Cleaning frenzy of a Mad Crazy Woman

If you know me at all you know that I'm a pack rat, a clutter freak and maybe the most unorganized person to ever roam this earth. It's weird that I am this way because I absolutely hate clutter and I love anything that's clean beyond reason. I'm thinking it all comes down to laziness and an unknown need to fail myself. I can never find anything because nothing I own actually has a "place of it's own." Even when I lived alone my life was still one big ball of clutter and dust.

Every once in a while I get the cleaning bug and go completely insane. Yesterday I cleaned my whole room. By that I mean, I actually removed the bed & shelves and dusted, vacuumed and washed everything in site. It was actually sick all the gunk I clean out of my A/C and from the running boards along my wall. It's really no wonder I have severe allergies judging by the state of things.

Time ran out on my cleaning day before I had the chance to go through everything I own and fire up my eBay account. It's actually amazing how much junk I own that I know I will never ever use but won't throw away because "someday I'll eBay that." I have a whole corner of my bedroom dedicated to junk for eBay and a whole back room full of stuff that really needs to be sold. If I worked form dawn til dust for the next 2 weeks I would still have a load of stuff that needs to get gone.

I've written out a list with everything that needs to be eBayed on it so that I can actually see how big of a slacker I am. I'm going to start photographing and listing today and vow not to stop until it's all gone. Surely the money alone will be a big enough motivator to get me really going but if not I have all my adoring fans to rag on me when I fail...

Bookin' It!

I've been working on little baby Brooklynn's album and I seem to be getting some really cute stuff. It's a very slow process thus far because I keep going back and changing things I've already done. When I'm done though I hope this ends up being the cutest book I've ever done so far. I'd like to have a good many extras printed and advertise like crazy with them. I really like doing little baby pictures, no matter what the picture looks like you can't get a "bad picture" of a baby.
You have to love it no matter what! Plus you get that new baby smell happening so I'm okay with that. I don't intend on having kids so I'll just live through everyone else's. :o)

An editing fool...

I've been helping my friend Ricki edit some of her wedding images. This one I shot and for lack of better blog material I thought I'd share it with you. Usually I'm all against yellow overkill in my pictures but for some reason I'm liking it in these. Maybe it's the warm sweetness it creates or maybe it's the 1800 images I've edited finally getting to me.

Speaking of tiny hats, I've been seriously considering going back to school for web design. I've spent the past few months looking into getting a new website but I haven't been able to find anything under $3000 for what I need, which sadly isn't much. I can't even imagine what it would cost if I wanted something creative with a little "wow." I'll keep you posted on if I bite the bullet and do it or not.

Stacked High

My to-do list doesn't seem to be getting any shorter. Althrough I have been spending most of my evenings sitting on the porch swinging with the beat of the music blasting from my headphones. I guess I should slack off on that a bit huh! I have a 60 page book to finish that should've been 1/2 way done weeks ago and I havent even started on any of it yet. I have a 25 page signature guest album to build for one of my future weddings, personal invitation cards to design, a 1/4 page ad to design and get to the publisher and countless other things I can't even remember. It makes me wonder why I'm sitting here writing to you with all this work to be done...

Such a view...

Our March trip to Atlanta to shoot a wedding lead us here to this garden in the middle of these huge buildings. It was a really pretty place to shoot. The night before the wedding Ricki and I drove over to check it out and see what we were in for this time. This was actually a tough place to shoot, it had so many beautiful spots that it was hard to decide. That has never been the case before, usually we're panicking because the wedding is at a big ugly Church in the middle of a cemetery or something.

Upbeat with a little bass please...

A hand held, low light, in focus shot of the speakers blasting during a reception at a recent wedding. If you look closely you can see the speaker drum pounding in it's box. During the crazy times during a reception it's also a good time to get something creative that has nothing to do with the wedding or the people in it. :o)

The more I live the more I learn that the 80's disco wasn't just a mistake, people actually like that music. Usually those who tell you they hate it are the ones who secretly hide in the closet at home and blast it on their headphones. I on the other hand am one who truly does not like it, at all and refuse to even give the chance those who proudly love it say to devote. My friend Rachel, who I already knew was out of her mind, announced during our long voyage south that she too had crossed to the dark side and then proceeded to insert such a thing into my CD player. The player hasn't really recovered yet and often times skips during a song I love as punishment...

