1. the dairy. We go to a dairy located in a rather small town about 30 minutes from where we live (in "the big city", as the Pioneer Woman would say) to get our milk, cheese, and cream. All their products are raw; they aren't pasteurized or homogenized. Don't worry, everything is as clean as can be. No milking by hand here - the cows are hooked up to the milking machines. When we went yesterday to pick up a few things, Lilly watched with rapt attention the milk going into the containers and tubes after coming from the cow (see above picture). She was so cute I just had to snap a picture :)

2. rusty, old bridges. I love 'em. When we were driving to the dairy yesterday, we had to pass under one. I, of course, couldn't pass up the opportunity and snapped away as we passed underneath the big steel structures.

3. can you guess what this is? Okay, it's just dish soap on a cutting board I was washing. But I thought the swirly pattern looked cool :)

4. 17 days. Yes, I'm going to include a countdown of days until we go to Germany in every Miscellaneous Ramblings post. Sorry. I'm just excited :) But in all seriousness - SEVENTEEN days! That's just...a little over two weeks away! I cannot believe it's this close. I can't wait to see all my family again. Y'all better get ready for some serious picture load while we're over there... :)

5. a concert. We went to a little concert last night, which was held at the outdoor mall half a mile from us. I had a blast taking pictures of the stage...it looked pretty cool with colored lights and dry ice.

6. q & a. I've had quite a few people ask me questions but I never got around to answering them - I feel so badly! If you asked me a question and I didn't respond, I apologize. I thought it might be fun if we did a little Q & A. Just leave a question in the comment section (of this post), and I'll answer them soon. You can ask me anything! :)

Happy Friday!

-carlotta

I've been taking quite a few photos of food lately (if you didn't already notice... ;)). There are three reasons for this.

Firstly, I love food. Food makes me happy and I like to take pictures of things that make me happy.

Secondly, I love the challenging aspect of food photography. It's so easy to take a bad picture of food. The lighting has to be right, the food has to look appetizing. While I'm by no means an expert on food photography, I do know that difference between a bad photo and a good one.

And thirdly, I've lost my models - my siblings. They were tired of being photographed all the time, so they fired themselves. (Is that even possible? Okay, they retired then. But can you retire at the ages of 4, 6, and 9? Never mind.) So that put people out of the picture. No pun intended. ;)

And taking pictures of the vegetation around my house gets quite boring after a while.

But food always provides an opportunity to take photos of things that aren't green. And since we eat quite regularly in my house (three times a day plus snacks...but isn't it that way in almost every household? ;)), there is never a shortage of edible things to be photographed.

Random musing of the day - Maybe it's because I've typed the word "food" a lot in this post, but it's a weird word. At least I think it is. I don't think it really sounds appetizing. But that's just me. As a friend mentioned, "A lot of interesting things pop into your mind." I'd have to agree. ;)

Moving right along.

(strawberry smoothie)

(watermelon)

Here's yet another random musing. If you were stranded in the desert and could only bring one item of food (water would not be allowed), you should pick watermelon. 1, it's delicious and 2, it's practically water. It's food and drink combined! Wait, that sounds gross. And besides...where would you get watermelon in the desert? Nevermindthatlastparagraph. 

In conclusion, I've been taking lots of food photos and posting them here because it makes me happy. And I really like things that make me happy :) 

(Although, doesn't everyone? Sorry. I just really like sarcasm.)

What makes you happy?

-carlotta

(You can read my first "blogging pet peeves" post here.)

Note: These are my own personal opinions. I don't want to offend anyone by any means. I guess I'm just super picky or something but there are a lot of things that irk me in the blog world...so many in fact, that this is part two of my blogging pet peeves ;) Oh, and if you did see it yesterday, Happiness Is is taking a little break, but it's be back next week.

Google Images pictures. We're all done it at one time or another, myself included. We're writing a post and want a picture to go along with it, but don't want to take it ourselves. So we go to our friend Google Images and find a photo from there that pertains to the post. There's one problem with this - even if you provide a "via" link, you're almost always violating a copyright. Not to mention the photos are usually so...boring. It would be so much better if you just took the picture yourself. Seriously. ;)

Tons of posts on the blog home page. There is a little device called "archiving". Can you guess what it does? Yep, it files your posts so you don't have 134 posts on the first page of your blog. And if many of those posts contain photos, that also means your blog will probably load very slowly (Don't know if your blog loads slowly or not? Ask your readers!). Who wants to wait for 134 posts to load? I recommend not more than 7 posts on the main page. 

"Text talk". You know what I mean. We wnt 2 the stor 2day. (Okay, really lame example but that's what popped into my brain first ;)) Ew, ew, ew. Typing like that DOES NOT by any means make you appear "cooler". Or smarter, or more mature for that matter. Same goes for adding more letters to words likee thisss. What's the point of that?

Check out my blog. I know people are just trying to advertise their blog, but who likes those comments? You know, that are irrelevant to your post and just say "Nice blog, please check out mine at [insert blog URL] and become a follower!". Um, no. In fact, I refuse to go to those peoples' blogs (Why yes, I am very stubborn when I want to be. Thanks for asking!). I am more inclined to visit your blog if you write a comment that pertains to the post and don't advertise your site.

Their, they're, and there. Please get your grammar straight, people. If you mean their baby, write "their" not there. And you're and your. For example, it would be "You're so nice!" not "Your so nice!". (Again with the lame examples...sigh.)

I'm going to stop myself here...I don't want to get too whiny :)

What are some things that bug you in the blogging community? I'd love to hear them!

-carlotta

Lying under the big (I think it's an oak) tree in our backyard, reading a book and armed with my camera?

Bliss.

Taking pictures of yet-to-be-used flyscreen? 

Bliss.

(I realize taking pictures of flyscreen may not be bliss to you. But hey, it's an opportunity to take a photo, so I'm happy ;))

Brownies for breakfast?

Bliss.

Listening to the steady drum of raindrops on the roof?

Bliss.

Oreos?

Bliss.

88 degree temperatures?  (It's positively cold compared to the 105+ heat we were getting!)

Bliss.

Combining my green Raw(e) shot with this post?  (above photo is my entry)

Bliss.

What is bliss to you?

-carlotta

PS I think I'm going to take a little break from my Happiness Is blog hop...it'll be back next week, though. Is that okay with y'all?