Thank you Nikki

At Christmas time I met a beautiful family, Nikki, Nate and little Conner. I fell in love with then 3 year old Conner. Well, turns out that they used one of my photos for their 2009 Christmas Card and I was so excited to get a card in the mail. From this I learned of Nikki's creativity.

I had been in desperate need of a new logo, I just didn't like my original design at all. It was too pink and didn't work well with hardly anything. But despite my dislike of my logo I really didn't know what I wanted to replace it. So, I asked Nikki if she would be willing to play around (come up with herself) some ideas for a new logo and show me what she had designed. I think, literally, the next day she had already email me three designs. She's quick.

From the three she nailed my personality and she had already designed something I liked...first try.

THANK YOU Nikki, you have saved me days of aggravation and I am so incredibly pleased with everything you have done for me.

Beauty in Everything

Today as my daughter and I arrived at Collins Park (Park #2 in my park project) all we saw was a small, rectangular, 2 acre piece of land placed between a group of houses. The grounds were not very desirable and had very outdated playground equipment. We had already come this far and my daughter had spotted the swings so there was no way I could just go home or try another park on the list. This was the place my daughter wanted to be. So I assembled my camera anyway and took Sophia to the swings. She chose the yellow one. Sophia loves to swing and it took a lot of coercing to get her down.

I had taken a few photos of the graffiti on the pole and the roots from a near by tree, nothing too satisfying, before she finally decided to take a walk with me to a near by overgrown tropical bush. As we approached this bush I saw that it had some small yellow flowers blooming, they looked very similar to Hibiscus flowers. I may not know what the true name of this flowering bush is, but I have lived in Florida long enough to know that this flower is not of a Hibiscus.

On these flowers were some small red bugs. In most cases bugs are not something that provokes me to take pictures, but they were every where and being so cooperative. I got down as close to these little creatures from God as I could without Sophia freaking out and was able to capture their magnificent red color and white lines down the back. It's amazing the amount of detail that God placed on them and all bugs for that matter knowing that there would be very few people on this Earth that would notice.

It wasn't until I started editing and really looking through the photos I had taken that I was reminded...no matter where I am and what is built up around me God has created something that is absolutely beautiful just for us even if we have look really close.

 

Not What I Was Expecting

I started my St Lucie County park project today. I went online to St Lucie County's Parks and Recreation website and printed out the list of parks. I have even gone as far as to plan my first three weeks of this project. Granted I'm only going to visit one park a week, on Thursdays. But, hey, I'm somewhat organized.

My first park was Casa Caprona Historical Circle in Fort Pierce, FL. I had never heard of this park and the name sounded very interesting. I went expecting a lot of Spanish influence and some historical monuments. Well, what I found was an apartment complex with a Spanish architecture on a historical piece of land. Turns out there used to be a trail that ran between two forts back in the day. This piece of land became a historical land mark in 1926. And, funny, there is an apartment complex on it. I am assuming that this was on my list of parks from the website because of its historical past.

So to say the least I was a little disappointed when I realized that my first park was not going to be a place that I could spend a lot of time at. However, I did find these beautiful, brightly colored fountains in the decor of the complex. I was very drawn to the colors of bright blue and red. I did not post any photos of the complex itself in order to keep the privacy of the tenants.

Despite, my disappointment, I was able to find something absolutely beautiful to me. That's one of things I love about photography...if I see something I like, I can take a picture of it and take it with me. And what interesting place this would be to live. Right on a historical site.

Reading to Your Chilrden

Reading may not be a huge topic of interest in your lives but I wanted to tell why this collage of pictures means so much to me.

As a school teacher (I dare not say "former" because I know one day soon I will go back, plus I am only 28 years old) I have learned the utmost importance reading can have on a life. I was never a big reader growing up, in fact, I'd rather be out playing some sport than reading. I didn't discover the joy of reading until I was pregnant with my first child and someone recommended a book for me, "Redeeming Love" by Francine Rivers, who knew I would love Christian romance novels.

Along with finding my joy of reading and watching my students struggle to read a math textbook (which is just hard for most people in general) or just simply take notes I started thinking about my own children. Did I want my own children to always depend on their school teachers to be there beside them holding their hands through each new concept. All I ever heard from my students was, "I hate reading!" Its then I realized, along with some help from a reading incentive program we were running at the high school I worked at the time, that in order to use reading to discover knowledge on your own you first need to have a joy of reading.  If you hate something in the first place, being forced to do it makes it even worse. 

I started reading to my children the first week they were born. My husband thought I was crazy, but I did it anyway. Maybe it was just my voice that drew them to it at first, but just like in the photo I find them playing with books all by themselves now. They make up their own stories following the storyline that they have heard me read (hey, they are 4 and 2). I have even caught my girls playing dress up and acting some of the stories I have read to them. I have never seen them do that with of the hundreds of movies they have watched.

Alright, I'll stop rambling now. Thanks for listening. Read to your children daily. :)

Oh, I have decided to try and visit one St Lucie County park a week with my camera. We'll see how long I can keep it up with a 2 year old in tow. Lucky for me, she likes nature.

Back to Work!

I was very fortunate to have a break from the business for a few weeks to be with myself and my family. As a family we took a trip to Oregon to visit my in-laws for Christmas. The trip was wonderful and Oregon is beautiful every time I go, but now it is back to reality and back to work here in another beautiful state, Sunny Florida.

I have recently added some of my favorite photos from my trip to Oregon in my "Random" album. I'm thinking that this album needs a new name...any suggestions?

I also need a project for 2010, I tried to do my "365 Project" at the beginning of 2009 and couldn't hack it. I'll have to try that again when both girls are in school all day. I'm thinking something that I can do once a week, like visit a new park each week around the area or something like that. I'm open to any ideas...please help!

Well, I'm looking forward to a fantastic 2010.