Pink Panther Guardian

Little Mr. B. was over for a visit Friday and he sure loves this Pink Panther! I think it's genetic. It was one of my favorites to watch as a little girl, then I gave my son, Mr. B's dad, a couple of them, and my sister has a cool PP tattoo that my husband gave her in 1993. And now this. He was sleeping on the couch and this was on him, then he rolled over and I snapped a few more. Even when he briefly looked up and smiled, grabbed the PP and dozed right off again. Great moments!

Talking to her bear

Not a planned moment at all, but definitely sweet! She had soda down her shirt, candy cane stickiness everywhere but we still had fun. Midway through shooting, I grabbed a different shirt for her to wear, but was lucky to get another good shot (OK all you purists, yes, I know, I cut her hands off, oops!) She quickly bored of the whole idea of photos this evening (actually blame it on potty training..you know that look they give you right before they run over you to the bathroom?! LOL)

Christmas in my kitchen

Christmas holidays are one of the best times to be in the kitchen just because I get to do things like this! I bought a new set of cookie cutters since I couldn't find my vintage ones, and this is what I created today. It's in my etsy shop! Check link to the right! (Hint, 3 cards for $5)

I haven't made cookies yet, I admit, but spent the day trying to photograph my granddaughter. Didn't have much luck getting 'the shot' but had fun trying. We kept getting distracted. The layout was a freebie from Digital Freebies. I've been getting their email list for quite some time now. Love the Friday offering!


And then I made this:

Playing with Photographs

Yes, actual PRINTS! I bought a beautiful huge album today that holds around 500 prints and started putting a bunch of my photos from years ago into it. OK, let me step back to fill you in. When I was a little girl, my mom had this huge box under her bed, filled with photos and I could spend hours playing with them. As I got older (teen years) I got into really photographing my family and loved putting photos in albums.
One of the albums I tossed today was one I've had probably for 25 or more years, but it was falling apart and some of the glue on the slip in pockets (now the albums are stitched together not glued), had attached to a couple of photos but not bad. But, backing up in time again ...
Then one year, oh 1995 or 1996, I visited a small craft show at Christmas time. There was a Creative Memories booth and I was hooked. I started scrapbooking all the time. I did that for several years, but the worst thing that ever happened, was the consultant/company encouraged me to take all my wonderfully organized photos out of their albums...these weren't magnetic, just slip in pocket sleeves.
So I did.
Well, umm I wonder if I have a case against them? (JUST KIDDING!) as I truly can identify THAT as my downward spiral to total photo disorganization and lack of record keeping.
I mean really, every photo before then, was in chronological order, and I knew the date, place, etc...
Since then it's been pure madness in trying to restore order.
Now my photos are a mess, in boxes, jumbled into albums that don't work not to mention many are in my scrapbook albums which are way too large, heavy and just difficult to pull off the shelf. Plus they are scattered around the house and not all in one convenient place.
I'm going to resolve my mess now that I've found these great huge photo albums. I've requested at least one for Christmas. My husband is also going to get me a huge bookcase that I can put all my photo albums and scrapbooks on.
I plan to reorganize things and also do some journaling. This is a two-part idea.
My idea is to pick just a few photos from various important events in our family life and scan them in, add journaling and create some blurb books that I can add to our photo book library. I love blurb! So, I'll still have the prints, which I will always be attached to, as I just can't imagine not having the printed photograph, but then I'll also have some books with photos and writing that will be keepsakes.

I've also realized along the way that I can really cull out some of my bad photography from a few years ago, like the horrible attempt at still life using pinecones and fall leaves. I looked at that photo and wondered why I still have it! Hah!

New Place Online!

Before I get started, I decided to add something to the right of my blog. There you will find a couple links when I mention other sites so you can just click there and go once you finish reading my entry.
Sometimes I end up 'out there' online without realizing how I got there, but I found a new site that featured a new store in Redwood City, Calif. I lived there once, briefly, as a child. My mother lived there for awhile though, before I came along.
This store, Brick Monkey, sure looks fun. One quick glance reveals a place I'd love to visit sometime. I'd love to own a store like that even, but I'm not sure Duncan, Oklahoma, is the place for such a store, but then again, I could be surprised. So while hopping around on Brick Monkey's site, I find a link to a magazine, it's new too - Nesting Newbies. OK, instant adoration for this new online mag. It's got videos, food, decor, etc...And then they give a little shout out to some of their favorite blogs and well, what do you know, a couple of them are my favorites! mattbites.com and SFGirlbyBay.com
So go check out Brick Monkey, visit Nesting Newbies and be sure to hop over to the two sites I've been a long fan of. But before you go, please post a comment here. Let me know if you enjoy what you see. Thanks and please stay safe out there everyone. We've got a storm moving into Texas/Oklahoma region. Could be nasty. Oh, I can go walking and get photos maybe in the morning!
Meanwhile, I'll leave you with a photo from Saturday session