I'm Back!

Our trip to Vegas flew by!
We spent some time at the pool, a little bit of time gambling {stupid pai gow}, a lot of time eating, and on our last day I did a quick "photo speed-walk". There were so many shots I wanted but did get taken...such as a single shot of Seth and me! Mainly I just took time to relax and enjoy the time alone with my husband. It was actually nice to not worry about taking my camera everywhere with me.

I did manage to make it to The Auto Collection at Imperial Palace and a quick walk-thru at the Bellagio.
Here are just a few shots...I'll share more throughout the week.
{all of the following will be making their way to the shop soon, just an fyi}

Milkweed & the Beetle, et al.

You probably know by now that the kids and I were in Iowa for several days last week.
We ended up going to the fair on both Thursday and Friday...all day, both days. I'm still worn out just thinking about it! Saturday we spent the morning at my grandparents' farm. The shots for today are from the countryside around their house.


This is some kind of beetle on a milkweed pod.
I'm amazed this turned out at all.
It was incredibly windy...but it was a blissfully cool wind, so I really can't complain.





My youngest sister is seventeen and beginning to get into photography.
I'm pretty excited and wish we lived closer so she and I could do photo walks together.
So we walked down to the creek and around the bean and corn fields taking shots of anything and everything!
She was determined to find caterpillars...and she did.





Then our dad found a cocoon!
I've never seen one out in nature before, so that was pretty cool.



My grandma has a really lovely flower bed which was buzzing with all kinds of bugs.
Can you see the nearly clear little guy above?



And here he is again with a giant bumble bee.

Miscellaneous Monday #2

I have a feeling this week is going to be almost as busy as last and I deeply apologize in advance for not returning comments.
Rowan's toe has healed, but she now has strep throat. And an awful rash, which we initially thought was a reaction to penicillin, to go with it.
Oye.

Here are just a couple of shots from last week...

Miscellaneous Monday

So many photos, so few memes.
{...wait...that's not right.}


But I do have a handful of extra shots from last week that never made it into the rotation.
Most are from Thursday's trip to the farmstead.



This little guy was sooooo cute!!!
{if someone had told me I could take them all home, I'd have done so in a heartbeat!}





...one if by land, two if by sea...
This was one of several lanterns in the dairy barn.
and I liked it, so I took a picture.





They also have these gorgeously green well-style hand pumps with cobalt blue basins beneath as their wash station near the goats.
{beauty is in the details...except you can't really see them here.}




and who could ignore the giant red barn?!
{well, no one, because that's where you enter. ;)}
Check out that weather vane, too!




And this one....there's a story here...

My husband and I had gone out to stake up our tomato plants in our backyard one evening when we caught two bunnies nibbling away at the new growth.
{stinkin' bunnies}
But instead of running away as fast as they could, they ran a little bit and stopped.
So I ran to get my camera!
When I came back I apparently made "ridiculous clopping noises" with my flip flops {so says my husband} and scared them away. They ran under our wooden gate and I had to go see if they stopped again.
Which they did! One was about 6 feet from me, so I carefully crouched to the ground to get some shots.
I managed to take a few super blurry ones and then the bunny started hopping toward me!
Closer and closer...
{why oh why did I grab my 70-300 when the 50 is what I needed?!?}
And then as if that wasn't crazy enough, this gutsy bunny starts running at me!

What do I do?
I flinch.
A bunny made me flinch.
And he ran away for real this time.

Not long after all this, his buddy figured out that his friend was gone and came out for the shot above.

PS - If you have an interest in handmade items, then Celeste at French Onion Finds has you covered! At her brand spankin' new blog she showcases beautiful items from Etsy. And it just so happens that her first post includes one of my photographs. ;)