Crafty Me

So I learned how to wrap a shoebox! I'm totally loving it! What a clever way to make a neat storage box... or wrap a gift!
This was my first one... and I had to make a matching porcupine bow too!




I've now made a few more since this one... even one with paw print paper that I thought I could use for Furrie Fotographie stuff! Now I'm running out of shoe boxes... guess I'll have to buy more shoes!! ; )

I totally want

to do THIS!

I have a hard time imagining myself in my dress at the beach... probably partly because I'm not a beach goer... and partly because I don't really want to ruin my dress. But I would love to go to a fair or... oooh... a PETTING ZOO (!!!!) before I send my fabulous poofy dress off to be cleaned and boxed away forever.
It'll have to wait though. All my moola is going towards our new house right now. Noooo... don't get overly excited. We don't have it yet. But we did find one we really want. Keep your fingers crossed for us. It'll be up to 90 days before we hear...

I posted this in my other blog

but I wanted to put it here too!!!

Some of you may (or may not) know that I got married in May.
And some of you may (or may not) know that we had our fabulous reception at the Jacksonville Zoo and Gardens at night!
Well...
I was just interviewed by Heidi of Truly Engaging!! You can read all about my flowers and plants HERE!
Heidi was super nice and I'm so excited that she deemed my story deserving of an entire blog post! If you are engaged or just like to read about decorations and gifts and things of that sort, her blog is definitely the place to go!
And because I can't post without a photo... here is one of my favorite shots of Chris, taken by the fabulous Scarlett Lillian.


And my fun cake/cake topper. The topper was handmade by Debbie Garrity who really listened to what I wanted! I'd totally recommend her too!


Thanks for letting me be all giddy! : )

Not much time to write...

but I had to stop in and annouce:
WE ARE LOOKING FOR A HOUSE!!!

Woohoo!
I was pre-approved for a mortgage... which I never thought possible! So now we are mostly looking online and plan to do a bit more driving about this weekend. Last night we drove through a couple neighborhoods but it gets dark so early now. Hate daylight savings time... I don't care if it's light in the mornings; I'd rather have it light in the evenings! When I'm actually not cooped up at work!!

Anyway... yippee!!!

Halloween at work

Last week we had our all employee meeting at work... and since it's Halloween, we had a theme!
I bought some spider web and put it up all over the room... on the pictures, in the windows, doorways, even on the ceiling! We also put up lights. Skeleton lights! And various other Halloween-y decorations. : )
For the day of the gathering, Rhonda made this Jello brain and heart. And I made punch. I just wish we'd had some dry ice!

I made four dozen cupcakes and brought them in "naked" so people could decorate their own. I also got white frosting and some food coloring so there were lots of spooky colors to choose from:

Here are some of the cupcakes I made... I went a little overboard with the photos of the same cupcakes!







We didn't quite finish all the cupcakes so I decorated the few that were left so they wouldn't dry out.


It was nice to do something fun for the party. I also got little pails and filled them with candy for each person... and made placecards with spooky pictures and bloody font! Weeee!
I don't really entertain at my place because it is too small and we have three dogs and a cat now... but I do love putting together all the little details!

Distractions

I ordered a photo album from my wedding for my mom... that is what she wants for Christmas. It's just from Shutterfly... I didn't do a crazy fancy one that only professionals can do even though I am one! Yippee!
It came today so I keep looking at it... I just got married at the end of May and for those of you who don't know, we had our reception at the Jacksonville Zoo! At night! Weeeee!
Scarlett Lillian was our fantastic wedding photographer...

I love the way Scarlett works with color and it really inspires me to do the same with my animal photography.
I really like bright, saturated colors...
Hopefully you can see it in my work too!

Dogtoberfest!

Yesterday was Dogtoberfest and of course I HAD to go. I took a million photos and petted a thousand doggies... and pointed and laughed at a lot of costumes. It was fantastic fun!
Then I got to have lunch with the girls. Amanda, Traci, Toni and I had a yummy lunch at a little place called Zoe's. They have outdoor seating so we took Zoe and Chloe with us. I can't believe how good they are when we go out to eat with them! I wish my two were so good!!

Anyway... I hope all of you had fabulous Saturdays too! Yay!!

Name change...

So I did it.
Friday morning I went to the DMV and changed my name. Then I went to Social Security and did the same. And to the bank...
I'm sure there are a zillion other places I have to change it too.
No more Tracy Lyn Aukerman.
Now I'm Tracy Aukerman Pellicer.
*sigh*

I actually signed something with Pellicer today. It was weird.
I'm sure I'll mess up a lot!!
At least I can just sign Pellicer after Aukerman if I forget since I kept it as my middle name...

