Day 30 - Self-portrait(ish)

Today is the last day of Dana's 30 Day Photo Challenge! It's our final self-portrait and I have to be honest, I had some help. I KNEW what picture I wanted to take but couldn't make it work on my own. So I asked my Beloved and he snapped this picture (even though he thinks it might be cheating).

Are you laughing? Because ya should be! ;) This is what my dear, sweet Beloved goes to bed with every night. :)

I have to sleep in complete darkness. I'm talking towels over alarm clocks dark! My Freshman year of college my roommate preferred to sleep with a night light. This was a challenge. I tried a few different things including piercing my ear on the left side so I'd be forced to sleep on my right. This turned out to be foolish but cute! :) So I started sleeping with a face mask and it helped tremendously. Now I can't sleep without it. If the pressure over my eyes isn't there, I don't sleep. I'm such a Wack-a-Doo!

I was also diagnosed with Carpal Tunnel several years ago. (Being tested for it is a story in itself!) Apparently repetitive typing and knitting aren't any good for a 25 year old who has a habit of being the 1 in the 'one in every 5' rule. Awesome. So in an effort to prevent things from getting so bad, I have to sleep in wrist braces. I'm also supposed to wear them when I type or knit. I'm telling you, my Daniel is one lucky boy! ;)

Thanks for sticking with me!

Until next time...

Day 29 - Black & White

I married my Daniel three years ago this Wednesday. He is patient. He is caring. He is the opposite of high strung (which balances me). He is funny! He is loving. He is cuddly. He is MINE. And I couldn't be more proud of that fact.

Happy Anniversary Babe, I love you!

Until next time....

Day 28 - Flowers

The previous owners of our house spent a pretty penny to make our yard look exotic. And thanks to Mother Nature, a dog and our lack of desire/time to maintain it - it no longer resembles something out of Home and Garden magazine. We removed plants we didn't like and got rid of plants that were bad for dogs. And then Mother Nature killed what we had left. In hopes of replacing the 'pretty' parts of our yard, we planted a few Hibiscus bushes in the front yard. And so far they've survived! Regardless of the fact that we currently live on THE SURFACE OF THE SUN.

Here is one today!

It's so pretty! :) I really hope we don't kill it.

Until next time....

Day 27 - From a Distance

Our house is about 6 miles from a major shopping center and at every intersection there is a light. And EVERY time I have to go to said shopping center, I hit EVERY SINGLE LIGHT. It makes me bananas. This is me stopped at one. Can you see the many, many more I have left?! Yep, I got to stop at those too.

And I'll get to the next time I have to head that way. Fun times.

Until next time...

Day 26 - Close-up

I like lots of things to look at in my work space. It's inspiring and homey. I found this over sized chess piece at Hobby Lobby. I LOVE Hobby Lobby! I'm not supposed to go in without supervision and my mom doesn't count as proper supervision. ;)

Regardless, I found the Red Queen paperweight and it sits on my desk all the time. My mom calls red my signature color (to be pronounced "culla" like in Steel Magnolias) and I tend to agree. Red looks good on me and I'm drawn to sassy red things. My toes are usually ALWAYS red, I wore red wedding shoes, my computer mouse is red. I could go one but you get the picture. So when I saw this, I had to have it...

...because not only do I love red (and if you know me at all, you'll already know), I'm also The Queen. ;)

Until next time....

Day 25 - Something Pink

I love Snowmen and my Mamaw is an enabler. ;) She finds them for me all over the place. And she likes to buy me the 'Smores 'snowmen'. I'm sure you've seen them - the marshmallows with eyes stacked on top of pretend chocolate and graham cracker? Well, this one sits in my office. And I think she's precious!
Until next time....

Day 24 - Animal

The challenge for today is keeping the photo down to one! I'm going to compromise and only post two. ;)

We adopted our pound puppy, Atticus almost two years ago and we love him. It breaks my heart to think someone discarded him but on the flip side, I'm glad they did! Now we have him! He's sweet and playful and sheds like crazy. Our trust has grown with him a little and he's allowed to stay in the house while we run short errands. When we get home I love to see his floppy ears in the window watching for us.