Against the Wind...

I love the yahoo launch cast "Classic Rock" station. There's nothing like spending a day relaxing in silence with a little Bob Segar playing in the background. However, it does makes me want to watch Forest Gump... :o)

I've assigned myself daily assignments to complete, as if I had a boss who had to have these things finished by a certain time. Hopefully this method works better than the "I'll do it later" attitude I currently have, I'll keep you posted. I have so much to do and no time to not be doing something but the urge to do nothing is always greater, therefore I never have a shorter to do list.
Depending on how you look at it, you could say I'm just slack to conserve the ink in my pen that it would take to mark something out! :o)

Fairy land right dab in the middle of Atlanta

I helped Ricki with a wedding in Atlanta a few weekends ago. Atlanta weddings are always interesting, I've never been to a bad one yet.
This one was on exit 29 off 285E and the location of the photos was absolutely awesome. In the middle of a concrete sea, between huge sky scrapers, lived this beautiful garden with a creek, flowers, bridges, green green grass, fountains and lovely little benches. It's hard to imagine that something like that would've been in the location it was but it really seems to work. The buildings surrounding it really aided in it's beauty because they were so massive and so many that they completely blocked out the rest of the world. I highly recommend that if you're planning a wedding near Atlanta that you really consider shelling out the $100.00 it costs to rent this location for 2 hours!

A big old Happy Birthday to Chrisi, Rachel & Rachel's dad whom I don't really know that well but from the 11,000 times I've been told could pin point his house from a shuttle in space. :o) Have a good one, you bunch of old people. HAHAHA HOHOHO HAHAHAHAHAHAHA

How much is that tiny hat?

So, why don't I live at the beach? I really do love to watch the waves of the ocean crash on shore. I wouldn't mind another free trip to the beach if anyone wants to take me or just send the funds for me to go by myself, that's cool too! :o)

My new "thing" I've decided to make my "new thing" is working the words "tiny hats" into any conversation as much as possible. So far I'm doing a far job of annoying anyone I meet with it but I do feel it could be turned up a notch, for effect and all. Such as... Start off by telling something about your ingrown toe nail and then towards the end of your story, tell them that if it weren't for your tiny hat you would've really missed the prom.. and then walk away leaving them with a blank stare and a mind of "huh's."

Blinded by the light-ening fast speed of the internet

I'm really loving this faster internet connection I have, which I no I've said before but I feel in order to get my point across I should repeat it a few times.

I have just discovered that Logan's Roadhouse has the best grilled shrimp on the face of the earth and if you have half a mind you'll run out and get some now.

Rodney Carrington sure is funny isn't he! I just heard his "Nut Shack" CD and I laughed until I nearly swallowed by tongue. I haven't laughed that hard at an auto-person since Ellen Degenres' "and the funny thing is..." CD, which you should already own, by the way, so if you don't you should log onto amazon.com right now.

Swinging Aqua Blue Reflections

I recently found out that the reason everyone in my area is stupid is indeed the fault of the teaches we had in elementary school. When I was a kid I remember my teacher, who name escapes me, taught us that anytime you put the words "no" & "one" together that you should change the spelling to "knowone." Which I've been doing all my life and not until a few weeks ago did I figure out that was wrong. It makes me wonder just what other things we were taught in school are complete rubbish! (Pardon the "rubbish" talk, I've been watching a lot of movies with English actors.)

At a local cabin resort you can find this small swinging bride hanging over the bluest lake I've ever seen. Just want makes a lake blue? Is it the type of rocks in the soil? I've also always wondered about the first person to ever eat an egg. Do you think they just saw one fall out of a chicken's butt one day and thought... "Hey, lets eat that!" Do they have books on this kinda of stuff or what!?!?!

