365/365 happy new year!

Wow. So this is it. There were days I didn't think I'd make it to the end of this project. And while I'm glad to have finished, it feels kind of....sad too. I've met some sweet, supportive, talented people through this and have really enjoyed being able to see a part of their lives and watch their children grow throughout the year.

I am considering doing a 52 weeks for 2012. It may not be an "official" 52 weeks but more of a "try and post at least once a week" type thing. We will see. Either way, I plan to keep blogging and hope to keep up with everyone else too.


Happy New Year!

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We started the trip with a restaurant photo so we'll end it with one too. We arrived back in town last night. Since there was no food in the house, we headed out to get some dinner.

We had a great trip and enjoyed spending time with family and friends. It's nice to be home where it's warm {and sunny} and sleep in our own beds though.

Hard to believe there's only one day in this project left! I hope everyone has a great New Year's Eve and stays safe.

363/365 on the road again....

We left Michigan Thursday morning. When we left it was snowing and about 23 degrees. Thankfully it warmed up as we headed south. This was taken at a stop somewhere in Ohio, I believe.

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And Wednesday we got to hang out with this sweet little guy, our nephew Isaac. He will be one in January :-)

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Tuesday we spent the day with my sister, BIL and niece. I didn't take many pictures-I was too busy enjoying being with them.


Kyra will be 3 in April and is such a joy.

I really struggled with pictures while we were in Michigan. It was too cold to go outside and the lighting inside was not great. I used my speedlight more in the last week than I had in the last 6 months and the pictures were still not great. So here's one of Em and Grace from Monday. Just because it's fun :-)

360/365 olds manor

On Monday, we went to Grand Rapids for the day. The boys went to see a movie while I got to go shooting with my friend Shannon. Em and Shannon's daughter Grace came with us. We had a great time and the weather cooperated nicely. I just wish we lived closer to each other so we could do it more often.

I've barely looked through the pictures I took that day but so far this is one of my favorites :-)


Shannon is a Nikon shooter and we conducted a bit of an experiment. Blog post about that coming soon.....

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Christmas Day was split between my family and Joe's. After we opened gifts at his parent's house, everyone 12 and up played Apples to Apples. I even won one game :-)

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Just one of the ornaments off my MIL's tree :-)

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When you've been traveling all day and arrive in cold, grey Northern Michigan with nothing to shoot.....you go with your back up plan ;-)

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I hope everyone had a great Christmas. We loved spending time with family and a few friends. But it was way too cold! LOL The kids were excited to see snow, even though there wasn't much of it. I have a lot of pictures to go through and edit. I'm hoping to get through them all by the 31st, as well as catch up with everyone.

The kids love to go to Cracker Barrel and we stopped there for dinner on our first day of travel.

{I am currently editing/posting on the uncalibrated laptop so I'm not sure how the colors are looking on this....I'll fix it later if it's bad :-)}

355/365 10 more days!

I am looking forward to the 31st and being done with this project. It's been fun and I've "met" some wonderful people but I am just out of ideas. A few people have asked....I will not be doing another 365 next year. This is actually my 2nd time doing it. The first was in 2008. I don't know if I'll ever do another one but it won't be right away if I do.



A few people have also asked for my fudge recipe so here y'all go :-)

3/4 cup evaporated milk
1/4 cup butter
2 1/4 cups sugar
7oz jar marshmallow creme
2 cups chocolate chips (I use Ghiradelli milk chocolate-I think they taste the best)
1 teaspoon vanilla

Butter/spray 9 inch square pan. In heavy 3 quart saucepan, combine evaporated milk, butter, sugar and marshmallow creme. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until mixture comes to a rolling boil. Boil and stir 5 minutes. Remove from heat and immediately add chocolate chips and vanilla, stirring until smooth. Pour into prepared pan. Cool completely and cut into squares.

We will be spending time with friends and family for much of the next 10 days. I will try to post as often as I can and check in with everyone. Hope everyone has a fantastic Christmas!

Merry Christmas!

Everyone should have their cards by now so I'm posting this for those who I wasn't able to send one to. I hope everyone has a great Christmas filled with love, laughter, family and friends.



We had a lot of fun with the photo on the back of the card. It was Matthew's idea to use the old ticket booth and I think it was a really good one. Here's the uncropped version...

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He was posing for me.



Until he got distracted by something outside.

On my long list of things to do tomorrow is visiting everyone's blogs....sorry I've been so behind.

