Final Week

WOW! My Project 365 has come to an end!!!! I think I only missed 2 days out of the whole year! It's weird not having to remember to take a photo each day... I hope that doesn't cause me to not take as many pictures. Kyle and I have been brainstorming a new project... which I'm not sure if I want to start now or January.... I'll let ya know.

So since this is the last week, there are 8 photos instead of the normal 7. I had to revamp my little collage to fit in the extra guy.



#358: Beautiful Canoeing Day: Sunday we went canoeing with two other couples. It was a beautiful day!! Although we didn't completely escape the rain, it came to visit us as we were grilling out at the park for dinner.

#359: Last Minute Picture: I was almost asleep when I remembered I didn't take a picture for the day, for some reason Mondays and Tuesdays are the hardest days to remember to take a picture. I grabbed my phone and snapped a picture of cuddly little Harpo :-)

#360: Dinner: I made a cream sauce and roasted our CSA cauliflower. Kyle grilled out chicken and we put it all over pasta, yum yum. It would have been even better if the cauliflower wasn't quite so roasted :-P

#361: Grasshopper: I saw this guy resting on our front storm door, so of course I had to grab my camera and get some pictures of him!!

#362: Harpo: Harpo is so photogenic!!

#363: CSA box 5: We picked up our 5th CSA box the night before. We didn't have time to unload it Thursday night so we did it before work on Friday. That is one crazy looking eggplant!! My goal this week is to eat it ALL!!!! *gasp* yes we have yet to actually eat everything in our box. It ends up going bad before we can eat it. The hardest thing: collard greens... really? what am I suppose to do with those?

#364: Uptown Breakfast: Saturday we had breakfast at our new favorite spot: Uptown Cafeteria. I like it because there is seating on the roof! It was such a gorgeous weekend, I wanted to be outside as much as possible!

And the final picture of my project:
#365: Target Field: What better way to end my Project 365 than a picture of the new Target Field! We went to our first game on Sunday and it was another gorgeous day!!


Happy Summer!

Week 51

Wow it's the second to last week. This is going to be crazy not making myself take a picture everyday. Although I'm thinking of a new project to start... maybe a Project 52 so it's weekly not daily... easier to handle :-)


#351: Patty's Purse: Sunday we also had a lunch in the same hall. This is my 1st cousin once removed, Patty from New York. I got to know her and her family really well when I lived in NY for a year. It was so great to see them all again!!!

#352: Amazing Sunset: Monday was a long drive home. Since Josh rode down with me, we stopped in Iowa and broke up the trip a bit. I did the whole drive in one day (like we usually do) but this time I was alone. Even if I don't have Kyle with me I always have Harpo - but not this trip. At least I was welcomed back to Minnesota with a beautiful sunset!!

#353: Harpo: It was so great to see Harpo again (and Kyle!) Harpo was very lovey dovey, here he is just beggin for a belly rub, lol.

#354: Star Trails: In our attempt to see the northern lights, I took some star trail shots. This is done by just leaving your shutter open as long as possible. I pointed toward the north star (which appears to not spin) and set my camera up and left it. My camera can only handle having the shutter open for 18 minutes, maybe if I tried it will film it would be able to handle longer exposure times...? It's still super fun to do!

#355: State Fair Submission: I wanted to get a picture of the photo and frame that I was submitting to the state fair. I had to take it that day to be judged. Unfortunately I am going to pick it up this weekend because it wasn't picked. I'm not too heart broken since I knew going into it last year 2500 some were entered and only about 330 of those were chosen. I just knew if it was picked I would be super happy :-) They do have an exhibit for all the rejects to enter in the fall... maybe I'll submit it again to that!

#356: Plant Growth: We got this little plant for Kyle's study corner a while ago and one day I looked over and noticed these crazy sprouts coming up. I can't believe how big they are!!! It's rather amazing to watch the little fern leaves uncoil as it grows.

#357: Lily Pad: Saturday we parked our car at Lake Calhoun and walked over to uptown for the Uptown Art Fair. Boy was it HOT! Not much of an enjoyable time at the fair because it was so crowded. But it was nice walking along the lake and seeing lily pads, baby ducks, and wind surfers.


Happy Summer!

Week 50!!!

