Cloud of suspense?

I have a nice good list of crafting projects I'd like to tackle soon, but there is this gigantic cloud hovering over me like something major is coming up.

Oh yeah..

FOOTBALL SEASON!

I've joined forces with the ECU Marching Pirates for another year, but this time I'm not a student member and I'm not marching. I'm the staff photographer! This means I'll be at all the games with a spiffy press pass, allowing me to go most anywhere I want to go.

This also means I'll be out on the practice field with them a LOT when I get the chance outside of my FT job.. primarily band camp, which is coming up in a few weeks. I'll be hanging around a lot during practice over the weekend to get some good action shots of the students and staff doing work. Oh yeah, and I'll be at all the football games, of course!

So needless to say, Fall is going to be busy busy busy between work, football games, band practices, and ... a wedding?! More to come later.

I Heart Faces - Pets

Hey folks!

So I ♥ Faces is a wonderful site that will certainly inspire you if nothing else! I learned about the website over a year ago. The nicest people you have ever met on the web go to that site! I have definitely improved leaps and bounds since my first entries to their weekly contests!

Anywho, this week's challenge is pets.. and man do I love my Dora girl. I know I posted this picture pretty recently, but I love it so much! So I'm entering it and gotta post it again. You don't mind, do you?

But don't let this picture fool you.. she's a total meanie. She loves her daddy way more than her mommy. And pretty much all of the pictures I take of her are when she is sleeping. Or when I accidentally awake her while I'm taking pictures of her (see above).

She's got devilish, fiendish eyes. And her teeth? Fuh-gedda-bout-it. I think she was a shark in her previous life. But she the sweetest little furbaby and she loves me.. when she's sleeping! ;)

So please head on over there to check out other awesome entries and discover lots of tips, tricks, and inspiration!

And you know what's kind of funny? I thought I had talked about her like this before.. and I had. I'm sure I do often, but this post from last December is pretty funny. Another I ♥ Faces challenge.. and pets, too!

Oh, kitty..

Every time I try to pack a bag or suitcase to go somewhere, she thinks she's coming along for the trip.

Oh, kitty, you're a trip!

I Heart Faces

I love this photography website.. I haven't had much time to spend on it in a while, but it is so helpful and has so many tips!

This week's contest is for pets! And man do I love my Dora. She's such a sweetheart! (Well.. except for this week.. she's been eating everything in sight that she's definitely not supposed to! Boyfriend is pretty angry because she seems to be eating all the things important to him right now - 2 xbox headsets and his phone charger.. ouch!)

Anyways, I took this picture in October.. Love it! Didn't even edit it at all, this is straight out of my canon rebel xsi. It rocks! :)

Enjoy checking out that website if you want to look more into your photography skills! It's a lot of fun and it's amazing to see everyones' work.

Following your dreams..

I would just like to say right now that I am doing my best at living my dream and doing what makes me happy. Right now, I am persuing photography (here's my portfolio!). I got a desk job on campus about a month ago and it's great. It's a nice change of pace from working in a restaurant (I don't come home smelling like a kitchen!). Interviewed for another job before I got this job, and didn't get hired because I wouldn't be full time in the fall. Well, ended up they DO need me after all, so I'll be starting there this weekend - it's at a photography studio!

I've had a lot of photoshoots lately (and a LOT more coming up, since I got my new camera!). I have learned so much with every shoot.. here's what I've been up to lately (and there are tons more that haven't been released anywhere yet!) ;)

In chronological order, here's some of my pictures over the past month. - The first two are with my Fuji s8000fd bridge camera, the 3rd with my dad's Nikon D80, and the last with my brand new Canon Rebel XSi.. took it yesterday!

And if you're wondering about the perspective of my nephew with his helicopter, that was his brand new toy that he picked out when I was home - as a congratulations for finally "pooping in the potty"! Way to go, booger! I wanted a picture to 'commemorate the occasion', and thought this would be a funny way to remember that weekend. :)

Happy Easter!

