Fingerprints

The older girls have been loving this Ed Emberley's Complete Funprint Drawing Book.  I think it would be a fun gift with a rainbow stamp pad.

The older girls and I sat down one day making fun cards.  We had to concentrate to get our little characters just right.  Besides the concentration in this picture, I love Kaylee's little green thumb. 

We made some fun cards.

I could tell they enjoyed this project because as soon as the cousins showed up the next day, guess what project came out.

Play Road Map

I had seen THIS on my friend Erin's blog.  I wish she still lived here!  Anyway, had a lot of the fabric and couldn't resist copying her idea.  I was able to make quite a few for nephews and for gifts.  It is the perfect size to roll up and fit in a purse to have on hand.  AND the fabric is just so dang cute!

I just put on a quilted back and then sew machine quilted the roads to the back.  Finished it off with bias tape on the edges.  Really a quick project.  I'm excited for Stephen to take them this weekend.

Hike and SQUEAKS

We went on a little hike today with the Mason's.  I was blown away with the beautiful colors.  The rocks were sooo many different colors.  The sky sooo blue.  And of course all of the green vegetation.

The rocks had such fun lines.  Take a look at the texture of this one below.

 

The view below was beautiful.  We felt like we conquered the world!

Close by was Squeak's Soda Shop, so we ended our afternoon there.  They have 61 flavors to choose from.  We had fun smelling all the viles of flavors.  They say it tastes how it smells.  They also have a little game area with board games and Wii games.  The boys made sure the Wii worked.

What a beautiful afternoon with friends!

HAIL

My tomatoes WERE beautiful.  I was almost prideful as people would comment on them.  They WERE huge and loaded with tomatoes and blossoms.  THEN the hail came THREE times.  One time it was the size of ping pong balls and actually broke the skylights in the boys bathroom AND girls bathroom upstairs.  My tomatoes were sad.  There were leaves, stems, tomatoes, and blossoms laying all over the ground.  All that was left were little straggly plants.

Well, tonight as I worked in the garden I noticed a lot of new growth.  I noticed how big the tomatoes that were left are getting, and how loaded the plants really are with tomatoes.  They are going to make it!  They will still produce fruit.

I started thinking about life.  (I'm always comparing life to gardening and growing things.)  I think that hail falls in our lives and we really can't stop it.  Sometimes its big and hurts us.  Sometimes we are damaged by it and need repair.  Sometimes it is just little hail but it disrupts our happy life that we have going on.  You really can't stop hail and have no forewarning when it is going to come.  Just as life throws us loops that we don't see coming, and then when we do see it coming we really can't stop it from happening.

BUT what I saw tonight made me smile.  The sun kept shining on those tomato plants.  I kept watering and fertilizing them.  AND they are coming out of it.  There is a lot of new growth.  I think with us too if we keep the light shining in our lives and doing the things that we need to do.  We too can make it out of the trials WITH new growth.  Usually after deep pruning, plants are bigger and healthier.  We too learn from the trials in our lives.  We grow stronger,gaining more experience and understanding in our lives.

When I was surveying the damage after the big storm Kaylee told me, "Mom just think it could've been the size of bowling balls, at least it was just the size of ping pong balls."  She always helps me keep a good perspective!

Auto

Someone asked me what the real difference is between shooting in auto versus manual.  And this is what I think ...

When you pick up your camera to take a picture the camera is "asleep".  It has no idea if you are taking a portrait shot and need a blurred background OR if you need to catch all the motion in a fast action shot OR what you want in focus versus not in focus.  It has no idea how much light you are wanting in the camera or in other words how bright YOU really want the picture.  The camera basically has to "guess" what you want.  And to me, no one really knows exactly what I want.

Sooo, that's why I like manual.  BECAUSE I'm in charge of what I am trying to achieve in the picture!
I do use auto though when I'm having a difficult time getting my settings.  I shoot a picture on auto and then use it for the data.  Then I can adjust my manual settings with an idea of what auto would be using.


Then I have people ask what settings I use.  That is just an impossible question to answer.  Every picture is different, lighting is different and what I want to achieve is different.  Then each lense that I put on my camera is different and requires different settings.

I do however have a system.  I first set my ISO and try to keep it as low as I can get away with.  If I'm serious about the photo, I adjust the white balance.  Then if it's an action shot I adjust my shutter speed next OR if I'm doing a still picture I adjust the aperature next.  I then look through my viewfinder and adjust the exposure wheel until I have it almost to zero with my secondary setting that I didn't make my priority setting.  Then you can take a look at your exposure to see what you are getting with YOUR settings.  If you like them you will say, YEAHHHH ... and snap a way.


