The conservatory was filled with color and beautiful cloudy light!

I refer to ownership of this blog.  It’s all mine!  I love to journal and some of it occurs here.  Recently me having two glasses of wine as opposed to a muscle relaxant for a spasm’ing back came up for discussion.

I being me, took the redheaded approach and stated my opinion with fireworks, verbal explosions and much dramatic license .  I didn’t win the discussion, but I will have the last word photographically!

Here’s to the wine I had today for lunch.   It tasted great!  I don’t need meds!    So I decided to post this image and tell you how much I love you for taking care of me.  I offer one piece of advice, “this redhead rollerskates on the ceiling and does so with reckless abandon.  She loves life and is never afraid to be outside the “normal box”!! She will never arrive at the end of her life with a lot of regrets for things she was afraid to do!”

Love you……..see you when I get back from Mexico!!

another day of walking to start the day. 6:30am is a wee bit dark still.  This morning was 30 degrees.  What made it seem like a great morning for a walk was the rising sun.  I have so much respect for the men and the women in the armed forces who do a lot of marching, running, and training.  You see some great bodies on them.  My respect comes as all that I am doing still had not yielded that same great body!

This was taken with my cell phone.  I have no desire to walk and carry a heavier camera.  My cell works perfectly for capturing the moment when it is just for fun.

I have never really noticed that birds seek the highest branches so they can sit in the rising sun.  Today they were everywhere… tops of trees, power lines, roofs.

Are you walking today?  Keep in mind there is a wedding gown in your near future.  Walking doesn’t require any great skills, and it can be fun.  You just have to get out the door.

and we hit the asphalt trail……..

This hill doesn’t look so daunting here.  Perhaps that is because you are only viewing the first 1/3 of it.  It reaches an easy 7+ grade as you ascend both going and coming back the other way.  You also get to be very social and wave at all the passerby’s and act like you are NOT dying climbing up the (*&(*& hill.

I love the views along the way of the lake.  This morning was 47 degrees, so the walk was not very cold.

Did I mention I start out with a hill right out the door?    All of this to get back in shape and change MY shape around the middle.  I am part way there.  I bought smaller pants, and with great delight I find they are now too large.  It is motivation to get up and get out the door.

I’ve been asked what I am doing food wise.  Lean meat, skinless chicken, and veggies.  Some 2% milk and lowfat yogurt. Flat bread.    My cheats are an occasional glass of wine, and Saturday I had a very small brownie……..oh the joy!   The water part is the struggle for me. Daily I have to fight with myself to drink it.

anywhere…

How quickly life robs us of being innocent and childlike.  Nap any time?  Laugh at everything? Pretend more real than reality.

It is a given that we need these moments and times in our lives on a regular basis to live long healthy lives.

How about it……..

Bubble gum

holding your hand out a moving car window and pretend your flying

snowball

Daydream

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Sometimes I like to just shoot it the way “I” want to.  No expectations to please anyone else…… just me!

Saturday was our Open House, and I chose to have a friend slip back into her wedding gown and come play.  A visual is a good thing for people considering booking me for my services.  The beauty of this is there is no expectation by anyone else telling me what I should capture and what it should look like.  These were shot just for me!

A new advertising piece for Tita’s Linens By Claudia.  No garter on hand…….what to use?  Got it!  A chair sash!  Add some bling!

Ice, sleet, freezing rain….we are getting a little of all of it today.  It isn’t a pretty day, but if you look there is beauty in it.

…where it is in short supply according to the daily news reports.  It is the old “half full or half empty” view we all choose to filter our own perception of us and the world around us.  I choose “hope” and an ever filling life-cup to drink from.

Each of us can be overwhelmed by events in our lives… some good and some bad… simply more than we can handle at that moment.  It is in those moments I choose to go in search of beauty in any place I can find it. 2009 was a challenging year of injury and recovery for me.  I fight hard to be engaged in my life, and I take no excuse as a reason to quit trying.  2009 found me having to accept some uncertainties.

I felt like this waterfall. Frozen and encased in solitude struggling to find the button to defrost.  Surely it was within reach of my fingertips if I stretched towards it with everything I had.  It didn’t happen at all at first.  I struggled until one day it finally penetrated my wee brain to accept and look for HOPE.  Beauty in nature, smiles, laughter, friends, and a whole long list of things could elevate me to a place HOPE could take over.  Once again I’d be able to live in “today” and trust with HOPE in tomorrow.

All of the images in this post spoke to me. It wasn’t because I was the one pressing the shutter, but each one of them at a different time brought feelings of joy.  Joy in the beauty of people and glimpses of nature surrounding me all the time.   In those feelings came a remembering that we cannot always change what happens to us, but we can always decide how it impacts us.

We are a visual creature.   Choose to go find things that bring you peace, joy, and HOPE in the next moment, next day, next year, and the rest of your life.

May 2010 be a year of incredible blessing, and may it be is such abundance you cannot help but bless those around you.

My goodness! It has been an uphill struggle to get a simple task of putting proofs up to view.  At last at 6pm 12/10/09 it has been accomplished.

Click on this link to view proofs        <– go here to view proofs.

Your Photographer for the day was Tony Patrizi.   If you remember Tony did not use flash or any lighting equipment depending on the light in the greenhouse.  That was to reduce our footprint and allow all the guests to enjoy the Vander Veer Conservatory.  My compliments (by the way) to Paula Witt and all the staff that work very hard every year getting it ready for you to enjoy.   Please check the schedule and see it one of the nights it is open.

I must say there were some adorable cutie pie doggies!  The people were pretty ok too!

This is a labor of love and a way for Studio D Photography to give back to Vander Veer Park.  We shoot there all year round.  Studio D takes out shipping, printing, and supplies costs …all the rest goes to Vander Veer. You will be helping to support the park.