Best Photos!

We've been exercising our photo taking skills lately! Using both the new camera and some helpful tips I picked up for my point-and-shoot, here are some "Best Photos" of the last weekend. It was so beautiful out that we couldn't resist a bit of a road trip and here are some photos from today with my nephew.Colin is posing for me in his 'Greatest Big Brother' Tee Shirt!
This one is my favorite :)
I love this tree out at Steven's parent's house. It's not "my" tree, since that one wasn't blooming yet- but it is a similar type.
This is "Tara's Tree", it always blooms just in time for her birthday.
I snapped this one of Steven up in Sandy. To be fair, he set up the settings.
I also shot this one and Steven didn't touch the settings!
Steven's awesome shot of the Mt. Hood.
Love this one at Crown Pointe.
As you can see it was very nice and not too chilly, but very windy up on Crown Pointe. We tried to get to Multnomah Falls, but it was too crowded. I love this action shot of my hair. Crazy! The wind was so strong I thought I was going to fall over. You can't see it, but I'm gripping the railing here! :)This isn't a best shot, but I think Mel wanted to see my new Liberty of London for Target finds! I also got an adorable hat box and some gardening gloves- real leather with the fabric print on top. Can't wait to plant my little herb garden and help Mom get her big one up and running.

I LOVE SPRINGTIME!

Saddest post of the day...

I went ahead and blogged about two things that I love- the family dog and crafting to make this post a little easier to write.

Last Sunday March 7, 2010, My Grandma past away. She was 100.5 years old. We've been preparing ourselves for this for a while but it doesn't make it any easier. She lived on her own in Arizona until she was about 96 when she could no longer drive. Her driver's license is good until 2012. Then she went to live with my Aunt in New Mexico. She came to live with my Parents at the end of 2008 and when she arrived she was on Hospice and doing poorly. We thought it might be the end.

However, she turned it around, gained 10 pounds and thrived in the span of a few months. We had a large birthday party for her in June and my Parents had a lot of people at their house for a large Reunion/Party weekend. She was so touched and happy. We took photos of all the families and some have quite a few generations. We did a campfire and told stories and laughed and ate. Just like we used to. I'm so glad we got to do that for her. I know she really enjoyed it. Turning 100 years old is quite an accomplishment and I'm glad we got to celebrate it.

This past week and weekend have been tough for all of us, and not just with making arrangements and traveling, plus I wasn't feeling very well. But I think Friday night everyone had a good time, eating and laughing and telling stories about those we've lost and how it used to be. I know I enjoyed it. Saturday we went to the Family Church and I was touched at how many people showed up. One friend of the family went through quite a bit of trouble just to find out if it was indeed her old friend and that she should attend. This little old lady called the local paper and church, who directed her to another paper, who directed her to the funeral home who told her that yes, this was the right person. Very touching.

Grandma was a special lady, very independent and full of life. I think she will be remembered as quiet but thoughtful, generous of the heart and loved by many.

A little bit of this...

I finished a few projects and wanted to post a few photos. I got on a kick to transform my extra bedroom space into something that I love instead of a place where things get thrown because they don't belong anywhere else. The room is still a catch all but now at least its a pretty room!Above I got a new pillow that I really wanted from Target (the one on the left). Originally it was online only, but a few weekends ago I went to Target with Marlene and Tara and there it was- sitting on a clearance shelf! 30% off! Go me! The polka dot print on the right used to be a plain (and kind of ugly) ivory throw pillow. Nothing special until I used half a yard of clearance fabric and made a cover! It looks so cute now in my Black/White/Pink/Red room and it cost me about 3 dollars. I have plans to get a pink and red print pillow from Target's new Liberty of London line to finish the futon. It will be a lot of fun to go through all the pretty prints to find the perfect one! I also have a lumbar sized pillow that I don't like the cover for. Turns out- its removable- so I'll be searching for more cute/cheap fabric to cover it with. Waste not, want not!Turns out Steven's old bulletin board was falling apart. I thought- I'll go buy a glue gun (which I should have anyways!) and fix it. Then I asked him if I could recover it. He said yes! So I found some pink and red print and black polka dot fabric and it turned out really cute!
This is the re-arrangement of my inspiration board. It used to have a bunch of nonsense on it, but now it has fun things that I like to look at. Which is good because it sits right above my computer- as you can see. For my next project- I took an old pencil holder that Steven brought home from work and transformed it. Y0u can see how ugly it was above, it is the black and white checked deal to the right of my monitor. Well I thought, maybe I can just cover it up (it had a 2005 calendar on it!) and I got this:Beautiful! Scrap fabric and ribbon transformed! I even cleaned up my desk a bit by putting my favorite ribbon scraps in my mason jars. Very cute!

Portraits of a Cruiser-Dog...

We LOVE this dog!Above is a photo that I took of Cruiser with my little point and shoot camera back in November 2009.

Here are shots that Steven took of Cruiser last Saturday with the new Nikon.

He was so mellow and willing to pose for shots that Steven took about 10 minutes to focus on him and got a couple of really nice shots.

These are all on the floor of my parent's kitchen. We went out to visit them since they returned from their trip and to see Grandma. This also happened to be right before she past away. Perhaps that explains his calm?

I love that you can see his teeth and a little bit of the bottom lip. I want to do a close up face shoot next time I see him.

This is my favorite.
Finally, he was such a good boy and comfort this weekend while we were all at the memorial services for Grandma. He was so good and had to spend a lot of time in the car. I hope he knows how much we love him.