Happy Monday everyone!!

Well, it was a hot weekend here. Temps were in the mid 90’s with heat indexes reaching up to 110. Gotta love Iowa in August.

The week/weekend has been filled with several activities and great bargains. This was my agenda for the weekend.

Friday- work, home and clean, bed! Going to have a busy day on Saturday

Saturday –

· 6:00am - up early (had to be at my nieces bridal shower/breakfast)
· 9:00am - arrive at shower shot lots of pictures.
· 10:30am - moms to change into river clothes , snap a picture of her flowers and load up the car for the bachelorette party and “Rip It Up’ session ( in case you are wondering, this is the same as a Trash The Dress session. I just wanted my name to be more unique.
· Noon – Rome Bar for the meet up of the bachelorette party. While we were there we did our Rip It Up session. What a hoot! Here’s a sneak peek at our fun.. New brides or soon to be brides - if you are interested in a fun session of destruction, let me know by visiting my web site . I actually have a couple extra dresses if you don’t have your own.
· 2:00pm - head down to the river for more of the “Rip It Up” session and a few shots of the bachelorette party hitting the river for a float trip. Not this gal, I had my camera and plans for later in the evening.
· 4:00pm – Down to Ketchum (this is where we camp) load up in the boat to get some on the water pictures of the gals.
· 4:15PM – BOAT IS DEAD!! Mom gets on the phone to call for help, Trent (soon to be groom) jumped onto our boat for some repairs, running again! Start it up and gets some air flowing. Finally back up the river. By this time it is over 100 degrees, get me back to the AC!
· 5:00pm – headed to the house to get ready for the races.
· 5:10 – passed a sign that said FREE JUNK! Of course I turned around. I was almost done loading my car when Rick pulled in. The first thing out of his mouth was, I knew when I saw the sign that you would be here. He loaded a few more things for me.
· 6:00 arrive at home in time to grab a sandwich clean up a bit the off to the races.
· 10:00pm – back at home, shower and hit the bed! I have to get up tomorrow and edit some pictures.

Sunday was not as bad. It was pretty much laid back, time in the pool and unload the car. Snap a picture for Jess to check out. I’ve been thinking of some crafty ideas to do with my “junk”. She has a great idea so I think for this I will steal her chalkboard idea. (sorry) Also wait to see what I have in store for the picture frames. You will be shocked. Martha look out here comes Tina !! Then I ended my day with a storm!


Until next time- stay cool!

Hey, hey, Bonnie

How do ya like me now?


Everyone is probably wondering, what in the heck is she talking about? Well this lady at work Bonnie, aka stiletto lady, looked at my last post , told me she liked my shed but commented that the door needed to be painted black. So, I went home and touched it up, smiling the whole time. Now I have to paint the windows to match.☺ Bonnie, I think I should take some pictures of my house and get your suggestions, oh wait, your designer is your daughter Jess, hmmmm.

I ♥ FLOWERS

Let's take a walk through my yard. ( thanks Bonnie for the post idea) All of these pictures are from my yard over the past couple weeks. Yes, I have a flower addiction ☺ Every time I bring in another Rick asks, where are you going to put that? Trust me I always find a spot. Here's my purdy blooms!

So have you had enough flowers yet? That's it for the back and front yard. I haven't taken all of them but you get the point of my title. I ♥ flowers!

Not much else going on here, breakfast this morning was yummy! We had a good old fashion high calorie, high fat content of orange rolls. Rick was busy hooking up the surround sound so I kept them warm with my Dining Stone . Then I kicked back with music and relaxation all day while Rick and our neighbor Eric worked or I should say tinkered in the shop. Rick is at it again. This time it's a Toyota land cruiser. He's playing chop it up and make it unique ☺. I will post a few of his pictures next week.

Until then, I wish you a great week!!

