Sweet Sorrow

Tonia is in Orlando this week, so we got together for lunch yesterday at Crispers - I was 30 minutes late because I always forget about rush hour traffic. It was interesting to see how Crispers redid the inside to look more like a cafe, with high tables on one side and leather chairs on the other. We drove to Miriam's house at 6:30pm where she & Tonia got ready for the shoot. (It was so flattering to see pictures of baby Matilda that I took last year framed around her house. Also note how she used a stick to hold her necklaces. Very cool!)

Since we ran out of time (sunlight wise) at the first location, we drove around for a bit until we decided to stop at Leader's - a patio furniture store. The over head lighting was great against the dark sky. And I found that the lights from traffic added a cool bokeh effect in the background, so we stuck with that for a while. Miriam told me about a new editing site called Pixlr, which is what I used to edit the following photos:

I was going crazy with experimental edits and ended up loving them way more than anticipated. It may have helped more that I was listing to upbeat "club" music as I was tweaking them.

Don't Step in a Poodle

I don't remember if I mentioned that on June 10th, on Michael's sweet way home from buying 25 blown up balloons to put around the house for my birthday (I wouldn't let him pop the big cupcake shaped one that is currently floating next to me), without noticing, his phone fell out of the pouch clipped on his belt and landed in a puddle outside. He didn't find it until 30 minutes later and even after drying, it wouldn't turn on. It has been raining so much lately, but it is hurricane season.. So the next day he bought an iPhone. Here are Michael's Instagram pictures that I have been meaning to post:

*please click the photos for larger versions! =)
The first four pictures are from when we went to the new mini golf course at CityWalk/ Universal on my birthday (two weeks ago)! We did the "Alien Invasion" half. There was a haunted house one too, but I told Michael I would prefer to do that one during the day. The fourth row is showing off the current project Michael is working on, which is related to the bottom left picture from Thursday last week. We were in Good Will trying to find a female version of the Penguin outfit for me. (From "Batman Returns", 1992.) Then tonight we had dinner again at Bob's Potatoes.

Sweet Babe

This sweet girl hasn't gotten her photo on my blog in a while. I was inspired to take these after spending a while on a pretty Tumblr page.

I know I need many more of Michael as well. My family.

the Dog Lady

Over the past two days I have turned into the lady who treats her pet like a child. I'm sure Sasha doesn't mind the extra attention. I've been giving her lots of kisses today, even though she is quite stinky. She needs a spa day for sure! A good shampoo bubble bath & her nails need to be clipped something fierce. Do they make breath mints for dogs?

We had lunch (bagel bites) on the porch today, until her privileges got revoked from too much barking - again with everyone walking their dogs at the same time, geez. And we sat outside again while the sun was going down. It was cool out, so I had to put a sweater on and when I noticed Sasha was shaking, I got her fancy jacket out and her blanket. I wanted to show pictures of the few plants I still have too. (From top to bottom: Picotee Cosmos, the name sunned off of the tiny ones, African Daisies, Annual Flower Mix & regular? Cosmos) The older ones died - or they are about to. *sadness* (The pictures are a much better viewing size if you click them!)

I have been on <this> super cute family blog all day and the mom has a lot of high angled shots with the kids looking up and only their faces in focus. I stood on the wobbly chair (basically risking my life) to try a couple with Sasha. Its funny going backwards through her life, watching the kids get younger. Sasha & I went inside when it got dark to watch "the Time Traveler's Wife".

She stared at me to put the blanket over her but once I made popcorn, the blanket moved and a wet nose poked out. It was very funny. I didn't grab the camera fast enough, but this other one is still cute. I'm watching "P.S. I Love You" also because it definitely makes me never want to argue with Michael again, especially not to roll my eyes and walk away about such dumb little things. There is far too much love in our whole bodies to ever waste any precious second!