Atti loves me but he LOVES his man. And every night around the time my Beloved is supposed to be home, Atti waits like this -It's so cute. He gets so excited to see his man.

How can you not love this face?

Until next time....

Day 23 - Sunflare

When we were house hunting, my aunt and I accidentally found our house. :) It was a For Sale by Owner type deal with a website attached. We drove home, pulled up the site and the first picture is this gate. And I fell in love. It's so magical! A gate Anne of Green Gables would dream up stories about. A Secret Garden gate that holds in all things magical. I'm telling you, I was sold! The inside of the house was fine too. ;)

The gate isn't in pristine condition and Daniel mentioned replacing it a while back. I had a fit - "that's the main reason I bought the house!" This made my Beloved roll his eyes to the heavens and say "oh great."
SEE!! Doesn't it look magical?!

Until next time....

Day 22 - Hands

These are the hands of a daughter, a sister, a mother, a friend, a nurse, a neighbor, a volunteer. With these hands she heals, holds a cup a coffee, rides a horse, welcomes new babies in to the world, wipes away tears, disciplines, cooks, talks, scratches backs. These are hands of strength, even when they're weak. These are my Momma's hands. And I love her. A lot. ;)

Until next time....

Day 21 - Faceless Self-Portrait

Today we got to visit with Daniel's family in Huntsville and celebrate his Granny's 84th birthday. I love being in the car with my Beloved. We talk and laugh and sing and sometimes I get to read. :) This is today.

Note the green purse - this is the one I need shoes for. See! It totally makes sense! ;)

Until next time...

Day 20 - Bokeh

The first time I read today's photo challenge, I thought it said 'broken' and I was very confused. Then when I figured out what it really said - I was still confused. ;) But thanks to Google I discovered I've been taken bokeh pictures for a while! Who knew?!

In my previous life, I was responsible for taking production stills on our commercial shoots. I had a fancy camera and everything! This is a picture of Scott Szabo of Szabo Sound on a baseball shoot. And I think it's fun.

It was quite entertaining to see him have to run after the kids. :)

Until next time....

Day 19 - Something Orange

Orange is my favorite Jell-O flavor and that doesn't have anything to do with today's picture. But I could eat some orange jello right now come to think of it. It sounds so refreshing and cold and....

.....FOCUS WOMAN!!

For my new Big Girl job, I plan our educational seminars all over the nation. I book space, plan menus, print name tags, send presentation items and anything else involved in making sure each event is successful. When I started, we had very few seminars on the books for the rest of the year, now we have 28 between now and December. I'm a bit OCD when it comes to organizing and this is my board.

Orange are dates that I've booked and have signed contracts for. And let me tell you, a few weeks ago all the dates were red and my anxiety levels were through the roof! But now it's a lot of orange. :) I think I'm getting the hang of things.

Until next time....

Day 18 - Your SHOES!

I.LOVE.SHOES! And I seem to grow attached to shoes that are no good for me. But that's the price of beauty! And I couldn't choose which one to feature so I took this picture.
In the spirit of full disclosure, I should probably mention these are not all of my shoes. They're only the ones that fit in the circle, I have lots more. What?! They speak to me!

Yes I know - I need an intervention.

I'll point out some highlights. The sassy red shoes I wore on our wedding day and I've mentioned before that they are my most favorite. The blue shoes and the shoe with the yellow sparkly I got at a garage sale. They are not exactly my size so they get worn on cold days. :) The pretty pink shoes I got to wear to a wedding and are just darling. And the precious polka dot shoes are what I'm wearing today. (Daniel asked if I needed to bring an extra pair 'just in case.' And I told him no! To which he replied with 'great, now I know what my evening will be like.' :) )

I just bought the CUTEST little green purse (I have a purse problem as well) and told Daniel this morning I needed to find green shoes to go with the green purse. He looked confused and asked me to repeat it so I did and asked him what he thought I said. He said "that's what I heard, it just didn't make any sense." Silly boy.