Lazy Days of Spring Time

Wow, its amazing how much of "nothing" one person can do! It's spring time, the best time of the whole year. Everything is in bloom and you would think someone who photographs things for a living would be outside taking advantage of such a beautiful day, right!?!?! Well, not me. Nope, I'm in side, updating a blog that's nearly a month behind and fighting away heavy eyes.

Do you remember when you were in school, you'd be sitting in class in the one desk that the sun was shining on. The heat of the sun coming through the window and the hush of the room surrounding you. Your eyes would grow heavy, you'd have this sort of a tingle all over and your brain would completely shut down to the state of numbness. The perfect conditions of a nap, right? I use to think, "boy I wish I could take a nap right now, when I get old enough to be out of school I'm going to take naps all the time!" Well of course you grow up and you never take naps, for some reason. What a shame really, that you completely loose all sense of sanity with age!

Face it & Get Lost!

I just found out that one of the couples I photographed at their wedding are getting a divorce. Not even 2 years into the marriage, too. I knew it would happen eventually, after all, over 1/2 of all marriages end in divorce in this country. Just thought I'd share that historic moment with you... Ya know, I've always thought that gathering all the pictures I spend thousands of hours working on into a pile and setting them on fire would be fun... I should call them and see if they need "help." hehe

I thought this tree was weird, I never saw one grow with a face before... :o)

Killing me softly...

Spring is my absolute favorite season of the year, it's a shame it hates me back...

I'm on my 3rd allergy pill on the day and it's only 2:03 pm! I love to see all the dead space of the air come alive with blooms and smells of rain. My favorite bloom of all time are those of a peach tree. My grandmother has 4 peach trees in her yard and I love to look at them. I've sat on the porch looking more in the past few weeks than I have in my whole life. I cut some small branches off of one of the trees and put them in my bedroom. I can tell ya, they might be pretty but the smell is a whole new ballgame. It wasn't pleasant, at all, but I decided sight overcame smell and kept them around.

The warm air and sights of new beginnings really makes me want to take a trip. I do love to travel so it's a shame I have no money. I'd love to have a few extra grand and a cherry red convertible in the garage, man that would be good times! I've always wanted to strike out by myself on the open road and drive as far south as humanly possible. Stop in all the little towns of Georgia and spend some time talking to people and capturing the personality of the individual places. Travel through all the little unseen places of Florida and eventually end up on the 7 mile bridge to the Keys.

Flying through my slow down...

Driving on dirt roads and enjoying the view of a slow ride in the country. I only took a few shots while out riding the back roads of Georgia but I think this one is my favorite of them all and well worth the whole trip.

As mentioned in yesterday's post, I had called my internet provider. My DSL Lite was suppose to be changed to the DSL I've actually been paying for all this time. It's taken effect and WOW can you tell the difference! Good grief, it's so fast it'll blow your hair back! Me likey!! Which just makes me even madder that I'm JUST NOW getting this when I've been paying for it for forever!

Posted...

On a country drive with ray-ray I snagged this shot. It's just a fence post but after alittle converting, dodging & burning... I think it's a really cool shot.

I'm going to keep this post short and sweet as I have basically nothing to say. Shocking, I know.

I will say that I recent had to call my internet provider for some tech support and while on the phone with the rep he told me that I'd been on the wrong plan for over a year and instead of getting the DSL I was paying for that I was actually received DSL Lite, which is basically only a tad bit faster than dial-up. Funny, he didn't mention crediting my account for there mistake. Maybe I should call them back....

Country ride...

Usually when you hear the words "country" & "shooting" used in the same sentence together, they involved killing some helpless animal for fun. In this case though, it's the action of fools gathering with cameras and taking pictures of... nothing, basically.

This is from a recent trip with Rachel through the backroads of nowhere. We took backroads to get to these backroads, if that gives you any idea of just how far off the map we were. We actually crossed through Alabama at some point, which even if you mean too, is never a good thing. :o)

A bit of a scare...

Things that are on my mind lately...

