Prom

Hello hello! These are some photos I did the other week in on spring break in Arizona for prom. It was freezing out... in fact there was snow at one point. Poor Becca was cold as could be in her beautiful strapless prom gown. I loved prom so much. Taking pictures of her reminded me of way back when I went to prom ;)...okay so it hasn't been that long since I went to prom, but it sure seems like so long ago! My favorite prom dress was a strapless floor length yellow dress. It was beautiful and covered in sequins and I styled my hair like Taylor Swift, swept to the side. I felt so lovely! Then I also loved this little pink and black mini dress by Betsy Johnson. Hmmm come to think of it, I like every prom dress I wore. I think every girl should experience prom or something fancy like that. It is such a joy to dress up, get pampered, and get pictures taken of yourself. After prom, the next time you do something like that is your wedding! Whoooo! But I bet that will top prom :) I still have that to look forward to :) Feel free to share your prom memories! I would love to hear about them!

Cinderella Prom Princess :)

Lake Romance

Good morning everyone!

Hope everyone's day is lovely. So I was assigned a project: to create one image using 5 or more images within it. It is a photo montage project. This is completely not my style... it was very challenging for me, but this is what I came up with :) guess how many images are within it??

There is 8 images within this one. Crazy right? You know what is crazy is how much manipulation one can do to a photo to make perfect. Like in advertisement where all of the girls look like barbies. Ya those "barbies" are not real. Because I could take a photo of a girl and turn her to a barbie too by using photoshop. So ladies, don't get discouraged!

Okay back to the project. When I was shooting it, we (meaning my boyfriend) had to drag a mattress out to our local pond to photograph us in the same lighting as the pond. Of course there were hard-core fishermen out on the tiny little man-made pond at 6:00am haha. So it was pretty embarrassing laying out on a mattress taking pictures of ourselves. Oh and yes. My boyfriend did get up at 5:30 on a weekday to drag his mattress out to a pond for his girlfriend's photo project...precious, right? I am a lucky girl.

The top image is the final result and the bottom one is a visual how I started the base of the top photo.

I had to select us then place us on the pond... and then I had to do lots of editing, masking, liquifying, sharpening, erasing, and all of that jazz. Also, the picture of us in the top image (you would never guess) is a combination of four different images of us (different face on Brennan, different legs on me, ect.)

So here they are!

Here you can get a better sense of how I did it. Funny right? 

Color

Hi everyone! So I am back at school :( a bit of sadness in my life right now haha. So my sister, Allie, who goes to ASU has two more weeks of school. Lucky Duck. Guess how many more I have?? 7!!!! Yucky. I just finished my midterms.... isn't that just awful. Anyways so I need to switch my mode from relaxed baker girl into my focused school girl mode. This break I have made lots of yummy things from Chocolate Covered Katie's recipes. If anyone hasn't been to her website... it is a must see. She features desserts... filled with chocolate and yumminess... plus all of it is healthy! It is the best of both worlds.

Anyways I have a funny story to tell about my airport experience. So I was supposed to fly back to Cali yesterday to get organized before a busy week of school. My flight left at 7 in the morning, which meant that we had to leave the ranch at 4:15am to make it. Believe it or not, 4am isn't that foreign to our family. When you live on a ranch, around 5am is when your average day starts. So we get down to the airport and my dad and mom drop me off and say goodbye. Next thing I have to do is go check in... so I go to a airport lady and I was surprised to find out that my conformation code wasn't working. I asked her what the problem was and she looked at my ticket. Then she said in a demeaning voive, "Honey, your flight is tomorrow." haha I laughed to cover my embarrassment. Oops. So I ended up staying down in Scottsdale with my Gammy all day. It was fun and I didn't miss anything too important at school. Too bad, I wish I would have missed a class!

Down at Gammy's, I took a few pics of her house, since, just a couple days ago I did my Solitude Project and took pictures in my shabby chic house and I thought the contrast would be interesting to see. Gammy's house is very colorful! The photos as you can see are way different (but still beautiful :)) than my house.

What is your style of decorating? Feel free to share :)

Shabby Chic

These photos are for an assignment in one of my classes called "The Solitude Project". The project basically is that you have to be by yourself for three hours with nothing but your camera and a journal.  It is supposed to act as a de-stressor- a time to relax. But for some reason, this project did the exact opposite! I was so stressed and annoyed to do this assignment! I just didn't want to do it, it seemed like a waste of time to me. But after I did do it, it did actually calm me down and allow me to really take in all of my surroundings and to see things differently. It is also nice to sometimes be alone. I love being with people, but I sure do love being by myself too. These photos are from one room in my house. I sure do love my house... and how wonderful my moms decorating talents are!! One day when I have a house, I want to decorate it shabby chic with white linen and hints of blues and pinks. Aw! So lovely! 

