Santa Baby

Well, it has been such a long time since I posted that my little nephew Ethan now has a new baby brother. He is very proud and protective of his "brudder". Here are a few pictures of my new nephew Ashton Michael. Isn't he just the cutest!?! I love him so much already. This poor little guy was such a trooper during his first of many photo shoots with his Aunt Jackie. Hope you enjoy them as much as I do. Thanks.

June 28th East Moline Tournament

Well, this weekend was a very busy weekend for us. My twelve year old daughter, Torri, who plays on a fourteen year old softball league called the Bureau County Blaze had a tournament in East Moline. It started Friday night and carried on through to late Sunday evening. The whole team did a great job! I am proud to have my daughter play on a team with such nice people. The coaches, the girls, and the girls' parents are all great people with sincere kindness. We took second place in the concilation round. ( I am not sure, but I think that is the same thing as fourth place.) Here are some pictures from this weekend.

Happy Birthday Dad!!!

Hey Dad, I just wanted to wish you a Happy Birthday!!!! I hope you had a great day! I Love You!!!

Four generations.

It is not too often that people are lucky enough to have a four generation picture and that is why I am so proud of this picture. I LOVE it!! This was taken at my baby sister's wedding. Pictured from left to right, is my mom Kathy, myself, my daughter Torri and my grandmother Arlene. Each one of us are the first born from each generation. I will most definately have it framed and displayed after I do a little cropping and editing. I love and am proud of every woman in this picture. I love you guys!!!!

David Cook singing Billie Jean

When I saw David Cook sing this song on American Idol I was hooked. I wanted him to win ever since. Here is the video in case you haven't seen it. I absolutely love his version!!

Rubik's Cube photo action

I recently found this website that has a few free photo actions on it and this is one of my favorites. It is from the website PanosFX.com. And the action is called Rubik's cube. If you happen to check out the site, Please send a rubik's picture my way. I would love to see them. Here are a couple that I did. The top one is my new cousin followed by my family at the Red Covered Bridge in Princeton Il. and the last on is my son, taken in Hankinson, ND.

Welcome to the world Miss Hayli Grace!!

Well, she's finally here. Little Miss Hayli Grace! She is about one week old in this picture. She is absolutely ADORABLE!! She is also about 610 miles from me, too. I want to introduce my newest cousin. I guess she would be second cousin. Oops. I remember holding this little one's mommy when she was not much older than she is now. CONGRATULATIONS Amber and Casey ~ she is as precious as they come!

Dylan's Spring Picture.

Every year the school takes Spring photos of the kids to show the changes from the beginning of the school year to the end and here is my little guy. Isn't he a cutie? This is his Spring photo. I will try to find his Fall picture and post it, but he looks pretty much the same, except he did get his glasses this year. He is five years old. Whatta ham!

Made a few bottles of lotion today.....

Well, I finally chose a new label. After designing and re-designing I have chose to use the one on the far right on my last post. I think they turned out very nice. What do you think? I also made a lot of 2 oz. bottles, about 50 of them. They are in all different great scents, like Victoria Secrets, Bath & Body Works, and even designer perfumes. I do not have the new bottles up on the website yet. Probably by weeks end and then you can see the new labels up close and perhaps even try some. Today I am going to make some votives. Stay tuned for more pictures.

Help me pick a label, Please!!

I could really use some help picking out my final lotion label. PLEASE help me choose!! I am leaning more towards the #3 label from left to right. But I would appreciate your input. Please ask your friends too. For every response I receive I will send you an online coupon for my website at http://www.countrycandlecottage.com/. These will sell for $7.50 a bottle but I will send a Buy 3 and get one free coupon!! Thanks for your help.

Tuesday, Feb. 26, 2008

Another one of my passions is scrapbooking and here is a digital scrapbook page that I made for my sister the other day. I had my nephew, Ethan, who is one year old, at my house for an over nighter the other day and he was peeking up at me from behind the chair and I thought it was just too cute to pass on a photo op. This is my first try at digital scrapping, but I am pretty happy with how it turned out. I think I got this kit from a poster on digiscraps.com but I will have to check and add it later. Anyways, not bad for a first try, huh? I just love his baby blue eyes!

Ice waterfalls at Starved Rock

If anyone is even reading this blog and knows how to turn pictures the right way I would really appreciate some help. Thanks so much

More pictures of Starved Rock in Utica, Il.

Isn't this spectacular?! I wish I had a video file to share the sounds of the running waters!

Sat. Feb. 16, 2008

Anyone who knows me, knows that I love taking pictures. I will take pictures of anything. Even ice! And although I am no professional, I will still post them. My husband and I got a sitter for the kids and we went hiking at Starved Rock National Park in Utica, Illinois. We went into this canyon that had the most amazing waterfall. Here are a couple of pictures of it. Notice the guy in the picture next to the falls and you can see just how grande it is in size. It was absolutely breathtaking. Although you could not see any water flowing through the waterfall you could hear it. What a peacefull sound. Although, being as cold as it was out there, and just finishing drinking the "big gulper" full of coffee, and listening to the water flowing, you can just imagine how fast the hike back to the car was. LOL.

Friday Feb.8, 2008

Well, my daughter's team lost after playing in a third tie breaking game. The game was so exciting that I just couldn't spend it behind the camera. So I will share a couple of the ones that I did get. Please keep in mind though, that I am not a professional by any means. I almost always shoot in the "auto" mode, but in rare occasions when I try to leave my comfort zone you can really tell my inexperience, as you can see in these pictures. I left the zone and they are all blue and out of focus, but hopefully you will soon see an improvement.

Thursday, Feb. 7,2008

Today is the first day of my blog. I will be soon checking out many blogs to understand them better or if it just a place to journal your thoughts. But today is a pretty busy day for me. I have a few candle orders to fill and mail. And my twelve year old daughter, Torri, is playing a very special volleyball game today. Even though she plays on the sixth grade team with her classmates, she has been asked by her coach to come up and play for the seventh grade team. She is thrilled. And after her game I will be working the ticket booth for the eighth grade game. Maybe I will post some pictures of the game later on tonight. In the meantime, please take a look at my new website. http://countrycandlecottage.com/ Please let me know what you think.