Everyone loves picture day...right?

Every parent with school-age children knows exactly what I'm talking about.  When that note comes home from school announcing that its PICTURE DAY...we all cringe!  For me, I kinda roll my eyes and laugh.  For several years I had invested in the portraits from the school as a way to see how much my munchkin has grown.  We always ordered something, until the 3rd grade when the "proof" came home and my daughter's hair was a mess...YIKES!  They must have just called the kids in from the playground, sat them down, snapped a picture and called it a day.  I actually got a little upset that they wanted me to actually spend money on those pics or put my daughter through having them retaken...no thank you!  Immediately my thoughts were that I could do better than that myself.  That next week, we headed out to the local photographers hot spot and had took our own {unique} school photos.  Photographing my daughter isn't hard {I'm only a little partial} she has been my smiley kid ever since she was a baby.  {Camera + Katy = SMILES}  Because we did them on our own I was able to capture photos that showed her personality, her spunk and her abundant energy.   From that day forward I made up my mind that I would never again spend another dime on messy hair, cheesy school photographs.  Here are a few sneaks from our 5th grade school photo shoot.  There are lots more, but I thought these were cute!

beau·ty [byoo-tee]

Stop and smell the roses...How often have we heard that phrase and how often do we really do that?  Lets face it, we just don't have time.  Before we moved to Maryland, I was so busy, busy with things that really mattered...wrapping up with 4th grade, preparing to rent our home, putting an end to a 6 month deployment {homecoming}, celebrating our 16th anniversary, saying goodbye to friends and packing up our entire house and moving North.  All these things were important, but there are little things around me that I neglected to enjoy...I didn't stop and smell the roses.  Now that my plate is a little less full, that is my goal.  I still very much enjoy photographing people and can't wait to get going again with that, but I intend to enjoy {all} the roses around me.  I don't want to miss a thing.  

Last weekend, we loaded up in the car and went on a little road trip.  We wanted to smell the roses! We found so many places to photograph, but there are so many barns around here that I couldn't help myself.  We found some that were plain and some that were not so plain.  Some were kept up and some not so much.  To some barns are useful. They are used to hold feed,  house animals or even just hide farm equipment.  While they are useful, they can also turn into a beautiful work of art. 

When I see them, I see 

beau·ty

 

{the quality present in a thing or person that gives intense pleasure or deep satisfaction to the mind, whether arising from sensory manifestations (as shape, color, sound, etc.), a meaningful design or pattern or something else.} 

Along with the beautiful barns we stumbled onto a couple wineries.  If you've never been to one you should 

even if you don't drink the wine.

  The vineyards are so beautiful and each vine is purposefully placed.  You will get a special treat if you see grapes on the vines.  We got lucky and we found grapes.  The colors are magnificant.  The hues of green and purple are so amazing.  What we see in the grocery everyday just look so pretty, in their natural state, hanging from a winding vine.  

This trip was the 

epit·o·me 

of "smelling the roses".  I hope you enjoy the photographs of our little adventure and hope that you too will stop to smell {your} roses.

{Yellow Daisy Photography}