Last chance for fall colors in the mountains

Come take a drive with us!  The fall season is slipping away and we decided to take one last trek up the mountains to see the fall colors and take pictures.  The last time we drove up there, the lighting wasn't the best.  On this day, it was overcast.  Perfect for pictures.  

Our first stop was for this rock formation on the side of the highway.  Hubby took this picture.  I got out and felt that biting wind and ran straight back to the warmth of the car!

We drove on and this was our next stop.  It wasn't windy at all, and not so cold.  Hubby took this picture of me taking a picture.  

One of the main reasons I was so eager to take yet another drive "up country", was to practice my own photography.  Here are a few of my favorites from the day:

This cool, weathered tree was right beside the highway.  

We pulled in to see this bright yellow grove of Aspens.  We tromped around taking tons of pictures.  

When I saw this creek, I thought it was beautiful.

Hubby and I started to think there was something familiar here.  It didn't take us long to figure out that we were on the opposite side of our favorite "waterfall hike".  I don't know why, but this was an exciting discovery.

Right on the other side of Oyster Creek, I can see the familiar hiking trail that I have walked down many many times.

Hubby was off in his own photographer world, so I just looked around to see what interesting things I could take pictures of.  I like the tangled feeling of these aspens.

This is a picture that I took of hubby, taking pictures.  He loved it so much, he wanted to put it on his photography blog.

When I look at this picture, I realize that I have a lot to learn about photoshop. Hubby did his photo editing magic to it and WOW, it looks so much better than it did when I edited it.  You can see his photography at www.farrellphotography.net

I took this picture of a log that had interesting cuts in it.  Did someone have a little trouble cutting this tree down?  Hubby says it's his favorite picture of mine from the day.  He says that the one yellow leaf on top was the thing that did it for him. I would like to say that I placed it there, but no.  It was just as it is.

This is not a great picture, but I wanted to show you this cool tree with blue berries on it.  

I just love the way that the berries make the tree look blue.

They look good enough to eat, but I wouldn't dare risk it!

Another cool tree nearby.  I'm showing it to you because I had walk through bushes to take this picture!

Up the road a little further was a favorite spot of hubby's that he wanted to check out. West Fork Carson River.  It was beautiful.  By this time it was getting pretty cold.  We saw some snow dust on the highway.  Too windy for his purposes.  We started to head down the hill.

You can not drive past this cabin without taking a picture.  It's probably one of the most photographed cabins anywhere.  So, we stopped.  It was FREEZING.  Literally.  It started to snow.  The first snow of the season!  Brrrrr.  
As we drove down the mountain, the sunset was amazing.  By the time we stopped, it was too late.  Those wonderful sunsets are so fleeting.  Here are a few photos I took through the windshield.

Did you enjoy your tour of the mountains in the fall?  I heard it really snowed up there that night and the next day.  Next up, snow pictures?

Pumpkin Flower Arrangement

inspiration pic

I saw a picture on Facebook of a pumpkin flower arrangement and I wanted it so badly!!  Here is the picture.  I wish that I could tell you where it came from and give credit where credit is due, but I don't know.  

It was just one of those "wish" kind of wants.  I wouldn't want to spend the money on real flowers and then they wouldn't last.  And, a pumpkin will go bad after a while too. 

But.....a fake pumpkin and fake flowers.  That would last.  In fact, I could use it year after year.  I looked at flowers in the craft store and nothing was calling to me.  So, I let it go.  

But, it just kept coming back to my mind.  I bought a pumpkin and I thought I would just cut the top off.  The label said "carve-able"....even better!  I didn't buy any new flowers.  I decided to use my stash.  That's what it's for, right?

 I asked hubby to carve it for me.  He was happy to do it. I bought one of those round balls in the floral department to hold the flowers. 

I went to my flower stash and pulled out everything that looked "fall".  I just started to stick flowers and some greenery in until I was satisfied.

 

 

Here is the result.  I love it!  I look forward to pulling it out year after year. 

Happy Fall decorating!! 

If you enjoyed my fall decorating idea....here is some more inspiration for you....Pink Saturday!  Click here and read all about it.  

Jamie day two.....

Wow.  He changed so much in only one day! 

She's a proud mommy!

What a cuddle bug!

Hello Jamie!

Our new grandson was born this morning.  Mother and baby are doing fine!  He is beyond precious!  (if I may say so myself.  

He's a proud daddy.  

And, I'm a proud Grammy!  My dear daughter did not want her picture taken.  Imagine that!

Happy Anniversary Honey

In our busy lives, we both sort of forgot our anniversary.  And here it is.  Twenty nine years today.  I have a hard time even figuring out the years!  So, next year we will make a big deal about it....if we remember, lol.

We were high school sweethearts in 1975.  He was a senior and I was a sophmore.  I remember the first time I saw him was the day I registered for school.  He was the student body president and I saw him in the office.  I certainly didn't have him in my radar, he was a senior after all and I was brand new.  He says the first time he saw me was in the breezeway and I was wearing a purple coat.  His friends did not believe that he would ask me to the prom, but he did. And, I was delighted.  It was our first date.

By the time he graduated, my family had already moved away and I had to come back to go to the ceremony.

We tried to stay a couple, but long distance just didn't work out and we went our separate ways.  We both thought about each other.  I always thought he was the "the one" and he says he felt the same.  Years later we reconnected and I moved to California with my two kids. 

