My cat

I appear to be fairly obsessed with taking pictures of my cat.  I can't help it.  She sits for me longer than the kid or the dogs.  She doesn't mind that I stick the camera 3 inches from her face.  She is a very photogenic kitty.  I am sure people are tired of my cat pictures all over Facebook and Instagram, so I guess I will do a blog post full of the beautiful pictures of Cherrie.

A little back story on Cherrie.  A year and couple of months ago, my darling daughter, E, was at her Nana's.  My mom lives out in the country and has a few feral cats.  One of the cats had kittens.  There were only two kittens to be found.  Well, my child decided to sit out some milk and wait for one of these little baby kittens.  After some time, this little furrball came out to get some milk and E grabs her.  She takes her inside and bathes her because furrball is covered in fleas.  E then calls us and begs to bring this kitten home.  We already had a 16 year old cat at home that didn't take kindly to new pets.  After much pleading to her dad (I was an easy sell), he caved.  We told E that furrball would have to be completely flea free before coming home.  My mom kept her at her house for about 3 weeks and bathed her a lot.  E decided to name her Cherrie from a series of books that she reads.  So this is how Cherrie came to live with her family.  My dear 16 year old cat (who I have had since she was 6 weeks old) passed away in December, just 2 months after we got Cherrie.  Cherrie helped me through the loss.

Cherrie is a little spitfire.  She is very curious, very playful and it sooo entertaining.  She plays fetch with anything.  She loves the dogs.  She also loves dog treats and will sit with the dogs when the package comes out.  She doesn't like cups to be upright and will knock anything she can onto the floor. We love this little wall climbing cat.  Now for some pictures.

Baby Cherrie - 6 weeks old

A Photographer Pet Peeve

I just posted a few photos on Facebook.  I love being able to creatively grow as a photographer.  I challenge myself.  I need to challenge myself more.  With that being said, I hate it when after I post pictures people often say "you have a nice camera" or something along that variation.  It is NOT the camera that composed that shot, or set the settings on the camera (I shoot in Manual most of the time).  Did the camera take the picture I told it to? Yes it did.

I take really good pictures with my iphone.  Back before I had a DSLR I had a $100 point and shoot camera.  I took really good photos with that.  They aren't what I can do now, but they are good.  It is not the camera that made me better (though having certain settings are nice) its the training and techniques that made me better.  I plan on doing an experiment to see how many people really can tell the difference in cameras.

I am not saying that I am the best photographer out there or anywhere close, but I do have a few photographs that I am extremely proud of.  Some are before I went to school to know what I was doing.

Another pet peeve topic for another time: "Can't you just photoshop it?"

Err
I leave you with a photo I took at the zoo on Monday.

Who doesn't love a purple flamingo?? (yes, photoshop was used in the manipulation)

Motivation and Goals

I am a procrastinator.  It is something I am trying to change.  I am also messy, something else I am trying to change.  So, I feel if I post my goals for people to read it will give me motivation to get done.

My number one goal is to get back to a daily devotion.  I haven't done this in a while and I feel it will help all other aspects of my life if I get this under control.  I am on the look out for a good women's devotion.

Number 2: Finish getting my house organized.  My living room still needs to be painted, but I have decluttered and purged a lot of stuff.  Now, it only takes about 5 to 10 minutes to pick up.  After I finished making costumes for this last production, there was stuff everywhere.  My next room is our computer room.  This room is overwhelming.  There is so much stuff I need to get rid of.  My husband spends a lot of time in this room.  I guess it's his "nerd-cave" (I would say man cave but it has a ton of my stuff in it, and its not used to watch sports, mainly to play video games and study stocks).  I would like to get rid of our giant desk in there, but I would need to get a book shelf and bigger filing cabinet to replace it.  I am giving myself a couple of weeks (procrastination).

Number 3: Join a gym.  I have been walking/running, zumba (at home on the wii), and doing Jillian Michaels since October.  All of these things have helped me start to change the shape of my body, but I think I need more.  Plus, I don't want to get bored.  My problem is once I get to the gym, I am not entirely sure what to do.  I will probably need a trainer for the first couple of weeks.  I am ready to build muscle and tone what I have.  I don't want to lose anymore weight though.

Number 4:  Work on my photography.  I want to start selling prints.  I am not quite sure how to get my work out there for purchase.  As soon as the weather gets warmer, I am taking my new camera out and get lost in my own city and just shoot.  As soon as I learn how, I will post a link to my photography website.

So there are a few of my goals.  I will keep progress on how I do.  Heck, I still haven't made the NY Times chocolate chip cooks.  Procrastination sucks!!

Quests

So, I am on a quest to find the best chocolate chip cookie recipe.  I am thinking about trying the New York Times best chocolate chip cookie, but don't really want to have to commit 24 hours to it.  I made cookies to take to my new neighbors across the street.  I like trying new recipes for cookies.  I usually send them to hubby's work to be eaten.  I love Pinterest for the very reason of all the cookie recipes.  Some of my not-so-popular cookies have been the banana pudding cookie and the root beer float cookie.  People really enjoy the chocolate peanut butter cup cookies.  I might need to make a new batch of those.  I really want to make a lemon cookie of some sort.  I also want to make these Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough bites. I am pretty positive my family will gobble these up.


My next quest is to get back to making crock-pot meals.  I live with two of the pickiest people ever!  Rarely can I make anything remotely healthy that they will eat.  My go-to recipe is chicken tacos.  chicken breasts (I use two and we always have leftovers), rotel, and a half a packet of taco seasoning mixed with 3/4 cup of water.  Four hours on high.  Yummy!!

Tomorrow I plan on going to the zoo to play around with my new camera I got for Christmas.  I just hope it is not too cold (I hate cold!)

I leave you with the cookies I made yesterday.

Who I am

A way to introduce myself to the blogging world:

25 things about me:

1. Love God, my family and friends
2. Mickey Mouse is my favorite - I would live in Disney if I could
3. New York City is almost as magical as Disney World
4. Married for 15 years
5. I have a daughter who is 12
6. I love baseball - Yankees
7. I love romantic comedies and musicals
8. I am the costume designer for a local children's musical theatre company
9. I love to sew (a good thing because of number 8)
10. I love to bake - anything
11. I am a certified professional cake decorator
12. I am a professional photographer - degree and everything
13. I love Maroon 5
14. I probably watch way too much TV
15. I have some unusual collections - Disney antenna balls (over 110 unique ones) as an example
16. My favorite animal - Hippo followed closely by penguin, owl and flamingo
17. Deathly terrified by birds (ironic that 3 of my 4 favorite animals are birds)
18. I have a pug, blue heeler, and a calico kitty cat
19. I take way too many pictures of my animals
20. I have stuck with exercising for 5 months - my longest ever
21. I have lost 70 pounds over the last year and couple of months
22. I like doing laundry
23. I like living in the city, I am not a country girl
24. I like to shop
25. I am working on organizing my house - and successful at most of it.

I hope I didn't bore you.  I just wanted to get some things out there about myself.  I will probably blog about these topics the most.