At heart...

I don't really know when it started...maybe when I was little, but I am certain it didn't take hold until my early twenties, when country blue, mauve and lop eared bunny rabbits were in vogue...I have had an affinity for decorating and arts and crafts. As a teen we didn't have a bunch of money, so Mark and I would travel downtown to the Lee County Library and scope out magazines...he would read People, Rolling Stone and Billboard, while I would read Architectural Digest, Southern Living, Traditional Home, Town and Country.... oh and Vogue.

I could also be found pouring over Emily Post and Amy Vanderbilt Etiquette books...I have absolutely NO idea where all that came from. I guess the desire to do everything right, or socially right, who knows? I am weird like that. I digress....art, music, decorating, photography...they all have held a fascination for me. I never felt I was smart enough to obtain a degree in decorating or architecture...too much math. But I can certainly plot out a room or sketch a house. I can pick colors and fabrics...I have been told I am really good at it...who knows?

I dabble in painting and I try to make every thing I do have meaning. I don't know why I want to do the "special thing". I guess it's cause I have ALWAYS loved gifts that meant something. Music, figurines, photos...you name it, if it has special meaning I love it. My Papa had very little, so one of my favorite things of his was one of his handkerchiefs...nothing fancy, no monogram, just a Fruit of the Loom, comes in a pack of 4... handkerchief. It reminds me of his mannerly ways, of how he was always impeccably dressed and smelling good...unless he had been working in the yard or with the horses ;). Whenever I see that handkerchief I think of him....his smell is gone, and NO it didn't have any snot on it, but his memory remains. My favorite thing I have of his....

For many years now I have had an obsession with photography. I have tons of pictures...all of them in a box...not even picture albums. I tried the scrap booking thing, but I am too much of a perfectionist, and it drove me nuts to try to make a beautiful AND meaningful page. I am also too lazy to organize them and put them in photo albums. Maybe one day. I have pictures from Papa's house...another treasure! Pictures of people I love and some I have NO idea who they are, but I love them nonetheless...They are also in my Ammaw's overnight case...not in albums...maybe one day....

I have attempted to make portraits of my children...I have read all sorts of help sites and blogs on photography....POURED over photographers websites trying to figure out lighting and posing...you know...photography stuff. I have been successful at times. Until last summer, I just had a simple digital camera, but my sweet husband and children bought me a wonderful camera...Canon Rebel T1i!  And I must say it is fabulous....until I try to get serious about photography....There again I am usually in too big a hurry to take a class or consult my sweet photographer friend, Kandy, who has offered her help... 

But Sunday...I went for it...I took my cousins out to a friends beautifully shaded and manicured lawn and made their pictures. The pictures are by no means top quality, but they are decent...and my subjects, however uncooperative...were beautiful! Despite wanting to swing the whole time or play with the dog...despite not wanting to sit still...the experience was much needed...I will share only a couple of pictures, since Lisa has not seen them since I fixed them up!

PLEASE let me know what you think...I will be doing some more pictures this week of two more of my favorite girls, for my most favorite girl...

Love to all!

Monica