Wow only two more weeks to go!!!! Crazy how it's almost been 365 days of pictures and I've only missed, what like 2 or 3 days. Pretty good if you ask me, lol. Actually I only have a week left because this week is almost over. :-)



#344: Sunday Brunch - rooftop view: Sunday morning Josh, Kyle, and I went out for brunch at the Uptown Cafeteria's Sky Bar. It had a great view of the city and uptown. It was a gorgeous day and the clouds were amazing.

#345: Summer Splash Gift: This was my package I got from my 409 elf. Every once in a while a group of friends of mine all have a little 'penpal exchange' and names get drawn through the website Elfster and then we mail goodies to each other. I had sent mine out a few days before and got this from Kimmy in New Jersey!!!! Super fun summer stuff!!!

#346: Minneapolis Institute of Art: Josh and I went to the Minneapolis Institute of Art this morning. Every time Kyle and I have gone we have come the back way. Today I accidentally drove around the front and was surprised to see it look so much like a museum, lol.

#347: Minnehaha Falls with Josh: I took Josh to Minnehaha Falls which is not too far from our house. We walked around here for just a little bit before meeting Kyle downtown for dinner after his final class of the summer!
I also picked this picture as my pic of the day because I think it's funny that this is one of my last pictures and it was my very first picture of the project, like I am coming full circle.

#348: CSA box number 4: Josh and I stayed in town just long enough to go pick up our 4th CSA box and make a quick salad before getting on the road down to Missouri.

#349: Cousin Sandy & Jerry's Farm: I went to Missouri this weekend for a Stanek Family Reunion. Friday on Josh and I's way down to my brother's house in Nixa, we stopped in Bolivar at my cousin's farm. We met up with our New York, New Jersey, and Chicago cousins.

#350: Upside down Alyson: Saturday was the lunch reunion in a church hall. It was pretty fun and lots of people were there! Around 150 for lunch. I got to play with my beautiful nieces as well as my 2nd cousins kiddos. This is Alyson being goofy, she has quite the personality so so funny!


Happy Summer!

Week 49

Getting so close to the finish line!!!

#337: Senior Session: I had my first practice senior session this day, and actually had my second later that same day. It was super fun and I think we got some great shots!!

#338: Kyle & Harpo: typical monday evening relaxing on the couch

#339: Jolene & Will: I met my friend Jolene for lunch, she is still on maternity leave with her little gorgeous man!!! Oh he is so cute my heart melts :-)

#340: Airport Loops: Wow what a day at the airport. 6:00am Kyle and I took our friend's car to drop it off for them to get later that day. I drove the jeep and Kyle drove their car. Kyle took a wrong turn so I had to make about 4 laps around the airport loop until he was able to drop off the car and I could pick him up. Then later that night about 8:30pm my brother flew in from California and I was again driving loops waiting for him to get his bag which ended up being lost and didn't get to pick it up anyway. I think I did about 10 loops that day, lol.

#341: Josh & Kyle in Uptown: While my brother was in town we went out to eat in uptown at my favorite place: Chino Latinos.

#342: Retractable Screen: We got NEW DOORS installed this day, 3 exterior doors and 2 screen doors. Oh I'm so excited!! It adds so much light to our house and hopefully will save some $$ on our heating bill this winter.

#343: Josh's Special Mexican Drink: My brother Josh spent the past 7 months in Mexico so it was only natural for him to want to share his experiences with us. One morning he fixed us huevos a la mexicana and another afternoon he made us these beer, tomato juice, other random spices drink called a michelada.

Happy Summer!

Week 48

Well I didn't get this up as soon as I had wanted to, but at least I'm not too far behind :-)


#330: Bonsai Tree: I talked about going to the zoo here. They finally had the bonsai exhibit open at the Como Zoo when we went. It was pretty cool seeing such little 'big' trees. This one is 55 years old. There was one there that was 100 years old!

#331: Harpo Teeth: I needed a picture this day and we were getting ready to brush Harpo's teeth so I'd thought I'd get a capture of that lovely memory :-P I should really brush his teeth more than I do, but it's a pain in the butt. I know, brushing them now will save me hundreds of dollars of cleaning costs later in life - I'm trying, I'm trying.

#332: Blue Sky: Driving home from work, I captured the beautiful sky with my camera phone.

#333: Kyle: This is a boring week for photos sorry... Kyle's watching Family Guy here.

#334: CSA Carrot: CSA box #3 had a few crazy looking carrots in it!

#335: In the Sun Harpo: Harpo loves laying in the sun, luckily I was able to snap a picture before he realized I was getting near him... he usually moves before I can capture it.