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Matthew got a hair cut.

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Friday I spent most of the day in Joshua's class so I could help out with their Christmas party. And now we have 2 weeks of no school, no homework, no alarm clocks.... :-)

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This was the only thing I managed to shoot on Thursday......

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I picked up the camera and started muttering about needing to take a picture for the day. Matthew heard me and suggested I take a picture of him. I'm not about to pass on that opportunity......

346/365 snowflake

Joshua and I decided to make snowflakes today, to put on the windows. It took some experimenting but we finally figured out how to make them sort of decent.

345/365 white elephant

We have some gift exchanges coming up. This is what one of the kids picked out. Isn't he cute?


20 days to go!

344/365 oh fudge!

I don't bake cookies, pies or fruit cakes. But I can make fudge and have every year for....a long time. Several batches, in fact. We keep very little of it though. It goes to friends, neighbors, teachers.....

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342/365 more details

I'm also loving these from Target-and have to admit that I'm stealing this idea from my friend Emily :-)

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I think this garland from the Pottery Barn is so pretty. Wish I had more of it-I'd put it all over the house ;-)

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338/365 alex

337/365 joy

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Ugh. I'm behind again. December has just started and it's already been a busy month. I've been shooting, just not posting.

My sweet boy.

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It got pretty cold here last night. It was only 33 when I took Matthew to school. I know that's not cold. But for here, it is. This pond is at a golf course right by where Joe works. I finally remembered to bring the camera with me so I could get a shot of the "steam" on the surface. I love that you can still see the reflections of the trees underneath it.

See? It got cold. There's frost on the grass ;-)

I got a new monitor last night to hopefully help in my editing (I've been using just a laptop for 2 years). We got it calibrated and everything looks good to me but how does it look to you? Too dark, too bright, good colors? It would probably be easier to tell on a picture of a person and I'll have to work on getting one of the kids to sit still long enough soon.

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I saw a tutorial on getting star bursts on the Christmas tree so I had to try it.

Can you tell we have no "theme" and we let the kids do most of the decorating? LOL

Edited to add link to the tutorial:
http://purephotoshopactions.com/?p=1137

333/365 christmas tree

Just having a little fun with the tree :-)

332/365 candy canes

I had to shoot these before they're all gone. Candy canes don't last long around here.

There will probably be quite a few Christmas tree light bokeh pictures over the next month or so. Because what's better than a photo with a little tree light bokeh in it?

331/365 traditions

It's Thanksgiving weekend so that means it's time to put up the Christmas tree. We cranked the Christmas music and got all the decorations out. We were a little worried about what Cloud would do with the tree but so far he's pretty much ignored it. We left the bottom mostly free of lights and decorations though, just in case. After the tree was up and decorated, we lit the fire in the fireplace, made some hot chocolate and watched A Christmas Carol together. I love family traditions.

I have never been able to get a picture of the tree that I've liked but I'm fairly happy with this one.

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Wormsloe State Historic Site is right down the road from my aunt and uncle's house. We've driven by it everytime we've been there but have never stopped to check it out. Emaleigh and I decided we needed to see it yesterday.

329/365 sweet girl

I got to meet this little sweetie, her 2 brothers and her mom for the first time on Thanksgiving.

328/365 happy thanksgiving!

My sweet boy on Thanksgiving. We went to Savannah to spend Thanksgiving with some of our amazing family. We had a great time. This is Joshua hanging out in Uncle Richard and Aunt Geri's backyard before dinner.

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Loading the iPod up with Christmas music :-)

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I couldn't think of anything to shoot so I went with what I had nearby ;-)

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This belonged to my grandma. I've been thinking about her quite a bit lately....

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I took the kids to my favorite spot yesterday to get a photo of all of them together for the Christmas card. It started raining on us as soon as we got there but they cooperated and we got some great ones {and had fun doing it! That might be a first}.


They clean up pretty well, don't they?

I can't share the card photos-don't want to spoil the surprise. But I will say that it involves a ticket booth, fake mustaches and my 3 very silly kids ;-)


I love to send and receive Christmas cards so if anyone wants to do an exchange, email me your address and I'll be sure to add you to my list! My email is mattema3@gmail.com

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I'm also loving that Joshua has been wanting to play with the other kids on our street-and not just with their toys ;-)


He has that look on his face because he was trying to ask me a question and I wouldn't stop taking pictures quick enough to answer him. LOL