He fell in love with both of them immediately. I always knew that he would make a great dad.  In fact, when he proposed to me, he asked them first.  They both said yes!  Of course.  

Life as a family came naturally and we have had so many happy memories.  

 Our first Halloween as a couple.  I made my costume.

Hanging out with friends.  We loved our matching t-shirts.  Mine said "California Girl", his said "California Girl Watcher", and the kids both said "California Kid".  

This was Thanksgiving.  Me and the kids were just visiting....to see if things would work out.  I was living in Portland. I didn't want to leave....ever.  Within a month, he came to get me and bring me to Cali.

We got married October 9th, 1983.  It was right here, where we live.  Up on the hill.  The same spot where our daughter got married just 5 years ago.  As I searched for pictures for this blog post, I realized that just the two of us aren't in all that many pictures together.  He is always behind the camera.  We have million pictures, literally!  16 photo boxes, 9 albums and a hutch FULL of photos.  And, that was before digital! 

Just like with anyone, life isn't perfect.  We have to make our compromises just like anyone else.  The truth is that we are just a good match.  I love him way more today than I could have imagined 29 years ago.  We have fun and enjoy being together.  In fact, there is nobody I would rather spend time with.  He really is "the one".  

Here we are just recently on the beach in Santa Barbara.  Me and my hubby.  

Maternity Tutu

I was looking at photography websites and I saw some beautiful pictures of pregnant ladies with amazing full length tutus.  Here is the website, her photos are amazing: http://loridorman.com/  I wanted to try to take a similar picture of my daughter and I thought I could make a tutu for her.  I procrastinated as usual and suddenly time was running out.  My daughter came over and helped me make the tutu and then she posed for the picture.  I went online and got some great ideas for making the tutu and here is what we did.

I chose these colors because I LOVE THEM and I knew that they would look good on my daughter.

I made a quick measure of how long I wanted it to be and then I just laid out the fabric and started cutting in to strips.

I found some ribbon in my stash that looked good with the fabric and I started to tie the strips on to the fabric.  It took a few tries to get all the knots to face the same way.  Also,

I was tempted to pull too tightly on the knots.  They are much prettier when they are loose.  I just tied the end of the ribbons to keep it in place.

And, here is the tutu!  Lovely! (if I may say so myself!)

And, here is my beautiful daughter (9 months pregnant) posing for me.  

By the way....this is my first photo since taking my photography class.  I got flustered with the camera controls....I have sooooo much to learn!

Isn't she pretty?  Still my princess.  Now...for the baby!
 

Learning photography

I mentioned in an earlier post that I am taking up photography.  This comes as a big surprise to me.  My hubby is a fantastic photographer.  I have always been so very happy with my little TOTALLY AUTOMATIC camera.  But, I am practical for the most part, and I can see that it would fill a need in our photography business to have a second photographer.  So, here I go.  

Hubby got me a camera and tried to show me a few things.  I said "tried".  It's like he was speaking a completely different language.  Argh.  My son, who is also a fantastic photographer, gave me some very helpful advice.  He explained that "Dad" just knows too much about photography.  Hubby is old enough to have learned photography in the days of film and darkrooms.  My son suggested that I just set it to auto and take a bunch of pictures.  

The truth is that the camera intimidates me.  I think that just by holding it, I will be expected to know what I am doing.  It's huge.  And, it has so many buttons and dials.  Just too much.  

I decided that a beginner's class is what I needed.  I found one through the camera store and signed up.  I was really looking forward to it.  

The day before the class, hubby and I went up the mountains and I took these pictures.  I used auto settings except for a few times when hubby changed them.  I had no idea what he changed.  I would learn all of that the next day.  Right?

It was a beautiful day up country and I had a lot of fun taking pictures.

I'm always in hubby's pictures.  Now, he can be in some!

I love this old tree.  It's huge!  

The aspens turn yellow and orange.  We are hoping to go one more time before it's over.

It was so pretty.  Perfect weather.

This trip was not planned.  We were dropping of a rocker at my daughter's house and hubby just wanted to so up the road "a ways" and see if the tree's had changed.  We just kept going farther and farther.

And, the next thing we knew....we were in Lake Tahoe!  Hubby snapped this with my iphone.  He gets as flustered with my Iphone as I do with the camera.

We got there just in time to watch a beautiful sunset.

The next day, when I got to the class, I was the last to show up and the only seat available was right in the center front (intimidating!).  There were about twelve people.  About half had Cannon (like mine) and the other half, Nikon.  We spent the next three hours learning all the technical jargon that is photography.  In the very beginning the teacher told us that his goal was to get us all off the auto settings. Oh darn. 

The teachers were extremely patient and helpful.  They had a very simple booklet to follow and I took diligent notes.  

When I left, instead of feeling confident and knowledgeable, I felt overwhelmed and confused.  How was I going to remember all that stuff?  

Hubby asked me about the class.  I told him the truth.  I wasn't sure if I learned anything or not. (mostly NOT)  The next day, I asked him a question about my camera settings.  He started talking and turning dials as usual.  Only, this time, I knew what he was saying.  He has been saying these things all along.  F stop, shutter speed and so on.  And, now I knew what those words meant!  Hallelujah!  I guess I did learn something after all.