#336: Calm After the Storm Sunset: This was the beautiful sunset the night after the big storm, I blogged about our BBQ here.

Happy Summer!

Week 47

Here's the next week. If I can get this week posted on time this weekend I will be caught up :-) (but I don't see that happening since today is my only task day for a while)

#323: Harpo Waiting: This was our last day of camping, we loaded up the packs early in the morning to head out and have breakfast at a little restaurant down the road. Harpo was ready to go as well, he had a fun but exhausting weekend!

#324: Newborn Shoot: I had a newborn shoot this day and had so much fun shooting this little peanut. He was such a cutie and so sleepy, which helps a ton when trying to take pictures :-)

#325: Peanuts!: My Peanut Hunt picks up right where I left off. I hadn't found many over the winter, which I took a break since I didn't want to capture any snow covered peanuts. I had this place on my list to check and was surprised to find four when I showed up!

#326: Broken Cup: This was not a good day. I dropped my beloved ceramic starbucks cup!!! I had it for a few weeks and would drink my morning tea out of it. I loved it because it looked like a paper cup, but it was ceramic. I did end up replacing it the next day and I will be more careful to not drop this one.

#327: CSA Box #2: We picked up our second CSA box!!! We had to move some weeks around since we were out of town last week when we were suppose to get our second box. Lots of fresh goodies!

#328: Minneapolis Night: I had been wanting to shoot downtown Minneapolis at night for quite some time. My friend Jill, Kyle (our bouncer) and I went down to 24th pedestrian bridge and had a nice half hour of shooting. I love it! This is probably one of my favorite things to shoot. It's evening, I have my tripod, my remote shutter release, and the city skyline in front of me... ahhh the life :-)

#329: Chipotle: The sun made the sky glow as it set, I wasn't really in a good spot to get any sunset pictures, but I did get to capture our favorite place to eat as we drove home from the movies.

Happy Summer!

Week 46

I'm a little behind with getting these posted. Only a few weeks left of my project and I'm still going strong!!!! Here's Week 46 from the end of June/beginning of July.

#316: Hilton Gallery Show: Had to get some shots of the sign out front for scrap-booking purposes :-)

#317: Kyle's New Bike: Kyle got a new job, which happens to be a short 3 mile bike ride away... so he got a new bike! He is pretty excited to start in a few days!

#318: Passports; Canada Here We Come: We're taking backpacking trip up north and going to go across the border one of the days. Can't forget our passports!

#319: Wall Space: I was getting some input from my 409 friends online about where I was wanting to hang a new wedding canvas I was about to order. Luckily I took this photo because it ended up being the only one of the day... yeah it's a sucky photo. oh well.

#320: Friendly Chipmunk: This little guy was so friendly and came right up to us as soon as we settled into camp. He was hungry and looking around for food. He actually visited us each night the whole three nights we were there. Harpo had fun chasing him!

#321: George Crosby Manitou State Park: We went backpacking here for the fourth of July weekend. This day we were hiking around the state park. It was beautiful down near the river and cascades.

#322: Thunder Bay: We took a quick drive up to Canada one of our camping days and explored the 'not so impressive' town of Thunder Bay.

Happy Summer!

Week 45

I'm almost to the end of this project, wow what a year and what a lot of photos!!!

#309: New Lens: I got a new, fast lens! Super excited, so I had to play with it on our drive to a friends for dinner. It's an older lens, but has a macro setting I've been playing with as well. It's the Nikkor 35-70mm 2.8, boy are those fast lenses heavy :-P

#310: Blue Potatoes: These potatoes were in our CSA box!!  I've never seen blue potatoes, boy are they purple!! They even produce purple juice when I was cutting them.

#311: Home Brew Bucket Kit: We are big fans of GROUPON, and this deal was on there the other day. It's a home brew starter kit!  We wanted to tack on another winter hobby to our lives... so this fall we will explore the world of home brewing beer!

#312: Lonely Dinner: Dinner is pretty simple on the nights Kyle has class.... I did enjoy toasting my bread and melting the cheese though :-P

#313: Hydrangea Bloom: Just playing with my macro in the back yard. I love hydrangea's they are so beautiful!

#314: Friday Night Gallery Set Up: Friday night I spent the evening helping my fellow Twin City Photography Groupers set up for our Hilton Gallery Show. You can see one side of my grid wall in this photo, the two on the left hand side.

