day two hundred fourteen.

happy new years!

2010 had its ups and downs but who doesn't love a fresh start?

I didn't mean for this to be the picture of the day but its so pretty and so new yearsey...but this is the second time a picture of the day has surfaced from whipt cream cupcakes.  they're the winners:)

sweet start.

not a bad way to ease into 2011.

day 213.

last official christmas celebration!

we had our celebration with my mom's family.  we go to monical's, stuff our faces, and then do gifts back at my grandma's.  as always, my cousin's little boy mason, was the highlight of our time.  he's a little entertainer and he knows it.

this picture is living proof.

about face.

what a silly boy.  he's the best.  the best part about this is that my grandma kept telling him to put his hands down.  thanks for not listening to her, mason.

212.

hello.  I'm back from a holiday hiatus.

so I had a lovely dinner this eve with my two wonderful bffs - lyss and al.  we went to kelleher's and had a nice late night meal.  as always, it was delicious.

I love that pub, its picture perfect.

literally.

pub life.

amazing.  I love the peoples faces and the coziness of it all.

two-hundo-eleven.

lucky again.

this was taken from the parking lot at red barn.

just little nuggets that are waiting to be picked next year.  just love it.  I've been meaning to go over there all year, and after I messed with this one a little...I just love how it turned out.

I am so happy when captions just come to me.  the last picture I sat here for twenty minutes before I thought of something.  sometimes its just easy breezy.  this one goes out to k stinny - furreal:)

fir friends.

I can't deal with it, I love it so much it hurts.  stinkin' nuggets!  they're so cute.

two.ten.

soooo...

basically I'm in love with this picture and can't get enough of it.  I'm having some more fun with editing lately.  lots of fun, actually.

I don't usually have too much time when I get home to go out and take pictures, especially during all this holiday madness.

so I try to take them during the day more, even if I don't think it may turn out that well, later when I mess with pictures, they usually surprise me.  sometimes it just takes seeing it in a larger format too.

this one I took while sitting on an off ramp.  no one was behind me, but its still pretty funny.  this tree was so far away, I love my freaking lens.

well here you go, its a beaut.

winter bouquet.

GAHHHHH!

two hundred nine.

this one is more christmasey than the christmas day one!

oh well.

love for both.

as I was driving from my parents to my apartment, I knew I wouldn't want to venture out again, so I took pictures along the way...from my car.  thanks to my sweet new lens, that's not that big of a hindrance anymore.

I love this picture.  although I did feel like a cop on a stake out, or a straight up creep, taking photos with a huge lens from my car.  oops.

eve of wreath.

there are few things I love more than a good silhouette picture.

day two hundred eight.

merry christmas!!!

so I know this one should be super christmasey.  but its not.  not in the typical sense, I guess.

for my family christmas day is spent being lazy, laughing a lot, playing games, and eating tons of food.  and what's food without drink?  I paired my smorgasbord with framboise, a delicious belgian concoction.  thanks to jess steffy for the recommendation:)  it should be noted that I received a telephot lens for christmas, and this photo was taken with it.  needless to say, I'm in love.

christmas cheers.

looks good, huh?  beautiful beautiful lens.

two.oh.seven.

christmas eve!!!

it was quite quite snowy out this evening.  I wouldn't have cared if it weren't for a couple of factors: 1) I wiped out on the ice, twice.  my butt still hurts.  and 2) I had to drive to lincoln.

but, regardless, it was a lovely evening.

it stared at imago dei's christmas eve service and ended with a night full of yarchos.  quite polar opposites but equally good.

this is from the service, during the candle lighting.  amazing.

all is bright.

beautiful.  thank you, dean family, for being my models.

day 206.

a quiet day at home spent with my good friend kelly.

we had a nice lunch and just chilled.

we also had a lovely few minutes to enjoy some chocolate.  this is some of the best chocolate I've ever had.  we got it the day before in chicago at this amazing specialty store called pastoral.  deeeeelicious.

choco lot.

it tasted like heaven.  I want to drive to chicago to get more.

