Autumn Daze

Today my children came over for brunch, it's a real pleasure for us to all come together but me being me asked if we could do family portraits before we had our meal and my children all obliged.  It's a fantastic time of year to be outdoors taking photos with the colors of autumn enhancing our world. 

We have a new addition within our family unit, meet Star, Elyssa's new puppy who I fell in love with already! 

My amazing family...

Having a bit of fun with Elyssa

And the kid in my comes out more often than not, life's too short not to play! 

It's been a fantastic day, one which I realize how blessed I am and I appreciate my amazing children.  No matter how old they get, they always bring joy, love and laughter into my world and for this I'm eternally grateful. 

I'm glad we did the photos before our meal, as per our usual there was an abundance of food and it left most of us in that Autumn daze! :-)

Precious Wee Girls

Today I reconnected with a friend I hadn't seen in at least 15 years, if not longer, she used to work with me back in my bartending days and thanks to facebook we found one another.  My friend, who is the same age as my oldest son,  has three children, two are still fairly young and her young son is in school but she had her precious daughter with her and what a cutie! 

My friend also babysits a friends daughter and she's just as adorable! 

After I saw this photo my new name for this princess is 

Hollywood Baby! 

My friend had also stopped off at Timmy's, she got the kids Timbits and chocolate milk, not to worry, it's not coffee in the cup, it's milk but it sure made for an adorable photo! 

Now to try to get all three girls together one day, my granddaughter and these two girls and the fun I could have with these precious children, not only taking photos but playing with them and the bonus, I'd be visiting with a long lost friend at the same time!  

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Wishing Upon a Star

My beautiful granddaughter came to spend Saturday evening with me, her mommy and daddy were going out of town to look at a puppy, they figured it was time.  Elyssa was getting discouraged and informed her mommy that wishing on a star doesn't work, apparently she kept on wishing on a star for a puppy and one never showed up, a true disappointment for a 5 year old girl.  

While Elyssa was with me it was time for one final photo of her with the sunflowers I planted for her.  The skies were overcast and grey so we put some color in our world, Elyssa chose the colors for the sky in this photo.  I thought I'd planted mini sunflowers again this year, apparently I bought the wrong package...

This is the first time I'd shown Elyssa how to edit photos, she started to play with the photo of the sunflower I cut down so she could see what it looked like.   I use a simple editing program with presets and as Elyssa was clicking away she came across the 180 reflection, we played with it a wee bit and came up with a sunflower heart! 

And on Sunday lo and behold when Elyssa arrived at home she found that wishing upon a star actually works...   

And what's really cool, the name chosen for this adorable puppy is Star! 

The moral of this story, never give up wishing upon a star... wishes can come true! 

Until We Meet Again

A young lady whom I studied with and quickly became close friends to was taken from us far too soon.  I learned of this tragic news a few nights ago and my heart is heavy, she was a remarkable young lady.  

We convocated on the same date. I took some photos of her, some with her Mom and some with her Grandmother, both who had flown in from our neighboring province to watch their girl graduate with her Masters Degree.  That's the last time I saw my friend in person yet we shared texts as she wasn't from Edmonton, she lived in a smaller town about 2 hours from here.  When we had classes on weekends she would spend the night with me and her company was more than welcomed.  

I wanted to do something special in memory of my friend; this collague the bottom left  photo is some of us on our final day of classes, we went out for lunch to celebrate.  The other two photos are of my friend on our convocation date.  The photo in the middle was the sun setting as I was heading back home from the convocation.  

Until we meet again my beautiful friend: I love you yesterday, today and always. May you Rest in Peace Steph. 

Sand Dollars

A friend of mine gave me some sand dollars and a few sea shells.  I brought them home and wanted to first find out if there's any symbolism in the sand dollar and lo and behold I found something about them.  I discovered within each sand dollar are five white doves, each dove represents the basic elements of life; radiance, freedom, nature, beauty, and peace.  This got my creative mind in motion and I set out to display my new treasures, then I took a few photos and this is what I've come up with...

I've set this display on my nightstand so it's one of the last things I see at night and one of the first things I see in the morning.  I'm now thinking maybe a tattoo of a sand dollar.... just in the thinking process for now though. 

