Fisheating Creek and swamp sunflowers

Yesterday I had one of those assignments that made me remember what a cool job I have. I rode over to Palmdale and Moore Haven (near Lake Okeechobee) to Fisheating Creek with reporter Kevin Lollar. We rented a canoe to get photos of the creek and the wildlife.

We saw a few birds and two small alligators. But the scenery stole the show. The creek is completely undeveloped and looks like olde Florida, yeah old with an e. There were cypress trees and old oak trees with spanish moss and we found two rope swings that Scott and I can come back to when the water is a little higher.

After the canoe trip, we headed over closer to the lake to another section of the creek. As we pulled into the recreation area there was a huge field of swamp sunflowers that only bloom in October. It was absolutely gorgeous!

Myrtle Beach visit

I'm visiting Amanda, Evan, Robert and their new baby girl, Mattie Jane, in Murrells Inlet, SC, and our other BFF, Kylie came from Richmond with her daughter Emme. It has been fun getting to know Mattie and spending time with everybody. Emme and Evan were so cute together. And Evan can finally say my name!

I'll just let the photos speak for themselves.....

 

Sweet Emme Caroline

Kylie and Emme had to get on the road this afternoon, so Amanda and I decided to go take some photos at the Murrells Inlet Marsh Walk, a boardwalk along the marsh with restaurants and beautiful views.

Word!

I'm crafty!

I channeled my inner Martha yesterday while I was wrapping a gift for my friends Mae and Jon who got married last weekend in Michigan. We were invited to the wedding, but couldn't make the trip, so I'm just now getting around to wrapping her present.
I first made a gift tag using a vintagey frame I found on the graphics fairy. I opened it in Photoshop and changed the color balance so that there were pink accents (their wedding color). Then I added the text in this cool font I downloaded called Font Leroy Brown. I wish I could remember where I got it. But this site has fresh free font friday every Friday, and I've found some gems there.
I wasn't sure what I wanted to wrap it with. The only wrapping paper I have is left from Christmas and isn't really wedding appropriate. So I started looking around the house and saw some plain paper that was used to wrap and protect some frames I had just bought from TJ Maxx. Bingo! I had also bought some really pretty Martha Stewart flower stamps, so I decided to use the stamps to decorate the paper. I think it turned out pretty good.

This week I also made myself a bride t-shirt a la Wedding Chicks, where you can buy the t-shirts for $36. Mine cost me about 6 bucks! I made the logo probably a little small, but hey, I think it's cute.

I got the logo off the Wedding Chick site, too. You can have them send you their designs in custom colors here. So cool. I'm going to use their photobooth sign and I downloaded a custom monogram, too.So I requested the Bride sign in blue and green and made it slightly bigger in Photoshop and added Mrs. Whittamore underneath Bride (you can barely see it!) All in all I think it turned out pretty well.

Here are some of the customizable goodies at the Wedding Chicks blog:

Welcome to the world Mattie Jane!

Yesterday afternoon the Stinnett family welcomed their new baby Mattie Jane. She weighed 8 pound, 8 ounces -- a little less than her big brother Evan. I'm so excited to meet her next weekend.
I miss Amanda since she moved out of the state to South Carolina. And I believe it has been more than a year since I've Kylie. Thankfully Kylie and Emme will be making the trip from Virginia.



I've been gathering baby photography ideas from some of my favorite blogs, so hopefully I can capture some good photos of the new bambino. I had my friend Laura make her some cute knit hats to keep her warm. She sells her super-soft scarves and hats at her Etsy store here.

I picked out these colors, and she made it in one day. The pink and green are organic bamboo.

SPOILER ALERT: Amanda, if you haven't checked your mail yet, check it before reading further.

And I also made MJ a "Nobody Puts Baby in the Corner" onesie with t-shirt transfer paper and a clearance onesie from Old Navy.

 I broke out our rarely-used iron to test out the transfer paper. I'll probably be using it for a wedding project, so I wanted to see how it would work. I made the design for the transfer in Photoshop. After playing with a lot of different fonts, I settled on two I thought looked good together. My printer has a setting for t-shirt transfer paper, so I set it for that. Otherwise you have to flip your image so it won't be backwards.

 The transfer got a little messed up on the bottom left corner, but I don't think MJ will notice. I didn't think it would look so much like a decal, so I'll have to remember to trim around the design better next time. I still think it's really cute. And it's my favorite saying from my favorite movie (yes, Dirty Dancing).

Another awesome sunset sky

Last night, I was home alone catching up on some TV while Scott was coaching a JV football game. I noticed this crazy warm light out in the yard and decided to check out the sunset. It was so beautiful. My lens wasn't wide enough to cover the whole sky, but the clouds were amazing. They kindof looked like a winking eye with long eyelashes. These are from right in our front yard.

So here it is......

Happy 10/10/10, fantasy football and mustaches

Just wanted to wish everyone a happy 10/10/10, especially my newly-married friends Molly and Chris Zolman! They were married today at 3 p.m. in St. Lucia. Congratulations you two. Here's to a long, happy and healthy life together.

While we're on the subject of weddings.......Congratulations to Emily Whittamore (Scott's sister) on her engagement to her boyfriend Eric. They are getting married in March 2011. Eric is in the coast guard, so they have to tie the knot before he is transfered somewhere far from here. They may be moving to Alaska or Hawaii in June. Can you say awesome vacation destination?

Today Scott and I ate breakfast at Crave with mom and Billy. mmmmm.....shrimp and grits. Then Scott and I watched football. I thought I'd actually get a win for my 0-4 fantasy team this week after Hakeem Nicks and Brandon Lloyd scored 27 points each, but I don't think it's meant to be. I'm down 118-91 with Randy Moss left and he has his kicker and Percy Harvin left to go. So Randy Moss pretty much needs the game of his life for me to win. Every single team in the league has scored their highest against me. I've got by far the most points scored against me. And I'm in last place, obviously. So frustrating!

Anywho, I've also been working on a little DIY for the wedding. Mustaches and red lips for the photo booth I'm going to attempt at the wedding. I found templates for the mustaches here and here. And I bought some adhesive-backed felt from A.C. Moore, some bamboo skewers and some Martha Stewart craft paper for the back. What do you think?

My first big catch

Today was the first day Scott and I have had off together since September 7th, so we decided to go out on the boat with his parents to go fishing. I wasn't really expecting to catch anything, but I pulled in a catfish early. Not too exciting, I know. But at our second fishing spot we were seeing more interesting fish swimming around. After 30 minutes or so, I started feeling a tug on the line. Then all of a sudden the line went out of control. This was my first big fish, so Scott and his dad came over to help me out. This thing was running like a shark was chasing it and swimming all around the boat. I had to circle it twice before I got it in the net. It ended up being a 10-15 pound jack.