So this weekend my mother-in-law made some tea and she put it in the cutest teapot I’ve seen in a while. Somehow I think that teapots may be more photogenic than people. I said maybe. There are some beautiful people in this world. But as usual objects don’t move, and don’t you just love how reflective china is (and no, I don’t mean the country!)?

Ok, this was my little rave about teapots and how cute they are. But see for yourself whether or not you agree. On a side note, the cake wasn’t bad either! :D LOL. Yum.

I can’t believe another year has passed and we’re back to celebrating again. It’s awesome having these kind of celebrations over and over again (as long as it’s not me who’s getting older!!) LOL.

I just wanna tell you on your birthday that I love you! Thank you for always believing in me and for supporting me in my dreams and hopes. I really appreciate it so much. I love how you are so down to earth and face life with so much optimism and passion. It’s contagious and I’m so grateful for being allowed to experience that every day. You’re so hilarious and make my life so much richer just by being in it. And I thank God for watching over you and protecting you from harm.

So for your birthday I made you a cupmuffin. And even though I forgot the first batch and it turned out slightly rock solid, it was made with a lot of love – and at least the inside is soft. :)

Happy Birthday, my darling!

Anyways, my meltdown sparked some new ideas for my blog, which I want to implement as time goes by. One is a very common theme among blogs and I’ve seen it in various forms already. So I wanted to create my own version and just get into it. My personal highs and lows of the week, or the month or the fortnight, whichever fits best into my current schedule. So in various irregularities I will write about things that make me want to jump up and down and hug the world and those things that should never have crawled out from under the rug where they came from.

Because this is the first one of my high ‘n’ low posts it’s not as refined as it may become over time. Bear with me while I figure this out. So, now onto this week’s “Sweet” and “Lows”:

Sweet

• My husband and his endless patience with me when I have my meltdowns
• Finally coming up with a design for a client’s website that I don’t hate
• The smell of morning coffee (even though I don’t drink it, I adore the smell)

Lows

• Meltdowns and insomnia (they do often go hand-in-hand)
• Cravings for unhealthy food that won’t go away
• Being behind in my 52-week project
• Ants. Seriously, why do they have to live EVERYWHERE?

So, meanwhile I’ve been having a look through all my old photos and getting extremely nostalgic about London and all the great photo opportunities I had there. But, no use crying over what was. It’s time to look forward and get into the things I can do here. Like my self-portraits. I wish I had ideas though…lately I’ve been too blank. Wiped clean of ideas. The photographic alternative to writer’s block.

I did however redo my blog design (which I’m quite happy about!). I was getting kinda fed up with the old design, so this is a step into a new era of blogging. At least for me. I also found time to work on an entry for Calvin’s New York Contest, which was alot of fun. I’m quite excited to see some of the other entries (if he posts them).

My newest toy is my new computer. I finally got the much needed upgrade from my really slow PC with a crap graphics card. Now that I’ve upgraded to a quad core processor and 4GB RAM with an awesome graphics card, it’s been a dream working on my stuff. Things load faster, process better and browsing through my photos doesn’t take all day. This will hopefully also increase my productivity and thus my output…so here’s hoping I can show you new photos soon. Above I’ve included some older ones to tide you over until I’ve caught up – if the Windows 7 Bubbles screensaver doesn’t distract me too much! :)

See what I mean?

At the first wedding I got to shoot some of the reception detail and at the second wedding I had the opportunity to focus on the personal items of the bride. In both cases I got to experiment a bit and I did get some nice pictures. I’ve created two collages, one for each wedding. I also experimented a bit with a new way of branding my photos. Any feedback in that regard is also welcome.

The best part was being allowed to take a few photos with the photographer’s equipment as well – but obviously I don’t have those photos. I love how every little bit of experience teaches me something and how shadowing someone can give me so much benefit as well. And of course it feels good to help someone out.

I don’t know yet whether I’m cut out for the stress of being a wedding photographer, or whether I’m more the assistant/second shooter type, but I’m learning and I’m definitely enjoying it alot. Now if only I had a better lens to work with! I’m still dreaming of owning the 70-200mm Nikon VR lens. Until then my nifty fifty will have to hold down the fort.

Back in my teen years I was always painfully unhappy on Valentine’s Day, as no one ever sent me flowers or chocolates (except my mom; but how can that soothe an awkward teens heartache?). These days I hardly think about it. Maybe because I’m happily married and thus I have many more “Valentine’s Days” spread out throughout the year. Maybe because I realised that chocolates make me fat and flowers die, and my collection of stuffed animals is definitely getting out of hand. And maybe because love can’t be measured by what a person does on a single day of the year, and whether I receive tons of things or none at all is no measure of how much I’m loved and how important I am to the people in my life. Seriously, if I were to measure how much I’m loved based on this particular day, I’d probably be depressed 364 days of the year, and 365 days in a leap year. One day should not define our worth or our acceptance by other people. Even if it’s nice to get a sign of that love every now and then.

I’m all for sending cards to our loved ones and telling them what they mean to us, but lets not restrict it to one day a year. Show the love every day! And in that spirit my project photo for this week is stripped of colour in everything else, but what counts: LOVE. Go on, enjoy it, celebrate it, share it!

Today I am aggravated by the simple fact that lately I’ve hardly found time to write some decent blog posts. And it depresses me. A little bit. A teeny tiny bit. I wish I had more time to do all the fun things in life and let work slip unnoticed to the floor. Or out the window. I think I’d like that. Windows are wonderful. Especially when they let the cool air in on hot days. Today is one of those insanely hot days where it takes an effort just to lift a finger. Never mind a whole hand.

Randomness. I figure most of us have those times during the day where our thoughts wander aimlessly from subject to subject, never settling for longer than a few iotas of time before they flit off to the next one. Today I had an argument about something with my husband. it wasn’t a big argument, not even an important one…to be honest i can’t even remember what it was about, except that I lost. Which is a good thing. Don’t ask me why. It just is. See, there we are again, losing. This is another subject that my mind settles on for a second before moving off to the thought of dinner and popcorn and a movie. I think work has pretty much lost my concentration for the day. How great that the weekend is here. Now I can let those random thoughts roam randomly, while I sit and ponder what to cook for dinner and how best to do this week’s 52-week photo. Theme? Valentine’s. It’s inescapable. Giving in is the easy thing to do. And requires less thought. Man, I love weekends. And holidays. And maybe Valentine’s Day. If I ever find its true meaning beyond the commercial junk it’s dragging around with it. Hearts and kisses. Here’s one for you weekend: A heart and a kiss.

So, this week no long explanation, just a cut-up fun picture. Hope you all had a wonderful weekend. Thanks for reading and I look forward to sharing some more photos with you in the next week. Cheerio!