Made by Dad

Way back in spring my mom came up with a plan to re-do my sisters' bedroom and a few months later my dad helped make her plan a reality. In June he built his first piece of furniture, their loft bed. It's truly wonderful and gives them so much more space in their already small room. Now they each have their own "side" of the room and they love it!

~Mary Kate

A Taste of Home

There is no place like home and I have to say I live in a beautiful place. I finally managed to capture a picture that perfectly describes Southern-Central PA.

Rolling hills, green fields, trees, farms and distant mountains.  This is what I call home, and I love it!
And since I'm on the topic of home...here are some more photos from home this summer:

~Mary Kate

11:11 on 11/11/11

Today is 11/11/11. A momentous day in our family. For the past several months my brothers have been obsessed with the time11:11. Each day when the clock turns from 11:10 to 11:11, then jump up and down and do a little dance. I have no idea why this started or what prompted them to be so infatuated with this time each day.
However, since this has been going on for a while and we all know about, my mom decided a few weeks ago that on 11/11/11 at 11:11, we would have a little party. Unfortunetly we weren't able to have the party at 11:11, however we all joined in on their celebrations.
I did take a short video with my brand-new ipod touch that came yesterday (I love it so much! It's my first ipod and I love that it is so similar to an iphone without the monthly charges) and I thought I'd share it with you. I for one think it demonstrates perfectly how absolutely crazy my family is :)

Enjoy:

(And as a side note: I have no idea why the 4 year old (Benny) is pulling off his shirt at the end of the video)
See I told you...crazy! :)
And then John Paul (the 11 year old) made this proclamation:

 (That's Rosie at the end sticking her face in the camera)


And then, a few minutes ago, my mom called me up to the living room to hear what Benny was saying. I pulled out my ipod and pushed record. What cracks us up is how serious he is! lol:

And since I'm on the topic of my new ipod touch... here are a couple of photos I took with it earlier today and yesterday:

And since I'm sharing photos of our five little kittens, here's one I took with my real camera:

Aren't they the cutest little things ever?!?!?
~Mary Kate

The Family Room {Home Edition}

Do you have a room in your house that's a special room? A room where kids can play and be wild and school can be done and family members can enjoy each other? A room that's houses the TV and the wii and also functions as the prayer room and mud room? Well we do and it's called our Family Room.

Taken with Dad's iphone in July:

Max wins the family game night trophy.

August 2011:

Earlier this week:
This next picture is my entry for {A Photo} Challenge:

I didn't know that Joey would round the corner and start running towards me, which explains why he's out of focus, but I still find this so cute!

Yesterday:

Toys are typically strewn across the family room floor :)

I let Benny use my camera to take a picture of me. It was supposed to focus on me, but I like how it turned out!

Don't know what this face is for!

I love our family room.

~Mary Kate

There's no place like...

...HOME! I'm back from two completely different, but equally amazing weeks. It's really good to be back home. My sister and I flew home from Chicago this morning and then we celebrated my younger brother's 4th birthday. Then my sister got on the computer and so my first chance to get on the computer was 10:30pm. But I've been dying to load my pictures and edit some so, despite the late hour, despite the fact that I'm exhausted, here I am two hours later. After loading and organizing all my pictures I was able to edit the rest of my 30 Day Challenge and 365 Challenge photos that I took while on vacation.

So here goes:

30 Day Challenge

Day 13 {August 6th} 

I accidently forgot about taking this photo until it was already dark, so I had to look around for something in the house, in the room I was sleeping in there was this tapestry thing hanging on the wall and so I hung the earring in it. Sorry about the poor light.

Day 14 {August 7th}

On my Aunt and Uncle's outdoor table.

Day 15 {August 8th}

In the bricks of their house

Day 16 {August 9th}

On their hammock

Day 17 {August 10th}

Hanging on the chain going to the hammock

 

Day 18 {August 11th}

On the disc swing they have in their yard

Day 19 {August 12th}

My personal favorite 30 Day photo so far. I wanted to have the earring with Chicago somehow in the background, and the only way to do that was to hold the earring (which explains my hand in the left corner). But I love how this turned out!

Day 14 {August 6th}

I was in desperation trying to find something to photograph so I grabbed my Aunt's sugar bowl which she bought in Italy this past May and snapped this picture. This is one of the two photos I will be doing for Touch Up Tuesday.

Day 15 {August 7th}

We went to the Renaissance Fair that day and driving home I remember I didn't have a photo for that day so I took this while we were sitting at a red light.

Day 16 {August 8th}

While looking for insiration in their yard, I noticed that their hose was dripping and I thought the yellow color of the hose went well with the tanish brick of their house wall.

Day 17 {August 9th}

This is my space photo for the past Scavenger Hunt, but sadly it's one of the few photos I took that day and so it's also for this challenge.

Day 18 {August 10th}

I mentioned that I wanted to work on food photography and street photography. We don't live near a huge city so I don't get a chance for street photography often, so I was excited to walk around Chicago. I caught this while comming out of the Art Museum, there is a walking bridge across the road and I noticed this woman taking a picture of some of the skyscrapers. Of course I had to take this picture :) I'm just glad I caught it since I was walking while taking this and she moved away right after this shot because I went to take another photo and she was already walking away.

Day 19 {August 11th}  

We went on a praire walk Thursday (August 11th) and when I saw this bridge I knew I had to try my newfound love of low angle, focus on the ground, shots. :) {This is the second photo I'm going to use for touch up tuesday)

Day 20 {August 12}

I like this photo because of the element of mystery it has. I woke up really early Friday morning to try and catch some of the glorious morning light. I had noticed the night before that my Aunt had this antique desk in their foyer and the desk had some beautiful details. This is the side of the desk, I love the sun rays and bokeh.

Now another half hour as passed and I really must go to bed. But now that I'm home, I should be editing and posting a bunch more pictures soon!

Love,

Mary Kate

{Oh yeah, and in case you were wondering why I suddenly changed my watermark, I haven't permently decided to change it, I still like what I did before, but this new watermark is sooo much easier and takes half the time to add to each photo. I don't know what I'll do with all future photos :) }