Maple Leaf Festival

November 2, 2015 by Debra 1 Comment

Maple Leaf Festival Baldwin KS

Hi, October is one of my favorite time of the year. The third weekend in October is always marked on my calendar. It’s a tradition of mine to go every year with a family member. Some years it has been all of them and this year my son, son-in-law and grand daughter was with me.

The atmosphere is just awesome; people, crafts, food, the smell, colorful leaves and plain ol’ fun.

The best part of the whole day was my souvenir. Yes, each year I like to buy one item to remind me of the day. This year was the best to date.

The Forever Hands booth. Once I spotted the Forever Hands booth I knew I found just the souvenir for this year. This was one of the very first booths we stopped at. Typically we walk throughout all of them and then I go back to the one I liked the best. There was no question or doubt, this was it.

A sculpture of my grand daughter’s hand- to last a lifetime. What a memory! Clickable gallery below.

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The last image in the gallery; I was worried Brie’s plaster hand was going to have a huge thumb! She was wiggling her fingers in the mold. Once the mold was set and Brie’s hand was removed; we were told to come back in a couple of hours while the plaster set. Upon our return; I was quite pleased……

Forever Hands

This lovely sculpture is at home next to my computer. I look at it often while working and remember our Maple Leaf day together.

Have you ever preserved your children/grand children’s hand-foot print? Please do share!

Best Wishes,

Ellen DeGeneres Visits KU

October 27, 2015 by Debra 2 Comments

Hi, October and November are busy months- sorry for the delay in posts! This time of year is family portrait session with the beautiful autumn leaves. I took a much needed break. Did you hear…….

Ellen DeGeneres visits KU

What an unexpected fun experience! Working most of the weekend on gallery edits- I took a moment to troll my Facebook account. Yes I call it trolling to keep up with family and friends near and far. I stumbled onto the above notice of Ellen coming to KU- Kansas University. That’s only 20 minutes from my house. Ellen is one of my favorites to watch on TV. Off I went!

Many people with lots of energy and excitement. I just added the 200-500mm lens to my camera gear which provided a fun outing to test the lens. The Ellen DeGeneres event took place between the football stadium and the hill in front of the Campanile Memorial. Ellen was not physically at KU. Her camera crew set up the satellite stage for Ellen to video conference with the crowd on the KU campus. She asked that everyone dress up as a Royal Baseball player. Several did and others like me did not. I had fun people watching! The gallery is featured below.

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This segment was taped live to be aired today- the first day of the World Series. Be sure to watch Ellen. I’m wearing a pink sweatshirt in the distant crowd to the right. I was told the camera could pano the whole audience.

Go Royals!

Best Wishes,

My Daughters Family Photographs

October 13, 2015 by Debra 3 Comments

October 3, 2015

was one a favorite day for me– I spent it with my daughter’s little family! They are on the go all the time. When we get together, it’s a time I cherish. Saturday was such a day. The day began at 9 am. Briella had a tumbling class presentation where family was invited to see the skills they learned throughout the program.

And how cute it was! Front rolls, back rolls, tossing a ball and walking on a balance beam were just a few of the skills demonstrated. All of the parents and grandparents enjoyed the presentation. Afterwards we stopped at the playground for Brie to play on the slide with the other children. Off to lunch we went. Then back to the house for a short rest before our family photo session.

My Daughters Family

Lake Shawnee located in the capitol city Topeka, KS was Erika’s chosen spot for family photos.

My favorite family picture is the non traditional pose of Brie hanging upside down. For some reason three year old’s just do not sit still for long. This was the biggest smile and she didn’t move. Just LOVE this!

As you can tell, I will be grandma once again- end of November. Erika and Shaune have chosen to wait until the big day to find out if it will be a boy or girl. The sweet anticipation!

Christmas is just a short 10 weeks and 3 days away. Here’s Christmas Card Template 3 – Harmony.

Click the image above for the Fotofusion V5 .scrap file free download. The template includes the background image with image paper squares. Just insert your own images in place of the paper. Fonts used for this template are made by Kimberly Geswein – KG Eyes Wide Open and KG Behind These Hazel Eyes.

For a Photoshop template or if you would like for me to add your images and send a flattened jpeg file, contact me. I will send instructions for how to send your images. Professional photographers work will be respected.

To see more of my daughters family photos, click here.

Have you taken your family photos this year? If not, are you planning on scheduling a session or setting up a tripod and taking your own? Would enjoy hearing your plans!

Best Wishes,