Making progress......

Well, 4 weeks into this, plus one day, and I'm down 9 lbs! I'm feeling much better too, and hubby got the black card membership at Planet Fitness, so basically, the two of us can go for the price of his membership.....I love weight training, it feels so good to feel tight arm muscles after a good workout.

I was originally planning on 20 pounds to begin with, but I'm half way there now, and I'm thinking I'm going to go for another 15, instead of 10.....We'll have to see how it goes, and whether my body is liking that or not.

How's everybody else doing too?

I had a pre-New Years resolution, and I'm sticking to it!

I am bound and determined to lose 20 pounds, and I'm going to do it! I did Weight Watchers with my sister last year, and I lost 21 lbs in 3 months. Then with my new job, and having food available all of the time, due to drug reps bring snacks and lunches, I put 10 of it back on. So....back on WW I go, and I really do like finding new recipes online. There are so many sites that have free WW recipes, that I spend hours looking at, and printing recipes.

Well, 3 weeks into this, I've lost 6 1/2 lbs, and now my hubby has joined me. We have a membership at Planet Fitness, and will be working out and weight training. I really like lifting weights instead of doing cardio, but we all know it's a necessary evil!

My secret desire and motivation for losing the weight, is that I am turning 40 in a couple of weeks, and I want to be able to wear a black leather halter bra on the back of my husband's motorcycle! I don't know if I would ever have the courage to do it, but that is my goal, at least, is to fit in one, and look good.

If you too are fighting the battle of the bulge, feel free to post your successes, and struggles!

I'm ba-aack! And Happy New Year!

Man, it really stinks not having a computer for a couple of weeks, but I'm back in action now. Good to "see" everybody again, and what is going on with people.

Hope you all had a great beginning for a New Year!

Best fudge ever!!!!

First I want to say, that I am computerless for the time being, but will hopefully get that fixed as soon as possible. So, I'm on my daughter's for a little while.

I've been wanting to share this, so everyone can have some great tasting, foolproof fudge to make for Christmas.

This comes from Polly, who ran the arts and crafts lessons, at our soon to be closed AC Moore store, in Utica.

RECIPE: 1-16oz pkg of white candy melts, 1-16oz pkg of chocolate, any chocolate you prefer, and an 18oz jar of peanut butter, (with or without chunks). Melt it all in a microwave safe bowl, till melted, then butter a 13x9" pan, spread some mini marshmallows in the bottom, (how ever many you'd like to have), then pour the chocolate mixture on top, and smooth out evenly. Refrigerate till solid, then cut in small pieces.

Let me know how you like it if make some.....you won't be disappointed!
Obviously this has peanuts in it, so make sure all of your family and friends know, before they eat any of it!

I have a confession to make......

I am an addicted scrapbooking paper collector! Not to mention a chocoholic, but that will be another post in the future! How many of you are scrapbookers? Do you do traditional scrapbooking or have you entered the realm of digiscrapping?

I made a post on a forum I frequent tonight, about collecting so much scrapbooking stuff for digital scrapbooking, that I'll never use it all. Sound familiar? Besides that, I have so much real stuff, that it's just sitting in my armoir, not getting used.

So anyway, I thought I would post my favorite stop every evening, before going to bed, and this has turned out to be the cause of so many late nights now, sitting in front of my computer!

Here's the site: Digital Scrapbooking. If you like seeing what is out there for free scrapbooking papers and elements, take a look at all of the freebies, but be forewarned, there is a lot to go through!

Leave me a note, and let me know what type of scrapbooking you do. Now that the Christmas rush is over, I hope to have some time to do some work on catching up the past 3 yrs I'm behind....Thanksgiving of 2005, to be exact!

My last family Christmas session....

was done last Sunday. Barb and her kids came to see me earlier this year, for a three generation portrait, with her mom. This time she brought her hubby along too. The girls have grown quite a bit over the summer, and they still love petting my kitties. I think they had more fun giving a couple of the cats some affection, then they did anything else. Poor mom is allergic, so they got their kitty fix with my cats.

Here are my two favorites from the bunch from this session.

A big Christmas family!

I was fortunate enough to have photographed most of the families in this picture seperately at Chester's Flowers a few weekends ago, and then they asked me back to photograph them at Mary and Pat's house, all together. What a nice bunch of people, and great kids too!

