Friday, December 2, 2011

Favorite Photo Friday

So glad it's finally Friday.
This week was long and full of sneezing and coughing. Yuck.

Just wanted to share a few more pictures from our Christmas tree hunting expedition.
I like the word expedition.
Makes it sound so much more adventurous and exciting ;)


All the pictures below are of my beautiful sister Ashley.
Another cool fact... I took them all in manual.
Edited in Picnik.



I'm having a hard time deciding which one I like better...
Color or Black and White?
I'd love your opinion and comments!

Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Thursday, December 1, 2011

Traditional Christmas Tree Hunt

Every year my family goes to the mountains to pick out the perfect Christmas tree. We were lucky this year and had great weather!

The last few weeks I have been taking the "Get out of the auto zone" photography class from Lisa at A Long Road to China which was great! This past weekend I finally got to put my knew knowledge to practice. Below are some of the pictures I took in manual mode

(note* if I am in the picture, they were not taken in manual lol)

My favorite part of the trip was taking pictures of the snowball fight.
Mostly because I wasn't getting hit with snowballs ;)
My camera was my shield.
Plus, I got some great action shots!




For the full effect of this next photo, please click to enlarge.
The facial expression is priceless :)



My mom found us the perfect tree!
Which is still laying in our driveway lol
Always nice to have some boys to haul that heavy thing!


It didn't really fit to well in the truck...
As you can see, we like our trees tall!

And the best part about the weekend... my boyfriend got to come visit from California!



Wednesday, November 2, 2011

Friday, October 28, 2011

Favorite Photo Friday "Pumpkin Patch!"

Last weekend I got to go to the pumpkin patch with my favorite little girls! 

The weather was beautiful and they picked out some great pumpkins! 






Hope everyone has a great weekend. 

Following along at...
Favorite Photo Friday Button

Sunday, October 16, 2011

DIY: Shelf Transformation

I got the idea to do this project from Pinterest
My new obsession. 
Just let me know if you want an invite!
BTW.... it's quite addicting. 

So back to the project... 
I went to target and bought a cheap black shelf for $20. 
I bought some cute fabric at Johanna's. 
And that's about all I needed. 
Plus a great mommy to help me! 

First I cut and ironed my fabric to fit the back piece of the shelf. 
Since I bought the cheapest shelf I could find... the back happened to be card board which actually made it easier to attach the fabric to. 

I used paper clips to hold the fabric to the card board just like pinning fabric together. 
Then I used a stapler, and stapled around the entire border. 
When I finished, I was little worried because the fabric wasn't very tight against the cardboard. That didn't seem to matter though after I nailed the back to the shelf.
 Everything lays flat and looks great!




 The finished project! 

My inspiration! 

Friday, October 14, 2011

Favorite Photo Friday

The area where we go hunting in Eastern Oregon is beautiful. I love the open dessert and mountains in the back ground. I love finding old homesteads and exploring. Sometimes I wish I had been born 150 years ago so I could have been a pioneer :) The only bad part about that is that I wouldn't have had a camera to capture all the beautiful nature God created for us. 


This is the Harris Schoolhouse, established in 1890 in the Summer Lake area. The school was used till 1919 and then reopened in 1926 until a bus was purchased to transfer kids to a bigger school in a nearby town. 

If you look in through the broken windows you can still see all the old desks. 




Hope everyone has a great weekend! 

Following along at... 
the long road

Thursday, October 13, 2011

Made in the Mid-Willamette...

Just thought I'd share this article/interview I wrote for the newspaper about a month ago for the company I work for. My dad and Grandpa are the owners, I just work in the office keeping track of the books and answering the phone.



Happy Thursday!

Monday, October 10, 2011

Hunting

WARNING: IF YOU DO NOT LIKE SEEING BLOOD OR DEAD ANIMALS DO NOT CONTINUE READING!!!!!







Deer hunting season for me started October 1st. That first weekend, my dad, me, and a few other guys headed over to Eastern Oregon to hunt our unit.


The weather was dry and windy which is not good hunting weather. We did a lot of driving, a lot of hiking and didn't see any deer. We did see some great views though!

Part of our unit was on a ridge which means we had some great views of the valley below.



Sunrise over Summer Lake


That first weekend our hunting trip was unsuccessful so we headed back to work for the week empty handed. 

Not to worry though... we headed back over Wednesday evening and started our hunt again bright and early Thursday morning! 

This time it was just me and my dad. I've come to learn that hunting can be really slow.... our unit is huge and the deer can be hiding anywhere. Most of the morning we drove around in the truck looking for deer or fresh tracks. We weren't having much luck so we decided to stop and cut some firewood for campfire that night.


After we had filled the back end of the truck with wood we started to head back to camp. 

Now I need to explain something.... for some reason my dad's truck puts me to sleep on the 4x4 roads. I don't know if its the rocking or the lull of the engine but it sure does know how to put me to sleep. Not so good for hunting.... 

I was trying to stay awake but my eyes kept shutting. All of the sudden I opened my eyes and to my left I saw a buck! First thing out of my mouth is "BUCK!" and my dad quickly shuts off the truck. We quickly grab our guns and make a quick game plan. 

He walks to the left in hopes of pushing the buck out of the woods. I run the right and get set up to kill this deer. All of the sudden I see the buck in my sights! I was so excited that I pulled the trigger without even steadying myself. I miss the first shot but the deer doesn't even flinch! I quickly reload and this time I take a deep breath and slowly pull the trigger with my sights right on his heart. Bang. He drops to the ground. THEN he starts rolling around and I start freaking out that he is just wounded and gonna run into the woods so I fire again this time hitting him in the butt. The buck gets up and runs further into the woods. By this time I'm screaming for my dad (because I have no idea where he is) and running further into the woods after this buck trying to quickly reload my gun. 

I'm soon on the blood trail and by the amount of blood I'm seeing I know this deer hasn't gotten far.




 Within about thirty yards I see the buck again, this time dead! 

I literally started screaming like a little girl I was so excited. I was jumping up and down, the adrenaline rush was in full affect, I could barely breath. My dad soon finds me, which isn't too hard due to all the noise I was making lol. 



After my dad arrives we start the hard part.... gutting the deer. Blood doesn't really make me squeamish, the part that gets me is how warm all the insides are still. I won't go into too much detail on this part. Just a lot of blood and guts. 

We proudly returned to camp to show off my buck!


I have done my duty by putting meat on the table this winter!


Friday, September 16, 2011

Favorite Photo Friday

In the past I have participated in Black & White Wednesday over at The Long Road to China, but now they are changing things up over there and she is now hosting Favorite Photo Friday. 

I think change is good :)

Lately I haven't felt motivated to blog at all... which explains my lack blogging. 

I thought I'd make an appearance though and share a favorite photo.


My favorite thing about this photo is the bees!

Hope everyone has a great weekend! 

Follow along at....
Favorite Photo Friday Button

Wednesday, September 7, 2011