The garden in fall

Every spring I look back and wish I would have done two things:  plant bulbs, and photographed the garden in the fall so I knew what to add come spring.  Well, check, check.  We'll see if my squirrel, chipmunk and rabbit friends leave my bulbs alone.  But here are some photos of the garden this fall.

It was a stellar year for the hydrangeas.  I have never seen them turn these colors in the fall, they are so pretty.  We had a very early spring, a lot of rain and a very mild fall.  Not sure how many more I can squeeze in next year.

Most of you are aware of my love for birds.  Holy cow, check out this new bedding from Pottery Barn.  I think it is a love it or hate it kind of thing but I'm totally in the love it category!!  Cross your fingers for the clearance section in a few months. :)  What do you think???

October

October has brought warm, dry, happy weather to us in Minnesota.  Maybe the most enjoyable October ever.  I have been out riding my bike around the lakes and playing around with my camera.  I was able to take some photos of my friend and her family last weekend.  I took a chance and put the camera on manual the whole time.  The photos turned out pretty good, thankfully.  Here is a cute one...

Nichole is an art teacher and her blog is SO fun and creative!  You can find her here.

This week we enjoyed a nice long weekend with lots of family time.  Here is a sampling.  Pumpkin patch, afternoon at the park, my niece's birthday party...

Cosmic bowling in costumes???  FUN!!!

Look at that Mario Cake!!

Well, I've got a little one home from school today, a forced morning at home means blog post!!  I might just get a little sewing done while she rests. :)

Shooting Manual....aaahhhhh.

So, I got a DSLR camera last Christmas.  One of my goals this year was to improve my photography and to eventually learn to shoot in full manual mode.  I was feeling pretty good since I usually use "half manual" mode, where the camera sets the shutter speed and I set the ISO and f-stop (Av for you Canon users).    Well, full manual is sooooo much harder.  But I am getting better, thanks to generous photographers with great blogs.  As I mentioned in my last post, Darcy at Life with my 3 Boybarians is posting wonderful tutorials.  I just learned my camera had a meter to help me determine what the shutter speed should be!!  Imagine that!  Today we are learning white balance.  It is coming together for me...slowly.  I have to say in the world of photography, practice makes perfect.  Here is a sampling of my manual shots SOOC (straight out of camera):

1/320, f/5.6, ISO 400

1/160, f/5.6, ISO 400

 1/250, f/5, ISO 400

Photography Post...

Ok, quilters, we will pause for a message from a great photography blog...Life with my 3 Boybarians. :)  I told you all that I am trying to improve my photography skills and this lovely lady has written some of the best tutorials I have read on the details of photography, written for every day people gettin' to know their camera better.  So I am posting an experiment on aperture.  I took these photos in the backyard with a silly fake flower. They all look the same except the f-stop is different in each one.  You can see the background progressively becoming clearer.  I took 17 in all using all my f-stops but I'll only show 5 here.  Thanks Darcy!  Great posts...

 f/5  1/125  ISO 100

 f/8   1/60  ISO 100

 f/13   1/25   ISO 100

 f/20   1/10   ISO 100

f/32   1/4   ISO 100

Since I used a tripod I took these all at ISO 100.  It is going to be 80 degrees this weekend here in Minneapolis!!!  Crazy.  Go Twins!!!!!

Minnesota Fall

Flag time

I just finished these cute flags today.  They are a project for Mama's Happy.  I am selling them in sets of five flags to use for anything.  I'm guessing decor for kids birthdays, baby showers, kids bedrooms, etc.  My kids thought they would make great toys.  I'm thinking those sticks could poke someone's eye out!

On that same theme we have been watching some flag football lately!!

Ah....fall.