52 on Fridays (50/52) Joy

We are an Elf on the Shelf house, and, yes, I am one of "those" moms. Our elf is pretty adventurous. She has wrapped our toilet in obnoxious pink wrapping paper. She has set up a kissing booth. She even made her own Pinterest board. She does this things because they bring an incredible lightness and sense of anticipation to many members of my house. If you could hear my Ella running every morning to find Rosie and then squealing with laughter and delight, you would know the true sound of joy.

Lately I've had some negative feedback not only about our adventurous elf but also about my general life view that there is much to celebrate in the world. It is easy to look at someone else and quickly judge their approach to life as fake or over-the-top or even as a commentary on how you should do things. Before you do that, ask yourself if it matters. If you see someone putting some joy in their world and you don't like it, move on and let it go. Most of the time their actions have nothing to do with you. Maybe they are taking steps to lessen pain in their own world one ridiculous elf prank at a time.

If you want to read about an amazing woman that decided in the face of some pretty tough struggles to choose joy please visit Little Blue Boo. What an inspiration! And if you want to see another source of joy in pictures, please visit my friend, Jackie.

52 on Fridays (49/50) Bokeh

Please visit my friend, Renee, for another beautiful image in our 52 on Fridays circle.

52 on Fridays (48/52) Woods

Deep in the Hundred Acre Wood, you can find my Piglet, Eeyore, Tigger, and Pooh.

Can't you just hear Tigger now? "Turn that frown upside down!"

Pooh's sweet words seem so right here. "If you live to be 100, I hope I live to be 100 minus 1 day, so I never have to live without you."

"I used to believe in forever, but now I think forever is too short." That's right, Pooh. A forever with my fun kids would never be enough!

I can see that my kids are getting older. Next year I will have a kindergartner, a 4th grader, a 7th grader, and a freshman in college. Right now I'm teaching my last kid to read using the same book I used with the older ones. Sometimes I feel like Pooh and wonder, "Can't we go back to page one and do it all over again?"

Please visit my friend, Liz, to see what she found in the woods this week. I know it will be beautiful!

52 on Fridays (47/52) Thankful

I had plans for this post. Yesterday I took pictures of amazing food, beautiful family, and the scenes that fill a perfect Thanksgiving. I am blessed and have so many reasons to be thankful. I sat down to write about my wonderful day and to check YouTube videos (because that's what I like to do!) and for some reason, this video was suggested for me. I could share every picture I took yesterday and still not convey a message as special as this one. I'm sorry in advance for the ads. Please click them away as they appear.

Today I am so very thankful for the kind of hope this story gives me. I have hope that the world is full of good people even in parts of the worlds where everything seems as dark as it can be. I have hope that in the end, love and compassion will win. I have hope that when enough small voices come together to whisper a message of hope, the collective voice they produce will be too loud to ignore. 

I know my friend, Jackie, has many reasons to be thankful this year. Please visit her blog and read her story.

52 on Fridays (46/52) Autumn

"Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower." -Albert Camus

Follow the leaves in the wind to my friend Tracy's blog to see what beauty of the season she has captured.

52 on Fridays (45/52) Black & White

"When you photograph people in color, you photography their clothes. But when you photograph people in black and white, you photograph their souls." -Ted Grant

For one of the sweetest black and white experiences you'll see this week, please see what my friend, Krista, has shared. It is precious! 

52 on Fridays (44/52) Candy

Who is ready for a little "eye candy"? I know you are!

When you are finished rolling on the floor laughing, pick yourself up and see what my sweet friend, Jackie, has her in candy stash for you.

52 on Fridays (43/52) Night

A quick search of "night" related quotations provided me this gem from Dr. Suess: "How did it get so late so soon? Its night before its afternoon. December is here before its June. My goodness how the time has flewn. How did it get so late so soon?"

I look at my dear children and wonder the same thing sometimes. Where did the time go? How much time do I have before backyard sleep-outs with sisters aren't cool anymore?  I certainly hope that my December is more than months away and this sweet childhood of June stays a little longer.


 
For more adventures in the night, visit my friend, Jackie. I can't wait to see what she has shared!

52 on Fridays (42/52) Hugs and Kisses

A quiet moment of first love...

For more sweet hugs and kisses, please visit Lisa at Lisa Tarplee Photography. I know she will have something beautiful!

52 on Fridays (41/52) Shadow

We are all feeling a little moody around my house this week. Maybe that's why this week's picture for shadows seems so dark to me. This is my little Annie hiding in one of the many shadows in the corners of my house.

Please visit my friend, Krista, to see how she captured shadows this week. I love the fun, light, loving quality to her posts and just know she has something great for us!

52 on Fridays (40/52) Reading

When I had a chance to meet Chris, a St. Andrews senior from Jackson, we had a great time talking about her cat and her love of reading. It just felt like a natural fit to share some of the images from her senior portrait session for this week's theme.

If you want to see what more of my favorite people are reading, follow the link to Sarah's blog and complete this week's circle. I think I've read just about every book she has pictured, so it is about time for me to talk to her about some of those books!

52 on Fridays (39/52) Texture

One of the things I love about our 52 on Fridays group is that we push each other to try new things. I have never tried using textures before this week's post. I happened to have one lonely texture saved in my photography files, so I played around with it on one of my favorite recent senior girl shots just to see what would happen. The shot on top is the original and the one on bottom is the same shot with something called "autumn texture free fan version". The blending mode is soft light, the opacity is around 75%, and the areas over her skin and dress have been masked out. 

