Lunar Eclipse

One day last week we had a lunar eclipse, Tuesday or Wednesday or whenever and I decided I had to try getting some pictures. So here are my attempts. It was very cold out, like 17 degrees and my hands were freezing so I didn't spend a lot of time trying to play around with the settings. And I didn't stay outside long enough to get the full effect when the moon had that reddish glow though I later wished I had. I also locked myself out of the house (must run in the family, Jen) but luckily Dom was home to let me back in!

On the mend

For the past week Becca has been sick with the flu which then turned into pneumonia. She went back to school today. We'd been lucky so far this year no one has been sick but I guess it was just a matter of time since it seems people are getting sick all over. Now I just have my fingers crossed that the rest of us don't get sick. Of course one of the first things that Becca said to me after getting home from school was that one of her friends threw up in class today and was sent home. Great. If we can just get throught the next couple of days then we get a week off for school vacation.

Another snow day.

Yesterday we woke up to this:
Which then turned to sleet and freezing rain like this:

Which built up on the powerlines like this:

Which means we spent the evening like this:

Lots to Learn

I have been trying to learn how to use my camera to its full potential and not rely so much on the presets but it hasn't been easy. As much as I had hoped that just sitting down and reading the manual cover to cover would work it didn't. I found the technical stuff aperture, exposure, ISO

very hard to wrap my brain around because my brain just doesn't work that way. So I got another book about my camera and read that and yet another and after reading the three different books and retaining very I little went on a search to find something else to help me learn because what I really needed was hands on step by step lessons with the camera. There weren't any classes readily available but I came across two books that were helpful-Understanding Exposure by Bryan Peterson and Digital Photography by Scott Kelby. Both great books. But what really helped was my favorite Scrapbook sight-Two Peas in a Bucket offered a free 12 week course online. I have been doing it for 6 weeks and learned a ton and the best part is that they explain everything step by step and then give you step by step challenges, exactly what I needed and now everything is making sense and I actually took pictures in manual yesterday(meaning that I chose the shutter speed, aperture and white balance) and some came out pretty good. And Kenzie even agreed to be my model!

So here are some of the best ones. All were done in natural light, because one of the first things that I learned was that I no longer like the onboard flash and avoid using it as much as possible.

All pictures are straight out of camera as I haven't learned how to use photoshop yet either, that is on my long list of things to learn too! Shot with a 50mm lens that is awesome for shooting indoors!

And I had to include this last one just because it makes me laugh.

This is the "Haven't you figured that camera out yet??" Look.

So I always on the lookout for new victims, I mean models, so if any of you are in the area and want to do a little modeling, let me know. You know just hop on a plane and come on out here. How about it Jill? Cause you always look "fabulous"!!

Bunnies

I don't know if you remember our little fuzzy friends, Thumper and Brownie, our bunnies. Just thought I post a little update. They have grown quite a bit, but are still very cute and fluffy.

When the weather was nice we would let then run around on the grass in a little play yard. For obvious reason we can't do that in the winter so we let them have some time to run around the family room. The girls love it and the bunnies seem to enjoy being able romp around and stretch their legs out. Brownie has the brown face and Thumper has the lopsided ears.

Go Patriots!

Later today this evening we will be cheering on the Patriots and I hope that all the rest of you are too! I made some cupcakes for the occasion. You know cause we didn't have enough cupcakes after the ones I made for groundhogs day yesterday. All the extras will be going to work with Dom on Monday in case you were thinking we were making total pigs of ourselves.

The girls who have very little interest in the Superbowl are very excited about Puppy Bowl that is on Animal Planet this afternoon. They were busy making little flags while I decorated the cupcakes. They even let me snap one picture. Actually I took several pictures before realizing that their was no card in the camera. DOH! So by the time I got it they barely stuck around for the one pic. And yes they were still in their jammies at 2:00 in the afternoon.

Happy Groundhogs Day!

So Six more weeks of winter according to Punxsutawney Phil.

Wow.

Big suprise.

Not.

But it does mean that winter is half over and so to celebrate I made these really cute cupcakes with a little groundhog peeking his head out of the ground.

Got the idea from the book," Cupcakes from the Cake Mix Doctor" by Anne Byrn. Lots of cute ideas. I would recommend any of the Cake Mix Doctor books.

Check back tomorrow for Superbowl cupcakes!