Just the beginning

We look forward to this day every year...the day we head up to my dad's land up north. This year marks our 5th Annual Labor Day Celebration. We have a group of friends that have joined us every year which makes it even more special.

On our way up to the land we saw lots of wildlife including a coyote standing on the side of the highway. There were lots of geese and turkeys as well. We were so happy to finally make it to the land after a 4 hour drive.

Miss Aayla watching Mike fish

It was nice to see the water level down as it makes it so much easier for the
kids to make it across, plus we have our island to sit on during the day!



Mike's small mouth bass he caught and released.

Do you see what I see?

 

I couldn't believe that as we were walking around down by the water and talking that this bald eagle happened to be sitting in a tree not too far from us. I was able to get pretty close before he flew away.

 

 

 

On our way home I had to take this picture of the almost full moon...it was so pretty. We did see a hawk, a porcupine, a deer and a rabbit on the drive back to my dad's. It sure was the night for the wildlife to be out!!!

 

I look forward to all our friends coming tomorrow and I hope everyone has a safe and fun Labor Day weekend :)

 

 

Burke Family

Tonight I had the pleasure of photographing the Burke family. Amber and I used to work together and her family was one of the first photo shoots I ever did. Her boys are growing up so fast! Ayden and Noah are 4 years old and just the cutest boys ever!!! Here are some previews from their session.

 

Miss Brooklyn

I have been going through past photo shoots to try some new edits. I just love the natural look captured in this shot. Her expression was PERFECT and I did nothing to pose her! She walked out into the grass, turned around and BAM! Tthis is what I got :) The first image is SOOC (straight out of camera).

                                                    This is the image tweeked a little :)

This session was so much fun; Brooklyn was wonderful. Here are a few more from her session that turned out amazing.

Here she is, walking around in her mom's shoes!

 

         This picture was a special treat. What little girl who loves pink wouldn't want to eat a hot pink cupcake during her photo shoot?

                                                              .......and here is my favorite!

                                                                  Happy Thursday!!!!

Barney and Meg

A few days ago my mom called and asked me a go with her to interview two cats. Yes, interview. She wants to bring home two orphaned cats named Barney and Meg. Sadly their owner passed away and they were brought to Orphan Animal Rescue & Sanctuary.

Everyone at the facility was very nice and the cats...well my mom and I fell in love! Barney decided my purse was going to make a good bed. He sat there 90% of the time that we were there! He is such a sweetheart.

While my mom was filling out the adoption forms Onix (a 4 year old male) thought my mom needed a little help.

Meg was much quieter and sat on her desk chair most of the time until she moved to her basket when we left. She loved it when we pet her and purred like crazy.











                                             This is Twinkle. She is a one year old female.

                                            This is Chrissy. She is a 4 year old female.

Both Twinkle and Chrissy were very friendly and would love to find a new home :) Please visit www.orphananimalrescue.org and click on adoptable pets.

This is Barney right before we left. I look forward to my mom getting a call saying she can adopt them.

                                                Hope everyone had a great Wednesday!!!

Joel & Kaitlyn-Happy Anniversary!

A year ago yesterday I had the honor of photographing Joel and Kaitlyn's wedding at The Red Mill in Waupaca. It was such a beautiful day :) Below are a few of my favorite photos from their day.

                       Happy Anniversary you guys!!!!! I wish you many more happy years to come.

This is a photo from my night out with the bunko babes. What a beautiful night to be surrounded by amazing people.

Monday Monday

Most of the time I don't like Mondays....but today wasn't too bad. Work went fast and then I went on a nice walk with Mike and Aayla. There is something about walking in the evening when life just seems a little bit quieter. It gives you time to reflect on life. Here is a shot from this evening.

And here is one of Miss Aayla from our weekend camping. It's like she has her own house...

Hope everyone had a great weekend and survived Monday :)

flower fun

So a few posts ago I showed one of the windows I had turned in to a piece of art. I have three other windows waiting to be worked on and I finally had time to finish one of them. I wanted to do something different from the first one so I chose one of the windows that had three panes. It didn't need much work which made it a good project for an evening like this.

Memories of grandpa

7/14/12 There are few things I remember from my childhood, but one thing that sticks in my mind is of my grandfather playing the piano and singing to me. When I would stay over, he would sit at the piano and play until I fell asleep. I now have all his old sheet music and am overjoyed!

The problem with the old music is that is smelled...BAD! It had been sitting in a box in the garage for years. I brought it all home and began my project. There were so many sheets of music, old newspapers, and pieces of paper with lyrics written on them.

The first step was to go through all the music and see what pieces I wanted to use. I am thinking of making a collage of pieces of music and some of the hand written lyrics that I found. I'm also thinking of framing some of the covers as art work. So I was looking for songs that I remember him singing or covers that had interesting pictures...or maybe colors that I liked. There were so many to go through....

The next step was to start treating it. From everything I found on the internet of how to get rid of mildew smells, baking soda was the way to go. I started layering baking soda between sheets of music. It took a few rounds of treatment before the smell started to go away.  The last step was hanging the pieces out in the air to get rid of any lingering smells.

The other great part of this project is having a custom frame made from old wood we also found in the chicken coop. I took some of the pieces I found over to my father-in-law to see if he could make me a frame. I bought a frame from Goodwill so I could use the glass but as I was sliding it out of danger in the garage I ended up chipping off a chunk of the glass...so I will have to go out and buy glass for it afterall once the frame is done.

8/15/12 I'm so excited! My father-in-law finished the frame I had him make out of the wood you see above. I had to run and have some glass cut and then put together my collage. I have lots more music treated that I want to use for smaller projects but here is the completed collage frame.