Wishes

May the sun shine, all day long,
everything go right, and nothing wrong.
May those you love bring love back to you,
and may all the wishes you wish come true!
~Irish Blessing

Linking up today at debduty.com. Stop by and check out her gorgeous pics!

Also linking up at Rachel's place. Pop over to check out this talented and witty mama.

Wordless Wednesday - All Smiles!

Sweet Shot Tuesday

I'm working on shooting only in Manual. I know I didn't nail the focus on these, but I thought the expressions were to sweet to just throw away. I'm learning more each day and I'm so excited to see a little progress. Thank you to all who visit and leave suggestions and encouragement. It means to world to me!

Have a beautiful day!!

Rewinding on Monday

Good Monday to all!  I'm linking up today at Gina's for Monday Rewind and also thought I'd join in Ashley's Good to Wow photo challenge on Thanksgiving.

Here is a sampling of my pics from the past week:

I cross over these tracks several times per week and finally stopped to snap a shot:

I took this reflection shot during our last Girl Scout meeting after a rainy night:

Another reflection, Mr. Man jumping in a puddle:

The other evening I happened to look out our front window and see this glorious color in the clouds. I literally ran down the street with my camera and took this shot just before the sun slipped away. We don't see skies this color around here often. I just bumped up the clarity slightly on this. I don't think Mother Nature needed any help from me!

Shots from our Thanksgiving Turkey Bowl. The kids had a blast!:

And this is my SOOC for the Thanksgiving Good to Wow prompt:

I was pretty disappointed with most of my indoor Thanksgiving shots. I found that bumping up the ISO and trying to balance the shutter speed most often resulted in too much grain or blur. There was no natural light available and I was battling multiple light sources indoors. This is something I really want to improve on, so I was glad for the practice, but clearly need to refine my skills!! I'm really dying for a 50mm f/1.4 and hoping Santa brings one! ;)  I think the wider aperture would help a bit (of course, the f/1.8 would do nicely as well), but for now my best option is to practice, practice, practice.





So, that's it. I'll post my edit on Thursday. Thanks so much for stopping by and I hope you have a fabulous Monday! :)

Scavenger Hunt Sunday

Happy Sunday friends! I'm so glad you stopped by ;) Though it has been a long holiday weekend, it has been a busy one. We're all nursing colds around here, cleaning out the extra clutter and beginning to decorate for Christmas already. (Didn't we just celebrate Halloween?!)

I'm also cooking a turkey dinner today. We spent Thanksgiving at my sister's and it was a blast, but I'm cooking again so we can enjoy the leftovers this week.  It smells devine!  But, before I burn something...I'd better get on with the hunt!

Waiting (for the ball to be thrown):

 Foilage -my favorite fall color:

Candid - from our Thanksgiving day football game:

Knife, Fork or Spoon:

Rule of Thirds:

Thanks so much for taking the time to stop by today! I hope you have a fantastic week ;)

Shades of Autumn Finale

Hello friends! I hope you all enjoyed a wonderful Thanksgiving. We had a great time with family. Lots of delicious food, touch football, corn hole, Charlie Brown, love, laughter and warm memories! It really flew by though and I only wish we'd had more time to spend with our relatives. Anyway, we're getting in the swing of Christmas around here and I have SO much to do! Are you feeling the same way?

This week marks the finale of the Shades of Autumn challenge, hosted by Kristi of Live and Love Out Loud, and Rebecca of Bumbles & Light, and Alicia at Project Alicia. Thanks so much to all the wonderfully talented ladies who made it happen!! I really enjoyed participating. Here are my favorite photos from the challenge:

Thanks so much for stopping by today. Have a beautiful weekend!

Barn Charm

Bluff Area Daily hosts a weekly Barn Charm blog hop. Cool huh? Who doesn't love an old barn reeking of character and begging to tell stories? Since I recently happened upon some old barns when we went out for a hike, I thought I'd link up just for kicks ;)