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I am a happily married new mom who loves exploring, creating new adventures and loving on my sweet daughter. I am a K-2 teacher who is now staying at home with my little one! Welcome as I explore all things a part of my sweet city love!
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2.20.2012

Let the sun shine!



I love how sometimes you run across the right words at just the right time.  I was reading Dorothy's blog, ...goodbye, yellow brick road, today and saw an amazing link-up that I joined right away.  Dorothy's words were SO good - here they are:

today, i am committing to self-love. i whole-heartedly believe it's only when we truly love ourselves that we are then able to exude positive energy outward... and rather than searching externally to fill that deficiency - we have to first direct our focus inward. by no means am i claiming to be a yogi or saint, though. god only knows i've made my share of mistakes, while i've accepted they will not be the last on my journey moving forward...

“love yourself. accept yourself. forgive yourself. and be good to yourself... because without you the rest of us are without a source of many wonderful things.” leo f. buscaglia

as with any young adult growing into their own skin, i was confronted with many challenges in regard to who i was, who i wanted to be, and who i was developing into. and it's only been within the last 4-5 years that i've been able to really embrace my shortcomings and appreciate my strengths, that a sense of peace with myself has naturally surfaced enabling me to spiritually grow and develop a more compassionate love for myself and others.

kind gestures help me sustain health in my heart, while gentle thoughts allow love for my outward body... and it's only natural that this self-love commitment is a move toward my next stepping stone to include regular exercise for the mind. for the next 30 days, starting february 15th, i am joining forces with a group of women where we will work together to encourage, inspire and motivate one another to achieve success in reserving the space and time - on good days and bad - to rejuvenate our minds with exercise.

i invite and encourage you to link up; and join us :) there are no rules, only goals. i will follow up at the end of my 30 days. aum.



Taking time everyday to reflect, to find strength, to embrace shortcomings and to learn how to inspire and motivate myself and others are all so purposeful and meaningful in my life.  I hope these words spoke to you, too, and have to wanting to connect with other women to share these goals. Visit Dorothy today and link-up!





2.19.2012

Thrifty 50mm!

I came to a sharp conclusion today that I must find an easier way to upload pictures to my blog.  Why do I have to go through 5 steps...ugh! It's such a drag to have to plug in my camera, download to iPhoto (which is SO slow), pull them off iPhoto onto my desktop, upload them to blogger (which takes forever) and then put them onto the blog.  It's a process that I do not ever look forward to.  

I decided to use this Sunday to find a solution.  We recently got a new lens, a 50mm, that we love.  The aperture goes down to a 1.8 and can take much sharper and clearer photos than the stock lens our DSLR came with.  We took a photo class a few weeks again and went to buy this lens immediately.  One of C's classmates referred to it as the "Thrifty 50" because it is only $110 and in lens world - that's ahhmazing!  I feel we are already able to get such better pictures and I can't wait to share them! 

Our trusty pup, Charlie, has been the subject of many photo sessions since we put on our new lens.  My mission today was to find a way to share these easily without the 10 step process mentioned above.   I think Picasa 3 is my answer.  Not only can I easily make really fun collages (see below!) but can also edit photos simply and upload them to blogger with a few clicks! I also experimented with adding some text on our Valentine's Day champagne below (how fancy!).  

Here is the best direct comparison I can find.  The new lens is life changing.  If you don't have one already, splurge on a 50mm lens for your DSLR!

Before:

After (Holy Moly!):




I focused the salt and blurred the pepper - go 50mm!  Look at those tiny flecks of salt on the table...what detail.  I'm in love.





I even edited out a little tear stain Charlie has acquired due to allergies...brilliant!

Here's to better pictures, a faster upload and more blogging!