Project 365: Day 241 -- Attack of the Squirrels

The pesky squirrels attacked the bird feeder again today. We've pretty much given up on it. They can empty it out in an hour!

Project 365: Day 240 -- Spaghetti

I love spaghetti. It's one of my all-time favorite foods. If it's made right. I make mine with ground beef in the sauce, and it cooks all day in the crock pot. I personally believe the secret ingredient to a good spaghetti sauce is Bay leaves. And a lot of them. This sauce also had fresh, organic basil from our garden. And the best part? It makes enough for the two of us to eat for 3 days!

Project 365: Day 237 -- Maggie

Today I had the pleasure of creating Maggie's senior portraits. We met at her family's farm and shot there. Maggie is a delightful young lady and she and her family were a pleasure to work with. I am returning next week to photograph the entire family, and to get a few more shots of Maggie that we ran out of time for today.

Project 365: Day 235 -- Blackened Shrimp & Linguine

Decided to make Blackened Shrimp and Linguine for dinner tonight. I used a recipe I have used many times in the past. One of the ingredients in Cajun Seasoning. I used a different brand this time, and oh was it a mistake! The new brand had way more cayenne pepper in it. It was so hot that even Kelly said it was too hot. I tried to eat mine, but drank two bottles of water and ate two pieces of bread in an effort to put out the burning fire. I couldn't finish it...

Project 365: Day 234 -- Baking at Home

I'm not really much for baking usually. But one of the things I have done in an effort to battle my sweet tooth is to stop buying pre-packaged sweets and treats. (OK, I haven't stopped entirely, but cut way back.) This way, if I get a craving for sweets, it's got to be bad enough for me to go to the trouble of baking. This week it was. So I decided to make a spice cake. But I knew that if I made a layer cake, I would have to frost the entire thing, and Kelly hates frosting. Twisted and sick, I know. Anyway, if I frosted the whole thing, then I would eat the whole thing by myself. So I decided to make cupcakes instead, and only frost half of them. Kelly would get his boring, bland, unfrosted cake, and I would get my sweet, creamy, delicious cake.

Project 365: Day 233 -- Wind Chimes

It's a beautiful summer day here, and not terribly hot by Southern standards. I think I may have brought a bit of that fabulous Colorado weather back with me. Speaking of Colorado, these are the wind chimes that I brought back for Kelly. I found them at Red Rocks, and they were the only ones that would fit in my suitcase, lol.

Project 365: Day 232 -- Stormy Skies

It was another stormy summer day here. This summer has been unusually wet. I had some things to do in Nashville today, and the storms were brewing as I drove into town. By the time I got home again, most of it had passed and the skies were starting to clean again.

Project 365: Day 231 -- Cupcakes at Red Tree

I had a few errands to run today, and stopped by Red Tree Coffee to partake of the chocolate cupcakes I knew Amy had baked that morning. This particular recipe was more like Brownie Cupcakes. Apparently, depending on how much water/eggs you use, it could be either cupcakes or brownies. I also picked up some Ginger Snaps for Kelly while I was there, since they are one if his favorites.

Project 365: Day 229 -- Colorado, Part VII

Wow, catching the airport shuttle at 5 AM is so NOT fun. Especially after just 4 hours of sleep in a strange bed. And it turned out that I had loads of time to kill. But since it was an unfamiliar airport in an unfamiliar city, I wanted to be sure to allow enough time. Amanda and Jenn were still sound asleep when I left, since their flights didn't leave until early evening.

When I arrived in Denver on Friday, I thought about how cool a photo the subway tunnels would be. But I had my hands full and the train was crowded, and I didn't bother to get my camera out. This morning, however, I pulled my camera out before getting on the train, and planned it so I was in the back of the last car. I think this is my favorite shot...
Since I had lots of time to kill, I decided to browse some of the shops. There was so much beautiful jewelry! Stuff I never see at home--a lot of Native American designs. There were some pieces I would have loved to buy, with turquoise and other semi-precious stones inlaid with intricate designs...but wow--the price tags brought me back to reality. I didn't get photos of the pieces I loved most, but here are some others I really liked, too.
I did end up getting a few things that were less expensive...





Then it was time to camp at the gate...so boring...
On the plane, I was in the first row, window seat. I slept a good part of the flight. During the last 15-20 minutes of the two and a half hour flight, the 3 people in the row behind me got into an altercation. Apparently the man in the middle was sitting between a husband and wife (why they weren't sitting next to each other is a mystery) They had a small dog in a carrier under my seat. The altercation started with the husband getting angry about the man in the middle taking up more than his share of space. Then the man in the middle complained that they had taken the dog out of his carrier. They were calling each other names and threatening each other with physical violence. Someone else called the flight attendant over, and she tried to mediate. The best she could do was separate them when another passenger offered to switch places with the man in the middle. What idiots! They wait until the last 15 minutes of a 2.5 hour flight to complain about space hogging? Get over it and grow up!

Anyway, it was nice to come home and unpack and sleep in my own bed. But I totally miss Colorado and all my Peaps!!! I can't wait to go back.

Project 365: Day 228 -- Colorado, Part VI

After the world's worst lunch ever, Heather had planned to take Anne and me down to Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs. But we spent so long shooting Mel & Vlad that there wasn't time for the two hour drive down and back. So we settled for Red Rocks. Which was GORGEOUS!!!
Red Rocks is used as a concert venue in it's acoustically perfect amphitheater. And from the amphitheater, you have a distant view of the Denver skyline...






And the park area around the amphitheater is just breathtaking.

We found a beautiful little courtyard behind the gift shop and decided to do more maternity images of Farrah...






I didn't have an opportunity to shoot as many scenics as I would have liked, but I did get a few...









After we finished shooting, we drove back into Morrison for dinner. Found a little pizza place and ate on the patio. I'm so used to the summers being miserably hot and humid, it was so great to eat outside and at 8PM, I put a jacket on. It was so wonderful. At home, it's still 85 degrees at 8PM. And sticky.

Jami ordered a piece of chocolate cake so big that she shared it with all of us. And it was really good cake! Farrah and I shared a prosciutto pizza that was probably the best food I'd had all weekend, unless you count cake.

After dinner, Heather took Anne back to the hotel where we had been staying. But Amanda, Jenn and I found a different hotel much closer to the airport. With a free shuttle. Anne was invited to join us, but she declined because she hadn't packed yet. So Farrah drove Amanda, Jenn and I to the new hotel. We all crashed pretty quickly--we were exhausted and I had to be at the airport at 5:30 in the morning...