Finally got some time today to sit down and read my camera manual(and the digital field guide for the d200 too!) and I have learned so much!! I have to admit, I'm not usually one to read directions, or measure ingredients either for that matter... but I sucked it up, and read and have hours more to do. THankfully this is fun reading. Oh and I finally tried shooting in RAW format!! fun fun, not nearly as 'scary' as I once thought(it's like shooting a digital neg of a photo, much larger size and fully editable without ruining the quality of the photo). For example this photo I took today, around 4:00pm. It was dark & gloomy, and her skin tones resembled something of a morning-oatmeal-now-turned-into-cement colour. But I'm pleased with the transfer. Bree looks quite pale, but then again, she is!! Ok so I'm issuing a challenge for those camera buffs out there in blogger land. If you don't normally shoot in RAW, wanna try it??? You will need to download some software as most editing programs can't read RAW, here is a link to a good and free(bonus man!) program http://www.pixmantec.com/

link me up, I'd love to see it!!

yummy hummus

eek 2 posts in one day!! Just made this yummy spicy hummus and thought I'd share the recipe if anyone wanted it!!

INGREDIENTS
1 (15 ounce) can garbanzo beans, drained, liquid reserved
2 ounces fresh jalapeno pepper, sliced
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
2 tablespoons lemon juice
3 cloves garlic, minced
DIRECTIONS
In a blender or food processor, combine garbanzo beans, jalapeno, cumin, lemon juice, garlic and 1 tablespoon of the reserved bean liquid. Blend until smooth.

NUTRITION INFORMATION
Servings Per Recipe: 16
Amount Per Serving
Calories: 34
Total Fat: 0.3g
Cholesterol: 0mg
Sodium: 80mg
Total Carbs: 6.6g
Dietary Fiber: 1.3g
Protein: 1.4g

yum!

Timeline
Grabbed this idea from Crystal's blog
33 yrs ago - Newly arrived, living in Burlington ON
25 yrs ago - Took a family vacation out west, I remember seeing the mountains, the Calgary Stampede and the glaciers!!
20 yrs ago - Entered grade 9, so uncomfortable in my own skin, trying to figure out how high school worked. Desperately wanting a boyfriend. Skiied every weekend without fail!
10 yrs ago - Quit my job at Canada Trust and went to travel Australia for a year
5 yrs ago - Just arriving home with my then new baby girl who was 2 days old!
2 yrs ago - undergoing infertility treatments, little did I know that we would be pg by the end of this month with Ian!
1 month ago - Found out I got accepted into the self employment gov't program, a little overwelhmed!
Yesterday - Finished my classes and working on our first "real" client's website
Tomorrow - Working on my business plan, proofing photos from last weekend, preparing for this weekend's photo shoots, working on the website, drinking copious amounts of coffee.

Have I told you guys lately how much I love my job?? Which one you ask, well I love them all in their own special and wonderful way. But today I'm really loving the photography one. I finally got to really work my new camera in. I had 4 shoots today!! And one more tomorrow. SO much fun, and I am worn out!! I started the day out with a family including 18 month old twins! SOO well behaved! Great kids, gorgeous parents! makes my job easy!! Then on to a newborn, beautiful and sleepy 6 days old! Yummy!! A 6 month old after that and her parents, and finally to end the day a family of 5 with a very energetic and opinionated 2 year old(and 7 & 10 year old too). Stay tuned for some photos!! I have LOTS to share!! :)

Ok here are two fav's so far from the newborn..

I havn't had quite as much time to play with my new child lol, this class I'm taking seems to be getting in the way of me having fun with it! But I did take a couple today which made me smile, and so I thought I'd share.

Took the kids to a childrens playfest zone at the community centre, both had a blast and a half!! I was hoping for a better nap out of the boy, but apparently that wasn't meant to be!!!

and one of bree doing the bed jump... it's still too dark, but it's mostly in focus at least! lol I still need to figure out all the settings... but I'm happy with it!!! :)

momma's got a new toy...

hurry up daylight, I want to take photos of the children... if I didn't want to traumatize my children even further I would go and take photos of them now... hmmmm nope I better not(but I was thinking about it!!)

I even got a speedlight (flash) for it, so even though I prefer natural light, I've already had a couple of times when I've tried to shoot and it was too dark. No more worries!! Other than I have classes all week and two shoots on Saturday!!

OH you have to love parental loans!!(thanks mom and dad!!)

Ok enough already... just a wee bit excited and Chris is getting tired of me taking photos of him playing on the computer...I think I will take the manual and get comfy!!! Stay tuned for new photos... you know they're coming!

Holy Haircut Batman

Ok so I decided it was time to get the boy's hair cut... people were beginning to tease me that he looked like a teenage heart throb with his uber curly locks! lmbo!!!

so we got a cut... here is the before
I can't get over the difference!!













and here is the after
I think he just aged 10 years with one haircut!!!


and just b/c I never get one of both together... here they are together

stopping to smell the flowers

you know, sometimes, you really just need to stop the stress and scrapbook!! Seriously! Heather came over last night and it was so good to just chill and scrapbook! I actually did a page for Scraps Ahoy too! woohoo! I will try to grab a photo of it tomorrow and get it posted. Just good to have a night off, which leads me to the thinking I need to schedule such nights more often. It was so good to just relax again. Thanks H for the scrappin fun!!

Which leads me to my next thought, just how important friends are. Through this incredible hobby I have had the pleasure of meeting (some in real life and some not due to distance, but still the friendships are real)so many fun, creative & brilliant ladies. You know who you are and chances are if you're reading this, you're one of them! lol I thank you so much for your friendship. I truly consider myself blessed, for your comments, friendship and support through all of the bumps in the road!! Sending out some warm fuzzies tonight apparently!!
Oh and here are a couple of my leaf photos, blogger is finally cooperating! :) Hope everyone has a great week coming up!!

First scraps ahoy kit arrives!!

woohoo there is so much fun fun paper!! Very cool to get a nice pizza box in the mailbox full of paper I have never seen before!! eek I can't wait to get scrapping! I havn't been doing much for quite a while with getting the busness going, but now I can't wait to get working on it!!

There was some fun & whimsical Christmas paper from Frances Meyer and a bunch from the Scrapbook Traveller's club

I hope I will get some mojo flowing this weekend and will for sure get posting layouts again!! :)

ahhh a day off...

not so much of the r&r because I had so much to catch up on around here. The condo guys were out blowing the leaves up into their truck, so I quickly ran out there, and plopped Ian in the pile!! Oh ya they looked at me like I was smoking something funny... but I really hadn't gotten any fall leafy photos of him yet... He just wanted to get to the playground so it took a long time to get him to sit and look at me, I couldn't work a smile in there too. ah well pls ignore the gunge and goo on his face, we're going on week 4 of the runny nose :(

ok so blogger isn't cooperating, I will have to try to add it later. Happy hump day all!