Happy Christmas Eve!

Mom's Collection of Glass Christmas Trees

I wish you all a very Merry Christmas! I am blessed to be surrounded by family.  Although my hubbie's absence is never far from my mind and heart my parents, cousins, grandparents, aunts & uncles are doing a great job of keeping me entertained.  Cheers to you all! I'm off to help my mom in the kitchen.  :)

Thirty Days of Thanksgiving - Day 28

Blogger FINALLY released an iPhone app! I thought I'd give it a go and see how it works today since my laptop is in the middle of having its hard drive upgraded.

Today I am thankful for:
-My bicycle
-Time with my hubbie at a favorite coffee house & a short bike ride together
-Dinner with my awesome auntie
-A hubbie with technical proficiency - who is right upgrading my computer as I type away on my iPhone

What are you thankful for?

Thirty Days of Thanksgiving - Day 26

Pure Happiness! (A shop window in the Gaslamp Quarter, San Diego)

Today I am thankful for:

• A yummy breakfast with my parents
• My parents' safe drive home
• Nap time on my comfy sofa
• Christmas decorations
• Dinner with my hubbie on the ship

Thirty Days of Thanksgiving - Day 25

After almost five and a half years of blogging I have finally reached my 500th post! Thank you all for following and continuing to follow my journey. I can't wait to see what I find through my explorations and have to share with you in the next 500 posts!

Gaslamp Quarter, San Diego

Today I am thankful for:

• My awesome parents - I am truly blessed to have parents who are also my friends
• My hubbie having the day off from work
• The best Black Friday:
• Yummy breakfast made by my made daddy
• Shopping my favorite camera and art stores
• Cappuccino and gelato in Little Italy
• A drive out to Julian for lunch and apple pie with cinnamon ice cream
• Time to take a few pictures (I haven't had a chance to upload them yet, but expect to see a few in the next couple of days)
• Amazing turkey tacos (prepared by my mom and dad) for dinner

It doesn't get much better than this!!

Thirty Days of Thanksgiving - Day 15

Sunset Surfer on the Morro Bay Strand

Today I am thankful for:

• Making it halfway through the month, blogging daily! Its not a easy as it sounds...
• A yummy dinner with a very fun guest - one of my lovely aunties!
• A relaxing end to a very busy day

Cabrillo National Monument

A couple of weeks ago Les & I took his parents to Cabrillo National Monument, a beautiful spot out on the tip of Point Loma.  This week's Photo of the Week (hosted by Jessica Rogers Photography) was taken that day.

Cliffs over the Pacific

Here are a few other photos from that gorgeous afternoon...

Father & Son (my hubbie & his dad)

Juan Rodriguez Cabrilllo

If you get the opportunity you should really visit this park. The view is unbelievable - on a clear day you can see for miles - over the San Diego bay on one side and out to sea on the other.

Have a great weekend!

Wine Tasting in Paso Robles

Not long ago I had the pleasure of going wine tasting with my cousin, her husband, and my mom at Justin Winery in Paso Robles.  I took several photos that day, but its taken me a bit of time to to get around to editing & sharing.

Today's Photo of the Week (a feature hosted by Jessica Rogers Photography) was taken in the wine caves at Justin:

In the Cave

A few other shots from that day:

And two of my favorites:

That is Dexter - my cousin's Pekingese puppy.  He likes wine :)

Have a wonderful weekend!

Honoring Mom

Everything happens for a reason.  I was originally supposed to come up to SLO last week for some photography work but it was postponed and I ended up coming up this weekend, which just happened to be Mother's Day.  I'm so glad I got to spend this day and weekend with my mom!

We spent the morning on a brunch cruise on Morro Bay - absolutely lovely!  The weather was gorgeous and we had a nice big group of family to celebrate with.  I just wanted to take a few moments to share pictures from this morning...

My Beautiful Mom

My Grandma & Auntie

My Awesome Brother

My Daddy and Grandma

Happy Mother's Day to all of the beautiful, amazing moms out there! I hope your day was special.

I love you, mom!

My Mom is AWESOME!

She sent me cookies :)

Not just any cookies, Brown Butter Sea Salt Cookies!!

