Inkin' & Thinkin'

Meditation Monday

Good morning!  I hope your week was a good one.  Did you have a chance to take a picture this week to use with last week's thought?  I sure hope so.  I'd love to see it if you'd like to share it!  Here's what I did with it...

I love a good sunset!  This week's thought is one that just makes me want to be outside dancing in the wind!  You won't find any pictures of me doing that this week!  LOL!  But I will be on the look out for something wonderful to work with it.  If not, I'm sure I can find something in my photo stash.  LOL

Here's your thought for this week.  Enjoy!

This download link has expired.  Please check back each Monday for a new meditation.
Have a great week!

Try It Tuesday!

My new plan for Tuesdays is to offer you a fun tip, tutorial or technique to try.  I am hoping this will both help you to try out some new things in your creating and me to better understand my program.  This week I'm going to make it easy on myself because I'm actually going to point you to the Scraps N' Pieces forum where I am hosting the Photo Editing Challenge this month.  I've already written up the tutorial over there so no need to do it twice, right?  So head over to the Photo Editing Challenge at SNP and give it a go.  You'll be able to take a photo from this...

to this...

Credits:  This & That by Wendy Tunison Designs

Now doesn't that look like fun?!  Head over and if you post your layout in the gallery and back in the thread there, you'll be able to earn some points for free digi stuff too!  Hooray!

Speaking of fun tutorials, join us on Facebook for some fun speed scraps this month!  Last month we learned all about using brushes and this month we'll be concentrating on using our shape tools!

Have a great day!

Fetch...Montana Style

Our dog loves to play fetch ...  with anything!  The bad thing is that once he decides what he wants to fetch, he sticks with it and there's no talking him out of it.  The other day Andy was outside and Drake brought him this huge piece of wood...this is how it played out...

Go do something big today!  Have a great day!

Umbrella Magic

Last week the girls and I decided to head to the park to see what we could do with umbrellas.  We ended up not doing anything we planned but we did have some fun!  Here are some of the pics of the girls being carried away in the wind...

Obviously, Kaylee was lighter than anyone else because she is positively floating in every photo!  LOL!  And then, out of the blue, our friend, Jaelyn, dropped in on us.  

Have a magical day!

The Dreaded Family Photo Session

You'd think that with all the pictures I take, we'd have a ton of family photos.  Nope.  I could probably count every family photo we've ever taken on one hand.  That's pretty sad considering my oldest child is 12.  Well, this week I had an excuse, they had spring break and since our other plans fell through, I decided it was the perfect time to torture my family with a family photo session.  Of course, the only day we were all home to do it, it rained.  Go figure.  But, I was not about to let it go...we hung some sheets in the dining room, got out the tripod and the remote shutter (thank you so much, KM!)  and went to work.  Since this was the first time I had ever used my remote shutter, most of the shots have the remote right out there in the open....yeah...I treated it just like a tv remote.  Sad.  But, it's okay...we got all of our faces and I'm good with that. 

Wanna see?

I am not sure which way I like this photo...I am leaning more towards the sepia tone but everyone else likes the full color version...hmmm.

We did venture out for a few minutes but I was not in love with much of it...but if I had to pick 1 that was iffy okay...this was the one from outside.

I do like these feet shots...I totally missed Izzy's pants being folded up in the first picture.  She said it showed her shoes off better.  LOL!  I had everyone put on their favorite pair of shoes for these.  Just a different way to capture us.

Kaylee wanted to do some solo shots as well so I took her picture and then she wanted to take everyone else's so I let her have at it.  Of course, Izzy and Lexi wanted to get in on it too, so I'm not sure who took all of these, but one of us did.  ;) 

Have a great day!

A Reminder & Some Geese

If you're participating in this week's Through The Lens Challenge, you need to send me your BARE BRANCH photos today.  I can't wait to see what you came up with this week.  This was a little tougher for me than I thought it would be.  I hope you were able to get some great shots! 

If you have some ideas for future challenges, I'd love to hear them.  I have a good list going but I'm always open to new ideas. 

I thought I'd share a couple of goose shots I took yesterday.  I love how their reflection shows so well in these pictures.  It is so beautiful to see in person.

and this is how the day started yesterday...

I hope you have a great day today!

Go Figure! Silly birds!

