big bird | little bird

i've been a little bit missing in action on my blogs lately, and thus, have not been visiting all of my favorite blogs. i have had some time to stop by a few, but i still have so much catching up to do with you all.

i've been busy. saturday morning i had my first gig as a personal shopper––it was for a friend of mine. oh, my! it was so much fun! we shopped from 11:30 until 3:00 and then went to have a late lunch, as all our shopping worked up an appetite. my "client" has already been wearing some of her new pieces and is getting compliments. i guess my work there is done!

then on sunday morning, i got up early to drive about an hour to meet lovely beth at the elkhorn flea market. it was a blast!!! we had a great time. i wish i had gotten more pictures, but beth took some and also wrote a little about it here {although many of you might have read it already}. everything she said was mutual to my feelings. thanks, beth! not just for meeting me, but also for the sweet things you wrote about it.

after that excursion, i went to chicago to visit my sister and give her the vintage lamps that i purchased for her at the flea market. they were the coolest lamps, and had she not liked them, i would have been more than happy to keep them for myself. but alas, she loved them, and i am so pleased. they look wonderful in her vintage apartment! i was there over night and enjoyed a wonderful stay. as always, it felt like i was a guest at a bed and breakfast. every time i go, she has done something new with the place and it feels more and more comfortable. i took hundreds of pictures and will post them from time to time.

and as usual, her chihuahua blanco was the best friend i could ask for. never leaving my side, he had me smiling and laughing almost the entire time i was there. he is just too cute for words. go here, and then just try to tell me he's not the cutest thing. :)

i took these two shots within minutes of each other while driving home from chicago yesterday. it's not something i recommend... taking pictures while driving. but it sure makes for some interesting shots sometimes. i opened them both in photoshop and applied a radial blur for effect. but the portion around the plane and bird remains unblurred. the plane in the first shot really did have a ghost-like nose, as it was entering the clouds and beginning to disappear. that was not a manipulation to the photo.

i will have a few more drive-by shootings tomorrow. but they will be from my race on the country roads to get to a nature preserve in time to take some sunset pictures last night. the clouds yesterday were absolutely out-of-this-world cool all day, and i knew it would make for a very nice sunset. so i set out early and spent over an hour taking hundreds of pictures of the sky as the sun began to go down and set. more on that tomorrow.

tonight... i will catch up on the rest of my blogs. thanks to everyone for stopping by, even when i don't get over to yours for a couple of days. see you soon!