Theme Thursday - Focus

Today's theme is Focus! And yes, I took it to posting older photos. Not that I don't have any unfocused pictures of late, because I have plenty! I just really like these pictures, even though they are all slightly out of focus.

Self portrait

Taken by my Villapardo. I really like the shadows.
The aforementioned Villapardo (back when he was a bad boy and smoked!)
Villapardo's favorite picture. :-)

Due to a website issue, Stacy has moved her blog. I was able to change it in my template, but Internet Explorer won't allow me to post the link. (I'm S L O W L Y learning about HTML). For more Focused shots, head on over to http://thelandofka.com/

I'm Excellent?!

So Brittany, from Mommeeandherboys gave me my first blog award! Yay!!!

I feel like I've been accepted into the blogging world! :-) Hehe! So now I shall play my part in naming 10 people I think deserve this lovely picture.

Villapardo - If you ever need to be informed about the various political and universal concerns plaguing our world, look no further! :-) Updated sporadically

Adventures in Babywearing - Has gone though so much and loves her kids so deeply. Very excited about her developing addition. :-)

Crunchy Domestic Goddess - I found her through someone's link to her green tips. Love to go there everyday

Hank & Willie - Great photographer, adorable kids and good commentor!

My Thoughtful Spot - This was one of the blogs that inspired me to re-start mine. I don't remember how I found her, must have been some odd Google search! :-)

Three Plus Two - There's something that caught me, and that was the whole making of maple syrup thing. Love it! :-)

The Land of K.A. - Awesome photography tips, great recepies and awesome creativity!

Woman with a Hatchet - She has this way of enticing you to read just by the first few words! :-)

Pondered in my Heart - I just started reading this the other day, but she has great pictures and stories and her kids are so creative!

Well, that's only 9...hmmmm. I don't really read many others. If I've missed anyothers, I apologize! You're excellent too!

Wordless Wednesday - What are you lookin' at?

Tuesday Twos

Villapardo suggested a couple new themes, so I'm trying one out: Tuesday Twos. It may not be two's all the time, could be threes or fours, but it will have a number in it. :-)

This is Michael and Matthew when Matt was a couple of days old. They've already changed so much!

I am SO trying this!

A huge kudos goes out to Villapardo for finding this awesome video!






$1 Image Stabilizer For Any Camera - Lose The Tripod - video powered by Metacafe

Best Shot Monday

It's the setting moon! I'm actually pretty impressed with how the picture came out, since I was using the digital zoom that makes everything ridiculously blurry.

For more BSM, head on over to

"White Trash" party

Between my junior and senior year of college, I was one of ten interns at my college theater. Between May and August, we put on 4 awesome, shows, which included: Little Shop of Horrors, Spinning Into Butter, Deathtrap and Always, Patsy Cline.

It definitely was an interesting experience, one which included 18 hour days and not leaving work until the sun was coming up. Those were the nights that one show ended (Sunday) and we had to dismantle the set and put up the new one before the next day, so the cast could start rehearsing the next morning. The new show would open on Tuesday night and run for two weeks. So between Monday morning and Tuesday afternoon, everything, including the set, lighting, sound, music, setting, etc, would have to be in place and completely functioning. That's not to say that nothing went wrong, because believe me, they did. There was one show of Deathtrap, in which two bats had decided that the theater roof was a good place to beat the heat. It actually suited the mood of the play, as it was "a dark and stormy night" :-) We eventually shooed them out of the receiving dock.

Now, even though it may sound like all we did was work, put on shows and sleep, we made good use of our time off as well. Many parties were had, bars attended, and it's where I first encountered a Corona (I'm a REAL lightweight). :-) Often, these parties would have themes. One of those mentioned parties was White Trash" night. Since we had access to a warehouse of props and costumes, the townhouse in which the party was held was decorated accordingly. It had a car bumper on a wall, flamingos on the grass, a beer bottle chandelier and an old car chair adorned with a vibrating machine.

Let me tell you, it was nice! :-)

(I LOVED those glasses, by the way)

Theme Thursday - Books

I hope this works! I tried to find old and recent book pics.

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com


For more Book pictures, go to

Wordless Wednesday

My first contest

I think this is what you're supposed to do. I entered a contest to win a tea book. It's basically a good book for weight loss and the psyche. I love tea, but I always forget that I like it so much! I think I'll go have some right now. :-)

SusieJ's./review

Best Shot Monday

Well, this one goes along with last weeks, since it was taken the same day. I didn't have a chance this week to get to my camera (I don't know why). But this is a picture of Caitlyn and my Mom (her Memere) reading. Caitlyn's just as intense with the book as she was with "The Price is Right"!
For more Best Shots head on over to

Giant Tree

Inspired by Villapardo's comment last night, I decided to post the pictures of my snow piled tree, back when there was no snow. I planted this tree when I was 11. They gave it to us at school as part of our Earth Day celebration. It was probably the size of a pencil when I planted it. I'm sure I have a picture of it somewhere a couple of years after it was planted, but I love how HUGE it has gotten!

