Mother's Day Auction

Exciting news! One of my photos is going to be auctioned off as part of Handmadeology's Mother's Day Auction this Saturday! Hundreds of etsy shop owners applied, and I am thrilled (and shocked, frankly) to be among the 40 who were chosen.  I had not used tophatter before, but I checked it out last night, and it's pretty darn cool. And definitely potentially addictive. If you want to check out the auction (this Saturday at 7 central time), go here to RSVP. :)

Bidding for my 8x8 print starts at $3!

praise for Picmonkey

I have a confession to make: I LOVE Picnik. I use it to edit photos regularly. So you can imagine I was pretty sad when I found out that it's going away on April 19th. Since the announcement, I've been trying to figure out what to use in its stead, and it has been frustrating. I have a bit of a fear of Photoshop, but most of the free online stuff is far inferior in terms of being powerful, yet user-friendly. I was pretty worried... until I found Picmonkey! It was founded by two former Picnik engineers and is beautifully close to being just the same... except with even more features! I highly recommend it!

Check out these before and afters:

Which is your favorite? Should these go in my etsy shop?

iris haiku

 

the iris is the

colorful part of my eyes

(and of my back yard)

baby's first portrait session

Remember those maternity photos I took of my friends a couple months back? Well, their precious baby boy has arrived, and I had the pleasure of photographing him! This is my second time doing newborn portraits, and I have to say, it's HARD. But so, so special. Here are my favorite shots of baby Nathanael.

You can go to my Facebook album to see the whole collection. I'd love to know your thoughts! :)

Re-decorating my office!

My office just got a facelift! I'm a mental health therapist by day, and the space I use for that isn't ideal--no windows, fluorescent light, walls that need to be painted/cleaned/patched, and artwork that was actually upsetting to more than one client. No more! After months of agonizing over which of my own photos to choose, I finally made a decision, bought prints, frames, and mats, and made it happen!

I may be a bit biased, but the room really does feel more therapeutic now. I get to look at waves rolling in and pine trees reaching toward the sky while my clients gaze at a natural reflection in water and a seagull in the sky. Soaring above it all to gain a better perspective? Reaching toward heaven? Calmly reflecting...? The counseling metaphor possibilities are endless! My mental health is improving already.

hometown beauty

I finally got around to redecorating my office today at work.  I'll post photos soon, but for now, I want to share something sad that happened when someone walked into my office and saw this photo on the wall.

"Whoa! Beautiful! I wish I could be there!"she said. She believed it was a faraway, exotic land--somewhere she couldn't go, and certainly not somewhere in yucky old Mississippi. Why did this make me sad? Because I took this picture less than ten miles away from where this conversation was taking place. It's in our very own hometown. We live in this amazing exotic place everyday, and some of us miss it.

Please, please, don't miss out on the amazing creation God built for us. No matter where you live, go outside and wander around with a camera (or just your eyes). Leave behind your phone and your attitude. And I promise, you will find beauty.

Help me identify flowers!

I need your help, readers! You may have noticed that I enjoy taking pictures of flowers. Some of them are familiar to me (like azaleas, camellias, hydrangeas...), but I must admit that I typically have no idea what I'm looking at. I sometimes put flower photos in my etsy shop with lame titles like "delicate flower," but I'd prefer to be able to be a bit more specific. So... help! If you know what any of these flowers are, please let me know in the comments. Thank you in advance!

I would love for you to share this post on Facebook, Twitter, or Pinterest so that I can get more eyes on it, too. Thank you, thank you, thank you! :)

***UPDATE: Success! I posted this in my flickr stream and was directed to an amazing flickr user who identified ALL of these for me--thanks, Brent! I'm posting the list here in case you're curious (and so that I can always find it):

1. Centaurea cyanus (pink form)

2. Zinnia (species)

3. Sisyrinchium campestre

4. Lantana camara (purple)

5. Lantana camara

6. Some type of Daisy

7. Some type of Prunus

8. Brugmansia

9. might be a Coreopsis

10. Salvia

11. Gerbera jamesonii

12. Odontonema strictum

13. Lantana camara

14. Lycoris radiata

15. Lonicera sempervirens

16. Magnolia