Starting over kinda sucks.

My old computer bit the dust and took a lot of what I would have posted here with it. I've been working hard to build up more pictures and have some good ones.

This picture was shot around 10:30pm with a 16 minute exposure

Shot around midnight with a 16 minute exposure

I love how this goose is watching those ducks

This is a 30 second exposure on a busy street in my town.

Hopefully, I'll be inspired to post more. I'm not doing nearly as much photography lately as I would like to. Most of it has been personal stuff (like the late night pictures and pretty much everything else I just posted) and I've been doing a lot of makeup pictures, but I started a new blog just for that. lol Until next time. :D

Photo Dump!

I just realized that it's been ages since I've posted anything. In the time I've been MIA, I went to Oregon for a week. We went all sorts of places, pretty much all over Oregon, but the highlight of my trip was my last full night there. My cousin and I went to Sisters, Oregon. It's a quaint little town that over looks the Three Sisters mountain range. It was a cloudless, moonless night... perfect for star gazing, and Milky Way photography.

Is this not the most amazing view? Taken at Dee Wright Observatory in Sisters, Oregon at 5,200ft.

This was just one of the amazing things I was lucky enough to photograph. I think this will hold a special place as the most amazing thing I've ever seen. Want me to share some of my other pictures from the trip?

I hope you just said yes. If you didn't, you should probably find somewhere else to go, because I'm about to unload a bunch of pictures lol.

The "Phantom Pirate Ship" in Crater Lake

Crater Lake Panorama

We made another trip to Crater Lake. You'd think looking at a massive crater would be boring after the first time, but this type of beauty doesn't get old.

Mt. Hood as seen on the way to Ka-Nee-Tah. About half an hour drive from actually being on Mt. Hood.

This is two of the Three Sisters, shot as we were headed up to Dee Wright Observatory for some Milky Way action.

Remember the Milky Way photo from the start of this post? This is what it looks like in the day time.

That's all I've got for now. Blogger is being bitchy and I should go to bed. I'll add more photos to another post at another time.

It's Football Time Again!

My favorite time of year! I watch my Colts loyally, and will root for any other team that isn't the Patriots. A friend and fellow blogger Taylor (GlitterWHAT?) is having a football/makeup/team picking extravaganza over the course of the regular season. I'm participating, are you?

Wedding Pictures Galore!

I'm still working my way through over 1,500 pictures. Thankfully, I'm getting super close to being done. It's getting hard to find the motivation to do them, though. I want to be out swimming with my boys and doing stuff outside..... this is why I need a laptop. lol

I've Slacked Again.

I'm so horrible at this! I do a great job of posting for a while and then I get busy with life and totally neglect the blog. My Memorial Day weekend was busy, I started out shooting a wedding, then I shot some more pictures on Sunday, then Monday we had a massive cookout for 12 people. It was a great load of fun and I'm slowly wading my way through 1,500+ pictures (and that's just for the wedding) I'm gonna be at it for a while.

I was mowing my yard today and ran across a couple of baby cardinals who must have been learning to fly today. I had to move them to a safer location so I could finish my yard, but not before I snapped a few pictures. Anyone who knows me, knows I have a pretty ridiculous fear of birds, but these were little and cute.

I'm out of thoughts for now and need to get back to editing, but before I leave, I'm gonna add a picture of one of the little cardinals.

Isn't it adorable?!

It's Review Time! Facebomb Costmetics

I'm going to open this review by stating that I did not pay for these items, I won them in a pigment naming contest. I will say that the owner, Shayna, had no idea that I would be doing a review on her stuff when she shipped them. On to the review.

Facebomb is an indie mineral makeup company ran by Shayna Toole out of  Panama City, Florida. She runs an Etsy shop which can be found here and a Facebook page that can be found here and the Facebook group is here. Her colors are awesome, so are super glittery and some are more shimmery (there is a difference, which I may go into another time.) She has bright vivid colors and more neutral ones also. The color I named was Sunburst. Along with my pot, which was the prize for having your pigment name picked, Shayna also included an extra pot of pigment, Spring Purple from her spring collection, and three LOADED samples. There is seriously enough in these samples that I could fill at least a 3 gram pot, but I'm guessing they are almost the size of a full 5g pot.

My package was shipped in a bubble mailer, and the items were wrapped in bubble wrap. How's that for secure? Ingredients aren't listed on the pot anywhere, but an ingredient list was included in my package along with a hand written note. I didn't get any pictures of the packaging because I was too excited to see the pigment, but I have pictures of everything else. Are you ready for a photo dump of epic proportions?

It doesn't show, but this pot had a shrink band around it

Cute logo top sticker

Sifter stickers make me happy.

Names of the colors on the bottom of the pot.

My 3 massive samples.

Ingredient list

Are you ready for a swatch-a-rama?! I hope you said "Yes," because that's what's next!

All Sparkly Glowy

Sunburst

Spring Purple

Davy Jones

Hoggle

Now for a look with my new colors!

I used Sunburst, Hoggle, and Davy Jones with All Sparkly Glowy for a highlight

  

That's all the pictures I have for now, so I'm going to leave you with some final thoughts. 

Would I buy from Facebomb Cosmetics again? As a matter of fact, yes I would. I already have my next purchase planned out. 

Would I recommend Facebomb to others? Yes I would.

If anyone has any questions for me, please leave them in the comments section. One other thing I want to add before I go, the fact that I won these pigments did not sway my review at all. :)

Just When Things are Looking Up.

Something stupid happens and sends me back into a weep at everything state. This time the catalyst was my two year old willow trees. I plucked these little twigs off a freshly cut down old old willow tree that was probably 50 feet tall and raised them from rootless sprigs. I tenderly put them in cups of water. moving them from one room of the house to another to keep them in the sun as long as possible. It seemed impossible to me, but my dad assured me that they would sprout the roots that would grow them into a possible 70 foot tall wonder. Sure enough, after two weeks, my little twigs had roots. I quickly bought two flower pots and some potting soil and moved them from their cups of water to actual soil. Boy oh boy, they flourished! Within two months, they had outgrown their pots, so I dug up two holes in my yard. I kept them fairly close together, with dreams of a bench under the drooping branches where I could sit and read. All that summer, I watched as they quickly grew to be about 6 feet tall. I was so proud that I was able to take these little 6 inch branches and help turn them into actual trees. They made it through that first winter, and slowed in their growth the following summer. That brings us to this winter. We suffered a MASSIVE ice storm that shut down the town for 5 days. Everything was coated in 6 inches of ice, followed by 4 inches of snow. It was too much for my trees to survive. I noticed once it started warming up and everything was turning green that my beloved willows were not. I called a local greenery and they confirmed my fears, my willows hadn't been hearty enough to withstand being under so much ice and cold for so long. I cried at the loss of my trees, knowing that it wasn't just the loss of my willows that was making me so sad. It may seem silly to some to cry over trees, but I grew these from practically nothing. Looking out of my kitchen window and being able to watch them grow almost before my very eyes was so fulfilling. My mom has offered to buy me two new ones, and I will take her up on that offer because I still have a dream of reading beneath their overlapped hanging branches, listening to the wind rustle the leaves. I will do this one day, and I will think of my baby willows, and my dad, and all that I've lost this year.