Texas Blue Steel Photography

Ready for Christmas!!

texasbluesteelphotography — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 07:52:40 +0000

Woo Hoo, we are READY for Christmas!! Hubby and I went on Monday and finished up the last of the shopping that we needed to do to get the rest of the kids presents together. Monday night we had our Girl Scout Meeting where we did Christmas Crafts and that was a total BLAST!! We learned how to make bath salts, the girls made the Polar Express Bell, the made candy cane rudolph reindeer’s, a couple of orniments for the tree, and a Santa made out of a Baby food jar to put the bath salts in. If you would like to see the baby food jar Santa you can see it HERE. When I was a Girl Scout 30 years ago we had made a similar project that we put Christmas candy in. Who would have thought that I would be making a similar project with my daughter all these years later. I am looking forward to more crafts to do with our Girl Scouts through this next year, they seem to have the attention span and focus to allow us to do some great crafts this year.

I became a member of Pinterest over the last couple of weeks, and WOW!! With all the great things that are posted in that group and on the linked blogs there will be no shortage of crafts and recipes to try out!! And speaking of recipes…..one of the last things that we had to do to get ready for Christmas was to make Christmas Cookies and yesterday we went over to my sister’s house for out annual Christmas Cookie making session. This is a big deal for us, you see because when we did this with my Mom it used to be an all day event. Mom used to make several batches of the dough and she would cook while we would all decorate. It usually took us about 6 to 8 hours when my Mom was alive. Now when my sister and I get together we do a somewhat condensed session. My kids will usually only decorate for a little over an hour before they get tired and just want to play. I am usually impressed that they will work for that long. Generally we end up with 75-100 cookies anyway. This year I decided to take some pictures of the process. By the time we got there my sister had the cookie dough ready to start cutting…..so the pictures start from there.

After the dough is rolled out, each cookie is carefully cut out…..lol…..

Cookies before they go into the oven….

Coloring the icing….

Almost ready to start decorating…..just have to cool off….

The table is ready…..we cover the table in paper to make clean up easier….

The kids get to work….. they are doing a GREAT job…..

The finished product!!

And the recipe if you would like it:

Carole’s Holiday Cookies

1/2 cup butter or margarine

1 cup sugar

1 egg

2 3/4 cup (scant) flour

5 teaspoons baking powder

5 tablespoons orange juice

grated rind of one orange

Cream together butter and sugar, blend in egg. Sift together flour and baking powder. Add flour mix alternately with orange juice. Stir in orange rind. Chill dough. Roll out, cut and arrange on greased cookie sheet. Bake at 350 degrees for 5 min.

(We have modified this recipe to use orange juice concentrate instead of orange juice. It gives a better flavor. So you would use 5 tbsp orange juice concentrate instead of just orange juice)

Icing

6 tablespoons butter or margarine

4 1/2 – 4 3/4 cup powdered sugar

1/4 cup orange juice concentrate

1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Cream all ingredients together until smooth (you may want to use a blender). Seperate into different bowls and mix in food coloring choices.

Enjoy, hope you have a Merry Christmas!!

I may try to do a bit more cooking in the next couple of days. I have found a breakfast pizza to make for Christmas morning for the kids, hubby wants a jalapeno, sausage and egg casserole for breakfast so I will be making that for him. Looking forward to seeing the kids faces in 2 days, I hope I remember to take pictures….lol.

Until next time…..

Filed under: Family, Food, Photography Tagged: Christmas Cookies, Girl Scouts, photography

Oh So Posh Giveaway Back Up….

texasbluesteelphotography — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 03:40:44 +0000

The Giveaway I posted about below at Oh So Posh Actions for the Nikon D90 Camera is back up and running…..so go now and see what you have to do for your chance to win…..

Oh So Posh Actions

Until Next Time…..

Filed under: Photography Tagged: giveaway, oh so posh actions

Give Away at Oh So Posh Actions!! Check this out….

texasbluesteelphotography — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 16:42:22 +0000

What an AMAZING lady Lidia of Oh So Posh Actions is!! She is an amazing photographer who also makes her own Actions, and now….she’s giving away this Nikon D90 Camera to one lucky Fan!! WOW!! I am a Nikon Girl also and I would swoon over getting this great camera upgrade to my own!! Take a look….

To get the Rules…..visit her site….

Oh So Posh Photography / Blog (I’ve linked you to the Giveaway)

Better hurry though…..It ends TOMORROW!!!

