Cupcakes and Pink Cheeks

Pink

bunny ears,

whiskers,

jelly beans,

sprinkles,

and peeps.

 Move over Martha......I was a cupcake baking and decorating machine this past weekend.

It was my first attempt so please be nice but I think they turned out decent considering I'm a cupcake virgin.

Sweet Baby PINK Cheeks 

What is a sweeter shade of PINK than a newborn born 2 weeks early just in time for Easter.

Meet Kamryn or Kami who is the daughter of good friends of ours.

 Peacefully sleeping

 and now making her first Easter appearance 1 year earlier than expected.

She was born 2 weeks early and was a whooping 8 lbs.

Imagine if her mother went full term?!?!

 and now she is getting ready to leave the Easter festivities.

Not happy at all, I guess she doesn't want to leave the party after all.

She made that clear when she started crying.

I have my first newborn session with Kami and her Mom on Friday afternoon. Very excited but nervous. Cross your fingers and send me positive photography vibes that all goes well. I have some fun ideas planned and as long as the baby has a full tummy and sleeps soundly we should be good to go. Also great lighting is probably what I am most nervous about.

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You've Been Egged!

This past weekend I decided to egg my neighbors house and I have to say it was a lot of fun. Yes, you heard me right, I egged my neighbors house.....Ok...... You know I did enough of that as a teenager I'm too nice to do that but rather I got this really cute idea from the eighteen 25 blog and decided that I couldn't wait until Easter to do this to the twins next door. All you do is get a couple dozen plastic eggs and fill them with candy, coins, toys and sweet little notes about what you like about them. You hide the eggs in their yard, hang the "you've been egged" sign on their front door, ring the doorbell, and run like heck so they don't see you. I timed it in the afternoon after their afternoon nap and then hid in my yard with my camera to catch all of the fun! I can't tell you how excited they were - they absolutely loved it and they are still trying to "investigate" and solve the mystery. I was surpised by how much they got into the "investigation" part of this and I decided to leave clues behind in their mailbox for the following 7 days. They have no idea it was me and that's half the fun since it's too early for the Easter bunny.

I thought egging my neighbors was the perfect chance to capture FUN for Beth's You Capture challenge this week. So what do you think....wanna egg your neighbors? If so download the template at eighteen 25.

You Capture - Vibrance

Beth over at I Should be Folding Laundry had another fun photography challenge this week. The prompt was Vibrance which has a couple of different meanings but I went with "relatively high on the scale of brightness" for my shots this week. I felt like a kid in a candy store this week with playing around with all of the colorful and VIBRANT items I found in the house. It makes me crave spring weather even more.

 Playing around with some very colorful Solo cups.

I can't wait to fill them up with margaritas this summer!

 Stacks and stacks of these vibrant colored cups.

 I had lots of fun stacking them and building very tall towers.

My husband walked by and was trying to figure out what in the world I was doing and then he guessed...

a photography challenge?

Yup!

 And the I snapped a few pictures of my favorite colorful buttons and brads.

Real Red

Kiwi Kiss

Pacific Coast Blue

Pumpkin Pie

 These buttons put a BIG smile on my face.

They are so cheerful and I love putting them on my cards that I make in hopes of making someone else smile.

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You Capture - Youth

Each week I look forward to seeing what the photo challenge will be at I Should be Folding Laundry and this week was no exception. We were to capture "youth" and the first thing that popped into my mind was children of course but then I thought I should try and be a bit more creative. I had thoughts of trying to capture the notion around the "fountain of youth" which would be my drawer full of lotions and potions that are suppose to make me look youthful for the rest of my life. I ended up throwing that idea out the window and decided to share some pictures from my niece's 4th birthday as well as a shot from a baby shower I attended this past weekend. What can I say, children are adorable and I loved how I captured something so very different in these shots.

 Here's a shot of Emily enjoying herself at the baby shower. I really love the look on her face and her blue eyes shining through thanks to some sunshine that day.

 What's a birthday party without a cake cupcake? My niece turned 4 and she is not shy and relished the partygoer's singing to her and then of course it was time to blow out the candle. What did she wish for? Nobody knows but I'd guess it has something to do with princesses or something very girly.

What did the birthday girl want to do for her birthday? Go bowling of course so that we did. I love this shot of the girls so intently watching the ball slowwwlllyyy roll down the lane. Thank goodness for those bumpers!

