I ♥ Faces -- "Orange"

Wow, it's been a while since I've been here! In case you hadn't figured it out already, I was not able to keep up with my Project 366... I kept taking pictures for quite a while, intending to take at least 7 pictures per week (though maybe not every day) and catch up on posting. I did pretty good with my picture taking for a few months, but eventually I decided I was so far behind on my posting that it was not going to happen. Oh well. I learned a lot in those first few months of making myself pick up the camera every day, and for that I am grateful! So I'd say my Project 366 accomplished my main goal (of challenging myself to grow as a photographer) after all. :-)

But anyway, the reason I've returned is to participate once again in the I Heart Faces challenge for this month. I've also been meaning to participate in these more often, but let's just say... the last several months have been crazy. But here I am back again... we'll see how it goes!

 

The theme for this month is "orange." I chose this picture, taken of a friend and her daughter on a little day trip we took to the beach this summer. The two lovely ladies are wearing orange, but what I loved so much about this picture was the golden-orange sunlight filtering through in the background. I was SO thrilled with the lighting and how the colors turned out in this picture! Not to mention, my subjects just happened to be both beautiful and adorable. :-)

To see more "Orange" photos or to enter your own, go to iheartfaces.com!

I ♥ Faces -- "All Boy"

 

This month's theme at iheartfaces.com is "All Boy." Since I currently have three little girls (and my husband is fairly camera-shy), I don't have a lot of home-grown material for this challenge. I have had the opportunity of taking pictures for several families with little boys, however, and always have a lot of fun with it! I particularly loved this picture of this precocious little boy playing with his dog. This little guy was getting a pretty tired of posing by the end of the photo shoot, but when we turned him loose to play with the dog, his boyish playfulness and personality came gushing right out. Love that I was able to capture it here! :-)

Check out all the other great guy photos at iheartfaces.com this week!

I ♥ Faces -- "Hey Girl!"

This month's theme at iheartfaces.com is "Hey Girl!" featuring photos of women and girls. This photo is one of my favorites from a recent session with a young lady from my church. I was SO thrilled with how her photos turned out... I think my practice over the winter months is paying off! Check out all the other beautiful ladies on I ♥ Faces this week!

Project 366 -- Day 86

March 26th.

Little Miss P showing off a random rock. (I guess she thought it was cool.)

Project 366 -- Day 85

March 25th.

Classic whiny Sweet Pea.

(This may just be one of my favorite pictures of all time.)

Project 366 -- Day 84

March 24th.

Sweet Pea trying out a new trick: checking herself out in the mirror.

Project 366 -- Day 83

March 23rd.

The girlies with our faithful mother's helper / babysitter.

Project 366 -- Day 82

March 22nd.

What to do when you've forgotten to take your picture for the day, and you have your computer handy, but your camera is downstairs?

This.

No one said these had to be super professional pictures every day, right? :-P

Project 366 -- Day 81

March 21st.

Bradford pear blooms.

I'm beginning to think all this pollen just might be worth the beauty that comes with it. (I doubt I would be so generous as an allergy sufferer, though.)

Project 366 -- Day 80

March 20th.

Allergies, anyone?

Spring came early this year, along with LOADS of pollen. This is what I wiped off the slide this afternoon... even though it rained this morning!! And of course the slide was covered again an hour later. Thank goodness it doesn't seem to bother me too much.

Project 366 -- Day 79

March 19th.

Despite what a tomboy she is most of the time, Little Miss P really is quite a beautiful little girl, I think.

Project 366 -- Day 78

March 18th.

This is called... the "I need a random picture for my blog" picture. i.e., I walked around the house trying to find something to take a picture of. And I settled on this floral arrangement that hangs above my bed. And I took an off-center picture of it. Why? Because I felt like it. And it looked kind of cool.

So... am I crazy, or is that actually kind of cool?

Project 366 -- Day 77

March 17th.

 

Smiles from Sweet Pea

Project 366 -- Day 76

March 16th.

Edible springtime. Mmmm...

Project 366 -- Day 75

March 15th.

Sweet Pea had me pretty nervous for the first few days after setting up the new swing set... She was DETERMINED to climb that ladder up to the slide, but she didn't quite know how to manage it. I'm happy to report that in only a week's time, she has pretty much mastered it. As you can see, she is pretty happy with herself.

Project 366 -- Day 74

March 14th.

Sunset.

Project 366 -- Day 73

March 13th.

The blooming plants are beautiful, too!

Project 366 -- Day 72

March 12th.

Loving all the budding plants!

Project 366 -- Days 70-71

March 10th-11th.

We built a new playset in our backyard this weekend. And since this was a rather big project, I couldn't pick just one photo for each day, now could I? So I'm including a few extras to show you the progression. The first three are from different days, and the last two are my actual entries for the 10th and 11th.

This is what the playground looked like before. ...Well, not exactly. This was what it looked like about 3 years ago. I just forgot to take a picture of the whole set before the hubby started tearing it down. It was actually in a lot worse shape than it looks like in the above picture (and a lot less snowy.)

This is more like what it actually looked like "before"... except that the hubby had already removed the slide and ripped off part of the top of the tower. The wood was so rotted that the hubby is literally tearing this thing apart with his bear hands in this picture.

The bare grounds... ready for new construction. (The new slide is hanging out, waiting to be put up.)

And here we have the nearly-completed new playset (March 10th)...



