I made my sister cry...

This is my sister Teri, I made her cry the other day...in a good way :)



So at Thanksgiving, my niece and I stole away for a little bit so I could take some pictures of her for my sister. When I asked S if we could do it, I wasn't sure if she'd go for it (in fact I was pretty sure she'd say no), so I was very pleasantly surprised when she said "sure."

I've been sitting on these pics for a month, finally my family got together for the holidays and my niece gave them to her mom. It was the sweetest reaction, she just burst out into tears!





and I even "Twilighted" her....which was way too much fun and a big hit - though I think my mom was wondering "what the HECK?!?" when she saw it!

More snow pics

Little Miss H really didn't know what to think of the snow. She absolutely refused to walk in it at all. She was fine on the shoveled paths, but if you tried to set her down in the snow she would not move an inch. Her Grandma and Grandpa came to visit on the weekend when the snow just started, and thankfully they bought her a new jacket, hat, and mittens. Of course I couldn't resist a photo op of a cute little snow bunny!

Dontcha love the adoring look and Mom & Dad's faces on this one:



Finally, I got a smiley one. It took Mom tickling her though. Weirdest thing, she is the smiliest baby, but once she sees the camera, not so much:



She gets her beautiful eyes from her Mom:



And yes, I am on a black and white kick lately. It also helped mitigate Dad's bright orange jacket a bit ;)



Baby perfection:



Kristi, I saw your comment asking for tips on shooting in the snow. You know the best person to ask would be Heather, don't you?!? I did a custom WB on the snow with these (didn't with the ones of C from yesterday and it shows....his skin color is definitely off). Either spot meter on the face, or overexpose a bit (up to +1) depending on how much snow is in the image. Hope this helps a little bit and have a great trip!!!

I do love snow, however....

...I am SO glad to see it melting!

Seattle rarely gets snow, and when we do we get an inch or so and it totally shuts the city down, I kid you not. There just aren't the resources to cope with it, plus our city is very hilly and slippery!

It started snowing the evening of December 13th, shortly before B and I headed out to the airport to pick C up. When all was said and done over the following 10 days we ended up with over a foot of snow that is just melting away now. Holy smokes, that's a lot of snow. I definitely got my fix and am "over" snow for the time being for sure! The last time we got this much snow was in 1990, and boy could I tell you some stories about THAT, but I'll spare you ;)

It got to the point the other day that a dozen or so of the guys in the neighborhood went out and shoveled the STREETS to help everyone out. Once we would get to the main roads they were navigable (is that a word?), but getting out there was tough and cars were getting stuck all the time. It was quite a sight to see all those guys out there...I wish I had taken pictures of it. It was very much appreciated!

Poor Brett and Colin, they had to shovel our walkways and driveway numerous times. I did get a couple of pics of C doing it. He thought that coming home from Michigan for Christmas meant leaving the snow behind....not so much!

Passing the torch

Every Christmas it is mandatory that we make Chocolate Peanut Butter Pie. It's a recipe that my sister got from a restaurant called The Ark many years ago, and then passed on to me. I don't think she's made it in years though. It is sooooo incredibly yummy! For the past few years C has been helping me make it. This year he pretty much took it over (good news for me!) since he's trying to get more adept in the kitchen. He'll be moving out of the dorms starting next fall and will have to feed himself.

Just a few snaps on Christmas Eve:

Notice that the taste test is important from almost the very beginning :)


Ok mom, if i look at you for one picture would you please put the darned camera away?!?


Mixing the two different parts of the filling:


note Brett's contribution:


Filling and smoothing the pie filling prior to covering the entire top with melted, yummy chocolate:


and some things never change....licking the spatula is the very best part:


And lastly, because this really IS delicious, I'm sharing the recipe so that you too can feel the love from your family when you make this!

CHOCOLATE PEANUT BUTTER PIE
Serves 12

For crust:
3/4 cup crushed graham crackers
3/4 cup crushed chocolate wafers
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon mace
1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 cup coarsely crushed sliced almonds
1/4 cup melted butter
1 tablespoon dark rum
1 tablespoon vanilla

For filling:
8 ounces cream cheese, softened
1 cup sugar
1 cup creamy peanut butter
2 tablespoons butter, melted
1 cup whipping cream
1 tablespoon vanilla

For topping:
4 ounces semisweet chocolate
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1/4 cup chopped peanuts

To make crust: Combine graham crackers, wafers, 1/4 cup sugar, cinnamon, mace, nutmeg and almonds. Combine butter, rum and vanilla, and mix with graham cracker combination. Line 9-inch pie plate with 1 1/2 to 1 3/4 cups of the mixture. (Leftover mixture can be used for cheesecake crust, folded into whipped cream to fill a cake or frozen in an airtight bag.)

To make filling: Whip cream cheese until fluffy and slowly add sugar, peanut butter and butter. Set aside. Whip cream and vanilla until firm. Blend 1/3 of cream into peanut butter mixture, then fold peanut butter mixture into remaining whipped cream until thoroughly incorporated. Fill pie crust, smoothing top. Chill.

