur)

 She loves to cuddle, which is hard for ME because she weighs 70+ pounds. She would go everywhere with me if I let her! Sometimes I wonder if she was a small carry-on type dog in a previous life

:)

Beautiful Sunset and Delicious Dinner

Today I decided I would make something out of  my Julia Child cookbook. After choosing to make Fricassee De Poulet a L'Ancienne (That's Old-Fashioned Chicken Fricassee with Wine Flavored Cream Sauce, Onions & Mushrooms for us English-speaking people) I headed over to the Walmart to buy a few ingredients. Once I got back home I started cooking.

My kitchen window happens to face to the west & at one point I looked outside to see a beautiful sunset.

Once dinner was ready we all ate our Chicken Fricassee. The wine-flavored cream sauce was DEVINE!! I've truly accepted that there is NO substitutions for real butter and real cream!! AND I can also see why the Julia Child cookbooks have sold so many copies! The recipes I have tried so far have been spectacular!

I highly recommend it!

:)

Soul Gaze

So you probably guessed yesterday's close-up photos. They weren't really that hard to figure out. A 4x & 10x picture of of one of my cacti, and a 4x & 10x picture of a crochet snowflake that I made.

Today for my close-up picture, I had my daughter help me. She worked very hard at sitting still while I got up in her face to take this picture. The big thing I've noticed with the close-up lenses is that you're not only taking a "close-up" picture, you literally have to get up close and personal with your subject. This picture probably would have been easier if I'd set up my tripod, because I would not have had to deal with both my movements and hers.

After taking this picture I was reminded of how truly amazing my daughter's eyes really are!

Tomorrow, as the kids are at their grandparent's house for a while, I will be struggling to find a challenging subject to take an up-close and personal look at.

So, until tomorrow!

:)

Introducing my Camera!

So I thought I'd start out today by introducing you to my camera. It is a Cannon Digital Rebel XT.

 I've had it for a couple of years now, but mostly I'm still at a "point & shoot" mastery. I've dabbled in other aspects of photography with some success, but I want to learn more. I also have a lot of camera accessories-or to me-TOYS!!

So today I thought I'd get out my close-up lenses & take a shot at that. There are many very expensive macro lenses on the market. My budget being VERY small, I purchased close up filters. The filters just screw onto my current lenses without having to purchase a specific lens to do the job. I am very happy with them.

Here they are. they zoom by 1x, 2x, 4x, & 10x (or macro) they can also be stacked together for 3x, 6x etc

So today I'm going to offer you a close-up photo of two things at two different zoom levels. Can you tell me what they are? It's not really that hard!

Thanks for reading! Until tomorrow!

:)
.

Starting a new thing

So, I've decided to start this blog to help encourage myself to finish my projects. I have a tendency to drop things and start something new before I finish the first.

I will be challenging myself to learn new things such as new photography and cake decorating techniques, and crochet patterns, and new recipes I have never tried before. All of which I will attempt to showcase on here both in text and photograph.

Today I will offer up some of my older photos, which are among my favorites. My dog Sara, who passed  away last summer was one of my favorite models, and she loved to pose for me.

Tomorrow I plan to dig out my close-up lenses and start perfecting my Macro Photograpy technique. 

So, we may be playing "name that object" over the next few days!

Here is a sample of one of my favorite close-up pictures I have taken.

Till tomorrow! 

:)