Yes I know, it's scary that I have anything on my mind but bare with me here. About a year ago I had a place come up on my back that hurt & itched and bleed. (I know that was gross but shut up your whining) Well clearly I'm stupid but I just never thought anything of it until my sister said recently that I should really have that checked out. Coming from the long line of medical crazies, I got on the internet at skincancer.org and found all kinds of things that scared the crap out of me. A case study of a man who had had something come up on his back, same as me, and just never thought much of it. A year or so after it appeared his doctor noticed it during a routine physical and sent him to have it tested. He had all the same symptoms I've had and he found out his was cancer and was too far gone for it to be "no big deal." He went through various treatments but after everything he only lived 3-4 yrs after his first visit to the specialist. Seeing as his story is oddly the same as mine and the images on the net look just like what I have, you can see why I'm scared to death.

I've gone so far as to pick out funeral music... The theme from the golden girls... "Thank you for being a friend..." I've told various people to have that played so someone had best come through or I'll come back to haunt some people. >:0) (Not that I wouldn't anyway but I'm sure the rage will make it much worse.) As for the actually shindig, I don't want an actually funeral, they're just sad and seeing as how I only know about 10 people, it would just look pitiful on my end of the stick. I'm thinking just a party and maybe St. Thomas or something, a little slideshow going of all my photos I've taken from over the years. Jimmy Buffet in the background and servers with umbrella drinks. Maybe if anyone can find one, a photo of me in a little 5x7 frame pointed out to sea...

I went to let the doctor where my sister works look at it and he says it needs to be removed. My only problem now is that I don't have health insurance and "if" it comes back as a 'not so good' result then I'll be in a world of hurt. So, I've applied for Blue Cross insurance which should take effect within the next few weeks. I'm thinking that I'll just wait until it takes effect before I go. I've waited this long, what's a few more weeks, right!

Anyway, that's my pity party for today... Good times.

Sign me....

Wow have I ever been slack about updating, huh! Sorry about that! :o) The upside though is I get to update in the past, yet again. For some weird reason that makes me happy, mainly because I'm sure it annoys some people and hey, I take my kicks where I can get them! >:o}

I've just completed Rhea's signature album I was building. I'm proud of the 2 days it took me to completely finish with it. That's a new record I think and if not then it's a close one for sure.
My days have been filled with editing not only for myself but for Ricki who's so far behind and so busy with her photography that she basically begged me to help her. I do love to e begged so for some reason I agreed and have regreted that ever since. ;o) Sadly she edited a whole wedding in the time it took me to finished editing some of her couples pictures. She has commands set up in her adobe and I dont, clearly that shows!

Note to self: Set commands

A walk with momma...

Logan gets a shoulder hide from his mom while we were at the beach. I really like this photo, it's more a photo of the beach than people but you still have people in it, now thats my kind of shooting. I know I've been slack and I'm updated in the past, again, but I have a few good reasons, not great ones but you'll see what I mean in the blog future.

Lunch, Upload & Home

Today was a pretty cool day. I slept late then went to Chattanooga to upload a ton of photos to the internet. While they were uploading my friend Hollie called to say she had the day off and ask if I'd like to do lunch. Naturally I said yes so we went to Jason's Deli. I'm steadily falling in love with that place, they have a ton of different kinds of food and its all so good. Today I had a Club Royale, a ham and turkey sandwich covered in all sorts of good things and some food with fruit dip. Anytime you're in the area and want to buy me lunch there, I'm all for it... that is, so long as your not a crazy loon or something, in that case just send me the cash and I'll go myself. :o)

After lunch I popped into Best Buy for a new card reader, mine still works great but it's slower than Christmas. That I learned when Rachel told me she could transfer a 1 GB card onto her computer in like 2 minutes and mine was taking 25 mins. I thought it was time for an upgrade but while I was there I found something I want to add to my wish list. A handy dandy 6 mp point and shoot Olympus camera complete with super macro features and all weather capabilities. :o) It's a $250.00 purchase but I'd love to have a little camera I can carry with me all the time. It's just not possible to haul around a camera bigger than most peoples heads, tends to stand out. I'd love to have it, it almost temps me to put it on the Best But credit card. :o) While I was there I got a new cool little card holder that is really thin and will hold 8 cards. I love the one I have but its so thick that its a pain in the butt to carry on my camera strap during a wedding, hopefully this one will take care of that problem.