#315: Gallery Show: Saturday I spent the majority of the day working the Hilton Gallery Show. We had framed work and unframed work. I actually sold one piece before the weekend was over! An 8x10 matted photo of  my boat garages!!!


Happy Summer!

Week 44

#302: REI scratch & dent boot: We were at REI looking at bikes for Kyle (since he is going to start biking to his NEW job!!). I was wondering around the store while he was test driving a bike and found this pair of hiking boots, in my size on the clearance rack. I talked about REI's scratch and dent thing here.

#303: Bunny Family Night Trip: I had a photography group meeting that ran late this day and didn't get a picture. When I drove up to the house I saw a family of 5-8 bunnies wondering the grass. So I quickly grabbed my camera (and tripod since it was dark out) and tried to capture all the bunnies. They didn't really like me snapping my camera at them because they began to hop away. But you can see a few little bunny silhouettes in this photo.

#304: Green Feet: Kyle was wonderful and mowed the yard while I spent the evening editing a photo shoot. It was almost time for bed and we were all relaxing on the couch. I looked over to see Harpo snoozing away but his feet were glowing green, it was so funny. I love how he almost looks like he's spitting his tongue out at me in this photo.

#305: University of St. Thomas: Kyle's summer class is on a Wednesday and runs until 9:30. During the school year his class ends at 9 so he can catch the 9:20 bus. Since this one runs later I have been picking him up after class. This day, of course it was night again before I was able to get a photo, but I snapped one of the area I was sitting in waiting for him to get out, class ran late this evening.

#306: CSA Strawberries: We picked up our first box of CSA veggies. These strawberries were delicious!

#307: Dinner Burger: I love grilling out in the summer time. Homemade burgers are WAY better than any bought from a restaurant because we can make them just how we like them. This night we mashed some of our scallions and green garlic in the burger so we got some nice flavor with every bite.

#308: REI Scratch & Dent Sale: Saturday we got up early to secure a spot to enter the member only sale at REI. It was a beautiful morning and we only had to wait 30 minutes, get our ticket, then head back home for two hours until we were able to enter the sale.

Happy Summer!

Week 43

Less than ten weeks left of my project!!!



#295: Tomatoes: I think we had hamburger's or chicken sandwiches this night. Point being, I had a photo shoot this morning (which I usually use a picture as my picture of the day) but the mom had requested me to NOT use any photos on blogs or facebook so... I quickly remembered around dinner time that I needed to capture a photo for my 365 project :-)

#296: Harpo Play: Since Harpo turned 3 he instantly became an old fart! But every once in a while he'll still have a streak of playtime in him. A short streak but I still embrace it and remember back to the day he would NEVER stop playing :-)  ahh kids grow up fast :-P

#297: Diet Dr. Pepper: We don't buy a lot of soda, heck I don't DRINK soda ever unless we go to the movies. But for some reason I had a craving for some Dr. Pepper so we bought a big case at Costco, of course it is diet to not interfere with my ever present duty to try and get back to my 'wedding weight'. :-P shesh

#298: Harpo: I wonder HOW many times Harpo has made it in my 365 project :-)

#299: Waterproof Point & Shoot: WOO HOO, I had been wanting a new point and shoot for a while, just to have an extra camera around, something to throw in my purse in a split second. We were suppose to go on a canoe trip this weekend, which led me in the direction to get a waterproof camera (I wish I had this when we went snorkeling in Mexico)... it arrived in the mail and I was all set to canoe.... too bad the weather was crummy and we cancelled the trip. But now I have another point and shoot... don't worry Nikon - I will never leave you, Canon was just the better choice this once!!

#300: Ticket to Ride: So instead of camping and canoeing with our newly married group, we had a game night at one of their houses.  This is 'Ticket to Ride', which has become a very popular game at our get together-s. The girls are in playing, while the boys were getting the campfire going.

#301: Harpo making friends: Saturday evening we went over to another friends house. They recently got a new puppy: Gilligan. Harpo had a fun little play date while we played games. We attempted to get a picture of the two of them, this was the best we could do. Of course Harpo was an old fart again and didn't' want to play as much as Gil did :-P

Week 42

10 weeks left! WoW I just realized that!!!  I've been pretty busy lately getting things together for my photography business and preparing for the Photography Gallery I am volunteering with which happens at the end of June, if you haven't checked out the webpage you can see it here, I have a picture on the 10th slide. Sorry some of this weeks photos are boring, I have a few product pictures in there, turns out I didn't take any other pictures than the business pictures... but hey at least I didn't miss another day!