Until next time...

Day 17 - Technology

How 'Timberley' would have been a few hundred years ago:

Me "Where is the restroom?"
Them "There's an outhouse out back."
Me "Yeah, that's not really going to work for me, so....."

I was definitely born at the right time. Had I been born in any other time, I wouldn't have made it. I'm not cut out to 'rough it'. I like things like hot showers, AC, cars, DVR's, GPS, phones, my Nook and everything else that lights up or plugs in! And I'm pretty sure without them I would be completely lost.

And I think the Internet is paramount to every day life now. We use it to talk to people all over the world. Thanks to Skype, I get to see my far away family! We use it to find where we're going, things to cook, things to make, diagnose illness, meet soul mates, check reviews, shop and so much more. We're so dependent on our internet that when it's down - we're RAGEY!! "How am I going to check my email?!" All work STOPS. When our office internet is down, we kind of stand in the hall and look at each other. Everything we do is done through a network so when we're down, we're out. It's kind of amazing how dependent we are.

Oh, don't be fooled, you are too my friend! Just try going one day - an entire day - internet free. No phone, no Facebook, no nothing. Yeah, I couldn't do it either.

Until next time..

Day 16 - Long Exposure

This one was a challenge! And once again, I recruited Daniel for help. Actually, it's been a bit of a family affair.

I don't have a fancy camera but we were recently given one by my fantastic Father In Law. After reading the book to figure out how to take it, we searched for light! So in the darkness, we head out to the backyard. Daniel is taking the picture and I'm flailing a flashlight and a bicycle light I didn't even know we had (apparently the previous homeowners left it) and the dog is staring at us like we've lost our minds. (Usually he only stares at me because in his mind it must the Crazy Woman's idea - his Man would never have such crazy notions!) It was after we took the picture when we discovered I couldn't actually download it. :) But don't worry! The before mentioned Father In Law downloaded it and sent to me!

So here it is!

It's a little uninspired I guess. I thought about playing with 'long exposure' and doing something witty like frost bite or heat stroke but figured I've bent enough rules in this game already. And seriously, where on earth would I find enough cold for frost bite?!

No seriously, I want to know. This heat is getting to me. ;)

Until next time....

Day 15 - Silhouette (ish)

Daniel and I TRIED to get a silhouette picture. It was very entertaining! We confused the dog quite a bit. ;) Here are our attempts ~

This is a Willow Tree figure my grandmother gave us when we got married. It sits on our mantle and makes me smile. I think it's beautiful.

We both knew these are not quite what Dana's photo challenge 'silhouette' meant but it's what we ended up with after a few hours of trying.

And then, we found this on our driveway this morning (thank you Houston Chronicle!). Kismet!

I asked Daniel if it was cheating to take a picture of a silhouette picture and he said it's just being resourceful. :) I love him!

Until next time...

Day 14 - Eyes

It's a testament to our relationship that when I told my siblings I needed a picture of their eye, this is how they responded:

Tami - "Just don't get my pores."
Travis - "Both or just one."


No, what for? where is it going? or anything like that. Just okay. ;)


All born to the same parents, yet three very different eyes.

I'm the only blue set, Tami and Travis both have brown. Mom will tell you God gave them brown because she's a sucker for brown eyes and it's saved their lives on more than one occasion. ;)


We might see things very differently, but we're a very close knit group and I'd do anything for these two. We fight, we yell, we laugh, we love. And I wouldn't have it any other way.


We made a deal that for Travis's 21st birthday the three of us would get tattoos together. I made this agreement when 21 seemed far away. It's not now. I'm gaining reservations. ;)


Until next time....

Day 13 - Yourself with 13 Things

Travis thinks this might be stretching it with "yourself" since it's only my hand but we're just going to go with it! This is our Fridge.

On it there are 5 birth announcements, 1 engagement picture (their newborn child is also on the fridge, this probably means the engagement picture can come down but I like it) 4 pictures of children I love, Library Hours (again, I like to be prepared), a noodle drawing Tami did for me in High School and a post card from Alaska. You might have noticed that those are not the only items on the fridge, only the highlights.

