A Mother's Joy

Here are a few more pics of my dear friend (and former next-door-neighbor) Jan. This is what motherhood is all about. The joy in soaking up the little moments in life. There's is nothing that compares to the love a momma has for her babes.

Enjoy Jan! (More to follow).  :-)

Through the Eye of My Youngest

So, this am BOO saw my tripod out and my camera nearby, and decided he would like to have Technology Day for school.

"What do you mean Technology Day? What do you want to learn about?"
To which he replied,

"Cameras."

{Oh...be still my beating heart!!}

 I replied calmy and collectedly, "Um...I think we can swing that."

And so, I proceeded to tell him about aperture and shutter speed and how the camera really works like your own eyeball (you know, flashing back to my days of a practicing optometric physician); the pupil being analogous to the aperture. He learned more about direct and indirect/inverse relationships and how changing one setting of the camera affects the others.
I tell ya, cameras are a great topic of study, you get art, physics. anatomy, math and more...all in one little fifteen minute discussion.

After we completed a little Q&A session, I left him to himself. I quietly went to work prepping for the next school lesson and honestly forgot he had left the room. He came back about 10 minutes later and set the camera back in the middle of the room, affixed atop the tripod.
These are the shots he captured and that I just downloaded into iPhoto:

First off...

...our little cherubim boy (or cupid) that we created this morning for art class. Love how the spotlight (sunlight) seems to be making its way to him.

 Like how he add artistic angle to this one below:

 Evidence of homeschooling exists here:

The cluttered, eclectic mess of daily living. Even got the pink lanyard with school "Visitor" ID that I had laced over the lampshade so as not to misplace it.

 He captured Mick practicing a tune for tonight's youth lock-in at church. Cool that he captured this shot authentically, no staging or awareness from Mick.

 Obviously the flash fired on this one. Digging the fact that he caught Hugsley feasting

 on his Lickin's. Love his tongue sticking out. Lip smackin good I tell ya!

 Bella girl. In full mellow mode.

 Obviously he learned a little bit about overexposure in the above pic and corrected it nicely below.

Not a bad start I think. Next lesson we will take on composition and the rule of thirds. ;-)

Selphy, My New Main Squeeze

...He, ahem, I mean "it" is my new favorite toy!!!
Prints 4x6 photos in mere seconds. Is totally portable and totally KEWL!!!! You purchase the photo paper reels that apparently have the ink within them. They make postcards too! And it even has a creative function where one can play some more!! I can definitely see that I'm going be needing to buy more paper packs. This is one fun little tech device and affordable too! (~$86US). Gotta run and go play with it some more! Toodles!

Happy Mail

ok...happy Fed Ex delivery!

This showed up on my doorstep upon our return from Las Vegas. I saw it on Kelly Purkey's blog and new it was just what I needed (err...I mean wanted!) Gone are the days that I'll have to truck my larger photo printer to the cabin, or Lexi's, or to any other of my scrapping sistas' homes.

Birthday card for Terry

Our NDN's little girl had a bday recently and her party was yesterday. I pieced this little number together and made an interactive element to it (since I remember two-year-old's really liking that kind of stuff).

Note: Please ignore the blur in the last pic-my eyes are getting old! LOL

This is actually what the pic looks like (+ the digital stitching and text*):

*Anna Aspnes digital stitches and text Century Gothic

Isn't she just like a little China doll? Her personality is adorable to boot! And, my boys...well...they simply love her. Look. You can tell...

They'll do just about anything to entertain her and are really kind and gentle around her. So wonderful for a momma to see the gentleness, kindness and compassion that I know each of them has in their personalities (Unfortunately, I don't see these characteristics present often in their everyday encounters with each other-LOL). She really does bring out the best in them and for that, I am ever so grateful that she's our lil NDN.