To make topping: Combine chocolate, butter and oil in top of double boiler. Cool slightly, then spread on cooled peanut butter pie filling, starting from center and working out. Sprinkle with peanuts, then chill thoroughly. Use hot, dry knife to cut pie. Garnish with whipped cream, if desired.

:)

Yes, I'm happy to have C home, and his friends in the house. It's been great!

One of the first things he asked me was if I would update his headshots. The last time I did them was in January, and this time he wanted a less "intense," more friendly and younger look - as well as a more "commercial" look. I couldn't believe how easy it was for us to work together compared to in the past. I think distance has given us both a newfound respect for one another. We were done in about a half hour and every one of them looks good. He's narrowed it down to about 16....I'll probably post the one he decides on when he decides.

I've been dying to shoot horizontal headshots, I love the look...and he was game.

Anyhow, one of my favorites:



And I'm posting this next one just because I'm his mom and I think it totally shows his personality (and no, it's not in contention for the one he uses). He was talking about summer stock and the shows he's interested in doing and his face totally just lit up:

Never thought I'd be HAPPY to have such a high grocery store receipt

Preparing for the prodigal son to return home. It feels like Christmas Eve around here, I cannot wait until tomorrow night when C gets home.The webcam has been great, but live and in person is going to be terrific! I have to admit that I got a little emotional (ok, a little more than a little) tonight as I was doing some baking and stuff for this weekend. If that's a sign of how things are going to go at the airport tomorrow night, it's not going to be pretty. I am not cute when I cry!

With just B and me, our grocery bills have been pretty darned small, smaller than I thought they would be. Now granted part of this total is because we're having "Thanksgiving" dinner at home on Sunday. C has been dreaming of home cooked meals (dorm food apparently isn't very good...LOL) and I am happy to oblige. We're going to be eating well the next few weeks ;)



And it warms my heart to see this back in the fridge:

Tiny berries

Love these blue viburnum berries, they were really this blue in real life, and the stems were that red! I had a hedge of viburnum at our old house but I had never seen one with blue berries before. Not sure what the red berried plant is.

And yes, we have had a mild fall so far this year, but even still I think most of this stuff would be in color anyhow. There is snow and temps in the 20's predicted for this weekend and I would love to go out and shoot. However, C comes home Saturday night so I think I'll probably wait until the next cold spell to get out and shoot some frost and snow. For this weekend I am all Mom all the time :)

From the same little shrub

It always amazes me when the same little plant looks SO different depending on where you look on it and how the light is hitting it. These were taken just a minute apart. I love seeing the heathers start to bloom - the purple flowers and the yellow buds are so stunning amidst all the gray and brown of winter.

Now all we need is a little snow to really set the winter colors off!



Unfortunately this next photo with the buds is a little overexposed :(



Angela, in answer to your question about yesterday's hydrangea, I didn't use a texture on the photo. They're at the very end of their bloom (actually past it but hanging in there), so they have lots of natural texture due to their age.

More winter color

While wandering around outside this time of year it's always nice when you run across some unexpected color. Some of the hydrangeas in the shade still had a bit of color, and I thought that the blues and magentas looked beautiful against the the few fluorescent yellow leaves that were still on the plants....that's what the background is on this, isn't the contrast of colors lovely?



Heather, the plant yesterday was a Barberry. The plants I've had in the past didn't get these beautiful berries on them though. Imagine a large flower bed filled with this red....it was like finding a treasure!

Finding color on a gray day

It's such a challenge to shoot macros during the winter months. Besides the rain and clouds, the sky starts losing light about 2:30 or 3 here, and by 4pm it is almost dark out. So, you've got between about the hours of 10ish and 2ish where there's some decent(ish) light. Sorry for all the "ish"es!

I took a walk today to see what I could find...which surprisingly was quite a bit more than I thought I'd find.



Oh, and I've been meaning to share the following link. My mom sent this to me last week and I thought it was hysterical. Hope you enjoy! click here ----> THE MOM SONG

Hometown Holidays (aka: he'll be home in 7 days!)

This one is for Colin...I love you and I can't believe I get to see your cute face in only 7 more days! And I don't care if I'm embarrassing you, 4 months is a LONG time ;)

I took this last night at the Figgy Pudding Caroling Contest in Downtown Seattle. This is the type of thing we would do as a family, so C was VERY missed. Who else do I have to snark with with someone hits a sour note? We did have Brett's brother with us (he's visiting from San Diego), although I think he was a little unimpressed by it all.

Do you see what I see?

I loved working with A. She is so friendly, interesting, and engaging....and happens to be very talented to boot! I happen to think she looks an awful lot like a certain British actress. Do you see it?



I could use some help with editing this photo. I'd love to try and remove some of the stray hairs on her shoulder, however using the clone tool (which is a painstakingly slow process) ends up making the fabric on her shoulder flat, without any texture to it and looks "fixed" in a bad way. Does anyone have any hints for something else I might try?

Oh, and her skin is naturally this creamy and gorgeous...and yes, I'm slightly jealous!

The actress I think she resembles is Kate Winslet. Did you see it?