Cold Spring Seasons

I love this view of Cold Spring during the seasons. So just for fun I have been capturing this spot in the summer….

In the fall…

In the winter…

I just love my little town!

Cropping…

I read this post today and it made me want to experiment just a little with some cropping. I couldn’t agree more with trying different angles and cropping in creative ways. Here is what I came up with…
The original:

Cropped and Edited:

Here is original:

Here are some edited and cropped ones.
Before:
After some cropping and editing:



I am not saying that these are the only way to crop all these, but it was fun to play and really give some more thought to my photo editing!

The Remains of Fall

These were taken by the Sauk River in Cold Spring. It is sad to realize that fall is nearly over and winter will soon be taking it’s place….

Maple Trees

My neighbors have the most beautiful trees. Maples can really be amazing in the fall. Of course the same neighbor has two identical trees, except one is beautiful and the other one is completely brown and ugly. How does that happen?! I just couldn’t help myself though and called Mrs. Bell and asked if I could take some pictures of her tree. Clearly you can see that she said yes :)!

Colors

I just loved watching this man work for his Custom Airbrushing business. It is great to imagine how many different styles of shirts he has done in his lifetime. I wonder what else he has worked on? I also really loved seeing all the color that I could capture in a single click of the camera. Perfect!

Aged Photo

I have been spending my few moments at the computer when we aren’t homeschooling playing around with textures. I am amazed at the different things that can be done with our digital photos. No kidding, it is just amazing how much it can change  a picture.

Pioneer Woman

I think Dawn may have gotten me hooked on The Pioneer Woman a while back and I have really enjoyed reading about this woman’s life on a ranch. She also happens to home school, cook (and take lots of pictures of food which I love of course), talk about her home and garden and of course the great fun of her loving photography! Nice to read a blog that has many facets and that I can relate too a little bit (minus the life on the ranch part, LOL!).

Just this week a cookbook that she created was released here. Because it is a new release, Ree (the Pioneer Woman) is doing some publicity stints. I thought it was fun to see her in real life and not just in blog form :) so watching her was entertaining. Even though I couldn’t find this clip easily, I was happy to finally find it out on youtube.

Here is The Pioneer Woman live ;)!

My Dinner Connection

Locals in Cold Spring or the St. Cloud area really should check out the My Dinner Connection shop. This has been a wonderful addition to our regular meals each week. I usually get the 14 meals each month and it definitely helps make my life a little simpler with kids to be homeschooled and my hubby working from home. My Dinner Connection is awesome!

They have great coupons and I just wanted to remind everyone about them. http://www.mydinnerconnection.com/coupons.  Go to their site and print out their coupon for a great savings!

“Redeem at MY Dinner Connection: $20.00 off a 12 entree session or $10.00 off an 8 entree session. Place an order for an 8 or 12 entree session for 10/29/2009 or 10/31/2009 to receive these discounts. (you must include extra entree choices when placing your order) We will assemble your order free of charge if you wish! Limit 1 coupon per 8 or 12 entree session. Offer not valid with any other coupons or promotions.”

Plus on this coming Monday is their New Menu Monday for the month of November:

“Join us each month with your friends and family. from 5:00 pm - 7:00 pm you can stop in and see what's cookin’ at My Dinner Connection. For just $7 you can sample our menu selections for the upcoming month. If you place your order that evening you will get 1 or 2 extra entrees FREE! “

Hope you can make it out sometime and check out some wonderful foods!

Another Favorite Picture

I just love this picture of Minsan with his motorcycle this summer.  Each summer seems to bring about one activity or another that occupies us more than others. Sometimes it is golfing, sometimes it is traveling, sometimes it is tennis, sometimes it is trap shooting, well this summer…yeah, it was all about motorcycles. Minsan was much better at it than I and certainly road nearly every day, but I too managed to ride my motorcycle on some beautiful rides. It was a great summer for it that is for sure!

The Sepia Version of the Junkyard (6)

I love this fall color!

Pretty Girl

Just playing around with this sweet picture of Clarisse! She was happy to oblige and be all model like  for me!

Kevin and Amanda

Here I am testing out some new fonts!

I found this site that gives away some fun new fonts for free…who doesn’t like fun new things for FREE!  Pick me, pick me!!!! I think people can use them for scrapbooking or just for fun anywhere that they do work…Word, Excel, Publishers, Photoshop, “live write :)”, etc.

If you are interested in the free fonts (they have many) head out to their site and check it out:

http://www.kevinandamanda.com/whatsnew/

Lake Geneva Camp Scenes

While we were away at a CMA retreat last August, Bethel College was also there. I managed to take a few shots of the college students wandering through Lake Geneva. I also just took some fun shots of this and that, just because :)!

Doesn’t green grass and sun look wonderful? How about the peaceful time alone like that above student took…yeah, that looks wonderful too :)!