Phil and Elizabeth are newly engaged (Congratulations!) and needed a photo for their engagement picture so we took a few of them for that. They look so happy together, and I hope they have many years ahead of them.

Next was the big group of all 17 of them! this is where the kids just shined. They really paid attention, and all coopetated so well- thanks kids!


Last but not least is the group of all 9 kids together....is it ever perfect getting all of them looking in the same direction at the same time? It's still a great image, esp with all of the siblings/cousins together.

Two sisters

Meet Miss K, and Miss K. I photographed the older miss K last yr for Christmas, and she was so shy! She wouldn't even make eye contact with me last yr, and only focused on her grandma. This year though, she is all grown up, and didn't seem to mind having her picture taken.

Her sister on the other hand, wasn't so sure, and good thing for mom being able to distract her, and make her smile!
While the elder Miss K isn't looking at the camera or smiling, I love this shot, because I think she looks so pensive.....it's a very nice shot to me.

Dancing.....

I was finally able to photograph Alicia for some dance pictures, when she came with her family for Christmas pictures last weekend. There are so many good ones, but for now, here is one collage. Beautiful girl, beautiful images! I'll try to add some more later on.



Here are some others I thought I would share. These will look so good on her studio walls, when she gets here own space. You are very talented Alicia!

The cutest pigtails

The last time I saw little Miss "A", she was 4 months old, and she is still in my pictures on my website, if you want to go look for her....(hint, she has a red hat on.) She just turned 1 yr old on Thanksgiving, and although we were supposed to do a cake smash, her mom said that she did a trial run on her birthday, and she screamed when she touched the frosting.....so we didn't do that after all. I guess not all kids love diving into cakes like my other birthday boy did....oh wait....he is a boy!

Anyway, the pigtails just add some personality to the pictures, don't you think? It reminds me of my daughter's "Pebbles" fountain one I used to do for her, when she was little.




The last pic is just a great series of expressions of she and her mom. (click on the picture to view it larger)

I just have to share one of my dog!

Patches has been with us for 4 yrs I think, and she was rescued from SSHS in Utica. She is the second dalmation mix we have had, and she is a great pet and family member. Although not very old, (the vet thinks between 6-7) she is getting greyer, and everyone loves her half-black face and black ears. She has had many comments on it since the beginning, but she's losing that since getting greyer.

She's such a poser, and has no qualms about getting in front of the camera. Just wanted to share her cuteness with everyone, since she is always locked up when people come to get their pictures done.....(or she would be in the pictures with the kids or families!)

I promise to get my sessions up here from last weekend too, and our own family picture, that we just got done. See even we wait till the last minute!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

It's the eve before, but just wanted to wish everyone a wonderfull day with family and friends tomorrow! Around here, we may have to watch the weather, and we are supposed to drive two hours to my hubby's family.....we'll have to see. Tug Hill can be a real bear, as it was last yr, when I drove up there in an ice storm. No where else was it icing, but up on the plateau....

Anyway, be safe, have fun, and eat lots of turkey.....and to those who say, "Have a nice holiday....I say, HAPPY THANKSGIVING!" Give thanks to Who it belongs to, and be thankful for what we have, and are able to do....

Enjoy!

Last, but not least.....

there just aren't enough hours in the day, to do all there is to do. I didn't mean to leave the boys off of the radar here. But they are the last of the previous weekends shoots, and two of my favorites!

This is a great photo of Mr's T+T, and their pretty dog too. He had never seen cats before, and while he didn't bother them, unfortunately my older cat stayed under a chair, with her hair standing straight up. I didn't realize how difficult it would be to give a 5 mo old puppy directions....never the less, some nice pics to add to the collection.

Baby's first Christmas

Little "M" came to get her Christmas pictures done this year, and she has big, beautiful eyes and lashes! These are my favorites of the session, and even these few images, shows her unique expressions!

Andrew's Christmas

I've been photographing Andrew for almost a year and a half, and last Sunday, was the first time that he wasn't easily amused. It didn't help that he wasn't feeling the best, but I do think we got some really nice shots.

The naughty or nice just happened to be caught at the right time!