Grass plumes and a chysanthemum

Yep, the title says it all. Just catching what I can that's in bloom these days:

I know the grass plumes are all very similar, I just wanted to see how much detail I could get from them while still throwing the greenery behind out of focus.




love the softness of the colors on this next two:





and a purty flower:



On an unrelated note. I listed our sofa on Craigslist today as our new one is being delivered this weekend (after 3 long months). A guy called about it and wanted me to email him a picture of the real sofa. He thought the one I posted was from an advertisement ;) So I let him know I had taken the photo myself and yes, it was of the actual sofa for sale. Made me smile.

Are you really picky about your paint color?

I swear, picking paint is the bane of my existence. We purchased 7 (yes SEVEN) samples of paint for our bedroom and finally chose the color and painted it this past week. We've been here for 3 months so it was time to get rid of the builder's yellow beige color. We deviated from our normal safe (warm toned) colors and decided to go with a soothing gray (with a little blue). However, finding the right gray was troublesome as they can go to DRAB tones very easily. Or, some can be too lavender, some too green.

Now that it's done (and it was a lot of work due to all the molding) I think it's far more blue than I envisioned. GRRRR. B is going to kill me when he reads this. I know eventually I'm going to want to repaint. Please tell me you do this too :)

On a more positive note, since we moved we have started using Sherwin Williams paints (we've painted several rooms so far). I really like them. They don't drip and they go on nice and evenly. We used the zero VOC formula this time (for the first time) which I liked as there is very little odor. However when we went back to get an additional quart we found out they don't do quarts in the zero VOC :( so I guess we'll be back to using regular paint for the rest of the house.

Yep, it's blue:



I'm probably revealing too much of my (picky) self here next but after 19 years of painting with my husband (and him not cleaning brushes well enough), I finally got smart and did this:



I'm the official "cutter-inner" and "paint next to the molding" person and I got tired of buying a new brush and then going to use it and finding it with stuck together bristles. It's tough to do detail work with a cruddy brush. Now no one touches MY brush ;D

My favorite baby

Yep, I know y'all might be tired of seeing Miss H's darling little face, but I can't help myself. My camera just pops out all on it's own sometimes *wink.* It was very dark, rainy, and dreary here today (not great for shooting natural light), and she wasn't in the best mood, but I still like this one.

I'm a lucky woman

B is really too good to me, he'll be my willing victim (I mean model) just about whenever I want :)

This morning we went out to scout out locations for outdoor headshots. I used to be able to do them outside our house, our house was brick, plus a had a good, tall fence to use as a backdrop as well.

In our new neighborhood everything is new, which makes for pretty boring backdrops. Luckily, about a half mile away is a very old part of the city with great old brick buildings with lots of texture. Our goal was to find an area I could shoot at even on our many, rainy, Seattle days. It was a huge challenge to find anywhere covered that wasn't the doorway into a shop! We finally found a little, tiny area between two shops that literally was about 2 feet wide (i kid you not) and COVERED.

The result:



We found several wonderful alley ways that I can't wait to shoot in as well. Just one of them:



I was shooting wide open with these, next time I'll shoot a little more stopped down and capture a little more texture to the background.

Oh, and the sunglasses. B's eyes are really sensitive to sunlight and I've quit trying to ask him not to wear them and not to squint when we shoot outside, it's much more enjoyable for both of us this way. Yes, I'd love to see his eyes and the catchlights, but since these are practice it's not a big deal to me.

For Colin

I know you miss S'mores and you're worried she won't remember you when you come home at Christmas. I BET she will and will be so happy to see you! I took this just for you today :) LY!

Scary? Not really :)

I made these for our front porch this year. I saw the idea in a magazine and it was sooooo easy! Just take a couple paper lanterns (from Ikea) and use a black permanent marker to make ghost faces on them. B hung them up on the porch with a 60 watt bulb inside and voila!

I loved the reaction from the kids who came trick or treating, they loved them! I was outside visiting with neighbors for a while last night and I could hear the kids walking down the street saying "ooooh, those are so cool, we have to go to that house!"

We had a LOT more kids here than we did in our old neighborhood, probably about 100-ish. It's so much fun seeing the little ones all dressed up and trying to get the hang of this trick-or-treating thing!

At dusk. By the way Mom (if you're reading this), please note that I did get the planters painted, planted (they'll look better after they fill out a little bit), and up BEFORE next spring - and thank you for them!



And after dark: