Tonight was the last night for Monday night 24 crew for me. It was so much fun but so sad at the same time. I am going to miss these girls SO much. Monday night crew has made mondays something i look forward to, instead of something I dread. I wish I could just teleport all my amazing friends from Maryland to Austin so I can still do these kind of things. So my photo tonight is of this Monday night. Its maybe not the strongest image but it has people I care about in it so its good in at least one way.

These Days...

Let me say that I am pretty excited about these days... today. I had an amazing day today. I went to church and learned a lot. I got to stop by and see the family I babysit for one more time before I move (because I left one of my lenses at their house last night), My sister and her daughters came over and we made homemade jam, and listened to music and had a water gun fight, and had dinner together, outside and ate delicious kabob that my Dad cooked on the grill, AND we got Jimmy Cone for dessert. When I think about today, all I can do is close my eyes, smile and sigh in happiness. It was like every perfect summer day of my childhood years. I wish all Sundays could be so great. I know I've posted before about how much I love clothes-lines, it reminds me so much of summer and of my grandmother and of happy things. Well my mom had hung some sheets on the line today to dry, for the first time this year I believe, and it made me so happy. It made me wish I was like 8 years old again, and could run through them and smell the freshness. Since I'm not 8 anymore, I decided to take some photographs of it instead.

I have 2 photos for the These Days... Project, one of the laundry and one of the cute little table setup we had for dinner in the yard. Maybe not the most breath-taking photos but they will certainly remind me of this wonderful Maryland summer day.

Enjoy!

"These Days..." Saturday, May 29th, 2010

With the These Days... project I've been trying to document my last days in Maryland, and/or the things I will miss about Maryland once I'm a citizen of Austin. Well, I spent my evening tonight, not just busy but busy with something I will dearly miss once I move. I came home from Babysitting for the last time in Maryland. I babysit on a pretty regular basis for this one family, and let me tell you, they are A-mazing. The parents are so kind, friendly and funny. The 2 children are so well behaved for their ages and are so much fun. We build forts, we play basketball, we put on concerts/performances, we play hide-and-seek in the "dark" house, we play mother-may-I and Red-light-green-light. We have a BLAST. I am really going to miss this family when I move. This evening was special, since it was the last time I'd be babysitting for them, so I decided that I was going to do something special to commemorate this. So, I went to the store and got supplies for make-your-own Ice cream sundaes, AND I also got a package of parachute-men. Let me tell you the evening was a success. We all had a great time. We even watched a movie. So, I brought my camera along so I could get some pictures of our epic sundae making and this is how I have my photo today. I got a lot of cute photos of the kids, but I won't be posting those here tonight. I hope you like my photo.

I know you all must be thinking, "Didn't she just post a picture of ice cream a couple of days ago?" and the answer would be yes. But this ice cream, while it may not be delicious jimmy cone, is way more special. It was a wonderful time with a family I'm going to miss. So attempt to refrain from calling me a fatty, at least until/if I post another ice cream photo. ;-)

Have a great night.

These Days... Friday May 28th, 2010

So if you couldn't notice by the title of yesturday's post, I'm a bit tired. So tired that I forgot what day it was. Also so tired that I didn't feel like writing anything about the photos. Tonight I feel very much the same. But I will tell you a little about today's photo. Its not a very good photo, but it does show what I enjoyed about my day, which was going to the movies with my mom. I actually didn't enjoy the movie all that much. I don't tend to like chick flicks like this, but my mom does, and I like spending time with her and going to the movies. So here is my picture for the day. Tomorrow will hopefully be much more inspired.

Have a good night!

Wordless Wednesday meets the "These Days..." Project

these days...

I have to tell you all, that I have an amazing commute to work. Its not amazing because its super short or traffic free, but amazing because its a beautiful drive. I want to remember that about my life in Maryland, and so I took a picture at one of my favorite places on my commute. Its not the best photo and I may attempt to take a better one. So here it is:

These Days... Day 3

Today was a good day, even though things didn't go quite as planned the things that did were wonderful. It was nice to have the time to slow down today and just enjoy the little things, like eating a bowl of cereal for breakfast. I just never have time to do that in the mornings any more and so it was nice to do today. I am going to miss the little things like the cereal bowls my family has had most of my life. I dunno, its such a small thing but it sticks out to me and I'm going to miss it.

My first photo today is of my breakfast for that reason, I'm going to miss this bowl and this mug. My other photos are actually from the place where I'll be having my wedding this fall. I decided to drive over there today and walk around and look for good places for portraits. Its such a beautiful place, it was nice to explore a little bit. So its super late and I would have posted these earlier but I fell asleep by accident and woke up not to long ago to finish up stuff for the day. Have a great night!

These Days... Project Day 2

Today I had a lot that I wanted to capture for this project and I didn't end up photographing any of it. But I did spend sometime packing, and when I was packing I came across my supply of blank canvases and it got me thinking. I sat for awhile with this canvas in front of me and just wondered what it would be. I use to sit and stare at canvas and imagine all the possibilities. I haven't done that in such a long time. So it was nice to take some time to do that, then after I made a stack of the blank ones, I found a bunch of my paintings, some that I love, some that I hate and wish I could just throw away and it was very inspiring for me. I probably spent an entire hour just sitting looking through these paintings of mine. I realized that out of everything I did today, this was the most refreshing and was the thing that reminded me most of my life here in Maryland. So that is what my photo is of today. Its not a particularly great photograph, but it was something worth documenting. I might read this tomorrow when I wake up and think I must have been crazy when I took the photo and wrote this post but, right now its right.

So, enjoy, or not, but this is my day:

These days...

I'm starting something new here today. This idea has been mulling around in my brain for a week or so and I have decided to act on it. I happen to be moving from this wonderful place called the dc metro area, to the amazing city of Austin, TX. This is both a happy and sad occurrence. It will be so difficult to leave everything I know, all my friends and family and move half way across the country. But at the same time, its so exciting to move to Austin, where I'll get to see my Fiance every day, and start a new job, and be where I'm suppose to be.

So, I'm a mix of emotions. The idea is, to photograph my life here in Maryland from Today (Sunday) until Wednesday June 9th, when I leave on my 2 day journey. Originally I thought I would just document the Maryland side of things, but upon further consideration, I have decided that I shall document the entire journey, including the move into my new apartment at the end of June. SO, that means everyday for the next 37 days, I will be posting 1 or 2 photos from my day. Not of random things like I usually do for my photo of the day, but of the things and people that make up my day. To document the things I love about Maryland, about my 2 day drive to Austin, and about my new life. It will most certainly be a challenging thing but, I am sure that I will be glad for it. This is the biggest thing to occur in my life so far, I think its worth documenting.

I have decided to name this little thing of mine the These Days... Project. The title is inspired by a song from the Denison Witmer Recovered Album called These days, the original song is by Jackson Browne. I have had this album since it came out and I just love his rendition of the song, and lately its been stuck in my head.

Today, after church I met up with Miss Sarah Patch. We got lunch in Adams Morgan at Tryst, and then headed down to the National Gallery of Art, to enjoy a Photography Exhibit . It was a great day. I am certainly going to miss spending time with Sarah, she has been one of my good friends since I was in the 5th grade. It was great spending the day with her, and so I made her my subject for my photographs today.

Now I'm off to the grocery and then I'll hopefully get to curl up with some hot tea and talk to the fiance. Have a great night!

Mandy + Joe the Full Post-Wedding Preview

I think this post's title says all that needs to be said. If you've followed my blog for any amount of time, you know that this post has been long coming. So here is the story: back in November the 3 of us headed down to Alexandria, VA and the district to do a little post wedding shoot for them. They had been married about a month and I wanted to try out a new camera. So we made a day of it.

Enjoy!!

The LONG awaited Mandy + Joe Post wedding sneak peak!

So, I know everyone has been waiting, for a very long time to see the rest of the Mandy + Joe post-wedding shoot. It happened back in November and its now Mid-May. But trust me, it will be worth the wait for this last installment. :-) I am almost finished with the entire set, and will most likely be posting the full preview here tomorrow night, but I am just too excited to wait til then, so I thought I would post a little sneak peak.

So enjoy this PDA-licious photo. Mandy and Joe are totally not PDA people, but they pushed thru this inhibition for this session and I think they will be glad for it. So without further ado, I present to you the offical sneak-peak:

Have a great night!

This would be great right now...

Moroccan Mint Tea, Chocolate Salty Oat cookie...

This would be great right now... but maybe with hot tea...

Ashley's Senior Session

I have been itching to post the Full preview of Ashley's senior session for the past week, but I wanted to  finish editing the set before posting. So now that I have finished and given her the images, I am putting up her post.

You met Ashley, a few weeks ago, but please meet her again. :-)

Ashley is my cousin and she happens to be a Senior. She is actually graduating a year early, which makes her fabulous. The Saturday before Easter we headed down to D.C. to take some senior pictures. We started out at the National Botanical Gardens, and then we walked around the Mall, and eventually headed over to the Cherry Blossoms by the Tidal Basin. So I decided to asked her to some questions about herself so we could all get to know her a bit better.

Lets start with the basics, Her birthday is September 1st. Her Favorite color is Purple. Her Favorite Band is Metallica. Her Favorite type of  Food is German. Her Favorite subject in school is English. She'll be attending Kaplan University starting in July this year, and will be in the Nursing assistant program. When asked what her Favorite things to do in her spare time, she responded with "Just volunteering and working at the Hagerstown suns. I like doing anything that requires creativity like crafts and projects." Sounds pretty cool right? She totally is.

Now that we've got the basics, lets move on to the fun stuff!

I asked her If she could travel anywhere in the world where would it be and why? And she responded with such an amazing answer:  "I would travel to Africa where there is high poverty. I think it would help me appreciate what I have more and seeing a new culture would be exciting. Maybe I can get a tan too." Talk about girl after my own heart.

I also asked her If she was the richest person in the world, what would she do with her life/career and she gave a quality answer, that totally makes me smile. She said, "I would help out as much as I can. I would travel and find out more about the world. And okay I'd probably get a nice house and a pool and a pool boy. :] "

My final question was, As a kid, what did she want to be when she grew up. This is another one where her answer isn't all that different from what mine would be. She said, "I could never decide on one thing. I wanted to be a marine biologist for a long time because I love the ocean so much, but right now most of them are sent to cold places to do research and I hate cold weather. I used to watch shark week and all those shows on TV because its so fascinating. I just love the powerful feeling of the ocean."

 

 

She really is amazing and an awesome model to boot. So for your viewing pleasure, a slideshow of Ashley's Senior Session: