the final say

And, ta-daaa, the finished products for my Valentine photo-shooting escapades:

(oh, and this one that I posted this morning.)

Finished product (1)!

City-scene finished product (2)!

my valentine photo outing

I don't know what it is about Valentine's Day, but I love the colors, the sentiment, the candy...the everything. And, I may have gotten a little out of hand this year with my Valentine's cards. (Although, I've been known to get out of hand before with Valentine's Day...like the time I made a life-size cutout of myself with a sign reading "Hug Me.")

But boy did I have fun with this project. I spent the whole snowed-in weekend planning this out. I had Brendan agree (before telling him what my plan was) to be my photographer; I went nuts on the glitter paper at Michael's for these cutouts; and then I spent the better part of an hour trying to decide exactly where I should take these pictures, while even trying out a few different backgrounds and landscapes. In 20 degree weather.

It was pretty much a blast and I couldn't wait to share these cards with my family and friends. Since it's 2013, I decided to settle for an e-version instead of snail mail and send the cards via email. I also decided to share some of my outtakes here...gulp.

First trial with background. No good.

Second background trial. Much better!

More difficult than it looks to hold all of these in place.

City-scene. This was my photographer's recommendation!

Last shot of the day.

13. family

Today's photo is supposed to be of family. While I have a wonderful family (and even, luckily, some only an hour away), I wasn't able to snap any pictures of them today. Therefore, this is a photo of one pseudo-family of mine in New York: City to City. We gathered together tonight and celebrated Christmas with Virginia-cooked pork tenderloin and turkey (y'all, I'm not kidding), home-baked apple pie and baklava and Christmas caroling. What a special group of people they are.

[mad photo props to Clara since I snagged this picture from her facebook page.]

12. a beautiful sight

...we're happy tonight.

[5th Avenue]

11. green

And the prettiest type of green.

[oops, late again.]

10. wrapping paper

[LATE!]

A Duane Reade special: wrapping paper!

9. something you're reading

Rules of Civility. A beautifully written book about New York in the 1930s. 

8. ornament(s)

my own personal (and very favorite) ornament. 

7. bright

Hope your holidays are merry and BRIGHT!

6. shopping

Not for myself. I was given this package as a birthday gift from my roommates tonight at dinner (they're so sweet, more on that later).  

5. today's temperature

A little late. And as boring as can be. 

I started to leave this one out altogether, but I couldn't very well do that. So...err...enjoy?

4. joyous

Tonight at a City to City event, we gathered together, ate pizza, listened to Christmas tunes, drank hot chocolate and wrote Christmas cards to church planters all around the world. Joyous.

To add to the joy, the church planter I was writing to in Hong Kong is a fellow Auburn grad! 

3. red

I look forward to these enormous Christmas ornaments every year.

[50th Street and 6th Avenue]

2. favorite holiday movie

Hands down.

(And this year, I'm reallllly hoping to see the MUSICAL version.)

1. your view today

I was challenged by my friend Kova to do this Capturing December photo challenge. Then my friend Maggie suggested we all do it together. (Great idea!) And, if you've read this blog for more than a day, you already know I love photo-a-day challenges and am always hard pressed to turn one down.

So here we go...I'm in, now. Day 1, hello there.

homemade photo booth

I am really, really into photo booths these days. They are just so darn fun, I'm not sure how anyone couldn't be into them. I made a homemade "photo booth" for the kiddos at VBS last week, and - as I suspected - I'm pretty sure I had 10x more fun than they did. Some were excited, some appeased me and at least had their photo made, and some were just short of screaming bloodymurder. But as you can see, we adults had a great time! Thanks for all the help (ahem, Maggie, Maggie and Bethany) for making this day run semi-smoothly.

fork

day 12. 

something you wore

day 7. (rainbow + bow)

5pm

day 6. (right on track!)

bedside

day 4. (I'm lagging behind, but I'll catch up.)