205.

stupid days with too many good pictures!

its not fair, I want to spread them out!

anyways, I spent the day in chicago with my dear friends kelly and nick.  we had a brilliant day, full of food and fun and surprises.  it was perfect picture taking weather, melty and clear, not too cold.

it literally took me hours to narrow this down.  but sometimes after editing, I immediately know.  I love this.  I love that its sort of at an unexpected angle and the colors and elements are great.

city speak.

delish.

day two hundred four.

holidays put me behind.  so do day trips.

but this day I was preparing for a trip to chicago so I didn't get out much.  I was cleaning and preparing and had to venture about my apartment for a photo op.

I still like this, anyhow.  its one of my favorite things in my house.  I messed around with it in lightroom and I loooooovvveee it.

bottled up.

YES.

day 203.

yay for the prettyness of winter!

like seriously.  I could do outdoor pictures every day.  you might get bored.

this one is outside at night, which is one of the best times in winter.  its so pretty.  I'm sure in february, I won't be saying so, but still.

I passed this the other day and I knew I wanted to come back to take a picture.  I do that a lot.  I mentally take pictures and come back and actually take them.  I'm weird.

anyways, this is downtown peoria.  they decorate gloriously down there.  I love it.  this picture is exactly what it says it is.

what a wonderland.

blues and hues.  blurry lights.  lovely.

day two hundred two.

oh man.

this day was full of goodness.

it was our carrousel christmas party and there was just picture after picture of awesome awesome christmasey fun.

but it was also some of the girls' sweet sixteen birthdays.  and I am just so in love with this picture of birthday joy and christmas goofiness.  it's awesome.  there's lots of action going on:)

sweet wishes.

aren't they cute???  I love the colors.

two.zero.one.

sometimes I just have to limit myself to my house.  cause I'm too tired, or cold, or whatever.  but I still enjoy these pictures.  they're a little piece of me.

I had just recently wrapped up some presents and they just looked so cute under my charlie brown tree.  by the way, they totally sell those.  like specifically, charlie brown trees, at walgreens.  a'merka.

well here it is.

under the tree.

:)  yay christmas!

200!!!

yo, how exciting!  another milestone!

well today was a good day for it.  an elfey day.  I love my insane friends.  I love that they'll wear tights and sleeveless turtlenecks.  its a beautiful thing.

thank you, unknowing model.  I love this picture.

kick up your heels.

it looks straight out of an old movie.  featuring elves.

1-ninety-9.

ok so today I had to "venture out".  I had a lot to do today to get ready for some weekend parties and I kind of didn't make picture-taking a priority.

but I had to go over to carrousel to pick something up so I just messed around with my camera there.  and I actually did set this picture up but I really like it.  it's purty.

show ready.

so broadway.

198.

it snowed again today!

and it was the really pretty kind.  yet there was still some icy stuff left behind from our "blizzard".

I've always love icicles, they're beautiful and terrifying at the same time.  I always think they're gonna pierce me as I walk under them.

there were some great ones outside when I left dance.  and the snow was coming down.  it was nice.

ice breaker.

pretty cool. ha! "cool".

one-niner-seven.

so this one could either be really cool to people, or really creepy.

but I like it.

I drove past johnson's floral and it has so many different things out for display and cool lighting at night so I pulled in there and took a ton of pics.

there's a giant santa standing there, he's the winner today.  it almost looks like its really him there, hence the cool/creepy.

you better watch out.

little st. nick has cute ringlets.

day 196.

so today I didn't even know if I'd make it.

I was exhausted from the drive home the night before.  I felt a cold coming on.  didn't want to awake and go to work.

well, I did.  and there's this great area in washington that has brick roads...old school...like wonderful lincoln.  the snow was swept all across them and this one turned out AWESOME with the focus.

brick by brick.

seriously?  it looks like somewhere in florence.  delish.

day one.ninety.five.

chicago!

always a fantastic time.  went to wicked to see my cousin jason as the conductor and he tore. it. up.  the girl who played elphaba blew me away, it was unreal how good she was.  I wanna see her perform again, she was the perfect elphaba.

before the show we went to pizzaria due`.  talk about delicious.  I wasn't sure if I would enjoy dep dish but it was so so good.  before we ate, the waitress had all the pizzas stacked.  I took a picture really fast with my manual setting.  I had to tweak it and photoshop it a lot but I like its imperfections.  it looks straight out of an old italian movie or something.

pie high.

tasted like italy.

1-9-4.

so I know this one will be slightly cheesy but I don't care...its time for christmas.

there's a nativity over at dairy queen that I really think is cute and simple and sweet.  I wanted to take pictures of it and I had time to when I was driving home after work.

I really like this and the angle that its shot at...the focus of it is pretty specific and meaningful.

mary's gaze.

we've been talking about mary at church, who she was and what her story means.  but I like to think that at that moment right after giving birth, she was just like every other mom, lost in the love for her baby.

one hundred ninety-three!

some days its just not fair.

I have TOO many good picture opportunities.

it was really hard to pick this one.  but in the end, this was the most stunning.  it was a gasper.

smoke on the water.

I'll post the others soon on my website.  they're amazing.

day 192.

sorry about the delay - but there are many many posts that are yearning for comments...so I don't feel too guilty right now.

busy busy week.

this day was just pretty typical, went to work, so and so.

but on the way to an appointment I saw this amazing barn.  I really couldn't get that good a shot of it from where I was on the road, and it was freaking cold so I didn't want to get out.  but I'm really pleased with the angle and how this turned out.

winter rust.

good stuff.

191.

today I went to fresh market.

I'm gonna tell you right now, stay. away.

especially if you like these two things: food and originality.

everything looks like it was wrapped up and made especially for you.  they had an olive bar that made me salivate.

out in front they had a precious tree display that was so classic.

pine for you.

pretty tree.  and I love the letters.

day 190.

today I had a lot of appointments so I was out and about a lot.

I have actually taken pictures of this before - once was a runner up.  I love this though and I think that it looks clean and sad and beautiful.

seeking shelter.

I love how its leaning and how crisp the roof looks against the sky.  the patchy snow.  the worn out walls.  nice.

day 189!

I went to one of my favorite country spots today for an appointment.

its such a pretty spot in the winter and has lots of different fences and nature.  its really beautiful.

this is from that place and I also started using my newly purchased photoshop today.  I love adding texture to photos and I haven't messed around with photoshop since college, so it was super fun to do again.

I think this looks like a greeting card or something, its lovely.

snowy terrain.

mmmmm take it in...this is currently my desktop:)

one hundred 88.

sooooo...

this was the day I was literally locked in a building with two hundred jr. highers.  like, wow.  it was rough.  but those kids are awesome.  and this picture is proof of that.

I captured a moment if I do say so myself.  and this is just capturing the hilariousness of these girls that I love so much and it pretty much encompasses why I continue to do this even though the calendar ages me.

up all night.

these are the things people do when its three in the morning.  I hope you can appreciate the phenomenon that is wyldlife.

one eighty seven.

I'm in love with this picture.

it has a lot of movement to it yet its still life!  that amazed me.

this is a little bush outside my apartment with sweet little winter berries on it.

little buddy.

isn't it so sweet!??!  I love the colors.  I wanna blow it up but I have no more wall space.

day 1-8-6.

this was our first real downpour of snow.  it came down in buckets and it was the good kind.  that perfect, fluffy kind that looks like heaven.

this was taken out of my bedroom window. 

I tried to capture the beauty of that night and how good it felt to watch it come down.

winter scape.

like a dream.  absolutely love it.

185.

sunrise sunset, doesn't matter.  they're all gorg up in illinois.

this one was particularly pull-the-car-over worthy.

rosy range.

I love the little smoke cloud billowing and the small peeks of houses and trees.

day one hundred eighty four.

so I am continually having computer issues.  so that is where this delay is coming from.  I'm taking my computer to a mac guy tomorrow to see if he can help me properly restore my pictures.

moving on!

I went down the road and took pictures at dq.  I originally had a different subject in mind but it wasn't there at the time so I took a picture of some great lights - just as a test - and they turned out really cool!

star bright.

bundles of glowy goodness.  I love this.