gifts that give back

(photo from Oxfam's site)

As you're preparing for the holidays and buying gifts for everyone, I wanted to share one of my favorite gifts I received last year. My dear friends, Mouse & Dave, bought us the gift of planted trees. They may have been fruit or avocado trees, or trees that provided shade for coffee plantations, or maybe they were planted to stop erosion...

There are many wonderful organizations that offer gifts that give back, I wanted to share some sites you can purchase these gifts. Oxfam offers items like school uniforms & desks, planted trees, and shares in a fair trade coffee cooperative. At the Heifer Project you can buy a heifer, or a goat, a flock of chicks, or honeybees to help a family support themselves. (There's a fabulous book you should share with your children, Beatrice's Goat by Page McBrier and Lori Lohstoeter, about a poor Ugandan girl who's able to go to school because of receiving a goat from the Heifer project. Prior to having the goat, they couldn't afford the school uniform, and she wasn't able to attend school without one! It's a beautiful story that shows you what a big difference these gifts make.) There's also Seva Foundation which provides gifts of service, the gift of sight, or medical care...

These are wonderful gifts for the person you don't know what to get, or the person who has everything, because they share with those who have nothing, what better gift could there be?

one more...

tonight at dinner, I came up with a better elementary school story, in the 3rd grade we played "Muskrat Love"* in our recorder recital, I even had a solo! (*it was the 70's...)

8 things you may not know about me...

Although I just shared a few things, my friend Tom 'tagged' a bunch of us to share 8 things you may not know... so here's a few more for you!
1. I LOVE musicals, The Sound of Music, Evita, West Side Story, Guys & Dolls...
2. I spent my summers at Camp Maria Pratt GS camp, my Indian name was "Sparkling Smile" - I like to think it wasn't all about the braces...
3. I've got 99 Red Balloons & Safety Dance on my i Pod.
4. My first job was selling cameras in the photo dept. at Caldors, I also had a brief stint as a draftsperson for my step-father.
5. In the 1st grade concert, my best friend, Suzanne, had a solo singing "Sunshine on my
Shoulders", she got nervous & starting crying, so I went up on stage and put my arm around her to give her the strength to sing her song... Needless to say then everyone else had tears in their eyes!
6. I came to America on the Queen Elizabeth 1, a 5 day journey with my mum & my sister... It was the farewell year of the QE, sailing from Southampton to NY, and the first time I slept through the night (I was 5 mos. old!)
7. One of the first things I did in Paris was visit Jim Morrison's grave.
8. I got engaged to Ray under palm trees & moonlight in Puerto Rico.

Scavenger Hunt

We photographed a lovely wedding yesterday, Kathleen & Mike got married & danced under the "Beaver Moon", (no, we don't know why it was called that either...), it was a great day. It's not often as a wedding photographer I see things which are completely new & different to me, but yesterday, Kathleen did something I thought was very cool. She had a scavenger hunt with the table cameras, each table (& camera) had a different list of things they had to photograph, the bride's grandmother & grandfather kissing, the biggest hair, the youngest guest, the craziest dancer, the cutest couple (other than the bride & groom of course!)... what fun! I overheard the groom's mother laughing because one of the photos was supposed to be her & her husband kissing or hugging... Here's two I caught, the bride &/or groom sticking out their tongues, and someone making a face!

bad day for the turkey

take a gander at this thing of beauty... man I love my husband!

gotta go enjoy it!

HAPPY DAY!!

give thanks

Happy Thanksgiving to my friends, family, and clients... I am thankful for my beautiful daughter, my family, my loving husband, being able to have a business that allows me to share my passion with people, my friends (old & new), the LoveCats (a phenomenal group of women photographers who I am so blessed to have in my life), being able to create, rock tumblers ;-), living and working by the sea, my list could go on and on, there are so many things to be thankful for in this life... Adriana is thankful for Lucy (our black lab), me & Ray, and her American Girl Doll (she is 7!). I wish you all a happy Thanksgiving, full of love, good cheer & happiness.

a little bit about me...

I am both a proud member of, and the vice-president of Professional Photographers of Cape Cod http://www.ppocc.org/ which consists of some fabulous photographers, and some of my fabulous friends... At our meeting tonight I was "member of the month", mostly because I said yes! Here is a sampling of my questionnare answers... The most difficult part of my job is days like today when I got hailed on at my beach session (brrr)! My fave non-photographic activity is seeking stones, standing stones & stone circles in the UK (a topic for another blog I promise!), as well as just general rock-hounding. Ray & Adriana bought me a rock tumbler for my b-day, I'm in day 2 of a 30 day process, the photo is the rocks as they were when we found them on the beach, they're tumbling as we speak, my patience is being tested!!! One of the questions, was "when did you know you were a grown-up?" to which I replied "when my dad died", but I have another happier answer too, one time when I carried my sleeping daughter in from the car, she must have been 3 or 4, as I was opening the door with her on my shoulder I was amazed at a powerful feeling of protectiveness, and just be a mom-ness, and I felt sooooo grown-up! My fave food is linguini with a cherry tomato & clam sauce, my husband came up with the recipe and it is fabulous! and I am still a dead-head after all these years.... (my cell phone plays "I know you rider..." and I happily sing along every time it rings...)