Trendy Treehouse: Favourite Things

I have been a terrible blogger! We went on vacation the first week of August and that meant I actually took photos, which meant I had to actually edit some! plus with limited internet, I fell off the wagon. My sincere apologies, faithful reader (aka Mom).

This week at TT the theme is "favourite things". Looking back through my recent photos, I was pleased to discover this one. It has so many of my favourite things: my husband, my daughter, my niece, cake, and even a bottle of wine! (yeah, technically I should have been cognizant of my foreground and cleared the space around the cake, but it works for this!)

Mostly my favourite thing is gathering with family to laugh and talk and eat. And this photo captures that for me. What a magical night we had. Now I want to break into some song, Sound of Music style.

To see more favourite things, visit:

Shutter Love Tuesdays: Sports

I will admit I dug in the archives a bit for this one. This is from our wedding trip to Mexico in 2007.

You really have to watch your back when playing a "friendly" game of water volleyball:

Show us the role of sports in your life here:

Shutter Love Tuesday: Faces

Shutter Love Tuesdays over at Trendy Treehouse this week is Faces. Love it!

Here is a recent fun one of my baby girl.

"Oh! I didn't see you there. Hello mommy"

Exposure Time:	1/200
Aperture:	f/2.5
ISO:	800
Focal Length:	50mm (75mm in 35mm)

taken indoors with a LS. edited in GIMP to increase brightness, reduced reds, upped saturation and slight USM.

For more unforgettable faces, visit:

Shutter Love Tuesdays: Father's Love

Its Shutter Love Tuesdays over at Trendy Treehouse! And they are celebrating Father's Day with a little love for all things daddy-centric.

Here is a recent fave of MH and K:

look for more daddy love here:

Trendy Blog Award

What a delicious treat! Jae over at 525,600 Minutes nominated me for a Trendy Treehouse Blog Award. Jae is always enjoyable to read because she keeps it real - she is capturing the candid, sweet, never to be be repeated moments of her daughter's journey to adulthood. Thanks Jae!

Here is my shiny badge:

Here's how the award works:

• To receive this award, promise to share this with 10 other BLOGS that you think are Trendy too. 
• Post about your award in your blog. List your Top 10 Trendy Blogs. Share with them.
• Leave a link to the Trendy Blog Button. Tell them they need to give this award out to 10 as well 

Here are my nominees. In no particular order:

1. Jenny over at What the Blog?.
Jenny has one of the freshest voices in the blogosphere. She makes me laugh and cry on a daily basis. Plus she turned me onto Goodreads, my newest obsession. Love her.

2. Nicole over at My Life as a Martha Wannabee and Girl Photography.
Nicole is excellent at reaching out to other bloggers, and I am so happy to return the favour. Early on in this blog's life she featured me on her blog and i have been looking for a way to do the same back. She has sophisticated taste, a culinary curiosity and a great eye.

3. Katie at Confessions of a Real Librarian.
No one can resist Katie's bubbling personality. Nor her "Patron Stories" installments. Plus if you love to read, she has the inside scoop for you.

4. Trina at Look at the Birds.
No holds barred glimpse into life as a wife, mom and mom-to-be living in a cabin in the woods. She has some great giveaways to go along with her salacious storytelling.

5. Amanda over at the Meyer Twins.
What's more fun then raising one baby? Raising two! Follow Amanda as she blogs about life with twins

6. Shelby over at Eat, Drink, Run.
Think athletes can't be foodies and wine connoisseurs? think again! Shelby combines her three great loves into one tasty and inspiring blog.

7. Susan over at Project Balancing Act.
She has an etsy addiction like me. She also convinced her husband to tie die their crib sheets. We could practically be BFF's.

8.  Type A Images.
Captures a vintage other time feel to her photo shoots. I want to a) have her shoot my life everyday as my personal biogragher and b) live in her big Victorian house and steal all her awesome Etsy dress finds for K

9. That's Damn Good.
I love food. So does Echo. Therefore I love reading about the food Echo cooks (and its good - I have tried several of them!).

10. Lotus Land Mom. 
Another voice from the wilderness, aka the Canadian Pacific Northwest. How does one raise two boys and still maintain a love of manolo blahniks? Read and find out!

Shutter Love Tuesday: Nature

Edited: because I am a dummy, technically this challenge is closed, and so my submission was not captured. But I am going to leave the post up so you can still peruse the other great entries and learn about another online photo challenge

another day, another online photo challenge.
Trendy Treehouse is a fun site a stumbled across when a friend nominated me for a blog award (I promise that post is coming up; just thinking of my 10 nominees to pass on). Every Tuesday they host a photo challenge, called Shutter Love. This week's theme: Nature.

I am still drawn to this sunflare I captured back in April, in honour of a very special boy. Here it is again:

Check out more great entries back at HQ: