I immediately refolded all of Jim’s tee shirts to practice, and now I’m an expert! Go on, try it right now!

2 Second T-Shirt Fold!! – A funny movie is a click away

for you coupon-clippers out there: The Grocery Game  – getting good results from what I hear on other blogs & forums, especially if you buy brand-name products and watch for deals. Some girls are reporting savings of several hundreds after just a few months (apparently it works best if you stick with it & build up your pantry – not unheard of to get 10 boxes of cereal for like $10.)

from the site: "The Grocery Game is a website that can save you hundreds of dollars
on grocery bill each month. Log in, spend a few minutes with a pair of
scissors, and you’re off to win The Grocery Game!

When you play, you’ll get a weekly list (called Teri’s List) of the
lowest-priced products at your supermarket matched with manufacturers’
coupons and weekly specials — advertised and unadvertised. The Grocery Game does all the hard work and research, and presents it to you in a straightforward format.

Gather your coupons and Teri’s List and you will have everything you
need to play. Teri’s List matches sales to coupons from weeks past,
along with new coupons from this week’s Sunday paper. Members of The Grocery Game eliminate those time-consuming hours and
usually save even more than the coupon pros. For example, just because
an item is on sale doesn’t mean its time to play your coupon. Our
databases track the sales history on nearly every item in the
supermarket, waiting to use a coupon on rock-bottom sales. Now, the
best possible savings are quickly accessible to busy professionals,
overworked moms, single adults or anyone who wants to cut their grocery
bill by 50% or even more."

I was able to squeeze in a portrait session this weekend after the wedding that I did in PA on Saturday. It was a bright, bright, sunny day which can be a digital photographer’s nightmare because it requires extreme attention to positioning to avoid harsh shadows and get proper exposures. But in this case I had the fun of capturing a happy four year old boy & his adoring parents, and the sun turned out to be just right for capturing this family! Here’s a sneak peek:

Jim & I have been faithfully watching "American Idol" this season…we capture it on DVR & watch it when he gets home from work. We haven’t missed an episode, and we both actually predicted early on that the two Davids would be the finalists. Tonight we really enjoyed the finale, and it came down to the last part where Ryan opened the envelope…said "the winner of this season is….David….." Boom. Nothing. The dreaded "show has ended;delete?" is on the screen. ARE YOU KIDDING ME???!!!!!

I have been ranting & raving like a lunatic. Our DVR routinely doesn’t get the end of shows, and I have absolutely had it – I swear I’m canceling it tomorrow & going to Tivo!!!! I CANNOT believe I missed it!!!!

Edited to add: Apparently, this was a network glitch – Fox ran overtime by at least 5 minutes, so ANYONE who tivo’ed or used a dvr & did not extend the time missed out! We routinely do it for sports that are of course unpredictable, but who would have thought that something like this would run over? Anyway, I’m still mad but THANK GOD for You Tube!!!! And because of my meltdown, Jim actually dug out the manual for the dvr & looked up how to pad the time so hopefully this won’t happen anymore to our regular shows that we record.

It seems like just yesterday that Stacie called me to photograph her new baby girl, but it was actually about 18 months ago – here is Melina as a precious newborn:

And here she is now – an adorable toddler!

With her trusty blanket:

And the newest reason for another photo shoot – little brother Grant!

I am proud to introduce a FIRST for me: photographing the first baby of a couple whose wedding I also photographed! It was such a joy to see this brand-new little guy with his delighted parents, and be able to be part of capturing yet another happy time in their lives.

So they finished digging the foundation of our new house today – look at all of that red Carolina dirt!

This is standing at the top of our driveway:

Looking out over the big flattened spot toward what will be our main lake view:

The view toward one side, standing at basement level:

And the other side:

I will be leaving tomorrow to travel back to PA to do a bunch of sessions this weekend, so pray the weather cooperates! If all goes well, I should have a bunch of new images to post next week. Have a great weekend everyone!

oooh how I love these! Really like the beachy/rustic/chic look to these, and how they would brighten up a corner with great vacation pics!

Find them here: Simple Living

I spent last weekend with Stacey & David and my granddolls who are just growing so fast that I can’t believe it. Gavin is now firmly talking in sentences, and Genevieve has gone from asking "what is that" to "why is that". The weather was pretty good, and we were able to get outside for them to play and for Nanna to get some pictures. Genevieve is getting a lot better at cooperating – briefly. Gavin is now where she was last year, which is not really into the whole picture-taking scene.

Isn’t his shirt a riot?

We went to a coffee shop, then tried to do some cool urban-looking shots with them. But Gavin wasn’t really into it and wouldn’t smile – instead of my vision of a cool edgy image, he looks more like a homeless waif:

But Genna hammed it up a little:

Of course we HAVE to try to get both of them:

The next day was cool, but I wanted to get something wit the blossoming trees:

And at the playground: