I heart cookies

A few days ago, Maddy's cookie dough fundraiser arrived and we have been itching to bake some cookies from the batch. Tonight we got our chance!

It was so much fun. Maddy and I dug through the baking bucket and came up with red and green crystal sprinkles, red & green non-perrel (sp??) sprinkles, and crushed peanuts. We each got our own cookie sheets and 3 lbs. of sugar cookies later, we will have lots to munch on throughout the week :-)

This photo challenge

Ok, so I totally admit this sounds pathetic and shameful, it only took until Day 6 to derail me (sometimes commitment to new hobbies is not the most tried-n-true) but I thought that a photo a day (while challenging OF COURSE, that is why it is called a photo challenge) would enhance my holiday spirit and add to the festivities instead of take away from it and just seem waaaay too much like homework (which I vowed not to do for a whole year after my master's degree and it has only been 7 months haha)
I don't want to sigh and frown when I look at my Canon because I missed a day or just cannot get my creative juices flowing because they are being delegated towards something else currently
I think to make this challenge more manageable (and likeable, I suppose) I would like to transfer over to a photo a week (I am currently researching challenges that take you through the year and help improve your technique as well as style as a photographer......oh, maybe I will be able to use manual mode! haha)

Well, just wanted to let you know that while I have fallen off the wagon on my December photo challenge (I suppose in the back of my mind I knew this was inevitable) I have something else up my sleeve, so don't lose hope and stay tuned!

Day 6

Today's challenge is actually candy canes, but I have to do a lil switcho and postpone the candy canes until the weekend.....(oh boy! wait till you see this one!!)
so I am taking Saturday's challenge of The Nativity Scene and doing it today

Our nativity & you must hear the amazing story behind it - this was given to me as a present 2 Christmases ago by my brother, Chad, while he was away on active in Iraq. The best part of the story is that the wood used to make this nativity scene came from a tree in Bethlehem so that makes this christmas items one of my most prized material possessions because I have a nativity scene made of wood HAND CRAFTED from the holy land. I dont think it cant get much better than that

Something warm and tasty

OK folks, day 5 and my assignment is something warm and tasty..... what is probably everyone's immediate response to this one? Yep, hot chocolate. Maddy is an eager little guinea pig for this picture :-) and the best part, Mom makes the hot chocolate for her since technicality she is the one "doing me a favor" haha

Traditions

Day 4 is traditions. In our house we have a lot of holiday traditions, but one of them that brings me the most joy is the "story telling" that occurs as we hang our ornaments on the tree each year. I am crazy about finding an ornament for our tree during annual vacations or other big milestones in our lives
here are some of my favorites from over the past 7 years

our most recent one from our February 2008 cruise to the Bahamas for our 5 yr wedding anniversary

bought the winter we got married in 2006

when we bought our 1st house together June 2006

for the Christmas of 2006 when my brother was away on tour in Iraq

our family vacation to Disneyland in February 2008

The Christmas Tree

The challenge for today? The Christmas tree.....
I have been excited for this day since I saw the challenge layout because there was an idea off of another blog (Lighted Christmas Tree) that I found on Pinterest that I have been dying to replicate
Their version?

OMG, it seriously doesnt get anymore beautiful than that!!!!

Turn off all other lights, crank up the ISO all the way and lower the shutter speed. Place your camera on a tripod and you are ready to go!

My version (I have two trees, so I did it with both of them)

f 4.5

1/30th

ISO 6400

f 4.5

1/10 (wanted to change it since it is a black tree)

ISO 6400

so I am not 100% in love with my photos tonight, but I had alot of fun experimenting with the camera on the tripod and adjusting the settings in manual mode (a mode I rarely shoot in unfortunately)

Blaze Michael

The weekend before Thanksgiving I was honored and overjoyed to be asked by my cousin Nathan to take pictures of his son Blaze for him. (I am over the moon ecstatic actually because up until this point the pictures that I have done for people have been offers on my part)
"When are you coming home to Tamaqua?"
"Ugh, I dont think that option is going to work. What about meeting halfway in Hershey? We can eat some lunch at Red Robin and then find a place afterwards to take the pictures"
"Sounds like an awesome plan! THANK YOU!"

Now I am left to think, where can I take Blaze to get his pictures taken? My initial thought - let's go to the Fort Indiantown Gap exit off the interstate and go to the park that my SIL took us a few years ago for our family portraits. Upon further thinking, WHAT AM I THINKING? haha this park has no playground, nothing to keep a 17 month old entertained so I can take his picture! The most common thought then occurs to me, "you cannot pose a 17 month old, this is going to take all of your creative juices and a whole lot of prayer" LOL

The answer to one of my prayers, the discovery of Cocoa Castle a super cute playground that is only miles away from the Red Robin. Now my creative juices can start flowing. I am still super nervous. When we get there and start shooting, (on a gorgeous fall day, I might add. The weather couldn't have cooperated with us more!) my nerves slip away and I actually develop some confidence in my abilities (another answered prayer). Blaze just runs throughout the playground and I tag along for the ride. I will say though "Thank God for digital cameras" because my camera is on action mode the entire afternoon (which also means that I am shooting two or three pictures every time I hit the trigger). I tried putting it into other modes (portrait, AP, landscape, etc....) and the result is just blurry or out of focus pictures because Blaze is just GOING. Who can blame him either? This park is seriously super  fun and awesome! (it actually was featured in an episode of Jon and Kate Plus 8) The result: 837 pictures at the end of 2 hours!!!!! haha I uploaded the pics at home on my laptop and it was like watching a mini Blaze movie play itself out across the play equipment.

