Well...

... there's no use making excuses. I have plenty. Some of them are even pretty valid... but why bother? We'll just move forward with a new post.

It's been a busy, busy time. Busy at work. Busy at home. It's going to remain busy as my two most "favoritist" people in the world have birthdays in the next six days. Mom's is tomorrow and DH's is next Tuesday. I have made plans for both, but who knows if they'll work out. I'm still working on that contentedness thing I started this whole blog off with and part of that is making great plans but enjoying whatever ends up actually happening. That's my goal now!

Let's see... I am waiting for some calls back at work and the calls hold up me doing any further work on these projects, which is why I can even post at all. Work is good. REALLY, REALLY BUSY, but good. Maybe I should change my name to busy?!? I have managed to pretty much teach myself the "advanced basics" of Adobe Illustrator at work because I've been doing all these mailings in the program. It's pretty cool. I wish I was really good with it, but I hope that eventually my functional-only knowledge will grow into more of an mastery with an artistic flair!

I finished my first projects for Scrappin' Attack. I get to see them up on display at the store this weekend. Last time I was there we had a crop for the design team... that was very fun! I took a picture of my space on the wall, but it's at home. I will post it tonight. I also took pictures of one of my first projects, but those are on the laptop at home also. We have another crop this weekend and we get our new projects for the month. One thing I do have a picture of is a card I made for my BILs birthday:

I love this card. A little piece of me wanted to keep it, but with Daniel's name on it that didn't seem too practical! ;) Plus, he's worth the hoarded supplies... he's one nice guy! Let's see... there's the oh-s0-adorable owl rub-on from Hambly and some American Crafts stars and some paper bag I ripped up and some Making Memories patterned paper, cool, dimensional trim, rivets and alphabet rubs. Oh, and the card is from JoAnn. I love their packs of textured, blank cards. They're on sale a lot and come with envelopes. I highly recommend them! Inside the card there's some more Hambly, but dope that I am, I forgot to photograph it!

But I have, however, been plenty busy with photography. I have been doing a lot of editing lately... slowly learning Photoshop. I still need to take up my friend's husband's offer to give me a tutorial and fill in all my knowledge gaps, but WHEN to do it? Here are some more recent photos:

This is the one I'm most proud of, as of late. First, is the scale cool or what? That was an eBay bargain. I've wanted a few cool, retro items for a shelf in the kitchen I'll have someday (which is not now... now every shelf is full and there aren't enough shelves, if you know what I mean) and this scale will definitely be one of those things. I imagine this kitchen with very simple, contemporary cabinets (enough of them), lots of uncluttered countertop space, cleanly painted walls with my fruit crate labels hanging on them (framed in groups), a window with a ledge to use to grow spices and a black-and-white checkered floor. Maybe someday?

Anyway, I digress. I saw a picture similar to this somewhere (I cannot remember where, oops... credit to whomever thought of it first), but I fell in love with it and became sorta obsessed with doing it myself. First, I stalked scales on eBay. Then, I bought this dandy on eBay (it's even got some green paint beneath that rust... my favorite color). I then told my friend about the idea and she was hip to doing it. Believe it or not, I am laying outside her front door, half on her scratchy doormat and half on the cement shooting this picture while she holds her son on the scale, which is on the floor in front of a cool, wood table they have in their house. We think the weight is about right, although not totally exact because it's hard for a baby's bum to sit on a scale like that, don't you know? I wish we had a picture of me/us getting this picture. What a sight! I know what to do the next time I use the scale now. I need to be backed out of the frame a bit to get a bit more baby bum and a bit less ground (and for it to be not quite so centered), but well... still cool, right?

I also worked on the conversion for awhile. It's a cross between a black-and-white pro process action and a sepia action set I developed. Yum! Old and yet, crisp! See, I'm a bit proud of it and of this next one.

I'm finally starting to really get a hang of taking advantage of available light, capturing catchlights and getting really clear, yet spontaneous portraits! Nope, no flash here. Nope, no studio set-up here! Would you believe this was taken by me, sitting on the floor, straddling a stuffed glider chair covered in black micro suede fabric (that leaves tiny balls of black on their pretty blue chair... sorry)? Yep, it was. I just brought up the colors and light a bit. He's a cutie, isn't he? Love those cheeks! And here's another favorite... Angelina.

Oh, what a sweetie! I got so many cute pictures from this shoot. I am so grateful to her mom for letting me take some photos. She was waving her arms all around during this part of the shoot, so you see the blurry little toddler hand there, but well, I like that... it's real.

This one is real too. I took this photo back in May and never had a chance to post it. I worked on it a bit (it was SO bright this day and we did the shoot at like, high noon), but I love the color in it and her genuine expression. I really like this girl... she's quite fun and bright. I miss seeing her at work every day (it's one of the few things I miss about the old job).

So, the photo thing is going well. I've got a few shoots coming up... an infant shoot, twin two-year-olds (eek!) and a pregnancy shoot. I've also got a possible family portrait and hopefully some portraits of a friend's nieces. Oooh, maybe I'll even get some pictures of my SIL and BIL before their September reception... we'll see. The website will be underway soon and I hope to get down to the county offices in the next few weeks to file my "fictitious business name" paperwork.

What else? Hmmm... we've had a few family get-togethers -- my cousin Katie's birthday (photos to come), my MIL made us dinner a few weekends ago (it was tasty) -- fun stuff. Oh, DH and I did finally see "Oceans 13" in the theatre also... it was good, but well, I'm not foreseeing a "14." I am now rubbing my hands together in anticipation for "The Bourne Ultimatum" which comes out Friday. My "movie boyfriend" has been busy lately!

Other than that, just the usual working, eating, sleeping and stuff. I have had a fever since Saturday, I think from a tetanus shot I got at during my annual physical last week. It hasn't been fun, but I think I'm finally starting to get better. Thank goodness! Working with a fever is not fun! I don't recommend it! For now, it looks like the calls aren't coming today, so I should save my files, pack up my stuff and go home. The week is halfway over now!