This was one of those times that I didn't take very many pictures but had a terrible time deciding which to use not because I had multiple favorites but more because I wasn't all that happy with anything I ended up with :-/ When I viewed the pictures on my camera viewer I thought I had some great possibilities, but once I got them on the computer (days later... maybe that's why it's a good idea to upload and edit the same day! >.<) they just weren't what I'd hoped for.  One of my pet peeves for my own photography is cutting off limbs/parts or making awkward crops, and on these I don't like how I chopped his ears, and on the first I'm not sure how I feel about where I cropped his face. :-/

Anyway, I can't remember if this was a colt or a filly, but this horse and a pretty red roan filly were in the round pens behind the barn where I ride.  I really, really wanted my pictures of the filly to work because she had some lovely coloring, but I guess I'll have to try again with her later :-/  These were taken with my prime lens and I was peeking through the spaces in the pen to snap pictures (part of the reason the crops are where they are - the horses were right next to me and curious about my camera).

This is probably the closest I came to forgetting to take a picture! I was just about to go to bed, very tired, and suddenly remembered! My camera was downstairs (or missing an SD card, I don't recall) so I opted to use my iPhone, and I thought my lace black and burgundy layering top might make for an interesting close-up.  The interpretive part comes with trying to figure out what you see in the pattern, ha ha ;-) It's really a floral design but the way I had it draped makes that less obvious.

My husband and I started our dish set when we got married over a decade ago but never really completed it, so we had a solid setting for five then a mixed number of extras of different pieces. It was a nice matte black Target HOME stoneware collection, but to be honest the dinner plates drove me crazy. They reminded me too much of huge shallow bowls, and I didn't like how the juices from my dinner would all run down to the center, nor how frustrating they were to try and arrange in the dishwasher.  I personally rarely ever used a big plate for those reasons, and would only use the salad plates for my meals because they were flatter.  I also didn't like how hot the set would get in the microwave, so I frequently ended up using various other cheaper pieces we'd accumulated for that.

Anyway, after complaining for several years, I finally got around to replacing my dinnerware! These were available online only, advertised as black and beige, and I absolutely loved the look of what they had pictured.  The reviews warned me however that the color would likely be different than stated, and unfortunately they were, but I'm still happy overall.  The sets I received were more of a dark brown and tan/sage green color, but I was happy that they at least matched (I ordered 3 boxes to get 12 settings).  Even more, due to the nice FLAT bottom on the dinner plates, and the perfect sizes to everything else, I managed to fit ALL of the new dishes in the dishwasher at ONE time.  That never would have happened with my old set, at least not with this many pieces. :)

I pick my oldest up after school most days and finally thought to get a picture in the car! Don't worry, I wasn't driving at the time ;-) I also had some fun editing this one, and tried Courtney's tip of removing distractions (there had been a blurred outline of part of a house out the window that I removed).

This cabin has been on the side of this hill ever since I can remember.  When I was in my early teens they used to have a hand-painted sign out front that read "horses for sale" with a phone number, and several horses would mill around the cabin and the little stretch of level ground winding around the length of the hill.  As far as I can tell it's been abandoned for several years now, that or the town owns it as part of the open space that was surrounding it before.  The paint looks kept up but I haven't seen a car there (nor tracks in the snow) for years.  I would have liked to take my photo from a different angle, but as it was I had to find a safe spot to pull over on the highway to take this from my car window when there was a break in traffic (and I didn't have my zoom lens on my camera, that might have helped to make it more interesting too).

For Christmas 2012 I gave my mom this flowering tea set. I believe the tea is a jasmine green tea tied into "flowers." There are a few different styles of flowers but they are all the same flavor, and one of few teas that I like without sugar (yes I'm one of "those" ^.^).  I tried to position the teapot in the sunlight we had filtering through the blinds so that the light would land on the tea flower in a couple of places.

Hannibal is getting up there in years, and when we bring him inside he "talks" to us in low grumbles and groans.

My favorite mug with my favorite tea. :)  I originally angled the camera so you could see the tea inside, but those images weren't as crisp as I had hoped they'd be once I got them on the computer. 

This was one of those late nights when I was running out of ideas.  I also snapped a picture of the lights from the firetruck behind our house and one of the calendar on the fridge.  It was a challenging decision but the fruit won out! ;-)  I will also confess that the editing here was a joint venture between PSE and Picasa, partly because I'm very behind on getting all these posted and I can edit faster with Picasa.

Oh dear, this was both frustrating and fun! lol My mother-in-law gave my sons matching Batman logo shirts and requested a picture of the two of them wearing them together. Naturally I then decided that this would be my photo of the day.  I think I've mentioned recently how much fun it is to try and get a one-year-old to pose?! ;-D We started in the front yard (thankfully my husband came home from work right as we walked out, there is NO WAY I could have made this happen by myself!), but Dekker noticed all the snow and wanted to touch it and walk in it, and he was fussy and running around, so we decided having him somewhat contained in the backyard (where I had less of the already-fading sunlight >.<) was probably a better idea.  So after we got to the backyard he still wanted to check everything out, so I basically told my 5-year-old "just follow Dekker and try to stay next to him and smile at me the whole time!" Bless his heart, he tried.  Did I mention it was cold?  It was also pretty cold, and I didn't put coats on them because then Grandma wouldn't be able to see the shirts! So the plan was to make this a quick shoot.  Oh and we are also missing a fence slat, so the neighbor's dogs can somewhat poke their heads through, and Dekker LOVES dogs, so he kept trying to walk over toward them and was howling at them.  Finally I discovered that if I sit Dekker down on a stair he'll stay there! But that didn't stop him from howling.  Looking at these pictures cracks me up. 

Oh and for the final non-blooper one I chose, I decided to try one of the PSE actions I downloaded for free from http://www.mcpactions.com/ . I'm not sure if I like it that much on this particular image, but I also haven't watched the tutorial yet to learn how to tweak it according to my preferences.  I think what bugs me most of all is that it doesn't match the ones above, but oh well :-/