I Heart Faces: Beautiful Black and White

This is one of my favorite pictures of Abby.  I took while she was playing dress up and I was actually surprised to have captured it.  She's pretty quick and I get a lot of pictures of the back of her head but I'm learning that as long as I take a million pictures then I am bound to get a good one!

Pop on over to the iheartfaces community to check out some stunning B&W photos!

Focus Friday

"Whatever we focus on is bound to expand. Where we see the negative, we call forth more negative. And where we see the positive, we call forth more positive. Having loved and lost, I now love more passionately. Having won and lost, I now win more soberly. Having tasted the bitter, I now savor the sweet."

 Marianne Williamson 

I love this quote because I find myself getting so caught up in what's going on that I forget to find the good in things.  That's why I took such a long break from blogging.  I was just too focused on life's problems and I never wanted this to be a place where I vented.  Trust me, sometimes I have wanted to just spew all my negativity but I hate the thought of having my knee jerk reaction documented.  My feelings about things tend to change frequently and quickly once I calm down.  Unfortunately, sometimes it's hard to tear yourself away from the negativity.

Since I got this snazzy new camera for Christmas, I figure that the best way to focus on the positive is to photograph it.  Make a sort of weekly collage of the positive things.  The sweet things.  Things like this little bambina... 

Or that fact that Abby thought I was lonely because Dan's been working nights and decided to leave me a friend to cuddle with:

My goal for this new year is to quit dwelling on the negative and to be thankful for all the good.  I need to slow down and take the time to laugh and love.  Because there are people who I am grateful to have in my and my daughters life.

I hope to make this a weekly thing... kind of like a week in review of all the goodness that life has to offer.  Because even though I still have to work my way through the stressful stuff, there are things that make that all worthwhile and I need a reminder.

VROOM! VROOM!

It's been such a long time since I participated in the IHeartFaces photo challenge but when I saw the theme for this week, VROOM! VROOM!, I knew I had the perfect picture to use.  We took this a while ago during one of our many stops on an 8 hour ride to Vermont.

"Smiles" Photo Challenge

This weeks Photo Challenge is "Smiles".  Abby was playing with her new bubble maker and having a blast!

Check out the other smiling faces by clicking the button below!

Who's Watching that Baby?

This picture has created lots of controversy on my Facebook page.

I know, it appears that I have my 1 year old sitting up on top of wall with Humpty Dumpty.  Now before you question my parenting like my sister did, look close. Do you you see the blur right there?  On her sweater?

That's my husband holding her!  I used this tool, called a blemish remover to erase him from the picture.  Don't you wish it was always that easy?  Just kidding Hubbins, you know I love you!

"Collage" Photo Challenge

I'm taking part in a photo challenge over at I Heart Faces and this weeks theme is collages.  I'm using the pictures from Abby's birthday party because when it comes to a one year old eating her first piece of cake there is no way to pick just one photo! Check out their site to see some other awesome collages!

I used http://www.picnik.com/ to make my collage. It's a pretty cool site and has a lot of free features to enhance your pics!