And I got the paperwork to fill out for my business license!
Weeeeee!

Seattle photos

can be seen on Furrie Fotographie!!

I think from now on you'll probably find most of my posts there... but that's not to say I'll never post here. I guess I need to think about how I want to separate my business blog and my personal. I see so many people who only use one blog for both but I don't know if I want to do that for sure yet. Might be strange.

But since my Seattle trip was business related... I thought it would be okay to post them there!
And there will be more too!

Weeeee!

I'm going to SEATTLE in three days!!
Why?
Lookie HERE.
AND you can see Apple the SUPERdog! while you are there too...

I love ice cream...

and apparently this woman does too.

Dr. Seuss Quizical

Which Dr. Suess Character Are You??

Me? I'm my favorite character of all time! Yippee!

Unspectacular?

Six things
Katie tagged me! I've never been tagged before!

6 unspectacular quirks:

1. I am a packrat. I'm trying to get better... but I used to be really bad.

2. I like talking on the phone, but I hate calling people I don't know. Like for work. Or to make appointments. I'm so happy I can order my pizza online now!

3. I have pet-itis. I have to pet every animal I see. I even tried to pet the nutria I was photographing last night.

4. I hate vegetables. Except corn... which my husband insists isn't a veggie. It's a starch.

5. I like to unwrap a whole bunch of Hershey Kisses, line them up, and eat them one at a time while lying in bed reading.

6. My cat tends to photograph fat.
Does that count as "about me"? I mean... she's my cat...
Fine. My first camera was a yellow Cabbage Patch Kids camera... it even took 110 film and had one of those 10 bulb flash things that you throw away after you use them all. I took off the stickers the next year and continued to use it.

Now, the rules for this are below, and I'm supposed to tag people. I've never done this before!! Do I know 6 people to tag??
Let's go with:
Suzy
Corinna
Scarlett
Elsa
Chris

Crud... I'm aware that's only 5... but everyone has either already done this post or isn't someone I can tag. So... well, that's it then.

1. Link the person who tagged you
2. Mention the rules on your blog
3. Tell about 6 unspectacular quirks of yours
4. Tag 6 following bloggers by linking them & leave a comment on each of the tagged blogger’s blogs letting them know they have been tagged.

At least someone is riding it...

This shot always makes me snicker. If you have trouble seeing why, you can click on the photo to make it bigger... and then check out who thought he might get away with my bike!
I bought this bike from Katie... uhhh... before she moved away... uhhh... was that already two years ago? Is that right?
Okay... yeah... as the title indicates, I'm glad someone is getting some use out of it. I really thought I'd ride it! I did!! And I haven't.
This is the part where I hang my head in shame.

I even bought a bike rack for my car several months after I bought the bike so that I couldn't use that as an excuse.
I think it's still in the box in my hall closet...
I'm still hanging my head in shame.

So... I have a goal.
I am going to ride that bike!
It might need air in the tires first...
They say you never forget how to ride a bike, right? Because it's been awhile...
lol.

Wish me luck! I hope I don't fall on my head!!

I made the finals!!!!!

Hey guys!

Thank you SO MUCH for helping me win Day Two of Scarlett's contest! I've made it into the finals because of each of you! Now the voting continues for the top three... and I'm one of them!
Please help me one last time...
Go to www.scarlettlillian.net to vote for Tracy in the finalists.

Thanks again guys... I REALLY appreciate it!!

ps. If you know anyone else with a computer who wouldn't mind taking a couple minutes to vote, please let them know about this. I'll need all the help I can get!

I know this blog is perfect...

but have you seen Furrie Fotographie?
I need YOUR help!
It could really use some work and I'd love to have professionals do it!

So tomorrow morning Scarlett will be posting several photos. It's a week long ordeal... one group of photos was voted on today and that winner will go to the finals as will tomorrow and Wednesday's winners. Then everyone will vote again between those three photos.

Please, PLEASE go to Scarlett's website (http://www.scarlettlillian.net/) at some point tomorrow and vote for my photo! I'll be the one standing behind the sign with big curly hair and Professor (one of my dogs) will be standing next to me in a tie! His sign reads "I Want to Spend a Say With Rhett" which is Scarlett's poodle! It'll be one of the shots from the previous post!
AND, if you don't mind, please get everyone you know to vote too... forward this email to as many people as you can! I need all the help I can get! : )

I'll let you know if I make the final three... and I'll be begging for your votes again! Thanks in advance!!!
Tracy

Here's the website again! www.scarlettlillian.net

I want to spend a day with Scarlett!

