For the second year in a row, a snowstorm kept us from traveling to Kris’s family’s Christmas celebration. All total, we received 12 inches of the white fluffy stuff. The bright side? Philip is becoming an awesome snow shoveler!

While disappointed, we made the most of our days snowed in…playing games, reading, listening to classic Christmas carols…enjoying the quiet beauty at our cabin.

As you can tell, Alyssa loved the snow!

All shot with my Tamron 28-75/2.8, ISO 160, AV mode, f/4.0 , and since shooting into a mostly snowy background, I compensated by setting exposure +1.67.

The snow let up Christmas Eve so we were able to celebrate with our church family. The choir’s finale of Handel’s Alleluia Chorus was magnificent…goose bumps.

We hope to be able to make the trip a few hours south this weekend to see some of Kris’s family. More family pics coming in next post.

Happy holidays, everyone! We’re busily preparing for the Christmas season and find ourselves a bit more behind than usual. But, no worries!

So love playing with bokeh these days. And Christmas tree lights are great subjects!

texture overlay available here

Alyssa comes home for a 3 week college break next Wednesday. What fun we’ll have! This is the second year we’ve decorated the tree in her absence. We saved our little tree at the cabin for when she arrives, though (that was Philip’s idea!).

Will be back in the new year. Merry Christmas, everyone!

I sat down tonight to edit a few fall lovelies after attending a rousing St. Cloud State Huskies hockey game with the family.

Much to my surprise, when playing with this image I noticed a sweet heart cut of the leaf. Too fitting for this week of Thanksgiving.

supplies and technique here

So thankful for my right hand man…husband for 22 years…best friend for 24…i love you. ..simple as that.

Oh, how I love little girls in tutus…and with butterfly wings even more!

Two little girls wearing the same tutu 13 years apart…our oldest, Alyssa, back in 1996 for her first dance recital…and a dear little person last week for a costume. I’m embracing these precious memories this week.

Had some fun adding texture and a few embellishments to both images.

supplies and techniques here

supplies and techniques here

Scanning tip…I scanned Alyssa’s 1996 4×6 film image at 600 dpi so I could create an 8×8 piece at 300 dpi. I cropped in a square format as shown.

Happy weekend!

Michelle

Beautiful autumn days were a rarity this year, so yesterday’s sun was a treat! We took advantage of the blue skies and headed down to see Alyssa at the U of M - Twin Cities.

She’s only been home once so far this year and won’t be home again until Thanksgiving. Being a CA (community/resident hall advisor) has been awesome for her, but requires her to be there on most weekends.

We also had an opportunity to spend some time with a special guy in her life, Erik, and to experience Annie’s Parlor’s hot fudge/coffee malts. I must say it’s a wonderful way to get my RDA of caffeine!

Here are some more shots from the day using my Canon 50mm/1.8 lens. So lightweight and compact…perfect for days like this! I also enjoyed shooting into the afternoon sun, causing streaks of sun flare and softer images. You should try it!

The autumn colors were fading, however, we found some foliage still in its glory.

For me, not much tops time with our oldest on a college campus in the fall! Love you Lys!

Our family loves tennis…actually it’s how Kris and I started dating…playing tennis at 7 am when I was 18 and he was 20. Sweet.

Alyssa played on the tennis team in high school; the rest of us just play for fun (including Rachel and Jake).

We also love badminton and have the net set up at our cabin all summer long. Most evenings we play for a bit as the sun says good night, a breeze flowing across the lake. Doesn’t get much better than that.