Until next time...

Day 12 - A Sunset!

My picture isn't as beautiful as Dana's but a sunset it is! This is the view from our backyard, we are blessed. As much as the house makes us crazy, I love looking out our back door and seeing this every day.I knew I needed a sunset picture so I put on my outside shoes and Atti and I head out. We have very large trees in our backyard that house many a wild creature. I take two steps in to the backyard when two large, loud birds rustle the tree limbs and take off, scaring the bejebbers out of me. I thought I was under attack, total Alfred Hitchcock moment. :)

Until next time....

Day 11 - Something Blue

This is my wedding necklace.

Aquamarine is my favorite stone - my eyes are drawn to the pretty blue. Before the wedding, Mom and I were at a jewelry store having her necklace worked on when I saw this necklace. It was simple and delicate and beautiful. And not in my wedding budget so I left without it.

A few weeks later at my final dress fitting, Mom surprised me with the necklace. And it was perfect! And I love it.

Much like my wedding shoes, it's something from our wedding day that I can wear any time I want and that brings me joy. I'm wearing it today as a matter of fact! :)

Until next time....

Day 10 - A Childhood Memory

This one was a tough one! I have so many vivid memories that picking one seemed impossible.

Do I go with the time I locked Tami in a Rabbit cage? Most of my childhood was spent 'playing' with Tami. I say 'playing' because to an outsider - it might resemble 'torture'. Whatever, I was building character. We are 'lucky' because Mom owned a Home Video Camera during our childhood so she can prove our shenanigans at a drop of a hat. And she will! Just ask. Hours of entertainment. We'll watch the videos and Tami will say I was such a meanie! And I simply point out that the Parents KNEW what I was capable of but still allowed us to play together. That's just poor parenting! ;)

Or one of the countless special moments with Travis? One time when he was about 5, we were out shopping and he was being a total spaz so I told him he was being a SPAZAROMA!! He stops in the middle of the parking lot, puts one hand on his hip, points at me and says "I's not a spazaroma. By da way, what's a Spazaroma?!" :) Can you tell he was raised in a house with two teenage girls?

SEE!!! Too many!!


So I thought I'd share my favorite Daddy story. My junior year of High School, I was Props and Pyro for a play. One of the props was rice the actors had to eat during a scene. I came home, started the minute rice and proceeded to get ready for Opening Night. I go back in the kitchen and half of my rice is gone!! I run back in to the living room to see Daddy eating a bowl full of rice covered in Ketchup. Gross.

"DAD!!! That's my play rice!!!"
My VERY confused Father looks in his bowl, "no, it's real rice."

:) He offered to give it back, I declined. The show went on with only half a pot of rice.

Here's me and my Daddy on one of my birhtday's at the park. I love this picture.

Until next time....

Day 9 - Someone I love

So my Beloved refused to be photographed this morning and since I don't live with anyone else I simply adore, I went with Judy. Atti comes up later. And if I'm being honest, trying to chose between my loved ones would cause me great guilt. So Judy it is!

I LOVE Judy. Last month I was careless and caused her great pain. She had to have major reconstructive surgery and a butt lift. And after a month of being apart, I have her back!

This is what I did to my Judy.

And this is my Judy today!!
She still carries a few scars. Daniel said "she's been in an accident, she's never going to be perfect." My poor baby car.

Luckily scars are pretty cool.

Until next time....

Day 8 - A Bad Habit

Being honest stinks sometimes but Day 8 is all about a bad habit so here goes....

I have developed a Potty Mouth. In my defense, this wasn't a problem until I worked at my previous job! But that's no excuse. And I'm working on it.

In Jr. High, it's kind of cool to cuss. You're not really a kid anymore and it's so grown up! Our theater teacher caught us cussing once and said if we couldn't think of a more creative way to express ourselves, we didn't belong in the theater. And that stuck with me! I got through Jr. High, High School, College! and 6 years in Production before I started to sound like a sailor. It's so not Lady Like!