You Capture - Emotions in Black & White

This past week I was in Colorado Springs for work and I took quite a few pictures of the beautiful mountains and then I turned them into Black & White.....and then I realized this week's You Capture prompt was "emotions in black & white". Oops! That means I have to do a bit of digging in my archives because it's almost bedtime and I have no one around to take pictures of. I think I'll plan a bit better next week and make sure I read the prompt carefully. I pride myself in being very detailed but this week I missed the mark but that's OK, life will go on and I'm sure you will all forgive me for pulling out the archives this week.

These pictures are of my neighbors that have learned to like my camera, they are my photography guinea pigs and before a Bears game this past year, they actually ASKED me to take their pictures. I happily obliged and I love how they are showing a variety of emotions in these pictures. They are silly twins in deed.

Here is E posing with her Cheetos, yes she really wanted me to take pictures with Cheetos - whatever works!

And then there is her brother who is taking the more serious approach to these photo session.

Here is L with his serious game face....what can I say, he really loves the Bears! Football runs in this family's blood and we got together with them for every Bears game this past season. It was fun but we are still upset about the Playoff game, let's just say we aren't Cutler fans around here.

This is one of L's famous looks, it reminds me of a "whatever" look that teenagers give their parents.

One last "serious" game pose before the game begins......

That's my neighbors, 2 adorable twins that have learned to love my camera...most of the time!

You Capture - Technology

I love flexing my creativity muscle and these photography challenges definitely do that for me. This week's You Capture challenge was technology. At first I thought - what in the heck can I do to make that look interesting but I thought really hard and came up with a couple of ideas. I'm eager to see what the rest of the group came up with but this was as creative as I could get this week. Each week I always see at least one or two pictures that I want to try myself which is always a good thing.

When I hear the word technology, I am instantly grateful for my iPhone, blackberry, and laptop - what did we ever do before these were available? It wasn't all that long ago but I'm not sure how I would function. I am someone who needs to stay very connected and having information at my fingertips is something I love. Have you heard about families that give up technology for a week or even 6 months? My husband and I would NEVER survive. Besides, how would I blog and share my photography with the world? Not a challenge I am willing to take on.

 Next up is my camera collection of course! Well actually I as cleaning some drawers out this past week and found some cameras that I didn't know I still had. The closest one is my Lumix point and shoot that stays in my purse at all times, followed by the first digital camera we bought in 2002 with a whooping 3.2megapixels, then 3rd in the row is my film camera from college, and last but not least my Canon Rebel DSLR that I bought about 5 years ago. I've recently moved from the Rebel to the Canon 40D so if anyone is looking to buy a new camera let me know - I'm looking to sell the Canon Rebel along with 3 lens. It was fun to look at my old cameras to see how the technology has grown.

Next I decided to capture the inside of my husband's car. His car seems to have all the fun stuff but my favorite feature is the screen that shows the radio stations, etc. Does anyone love XM or Sirius Radio as much as I do? What a great invention!

 Last but not least, as much as I love technology, I HATE all of the wires, chargers, and cords that come along with it. We have a box in our office full of all of them and I had to label the cords to be able to locate the right cord as quickly as possible. I thought I would take the chaos and try to capture them in a fun picture.

Interested in seeing what others came up with - check it out here.

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You Capture - The Letter "L"

This week's You Capture assignment I thought would be really easy but turned out that it was more difficult than I thought. It was anything with the letter "L". Easy right? Well I ran out of creativity until I thought about my favorite candy - Lifesavers! Instead of coming up with a bunch of different "L" shots, I decided to just shoot Lifesavers at lots of different angles. Well actually I tried shooting Lemonheads but let's just say those didn't turn out at all.

The best part? I got to eat them afterwards! Can't wait to see what Ashley comes up with next week. I think I like the harder prompts so let's see what it is.

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You Capture - Cold

This week's You Capture challenge is very fitting - it's Cold and that it is! When I think of cold all I think of these days is snow and icicles. Given that I've posted plenty of snow pictures lately I thought it would be best to focus on the many icicles hanging from the rooftop these days.

 Does that icicle so burrrr or what?

Did you notice the water dripping from it? That's what I worked hard to capture.

 Then when I looked into my tree in the front yard I was reminded of how cold it must be for the birds and other animals just trying to stay warm. The bird house looks rather chilly to me.

Last but not least, what's a "cold" capture without a bit more snow? At least it's from a different perspective.

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