It's time for a wedding!

Two of my favorite people in the world are getting married today.

Your regularly scheduled Friday feature post series will return next week! I'm taking the weekend off from blogging for some family time and a holiday craft show and will see you again on Monday.

B is for Beaches

Happy Thanksgiving!

However you are celebrating today, I hope that it is enjoyable.

Normally I wouldn't have a regular post for a holiday, but Alphabe Thursday doesn't stop for holidays so you get another round today. One of the many thing that I love about Milwaukee is the beaches. People don't think of beaches when they think of Milwaukee, but it is situated right on Lake Michigan, and there are so many breathtaking views throughout the city's entire coastline. I hope that you enjoy this little tour of just a few of Milwaukee's beaches.

Klode Park, January 2013

 

Lake Park, March 2013

 Veterans Park, April 2013

Some of the beaches offer great views of the city skyline.

Doctors Park, April 2013

 

Klode Park, May 2013

Lake Park, May 2013

 

Grant Park, June 2013

Looking down at the beach from one of the trails.

 

Klode Park, July 2013

 

Atwater Beach, July 2013

 

Grant Park, August 2013

I know that I have shared this photo before...a few times. I hope that you aren't sick of it yet. I'm not sure how anyone could get sick of this view, but since I took the photo, maybe that opinion is a little biased.

Check out what the other Alphabe Thursday participants posted for the letter B this week right here!

2013 Christmas designs

One of the toughest part about shows is keeping inventory stocked because you never know what will and won't sell from year to year and even show to show.

I had no idea that my Christmas designs, both new and old, would do so well this year.

But it's been keeping me busy this month. That's a good thing.

As many of you know, one of the things that I love about my customers if that they come up with some of the best ideas for new designs.

I hadn't made button dangle earrings in this style with Christmas colors before, but I had a customer at a show who wanted earrings with silver bells to match the coordinating bracelet. So here they are, in both silver and gold.

All of the designs featured in this post are available in the jewelry shop. As always if you have any questions about anything or are interested in a custom order, please don't hesitate to ask.

What have you been working on lately?

photo outtakes

I'm sharing another round of photo outtakes today. This will be a regular feature for the foreseeable future. I think that it's really important to discuss the fact that I take a ton of photos to get a few gems. Also, while I keep improving my skills, I still make a lot of mistakes. Here are just a few examples of my recent outtakes.

Auto focus fail at the zoo.

Boring. I liked the whole concept of the leading line under the bridge, but it didn't work out very well.

I thought this would be a cool angle of the trees that you could see through the wooden slats...but they were completely overexposed.

This was another auto focus fail of sorts. There are plenty of possibilities for focusing on a microphone in front of a musician that could be really cool, but this didn't work.

Kitty tail. I'm sure that this shot looks familiar to many of my readers.

Long exposure fail of a fountain. I need to get serious about getting out with my tripod and neutral density filters.

I've taken some cool pictures of stacked picnic tables before and wanted to try my hand at it again, but this time wasn't one of my more successful attempts.

I think that I had my camera on the wrong setting here.

Poor Abe Lincoln is completely in the shadows.

Since I got a 50mm filter, I've been playing around with using a heart filter...kind of a lot. Sometimes when I'm not careful, I get unintentional vignetting and very few hearts. You can see a few tiny ones right around the plant in the center. It would be cool to play around with vignetting more, but it's frustrating to get these failed attempts at heart bokeh.

Don't be afraid to share your outtakes once in a while! It makes everyone feel better.

photo share: fall at its best

I have not taken a lot of random photo excursions the past couple months. But every once in a while there has been a day that was just too beautiful not to get out with my camera for a little bit. I'm glad that I was able to capture a little bit of this aesthetic while it was still around. Enjoy.

Have you been sharing your fall photos online? Leave a link so we can check them out!

Saturday is Caturday

Are you ready to start your weekend with a round up of amazing kitty photos?

Just in case you were wondering whether or not this still goes on around here.

So excited about watching the snow a couple weeks ago.

Enjoying Return to Me.

Apollo, the ever present lap buddy.

"What? I'm not keeping you from working."

Usually I wash towels and bedding together. Sometimes a towel gets caught in a fitted sheet in the dryer and doesn't dry completely. The last time this happened, I spread the towel over an empty laundry basket to dry. Someone had other ideas about what to do with the towel.

Just a little face / ear licking. Nothing unusual.

Major jewelry making interruption.

Apollo just can't get enough attention.

I don't make this stuff up. Priceless.

Enjoying South Park.

What have your cats been up to lately?