Last week's Through The Lens Challenge was birds and I had the hardest time finding any birds let alone to get any good shots of them.  I was seriously doubting my ability to complete my own challenge.  This week, however, someone must have told the birds I was finished looking for them because they are everywhere!  These are just since Friday...

Can you believe that?  3 eagles in one tree.  Crazy!  the only bad thing is that it was pouring rain and the sky was so bright that the pictures just sucked in their natural state.  So I played with them a little.

Kootenai Falls

We took our first hike of the year into Kootenai Falls today.  It was beautiful!  If you didn't know, Kootenai Falls is my most favorite place in the whole world.  I could sit for hours just listening to and watching the water.  I have probably taken thousands of pictures there and will probably take thousands more.  It is always changing and there are always new things to explore.  If I ever need to just have a moment to think and to regroup...this is the place I go.  It is the place I want my ashes scattered when I die.  It is my favorite place.  So I thought I'd share some photos of our hike in today...enjoy!

All of these water shots are straight out of the camera...it was an awesome day for water shots! 

Oh yeah...see those shoes?  That means I've officialy welcomed spring...even if it snows again...those shoes mean spring!  There's no turning back now!

Lexi found a nice little place to take a nap...bear style.  ;)

Tana had to have her turn on the branch too...

And so did Andy! 

Racing across the swinging bridge is one of their favorite things to do.  I think they went across 3 or 4 times today while I was shooting below.

There was a wonderful reflecting puddle once we got across the bridge.  So I snapped a few pics there as well.  It was beautiful.

All of a sudden there was a flock of geese flying up river from us and I actually got my camera up and caugth them!  Isn't that shot awesome?!  I'm so excited about it.  That is straight out of the camera with a little crop is all.  I love how they are just flying into the sun with the mist and snow below.  Believe it or not...this is a full color photo.  It's kind of cool how it looks black & white.  Yeah me!

I hope you enjoyed our photographic hike.  It was snowing by the time we crossed the bridge so i didn't take many pics on the other side or on our way out.  But it was a beautiful hike for sure!

Her Beautiful Face

Last Saturday, Andy, Izzy and I went for an early morning walk and I caught this with my camera and it just makes me smile...

Yarn & Sheep

So once I got on this crochet kick, it's kinda stuck with me.  You know how sometimes you just get in a mood for something and you stay there?  Well, that's where I've been.  I still haven't unpacked my bags from attending CU almost 2 weeks ago and I haven't touched my house...but I've been sitting with needle and yarn for the past week.  I did get my tax paperwork ready today though so I guess I've done something productive!  LOL! 

I have to tell you though that I am so happy to see winter passing that I could jump for joy!  I've been out in the yard, taking a few walks and just generally enjoying the fact that there's no snow on the ground and there's green popping up everywhere.  I really don't do winter well.  It's my least favorite season and I mostly just hole up in my house and do a whole lot of nothing.  But now spring is coming and I couldn't be happier about it.

So I was thinking I would show you what I've been working on for the past few days.  I started off with making this hat because I found a tutorial for it and decided it would be fun to try.  I love the look of it and in the end decided to add a small brim to the pattern as well.  See, now I'm changing patterns!  Woohoo!  Maybe it's because I'm a little more confident in my ability than I ever was...which feels pretty dang good.

As I was crocheting, I remembered something from my childhood that always intrigued me and decided to see if I could find a way to do it.  I remember looking at corkscrew hair ties as a kid (and probably as a teen too) and just really wanting to know how they were made.  I loved to pull them out and watch them spring back into shape.  When my girls were born, I wanted them to have some but I didn't have a clue where to look to find out how to make them.  Well, I have to tell you that I was disgusted when I found out just how extremely easy it was.  So I whipped one out and Kaylee and Izzy have been fighting over it ever since.  

I also wanted to show you some pics that I took this afternoon while driving with Andy.  We came upon this small herd of sheep and Andy pulled over so I could snap some pics.  These are a few of my favorite pics and if you want to see the rest of them, you can find them on my photo blog here.

I love how this one looks like he is just basking in the sun!

This one makes me smile because it looks like the little guy is listening to what the big guy has to say. 

And this one was created with a little fun editing.  I wish I had actually captured a shot like this but instead I faked it.  LOL!

This is the original...

Have a good night!