Editing.

For the couple of weeks I've been trying to beef up my scholarship portfolio. The world outside our front door is extremely white and monochromatic, and drab in my opinion. I am not 

really thrilled by cold weather, to put it mildly. The fact is I distain it! So I wanted avoid going out and taking new pictures as much as I could (I don't think snow is all that pretty and I hate it when my fingers freeze in a permanent picture taking stance). So I've been editing old photos and trying to make some new stuff digitally in photoshop. I wanted to share a little bit of what I've been doing. (I'm sure this is interesting to about none of you... but oh well!) Here are

 just a few, I needed 15 images... so I'm haven't been able to avoid the arctic tundra all together (dang it) but at least it cut the hours. These are the images I edited and cleaned up a little. I think they're a lot better than the snow pictures I had to take.

I've also been working on my BFA show for Fall semester. I'm really excited about it because it's on one of my most favorite subjects, my mom and my family! The show is going to be titled "Through My Mother's Eyes" and I'm going to be using some historical photography processes to reprint some old images of Eastern Idaho, my mom, and my grandparents as well as creating new images. It probably doesn't sound nearly as exciting as I think it is. The basic gist is that it is going to show Eastern Idaho 30 years ago when my mom lived here and how it's changed, and also how my family has changed and grown. It's perfect that we're planning a big family reunion for August because I'll be able to get some portraits of family members I haven't seen in awhile as well as a large family portrait. I'm excited. But on with the pictures....

  

  

  

Pretty Sister

I'm in an advanced dark room class this semester and for our first project we had to photograph 10 different scenes using two different ways of metering. I took a bunch of pictures of my sister Nikki for the project and since I think she is just the most gorgeous person I've ever seen, I've decided to post a few for all to see. The last one I decided to try a little colorization in photoshop.

Here are a few new images I've taken that I liked. 

  

New Years Eve 2008 was my 22nd Birthday!

Let me start out by saying that I had the best 22nd birthday a girl could ask for! My sister Nikki flew in to Salt Lake a few days early, and though I would like to claim it was for my birthday, it wasn't but I'm happy she was there! She came sneaking into our bedroom while we were sleeping and filled out floor with balloons and also our living room. It was a nice little birthday surprise! We slept in until about 11 and then opened my presents. My husband and all of our families spoiled me! I got new snowboarding stuff, clothes, ugg boots, and 8 gig memory card, a silver bracelet, and some birthday money.

We played a few games and then ate some breakfast and started getting ready for the day. Miles and Nikki took me out to dinner at the Olive Garden per my request. I love their chicken gnocci dinner. I requested Cocoa Bean cupcakes for my birthday, because truly there is nothing better. But the Rexburg store was closed until a couple days after my birthday and the stand at the IF Mall was gone, so instead Miles made me a chocolate cake which was so delicious.

After dinner we came back to our house and had our own New Years party (my birthday is New Years Eve). Since no one was really back in Rexburg yet it was just the 3 of us, but it definitely was not quiet! We were singing, dancing, playing pong, and whacking the pinata. It was so much fun. I'm such a lucky girl to have such amazing family.

And because we don't have cable or satellite, we couldn't watch the ball drop. So instead, we made our own 2009 Ball Drop. What else can you do right? And, I got my first New Years kiss in 6 years, with infinite New Years kisses to come.

Sneaky little Elf...

I had to post these pictures too because they make me laugh! I caught Miles sneaking Santa's cookies.... for those of you that know my Miles you will understand why I find this funny. He's my little treat king.

Our First Christmas

Miles and I got home from Mexico and California a couple of days before Christmas, so we had a lot to do! After much deliberating, we decided to purchase a fake tree this year. We set up the tree, decorated it, wrapped presents, made cookies for Santa, played a round of rumikub, read from Luke 2, set up our new nativity that my mom and dad bought us for Christmas and went to bed anxious. I actually couldn't hold out until Christmas morning and begged Miles to let me open a present. I'm not quite sure what got into me this year, I was very excited for Christmas. This was my first Christmas away from home. It was a lot quieter but also a lot of fun to sleep in until 10 in peace, make breakfast, and then open presents at our own pace. Miles requested homemade cinnamon rolls for Christmas morning breakfast. After opening our gifts we relaxed for awhile and started dinner. Since it was just the two of us eating, we decided on a small 4lb chicken instead of a large turkey, it was my first time preparing a bird of any sort, so picking the gizzards out was a whole new experience for me. Pretty gross. We also prepared sweet rolls, mashed potatoes, stuffing, a salad, and some martinelli's in our wedding champagne glasses. We ended the evening by watching a Christmas movie. It was a really quite and relaxing Christmas.