Hope you all had a wonderful Easter weekend! I got a chance to go home this weekend and spend time with my family, and I really enjoyed it. Got to hang out with my nephews a ton - they're both growing up so much!

This was one of my favorite pictures of the day; my nephew hunted for easter eggs and I was trying to get him show me what he found.. this was his way of doing that!

I'm also entering this in this week's I ♥ Faces Easter/Spring contest as an amateur. I'm really happy with the way this picture turned out!

Head on over to check out some more entries, there are some really talented photographers - a lot of them are moms! (some even CRAFTY moms!) ;)

Have a lovely day, and don't forget about my 20% off sale in my etsy shop!

I ♥ Faces

Have you heard of this blog I ♥ Faces? It's a really cool blog that you can get a TON of photography and picture-editing tips and techniques from.. I love it! It has definitely re-sparked my love of photography and it's gotten me started using photoshop. Granted, I still don't know what I'm doing, but it sure is interesting!

This week's "challenge" is Messy Face.

I took this picture on the 21st, the day after my sister got married. We had a huge catered BBQ lunch for all the family from out of state that came to town (there were a lot!) and the groom's family came over as well. This is my 3-year old nephew, CJ, after lunch with his cupcake. He makes such a mess! This was after a few cleanups.. but he had frosting all over his face and had real sticky kisses! :)

There's a button over on the sidebar to visit I ♥ Faces anytime, or you can click this link here to check out the site.

Have a fabulous day!

It's March!

Happy Monday, everyone!
Last week was busy with 4 home basketball games, of which I attended them all (I'm in the pep band!), and it was a lot of fun! Saturday's two games ended the basketball season and we unfortunately lost them both, but they were both great games full of energy!

I managed to get a picture with Pee Dee :)

If you remember, I made a post a few months back about Pee Dee's transformation - ECU upgraded our mascot in time for the end of football season. Pretty drastic change and the students were pretty outraged, but I really like the new look now!

The last picture I got with him (When I was in Tulsa for the C-USA football championship game), his skin was hot pink and he had the purple hat and coat. Well they've adjusted a few times, including changing his skin to a more neutral, healthy color.. he looked like he had a mean sunburn before! ;) This get-up is his 'dressed down' look that he wears at the basketball games - no coat and has a scarf on his head. Pretty cool!


In other news, we had some snow dusting today.. back home (only 80 miles away) has about 3 inches, and past that some places have a TON of snow from that system! My mom said everything's covered and white. I hope my nephew gets a chance to play outside today! :)


Well, that's all for now. Just a fun little post to start off the week. Don't forget to enter the giveaway!

The wedding was a blast!

The wedding was perfect! I don't know how it was pulled off in only 28 DAYS, but it was amazing. I am so happy for Lisa and Jason, and wish them only the best with love and happiness all their lives! It's going to be hard for me to beat that wedding, I tell you what! ;) So I don't think I will.. but I'll sure give it a shot when it's my turn! hahahaha

Here's some pictures from Friday. Not all excellent (I didn't take them.. they were between my dad and whoever he passed the camera off to all evening!) but you can get the idea of how happy everyone was.
REALLY.. really really awesome. She deserves the best!


Okay, this is me. But the flowers were so beautiful and that red dress was so hot! ;)

This is my family, plus the marry-ins and "prospectives".. :)

Chicken Dance! Lisa got to be the center of attention all night. Rock out, sister!

All my love,

Beautiful weather!

So it's mid February, and we had some GORGEOUS, spring-like weather here all week! It nearly reached the 80's a few times! And when it's so nice outside, I can't help but go explore and see what I can capture with my camera. So, here are some pictures that I've taken over the past few days. All of these pictures are from around Greenville, NC and East Carolina University's campus. It is so beautiful when it's not so freezing! Some flowering trees are even starting to bloom (I know.. already?!) so there are lots of pretty pink blooms in some of the trees now. :O)

Don't forget to enter Wednesday's giveaway from Michele! Her art is so beautiful.. I wish I could win a print for myself! Ha ha ;)

Special Day!

