Photo Friday Challenge: Week 5

 For today's Photo Friday Challenge on Carly Robertson's blog, the theme is animals. This is Marley, our 2 1/2 year old tri-color English Springer Spaniel. This is also one of the few moments when she is still enough to take her picture. She DOES live up to the name Marley, by the way. I think we should have named her Shadow sometimes. Every time we take 2 steps, she is right there at our heels. If we go in one room, she will wait for us right outside the door (that is, if the door is closed). She makes me crazy sometimes, but she is a good dog. The English Springer Spaniel is an excellent breed for active families. Marley loves to run, it is when she looks the happiest (aside from when someone is petting her, because one would think she hadn't seen anyone in a week!). 

Have a great weekend!!

Antoinette

Photo Friday Challenge: Week 4

The theme for (last) Friday's challenge over at Carly Robertson's blog was shoes. I had my photo ready, with 4 pairs of my shoes, house shoes (that my husband makes fun of!), sneakers, boots and heels. Then, Dominic decided it would be fun to spread binder clips and crackers all over the floor, then stomp all over the crackers as he looked at me and laughed. I was cleaning everything up. and he had gotten into other things...and then stood on top of the Cricut cartridge box to try and climb on top of the desk! I have been trying to get used to learning how to use my Canon Rebel XS in manual mode (I used my 50 mm lens) and had it in my hands when I took this one. Tiny little shoes on top of the (empty!!!) cartridge box. Aaahh...if anything else, my boys give me lots of photo opportunities and laughter!!

Have a great day!!

Antoinette

Photo Friday Challenge- Pocket Light

Carly Robertson's challenge last Friday was pocket light-Pocket light is just that, using a small pocket of light in the photo. Well, I am late in posting this because I just didn't have anything to photography like that. (I looked, I tried..didn't work.) Then Wednesday was my son Alex's 10th birthday and I got my opportunity. So here is my version of pocket light, and I am submitting with just about an hour left!! Can't wait to see what challenge Carly has for us today- hopefully it won't take me a week to get it! 

PS- I am proud of myself...I just learned how to create my own watermark...about time!!

Have a great weekend!!

Antoinette

Project 52- My 3 Boybarians Weeks 1 and 2

 I missed the deadline to post my photo for the 1st week, so I am posting weeks 1 and 2 here for the Project 52 Challenge hosted by Darcy at My 3 Boybarians. However, for the sake of linking properly to THIS week's theme, the first photo is for "Made With Love".  I made this card for my youngest sister, Gabriela. She was in a pretty scary car accident early Tuesday morning. A guy ran a red light and hit her car in the side- HER side. Her car is totaled, and she is still in the hospital. She is still in quite a bit of pain, but is beginning to sound like herself. I can't wait until she is well enough to go back to the comfort of her own home. So...I made her a card. Is it an excuse to make something with paper? Maybe. It felt good not only to actually make something again this week after months of "papercrafting silence". It feels even better that she will know I made this with my own hands.

Here is the 1st week's theme: Resolutions. I had to add the text to the orange and blue binders, otherwise the photo is unedited. These are my resolutions...well, some of them...organizing our home-room by room, to get our finances in order, to use those calendars that I HAVE to have but never write in. There are a couple of other resolutions (get back in shape...I have always worked out but I stopped for several months last year...post on this blog consistently...learn how to use my camera and PSE 10 inside and out...not procrastinating...there's more- but they are realistic expectations that can and will happen)- they all revolve around being organized. In the end, when you are organized, you tend to have more time, energy, get more accomplished and it just seems to me that organized people are happier people.

Have a great day!

~Antoinette

Photo Friday Challenge Week 2

It's Friday, which means it's time for Carly Robertson's Photo Friday Challenge. This week's theme is sparkle. This adorable little man is my 2nd son, Alex. You can't tell by the huge smile on his face, but he isn't too happy about having to wear glasses. I have to learn how to remove glare from the lens, but he does have that *sparkle* in his eyes.

Have a great day!!!

~Antoinette

10 on 10 Challenge

As promised, here are my 10 photos for Carly Robertson's 10 on 10 Challenge. So, here goes...

