04: what they wear

This was a fun assignment, photograph your loved one's clothes, accessories, shoes, pjs, diapers, training pants, etc. For the camera tip of the day I got to explore my camera's metering.

What is more perfect for this task than Mia's socks? They NEVER match! For her birthday she asked Grandma Nancy for socks she could miss match and got a gift bag full of fun socks.

03: then and now

Three days in and I am still doing good! Today's assignment was to show what has changed since you first met your loved one. For the lesson she talked about cropping both with the camera and in photo editing software.

I think if Mike wasn't in San Francisco I would have use him. I am amazed at how much older marrying me has made him look! (Maybe when I pick him up tomorrow I will add an extra day 3 to the blog.) But this little guy has changed so much in the last 3 years! You would think I would remember that babies grow up fast but I guess not. Today Mia called home from school for a ride (she had thought she was getting picked up so didn't get on the bus). I told Gabriel that we needed to go pick up Mia from school because she missed the bus and his response was... "Oh no, don't tell me that".

02: how they look

Today's assignment is to capture the true essence/attitude of your loved one. Some of the idea's given are their facial expression, in pjs, in a typical outfit for them, funny face they make (the list goes on).

The little skill I get out of the lesson today is camera position. This was not hard for me to do with today's loved one because it was Mia and she is just about as tall as I am. That makes it easy to have my camera on the same plane as my subject.

Mia had a snow day today (along with A LOT of other people) and before she even got out of her pjs she went outside to try her new snowshoes (that Santa brought her for Christmas)! So here is Mia and "how she looks" all dressed up to go romping through the snow.

01: what they do

Today's assignment for the joy of LOVE was to document your loved ones "doing" something they "do". I am sure most of the pictures for this class will be of Gabriel because I am home with him all day (and he is so cute) and who really has time at the end of the day to get the camera out? Between making dinner, cleaning up dinner and getting the kids ready for bed... not me!

The lesson today was about indoor lighting, how to find it in your home and catchlights.

So here it is... Gabriel doing two things he does... making a mess with the games and playing with trains! It was nice and sunny today and we have huge windows so I had no problem finding my light.






BONUS PICTURE: Something else I love doing what it does... food... cooking.

Goodbye New Year's

Looks like I skipped right over the holidays and right over all of January (who likes January anyway, it is cold and dark). I will do a Christmas time post because I have a goose story to tell you. I just have to find a few more pictures.

Over the next month I am taking a FREE online photography class given by Willette Designs (thanks Nicole for posting the link to this great way of getting my butt back into my blog). The class is called "the joy of LOVE" and it starts today! Everyday I will get an e-mail with a task/moment to look for during the day along with a small tutorial on photography and how to improve your (or get some) skills. It's not to late to sign up, just CLICK THIS LINK!

Birthdays

I am now the mother of an 11 year old! Every time I think of my little girl as being a middle schooler I am flabbergasted! I don't have another word for it... I can't believe it but my baby is growing up. I know, this post is a month and a half late but that's ok... so is Mia's birthday gift. She is so hard to find the perfect gift for because she doesn't ask for "stuff". So although her birthday was the 9th of November I just this week figured out what we are giving Mia for her 11th birthday. She decided for her birthday she wants to give her school library money to get more Accelerated Reader tests. What a girl!!!

Gabriel's Birthday #3 being the day after Thanksgiving was pretty low key. Mike and Gabriel went on a BIG tractor at Grandma Kathy's cousin's and Mike's mom and dad came over along with my mom and Jon for cake (cranberry coffee cake) that Mia and I made. He is growing up fast and before I know it he will be 11!!!

Croissants

Going to Paris so often has definitely spoiled Mike in the food and drink categories. His usual French breakfast is two croissants and an espresso. Every time he comes home he wants to try to make croissants and we finally did.

It is a long process so we decided to grab a wine six pack from cork n' cap and spend the night at Ron & Chloe's and give the croissants a try.

After making the dough roll it out and let it chill for an hour




While the dough is chilling the fun part comes... pound the butter flat with a rolling pin.




Roll the dough out again and fold it into thirds around the butter







Now for the next few hours the dough has to be chilled-rolled-folded. So it becomes layers of dough and butter.

(Chloe had a few 1/2 bottles of wine in the fridge so we hardly touched our six pack)



When the rolling and folding is done let it chill overnight.

In the morning you shape the croissants, let rise for an hour and bake.







They turned out so yummy! I also read you can freeze them after they have risen. Then at night take them out of the freezer to thaw overnight and pop them in the oven in the morning.

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