My wedding photographer and now friend is having a contest!
So Chris and I spent a couple days working on my sign... more Chris than me... but I think it came out fantastic! The shoes are glittery in case you can't tell in the photo:

And then we made one for Professor too:


You can't see my crazy makeup in the photos as well so I made sure to get one close up:

And here are the photos I submitted. Only three will be chosen for voting... and I doubt I make it that far considering the sheer volume of entries she will get... but I had fun anyway!
These two were taken out on Baymeadows Road... I had people honking at me... and I was mortified that I looked like a hooker! lol...
Professor looks like a gentleman in his tie though!



And these were taken back by my apartment... We actually made a gif animation out of 23 shots and it's hilarious to see me wiggling around and making faces... but we can't figure out how to make it save correctly... it's going way too fast even though we slowed down the frames. If I ever get it worked out, I'll try to post it!

I think Scarlett is posting the top three tomorrow... so make sure to visit HERE and vote for your favorite!

Hi. My name is Tracy and

I'm a chocoholic.

: )

Tonight I went to Chocoholics Anonymous at Publix. It was so fun... and even though I think some of my friends missed out, I'm glad that Rhonda and I were the only two that decided to go because we got to share our table with two fun other people, Heather and Lynn! I told Heather all about Furrie Fotographie and I'm hoping she'll let me practice with her grey tabby kitty!

Anyway, here are a couple pictures of the yummy desserts! It was a demonstration class so I didn't actually make anything there... but now I have the recipes!
This flourless chocolate cake with strawberry lime salsa was deeeelish!

And the smores brownies were super yum too! I've made these before but I think this time it was better... probably because I didn't slave over it myself! ; )
This shot is actually Heather's piece... she got the one with the fun marshmallows:


Mmmm... it was all gooooey!

And I had my first glass of cream sherry... I loved it! So I bought a bottle:

Apparently Uni thinks she might like a taste of it too!

And a random not related to the evening shot... I know it's not quite sharp enough but I thought the way the boy and girl cardinals were posed was kinda neat! I love my bird feeder!

I know I still haven't posted the photos from my trip to Fort Myers but I wanted to get these up! I'll post the others asap!

oh and ps...

In case some of you are wondering where the photos of the golden retreivers are... the shoot got postponed because my coworker (the owner) had a death in the family. We'll be rescheduling asap.
However, I am working on a blog for Furrie Fotographie. And my sister has been working on the website!
Plus the workshop in September is really happening for me! I reserved a room at a haunted hotel (which is also an old theatre) and now I gotta get my plane ticket too!
Whew... lots going on! I can't wait!
: )

Back!

I went down to Fort Myers for the weekend... for the first time since I moved away four years ago! My parents kept the condo I bought when I lived there so they were down for the week and I decided to make the (boring) drive down to see them.
I was sad that the weather was so awful though. I had been really looking forward to going to the Ding Darling Wildlife Refuge with my new camera. Alas, it was raining and way too dark even if it had stopped. *sigh*
But I really enjoyed my visit anyway... and I'll definitely have to make the trip again.
I'll post a few of the photos I managed to take soon!

Vote for me!!!

http://hgw.typepad.com/trendycamerastraps/2008/08/it-is-time-to-vote.html

The bottom two are mine...
but I do love those polka dotted shoes! : )

Is this thing on?

Sorry... this is just me trying to figure out how to make my photos bigger. The top one I uploaded to Blogger and the bottom I uploaded from Photobucket... but they are the same size. I thought it had worked on the previous "test" post but I'm not sure if the photos were just different sizes to begin with. That's why I used the same one for this test. Hmmm...
But it works for Corinna.
I'll have to play some more...

Test, test...

Apple in a bag...

I'm going to be submitting this, among other photos, to Trendy Camera Straps' first giveaway contest! We'll see if any of my shots get picked for voting. If so, I expect all of you to go vote for me!
Posting this here makes me even more aware that I need to figure out how to use Blogspot so that my images are big. Anyone know how to do this?
Anyway...
Isn't Apple cute?!?!?!

Here's another photo I'm probably going to submit: I'm a shoe hooker so, trust me, there are tons more! I have three other pairs that I have shots of... and two or three others that I think I'll work on tonight. The submission deadline is Thursday!

Oh, and I ordered a Shootsac last week... and a Giddy cover! I'm really hoping I can use it on my shoot with the Goldens this weekend! Yippee!