(UPDATE: The Server that was being used could not handle the amount of traffic that was being generated by this giveaway…..YEAH….and BOO. So Lidia had to take the post down so that she did not CRASH the server all together. She is working on a solution to the problem at this time and the Giveaway WILL be extended when the problem is resolved. Thank You for your patience.)

Good Luck everyone.

Until Next Time…….

Filed under: Photography Tagged: giveaway, oh so posh actions, photography

WOW….Has it really been almost 3 months??

texasbluesteelphotography — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 20:09:30 +0000

I came back to my blog and I was shocked to discover that WOW, it really has been almost 3 whole months since I have posted anything here. I’m at total slacker, at least I feel like one when it comes to this blog. Now my life….now that is a total different story. I have been one BUSY Mamma, and most of it has NOT been taking photo’s recently. Between Church, Girls Scouts and trying to maintain some king of a normal family life around illness and kids and their school and school activities I feel like I just haven’t had much time at all.

I will share some of what I’ve taken over the last 3 months…….

The three above from a vehicle accident and fire.

And the four above from when hubby and friends ran the Tough Mudder Central Texas in October. Over 12 miles and 28 obsticles and they finished in 3 hours and 30 minutes……SO PROUD of them!!!

So as Christmas approaches we are getting ready for all the festivities. We have the tree up and half decorated, lights are on it and some of the ornimates….the kids still have to put the rest of them on. Presents are starting to be placed under the tree, and we are getting ready for the kids school break which means school parties and adult parties all around. So there will be a SUPER BUSY few weeks ahead of us. I hope NOT to neglect the blog as I had…..SO HOPING to have the drive to get back to it.

Until next time………

Filed under: Family, Fire Department, Photography Tagged: family, Fire Department, fun, photography, Tough Mudder

Fall Ball and Girl Scouts….oh my

texasbluesteelphotography — Sat, 17 Sep 2011 20:10:32 +0000

Well, our Girl Scout troop met through the summer but we are gearing up to full time now and meeting every week. Our girls transitioned from Brownies last year to Juniors this year and we want to get so much more done. Over the summer we made a trip to Sea World which the girls paid for with the proceeds they made with their cookie sales. It was pretty cool, we stayed at a KOA camp and they got to have their first “camping” experience together in cabins. While at Sea World they ended up getting a private experience with the dolphins which was AWESOME!! Here is all the girls with one of the dolphins (along with a few other people who were making the most of our experience)….

They also got to push the dolphin back into the pool area. The girls really enjoyed this experience, they also loved Shamoo, and the Sea Lion Show. We had a few girls that rode one of the roller coaster rides, and we got around to a few of the other rides. We also did a few educational experiences to round everything out. The greatest thing about this trip is that along with a few other little tasks after we got back, the girls will get a patch from this trip for their Junior Vests.

Fall Ball started two weeks ago, with our first game being last week. I can’t tell you if we won or lost, I’m not sure if anyone knows or kept score. Fall Ball around here is about developing mechanics and techniques, but they do get to play games every week. So of course I had to take some pic’s of my little super-star as he played 1st base for the first time. He also got a turn at the pitchers mound but since it’s t-ball….well, you know. He’s having a blast wherever he plays just as long as he gets to play.

First tag-out….

At the pitchers mound…..

His first in the park home run…..no really!! The ball went over the infield then rolled to the fence. The other team actually did get the ball all the way back to home plate but none of the other players picked it up and tagged my boy as he crossed home plate…..HOME RUN!!

Good Game……Good Game!!

Next game is tomorrow, so more photo’s to take tomorrow. I guess I have failed at my Project 52 Challenges. Hopefully I can get back into those soon…..if I can locate more time in the day…..

Until next time….

Filed under: Family, Photography Tagged: Girl Scouts, T-Ball

Project 52 and Friday Night Fireworks!!!

texasbluesteelphotography — Tue, 09 Aug 2011 05:53:49 +0000

Working on trying to stay up to date on project 52 again. I think that Paint the Moon changes over mid week now instead of at the weekend so that may be why the weeks are off. So again the weeks are off on my project 52. For MCP Project 52 it is week 32 and the theme was Favorite time of the Day.

The story behind the photo:

My favorite time of day is anytime this is happening in my house. When this one slows down enough to finally sleep and I have a bit of time to myself (and time to get my own work done). Usually it only happens in the evening at the normal bedtime but ocassionally I get a surprise and he takes a nap in the middle of the day, those days I make sure I take a nap myself….so as not to get too worn out myself….lol.