We have some wonderful news!!! Kyle just accepted an offer for a new job!! We'd been praying about it for about a month now and as each step of the interview process progressed, our hearts got a little more hopeful! God is GREAT!  We had both been looking for a change in our lives, I had applied to school and that didn't work out; we were just kind of in a stuck place. So this new job is an answer to many prayers. I hope it's a smooth transition and everything he's been hoping for!! God is paving the way for us, next thing you know we'll be starting a family... HAHA not so fast. :-P  But this new job is a stepping stone to that point :-)


#288: Game of Croquet: Some friends of ours invited us to their 3rd annual Memorial Day (well the day before memorial day) BBQ. We had a fun time playing croquet, bags, blowing things up, and eating good food!

#289: Patio Garden: Another year of the patio garden... someday we hope to have a real garden, but we have some more house projects before we build one of those. This year we planted two tomato plants, a pot full of banana peppers and a pot full of jalapeno peppers. This is our first time growing peppers so I hope they are a success!!  Here's last years patio garden.

#290: Potted Flower: When I was home a few weeks ago, my mom sent me home with two big pots to plant in and set on our front patio. Memorial Day we got some flowers (a little more than needed, but hey it's our first time - we're learning) and planted two pots (ended up being 3 since we had so much left over). This is a flower from the pot.

#291: Audio Book: When I went home to Missouri I checked out a few audio books out from the library. I have never heard about this author: Stephanie Bond, but the cover looked interesting and it was a mystery, which I love. She has a series called Body Movers, well I listened to the 2nd and 3rd books in the series and decided I should get the first one before moving on. Here I am sitting in my car waiting to pick up Kyle from the bus stop and remembered I needed a picture for the day.

#292: First Product: I sold my first product and got it all packaged nicely!!  Of course I had to take a picture of it cuz I'm a dork like that :-)

#293: 35W over the Mississippi River: More and more of my pictures have been taken with my camera phone lately. Maybe that's a sign I need to get back into taking 'real' pictures. Anyway this is taken while going over 35W (a highway here). This is actually the bridge that collapsed a month before we moved to Minneapolis. In the picture you can see the Stone Arch Bridge and downtown Minneapolis.

#294: Product Image: I got some of my products printed! This is a specialty collage I am calling 'The Flower Box'. My sample is an 8x8 Canvas. Sadly I was so busy this day that product pictures were the only pictures I took.... at least I picked up my camera, right?

Week 41

#281: Prairie Dog at the MN Zoo: I got us free tickets to the MN zoo through the libraries museum pass program. These prairie dogs were so funny! There were so many of them!!

#282: Nuttin' - I actually blogged all evening and totally forgot to get a picture :-(  only day two out of 289 days that I have missed (so far, I hope it's the last)

#283: Soy Sauce: We bought this ginormous thing of soy sauce when we lived in Atlanta from Jan. to Aug. of 2007. THIS is how much we have left, lol. Looks like we will get through it someday. I actually pulled this out last month when we were talking about it with some guests and noticed on the bottom "refrigerate after opening" lol ooops.  But I figure if we haven't refrigerated it in 3 years it should be fine, haha.

#284: Backyard Iris: There was one iris bundle growing when we moved in, although I had never seen it bloom. Last summer I transplanted a few from my boss's garden. This year I have a bunch! They were all toppled over, but this weekend we got some of those rod/wire things so now they are all standing up pretty.

#285: Joe Mauer Statue: I went downtown to meet Kyle after work for HH and dinner at a restaurant we had a coupon for. Minneapolis is covered in Joe Mauer statues, here's an article.

#286: Backpacking Gear: We laid out all our gear in preparation for backpacking. We've never 'officially' gone backpacking so we wanted to make sure we had everything we thought we needed before we loaded up our packs. I'm looking forward to camping at some fun places this summer and backpacking some Minnesota trails.

#287: Backpacking lunch: We backpacked/hiked this day at Lake Maria State Park. Since it was Memorial Weekend, there were no campsites available but we were able to practice walking 5 miles with our packs on. Not too bad, Harpo was a bit tired at the end and he wasn't even carrying anything, lol. We stopped to use our new burner to cook lunch!

