Month: January 2014

Heading Off On Vacation!

Heading Off On Vacation!

Good afternoon! I will be taking a few days off from blogging, so that I can be fully present as I enjoy time with my family as we go on vacation!! YEAH!!! My sweetie, myself, my sis-in-law, and my niece and two of our nephews 

Living Out Loud!

Living Out Loud!

Good afternoon! This post is a reminder to live out loud. One of my favorite movies of all time is Mame. It is about an glamorously eccentric woman who is just all around fabulous, and never seems to have any problems living out loud. My 

Adventures in Photography!

Adventures in Photography!

Good afternoon!

This past Saturday, it was such a beautiful day that my sweetie and I packed up my new camera, remote control, and tripod, and headed out for a few hours to practice taking photos with my new camera! I had had my heart set out on going to the Union Street Railroad Bridge, which is an old river-crossing train trestle that was converted to a nice pedestrian bridge just a few years ago!

Walking BridgeWe knew that this was an old bridge, but were surprised to see that it was originally built in 1912. We were literally walking across history! πŸ™‚

Walking Bridge 8This is my lovely assistant, AKA my sweetie! He was happy to just people watch and soak up the sun on this absolutely GORGEOUS day!! πŸ™‚

Walking Bridge 14There were actually a lot of people out enjoying this morning, but we got lucky and I almost got a free and clear shot of the walking bridge without pedestrians! πŸ™‚

Walking Bridge 13The outside of the trestle.

Walking Bridge 12I just love the way the metal crisscrosses and all of the details of the rivets! Industrial chic?? πŸ™‚

Walking Bridge 11

Walking Bridge 10This is the old wooden foundation. You can tell that there have been many recent repairs, but it is just so cool to look at!

Walking Bridge 9The Willamette River.

Walking Bridge 7

Walking Bridge 6

Walking Bridge 5I am soooo in love with the curve here!

Walking Bridge 4

Walking Bridge 3

Walking Bridge 2

Walking Bridge 1

Walking Bridge 15Thanks to my new remote control and tripod – I now actually have the ability to show up in some of my own pictures!! πŸ™‚ Jason has a way of just keeping me laughing!! πŸ™‚

Walking Bridge 16I really do love this man!! πŸ™‚

I know that I still have a loooooong way to go on learning how to use all of my settings on a my new camera, but I am determined to figure them all out!! ISO, white balance, timing, flash vs no flash, etc, etc! In the meantime, I hope you enjoyed these pictures and hopefully, over the next year or so, I can keep growing and learning as a photographer and continue to share my progress pics with you! πŸ™‚

Here is to a FABULOUS day! πŸ™‚

Signature Line

If you want to have a different life, you have to live differently!!

Bliss List Friday!

Bliss List Friday!

Good afternoon! I find that when I get the opportunity to write my Bliss List for Friday, just the simple act of doing that causes me so much Bliss!! Isn’t that awesome??? Here is my Friday Bliss List: This is my sweetie holding our newest 

You Are Going to Be Okay!

You Are Going to Be Okay!

Good afternoon! Now, I have already said that 2014 is going to be a HUGE year of changes for my sweetie and myself! By 2015, all areas of our life will have drastically changed: where we live, where we work, how we look at the 

Artsist Spotlight: Heather Hansen!

Artsist Spotlight: Heather Hansen!

Good afternoon!

I was struggling with what to share today, and while I was perusing the internet, I stumbled upon this amazing artist, and just had to share her with you! Her name is Heather Hansen, and I am SOOOOO in love with not only her art, but the way she goes about creating her art! SO peaceful, and creative!! I justΒ  love her!!

See for yourself:

I need more of this feeling of peace in my life!

Here is to a PEACEFULLY CREATIVE day!! πŸ™‚

Signature Line

If you want to have a different life, you have to live differently!!

Friday’s Bliss List!

Friday’s Bliss List!

Good afternoon! Friday is the day that I am trying to focus all of my energies on what has blessed me this week, and what generally just makes me happy when I think about!! Here is this Friday’s Bliss List! πŸ™‚ My sweetie! I know 

A Peek into My Work Day!

A Peek into My Work Day!

Good afternoon! I thought that I would share a quick peek into my day with you! These pics are pics are from random moments in my work day! My day job is as a data programmer, so I sit at my computer for what feels 

Girls’ Night In – Getting Arty!

Girls’ Night In – Getting Arty!

Crafting Life Books with MaryGood afternoon!

I wanted to share with you how my arting night with my girl friend, Mary, went last night!!

Let’s just start out by saying, it really is SOOOOOO MUCH MORE FUN when you art with someone than when you always art by yourself!!

Well, as you may remember from yesterday’s post, I met a very lovely girl on Saturday. Her name is Mary! Well, Mary came over last night so we could get our art on!!!

YEAH!!

We met up at my place of work, (on a side note, we have agreed that we are both SERIOUSLY directionally challenged, so she was pretty proud of herself that she found me, and I have to admit I was pretty impressed too!! ;-)) and we made the trek across town to my place!!

I was kind of worried, because you know like most people, there are things about my place that I find rather embarrassing, but like Melody Ross says, ” She felt (blank), but she did it anyway!” So, in we went! I gave her a quick tour, introduced her to our doggies, Faye and Sophie, and headed straight to my art studio to get to playing!!

We didn’t really have a plan for what we were going to do, but I had a fall back plan of creating our own life/dream/smash books, which is what we ended up deciding to do!!

Paper, pens, paint, scissors, Mary even brought over her Cricut machine (SO COOL!!), some happy music in the background, and stories back and forth mixed in with a bunch of giggling, add some funkily cut pizza (BTW pizza should NEVER EVER come in squares!!), and you end up with a night that was OH SO FUN!!!

My sweetie got home, and ended up being our chauffeur to drive Mary home, which in and of itself ended up contributing to the fun of the evening! You see, I am currently rocking the Frozen soundtrack in my car at the moment, which my sweetie just loves!! Well, we both have a few favorite songs, so as Mary and I are continuing to chat it up in the back of the car, Jason is blasting this Disney music, swaying to the beat of the music, and singing!! TOO HILARIOUS!!! I hadn’t realized that we were going to be entertained by a cute floor show during our travels across town!! LOL!! Thanks for that Love!!! πŸ™‚

Anyway, I am calling last night a HUGE SUCCESS, and I am hoping we get the chance to do it again real soon!! If anything, I can’t wait to see what kind of progress she makes on her life/dream/smash book!! Yeah, we really do have to decide what we are going to actually call those things!! Well, whatever they are called, we really did have a GREAT TIME!!

Friends are good!

Art is fun!

and I am feeling UBER BLESSED!! πŸ™‚

Here is to another day filled with HAPPINESS & CREATIVITY!! πŸ™‚

Signature Line

If you want to have a different life, you have to live differently!!

My Word for 2014!

My Word for 2014!

Good afternoon! Back in December of 2013, when I was sitting down to think about what I wanted to have happen in 2014, I thought about the usual suspects when it came to trying to decide my New Year’s resolutions: exercise more, eat better, lost