Pumpkin Craft

I was thumbing through a Better Homes and Garden magazine last fall and I stumbled upon a nifty craft idea with pumkins. I was so intrigued that I had to try it. The only problem was, I needed a corer and I didn't own one. Nor could I find one around town. A corer is one of those little gadgets that plunges the center out of an apple and what not. I finally just had to improvise and I ended up painting my pumkins instead.

Last year's effort

This gave me a decent result but I was really disappointed that I couldn't do it right. A few months later I found myself at a Pampered Chef party and right there in the catalog was a CORER. I bought it.

Today I was at the grocery store and I spotted all the pumpkins and the pretty little colorful squashes. I thought about my corer. I had purchased it all those months ago for this very reason. The time is now. I loaded my cart with an assortment of sizes and colors of pumpkins and squashes and brought them home.

And I cored the mess out of 'em.


Then I plugged all the little holes back up.


It was easier than I expected but my palm got really sore from forcing the corer through the skin. They turned out happy though.

I like.

On Turning 32

My 30th birthday really didn't bother me. I expected to be bothered; waited for the bothering to happen, but it wasn't so bad. I don't even remember my last birthday so I can't say how I felt then, but this year I'm 32. I'm 32 years old and THAT is sort of bothering me. 30 may have been more of a milestone, but turning 32 already, well that means I'm just trucking right on through my 30s at warp speed. Bother.

I'm not too concerned with aging well. My mom is gorgeous so I'm intending to follow in her footsteps. I did, however, take a moment recently to peer very closely at myself and noticed that the scowl lines between my eyebrows appear to be permanent. I really should have stopped scowling a long time ago. My husband once told me that my natural, relaxed, every day expression is a scowl. Not exactly a compliment, no, but true enough evidently.

But enough waxing philisophical about my age and onto the events. For my birthday my sweet hubby had flowers delivered. This is special because I never get flowers. EVER. I love flowers dearly but I consider them to be an enormous waste of money as they only last a few days. I'd rather you give me the cash and send me shopping. Every once in a while though, it's just so darn sweet.

My kids gave me the all the equipment needed to make my own espresso every morning. An espresso maker, coffee grinder and a huge box of white chocolate mix. We are working out the kinks still on preparing the perfect cup, but it's coming along. Hubby made me one the other night that accidentally had five shots of espresso in it. I didn't realize it until later when I kept eyeballing the couch and wondering if I could jump over it.

A few days after my birthday, my business partner (I love saying that), Tracy, picked me up for a photo shoot and off we went to Lonestar restaurant to recreate some wedding reception photos for a couple celebrating their ten year anniversary.

NOT.

When we walked through the doors (me looking homeless and carrying a bunch of gear) all my favorite friends (in Alaska) jumped out and shouted SURPRISE (and other things) at me.

Wow. That was a...well, it was a surprise. That's for sure. We had dinner and a very crafty ninja/fruit snack decorated birthday cake. They gave me a box filled with my favorite things including a new camera bag, sour patch kids, ninja toys, movie tickets, Starbucks gift cards, jewelery, a scarf and hat AND mountains and mountains of assorted fruit snacks.

I must say, I have the greatest friends EVER. I heart them muchly.

So, aside from feeling a little older, turning 32 has been pretty freakin' awesome thus far.

The Great Pumpkin Hunt

In the drizzly early morning darkness that layered Anchorage last Friday, I met up with two other moms in the back parking lot of the building that houses our church as well as the school where Darrin works and Jaycob learns.

Our mission? To scatter hundreds of little pumpkins all along the greenbelt that separates the parking lot from the little creek that runs beside it. Days later, our pastor would begin his sermon by telling the story of driving into the parking lot and seeing pumpkins scattered far and wide, and then leaving an hour later and seeing nothing but empty grass.

This was the day of the annual SURPRISE pumpkin hunt and harvest party for the kindergarteners.

Jake was VERY excited for this.


This is the other half of PS Photography, my girl Tracy. She also has a kindergartener.


Yay! Pumpkins!


And then they feasted.

Lack of Posting

Sorry fort he lack. I'm SO busy with all this photography mumbo jumbo. Right now we are days away from launching our WEBSITE and I've been spending a lot of time trying to make it just right.

One of the things that is happening with this business of taking pictures professionally is that I don't seem to have much time to take photos of my own family. That is seriously not okay with me but I'm working on that.

I just so happen to be taking a photography class right now and that has forced me to take pictures of my kids for my assignments. So thank God for that! Here's a couple recent ones of Jordan. I was working on back lighting and other lighting angles. Just so we are clear, the girl poses on her own. I did NOT give her any direction othat than, "LOOK AT THE CAMERA!"

She's such a goof.

Munchkeroo

Last week I posted some pictures of the boys on their birthdays. Turns out I took Jordy's pictures that day too.




I know, right?

Introducing...

About a month ago, my friend Tracy and I started our photography business. It's something we'd both been throwing around for a year or so when suddenly, after posting a few pics of a friend's baby on Facebook, things just took off. Since the summer we have taken pictures of newborns, high school seniors, families and couples. We are slowly developing our business and enjoying the process right now. We're working out some kinks here and there and trying to find that balance with work and family. We have two photo shoots coming up this weekend and then we are taking a full week off to get caught up, work on our website and do some laundry.

Here are some examples from recent photo shoots we've done...

Senior pictures with Margaret


Senior pictures with Ryan


Family photos with the Scheeringas


Anchorage Christian School volleyball team photo


Newborn shoot with baby Makayla


Newborn shoot with baby Autumn

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