But at my previous Big Girl Job, I was surrounded by it every day and it just became a little easier. And now I'm trying to undo it.

How's that for honesty?

Until next time...

Day 7 - Fruit!

To be honest, I dialed this one in. We had a LOVELY weekend in Dallas with Alisha and we're happy to be home. We had some errands to run when I got home so I snapped this picture at my favorite place on Earth - (insert large amounts of sarcasm) WalMart.

If you watch the TV show Chuck - you'll know Pineapple is the safe word. It's a great episode! :)

Until next time...

Day 5 & 6 - High and Low!

This weekend Tami and I are going on a Road Trip!!! Since I will be without my computer, I thought I'd post High Angle and Low Angle together.

This is our Garden Gnome. His name is Gneil (the G is silent).

Until next time...

Day 4 - Something Green

I keep this in my wallet at all times. Go ahead and judge, I don't care! :)

Until next time...

Day 3 - Clouds

Day 3 of our Photo Challenge is Clouds.

And I love stormy clouds!

When I was little, I wasn't really scared of the Boogeyman or Chucky or anything like that; Daddy was a Police Officer so I was scared the bad guys he arrested would come for us. And in my child's mind, I figured the Bad Guys wouldn't come for us in the rain. They wouldn't want to get all wet, that would just be silly! So stormy weather has always been a comfort to me. It makes me feel safe.

An impending storm immediately gives me a since of calm. How backwards is that?!

Until next time.....

Day 2 - What You Wore Today

Instead of my not-so-cute, shipping-big-heavy-boxes-day outfit, I thought I'd share a few items I wear every day. (My interpretation of each days assignment might keep Dana from letting me play ever again!)

The necklace was a gift from Travis on my 21st birthday and is my 'every day' necklace. He picked it out all by himself! Mom said he had it in his head and there was no changing it. And it's perfect. He called it my 'little diamond'. :) There's nothing real about this necklace but I cherish it more than I can say. Travis paid enough attention once to realize I was still wearing it. "Hey! you're still wearing my necklace!" I wear it almost every day, kid. And I touch it a thousand times a day and think of you every time I do.

The rings were given to me by my Beloved and I adore them. One is a promise to start a life with me. The other is a vow to stick it out, no matter how crazy I get. ;) They bring me joy and I feel 'nekkid' without them.

The earrings are my 'every day' earrings and I can't remember where I got them, I only know most days they're in my ear. One is currently missing a back. I lose earring backs like crazy - this might be because I grab my ears all the time to make sure they're still there. I'm not sure what kind of party my ears are having, but I'm kind of upset I'm not invited.

And finally a hair band. I NEVER leave home without one. I start the day with my hair down but about an hour in - it's up in a knot. Every day. What can I say, I'm a creature of habit.

Until next time...

Day 1 - Self-portrait

Here's a little back story: my shiny new Big Girl job is in a creepy old building. :) It's actually an old Lab building. When the original company sold the building, our company bought it. We only use about 1/6 of the two wing/ two story building. The part of the building that is no longer used was just abandoned. There are empty offices with furniture, empty labs with stuff everywhere. It's dark and stinky and CREEPY!! I'm talking Resident Evil, Zombie Apocalypse creepy.

I have to ship things a lot and in order to get to the loading dock, you can go one of two routes. One route will take you the back way where you won't have to go through the lab and a hair net is not a requirement. I have attempted this route twice. Every time I get around the first turn I come to two doors. Both dark and both creepy. This is where my bravery stops. I backtrack and put on a hair net. I totally make it look cute anyway.

This was taken on my stupid smart phone and edited through my favorite App - Instagram. I'm probably going to break the rules and use a few old pictures for some of the challenges. In a previous life, I had access to a super fancy camera that took super cool pictures that I never got to show off. So sad. But now I can! So cool! :)

I'm supposed to do a linky thing but I'm easily confused. :) Here's Dana's Day 1 pic!

Until next time....