Theme Thursday - Winter

We had a snowstorm on Monday, allowing my "homework" :-) to become easy! I love all seasons, and while people were complaining about more snow, I was happy!

For more Winter photos, check out the Land of K.A at

I knew it was special

I remember driving to my old job, and marveling that right in the middle of this beautiful tree lined, suburban neighborhood, there was an office park. I realized that when my office closed, I probably wouldn't be treated to this natural beauty while a couple hundred yards away from work.
I miss being able to look out of the window in my office and see that. For those of you who don't know what it is, that's the Hood blimp. Hood is a major milk company here in the East Coast. I used to see that in the air during the summer. It's used to video tape Red Sox games and the Boston Fourth of July concert. My office park was situated right next to a municipal airport, and the Hood blimp would be there for a majority of the summer. Also during the day, local and national news helicopters would fly to the airport and fill up on gas and then whomp away again.


There was a good patch of grass and shrubbery ("you must bring me.....another shrubbery!") between my office parking lot and the airport. I'm one of those crazy people that park at the furthest possible spot, so I would park right next to the fence that separated the lot from the airport. There was so much wildlife in the area surrounding my car. Between birds and insects and squirrels to geese and cranes, it was unbelievable. I was coming out of work one day, and a family was in the parking lot, looking at the ground. Amazingly, they found newly hatched snap turtles crawling out of their holes!I am so glad I appreciated the environment around me while I was there. While I still have "trees" and grass at my new job, it's not the same atmosphere. It's all too sterile for my taste.

Best Shot Monday

I had a snow day today! My sister and Caitlyn slept over the night before, so we were stuck inside all day. What else to do, but take pictures! This was one of my favorites. Caitlyn was mesmerized by "The Price is Right".


For more "best shots", head to Tracy's at

Old Picture Friday

Since my birthday is January 7th, and my oldest brother's is January 18th, I thought it would be cute to show a picture from Danny's 15th birthday....23 years ago!

From left: me, Danny, Janelle, Timmy

I had just turned five! I especially love my purple pants and maroon sweater! :-) My sister was 12 and not really wanting to get her picture taken, and my other brother was 8. January 1985.

This is the only known recent picture of the four of us (plus Danny's son, Michael) November 2005.

From left: Janelle, Timmy, me, (Michael) and Danny.

Theme Thursday - Contrast

So this didn't fit the bill in terms of playing around with photos in Photoshop (which I don't own), but I've always loved the striking contrast of the two colors in this photo.



For more Contrasting pictures, visit the land of K.A. at

Median walking

I've recently noticed people walking down the road in the middle of the median strip. Do they just not want to finish walking across the street? Maybe it's just me, but I find that a bit odd.

On another note:

Food is yummy!

Caitlyn's 10 months old today!

Different kind of "meme"

I just read this on a blog today and I thought it was fun.
1. Grab the nearest book.
2. Open the book to page 123.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the text of the sentence in your blog along with these instructions.
5. Don’t search around and look for the “coolest” book you can find. Do what’s actually next to you.

Here's the one I found:
"Taping down the corners of your prints with drafting tape will keep them from moving while you are applying color."

From "How to Photograph Children"
What are yours?

Best Shot Monday

After YEARS of Monopoly (at my siblings insistance), since it was my birthday, I chose the game to play last night. This was during an intermission while my sister was feeding Caitlyn. I didn't win any of the games, but we still had fun!

Head on over to see more "Best Shots"

Yeah, it was yummy

2:09pm

2:17pm

Cornbread

My experiment for today:It looks and smells yummy!

Old picture Friday

I just thought of a new theme I'm going to be doing on Fridays: Old Picture Day! My first Christmas, 1980 (I loved that horsie!)
My Grandfather, having his "Board" meeting (he was a photographer and worked for himself...this was created back in the '40's)
My Dad and his brother, Armand (my dad's the one standing up)
My parents wedding

Theme Thursday - Color

This was even taken with a flash. I'm usually against flash, but I like the richness of everything in the scene.

Christmas pictures

I thought I had lost this post, but I found it in my "drafts" section. Here are some random pictures from Christmas

A cool napkin display, by Villapardo:

My Grandmother now (on the couch), and back in the 1930's (the picture hanging above her)

My first picture of Christmas morning! :-)

Before the presents were all open!

After the presents