Woman in Real Life

If you're like me, you don't get around to printing your photos very often. Like almost never. It's really the downside of digital photography. Before the advent of digital photos (not so long ago) we were forced to print all of our pictures if we actually wanted to see them. There are, of course, many upsides to digital photography too - a key benefit being you can print only the photos you really like. Like this photo from our summer trip to New York City four years ago.

Usually I throw in a few extra photos on top of my "day of eats" photos. But, as I said yesterday, I am a bit forlorn, having lost my Nikon cameras on the weekend. These photos were taken with my older, perfectly serviceable Olympus, but my heart yearns for my Nikons. It bothers me that someone might be out there using them like they aren't MY babies.

Anyhow, I managed to at least snap photos of my Monday meals so as not to miss out on this weekly What I Ate Wednesday sharing of food. My breakfast was a smoothie made from frozen strawberries and bananas mixed with orange juice.

My daughter and I decided to have a get-together with a few of her friends on Valentine's Day. I highly recommend sharing Valentine's Day with a group of enthusiastic and spirited tween girls. They had so much fun hanging out, doing Valentine's Day crafts and nibbling on snacks.

Of course, I had to snap some shots of these cuties partying in true preteen fashion. As a Nikon Mom, I have had a blast sharing photos taken with my Nikon D3300 over the last several months. And, although this is my last official post as a Nikon Mom, all of the photos for this blog will continue to be taken with my Nikon D3300 and my Nikon D5100.

One of my most-anticipated annual traditions is the Christmas Eve Open House. When I was a kid, Christmas Eve was one of my favourite nights of the year. Mom would make appetizers and sweets and friends would drop in to visit and enjoy tea or drinks. I loved the Christmas tree, the visitors, the tasty goodies and the nearness of Santa's arrival.

I was thrilled when it was once again our turn to host the Christmas Eve Open House this year. Of course, there is a lot of preparation involved - cleaning, planning appetizers and baking cookies. It's always a matter of achieving your goals for the evening without tiring yourself out so much that you won't enjoy your guests. I think we usually manage to finish our list of chores about the time guests are expected at the door. I took this picture of Ace, above, right in that beautiful moment when the house is ready and nobody has arrived yet.

PHOTO ART GIFTS

Posterjack

We have been in our current home for seven years now, and most of our walls are filled with artwork, family photos and assorted other decorative items. But we have one space that has been awaiting something large and suitably wonderful. As we walk down the staircase from the second floor, we face a large blank wall. And it has been bugging me...until now. Posterjack has helped me create the perfect photo art to fill that pesky wall.

My husband and I celebrated our 15th wedding anniversary in July. Back when we were just youngsters, we loved to travel to big cities like London, Rome, Florence, Vancouver and New York. We simply weren't the lounge-at-the-beach types.

Two kids and a couple of decades later, I have to say long days at the beach sound pretty inviting. For our 15th anniversary, however, we thought it was only fitting that we once again hit the big city of New York for sightseeing, food and good fun. We briefly debated leaving the kids with grandparents, but those little beings are truly the best thing to come out of our marriage, so it's only fitting that they came along.

My love affair with photography began when I was a teen. I took a photography course with two of my high school friends and my mom was kind enough to buy me a beautiful Pentax K1000 camera. I loved that camera. I carried it for many, many years, resisting digital photography for as long as I could. But you can't argue with the convenience of digital, especially when you take pictures daily for your blog.

The downside of digital is that many of us (me included!) never actually get the photos printed. That being the case, we had better make sure we have them safely backed up so they aren't lost because of a computer virus or technical malfunction. I received a handy tool recently to help in that regard - Picture Keeper is a quick, easy way to back up your photos, thereby protecting precious family memories.

It's Friday. Have a good one. And don't worry too much about your Christmas shopping. It will get done. It always does. (By the way, that little encouragement was just as much for me as for you -- I have barely bought a single present.)

Normally I would call this Insta-Friday, with the "insta" representing cell phone photos. But I am mixing cell phone and camera photos, because I am tired of the quality of my cell phone photos. Nope. No iPhone 5 over here. Not that I'm jealous.

I am including this photo of fruit to illustrate a story about kids...my kids. I sent pears and apples in their lunches yesterday. Mostly they came back untouched. So, I cut them up after school and put them out like this. They ate it all. Apparently they are too lazy to bite into a whole fruit.

For my last couple of thrifty finds blog posts, I have been experimenting with a gift that my husband recently gave me for my birthday.

I generally use light coming in the windows for all of my photography of food and dishes. Unfortunately, that can be difficult (or impossible) in the evenings or during a long Canadian winter.

So, my husband thoughtfully purchased this Optex Portable Studio & Lighting Kit to help me with my photography sessions.