The theme for Paint the Moon – Let’s Do 52 was Bravery or Neighbors.

The story behind the photo…

After the events of this past weekend in Afganistan and this weeks theme I have been thinking about who I think is Brave. For me as the wife of a Police Officer/Firefighter/Paramedic I really don’t have to look far to see many who will lay their lives down daily for the safety of each of ours if need be, and I find myself in awe of the family’s who make the sacrifice to send their family members overseas to fight for our Nation. So many faces and divisions that epitomize what Bravery is, so this photo is for ALL those who put their lives on the line daily. I wish I had the ability to take photo’s of them all!!

So as for the Friday Night Fireworks….we were given tickets several months ago to go see an Astros game. Now we are pretty much die hard Astros fans, even though they are in last place, we are ready for the year to end and for the rebuilding to start!! Irregardless, we love to go and watch some baseball, and even better when it’s on Friday night when they have Friday Night Fireworkd after the game…..to music……AWESOME!!!

Some pic’s from the game…..

During batting practice…..waiting on a homerun ball to the Crawford Boxes where our seats were.

FoxSports Houston SportsCasters getting ready to go on the air…..right next to where we were sitting.

Bases loaded……

Ooooohhhhhhhhh……………….

Aaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhh……………….

The fireworks were AWESOME…..and the music was really fun, though I didn’t recognize some of the songs.

It’s been a great week…..only a week and a half left until school starts. Looking forward to finding out who will be teaching my kiddo’s for the year!

Until next time……

Filed under: Family, Photography, Project 52 Tagged: MCP Project 52, PTM Let's Do 52

Project 52 ….MCP Week 31, PTM Week 30

texasbluesteelphotography — Tue, 02 Aug 2011 14:57:48 +0000

So I’m not really sure how in the weeks that I was not participating that the two got off on their weeks…..but they are a week off of each other now. So this week on MCP the theme was Sky, I went out on Saturday after we had a good thunderstorm that morning starting the morning with my DS crawling in my bed and the dog acting like the house was going to fall apart….lol. Anyway, as I took photos of the now white clouds moving through the sky I tried to notice shapes, colors or anything that might jump out. I happened to see a flock of birds that got spooked by something and flew out across the clouds and blue sky and started taking more photos as they flew across……and then this…..

I looked over to see what looked like a heart formed in the clouds. Kinda lopsided like a childs drawn heart, still beautiful and for me…..my sign that my recently passed best friend is looking out for me….and has seen my Mom. Thanks Lori!! As a very good friend said to me after seeing this photo and a photo her cousin just took days ahead of this one….she said “I think God is trying to tell us something”.

Paint the Moon – Let’s Do 52 is a week behing at week 30 though I’m not sure why…anyway, the theme for this week is Letting go of Perfect….or Lines. My photo was taken this morning after I stepped out to let the dog out……

I was quite surprised to notice all the Lines in my back yard….this photo of two of our windows with the storm shutters open to let the light in (no storms anywhere close), our fence and the side of the neighbors house. I have been so amazed how this project has opened my eyes to right in front of me!!

I am in the process of getting my website moved to a new host and up and working again….with a new look. I hope to have that going soon, once I do I will let you know so you can check it out and let me know what you think.

Until next time……

Filed under: Photography, Project 52 Tagged: MCP Project 52, PTM Let's Do 52

Back with Week 30 of Project 52

texasbluesteelphotography — Thu, 28 Jul 2011 20:50:33 +0000

It’s been a long couple of weeks, we have been spending them at camp and having a TOTAL BLAST!!! I am trying to get back into taking photo’s for the project 52 challenges that I have been involved in. I hope that I will be able to continue for the rest of the year with no other stumbling blocks, but with both my kiddo’s going into full time school I am not going to make any promises. Ok so on to the photo’s, for MCP Project 52 the Theme was ”A letter of the Alphabet” and the photo I chose…..

The story behind the photo…..

I chose the letter I for…..

Incorruptable Inheritance 1 Peter 1:4. We had our kids camp last week and this was the theme….be an Incorruptable Inheritance!! I am finishing out my commitment to our weekly camps this week so I hope to be getting back into taking my weekly photos soon!! I have missed being able to participate but I have been having a total BLAST with these kids!!

The theme for Paint the Moon – Let’s Do 52 was Secrets or Smooth and the photo I chose……

The story behind the photo……

My DD sharing the secrets of playing this DS game with her little brother. I’m surprised this particular time it didn’t turn into a screaming match as it does most times. Glad i was able to catch this sweet brother/sister moment.

