Tuesday, April 3, 2012

Transforming the craft room [part 1]

I like to consider myself a crafty person, and crafty people need space to make crafts in!
I couldn't just have a plain space. This space needed to be inspiring!

So I painted.


FYI: This is the first room I've ever painted. My mom would never let me paint my room :(



I'm pretty happy with the way it turned out!

Next up.... furnishing the craft room!




Monday, April 2, 2012

Sunday Snapshot

This is my first time participating in Sunday Snapshot. Stephanie from Ni Hao Ya'll has been hosting it for a while, but this week she changed things up and I decided it would be a good time to start joining in!

Last fall I took a photography class from Lisa at the Long Road to China. I wanted to learn how to use my camera to its full potential... in manual.

A few weekends ago we headed to one of my favorite places, a ranch outside of Dayville Oregon for elk hunting. The last day we were there we had a freak snow storm and everything was instantaly dusted in white. It was so beautiful.

I love how rustic everything is at the ranch. Handmade Juniper Fences. Old rusted buckets. Cracked Paint. There is so much texture in everything and I really wanted to capture it in photos.






 


Follow Along at...
Ni Hao Yall



Friday, March 23, 2012

Trip Home-- Elk Hunting

A few weeks ago I flew to Oregon to go hunting with my family! (as usual I'm behind in blogging again...)
On our way over we stopped in the little town of Mitchell to eat breakfast. Its a old town with lots of cool buildings. I think the population is about 100 now. It used to be a booming town though! There was a really nice lady there that gave my sister and I a quick tour and history lesson on the town.

Very friendly people in this town!

And... they welcomed Hunters! haha




After a yummy breakfast we continued on our journey to one of my favorite places. A ranch outside of Dayville. As you can see from the picture below, it is really beautiful.





Our goal for the weekend was to kill a few elk, but they got lucky...

On Saturday we were driving around on the quads and spotted a huge herd of elk running up over a valley. Of course they had heard us first so we had lost the element of surprise. We quickly made a game plan and split up into two groups.

My dad and I headed over a big hill.  My sister and a friend headed towards the valley. We both ended up on the same mountain side but had no idea where the other one was.

My dad and I spotted the elk and tried to work our way down the hill to get closer. The trees were beginning to thin out and the elk were being really skittish. They knew we were near by. My dad and I knew this was our only chance, so we set up to shoot. We didn't have a range finder so we had to guess. We were probably about 400 yards away. I shot, and missed. My dad shot and missed. It was a long shot. We quickly found my sister who was not happy because she was in a much better position to shoot. Next time we will make sure to have walkie talkies or just stick together.

My dad and I decided to hike over to wear we shot the elk at just to make sure. We checked for a blood trail but found nothing. I really wanted to follow the elk so we started climbing another hill.

By the way... these hills were huge and steep.

By the time we got to the top of the next hill, the elk were on the next ridge over. We decided to head back to the group, which was a long ways away. We were so tired...

I turned on my almost dead cell phone and called my sister. Told her where we were headed and to meet us their with the quad if she could.

Most normal people wouldn't even think of driving a quad in our direction.
Not my sister.
Even my dad couldn't believe she drove to us.
The terrain was very rough.
When we finally met up, my dad and I were so relieved to see her because we had pretty much drenched our clothes with sweat and we were so exhausted.

All three of us climbed onto the quad with our guns and packs.
(I'll have to share pictures of that later, pretty funny)

We headed back to the cabin and cooked a yummy dinner and played card games that night.

Overall it was a wonderful weekend spent with my family doing the things we love.

Here are a few more pictures from our adventures weekend!



Future Family Christmas Card Photo!

I love this picture of my parents :)


My sister and parents headed back to the ranch this weekend to try again.

I hope my sister gets an elk! It would be her first big game animal :)

Wednesday, March 14, 2012

Wordless "Snow" Wednesday








p.s. These were all taken in Manual... I'm getting lots of practice in with my new lens!

Wednesday, March 7, 2012

Tuesday, March 6, 2012

Happy Birthday Trevor!

Trevor celebrated a birthday this weekend!

We started off the weekend by going fishing with some friends down by the river on Saturday. Didn't catch any fish, but we still had a good time.


I love the intensity of this picture, check out his face!

Trevor and his new best friend :)


The weather was wonderful! I even got a sunburn! Ruby, our new puppy, got her first experience in the water. She fell in a few times, but didn't seem to mind the water too much other than being cold once she got out.



We finished off the day by going to Trevors favorite Mexican resturant for dinner.


At the end of the meal Nate mentioned to the waiter that it was his birthday and the wheeled out the wooden horse/donkey.


Sunday, March 4, 2012

Ruby

I'd like to introduce the newest member of our Family....

Ruby



 Most people know that I am not a big fan of animals. Trevor had brought up the puppy things a few times, but I had always given him a quick NO WAY. 

One night he brought it up again, but this time he made a bargain. He agreed to get rid of something in the house that I do not like, in exchange for his puppy. I thought about it for a few minutes and then reluctantly said ok. All to find out he already had a puppy lined up and everything! So the next day when I got home from work, Trevor and the puppy were there to greet me!

I quickly fell head over heels for her. We'll see how long it lasts though... it may just be a puppy thing :)



I just love how she caulks her head to the side like that :)

Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Long Time Gone...

It has been so long since I have blogged and so much has happened since that last post in December. I think I'll just use a timeline to get things rolling again...

  • December 8, 2011- My wonderful boyfriend of 6 years asked me to marry him and I said Yes
  • December 22, 2011- I turned 23, another year older.
  • December 25, 2011- Had a wonderful Christmas with my family
  • End of December- Found out my Grandma Mary is cancer free! Thank you Jesus!
  • January 1, 2012- Trevor and I spent our frist New Years together.
  • January 19, 2012- The rain came down, and my hometown flooded. Many homes and the family business were affected.
  • January 29, 2012- Trevor and I packed up all my belongings. I said a tearful goodbye to family and friends. Said goodbye to my favorite state, Oregon, and moved to California to be closer to Trevor.

So here I am, in a new chapter of my life (according to my dad haha), living in the real world now. No more mommy to cook me dinner and wash my clothes. I have bills to pay, a house to clean, a fiance to cook for, and lots of wedding planning!

Life is good :)

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!