Sarasota

It's been a few weeks now, but I wanted to post a few picture of my mini vacay to florida! Keepin' in short & sweet today.

Keeneland Race Day

So I've had this obsession with horses ever since I was little and I never grew out of it. Yes, I did want to be a jockey when I was young, but clearly I'm not the right size! So I guess I get my horse fix just by being there and watching. I went down to Lexington for the day to see the races at Keeneland. It was a lot of fun, but a bit chilly!

I won some money on the first race #7 came through for me!

My First Half Marathon

I ran my first half marathon last weekend and wanted to share the pics. Yes, I have been recovering all week and indulging in relaxation. Not running, at all, got a massage, been eating whatever I want (my metabolism is still reved up, right?). I did not realized the pain that can be caused by running such a distance, but alas I did push through and made it in 2 hours 17 min (about 10:45 minute mile....)! Before the race I was considering training for a full marathon....but now... I don't think so. Maybe give it some more time and I'll come around! ha I trained with a group called Team in Training to raise money for the Leukemia & Lymphoma society. It's the worlds largest endurance sports training program http://www.teamintraining.org/.

Now my mind is off in triathlon land....that might be my next challenge!

Spring is here!

It's a beautiful morning in good 'ole Ohio. Nothing is a better mood booster than a beautiful sunny day! Work has finally slowed back down...a little, and the snow has melted away. It's a new day and I am feeling great folks! My half marathon is next weekend and I'm pumped and ready to go. I recently realized that I am an 'on the go' person, that doesn't need much down time. Relaxing is great once in a while, but sometimes I have to force myself to do it because I really like to be doing something all the time. I just want to make the most of life.

I had some time yesterday and finally a subject! Andy was a great sport to let me take some practice pictures of him. I think they turned out great. I also just signed up for a class: Enhancing Photos with Photoshop this spring, so hopefully I'll be posting pics with some fun new tricks applied. Here they are:

Girls Night

Angela came in town this weekend from D.C. She is the girl who wants to be entertained as soon as she gets off the plane, ususally she has happy hour in mind. We decided to have a big get toghether with everyone close to town and started off at my place for wine and appetizers. I miss you girls so much and always have the best time when we get together! Everyone has come such a long way and impresses me everytime I see you. Miss you.... hope we can do this again soon!!

Snowed In....

We are in the middle of the biggest snow storm of the decade! I can't even see 10' out my window right now!! I'm snowed in and watching the blizzard continue bury us more and more. I bought some used videos yesterday 5 for $25 to keep me entertained while I soak up every second of relaxation this weekend! Ahhhhh....

I will try to post more photos when the storm is finally over to see how much we end up getting!

Cleaning & Painting

I have been working insane hours and weekends this month...not so fun. February went by in the blink of an eye and I feel like I could sleep for days! Today was my first Saturday off in a few weeks and my house has been a little messy to say the least. Even though I'm exhausted, I'm not one to live in a pig sty. I pushed up my sleeves and got to cleanin'....so I could spend the rest of my weekend relaxing in my clean condo. I've had some painting touch ups on my to-do list for quite awhile and my parents were awesome to head up to help me out for the day. Like my dad says, where else are you going to find painters that buy you dinner?

I did get a new lens this month, 50mm 1.8! (Thanks to my awesome boyfriend for forgoing valentines flowers for a cord camera gift card!) I'm trying to get used to it, I feel like it's so different from my kit lens, but I love how wide the aperture opens. Here's a few pictures, I'm hoping to get more practice on people and not just my house!

Before:

After:

Downtown Columbus

I finally got around to creating a signature stamp for my photos! This is what I came up with but, I might change it down the road when I have a little more time to experiement with the design.

I had Friday off work and get Monday off too because it's a holiday. I've had some extra time this weekend to get some great shots of downtown and work on my photos. I think I might frame a few of these because they turned out so well. I'd love to know if you like them too! I guess landscapes are becoming my thing since I don't have a lot of opportunities to shoot people. That goes on my list of things to work on I guess.

Birch Trees

I was back in Dayton for the weekend and dad and I made a visit to our favorite birch trees up the street. We must have been on some crazy woman's property because she made quite the effort to follow us when we drove off, dad was acting like it was a james bond get away...ha.

Very gray in the winter time, but I loved the colorful tags that came out on the cow's ears!

Home for the Holidays

Here are a few photos of my Christmas. We looked rough most of the week so there weren't a lot of glamours shots taken. ;)

My favorite meal of the year....our traditional homeade Italian meal!

We had a wonderful Christmas...there's a pick of one of my new bar stools.
The boys went and bought a bibi (sp?) gun and were shooting in the backyard.