Week FORTY

I did some blog catching up yesterday, and I must have been so busy processing photos because I FORGOT to GET a PICTURE for the DAY! Oh NO! that was day two I have missed!!! :-(  boo hoo.
Besides that saddening news... here is week 40!


#274: Iowa Windmills: I just love passing through these fields of windmills on the north land of Iowa. Something about the repetitive spinning is relaxing.

#275: being goofy: Another one of those "it's 10:00pm and I haven't taken a picture yet, crap!" So I grabbed my camera phone and starting shooting things around me. The lighting was horrible because of our night lights reflecting off the cherry wood bed frame. I just had to use this one because Kyle makes me laugh. I told him not to make a funny face, then I get the phone back and look at this, we both start cracking up, LOL.

#276: Mallard: We walked along Lake Harriet this afternoon, lots of ducks out! This guy was hanging out with his girl in some mucky water.

#277: Newborn Shoot: This is my good friend and co-worker, Jolene's baby. He was a week old this day and just TOO adorable for words. I had been looking forward to this session for a while and feel so blessed that I have friends who support my passion and have faith in me to hire me as their newborn photographer :-) we had a blast getting some cute pictures of him!

#278: Velodrome bike track: We met this super nice couple through our church's newly married group. This is the husband of the couple, Craig. He's really into biking so we meet up with Jennie at the Velodrome to cheer him on! Of course it was a fun photo op for me too!

#279: Pedometer: A co-worker and I are leaders for our work site group in the Hennepin County's Step to It Challenge. The challenge is 4 weeks long and you record your steps each day to try and win prizes the county and cities award. When I was home a week or so ago, I remembered to grab this old McDonald's pedometer I had in a junk box. Remember back with McDonald's FIRST came out with salad's and was trying to market a healthy lifestyle? Well they also gave away pedometers with those expensive salads, lol. I got a new battery and this thing is as good as new! Of course I had just logged and reset this before I remembered I needed to get a picture for the day, haha.

#280: Puffy Dandelion: I really don't like dandelions growing in my yard, but when I saw these guys glistening in the sun, I knew i had to get some macro pictures before I yanked them out.

Week 39

Wow, I'm currently working on week 40 which means only TWELVE weeks left. This year has gone by fast. I'm kinda excited to be finished, it's getting to be a PITA, but it also keeps me out there taking pictures. I'm thinking I might try and do a Project 52, where I focus on getting out and taking pictures once a week, like a photo walk a week, or something 'creative' at least once a week. I don't think I want to do this everyday business again. or maybe I can just get back to blogging stories like I once did. Oh the possibilities...



#267: Happy Mother's Day: Today was a lazy day on the couch snuggling with my 'child': HARPO! Did you know? They have Mother's Day cards from dogs at the store... too bad Harpo didn't go out and get me one :-P

#268: Rainy day: Rainy, rainy day. This is our backyard/garage in the background.

#269: Missouri Road Trip: Driving to Missouri to visit my family, Harpo enjoyed sitting in the backseat right behind me. That or sitting in my lap, shhhh, I accidentally let him once which meant he kept coming back to sit there the entire ride back.

#270: Baby Feet: Alyson's baby toes are so cute! Her and Aliyah (my nieces) had matching sandals.

#271: Aliyah & Alyson: We went to Branson to hit some outlet malls. Here we are in Carters, they were having a blast with the lego table.

#272: Building a Jeep: Brad bought the girls a Barbie Jeep Powerwheel to kick off the summer. Aliyah had fun with her daddy as 'they' put it together :-)

#273: Brandi's Shower: My best friend from High School had a baby shower the weekend I was home, so I got to go! I knitted her baby girl a hat and we got a good visit in while I was there. It was good to see her again, can't believe she's gonna be a momma soon!


Happy Spring!

Week 38

#260: Hostas: The hostas on the north side of our house really popped up after all our rain lately.


#261: Baby duck family in the water: On my Monday morning run I saw the first sign of baby ducks. On my way home from work I stopped at a lake to see if I could find any. Sure enough there was a family out in the middle of the pond, I was a little sad I couldn't get closer, but excited to see them!


#262: Rice Crispy Treat: Needed a photo of the day and I had a sweet tooth!


#263: After the rain sky: It's amazing how the sky can go from dark to blue in just a car ride home.


#264: Saints Game Dog Day: Thursday was Dog Day at the St. Paul Saints game (minor league). Harpo loves going new places!!