More kitties

Cats are hard for me... I'm trying to practice though. I think I just need a better lens. I hate using the built in flash on my camera... it bounces off their eyes and looks horrid. I really just need the 580EX flash with a diffuser but I don't have $500 to spend on it right now. Hopefully soon...
So anyway, these are a few recent ones...

This is Tigger. She's a riot... she loves to tease you by coming over and rubbing a bit on your hands, but as soon as you try to pet her... WHAP! She smacks you as hard as she can with her paws. It sounds mean but it's really kinda amusing... only because she has no claws.
When I emailed this one to her mom, she replied that it was the best photo she'd ever seen of Tigger... who always closes her eyes for pictures! : )
Because of the forementioned dilemma, I set the camera on the floor to get this shot. I couldn't handhold the camera at the slow shutter speed but I didn't want to use the flash.

This is Tigger with the flash. I attempted to work on the eyes in photoshop though because they were all crazy blown. I thought it looked much better but I'd still rather just not need the flash... or be able to bounce the flash.

And this is Deuce. He's a giant sweetie pie... no smackage from him!
He loved sitting on my lap and getting lovin'. I left with more fur on me than I think he had on him! : )
In case the towels behind him didn't give it away, I took this in the bathroom. There was a huge window in there that let in just enough light that if I didn't breathe, I could get a shot without a flash. Whew.

I have so much to learn... and I'm really looking forward to practicing.

Furrie Fotographie

I bought my domain name!!!
Woohoo!
Now I need to figure out the rest of it... and my sister is going to help me build my website because she's an IT guru!
: )

And I got my registration paperwork for the pet photography workshop I am going to in September. I can't wait to fill it all out and send in my deposit this weekend! Woohoo! I keep up with Jamie's photography on Cowbelly's blog and she is amazing. I can't wait to learn from her!

I also have a time set up for next weekend to take pictures of my co-worker's two golden retrievers. They are gorgeous and will be fabulous practice... especially since they are incredibly hyper. It will be fun to play with them and attempt to wear them out just a wee bit before getting started with the camera.
Plus, I gotta figure out how to put together an online portfolio before the workshop!

Lots going on...
hope all is well with each of you!

YAY!

I have a logo!!! My husband is AWESOME! Friggin' AWESOME!
Seriously, Chris is an amazing artist so I asked him to draw something for me... and he was inspired last night... I LOVE it!!!!
But I was advised not to post it just yet until I find out if I need to copyright it. I'm not sure how all that works... but I can't wait to show you guys. I've been putting it on photos this morning just to see how it looks. Chris might have a heart attack because he says it's not done yet... but I'm impressed by his ability to take the ideas I had and make them look so fabulous on paper!
Hee hee...
I'm giddy!

recycled... envelopes!

So I always save the Sunday comics to use to make my bows... or to use as wrapping paper. Now I've discovered a NEW way to use my comics...
I ordered an envelope making kit that comes with templates and directions for different sizes. I'm so excited!!
Plus I've been thinking about making photo cards too. I figure I have a million photos that could work for that purpose... plus once I get my photography business off and running, I could make them for clients... with their fur-babies on them!

And speaking of my pet photography... well, I'll tell you soon! ; )

My sister is grumpy

that I haven't posted photos from the honeymoon that include me or Chris...
This is our favorite place to eat breakfast:

Dance off!

I love "So You Think You Can Dance" and I'm very excited that the finale this season will include a dance off between Robert Muraine and Phillip Chbeeb!!

Robert made it to Vegas but then took himself out of the competition... he felt he wasn't a partner dancer and that's what the show is all about, at least until the end when just one person wins. I don't know if he would have made it into the show or not but I sure wish he would have tried. Ah well. They had him on a couple weeks back and Nigel (grumpily) challenged him to dance against Phillip, another popper who auditioned but didn't make it into the show. They announced this week that it will be happening on the finale! Yay!

Here's a dance from the show that I loved. : ) Mia Michaels always choreographs amazing pieces.

honeymoon post #2

I bought a bag of sunflower seeds for the birds hanging around our cabin... but this cute little chipmunk found them one morning!
(I know the shots are kinda far away but I didn't want to scare him... you can click on the small photo to see it bigger...)


Hee hee... look at his fat little cheeks!

Oops, he saw me... and off he ran!

Don't tell Uni...

but I made a new little friend on the honeymoon:

Look at these lil paws...
Ha ha! She's almost as bendy as me!










She was the sweetest thing... all rubby and would sit on my lap for ages while I sat in the rocking chair on the porch. She had three or four siblings/buddies but they were skittish and all ran away when they saw me. They didn't know what they were missing with all the pettin!

So, I took lots of photos of various animals on the trip. This is blog post number one. More to come!! : )