Day 181, Project 365

Welcome, butterflies!  :)  Last year, I decided I wanted to start planting flowers in my garden that will attract butterflies and hummingbirds; planted this last year and have blooms this year - yay!

Sidenote:  Today is six months straight of taking a photo (or more!) a day.  Holy Hannah!  When I started this project I wasn't sure what to expect and perhaps even had different expectations than what I've concluded thus far.  What I do know is that taking this on has changed me and my love of photography and I couldn't be happier!

Day 180, Project 365

Got to snap a few of my niece, Maci today.  This is one of my favs:

Day 179, Project 365

Rainy flowers...

Day 178, Project 365

Got to enjoy a beautiful summer day watching one of the nephews play ball.

Day 177, Project 365

Another day, another indecisive photo day.  Went to the car show tonight, ran into one of my favorite little cuties and his mama, beautiful sunset...sigh!  :)

Day 176, Project 365

So many flowers are blooming now!  Yay!

Day 175, Project 365

And another beautiful night for a ballgame!

Day 174, Project 365

Beautiful night for a ballgame!

Day 173, Project 365

Roses are blooming!!

And this is technically a photo from yesterday but it was 10:05 last night, on the summer solstice, and I decided to go outside to watch the final light fade from the sky.  The moon was sitting there smiling at me, the fireflies were winking at me and the night in general was begging to have its photo taken.

Day 172, Project 365

Father's Day on the St. Croix!  A tradition of sorts...another beautiful day!

Day 171, Project 365

Kait and her friend Maggie got to see Luke Bryan tonight and Bob and I got to see Elvis and Johnny Cash!

Day 170, Project 365

Flowers are really starting to bloom!  :)

Day 169, Project 365

Back at the nephew's ballgame tonight.  I kind of miss nights like these (just glad to not have to deal with drama that was softball!).  Took this through the fence; I think I kind of like the subtle fence image in the pic.

Day 168, Project 365

Went and watched my niece's softball game tonight.  The girls all look so little out there!

And couldn't resist the raindrops on the Fuchsia!  

Day 167, Project 365

Bob's work picnic this afternoon.

Kind of wanted the 'tattoos' to be the focus but having the girls so out of focus seems distracting to me.  I didn't win on this one but worth a shot, huh?  ;)

Boys will be boys...Bob dunking Max.  

Day 166, Project 365

Sometimes things just grab your attention and work out exactly as you had planned.  :)  Saw these flowers (really? probably weeds) on our walk tonight and one shot and I was done.  Loved the pop of color among all the green, loved the height difference in the flowers, loved the light that was there, and so on and so forth.

Day 165, Project 365

Couldn't decide on a pic today...  :0

Day 164, Project 365

Family fun day with the Miller clan!

Little Katelyn wasn't crazy about me taking a picture but I happened to snap a quick one when she wasn't prepared.  :)

Day 163, Project 365

Car Show in downtown North St. Paul tonight.  I couldn't decide which to make my picture for the day so yet again, more than one...cars, pets, kids.  :)  

Day 162, Project 365

Got to hang out at my nephew's ball game tonight.  :)

Day 161, Project 365

Garden = happy place

Day 160, Project 365

My dog seriously hates his picture taken (must've learned that from me??) - it is not easy to get the pooch to look at me.  He looks everywhere but at the camera.  Sometimes that's okay, but tonight, not so much. :)

Day 159, Project 365

I was trying to get some backlighting on my Fuchsia plant this morning and thought getting some sunburst behind it would be cool...well, that wasn't working like I envisioned so I opened up the aperture and even though the plant is kind of hazy, not real sharp I love, love, love the warm bokeh in the background.  I think if I could have that look on every single photo I would.  :)

Day 158, Project 365

Kaitlyn and Fozzie hanging outside on this gorgeous, not quite yet summer, day.

And noticed the peonies in the mail boxes garden were blooming and that this perfectly pink peony was sitting right next some beautiful purple flowers, with a little orange and green thrown in I had to take a photo.  :)

Day 157, Project 365

Perfect day today!  had my hubby home with me on a Saturday (that NEVER happens), he planned a couple surprise things to do and then off to a family grad party.

Hans' Bakery

My handsome man enjoying his bacon maple long john.

Onions at the Farmer's Market

Day 156, Project 365

Matt and Megan's wedding

A beautiful day for a beautiful couple.  :)  I was sooo tempted to yank out my camera and have it in hand for the day but I refrained and just snapped this one quick photo of M & M wtih Lo and Kait.

Day 155, Project 365

Well, it's official: my baby is a now a Junior in high school.  Half of her high school career behind her...college visits looming in the future.  It's crazy how quickly time goes.  It's absolutely bittersweet to think this is it; the last child in the house growing up, preparing for the wonderful, magical, adventurous life ahead of her.  I think I'm mostly baffled by this since I swear, absolutely swear, it was just a couple of years ago I was a Junior in high school (and which was, by far, my most favorite year of school!).

Day 154, Project 365

Our little Fozzie!

Day 153, Project 365

Working on capturing bokeh...sigh...love it!  :)

Day 152, Project 365

A bee in the garden and pretty flowers (weeds) on our walk tonight.  :)