Until next time all…..Thanks so much for dropping by, would love to hear from you.

Filed under: Photography, Project 52 Tagged: MCP Project 52, PTM Let's Do 52

4th of July……Fireworks and stuff

texasbluesteelphotography — Mon, 11 Jul 2011 03:59:55 +0000

4th of July for us for the last 10 years has always been a day that my DH has had to work as the city he works for has had the longest running 4th of July Parade in the State. The parade used to be bigger than it is today, some people even go out the night before to set up their places to watch the parade even setting up canopys to mark their areas. Can’t believe how serious some people can be about it. We used to go out and watch the parade when the kids were a bit younger…..yeah they are still young, but as crazy as people are right now my DH said that we would have to get there at least an hour and a half before the parade to get a spot where the kids could see. So I’m not that big of a fanatic to make my kids wait that long for a parade. We did however go out to sit with DH at the shuttle parking area to “tailgate” and watch the fireworks show put on by the city. I was hoping to be a bit closer to try and get some true “maual” photo’s as the last few times I have tried to take fireworks photo’s I was letting my DSLR make at least some of the adjustments. I was excited to finally see how well my new Tamron 28-300 lens would work. I was quite impressed with the lens….and have been as long as I have been using it. It has a little bit of jerky movement as it initially does the fine focus but once it gets there….wow, it pretty much stays on it. The best part was being able to spend time with the kids and DH, and of course our friends who came out with us. So, I know you came to check out the photo’s so here you go……

Yummy Cupcake!!

He wanted to make sure I knew this was a farm with all the animals.

Sidewalk Chalk…..

A Princess makes her own Castle…..

Almost time……

Ooooohhhhhhhhhh………

Aaaaaaaahhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!

And a quick and VERY BIG Congratualtions to our friends who had their daughter on Friday July 8th. My prayers go out to this precious new family as they start this new and wonderous journey together. We LOVE YOU GUYS!!!

Thanks for stopping by….

Until Next Time…..

Filed under: Family, News, Photography Tagged: 4th of July, family

Apologies…..Some news

texasbluesteelphotography — Tue, 21 Jun 2011 04:57:59 +0000

Well, it appears that I will be playing catch up with my project 52 challenge. I was trying very hard to keep up with each week through the year and I knew that going into the summer it was probably going to be a bit difficult. Never did I imagine the events that would transpire over the last week. My life has been shaken up and all during a time that I was having to keep my wits and a smile on my face because I was working with childeren. The last thing I ever would want to do is to project my feelings onto kids who are somewhere to have fun. I was so excited to be starting camp and to be working camp this summer, and this past week my daughters Girl Scout Troop took a trip to go camping and to Sea World so it was a jam packed week for me to start.

We had a good start to the day on Monday, then about 10:30 in the morning a close friend of mine gave me some news that I was really NOT expecting. Our friend since Kindergarten had suffered a sudden cardiac arrest the night before, the doctors and nurses had been able to bring her back but she was in the ICU in VERY, VERY critical condition at the time. I was just stunned and my first reaction was that I wanted to get on a plane and go to where she was, but I needed to stay and be at the camp for the kids. I called a few people and asked for her to be placed on a few prayer chains. I finished out my 3 days in camp and packed for the Girl Scout camping trip keeping and ever watchful eye on every update that came on my friend. I also called my other close friend and asked that she keep me updated while I was camping with the Girl Scouts. I was hopeful that she would be a Miracle to everyone and just wake up. We took the Girls to Sea World and they had and AMAZING experience there which I will have to write about another time as I have plenty of photo’s to share of that. It was and extremely HOT day, 105 degrees at the heat of the day, so when we got back to camp the girls decided they wanted to swim. The water was wonderful, at least for the time I got to spend in it…..I received a call from another friend informing me that they had gotten the report back from the neurologist and there was no brain activity, her husband made the agonizing decision to remove the life sustaining measures. My long time friend died in the arms of her loving husband as he kissed her good-bye…..for now. My friend had the most AMAZING soul and she was a blessing to everyone she came in contact with. I look forward to see how her son’s show the pieces of their mother because she is a part of who they are. So I apoligize for missing a few weeks of project 52, but I leave you with a photo of my friend….my favorite photo right now of her. Please say a prayer for her family and all those around them.

I hope to be back at it very soon…..so…..

Until next time…….

Filed under: Family, News Tagged: family, news