Lovesick Cowgirl

My spring break is almost ending! Sad sad day. Time flies when I am on the ranch... there is always something going on and something you need to be doing. Today, since I am always in dire need to get some pictures, I decided to do a photo shoot. My older sister, Allie, (the one who looks like a Kardasian) went to go shooting with my dad for target practice. Allie loves that kind of stuff...I swear she is like Angelina Jolie in all of her kick butt movies... but for real :). And my younger sister told me that she isn't in the mood for one of my photo shoots. So I did myself. I honestly am not self-obsessed or anything like that. I just love photos and photo shoots and fashion and pretty lighting and all that wonderfulness!

Quite frankly, lots of times I don't like getting my photo taken. I always don't like how they come out at the time... I can always find something to judge :/. I guess I am just a typical girl when it comes to that. I think all of us girls are way too hard on ourselves. We all need to embrace who we are and how we look because we can never be anyone else. We should just love what we have been given and be thankful for what we have and try to look at the things on our body we do like. Sorry for that little rant. I do need to remind myself to do that sometimes :).

So anyways, this photo shoot came about by me going into my moms closet and finding this fun Wildfox Lovesick Cowgirl fringe hoodie. I completely loved it and so of course I had to do a photo shoot with it :)! So I went up to this old weighing station (up our ranch road) that miners used to use way back when. Here are a few shots that I liked. Hope they inspire you to be creative with your clothes or your photo shoots! Have a nice night :)

Chocolate Macaroons

Today after my mom and I went to hot yoga this morning, we came home and realized that the side door of the house was open and so when we ventured in, we saw all of the dogs lounging on the couches. And by all of the dogs I mean, Andy, Sugar, Belle, Buck, and Cocoa, so 5 big ol' hound dogs just chillen out in the living room. Welcome home right?! haha. It was quite a scene.

After we got the dogs out, I did some baking. My Gammy and Grandpa came over tonight so I made them some coconut macaroons for some yummy snackin. When I was photographing them, Pumpkin, our friendly kitty came up to see what I was doing. Then Fritz, one of our other kitties, came to visit, so those are the two kitties featured today :). Oh and the last image I thought was pretty. It was rainy and cloudy today and I shot that right after I got done bottle feeding our little dogie calf named Minnie. I know...we have lots of animals.

The Macaroon Recipe:

1 1/3 cup coconut flakes
1/3 cup sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract
3 tbl flour
2 egg whites

1. Combine all dry ingredients and blend together
2. Add the egg whites and the vanilla.
3. Add tbl balls to cookie sheet
4. Bake at 375 for 16-18 min.
5. Melt chocolate and drizzle all over :) (once cooled)

Don't worry, I caught Pumpkin before he could eat any.

Here is little Pumpkin... my favorite kitty on the ranch.

Here is Fritz. He is a little skittish... and a little cranky. 

My front yard :) 

Home

Being home is so refreshing and wonderful. I am such a home body. I love hanging out with my mom, dad, and sisters. I love lounging around in the grass with our dogs and kitties, baking cookies, taking naps, walking the pig :), going for horse back rides, eating yummy food, watching disney movies, and looking through our old scrapbooks. All of the activities that I can't do when I am in California. As I reminisce on my life I realize that I am so very blessed. Not many people have the luxury of growing up on a ranch allowing your imaginations to no limits. I have wonderful parents and two sisters who are my best friends. I remember one of our favorite things to do when we were young was to play like we were Indian princesses and make our "house" down along the creek bed with tall grasses and rocks. Those were the days. Now we are all off at school chasing other dreams. We rarely go home now... and we will never live at home again. It makes me sad, but I know all of those sweet memories I will hold close to my heart. And someday I get to have little girls to love and make sweet memories with :)

Here are a few old photos my mom took of us... (Isn't she a great photographer?!)

She was always taking photos of us. We seriously had a photo shoot every day. Okay maybe not that often... but it was a lot! We got pretty good at it ;)

This is me. 

This one too :). 

Here is all three of us on our old mule. 

Here is little Allie. 

sweet little sister, Kacky (Katherine) 

Look at that little peanut!! 

Allie and I... still best friends :)