Growth

My wee garden is now producing veggies, today I pulled a carrot to see how they are doing and I'm impressed... 

as I am with my tomatoes...

When I'd returned home from my weekend away I came home to this...

One of my huge sunflowers had snapped and this might upset some people, not me, I viewed this as a photo opportunity so I grabbed my camera and this next photo is straight out of the camera, no edits at all.  I love how it turned out! 

"I want to be like a sunflower; so that even on the darkest days I will stand tall and find the sunlight." (M.K) 

Growing not only flowers, veggies and plants is amazing, I love to watch things grow... and as for me, I hope to always be on a continued growth journey. 

My Semi-Colon Tattoo

I was going to include my latest tattoo in my last post but decided this one deserves a post all of it's own.  There's a story behind my latest tattoo and those of you who follow my blog are more likely than not to know my story, or a part of it.  I've been wanting this semi-colon tattoo for some time and while I was visiting my friend in Sylvan Lake this past weekend he set this up for me as he has a friend who owns a tattoo and design shop in Sylvan Lake.  

And me being me, well I didn't want just any ordinary semi-colon so here's what I chose...

I absolutely love it, I love it so much that when I first saw it when it was done my eyes leaked a wee bit.  I can't thank my friend enough for this amazing gift, the gift of a lifetime which will last a lifetime! 

Sylvan Lake

  This past weekend I went out to visit an amazing friend and spend time with him and his boys.  They live in a town about two hours from the city and this town is right on a lake, it's stunning!  To be able to go out for a walk five minutes away and see this, just wow! 

The first night when I arrived I learned the carnival was in town and away we went.  I went on a few rides and then the ride to end all rides for that night, one which made my stomach extremely queasy but I said I'd go on the Zipper the following day, what was I thinking?  I know this next photo is a blur, but this is how the guys looked when they got off this ride, yup... I wasn't thinking and looked the same when I got off the ride the following day!  Lesson learned. 

Abbie found some new training wheels while we were away...

And here are the guys who opened up their home to me, thanks guys I had an amazing time while I was down for a visit.  I appreciate your hospitality immensely, you're all remarkable people with hearts of gold! 

Just Dance

I am still laughing about this one my oldest son Shayne sent me...

I think many of you can relate! 

EXTREME PHOTOGRAPHY

And one photo from the 25th anniversary I shot photos for on 

Saturday night, this was way too cute! 

Yup... just dance! 

A Rolling Stone Gathers No Moss

It's interesting how busy my life has been, with taking this summer off after 

completing my degree I thought I'd have tons of time on my hands...

nope, not by any means.  I've been so busy but doing things I want 

to do which is fantastic and I'm having tons of fun! 

Hmm lets see now, two weeks to catch up on...

I spend time with a girlfriend I hadn't seen in ages, I met her 

when we were in our early teens and reconnecting with her 

after not seeing one another was absolutely amazing!  She was 

my maid of honor when I got married the first time so I have 

photos from way back when, the bottom photo is us last weekend. 

I've enjoyed spending time with my precious granddaughter as well...

I went with her and her daycare on two fieldtrips this past few weeks 

and had tons of fun! 

The first one was to the Telus Science Centre...

Then Elyssa spent a night with me, I wanted to take photos of her with 

her sunflowers I've planted for her and as you can see they're way taller

than she is!  We also went out to the splash park and had tons of fun!

And a few days later the next field trip was back to the same 

splash park, twice in one week which Elyssa loved! 

I've done one photo shoot for my cousin whose sweet precious 
baby girl is only two weeks old...

I spent an afternoon with friends out at a lake not too 

far from the city, a short 20 minute drive and now that I 

know this lake is there I'll be visiting more often.

A few of my friends and me out at the lake...

And today was a 25th wedding anniversary photo shoot which 

I've decided not to even start looking at the photos tonight, 

if I start now I'll be up the entire night... I know myself and my 

photos so tomorrow's another day. 

I'll try to get back into my blog so I don't post two weeks at a time, 

and this isn't all I've been up to... yup, as they say a rolling stone 

gathers no moss and no moss growing here!