Chocolate ice cream with chocolate chunks on a waffle cone. Oh sweet goodness, come to mama! It's seriously the best thing ever. I know I say that about a lot of things, but in my defense, there are lots of different things that can be the best. That previous sentence didn't make too much sense. I blame all the homework that has depleted my brain of good-grammar-cells. If I ever had any.



<a href="http://pastorsgirlsponderings.com/"><img src="http://imgur.com/AS92y.jpg"/></a>

Is there a photo that makes you happy? One that warms your heart or tells a funny story? One that puts you on cloud nine? Here's your chance to share it! 

Just put up a post on your blog containing one photo that you've taken. You can add as much or as little text as you would like along with it. After writing your post, come back here to link up - you have until Thursday at 9:59pm CST to do so. Don't forget to link back to me so others can join in, whether it be via the above button or a link. :) And remember to visit others' photos as well! 
-carlotta

1. happy birthday!

Today is my mom's birthday! While I know I'm not always the easiest to deal with, I'm so thankful to have her as a mother. Happy birthday, Mom!

2. this is a sock hold up.

While I was practicing piano, MeMe, with a hat pulled very low over her face and carrying a laundry basket filled with Jeremiah's underwear and socks, and Jeremiah, with a bandanna tied around his face, came in. Jeremiah proceeded to hold out a recording of MeMe saying, "This is a sock hold up. Give me your socks or I'll tie you up." I seriously could not stop laughing. Just the sound of MeMe threating me in her seven-year-old voice was hilarious.

And if you're wondering, no, I didn't give them my socks ;)

3. st. nicholas day.

Yesterday was St. Nicholas Day. (If you're unfamiliar with it, you can view a post I wrote last year here.) We had a day filled with lots of chocolate yesterday...not that I had a problem with it ;)
My family also hauled out all the Christmas decorations. When I walked in the house at lunch time yesterday, I was greeted by Bing Crosby crooning White Christmas, festive Santas and bright red bows. Oh, how I love Christmas.

What's your favorite thing about Christmas?

4. i had a bad day yesterday.

It's true. My day started off by oversleeping. I woke up nearly an hour after I was supposed to. I had planned on doing homework during that time. Then, I forgot to put out my boot the night before for St. Nicholas (I know that seems rather childish, but it's a tradition we've been doing for as long as I can remember and it bugs me that I broke it ;)). I work on Monday mornings for our church musician. I was running late and had barely anytime to throw on an outfit and make myself look presentable. I was already in a bit of a grumpy mood after everything that had happened that morning. As I was stapling some papers together, the stapler shot staples at my stomach, something that has never happened before. Thanks, stapler. I really needed that extra thing to remind me of my bad day.
Thankfully, nothing went wrong the rest of the day. And I don't mean to complain by writing this, but it's almost comical looking back at it now ;)

5. my outfit.

So far on my poll, ninety three percent of you would like to see my outfits occasionally. Here's what I wore a few days ago...



(Excuse the dorky poses - I'm still learning this whole fashion blogging thing ;))


The left photo is how I looked if you saw me walking outside. I was so cold ;) And on the right is what I had on underneath

Headband: H&M
Scarf: Gift from a friend
Peacoat: Delia's
Top: Target
White bracelet: Made by me
Beaded bracelet: Made by African women...all the proceeds of the bracelet went right back to them.
Jeans: Old Navy
Uggs: Christmas gift

This is one of my favorite outfits...it's super comfy (although the shirt is starting to pill...sad face) and I loved the ruched sleeves of my top - it gives that extra little nod to the military style that's so popular right now.

What's your favorite outfit?

6. yearning for the ocean.

Lately I've been craving some time on the beach. Living in landlocked Oklahoma, it's easy long for the place where water gently kisses the horizon, the place of warm, sandy beaches. And it doesn't help that I've been seeing beach photos seemingly everywhere I look.
We're tentatively planning a journey to South Carolina next summer, in the Charleston area. I'm seriously excited. Charleston is a city I've been wanting to go to forever and combining it with a beach vacation would be amazing. Swoon.



7. i love...

...sparkling lights while the sky fades from pink to orange to blue to black.

...Oreos.

...Christmas.

...and while we're talking about Christmas, let's throw in Christmas break! After this week, there's only one more until break. Sweet freedom. ;)

...Christmas.

...Oreos.

...Christmas.

...Ore - oh wait, am I repeating myself? Sorry.

-carlotta

This morning I fully intended to wake up early and get some things done - like write this blog post - but as usual, I overslept. Sigh.

Doesn't everyone love to occasionally take pictures of themselves? I know I do. I'm not talking about filling myriads of albums on Facebook with selfies, but being a photographer, that's okay sometimes. Sometimes we're so busy taking pictures of others that we don't take time to get some photos of ourselves in our albums.  This week's theme at I Heart Faces is self portrait...here's mine.



I'm rather fond of this angle...I was trying out several different poses and positions and I liked this one the best.




Do enter in this challenge! I'd love to see you :)
-carlotta
(Psst...would you mind taking an extra second? I'd love to have your vote on the poll in my right sidebar under the followers gadget regarding starting occasional outfit posts on my blog. Thanks!)

It's been way too long since I'd taken any photos of little people. It's rather hard to take pictures of a person if they're totally opposed to it. My other siblings refused, but Lilly finally agreed to let me get some shots of her in exchange for some Sour Patch Kids. 

Yes, it's true. I resort to bribing frequently occasionally. A girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do, right? Right. (Please don't tell me I'm the only one who does this...)

But in the end, Lilly was pleased with her candy, I was pleased with the resulting images from our little photoshoot, and my craving for photography was quenched.

One thing I really love to do when photographing children is to engage them somehow. In this case, I asked Lilly to tell me a story, which gave me the next three images. I wasn't really paying attention, but it was something about a boy named "Fat White Tshirt". Okay then.






It was rather chilly outside, so I let Lilly wear my Uggs. They were enormously huge on her. They were so big, in fact, that I had to carry her to the different places we were shooting at. But while they might have been enormously huge, they were enormously cute.

(apparently she was impersonating a dog here...)

I'm so in love with these last two photos...I'm not a huge fan of backlight, but sometimes it works out perfectly. Swoon.

What are some of your favorite things to photograph?

-carlotta

PS Thank y'all so much for your super sweet, uplifting comments on my last post. You really don't know how much it means to me.