Happy home [Wenatchee photography + design]

Do you have a happy home? I'm not asking about a clean home, or a well furnished home. But a happy one? I do. It's something that struck me today, out of the blue. More messy than clean, more run-down than new and fancy, but the one thing you are guaranteed to get at our home is laughter. I don't have an exotic life by any means, but I am happy most of the time, most every day. Decided to make a little illustration of a happy house and loved how it turned out so thought I'd offer prints. It's printed on 12"x18" metallic paper and is so happy and cheerful looking!

Road to somewhere [Wenatchee photography + design]

I took a little time last week to participate in an art challenge issued over on Kal Barteski's blog (one of my daily must reads!) Pick a subject/topic and explore the same thing in 5 different ways over the course of 5 days. I've been noticing a lot of roads showing up in my photos lately so I went with that. I loved having an excuse to play around with photos and software with no real goal other than exploring what kind of look I could come up with. These are all digital effects. And I did combine one day with my other ongoing project, the remember this series. I'm all for the "two birds/one stone" method when necessary. The pieces of this series are available as prints, beginning at $8 for a 12x8, in my print shop.

Chocolate-orange cupcakes [Wenatchee food photography]

My attempt at this recipe. I often use parchment paper for lining because I'm always out of cupcake liners. Seeing someone else use it like this made me do a double-take at the recipe (plus the photo was beautiful.) It sounded good and I had all the ingredients so I made them last night and they were so, so good

19 on 19 [Wenatchee photography + design]

Wow. Just wow. My first born baby is 19. Almost out of the teens and really, truly an adult (as opposed to just trying to act like one!) Two recent pics, here she is studying for a college math test (and trying to watch American Idol at the same time) and on the right, getting ready for a "hot date" (ha ha, with her sister) to watch Tim Burton's "Alice in Wonderland".

Here are 19 things about Shade on her 19th birthday:

• Her favorite food is pepperoni pizza
• She plays volleyball on her college team
• She hates to disappoint people
• She's extremely loyal
• She's really strong
• She's pretty shy
• Team Edward over team Jacob
• Loves movies
• Loves fruit (would be a "fruitatarian" if she could
• Loves to sleep but is a night-owl
• Really picky eater. Really.
• Calls her favorite famous hotties her "husbands" (as in, "Hugh Laurie on House? Yeah, he's one of my husbands")
• She hates attention
• Still would love a pony for her birthday
• Doesn't like the quiet
• Has really long hair
• Can be ready to leave in 10 minutes
• Is more artistic and smarter than she gives herself credit for
• Is loved more than she could ever know

Water and fresh air [Wenatchee photography + design]

Week 8 has been brightened with fresh air and spring-like temps for our normally-in-the-middle-of-winter valley. Blue skies teasing us that warmer days just might be around the corner. And the best part of that is shaking off the cabin fever that takes hold between New Years holiday and the first rays of sunshine. My reminder to the girls is to get outside already. Turn off the TV, the cellphone, the Wii, X-Box, computer, laptops, etc...and STEP. OUTSIDE. And BREATHE. Can't resist adding water to the mix because they don't drink nearly enough ("pop please") and also, swimming is FUN!