I savored a couple of them today with my afternoon cappuccino...YUM!

Thank you, Mommy!!

If you'd like to get your hands on some of these awesome cookies visit the Brown Butter Cookie Company website or find them on Facebook.  Seriously, they are worth the effort!

Daddy's Truck

For the past few years my dad has been working on restoring a 1968 Ford F100.  It is a gorgeous truck!  Last weekend when I was visiting my family on the Central Coast I spent a bit of time in my dad's shop taking photos.

I love how they turned out!  Most of them have been processed as HDR. I love the extra detail and texture this process reveals. I also decdied to submit one of my truck photos for Jessica Rogers' Photo of the Week. Here is the one I chose:

Daddy's Truck (1968 Ford F100)

I had a hard time choosing which one of my photos to submit for Photo of the Week.  Here are the other contenders:

What do you think? Which is your favorite?  Let me know in the comments!!

A glimpse at last weekend's photo shoot

This past weekend I had the honor of photographing a family. Not just any family, but part of my family!  This beautiful group of four is about to become 5 and I had great time capturing images that will hopefully be enjoyed for generations.

I shot over 500 frames and still have a lot of editing to do, but here is a quick sneak peek of what is to come:

Enjoy! More are on the way...

Thirty Days of Thanksgiving - Day 25

Happy Thanksgiving!  I hope you have a day filled with joy, love, and friendship.  We were honored to be invited to a friend's home for the most unique Thanksgiving I have ever had.  It was a mixture of Sicilian, German, Swiss, and American.  All wonderful people, and of course delicious food.  We had a fantastic afternoon.  Now we are home and I'm reflecting on everything I truly have to be thankful for.

Today I am thankful for:

1. Wonderful people to spend Thanksgiving with
2. A truly unique Thanksgiving experience
3. Not having to cook the entire meal by myself without all of my wonderful kitchen tools that are somewhere along their journey to San Diego
4. A fantastic family who I can't wait to see when I get back to the States

What are you thankful for today?

Thirty Days of Thanksgiving - Day 22

I had fun playing with my husband's 50mm f/1.8 lens this morning - the control over depth of field is awesome!

Today I am thankful for:

1. Creative outlets - At least I still have my camera with me! I do miss my craft supplies, though.
2. A good chat with my mom (can't wait to be in the same time zone!!)
3. Grilled artichokes - I learned the method at a cooking class last week and they came out soooo good! I look forward to sharing this tasty preparation with my Stateside friends and family.

What are you thankful for today?

Thirty Days of Thanksgiving - Day 16

I love a man who loves his cat :)

Today I am thankful for:

1. My husband
2. As of today we have been married seven years and haven't killed each other yet :)
3. My hubbie getting the day off of work so we could spend our anniversary together
4. An awesome morning/early afternoon going to a Ricotta Cheese Workshop
5. A fantastic meal at the workshop with, you guessed it, lots of delicious ricotta cheese
6. An afternoon snooze

What are you thankful for today?

Thirty Days of Thanksgiving - Day 5

Edna Valley Vineyard in fall 2008

Today I am thankful for:

1. Improvement in my kitty's health
2. Fall weather
3. Knowing when I am going home - we finally got our flight date!!
4. Being able to speak enough Italian to ask for directions AND actually understand them
5. My husband finally having two days off in a row (its been weeks)

What are you thankful for today?

Thirty Days of Thanksgiving - Day 2

If you have a blog, consider joining me in the "Thirty Days of Thanksgiving" challenge!  I've started a blogroll of participants in the sidebar.  If you'd like to be added to the list please comment with a link to your blog.  Don't sweat it if you didn't get a chance to start on Nov. 1, just start today!

Today I am thankful for:

1. Signs of improvement in my kitty's heath
2. The peace in my heart and encouragement that comes with observing these signs of improvement
3. Rain
4. A loving and hard-working husband
5. An awesome family

What are you thankful for today?

My Talented Family

I just got word that two members of my family won ribbons at the Mid-State Fair!!

My mom entered this pic:

and she won a blue ribbon!!!

My grandma entered this quilt:

and she won best in show!!!

I'm so proud of my talented, creative, artistic, amazing family!!!