It's The Little Things...

Some days it's just the little things that make it so much better. I had been feeling a bit down due to the fact I hadn't been working. South Carolina will be hosting another Regional and for the first time in 3 years I won't be there. It's a little hard for me to handle.
My husband knew I had been feeling this way and surprised me with this beautiful orchid when he got home from work today! It was so sweet, and put a huge smile on my face. He's the best!
I can look forward to celebrating a month of marriage on Friday, and my 27th Birthday next Friday. That has me pretty excited now too!

Thanks for reading!

Orly Frisky: My Memorial Day Mani

Today I'm showing you my Memorial Day manicure. I used Orly's Frisky. I was initially just going to leave it at that. Then I added and accent nail with China Glaze Love Marilyn.

Frisky is a bright turquoise blue. It photographs a bit lighter than it is in my opinion. Beautiful color.

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Memorial Day 2013

Today is a day to give thanks to those who have served and continue to do so. Thank you for protecting our freedom. Happy Memorial Day!

My Grandpa a Navy Gunner on the Essex in WWII.

My husband got a new propane tank and we grilled out for the first time this year! I was super excited. We ate well and relaxed with the pups. It was a nice day.

Orly Frisky. Accent Nail: China Glaze Love Marilyn

Posing with her toy that we found again. She was happy it still squeaked!

It looks like we were about to play leap frog!

Time to play fetch!

First grillin' of the season!

I love crispy hot dogs!

The finished meal.

I adore my little family. ♥

Happy Memorial Day from our family to yours!

Thanks for reading!

Weekend Wrap Up Vol. 2

Our weekend fun started on Thursday night. My husband and I as well as a group of good friends were going to the opening of Fast and Furious 6. Prior to that we went to a group dinner at Red Robin. (It was my first time going!) It was so much fun. We hadn't gotten the group together in quite some time, so there was a lot to congratulate and celebrate. Since we had all last seen one another my husband and I got married, and 2 of the couples are having babies! Oh and the movie was great. Laughter, suspense, action, and explosions! It was a good time!

The rest of the weekend my hubby and I didn't do a whole lot. We ran errands Friday. He bought a juicer and we tried that out. Lots of yummy juice was consumed. We played outside with the pups and relaxed. On Saturday we watched the entire first season of Continuum on Netflix. (Recommend by my Mother in Law.) Such a good show! We only intended on watching 1 episode and then got sucked in. Haha. Season 2 premier's on Syfy soon!

Nicole by OPI Selena

Top: Crochet Tank from Kohls

   Chambray Shirt Delias

Bottoms: Neon Coral Shorts American Eagle (last season)

Shoes: Sandals Target

I photographed the Super Moon on Friday night. Beautiful.

This little lady was going after a ball. So cute!

Shall we dance!

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Getting Crafty: My Front Door Initial Wreath

I decided that I would start sharing some of my craft projects here on the blog. What better way to start than the initial wreath I made for our front door after we got married. I did not document the process step by step. I knew I should have but it's fairly simple.

 Supplies: 

• Yarn (I used mint green)
• Foam Wreath
• Twine
• Burlap Wire Ribbon
• Faux Flowers (I used various daisies)
• Glue Gun
• Wooden Letter

This was my first time making a wreath. I decided that making one would be more personal and fun. I bought most of my supplies at Michaels.

How to:

Take your yarn and make a starting point on your wreath my looping in around and tying it off on the backside of your wreath. Begin winding the yarn around your foam tightly. (I did not measure off anything I left the yarn in the ball and just wound it through the hole in the wreath.) This takes some time but isn't hard. When you reach the end cut your yarn and attach it with glue on the backside of the wreath.
Attach your faux flowers with glue gun.
Attach your wooden letter by gluing twine to the back of the letter and the back of your wreath. It will hang in the middle of your wreath.
Attach your burlap bow with glue gun.
I made a loop with twine and attached it to the back in order to hang it.

Simple Burlap Wire Ribbon Bow Tutorial:

Loop your burlap wire ribbon like this to begin. It can be any size you choose.

Fold down the top of the loop.

Pinch the middle with your fingers to form the shape.

Use a piece of twine and tie it tightly in the middle. You could also use a smaller piece of burlap to change the look of your bow.

Final product. Quick and easy and I used what I had on hand. It can be tweaked for your specific needs, but it certainly gets the job done!

Overall I really loved the final product, and it was well received by family and friends!

Thanks for reading!

Rants: Flickr Makes Huge Changes

You're in for a rant if you are visiting this post. I'm sure this rant won't change a thing, but alas I will rant away.

I have been a Flickr user for quite some time. I found it was the best place to host my photos for photography. When my career in sports photography began I created a new Flickr account and paid to make it a Pro Account. I had unlimited upload/space and receive photo statistics. Having photo statistics is huge for a photographer in my field. I can track what is popular, and it gives me an idea of what people are interested in seeing. I've never had a problem with Flickr and have absolutely loved the time I've spent on the site and was more that willing to pay for the service. I mean after all this is my online photography portfolio.

Today without warning Flickr unveiled a new site design. My opinion, it's terrible. It has made navigation harder. Your homepage has become relatively useless. The photostream has become cluttered, busy and unprofessional. The lack of white space drives me insane. And the functionality that once was is no longer there.They have seemingly pulled design idea's from various social media sites and lumped them all together. That's not what Flickr was suppose to be. It feels like a huge slap in the face to real photographers! I guess Yahoo/Flickr want to capitalize on that "Insta" market. Insta this and insta that isn't always better. And this is certainly not what the Flickr platform was originally founded on.

Edited to Add:
“There’s no such thing as Flickr Pro today because [with so many people taking photographs] there’s really no such thing as professional photographers anymore.”-Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer. 
Surprise Ms. Mayer there is still a difference between a PROFESSIONAL PHOTOGRAPHER and someone who can hold a camera and take a picture! Photography is an art and not everyone possesses the eye, skill, or knowledge to do it. People hold degrees in the field. As a professional photographer I'm absolutely disgusted and offended by your statement.

My bigger issue is that they didn't take into account how their PAYING Pro users would feel. Turns out the changes weren't just on the surface. Flickr quietly took away the option of upgrading to a Pro Account. If you currently have a Pro Account and it is on renewal you will keep all the perks of said Pro Account (Stats, Unlimited upload/space, no ads, no price change.) You will not be classified as a Pro Account any longer however. Free accounts will now have 1 TB of space and some similar Pro Account perks. Now the only upgrade options available to free accounts are paying $50 to be rid of ads, or $499.99 to bump up to 2 TB. You read that right FOUR HUNDRED AND NINETY NINE DOLLARS AND NINETY NINE CENTS! That's laughable. A TB external hard drive doesn't even cost anywhere near that much.
(Here is a link that gives you the break down on what's happening: http://mashable.com/2013/05/20/flickr-pro-changes/)

Now that I've given you my reasons for disliking this change as well as facts I'm going to say something crazy. I'm keeping my Pro Account. Why? Because I'm grandfathered in so to speak. I will still have unlimited uploads and space as well as what is very important my photo statistics! I don't care if my upload has to be smaller than those with a free account. Why? One because generally my files do not exceed 50 MB, two the larger the file size the better quality you could potentially be giving someone to steal. So yes, I will keep my Pro Account at this time.

I can only hope that Flickr/Yahoo listen to the wave of negative feedback they are receiving by alienating their original customer base, and make necessary changes for the good of the users. Change is not bad, but the kind of changes they made were poorly executed.

Weekend Wrap Up Vol.1

So this is my first Weekend Wrap Up on the blog. I think I'll do this when I have fun things to share from the weekend. Obviously I won't do it every weekend because sometimes I'm a bum and don't do much! Haha.

My Husband and I went to Trader Joe's on Saturday. They were out of Cookie Butter. It was a travesty! However they did have chocolate mini cupcakes and that made things slightly better. Their mini cupcakes are delicious! We also went to the bookstore. I love perusing every once in a while. We went on a walk in our neighborhood too!

Essie Turquoise and Caicos 

Goodies I picked up that afternoon.

Today we went to my Husband's boss/friend's baby shower. It was baseball themed and super fun! This was our first "event" with a group of friends as Husband and Wife. Pretty exciting! We somehow ended up coming home with all the leftover cupcakes. Haha.

The cute Mommy and Daddy to be!

Fun party favors.

Hubby and I after the baby shower!

Outfit:

Dress and shoes from Target.

Thanks for reading!

OOTD Hot Day Maxi Style

Today my Husband and I went and ran errands and went to dinner. We've been married for 2 weeks! Just thinking about that puts a huge smile on my face. He wanted to surprise me and take me to see The Great Gatsby but the theater we normally go to stopped showing it to show more Star Trek I believe. Either way my hubby is awesome! It was pretty warm out so here's what I put together for the afternoon out.

This was me trying to be I model. I just don't know. Haha.

Top: Cold Shoulder Burnout Top (here)

Maxi: Lily Rose Striped Maxi (here)

Belt: Old
Sandals: Target

I opted for a maxi because I was feeling a bit bloated haha. I love this top! Its super comfortable and very versatile. I also have it in black and a print. I have a feeling they will be my go to tops this Summer.

Thanks for reading!