Today's a pretty special day, if I may say so!
It's my boyfriend and I's 5-year anniversary! We've had more than our share of ups and downs, but I am so incredibly lucky to have him as such a huge part of my life. He is my very best friend. We are almost always together, and even in just the past few months since classes started back in August, we have become closer and closer. We have never been as happy as we are now, and things are only getting better!

I am so happy we're together, and we've made it this far. Opposites attract, and we've definitely stuck it out together through thick and thin so far! I'm so excited for what the future brings! :O)

We started dating 5 years ago, in 2004. I was still a camera freak, but I was a Sophomore in high school and didn't have a camera of my own. For that reason, I used a lot of instant cameras and polaroid film, and they aren't digitalized yet!


This was in the fall of 2005, Michale's freshman year at ECU. Jeremy and I were accepted as well and there for a visit, and couldn't wait to be students there!

My Senior Prom, Spring 2006

Michale and I, 2006

There for another visit - Missed him so much my senior year!

My freshman year, spring 2007


Atlantic Beach, Fall 2008
Banquet, New Years 2008/09

I love him, and that's as much as I can say! :O)

Check out this snow!

Well you know that snow storm in the southeast on Tuesday? It hit us! :O)
Hooray!
We haven't seen snow here in Greenville for a long time (haven't had it all season), but it snowed all day long on Tuesday, before the sun even rose. Needless to say, classes were cancelled for the past two days. Yahoo!

Here are just a few of the pictures I took from the snow on Tuesday.. Wasn't much fun out yesterday because it's all melting and there's rivers and ponds all over the place. Haha!

Went out in the snow in my pajama shorts and boots.. ha! My roommates told me I was crazy.. but it wasn't that cold out! (Until the wind started blowing!)

Then it snowed a LOT more, and we all went out to play football, take pictures, and have snowball fights.


Just about 4 inches on the ruler at that point! Snowed a little bit more after dark, but that ended up being just enough snow for us. :O)
My roommates and I (all 5 of us!) played Phase 10 most of the afternoon to stay out of the snow and ended up having a lot of fun! We made a beer run (literal: trudge) for the sheer adventure of walking around in the snow, and really enjoyed ourselves. It was a really great break!

I'll be glad to get back to classes tomorrow, though. Crazy that we had a 5-day weekend with MLK Jr. Day and the two snow days! I've only got 2 days of classes left and it's back to the weekend. Haha!

I'm back!

Happy 2009!!

Lots has happened since I posted last:

• I'm back from Memphis and had an AMAZING time!

• My 2nd nephew was born during the Liberty Bowl (January 2nd) and I went to the hospital to see him as soon as I got back from the trip

• I'm back in my apartment, about to start classes TOMORROW! (ughhh)
  

So, without further ado, here's some pictures! (I know that's what people look for!)


No, I didn't drink that gigantic drink on the left! I wanted a photo op with it because it was 100 oz of mixed drink.. and ridiculous! It was nearly as tall as me! But yes, those "Big Ass Beers" were mine. :O)


That's my Saxophone line, all the way down! Our motto for the season? "We LOVE Group Sax!"

My sister, Lisa, holding our sister-in-law's new baby in the hospital! CJ is a big brother now! :O)
More big news? LISA is expecting!! She's due in mid-August, and I cannot WAIT! :D


His name is Michael Andrew.. Cutiepie, isn't he?! We were getting ready to leave and we put him down.. then he finally opened his eyes up and just seemed to look at me and smile. :O) Heart is melting!

Look at those little piggies!


So that's my mini photo blog to start off the year.. it's been so much fun! Classes start tomorrow, but I only have 1.. woohoo!
Monday I start YOGA! I'm so excited. :O)

New Year's resolution? I'm going to start going to the gym so I can get in shape! I'm tired of people telling me that I'm 'fine' and 'have a nice figure', when I keep going up in pant sizes and can't feel comfortable in a tank top! I've got to get my tummy in control here! I think Mike's got the same thought going on for him, so I should have a gym buddy, unless he's too busy with his internship and classes!

Lots of love, happy new year!