Now the hard part: editing. I use a website called Picnik which isn't the super fanciest site (I do pay for the premium membership which is only $25/yr) but it is very user friendly and I love the effects I can produce. I narrow the selection of photos down to a little over 215 and then begin altering originals into black-n-whites, sepia tones, adding text & stickers, plus everything in between.

The end result: pictures that I totally in love with and I happy to report that so are Nathan and Aunt Karen!
You have probably seen these all on Facebook (I have been adding them along the way to give Nate some sneak peaks till I am finished) but these are some of my favorites out of the bunch with additional commentary that I didn't add to the pics on facebook since I didn't want to write captions

Enjoy :-)

I don't think he dropped that superball all afternoon

it took him awhile to warm up to the swings and Daddy had to be the one pushing

I am SO happy that I accidentally caught this moment on camera. Doesn't it almost remind you of a Forrest Gump moment (like in the movie where they are sitting on the log together, looking identical)

Nathan (or Nikki - cant remember which) was holding crayons, leftover from our lunch at Red Robin, above my head and asking him to point to certain colors

This shot was actually Maddy's idea

If Blaze would talk he would be saying "OMG Tabitha! Are you done yet?!?!"

we are not above bribing him with swedish fish towards the end of the shoot (I dont think anyone in our family is above bribery with swedish fish! LOL)

"Put a fish in my mouth, I am laying here for you Daddy"

hit the duckie

"Come on Nana, time to go home"

Sweets

ok, Day Two and my challenge is sweets. Oh, boy: one of my favorite things this time of year (who am I kidding, ANY time of the year! haha)
Today, I am in my kitchen not only making dinner, but some cookies to take along to church tomorrow for our cards & cookies event (thank God, because I seriously have no idea when else I am going to find time to make my cards this year!) anyhoo, my choice: Peanut Butter Cookie Cups, can you say YUMMO?!?!

want the recipe? here ya go :-)

Ingredients

1 1/3 cup flour

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla

1/2 cup peanut butter

1/2 cup butter 

about 48 reese's peanut butter cups (this is more than one 11 oz. bag)

Proceed:

• cream together egg, vanilla, butter, peanut butter, and brown sugar
• meanwhile combine dry ingredients (flour, baking soda, and sugar) then add to wet ingredients
• roll into balls (I "cheat" and use my lil mini scooper from Pampered Chef) and pop into sections of mini muffin pan (make sure sections of tin are greased!)
• Bake at 350 for 6 mins then press peanut butter cups into cookie while still warm
• scoop out and place on cooling racks to finish

(makes about 48 cookies)

So, enjoy & I am off to sneak "just one, I promise" and continue to read Hunger Games (the 1st one) now that my photo challenge is done for the day!

• Press peanut butter cups

Something Red

Today's challenge is to photograph something red. Immediately I think of.....my bed! The giant red comforter that keeps me OH SO cozy and then I have to reel my mind back in before I crawl into bed again and not go to work. This is a DECEMBER photo challenge, I think the "something red" is suppose to be of a holiday themed item. Oh, ok.....and the hunt is on! What I decided on?

Maddy's strawberry shortcake ornament that hangs on her tree (that's right, I said HER tree. We have two trees in our house: a black one and a white one. I know, very untraditional, but they look so awesome with their lights and all decorated up!)

Madeline's Strawberry Shortcake ornament was a present from my Dad and his wife Maggie about 6 yrs ago (one of the first Christmases we celebrated together as a new family) and it smells like Strawberry Shortcake TO THIS DAY! Tree decorating is not complete until this ornament comes out of the bag, Maddy smells it (deeply I might add haha) and then hangs it on the tree

So there, you go.....something red :-)

December Photo Challenge

I think it would be alot of fun to do photo challenges each month. A self-motivated checklist of something you should take a picture of each day. I was hunting on someone else's blog (Capture Your 365) where I found tons of cool monthly photo challenges that you could do. I came across the one for December 25 December Daily Photos.
Then I started thinking that I don't want to put a photo challenge on the Eckenrode Exclusive so why not make another blog. By no means am I a professional photographer, just LOVE my Canon and totally enjoy exploring my new hobby :-)
Tomorrow will begin my December photo challenge. Check it out if you are interested....
and remember.....
I am just a Lady with a Camera!