20 May | 2013

Journal To A Loved One

Filed Under: Scrapbooking

Today, I’m going to share with you three layouts that make me smile every time I see them. It’s not the design, it’s not the pictures, it’s then story held within the journaling.  Each is written to someone- two of these are written to my brother, another to my nephew, and one (of many) written to my husband.  Sometimes, I like to think about journaling as writing a letter about something that happened and my thoughts- sometimes serious, sometimes lovey-dovey, and sometimes just being silly.

I shared this layout here on the blog when I first created it.  We’d just gone to one of Jack’s basketball games and there were so many things I wanted him to know, things I wished he understood about what winning really was.  So, I created this layout.  In this case, the journaling happened really close to the conversation and game that inspired this layout- the thoughts I had were fresh on my mind.

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19 May | 2013

How Lovely is Your Dwelling Place

Filed Under: Faith

How lovely is your dwelling place, O Lord of Hosts!

My soul longs, yes, faints for the courts of the Lord;

My heart and flesh sing for joy to the living God.

Psalm 84:1-2

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18 May | 2013

Capture This Prompt: A Story in the Background

Filed Under: Creating, Photography, Scrapbooking

One of the things that I want to do on this blog is have a series that will hopefully inspire you to capture some particular thing in your own way.  I’ll provide a prompt and you decide how you want to capture it.  The idea being that you could capture the theme in so many ways like: blogging, posting a tweet or a Facebook status update, photography, art journaling, scrapbooking, journaling, or even just discussing the prompt.

This week’s Capture This Prompt is: A Story in the Background

The inspiration for this prompt came from this picture taken turkey hunting over the weekend:

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17 May | 2013

Flashback Friday: Anniversary Photo Shoot

Filed Under: Photography, Snapshots of Life

Like last week, this week’s post is form our anniversary.   This time though we were around town- and trying to figure out what to do.  We’d both rather spend our time outside than inside- and from what you can see here, you can guess that it was an exceptionally warm day for January.  We knew we needed to take advantage of it.  But, we didn’t want to go far. I was shocked when I realized I never blogged particular date.

So we went to the Lufkin Zoo cameras in hand.

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16 May | 2013

Photography Syllabus: Getting Off Auto, About Flash, and Simply Making the Shot

Filed Under: Photography

I want to share some of the things that I’ve learned about the technical aspects of photography. Some of these things will work on a point and shoot, but others will be for more advanced cameras (some point and shoots, new micros, and dSLR’s etc.) By no means are these posts intended to indicate any expertise but rather simply sharing things that work well for me.

I want to start with what I consider step 1: Getting off Auto and Taking Control

Program Mode

If you want to improve your photography, are unhappy about the shots you are getting, or want to start learning more about photography, one of the first things I would recommend is switching from the Auto Mode to the Program Mode on your camera.  This mode allows you to begin taking the control- if you want to improve your photography, you want to take a more active role in the process- you want to start taking over the controls.

If you change nothing, program mode will work just like your auto mode.  But, you can begin to make changes and learn how the settings on your computer work in tandem.

Learning photography for me has most often been about solving problems- getting off the auto mode and figuring out what settings would help me solve the problem. If you can get your hands on one, try getting a book about your camera- your specific camera. These books often hold more information than your manual. It might all seem like greek and no one really enjoys reading the manual anyway- but when you’re trying to learn about a particular setting or how to change a setting, they are a huge help.
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15 May | 2013

The Woman in this Picture

Filed Under: Me, Myself, and I, Snapshots of Life

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This girl struggles with self-portraits. Most of them come out strange, stupid, or whacked-out weird.

That’s not all she struggles with. This woman struggles with finding balance. She wants to do it all- be it all. She struggles with being childless. Still there is not a day that goes by that it doesn’t cross her mind. She struggles to be present in every moment.

She wonders what would happen if she were more comfortable in front of the camera.

She wonders how she got so lucky to have such a great husband. She wonders what if all the time- sometimes in a creative or problem solving good way, sometimes as her mind just wonders and day dreams, and sometimes in a place of anxiety. She wonders what plans God has in store for her.

Every once in a while, the attempts at selfies meet with what this woman would take as success (at least moderately).

She’s finding her voice and her place in this world through creating, taking pictures, and writing. She enjoys seeing her creativity flourish. This woman is making peace with her current size and allowing herself grace when she considers how she’s gained weight. She’s finding the light in all kinds of things- soaking in the as much as possible and letting the Son shine on her.

This woman with all her struggles, wonders, and successes, she is me right now.