And the fully-complete playset (March 11th). MUCH nicer and sturdier than the last one!

Project 366 -- Day 69

March 9th.

More signs of spring. I have always loved wildflowers, and violets are some of my very favorites.

Project 366 -- Day 68

March 8th.

Signs of spring.
(It came early this year. I'm not complaining.)

Project 366 -- Day 67

March 7th.

Princess found this flower lying around when we went to the grocery store the other day. She adopted it and named it "Lauren." Lauren the Flower was getting pretty droopy by the time we finished our shopping, so Princess was very glad to get her home and give her a drink of water. *whew*

Project 366 -- Day 66

March 6th.

Princess displaying a picture that she drew of me. If you look closely, you can see what she described as "the purple under your eyes." Yeeeaah...

Project 366 -- Day 65

March 5th. (Photo actually taken on the 8th.)

Little Miss Personality showing a bit of her sweet side.

Project 366 -- Day 64

March 4th. (Photo actually taken on the 8th.)

Sweet Pea exploring the backyard.

Project 366 -- Day 63

March 3rd. (Photo actually taken on the 8th.)

And here follows the aftermath of the late nights of staying up trying to finish the website. In other words, I kind of wore myself out, and for the next few days I either forgot to take a picture or was too tired by the time I remembered. So I took a few "make up" photos on the 8th. I'm thinking I might have to pay penance for these missed days by adding the number of missed days onto my 366 number. Or maybe not...

Princess in top fashion form: tiara, t-shirt, sweatpants, frilly socks, and sandals. Oh yeah.

Project 366 -- Day 62

March 2nd.

Hangin' out by myself while the hubby is away, after the girls have gone to bed... Do I look a little bored? Maybe I am... but it is nice to get a break here and there. :-)

Project 366 -- Day 61

March 1st.

Hangin' out with the girlies

Project 366 -- Day 60

February 29th.

And this is what the website looks like when it's finished. YAY!!! www.mirrorsoflifephoto.com

Project 366 -- Day 59

February 28th.

Aaaand this is what I look like when I'm staying up late in order to finish the website...

Project 366 -- Day 58

February 27th.

Working on building a website in all my spare time = not much time to take a "real" picture...

I ♥ Faces -- "Beautiful B&W"

I just love this picture. It was taken during my biggest family session so far, and here we were getting some pictures of all the cousins. These boys were all so fun to work with... The younger two were especially showing off what characters they were. So cute!

Check all the beautiful B&W photos at iheartfaces.com this week!

Project 366 -- Day 57

February 26th.

Winter: the season for finding beauty even in dying nature (in this case, crape myrtle seed pods).

Project 366 -- Days 50-56

February 19th-25th.

This was an unusual week. First of all, I forgot to take pictures on a couple of days (the 19th and the 24th, if you require full disclosure). To make up for each of these, I took two pictures on the following day. But because of the nature of the pictures that I took, I won't be posting them in order.

It was the evening of the 20th, and I was at a loss for what the subject of my daily picture should be. Everywhere I looked was pretty much nothing but a mess. So... I decided to do something I've never really done before. I took a picture of the mess. Not only did this give me my picture for the day, but it also gave me some motivation to clean up the mess. And the cleaned-up mess gave me my picture for the following day! I liked this deal.

So, here we are...

Living room. This may look like one of the biggest messes in this series, but it was actually the quickest to clean up. Unless of course you count putting away those children who are sitting on the couch in the first picture. ;-)

Kitchen: cooking side. What you can't see here is the massive pile of dishes in the kitchen sink. This one took a while. Amazing how much clean counters can boost one's mood, though!

Guest bedroom / room where I dump all my clean-but-unfolded laundry. These baskets are actually all sorted out by child / category (socks, towels, bedding, etc.). And it doesn't include mine and the hubby's piles. You should have seen the mountain before I sorted it all out!

As you can imagine, this one took by far the longest to take care of. But I'd taken the "before" picture, and darn it, I wasn't going to take an "after" picture until I'd properly taken care of all that laundry! Thankfully, I had help from the hubby over the weekend, and we actually got it done!! I haven't had ALL my clean laundry put away since... oh... I don't know... ever?! I normally just sort it out into piles like this and then pull things out as I need them. ...Wow, this post is really getting pretty revealing about my everyday life, isn't it? :-p

Kitchen: dining area. My table never stays as clear as the "after" picture for very long... but now I have a picture of how nice it looks to motivate myself to clean it up more often. (Maybe.)

Aaaand that's a wrap!

Project 366 -- Day 49

February 18th.

Unusually gorgeous outside today. We are not accustomed to seeing such beautiful spring-like weather in the middle of February, so we took the opportunity to take the girls to the park. And I took the opportunity to practice my photography outside for the first day in a long while. YAY!

Project 366 -- Day 48

February 17th.

All the little "mommies" have gone to bed, so the strollers sit idle for a few hours.

Project 366 -- Day 47

February 16th.

My kids almost NEVER fall asleep anywhere other than their beds or their carseats. Little Miss P must have been especially exhausted today, because she fell asleep right where she was sitting on the couch watching TV this afternoon.

Project 366 -- Day 46

February 15th.

Roses from the hubby.

Project 366 -- Day 45

February 14th.

The big girls hard at work, helping Mommy make a lemon meringue pie for Daddy for Valentine's Day. ♥