Oh Christmas Tree

I get so much joy out of our Christmas tree each season, from the decorating of it to the nightly lit presence of it in our living room. Each and every ornament has sentimental value, especially the ones hand made by my daughter...there's the telescope-shaped one made out of felt that she made for her Dad when she was 4, and the mouse made out of acorn caps and a walnut half that she made in first grade. There's the snowman made out of the tongue depressor, and the reindeer made out of wooden beads and pompoms, with bent pipe cleaners for antlers. There are all of the ballet dancer ornaments we bought her during her many years of dance, and the annual polar bear/penguin ornaments that our dog, Ruby, buys for her "big sister". Then there are the Disney ornaments we happily picked out with each visit to Disney World, and my German ornaments I bought when I lived in Heidelberg at 19. Forty years later, I still carefully unpack them from their boxes and hang them on the tree with fondness. How could one not smile when looking at these precious things? And as I hang each ornament on the tree, the moments come back to me.

I know there are people who have "theme" trees each year, with every ornament carefully picked to coordinate with the color scheme. Everything is perfectly put together, and they are beautiful. Ours is eclectic and messy, with ornaments in various colors and states of beauty or disrepair. But what it lacks in aesthetics, it makes up for with love...precious trinkets of love, twinkling at me on a winter evening, reminding me to stop and take a breath while my heart overflows with memories. This is my submission for Photo Art Friday at Pixel Dust Photo Art.

Snowman Collection

Do you have a Christmas collection at your house? In our family, we have a snowman collection that seems to grow with each passing year. Every year, I say, "This has got to stop," and every year I find myself buying one more snowman that's too cute to pass up. I keep them all together in one spot in our dining room, but there's not much space left on my dining room hutch. They've taken over every square inch, but it sure is festive. This snowman sits in one of our dining room chairs, and I loved the texture captured in this photo. This is my submission for both Texture Thursday at The Daily Wyatt and This or That Thursday at Deb Duty Photography. Please visit their blogs to see some wonderful photos!

Let It Snow

One of my favorite parts of the Christmas season is when my daughter and I pull out our holiday decorations. She gets so excited each year to make our house look festive and it alway marks the beginning of our celebration of Christmas. These moments have become treasured memories to me as we unpack the boxes together and set everything out. Each decoration has a memory that makes me smile. Even though she's in college now, I'm grateful that she's still home on Thanksgiving weekend so we can do this together. This is my photo submission for Kim Klassen's Texture Tuesday. I used her texture "trust" and also used several filters in Radlab (which I purchased as an early Christmas present on Black Friday...it was on sale, so how could I resist?).

Pretty in Pink

My daughter loves shoes, and these pretty heels are her favorites. She was happy to model them for me so I could capture this shot. This is my submission for I Heart Faces, which focuses this week on feet instead of faces.

Holiday Treats

This is my submission for this week's "I Heart Macro" at Studio Waterstone. I'm baking holiday treats for the neighbors today...the house smells so good. I've only eaten two cookies so far! That's good, right? :)

One Step at a Time

This is my submission for Photo Art Friday at Pixel Dust Photo Art. Believe it or not, this is a close-up of a step in the historical part of Williamsburg, VA. Since all of the buildings in this area are historically accurate, I was very curious as to why this small "panel" was embedded into each step. It looks like some sort of copper that has been tarnished. It was wet with morning dew and had amazing color to it. For the PDPA challenge, I tried to add a layer with writing, but then use a mask to only reveal parts of it on the image. I loved the effect...the texture I used was Bonnie's "Ma Belle 2". It's gorgeous and one of my favorites!

Up Close and Personal

As someone new to photography, I'm still finding out who I am behind the lens. I've been feeling a bit self-conscious that so many of my photos are close-ups of leaves. Then it dawned on me...close-ups are where my eye leads me the most. I get the most joy out of photos when they are of everyday things magnified...zoomed in on so one can notice their beautiful textures and colors. This is likely who I am as a photographer. With that said, here is yet another close-up of some gorgeous brown leaves against a blacktop backdrop (say that ten times fast). This is my submission for both Texture Thursday at The Daily Wyatt and This or That Thursday at Deb Duty Photography. If you want to submit your own photos, check them out! They both have beautiful blogs.