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14 May | 2013

Gobble, Gobble, No Boom, No Gobble

Filed Under: Snapshots of Life

Turkey season ended for us last weekend.  Unfortunately, it didn’t go out with a bang. I really wanted to use my new line “Gobble, Gobble, Boom” this year but alas, it wasn’t meant to be.  And Sunday was the worst hunting for me in at least two years to top it all of.  But, Cody and I still managed to have fun and enjoy the time together in the woods.

We only hunted Sunday morning due to the rains that came Friday and Saturday.  So, we hung out at the house Saturday morning and went out to the deer lease that evening.  Saturday, we walked to do some scouting and I took pictures with my new toy lens.

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13 May | 2013

Tell a Story Inside Another Story

Filed Under: Scrapbooking

One of the things that I do when I start to tell a story, especially as I think about journaling on my scrapbook page, is to think about back stories or stories I can link to other stories.  I’ll tell you that it’s the pages where I can thread stories together like this that are often instant favorites of mine.

Threading stories together tells a much more complete story.  Each story, each part of our history, builds upon itself.  Often thinking about those stories can lead to an interesting way to say what’s on your mind.

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12 May | 2013

Pour Out Your Heart

Filed Under: Faith

Flowers

Trust in him at all times, O People;

pour out your heart before him;

God is a refuge for us.

Psalm 62:8

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10 May | 2013

Flashback Friday: Austin Area Anniversary

Filed Under: Life's Bits and Pieces

’s are back!  They won’t be every Friday but they will appear regularly here on the blog.  And since it’s been a while since I blogged regularly, I’ve got lots of catching up to do.  Today, I bring you our anniversary in 2011.  Cody was in Austin the week prior and the week after our anniversary for training.  So, I came to Austin to see him.  It wasn’t the warmest day but at least it was warm enough to enjoy being outside.  And what do you to do when country comes to town gets tired of being in the city. . . you get out of it.

First we went out to Westcave Preserve and took the tour.

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9 May | 2013

Golfing and Photography Mojo Date

Filed Under: Life's Bits and Pieces

Back in February, Cody was going out of town and he’d been gone most of the weekend.  He came home early from the deer lease looking to go on a date.  We discussed it- the weather was nice and we really wanted to spend some time outside.  He thought of Golf and I thought it was the perfect idea.  Truth be told, it’s great quality time- he’s a captive audience while driving around the course.  I took my camera and he took his clubs.  Perfect!

He came up with this ball somewhere. . . I loved it!

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8 May | 2013

Those Unflattering Images Tell A Story Too

Filed Under: Scrapbooking

Today, as I was browsing through my scrapbook pages on my iPad, I thought about the unflattering images of me that I saw.

It’s true, like most women (and probably men too), I really don’t like having my picture taken and I don’t feel that I’m at all photogenic. (For proof- just ask my brother to share all his less than stellar images of his sister- he’d gladly share them with you just to get back at me, I’m sure.)  I could spend hours lamenting why that is.  But why waste my time?

Of course, the storyteller in me longs for evidence that I lived this life and that means images of me. When I’m really enjoying a moment or seeing a special thing evolve, I’ll ask someone (usually Cody) to take a picture of me doing whatever it is that seems like I need a shot of- like that image of Amy Lynn sleeping on my lap after her birthday party. Or this moment when my mother and I were teaching my uncle to make their mother’s pie crust- it was such a poignant moment that I don’t ever want to forget that I was there.

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7 May | 2013

Cards and More Cards

Filed Under: Creating, Scrapbooking

Just a quick post today to share some more of the cards that I sent out in March. I’m working on making May cards but I’ll share last Monty’s card making later.

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6 May | 2013

I Take Photos: Skies

Filed Under: Photography

I take pictures of the sky.  There is just something about a big open sky, a sunset, or a storm brewing that draws my attention.  There are things I photograph that I’m drawn to once I get a camera in my hand.  But, for me, skies tend to be the opposite- they make me grab the camera in order to capture them.

And God said, “Let there be a vault between the waters to separate water from water.” 7 So God made the vault and separated the water under the vault from the water above it. And it was so. 8 God called the vault “sky.” And there was evening, and there was morning—the second day. ~ Genesis 1:6-8

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5 May | 2013

Sharing Cards

Filed Under: Creating, Scrapbooking

I’ve been busy this year making birthday cards.  One of the things that continues to surprise me is the number of people that have thanked me for sending them a card.  You know, I think that in this day and age where we communicate online and cell phones instead of sending letters and cards, I think we miss the tactile nature of receiving mail- perhaps that’s why getting a package delivered is so fun.

Here’s just some of the ones that I made and sent in March.

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