Jan 16 2015 : nature : winter beach grasses
Jan 12 2015
Jan 12 2015 : bright : bokeh beauty from a trip to The Lincoln Park zoo to see zoo lights!
jan 6 2015
Jan 6 2015 : roundA beauty from Rockefeller Center when I was in New York back in December ... Have a couple of posts due from that trip, but since I've been a horrible blogger they are still sitting out there waiting to be posted. Some day.. 
10 on 10 { Dec 2014 }
Ten on Ten once again!! Boy I have been a very bad blogger! I just realized my last post was 10 on 10 LAST MONTH (eeks!). I Must do better! I am a solid month behind on posting my Fat Mum Slim challenge photos and have certainly taken photos of life happenings in the last month. Oy! Anyhoo, I had a great time running around on Saturday snapping photos here and there along with some time at home getting the final touches of holiday to-dos done! Oh how I just love the holidays!
Vintage sleds - just like I used to have as a kid - outside a great antiques shop here in e-town Beach grasses - it was cooooold and windy by the lake today too! Some evergreen at the most adorable tree stand near the firehouse on Chicago Ave El train details Rolling waters on the shore - many shades of gray in the winter (boo) Christmas cards - addressed and ready to hit the post The most lovely vintage pillow cover (never knew these existed) reading "Good Night" Stars on my gold tree (yes... I have a gold tree and I love it!) Sculpture on the Nature Boardwalk in Lincoln Park - met some instagrammers there for loads of photos Then headed off to Lincoln Park Zoo lights ... soooo many people in there!
photoshoot : wc : fall 2014
Another photoshoot with my friend Will. He is a great subject for practice! I have another family shoot coming up this next weekend, so I needed to test out a different lens to see if I go prime and ditch the zoom or stick with the zoom... Really liking the light and bokeh from the 85mm. 
farnsworth house
Ticking items off my "Chicago" bucket list - today I drove out to Plano, IL to see the Farnsworth House - one of Mies Van der Rohe's most famous creations. I purposely wanted to visit in the fall, so I've been saving this one for a while and boy did I luck out today! Sunny, 70º and peak foliage made for the most perfect experience. The only thing that would have made it better is if I had known that they only allow photographs inside the house on the weekends after the 3pm tour - oh well, I managed to snap one with my iPhone anyway. ( rule breaker... oopsie! )
Upon arrival you are in this little gift shop/office building, greeted by our guide and then walked down a half mile path to arrive at the house. The guide talked about the size of the property, how the owner came to choose this location along the Fox River, how she met Mies and the relationship they had during the several years of planning and building. Unfortunately their relationship ended in a lawsuit. The house was projected to cost $45K and ended up around $75K and at that time apparently could have bought you any house in the greater Chicagoland area (wow!). The house took somewhere around 5600 hours of architectural planning time - the fee for that today would build you a skyscraper! And the saddest part of the whole thing to me was that the owner, Edith Farnsworth, didn't like staying in the home she spent so much time and money to build with Mies. The house became so famous that she would find people lurking around the property - looking in on her! I wouldn't love that either, but I would love sitting in a chair watching the leaves or snow fall - kind of like being in a giant snow globe! Dreamy! Simply dreamy! 
Isn't it just amazing? Now you know why I wanted to visit in the Fall... 
fall is my favorite
Fall is far and above my favorite season. The sunlight seems warmer... the colors more golden... the crisp air... the tall grasses gently waving in the breeze... sunlight across gentle water ripples ... oh Fall, how I love thee. 
rome : piazza navona
I am finally working my way through the zillions of photos from my trip to Italy and rather than doing one giant post, I have decided to focus on the special places / moments during our trip. So we began our trip with an evening wandering through the Piazza Navona. It's a vibrant place to be - lots of people just sitting and enjoying each others company over food, drink and some of the most beautiful architecture and fountains. I absolutely love the details in Italy - flowers on the balconies, decorative house numbers, the color of shutters and doors and little moments of religious figures on the building facades. I really wish I knew why they do this - to bless the inhabitants? And how do they decide what the figure will be, how prominent it will be and where it is placed?
Oh and did you know that property cost increased with the number of windows a building has .. so if you look around, you will notice windows are painted onto buildings (see fourth row photo below) this was their way of saving money. Crazy fact I never knew before!
More to come... 
10 on 10 { sept 2014 }
I've missed the last couple of months 10 on 1o challenges ... bad me. But, hopefully I can be better for the coming months! Here's my September ten. Fresh off my trip to Italy, I decided to do my 10 on Sunday. It was the perfect lazy day - homemade waffles with the most amazing bourbon barrel honey, tea and magazines, the kitties loving having their momma home, putting together little travel gifts for friends, journaling (so I can remember what I did on my trip!) and the beginnings of photo editing - there's so far to go! It was the most beautiful day here in Chicago. Happy to be home!
summer in the garden
I finally decided to join the Chicago Botanic Garden - I seem to find myself up there at least once a season if not more, and I actually save some money with the membership so why not right? I ran up to test the Canon 16-35mm ultra wide angle lens to see if I would like it better than my 24-70mm. And while I love the results form the 16mm, I found that it really wasn't that big of a difference really. I was impressed at the bokeh it produced and image quality is nice and sharp. Its'a really lovely lens, but I think I will keep it on my wish list for a while longer and continue to rock my 24-70.
