Snow Snow Snow

Today my big brother came to celebrate christmas with my father and myself, and we were blessed with snow.  I always appreciate snow more when I am not expected to drive in it.

I love when there is a fresh snowfall and everything is crisp and white.  The snow was untouched and perfect.

Of course Mr. Winks wanted to play in the snow, I love his little snow mustache.

This is my brother's dog Kaylee, she is much better behaved then my Mr. Winks.  She loves my brother and follows him around everywhere.  

I love her bright brown eyes.  So sweet.

The holiday season is coming to a close and work is about to get extremely busy....but I hope to spend some quality time with my beloved camera in the coming weeks.  

Love Always, 

Meg

Christmas Dinner

Today my father and I celebrated Christmas with a buffalo wing dinner, thanks to my mother's deep frier we cooked the wings like a well oiled machine.

We decided to use the franks redhot sauce's buffalo wing sauce recipe.  (with twice the hot sauce.)

Yummo, would you look at that lovely brick of butter!!!!

My mother always taught me that the secret to making good buffalo wings is to make lots of small batches.  By the time one set of wings were done, we would put the next batch in.  Delicious.

We ate each batch as soon as they were done deep frying, nice and crisp.  Just a quick dip in the sauce and they went straight to our plates.

I think that this is going to become a new Christmas tradition for my father and myself.  Merry Christmas!!!!

Love Always,

Meg

Mr. Winks' First Snow

Today was the first day that I got to see Mr. Winks play in the snow and he loved it.

Thankfully he had a hair cut just in time, because his hair had been really scruffy.

I love my beautiful little guy, and I can't wait to spent Christmas celebrating Jesus's Birthday, and Mr. Wink's Birthday too.

Merry Christmas,

Meg

Harpers Ferry

So on this blustery Saturday morning I went for a hike in Harpers Ferry with a friend from work.  Walking through the center of the old town was really like walking back in time.

I loved the ornate porches and the calm of the deserted town.  I guess we came at the right time of year.

This is an active rail road bridge with a pedestrian walk-way, we walked across the bridge to get to the trail.

I took this picture before the hike because I loved the sweet white house, little did I know that I was also including in the frame, the cliff that I was climbing up to.  Geez Louise was that a hike.

The day started out overcast, and little by little the sun came out.  On a normal day that would be a great thing, but it became sooo bright that I was worried about the harsh light on my pictures.  Thankfully I think it worked out perfectly.

I'm guessing that there was a fire of some sort, but I love this hollowed out building.  

You may notice that no hiking photos were included in this post, that is because an eighth of the way up I realized that I was sorely out of shape.  One third of the way up I waffled over whether or not to turn back, but thankfully I made it too the top and the view was spectacular.

It was worth every minute just to see the gorgeous view though, amazing.

We saw multiple trains today, but I wasn't in the right position to get a great picture.  I would have loved to get a picture of a train going through the tunnels here.

I have been aching to get a good panoramic picture, here are a few attempts from today.

I did some minor editing to this picture, but the sun really was peaking through the clouds throughout the day, and every so often you would see a spotlight shine through.  Gorgeous day.

Love Always,

Meg

Visionary Art Museum

Today I went to visit the visionary art museum and it was even more amazing then I thought it would be.  The museum prohibits photography of any kind inside of the museum, but there are more then enough statues and gardens to take pictures of.

This was an amazing tree, made out of glass.  The colored pieces are on the trunk.

I loved this colorful goofy little duck.

I've been a bit caught up with work as of late, but I will try to keep up with the blog as I can.

Love Always,

Meg

Hit Record Show

Tonight I went to the Hit Record show is DC.  Hit record is an amazing forem that was created by Joseph Gorden-Levitt, and allows artists to share their work and colaborate together.  I've always been too nervous to share my work, afraid of negtive feedback, but I think I am really going to try to work on some images to share...something that I'm proud of.

Due to traffic and metro delays we were like ten minutes late, but I was just glad to get there.  So exciting.

What I was really excited about, was that it is a really interactive show.  As we sat down Joe brought up this woman and she explained her travels.

This picture made me giggle, I think he was calling someone up onto the stage, but the photo really reminds me of uncle sam.  Only you can create a hit record  :  )

Joe creates albums and books out of the artists work, and they get compensated.  He did a segment when people read out of the newest published colaboration, Tiny Book of Tiny Stories.  I love the microphone he was using, and how it is magnified in the background.

