Photo contest.

The forum members from Michael Andrew's photography school started holding a photo contest a couple of months ago, with a different subject for each month. The subject for the month of June was "red." I entered the daisy below and won for the month of June (yay me!!). This means I get to pick the subject for July. This means a lot because I highly respect the opinions of all my forum friends. :D

PS....the red door was my other entry.

A friend's birthday.

Took the kids to a friend's birthday party Saturday. Made a slide show of some of the shots from the day.

Some of my favs from the day.

Books

Another great love of mine, aside from photography, family, food and LOST, is reading. Although I can be a bit slow in getting a book read, I am rarely without some kind of book being absorbed. I wanted to blog about two special books that have really touched my heart. They are A Thousand Splendid Suns and Three Cups of Tea. Both books are about life in Afghanistan (and Pakistan), with ATSS being fiction and TCOT being a true story. If you have never read either of these books, I HIGHLY recommend them. They will surely open your eyes and your hearts to see a different side of Afghanistan and Pakistan than what the media portrays.

This is a picture (not mine, though I would have loved to have been there) of the authors of the books, Khaled Hosseini and Greg Mortenson at the WRD (World Refugee Day) fundraiser held recently. Angelina Jolie gave a speech there.


I am currently reading Called Out of Darkness by Anne Rice. It is her personal story of how she went from being a devout Catholic, to being an athiest, to finally refinding her faith again after 38 years. I have always been an Anne Rice fan, and recently she started writing only Christian fiction which I have come to love even more than her early work. Though I will always love her vampire stories, her Christ the Lord series have quickly become some of my favorite books to date.

More from Charleston!!

A few more...this first one is the neighborhood our best friend lives in. The houses are beautiful and so colorful.

I shot this one as we were going over the Arthur Ravenel bridge. I was inside the truck when I shot this one, and the other one of the bridge below.

The US Custom House....built in 1879.

Another view of the bridge.

One of the many boats docked across from us in Shem's Creek, where we were getting a bite to eat at Reds Ice House. www.redsicehouse.com

And finally, my 365 shots.

Let's all do the Charleston!!!

This weekend, we went to Charleston, SC, to celebrate my husband's birthday and of course Father's Day. We had a great time and I have tons of pics, but I'm still going through them. Here are a few I managed to get to today. Charleston is a beautiful place....if you ever have the chance to visit, you definitely should!!!

Line of benches in the park that face this.....

The famous multicolored shops downtown.

Beautiful downtown church.

Fountain in the park.

Carriage rides downtown.

Basket weaver in the open market.

Blackberry cobbler (a.k.a. Poison Pudding)

So, I'm still in the land of the living today after having eaten some of my homemade blackberry cobbler yesterday. Thus, I have once again proved that I am right, and my husband is wrong...lol!!! As you know, I had wild blackberries growing in my yard. I got enough to make a cobbler with them yesterday and it turned out great and was very yummy (added a scoop of ice cream too!!) However, my husband was still skeptical to eat it (calling it Poison Pudding), so I had to get shots of him trying it. I made them into a little story board. The quality of the shots is not the greatest, but I'm sure the humor of them will be worth it.

....and of course, I had to use one for my 365. :D

Birthdays and ballerinas!!

A few from our busy weekend...we celebrated Dylan's 3rd birthday and also had Emily's 1st dance recital.

A couple 365 from the weekend

My little dancer...in her recital costume. 205/365

A pretty sunset. 204/365

202 and 203

Catching up on 365.

196-201/365...yay...I broke the 200 mark!!! :D

196


197.
I know I haven't updated on my mom recently. She is doing great and the docs say that her chemo is working good. She has been on it for quite a while now and has only recently started having some mild side effects. She has been a super-trooper in her treatment, and I am sooooo incredibly proud of her. Keep going mom. Love you!!



198...my new remote!!!


199.
An accomplishment for me. I have had a bad habit of biting my nails since I was a kid. I think I have finally kicked the habit.


200.
Wild blackberries from my yard, though my husband says they are "poison berries." When I get enough, I am going to make a cobbler with them. I'll make sure he takes the first bite...lol!!


201.
Rainy days and Mondays.


And a couple random shots.


Wait for it....wait for it....

I was lucky enough to capture this lightening strike in yesterday's storm. I love thunderstorms, though the storms here in NC are nothing like they are in OK. "Tuck and run!!"


Got this one of the moon a few nights ago.