Caffeine Anyone?

The Fall 2008 Bloggy Giveaway is in full swing. The number of great giveaways is nearing 1000 and is still growing!!

I'm playing along this time.

I decided to do something easy this time so I'm giving away a

$20 Starbucks giftcard

.



And you know, you don't have to drink coffee to like Starbucks? Try a chai latte or one of their delicious new hot chocolates (just in time for cold weather!)

To be entered in my giveaway, just leave me ONE comment. The giveaway is open to anyone with a valid email address. Just be sure that I have a way to contact you should you win. I'm closing comments on Friday, October 31st at 12AM & I will use a random number generator to select the winner. Good luck!

Oh, and by the way, Inspired Bliss is having a great little giveaway too. Click on over there and enter!

My thanks to Chilihead for organizing the amazing Bloggy Giveaways!

photo by Fotolia

Photo Hunters - Scary

Photo Hunters theme for the week? Why, "SCARY!" of course!

Photo Hunt - Scary

This little guy didn't look too scary at first.



But when I zoomed in, he was TERRIFYING!






You can see more scary things here.

Thematic Photographic - Happy

I'm thinking of making Carmi's Thematic Photographic Challenge a regular post each week. I appreciate his encouragement to look at and capture life's moments in a different ways. This week's theme is "happy." So many ways to look at happy.

My photo's from last week's Photo Hunters actually fit pretty well. But with Carmi's challenge in mind, I looked through my recent photos for some that spoke "happy" to me. These are the photos I've chosen.

Last Sunday afternoon my oldest daughter, Sweetanlo, celebrated her Sweet 16 Birthday with four of her dearest friends and her younger sister, Sweetly. We planned an old-fashioned candy-making party; complete with taffy-pulling, fudge making and homemade lollipops. While the fudge was cooling, there was time to go out in the backyard and take some photos. Here are just a small sampling of the pictures I took that afternoon. I suggested some poses and then let them decide what to do. Once they got started, I just kept snapping photos. There was much giggling and laughing. I love how I can "feel" the laughter in these photos, especially in the photos that were actually "in-between" the posed photos. These girls have know each other for nearly their whole lives and love each other deeply. Being together makes them happy. Seeing them together makes me happy too.

(click on a picture to make it bigger so you can really see their facial expressions!)

Photo Hunters - Family

It wasn't hard to decide what to choose for the Photo Hunters theme this week. We were looking for photos of "family." In this, I am richly blessed.

How could I choose anything else?

Photo Hunt - Family

More family photos here.

Thematic Photographic - Blur

This week I was intrigued by Carmi's Thematic Photographic 20 - Blur. The photo he has posted is amazing! This challenge sounded like fun. Things don't always have to be in focus. In fact, sometimes it's better if they aren't.

Photo Hunters - Lazy

This week the Photo Hunters were looking for "lazy."

This photo is nothing special but around here this picture just screams, "LAZY!" to me. I mean, would it kill ya to change the roll?

Photo Hunt - Lazy

Stop by TN Chick for more lazy.

Too fun to pass up!

Saw this one over at Owlhaven. It looked too fun and too easy to pass up. If you want to play along, it's easy. Just open your computer photo folder, go to the sixth folder, pick the sixth picture and post it. Not too tough, right!! If you decide to play along, leave me a comment with a link to your post so I can come take a look at your choice.

Here's the photo I found. I love this one.



Here are (from left to right): Sweetly, JoeCool(peeking through), Shorty and Bear. They took this photo using my MacBook's Photo Booth.

Thanks for the challenge Mary! So much fun.

A New Gig

For the two or three of you who come visit me here - now you can also catch me over at the terrific online magazine Blissfully Domestic.

I'm writing for the new channel, Inspired Bliss. So much fun.

Come visit me over there. My first post is up. Come read A Taste of Heaven and tell me what you think in a comment.

Photo Hunters - Sad

Photo Hunters were looking for something "sad" this week.

These are photos of drawings done by my 11 year old boy, #1Son. His God-given talent amazes me. All of these characters express our theme to me in some way. Be it their mouths or eyes or just their faces, they all express sadness to me. (Don't worry - he draws plenty of "happy" too!)

Photo Hunt - Sad

We enjoy warmth because we have been cold. We appreciate light because we have been in darkness. By the same token, we can experience joy because we have known sadness.

David Weatherford

Thanks to TNChick, there is more sadness here.