More collaboration.  All the video that joe or the audience takes will go up on the website, and then it can become something different.  This woman was talking about journeys.

It does not hurt that Joseph Gorden-Levitt is really easy on the eyes.

What a cutie  :  )

At the end he sang a song, it was a loop of just a few verses.  He invited anyone who wanted to to go up on stage.  I can't wait til the next tour!!!!  It was a great night, but now I have to start getting ready for work.

Love Always,

Meg

Lovely Leopard

Tones on Tuesday submission.  

I'm still editing Africa pictures and this is my favorite leopard picture.  I cropped the photo and brightened up the colors.

The leopards are able to hunt at night, unlike cheetahs, so they tend to sleep all day in trees.  They are really difficult to see, so we got really lucky.

Love Always,

Meg

Retrospect Monday

This is more from beihai park.  Every building are extremely ornate.

I loved the bright colors, and the intricate designs.

Love Always,

Meg

Life after Sandy

It was a long week, but thank goodness it's weekend!!!  Thankfully where I live in MD, we had little to no damage.  My prayers are with those who had substantial damage to their homes and with those who lost loved ones in the storm.

This three day weekend felt longer than most five day weeks.  Go figure.  My mother is moving to South Carolina, and I had the task of going through all of my childhood things.  After throwing out 90% of my things, I found my copy of A Wish for Wings that Work, and I had a great time of thumbing through it.

The penguin is my favorite boyds bear, named Wally.  I'll probably be pretty busy this weekend with the move, but I will try to drive up to DC to take some more pictures.

Love Always,

Meg

Happy Halloween

This is an oldie but goodie.  I took this picture last year during one of my photo classes.

I changed a few things, but I thought it fit the trick-or-treat theme.  I haven't done a Mr. Winks wednesday in a while, so I am going to try to get back to weekly puppy updates!!!!  Hope you enjoy.

Love Always,

Meg

The calm before the storm

My submission for tones on tuesday and sweet shot tuesday .

I took this picture on Saturday, before the weather started getting bad.  This was a raw photo so I changed the contrast, exposure, and color corected it in camera raw.  Then using photo shop elements I boosted the colors to get the bright orange to pop in the trees.

I hope everyone is staying safe during this horrible storm.  Luckily I live on a hill, so my neighborhood has been pretty safe.

Love Always,

Meg

Retrospect Monday

And so we start a new chapter of Retrospect Monday.  In May of 2010 I traveled to China with my father, and we had an amazing time.  We started our trip in Beijing and ended our trip in Hong Kong.

This is a garden in beihai park, in Beijing.  The parks in china are free to the elderly, so you will see dancing, tai chi, and plenty of activity.  These women were doing a fan dance.

This is the entrance to one of the temples on the path.  This was our first day and we had a great time wandering around the park.

The colors are gorgeous and I love the ornate roof.

This is the interior of the temple and I loved the vivid colors, so I took a ton of pictures.

Hurricane Sandy

So my work never closes....ever....ever....ever...

But I still diligently called the bad weather phone number last night, and multiple times this morning, then at 7:30 I decided to make my way towards work.

So Mr. Hip Hop and I drove 45 miles per hour on 695, and did my best not to get into an accident.  We stopped by dunkin donuts and got a coffee and bagel, and of course by the time I got back in my car, work had been closed.  I had to giggle, it had been maybe five minutes since I had last called the bad weather number.

After a quick stop at the super market for some necessities (i.e. queso dip) Mr. Hip Hop and I made our way back home.  These photos are deceiving, the weather was much worse on my way home and there were tractor trailers speeding, I can only assume they were racing to get home, and I was praying the whole way home.  Well, I was both praying and singing *Nsync's "Its Tearing up my Heart."

I am now home and going through a few instagram pictures I had on my phone...

The beautiful sunflowers from Fallston.

My lazy dog who barely acknowledged me when I came home safe and sound.

A bit of weather.

This picture actually needs an explanation.  My mother is moving and while I was cleaning out my room at her house (i.e. throwing away a lot of junk), and I found my *Nsync bobble heads.  Yes I too a picture, and yes I most definitely kept them.  Amazing.

Be Safe.

Love Always,

Meg