Biscoff Spread. What can I say about this? I discovered the Biscoff cookies on a Delta flight a few years ago. They were so good, in fact, that I actually saved one of my packets...for OVER ONE YEAR. Yes, you read correctly. I held on to it because I was either going to find them in a store, or I was going to find a recipe for to make them myself. I was in WalMart one day, trying to decide on what kind of cookies I would buy that day...and there they were. And every package had coupons on them!! I bought 2 packages, which is a good thing because I ate an entire one by that night. What?! They were gooooood.  And I don't know a single person who can say they haven't done the same thing at some point or other. 

Anyway, I was on a trip to Las Vegas, and I was in THEIR WalMart with my niece and saw this. The spread has the consistency of peanut butter, but it is made from the actual cookies. I ate that jar by the spoonful. It is probably a good thing the spread is nowhere to be found in my area. Forget love handles, I would have a truck tire around my waist!

I believe it is a type of speculoos cookie, one which I am not too familiar with really. I haven't found a recipe that comes close to tasting like these, and I would have to work out 5 hours a  day 7 days a week to work off what I would gain trying. So, I have decided to just buy them every once in a while or for a special occasion. (PS- for the record, this jar is empty thanks to my husband!!!!!!!)

Sebastian is the king of the world!!

He's just too cool...

Our Marley...silly dog. She's the queen of her (dog) house!

Dominic playing in the tub.

This boy needs a haircut!

After a few months of not making anything papercrafting related, my sons asked me for bookmarks. Sebastian's was video game themed, and Alex's had a map.

Sebastian's soccer nickname, thanks to the Varsity boys.

The back of Alex's bookmark.

Alex's first basketball game.

They say it takes 21 days to create a new habit. As much as I love photography, I have to remind myself to take photos of every day little things. It's not just photography, it is a few other things that I am not sure I am ready to share yet. It all revolves around not procrastinating which I am VERY GUILTY of. One of my best friends, Errin, calls it "deadline driven". It makes me laugh every time I think about it, but in the ways that procrastinating has affected different aspects of my life is NOT funny. You can miss out on a lot of things if you aren't careful. So, that is one of my resolutions, to continue to push myself to be the best I can be, and to work harder in every way. It January 12, I have 9 days to go to see if this 21 day thing really works. So far, it seems like it does.

I am off to create a Get Well card and I have a new design for etched glass I need to work on.

Have a wonderful day!

~Antoinette

15 Years Today...

Matt and I celebrated our 13 wedding anniversary this past March by having a wedding in church like we always said we'd do. However, we began dating 15 years ago today. He was 21 and I was 20, with no idea what the future held for us. We had no idea that we'd get married, have 2 beautiful boys, that we could love each other and agree and disagree and share so many special moments. We were both essentially kids, thinking we knew so much- man were we proven wrong!! I have watched Matthew go from being that handsome young man, to a father who "supervised" the first few diaper changes, teaching the boys things, taking care of his family, making mistakes and moving forward, etc., etc. I think I speak for both of us when I say we have both learned a lot from each other, and from our two beautiful boys. I see the pride on his face as he watches Sebastian and Alex's games and when we get great reports from school. I see the sly smile as he lets Marley sneak onto the couch when (they think) I'm not looking.

Most people don't remember the day they began dating someone, but I do. We were camping with friends and it was the first time he kissed me...under the moonlight, after we climbed a fence and I ripped my jeans- right in the shin. No lie!!! I couldn't possibly make that one up.

We couldn't be more opposite, I am Peruvian, raised by the beach in Florida. I had never met someone who spoke with that Southern accent, ate things like biscuits and gravy- and what in the world is Chicken and Dumplings?? He had a thing or two to learn about Peruvian everything- and I loooooooooove my culture, so he learned a lot about that too!! Yes, I make him listen to the music, or watch the soaps (beacuse of course, I need to listen to the Spanish you know?!), he loves the food (although I will never undersand why he still puts soy sauce on rice. Even yellow rice. Huh??). I love the ocean, he loves the country. Yup, total opposites.

Matt, I am proud to be your wife, I feel privileged to have watched you grow as a person, but also from a young man, to the man you are today. I am proud and feel privileged, to share my life with you, and that (even though I chose YOU) you chose me to share your life with. I am proud and feel privileged to be the mother of your children (thank goodness it wasn't 15!!). I cannot imagine anyone else knowing me the way you do.

Happy "dating" Anniversary, I love you!!

The picture of us was taken October 1995, 1 year after we met, and the day after we returned from a 6 month tour overseas (WestPac). We met while we were (both) in the Navy, stationed on the same ship.