I even went to Jessica Drossin's site and found a couple more free textures to try. The bottom image looks so much like my freebie texture that I wonder if they are the same.

So what do you think? I'm not sure it still looks like my work, but the results are pretty and interesting.

For more fun with textures, please visit my friend, Sarah, at Ozarks Fare Grounds. I love what she does. And if you are on Instagram, you absolutely must follow her.

52 on Fridays (38/52) Childhood

On matters of childhood, I often look to see what Fred Rogers had to say. I wasn't surprised to find this quote from my childhood leader in imaginative play: "Play is often talked about as if it were a relief from serious learning. But for children play is serious learning. Play is really the work of childhood." In honor of this quotation I want to defer my real post on childhood until after October 6, the Global Day of Play. Until then, enjoy a picture of three of my favorite children. 

To celebrate the Day of Play, the girls are going to build something out of cardboard. They don't know yet what it will be, but I'm betting it will fabulous. We have all been inspired by the story of Cain's Arcade. If you haven't seen the video and heard the story, please take a minute to click the link and learn how one boy's summer of making his own fun turned into something much, much bigger. 

For more images of childhood, take the journey around our little circle by first visiting Chay.  I love her images today. They are a perfect peek into childhood for most kids right now. I know my kids could be captured like this on any given day. 

52 on Fridays (37/52) Glamour

Warnings on dashboards and geese at the preschool
Striped paper straws and hard Cal II problems
Laundry and edits and no time to play
These are a part of my "glamourous" day!

In the absence of any real glamour in my life I decided to fill my Instagram account with little bits of the things that happen in a typical day. You can learn more about the excitement by following me (http://followgram.me/in_a_fit). Note that my creative spelling of glamorous was intentional. I didn't want anyone confusing my life for real glamour! 

If you want to have some real fun, visit my friend, Jackie, and see images of the most glamorous dog in the world!

52 on Fridays (36/52) Motion

Capturing motion is no easy task. That's the lesson from my fun afternoon session with two fabulous skating brothers. Of course when they were kind enough to stand still for me, it wasn't hard.

But once those wheels were moving, I didn't know if I wanted to try to freeze them or just let them fly in the images.

 In the end the best thing to do was to just let them do what they do so well.

Of course, we did have time for a little brotherly fun.

Thanks for stopping by. Now won't you move on down to my friend Jodie's post at Shooting the Carsons? I am so happy to see her back in the circle this week. Be sure to comment on her snazzy new blog!

52 on Fridays (35/52) Feet

I have a little girl that is going to do great things with her feet one day. Annie's love of classical music, structure, and stretching are beautifully combined in her chosen art.

And even if she never dances across a stage as the star of a major production, dance will take her far. These words from Martha Graham's essay for NPR's "This I Believe" explain it best.

Now move your feet over to my friend Chay's blog to see how she captured this week's theme!

52 on Fridays (34/52) Street Photography

Few people would believe it, but one of the largest St. Patrick's Day parades in North America takes place in Jackson, Mississippi. That's right. Jackson. As the story goes, some time in the 80's a group of friends decided to make something happen. What started as small diversion downtown turned into the Mal's St. Paddy's Day Parade, a celebration for hundreds of thousands and a huge money maker for local charities. I can't wait to share images from the 2012 parade, so, in my best Cat Deeley voice, here are your guys...

 here are your girls...

 and here are, well, here are the rest?

 There are enough oddities in the parade that you get a lot of looks like this from those viewing the parade.

It's a very interactive parade with lots of dancing, laughing, beads, and, of course, green.

Much of the success of the parade is owed to noted author Jill Conner Browne's enthusiasm and her successful Sweet Potato Queen book series. Sadly, the SPQ's have split off from the original parade and started their own event, the Zippity Doo Dah Parade.While I do miss having everyone together, it is nice to have two large fundraising events and two exciting things to do. Next year I'll share some images from the other parade.

Please visit my friend, Lisa, at Lisa Tarplee Photography to see her view of the street in Florida. I know it will be great!

52 on Fridays (33/52) Water

It's not fancy this week, but we are in the midst of trying to get homeschooling off the ground, so it is what it is! I wanted to try to push my 8 year old to do something silly. Last week's laughing post was a bust for her. She was miserable trying to fake smile because real smiling is something she does with thought and only when truly entertained. This is what I usually get:

So serious! But something about bubbles and the promise of a coconut oil hair moisture treatment after got her in a good mood. She takes her hair seriously, too. I got some rare goofy moments from her on camera.

Maybe she will even let me take pictures of her with the shower cap on? While you wait in suspense to find out, go visit my friend Sarah at Ozarks Fare Grounds. She has some very sparkly water in her post.

52 on Fridays (32/52) Laughter

"I love people who make me laugh. I honestly think it's the thing I like most, to laugh. It cures a multitude of ills. It's probably the most important thing in a person."
-Audrey Hepburn

The girls made me so happy that I had to change my Facebook timeline!

I hope you have your own miracle laughter cure today. I know I have mine, and I love every ounce of it. For more great laughs, please visit the talented Bri at Brianna Wallace Photography.

52 on Fridays (31/52) Haze and Flare

I can hear my child in this photo. She is saying, "What do you mean you don't a picture for haze and flare week?!!!"

I wanted a new picture this week, but when the evening of my session with the fabulously furry and four-legged J.D. arrived, I had no sun. So, for now, this old picture of my Annie will hold a spot in this post.

For a better take on this week's theme, please visit Kathy at Roses and Rattles Photography.