Artistic Release

So as most (all?) of you know, my way of relaxing and relieving stress is through the creative side of me. This involves (in my case) photography and digital scrapbooking, which, in my eyes are totally related and intertwined with each other. I take photos and then I scrap them in an attempt to tell the story behind the photos.

When Steve decided to buy me my new D-SLR camera, words cannot describe how excited I was. Think about your favorite hobby and then imagine that someone buys/gives you that one aspect of it that you know is the best of the best and that will take your "hobby" to a whole new level. Awesome feeling, huh? That's how I've felt the past few days as the various parts and pieces of my new camera started trickling in from UPS, the USPS, etc.

As of today, I've received everything I've ordered and to say that I'm like a pig in shit is an understatement. I'm in my glory. I don't put the camera down, Steve keeps making fun of me because I walk around the house 24/7 with the thing, and my kids may very well revolt and kick my ass if I snap one more photo of them. But I don't care. Because I'm having fun and tapping into something that's been there all along, but that I just didn't have the right resources for.

So now, I'm going to torture you all with some of the photos I've taken the past few days. Because that amazing piece of machinery you see in the picture right below this has me walking on air.

First of all, Susan, the other day you asked for a photo of the kickass birthday gift I received from an amazing friend of mine. It's a necklace made from an antique typewriter key. I adore it. I haven't taken it off since I opened the package. And I will forever cherish it for so many personal and emotional reasons, I can't even go into right now (for fear of sounding too sappy and/or boring the crap out of all of you.)  But that person needs to know that this will forever be one of the most favorite gifts I've ever received.

And here we have Hannah. Oh, this child. She drives me insane, but since she's a diva, she'll oblige to having her picture taken whenever I ask her to. That alone makes her my favorite kid. (I'm kidding! Grace kicks ass too. She just gets annoyed after the 800th photo I take of her, while Hannah just keeps on posing.) And yes, those are her "real" eyes. I ran some actions/adjustments on the photo that changed the general coloring/saturation of the entire picture. But I didn't purposely alter her eyes in any way. DAMN, I wish I had those suckers. LOL!

And this one was just me fooling around in Photoshop and ACR. Hannah was showing me the ink she had on her hand after playing with her stamping set. But I find it utterly amazing that after messing around with it and turning it into black and white, it almost becomes "artistic". And now I adore this photo. I love that it shows my  sweet daughter's small hand, full of ink from being creative, and reminding that they're only little for so long and that they grow up way too fast. That's my baby's hand. And although you can't see her face in this picture, in many ways, this photo shows me more about her than the picture above that's entirely her face. But that's the magic of photography and why I find it such an amazing thing.

So that's what I've been up to the past few days. Well, that and doctor's appointments, vomiting kids, T-ball games, softball games, working the food stand at those games, and general everyday stuff. But I've documented all of it with my new toy, so it's all good. :)

Quote of the Day:
A court is a place where what was confused before becomes more unsettled than ever.
--Henry Waldorf Francis