Scrap Blogging, Anyone?

I have found yet another new internet addiction! Scrapblogs! Check out a few of my creations:







More over at my scrapblog. I'm telling you, it's crazy addicting and fun!

See How Dorky Cool I am?!

This picture taken at Primanti Bros! And if you know Primanti Bros, here is the group for you:

Burgh Moms Club.

:)

My Vintage and Antique Camera Collection

Check out all the photos of my collection HERE.

Weekend Snapshots

This weekend's Weekend Snapshots:





And now, I must go back to my couch and my soup, because I have a rotten case of Strep Throat :(

30 Tiny Moments

I've just joined a group over at Flickr called 30 Tiny Moments. From the group profile:

...to capture the little moments of daily life for 30 days, I have created this group so the rest of us can stop and appreciate the now...
...these photos are a collective memorandum to the tiny moments that so quickly escape us. They don't need to be perfect, just full of whatever you want to remember.

Sounds wonderful, doesn't it?? Special thanks to Frances for suggesting this to me!

My photo for today:

Burning Tree

Wordless Wednesday:

Selling Prints

I have about 2 pages of new photos over at Flickr... so, for my weekend snapshot here's a mosaic of some of the shots I took.


And now I am going shamelessly promote myself by telling all of you to check out my Deviant Art Store where you can purchase prints of my work, because Mama needs a Digital SLR camera...

Hey, at least I'm not just begging for money or putting ads on my website (no offense to those who do, I have thought about it!) I am actually selling something. So help a starving artist out!

This N' That

I'm still here, I'm alive, I swear! I've been reading other blogs but no time for posting my own or leaving comments. Busy, Busy, Busy!

Maya's "little cold" turned into pneumonia and she was home from school all week. Poor kid. She is all better now, though! Just in time for her gymnastics class today. She takes gymnastics at Gymkhana and loves it. You should see the spark in her eyes when she's going to class, talking about class, coming from class...

She's actually really good, too. She may even compete someday! Yeah, I'm her mom and maybe a little biased but... I've seen her do things in class that the other kids couldn't do... anyway enough bragging from mom...

In other news, I'm still lovin' the job and thanks so much to everyone for wishing me luck on the interview and the congrats for nailing it. I'm learning so much and I love it. I'm also studying some photography on the side, I bought a few books and I'm even taking notes because, well, I'm a dork like that. I finally understand about shutter speed and aperture and fun stuff like that. Hopefully someday I will be able to afford a kick-butt camera... I want an SLR in the worst way. But I still love my little canon powershot.

Well... as always I will leave you with a photo, and there are new photos over at My Flickr Page and My Deviant Art Gallery.

I saw Barack Obama!!!

Haiku Friday. The OMG I GOT TO SEE BARACK OBAMA LIVE AND IN PERSON edition!

Do you see this girl?
It is I! Waiting to see
Barack Obama.



And Look! There he is.
In a photo that I took!
I got to be there!



Live and in person
So much closer than I thought
I would ever get.

I can not even begin to describe to you how completely amazing and just, awesome it was to be a part of this. I took a TON pf photos as you may have guessed, you can check them all out here at my flickr page. At least 2 pages worth of photos over there!!

I will get into details about the event here tomorrow!!

A Chance to Be a Part of History

Wordless Wednesday. and check out my new Deviant Art page!

PhotoBloggin'

I'm always adding more photos to My Flickr Page.

As I Fall Asleep On My Laptop

It's almost midnight and I have to post because of NaBloPoMo but I'm exhausted and I have nothing to write about. So I will babble I suppose.

An overview of our weekend:

Easter egg hunt. Watching a building downtown being imploded. Easter baskets. Candy! "kids" hair dye... pink and blue streaks, oh my! A new microscope and the great hunt for decent prepared slides. Cool looking insect wing x 300!

Yes this is an incoherent post but hey, I did it and March is almost over. I am soooo not doing NaBloPoMo in April. Ha.

Happy Easter!

An obvious choice for weekend snapshot!

Photo Hunter: Metal

The theme for Photo Hunter this week is metal.


The USX Tower in Pittsburgh, because steel is a type of metal.

Smiling Faces and Muddy Shoes

Friday Haiku time! (Is it really sad that I almost forgot and my 7year old daughter had to remind me?)

What is important
on this journey we are on
this journey called life

the smiles of our kids
all the innocence and awe
that they radiate



And remembering
that muddy shoes can be fun
more than a hassle



We went to a local park for a nature walk today. My hubby made fun of me for taking over 100 photos, haha. I only posted a little over 20 of them, which can be seen over here on my flickr page.

My Youth is Bent

From my Photo Blog.

"The force that through the green fuse drives the flower
Drives my green age; that blasts the roots of trees
Is my destroyer.
And I am dumb to tell the crooked rose
My youth is bent by the same wintry fever."
- Dylan Thomas

Weekend Snapshots

I took a TON of photos this weekend. I can't post them all here, so please go to my flickr page to see all of them. I filled 3 pages over there with new photos!

This weekend, we went to the Flight 93 Memorial, and we stopped to take some cool photos on the way there and back. Here's just a few, but remember to check out the rest over here!

Weekend Snapshots:

Photo Mania

Weekend Snapshots:

New toys are always fun!


Being cute and goofy...









Fun at Gymkhana:

Ode to My Camera

This week's Friday Haiku is dedicated to my camera.

To you I give thanks
For always being with me
Capturing my world

Keeping memories
Inside your silver body
Like magic, you are

you give me freedom
a new way to view the world
through your magic lense

Tragedy Hits Close to Home

Yesterday, at around 1:30 PM my husband was at work, about 2 miles away from his parents house. His parents, my in-laws... we are very close with them, and their house is literally a second home to us. We lived there for a few years, and we know the neighborhood well, Hubby grew up there. We are there more than we are home! My daughter plays with kids in the neighborhood, and the neighborhood is very, very much home to us.

Where was I... Oh yeah. So, My hubby is at work, and suddenly they hear a giant BOOM. a huge explosion that rumbles through the building.

Turns out, the loud explosion was a house exploding, in his neighborhood, very, very close to his parents house.

You can find the whole story on wpxi.com, wtae.com, and even CNN and Fox News.

My husband drove over to his parent's house, and what should take literally 2 minutes took almost half an hour. The roads were blocked off and emergency vehicles were everywhere.

When he finally managed to get there, he discovered the windows blown out, glass everywhere.

A man was baby-sitting his 4 year old granddaughter. The man was killed. It's a miracle, but the little girl survived.

Here are photos I took from the news websites:





I also took my own photos from the scene. Thirteen of them, to be exact. Obviously I was not allowed to get too close, but I still managed to capture at least 1/100th of what was going on:

















This is my husband being interviewed by a reporter from The Pittsburgh Post Gazette.



You can see the reflection of gas lines still burning in this persons door:



The house was destroyed so bad by the blast, that there wasn't even one wall left standing.



News helicopters were everywhere.



Brian's sisters, Brian, and I helped to clean up some of the damage at his parent's house.



The neighborhood was crawling with gas men. They spent so much time at each house, we were giving them coffee. Reporters, news trucks, were everywhere. The windows had to be boarded up.

The whole thing was very... surreal. You see things like this on the news, but when it happens near you... it's just unbelievable.