My favorite lense that is always on my camera is the 50mm 1.4  I LOVE it and try to use it all the time.  I do have my eye on a couple of other lenses, too bad my birthday isn't around the corner.  I have a Nikon D60.  LOVE it, BUT my eye is wandering to this
Nikon D700 12.1MP Digital SLR Camera (Body Only)
YET Stephen's wallet is NOT wandering on over to it.

AND let me be first to say that I'm constantly learning and trying to become a better photographer and by no means am trying to act like I know what I'm doing.  I'm just trying to answer common questions that I have been getting in emails and comments.

Weekend Update

The majority of the week was spent down at my parents' house.  While we were there we went to a turquoise shop.  

When I was a little girl, my Grandma Jackie would do wax molds for turquoise jewelry.  I can remember the hot green wax and all the molds with different designs.  Then there were different sizes for the different designs.  Each wax mold was only worth a few cents, but those few cents would add up to extra money for them.  Sometimes she would let us go when she would take in the wax molds that she had made.  I still have some of the jewelry she would buy for me on those little dates.  ANYWAY, there are still a few turquoise jewelry makers down in the valley.  So Kristy and I thought it would be fun to take the kids.  At the end of the little explanation he gave each of the kids a piece of the turquoise (which made the kids think they were rich) and then an ice cream sandwich (which made their little tummies happy),  Here is Nathan running his hands through the turquoise.


We also did pizza in the park.  I had to laugh when Ashley asked me "if Grandma Charla would come and play in this park by herself sometimes".  We topped the park off with snow cones.

This wooden box of little dolls were a huge part of Grandma Charla's.  All the girls were dragging them around to play with them and shall I say were "fighting" over them.

I also did some photo shoots for other people this week before we left and then of course another fun one out in my mom's cabbage patch while we were there.

We came back to the Springs late Friday night so that we would be here for the 3v3 soccer tournament the next morning.  Nathan, Kaylee and Rebecca all three played in it.  There were a ton of games.  Kaylee played in SEVEN!  It was a lot of fun watching them and chatting with friends.  Kaylee was determined to get third place.  She shot five times in the overtime play and finally got the winning goal.


Rebecca's team took first, Kaylee's third and then Nathan's team took fourth.  

When I came home I had two packages waiting for me from my blog.  One was a product to keep and try out and the other was a VERY sweet package of books that a blog friend had sent.  We are LOVING the Tickle Monster Laughter Kit.  The little girls have begged us to read it every night since we got it.  Thanks again Pam!

AND I think that wraps up the week!

Sand Camp Craft

Here was our other little craft while we were camping.

I took up six little bottles of glue and a package of construction paper.  We let the kids "draw" with the glue whatever they wanted.  Then they took the glue drawing and sprinkled dirt all over it.

Then the kids would shake the dirt off and end up with their sand drawing.

Some drew animals.  Karley did a bird with a worm in his mouth.

Grandma helped Ash make a giraffe.

Quick, Cheap, Easy and Fun!!!

Coley Camping

My dad asks EVERY year, "What weekend are you coming down to go camping?"  And EVERY year we squeeze in a fun trip up Conejos Canyon.  Dad LOVES to go here.  We camp down below by the river.  The huge mountains on each side of us are gorgeous to look up at.

My Uncle Kevin built a cabin on the back side of the mountain.  It overlooks a meadow with a little creek.  May I mention a PERFECT meadow for snowmobiling.  I'm thinking that I need to take Stephen back to the cabin for our August anniversary!  Here is a corner of the cabin with the pretty meadow below.

When we camp with my parents, we eat a lot!

We ALWAYS get rained on.  Some see it as a quick drink.

Others are grossed out by the drinking of rain water ...

We play board games.

We play in and by the river.  This year the kids found a log that worked perfectly as a teeter totter.

We play pretend in the forest and in the tent.

We snuggle and hear scary stories at night.  Grandma Charla usually has some good ones but this year Aunt Kristy's story topped her!

We do have fun and I'm glad that dad keeps us doing this year after year!

Googley Eye Camp Craft

I took a few packages of googley eyes camping with us.  Some were girl eyes with eyelashes.  I made a few examples of nature creatures and then told each of the kids to go find THEIR nature creature. 
 
It was fun watching them choose just the right rock, flower or leaf.  AND then oh how they came alive with the googley eyes.  I have one sitting in my garden right now.  I found the idea in Family Fun and we will definitely do it again!

Stay tuned for the other easy camp craft.  Hopefully tomorrow I can get all caught up!