Photo Contest over at Pixel Perfect

Hey y'all....(guess I'm feeling country today).

Guess what I just did?

I entered a photo contest over at Pixel Perfect!

Clicking on the button above will take you to her blog post about the contest.

Go have a look!

Missing: a true fall scene

Growing up, I lived in several small towns in southern Indiana. Where there are four distinct seasons. Summer, fall, winter, and spring. Some seasons I liked more than others. But looking back, I took them for granted. Isn't that usually how it is when you have something around year after year, without fail?

After meeting my husband, and getting to move around several times in the last 7+ years, I look back and miss the days of driving through the Indiana countryside in awe of all the beautiful fall colors. Each season has it's own splendor, but the turning of leaves that comes in autumn has been missing from my life for quite some time now. And it didn't really bother me much until recently.

You see, we first moved to Washington state. In the area we lived, we did have the four seasons. It's just that when fall came around we only got a little bit of color. But if you've never been there, there are a TON of evergreen trees. Shoot, that's the state motto, The Evergreen State. So with all those around, there wasn't a lot of room for fall colors.

Next we were off to Connecticut. And I've heard many stories of New England fall colors. That none could compare. We lived there for a long short 6 months....mostly all in the deep of winter!! From early December to May. So no such luck there!

North Carolina was next. Everything there pretty much just died and whithered away. Or so it seemed. We had a very small window of maybe a week that we could see SOME trees changing. But again, as with WA state, there were a lot of pine and evergreen trees around. Can you see a pattern here?

Now that we are in central Texas, I'm becoming homesick for a REAL autumn season. So these will just have to do for the time being.




Image source

 

image source

image source

Who could resist such beauty??

And lastly, a scene that reminds me of something I was very likely to see. More than not, my dad would be out in his little fishing boat on the lake, chasing "the one that got away". Oh the stories he could tell.

image source

Some day I will make it back for the heart of the autumn splendor. I just hope it's not too far off.

Designer Challenge Finalist: Over at Maddycakes Muse

Hi friends! I'm so excited. I entered a contest over at Maddycakes Muse and she selected my design to be one of the 3 finalists. Yay!!

If you can't tell, I added googly eyes to the cupcake topper. I like the idea of printing them without eyes, and adding simple google eyes onto them. What kid wouldn't love that???

So there were 59 entries, and I got picked for the top 3!! I am so over the moon right now.

Now for the begging...please go vote for me! It would make it ever more awesome to win. Michelle will use the winning design at her daughter's Happy Owl-oween party, send the creator professional pics of their design at the party, and a lucky follower could win a set too!!

So head on over and vote, vote, vote! I'll be your friend forever... :)

(if you don't have an account set up to log in to, you can e-mail her your vote as well.)