Change

That's what Obama says, It's time for a change! Well I'm going to start up a new blog. If you are reading this either I sent you an email or you found me by a search from one of my tag words. I have thought about it and discussed it with a few people and need to keep my ever so personal stuff and photography business separate. I'm trying to get followers and not everyone wants to read about how Rick and I have spent our week and some people could care less about photography(shame on you :) I'm sure my family will be thrilled that I have another page to add to their favorites ☺.My new blog will focus on my photography and ART web sites. Which will consist of my photo sessions with a few sneak peeks, my creative photo projects, back drops that I venture out to make or pick up at Hobby Lobby, impressive DIY ideas for photography, or maybe even a trick or trade that I learn online.I guess that's what it's really all about, a diary kinda thing so keeping it separate will be interesting!Ha, that brings back some memories. Did you ever have a diary? I used to write all kinds of silly things in mine. Do you remember the whole Dick Loves Jane 4-ever stuff and were you drew an eyeball + heart+ U? I DO!! Oh well not everyone grew up as cheesy as some of the things I did. OK, it's off to start up the new blog. If you want to follow my photography blog www.reflectedmemories.blogspot.com
add it to your favorites.

4 Pane Window Picture Frame DIY

Here's one for the do-it-yourself-ers.

Woo-hoo for me. I have finally completed my project. I picked up this 4 pane window from a friends junk pile, took it to work for a couple guys to add an L shape for more accessories, added a little Cricut touch, door hardware and keys, walla! I decided since it has a vintage look why not add some of my favorite pictures. I chose an old grist mill, Dr.'s office, barn and house. Here's the final piece of art, what do ya think?

Up,Up, Away

On the road again, or should I say in the air!!
Rick and I had a complete day away from the house on Saturday. We were up and out of here by 6:15am. First stop Fort Madison's Rodeo Park for to watch the hot air balloons launch. It was amazing at how fast the wind lifts them up. They were over the Mississippi in no time. Now we took our journey to davenport for lunch and to visit some friends. On the way Rick saw a sign for the Pine Creek Grist Mill, okay I'm game. So off the beaten path we go. I'm so glad he was in the mood for exploring. The place was fantastic. This would be a great location for Senior photography but I live too far away, dang!
It's time to eat, we've been going since 6:15 and it's now noon. We went on into Davenport and decided to eat at the Machine Shed . If you've never ate there and you live in the Midwest states you need to go! The food, atmosphere and prices are wonderful.

Now on to the "man" store - Harbor Freight. Now for some reason, I came out of there with allot more than Rick did. Oh well, gotta get those flower beds prettied up. I know now why they make a seasonal section, it's for the ladies!!

Next stop back to Fort Madison for the balloon glow. What a day this turned out to be. We arrived back home at 10:30, exhausted!

Enjoy the video! You can see the pictures full sized here here. I almost forgot to do a little bragging. I told you back in May that I won a photo contest for Access Energy again this year! One of my eagle pictures titled " Soaring In The Sky" will be posted on July for the 2010 calendar. I received a couple calendars the other day and love it! Also did I mention the number of views are increasing more and more each day on my web site. Thanks to everyone who shared the link.

Now I feel like a give away! Actually I will be doing a giveaway each month with a grand prize in December. How will we do this you may ask? I will be drawing a name from anyone who makes a comment on this post for a free framed 8 x 10 picture of your choice from my flickr uploads. The contest begins now and will end on July 31st. When making your comment please put your name, city, state and email address and I will contact you if you are the lucky one.

Have fun and good luck!

Mud & Smiles

Today was the perfect day. A gentle breeze blowing and the sun was not beating down on us. To add to the list of good things, I had a beautiful model for todays shoot. Nicole was fun and very photogenic. I rented the costumes for a "heirloom"type session ( as I mentioned in my last post) It's not just an art store they have so much more. Check it out if you are in Burlington. The lady there was very helpful and talk about costumes, they have tons!

On to our session. Nicole and I had a great time and lots of laughs today. People in town were staring us down, but I guess we did look a little odd prancing around town with saloon girl type dress on. ( Nicole, you are a great sport!) Here are a few of the pictures, more can be seen on my web site !!! Yeah I have it all set up. Please leave me some feedback on the new site as well as this post. I'm trying to get my name out and your help is greatly appreciated. As always follwers always welcomed. I have been stuck on 4 forever. Now when I look at the blogs I follow, hummm, my list goes on and on, something is wrong with the picture here. Maybe I need to spike it up a little. What would you suggest I do to attract more followers and.or viewers? Let me know but submitting a comment at the end of this post.