Speaking of weddings, I'm leaving for Atlanta on Thursday morning, mainly to help Ricki with her wedding this weekend, but also to attend a wedding album conference Thursday and an Epson printer seminar Thursday night. My oh my what a busy weekend that will be! Ya know, for someone who hasn't really ever been anywhere, I sure seem to travel a lot here lately. :o)

The photo here is another from the park in Savannah. That crazy hobo looking lady on the bench is my mom. I tried to pry my grandma out of the van for some pictures but that was like trying to end world hunger so I finally gave up.

Historic Savannah in Bloom

It's the beginning of March and the plants and flowers are already bloomed here in Savannah. When we left home nothing was blooming and then when we got home it was like spring time. Funny how a week changes things! I didn't really spend a lot of time in Savannah, I was a lazy beach bum most of our trip so I really look forward to going back down there and getting shots of the main land. This shot was taken in one of the beautiful city park areas while on my search for Forest Gump's bench.

Pier side morning

One of my stops during my early morning shoot was the pier. I have a good many photos from there I'm really happy about and it's one place I didn't shoot on my first trip down. My sister found a good many sea shells including a starfish. Of course she murdered the poor thing in order to get a starfish but we won't get into that... :o)

For some reason that area of the beach has a lot of sand dollars and other areas of the island you don't see any. Of course you rarely ever see any other shells down that way, that makes no sense because in front of our hotel there were thousands of shells and just a little ways down the beach. Pure crazy I tell ya!

Just try, try again

Here is an image like that I shot when Rachel and I were at Tybee but for some reason my grain on the original was a bit much and was driving me crazy so I tried again this go around, I like this one much better! I lowered my ISO and shot fully manual. I'd love to one day have the cold hard cash to go down and spend a few months in the Savannah area. Travel around to all the different islands and photograph all there is to photograph... how fun that would be!

Feel free to make donations to fund it. :o) (Hey! A girl can dream can't she!?!?!?!)

Has anyone seen a dolphin around here?

Yeah, we didn't either! Well technically we did but we were so far away, who could say for sure. We thought the kids would enjoy a little boat ride in search of dolphins and they seemed to really like it. Summer didn't really grasp the idea that we were actually on a boat in the ocean, she kept asking where the wheels to the car were... While on our maiden voyage we actually traveled into South Carolina. There are a line of jetties that separate the Georgia and South Carolina line from one another so at one point, we were sailing the seas of two states... at once ... talk about getting around.

The one good sighting we had, where the dolphin was close to the boat and, from what we were told by the co-captain, actually did a full jump out of the water, but at the exact same moment an old man fell on the boat and everyone missed it because they turned to see what happened. The old fart was well into his 70's and anytime someone would say they saw something he would dive in front of anyone he pleased, including the little kids and at one point knocked Logan down, so technically he might've deserved it. Luckily he wasn't hurt and we all went on about our joy ride. When we came in to dock I notice that I had indeed gotten something from our sail.... a wicked sunburn on every exposed area of skin. My neck seemed to have suffered the most because it's a week later and it's still hurting like it did the day of the sea bake. Reminder to self: wear sunscreen you idiot!

Featured Terrorists

These birds are crazy! I nearly lost an eye! Mainly because 'someone' kept throwing the food they were feeding them in my direction and the birds would come within inches of you. It's amazing how many of these things are around without you noticing it but once you pull out something for them to eat they come in all directions and surround you! Luckily we weren't pooped on so that's one good thing to report. :o)

Good Morning Star Shine....

The one morning I crawled out of bed at 5:30 and did sunrise photos I managed to get this shot. It's nothing to write home about but for some reason I really like it. When Rachel & I went to Tybee we got up just about every morning way before dawn and shot all kinds of photos until dark when we finally passed out. By the end of our trip I was about as tired as I've ever been so this time I thought I'd take it easy and see how the other half live. I did a lot of walking on the beach and picking up sea shells. I must say it was really nice!!!