#265: Harpo's Bed: I am not sure how the pillow got there, but I came into the living room and saw Harpo laying in his bed with HIS head on the pillow while laying IN his bed, too funny!


#266: Calhoun duck family: Every morning of my run this week I would spot this little duck family. I had been meaning to go back after a run to get pictures. Saturday was finally a day I could go back to get pictures of them. Kyle was with me and I knew about where they were that morning, but it was two hours later. We walked for about ten minutes then turned around and headed back to where we had parked. We spotted the family out in the water RIGHT IN FRONT of where our car was located. They are so cute!


Happy Spring!

Week 37

I'm trying to get these posted earlier in the week like I used to. Sorry there hasn't been much else to blog about. I have been blogging over on my Running Blog, but there's really not much too exciting over there either. I've been busy with some behind the scenes stuff for my photography business as well as planning for this gallery I am involved with. My Photography Group is having a photo gallery at the end of June and also threw in a gallery that is NEXT weekend..!!! So we've all been busting our butts trying to get contracts together, a process set up, since this is our first group gallery show. Quite the headache and seems to take up my already limited free time. So with the business, the gallery, knitting baby hats for props (and a few thrown in for pregnant friends/family), trying to get back into shape and running, spending time with my husband and having somewhat of a social life with friends... there's not much time for anything else. Oh and giving Harpo some attention is thrown into that mix. I have been managing to get a picture in each day, and I can blog about that :-)


#253: knitted hat: Knit, knit, knit... Kyle thinks I'm getting faster. I actually finished this in one or two days, I can't remember when I started, but it didn't take very long. I'm knitting baby hats for my photography props :-)

#254: Jackson: This is Harpo's best friend: Jackson! Harpo and I went over to our friend Jill's house for dinner and a visit. She bought a new house last fall/winter and this is the first time we've seen it since she's moved in. We did come over a while ago but there was no furniture moved in yet.

#255: Lily of the Valley: These are my first lily of the valley in my front flower bed. We transplanted them last year from my boss's garden. I'm excited for them to bloom.

#256: Late Night Office: On March 20th we went to a friends surprise birthday party which was The Office themed. I was never really a fan of the office, so I had not really seen any episodes. Well after that party I wanted to see what the fuss was about. Kyle has been a fan of these shows for a while but hasn't watched them lately. So we got on our Netflix instant online stream and watched season's 1-5. This season (6) isn't available on Netflix but luckily we found a website that plays them. We are almost caught up to live air times.... yes in a month we watched five seasons, lol.

#257: Bedroom Window View: This is the view looking north of our house out of our half story window. Yes I was running out of ideas for my picture :-P

#258: Harpo: Oh little Harpo is such a great subject to shoot when I don't have any other ideas for my pictures of the day :-)

#259: Adirondack chairs: Saturday morning we met a group of friends at their house at 7 am, they had breakfast ready for us and we headed to 'The Festival of Garage Sales' at 8 am. It was a neighborhood not to far from where we live that has having a neighborhood garage sale. They were everywhere. Kyle and I ended up walking for four hours. We started the morning off with a list of things to look for, number one on our list were Adirondack chairs... and sure enough we found them!!! The best find of the day for us.

Happy Spring!

Week 36

#246: Picking dandelions: I spent some time outside pulling up dandelions with my weed puller tool. It was so satisfiing when I could get a long root like this one. The little suckers are bastards I tell you. I pulled them ALL out only to find 20 new ones come up the next day! Gesh!

#247: Harpo's Breakfast: I finally got up early to work out!! 5:30 that is, and I'm glad I did because my day was so busy that I wouldn't have been able to workout any other time. I snapped this that morning because I knew I wouldn't be thinking about it any other time of the day. Harpo LOVES to eat!

#248: Harpo's celery: Harpo is so funny, he loves vegetables!  I was cutting up my celery for my lunch and of course I dropped one, Harpo ran over and gobbled it up. I couldn't believe how much he loved them, lol!

#249: Backyard tulips: These are the first two tulips in the backyard to bloom.

#250: Jolene's Shower: We had a baby shower for my friend and co-worker Jolene. She is due in just a few weeks with her first baby boy!!  We're pretty excited, I can't wait to meet him and of course hold him!! :-)

#251: Here's Life Dinner: Friday night we got invited to go to a fundraiser dinner with some friends that were hosting a table. It was a fun night of hanging with friends, dressing up, and getting to eat some fun food!

#252: Sleepy Harpo: He so cute...



Happy Spring!

Week 35

I kinda got a few days behind on getting these posted a while ago, and it's kinda stuck. Oh well, here they are :-P


#239: Time for Dinner: Our first grilled out meal of the year: Chicken, mashed potatoes and steamed veggies, yum-yum! Yes that is Disney World on TV, lol.

#240: Harpo on the deck: Harpo LOVES being outside. He is so funny when he stands on the deck and pokes his head around the corner in this tiny slot. Not sure why he does this when he could run down off the deck and stand next to the fence getting a better view of the front yard.

#241: Tulip: My tulips are blooming and they are beautiful!

#242: Ladybug Daisy: I was working out this morning and noticed a lady bug crawling across the basement floor. After my workout I scooped him up, grabbed my vase of daisies and headed to the back deck to get some pictures of them together.

#243: New camera accessory: I got a battery grip for my camera, I love it! It has a portrait shutter, so now there are TWO shutter release buttons. It also makes it a little heavier and bigger which can help steady a shaking hand and allow me a better grip on the camera. WOO HOO!

#244: Izzy's Ice Cream: This day I got to go to lunch with one of my 409 friends! Jen is from Georgia. It was my first G2G (get together!) Some of the 409 girls that live closer get to have them more often, but since Jen was coming up to Minneapolis to visit her family, she took some time away and went to lunch with me. We went to Tuggs Tavern which is on St. Anthony Main (by St. Anthony Falls) and then she told me about this Ice Cream place she had been to and seen on the Food Network, it's crazy how I had never heard of it! So we went. All scoops come with a little Izzy scoop on top!

#245: The Melting Pot: This was Kyle and I's FIRST anniversary. We decided to go try the Melting Pot. We actually called to make reservations early February for Valentine's day, but since they only had a special menu for V-Day we decided to just make reservations for our anniversary instead.  It was DELISH. Definitely the most expensive meal either of us had ever had, but it was well worth it - ya gotta do something elaborate for your first anniversary right?

Happy Spring!

Week 34

Better late than never, eh?

#232: Butterfly (Mourning Cloak): This is actually the first butterfly I have shot. We were at Minnehaha Dog Park, heading back up the hill, when I looked over and saw this guy bathing in the sun on the fence.

#233: Hyacinth bloom: Beautiful, beautiful blooms! It's spring!

#234: Watch 'em Grow: I did some gardening today, planted pepper, basil, and chive seeds. Hopefully it'll be a good start to my patio garden. The little guy standing there is my potato scrubber :-)

#235: hyacinth: Can you tell I'm a little excited about my hyacinth!?! They didn't bloom last year, so I'm trying to capture them as much as possible this year. And I'm glad I did because now, only 10 days later they do not look as pretty as they did here.

#236: Clean Floor: When we re-did the dining room I had cleaned the floor really good, but didn't get the middle of the floor where we had all our furniture. You could see the difference and it had been on my 'to do' list for quite sometime. So I finally got down and cleaned the middle of the room like I had last November.

#237: Clean Flower Pots: Cleaning the pots in preparation for the ice cream dessert I made for the progressive dinner.

#238: Finished Flower Pot Dessert: These are the flower pot desserts I made for the progressive dinner!

Happy Spring!

Week 33

#225: Papa Murphys: This night we tried out a Papa Murphy's pizza. It was pretty exciting (for me) to watch them make it, then carry it home and cook it ourselves!

#226: First Bloom: I planted these two falls ago, but last spring I didn't have any come up. So I'm super excited to have my first Hyacinth bloom!!

#227: PPA Tour: I went to a PPA (Professional Photographers of America) Tour seminar. Allison & Jeff Rodgers were the speakers and I learned lots about the business side of photography.

#228: Bulbs: I have bulbs popping up everywhere, it's so fun when the world starts to slowly turn green again, I love spring in Minnesota!

#229: Tired Squirrel: This guy was so funny laying on a branch in my next door neighbors back yard tree.

#230: Hyacinth: My first Hyacinth bloom. It's so beautiful! There is even another one popping up right next to it.

#231: Happy Harpo: Harpo LOVES riding in the jeep! We were headed to a state park in this picture for a hike. Unfortunatly when we got there, the Minnesota river was up so high all the trails were flooded. But that didn't stop Harpo from having a good time!

Happy Spring!