If you give your children a boxed cake mix....

We have had our fair share of rainy days as of late. I mean really big storms. The kind with powerful wind and serious rainfall. We lost our power on Saturday night which meant a fun spooky evening with our candles and flashlights. But we are really outdoor creatures by nature and my littles seriously need to be outside.

So our house has been a little like "The Cat and the Hat" with thing 1 and thing 2 going completely nutty. I needed to give my thing 1 and thing 2 a little direction so we decided to make a cake. Not just an ordinary cake-- a large cupcake. It clearly didn't turn out and it was then voted by the littles the ugliest cake in the world. But it was seriously hilarious.. give your children a cake and you can kill 4 hours in a blink of an eye. Sometimes that is a bad thing but in this case that was a great thing. So I sat back and watched them in wonder, smiling as they made an exciting day out of a boxed cake mix and some colored sprinkles.

I am grateful for my littles.....they make me smile.

Simplicity

When I headed over to Becky's blog today for our next challenge in the thrive project it was simplicity. How fitting for so many reasons. What a wonderful word....simplicity. I love the way it sounds and what it means. Life is seriously nutty. But if I consistently remind myself to simplify, I find myself enjoying the small moments. The quiet moments that would have got lost in the shuffle. Maybe it is something as fleeting as my child's smile or laughing at their silly joke. I don't want to miss these things but unless I remember to simplify chaos will reign and before I know it another day is done.

Well now I know the same thing applies in photography. Don't clutter your backgrounds, pay attention to your subject, and tell a story with your photo. I used to only take pictures of people. As I have tried to branch out and look at things in a different way, it has lead me to take pictures of anything and everything.

A few years back I found this beautiful little nest in my topiary. I loved the little birds handiwork. What a beautiful, delicate nest this mama carefully made for her babies. It reminded me that as mothers we all have built a little nest for our babies. Some day they too will fly away. Love the moment...simplify. After the nest was abandoned I gingerly brought it inside as a reminder that today I still have my children under my wings. It will not last forever. Cherish them and simplify. So today it was fitting that as I walked around the house looking for something that meant simplicity this is what I settled on. So here is my picture for the week. Thank you again Becky for your explanations and for your project. I have loved to see what the challenges mean to everyone. It has been such fun!

Now for some technical stuff. Please help. I shot these using lots of different white balance settings. What white balance do you generally use? The auto setting or one of the others? On another technical note my aperture was wide open for these but how do people keep track of their shutter speed. I was on my canon's manual setting but I have no idea what shutter speed I was on. I just looked at my meter to make sure I wasn't over/under exposed. If you happen to stumble on my blog please leave a comment and let me know. Thanks so much!!

(Just as a side note I bought the eggs to put in my nest in a darling boutique in San Francisco. I had three but alas I found it smashed in a thousand pieces in my living room. )

After I took my picture of my nest I headed to Costco for my ridiculously long list. It was not long before these darlings caught my eye and I placed them in my basket. I just couldn't help myself. When I got home and put those perfect colors in my white kitchen, I just sat there staring at them... simplicity. So I added this picture too. :)

I am grateful for small reminders that consistently remind us to simplify so that we can cherish what is most important.