Wednesday, May 25, 2011

Got an Itch?

How does one scratch an itch with hooves?
We were invited to a party held at the Rocking Horse Ranch in Huntington Beach. I knew where the equestrian area was, but this ranch was one I was not familiar with. However, give me animals and it's my kind of party!
A fabulous ranch party with wonderful people, great barbecue, fabulous hosts, staff, and residents. We were able to spend lots of time with the horses and were given a horse show with some of the owners horses. (Will post those on another day.) We realized that we knew the owners. Our kids were friends in pre-school and though they went to different schools later, we we would run in to them here and there. The owner said that it was because of us that he had the ranch. Wait, what? ??
We had invited them to Mag's fifth birthday party. We had pony rides. And it was at our party that his girls fell in love with horses. He had been raised on a ranch and seeing their love of horses made their own ranch a reality. (One of the daughters designed their logo.) So, again, he said it was because of us. In my usual flair, I asked where our piece of the pie was. lol Don't let me tell you where he said it was! :@)
This last photo is from the birthday party back in 1997.
These two lambies were only interested in the grass.

Tuesday, May 17, 2011

Blessings

This was and has been a very busy week! On Mother's Day my oldest came walking up to me with a tearful face and asked me to come into her room to look at something. I knew something was wrong. Very wrong. An email came through that stated her acceptance into college had been withdrawn due to a form not received. Oh my! I usually don't cry, but I was tired. I lost it. All I could do was to start making phone calls and send out a prayer request. I prayed specifically for compassion, understanding and if this college was where she was NOT supposed to be, for God to close the door. And to close it in an obvious way. I'm not the brightest bulb so I needed it to be an obvious closure. I began calling the college and being a Sunday, no one was there. I couldn't let it go so I called the library. When the automatic answering machine came to the part where it said, "If you are on a rotary phone, hang on and we'll connect you to an operator" I hung on. This is where I knew God had his hand on my shoulder. He is my rotary phone. A young woman answered and I quickly explained that I knew she couldn't do anything but I was in a panic and a mom who was about to be sick to her stomach. She was compassionate and understanding. I was blown away. A girl only a few years older than my own daughter was listening, understanding my fear, and gave me the best advise. She said, "You need to come in. Don't just call because they will have a lot of people calling. Best to come in person." So that was it. My hub and I made arrangements for the kids in the morning and off we left at 7AM.
Every person that we had any contact with that morning was compassionate and understanding. Even if they didn't know why we were at the school, their actions or reactions were both of those. At the end of our visit, the admissions person to whom we were speaking with handed me his business card. He said, "If you have any other problems or concerns, please call me direct."
At home my daughter asked if it was all taken care of and we told her that she would get an email letting her know the results. I did however tell her that the door gave me his business card so rest assured this is the place where God wants her to be.
Two days later she got the assurance. That morning we thanked God again. And we gave her the college sweatshirt that we had purchased the morning of our visit. Go Broncos! Go God!~

Sunday, May 8, 2011

Mother's Day 2011

Yesterday I took this lovely young lady out for a photo shoot in a nearby field. She had 270 photos to choose from as a gift to her mother for mother's day. There were so many to pick from. She is not only beautiful, but she can give different looks in the camera from one to the next. There were some that if I hadn't taken the shot I would have thought it was a different day. We had fun and even more, had fun knowing that her mom would be completely surprised. Now that is fun!
Happy Mother's Day.
If it hadn't been for your mother, you wouldn't be reading this post.
And to my mom; if by chance you get on your computer this week,
I love you to the moon and back.

Thursday, May 5, 2011

Spring Has Sprung!

This week has been very busy. Worked a wedding at the Strawberry Farms in Irvine. What a lovely venue for a wedding! It truly is a gorgeous place to get married at. Here is just one photo from it. I used this photo to create a bridal shower invitation for another client. She is giving a shower with the sunflower theme and in colors yellow, orange and green. I took this photo and tweaked it many different ways.
Below are two drafts of what I ended up with. I love taking photos and working them into pieces of art. These are 7x7 invitations that will have the envelope fold around them. I am using this top one as the invite for the shower as the bride to be is young, however, I really like the bottom one. How about you??
Check out more of my Strawberry Farm photos here: