Giveaway Winners

I suppose I was a little too ambitious with the giveaway... ah well. Less entrants mean a greater chance of winning for those who did enter! The winners of the giveaway are...

RJ and Shilohmae!

Congrats, ladies! Please email me to claim your prize!

Thanks to everyone for entering!

I Heart Faces - Best Face Photo of January

i heart faces seems to be liking these "Best Face Photo of..." themes. :-) It's another week off of the regular judging and so there will be voting (please vote for #76 here! :-).
As I'm sure you know if you've read my blog before, this is my sister... my wonderful, accommodating model. She's so nice to always be willing to pose for me. This photo was fun because I got to try out a new editing skill... the bokeh originally didn't cover the whole background, but it looked funny the way it was, so I figured out how to spread it. I try not to doctor up my photos too much as a general rule, but once in a while I will really change something. Besides... it's nice to know how to fix a photo if it doesn't quite come out how you wanted.

Another Chance to Win

***EDIT: This giveaway is now closed.***

I was thinking about the giveaway I had, and how I had done all that work making those computer desktop calendars, and only one person got them. :-) So, before January 2011 is officially gone forever, I'd like to offer a second chance to win the calendars. This time I will pick TWO winners, and if I get a large number of entries (let's be ambitious and say... around 30), I may give away three, so tell everyone you know. :-)

Rules are the same as last time...

Mandatory first entry:
• Leave a comment on this post saying which photo in the set is your favorite.

For extra entries:
• Follow my blog (click the "Follow" button in the sidebar) or subscribe to my RSS feed. Leave a separate comment saying you did so (only one comment, even if you both follow and subscribe). Those who already follow/subscribe may just comment saying they already do so!
• Blog, tweet or post on Facebook about the giveaway with a link back to this post. Leave another separate comment with the link to your post. Only one comment, even if you do all three.

Maximum 3 entries per person. Giveaway will close January 31, 2011 at approximately noon (central time). Winner will be drawn at random and announced in the afternoon of January 31, 2011.

Wishing for Spring...

It's cold and wet and snowy here... kind of that drab snow, not even bright, happy snow. I'm looking forward to when I will go out in my backyard and see lilacs! It will be months from now, but it will be here before we know it.
I played around with CoffeeShop's Vintage Blush action on this photo... I really liked the soft, creamy tint it gave it.

Savory Salmon Dill Cheesecake

While visiting some dear friends a couple of weeks ago, we were treated to a number of very delectable dishes. And the light in their dining room was amazing! I'm saving photos of our breakfast scones and the lovely afternoon tea we had for another post. But this was our lunch one day... a delicious savory cheesecake.

I had never tasted a savory cheesecake before... usually I think sweet when I think of cheesecake. But this was... well, out of this world. It really was that good. Of course, it may not be to your taste if you don't like salmon or dill, but since I happen to like both, it was simply de-lish.

Ok... want the recipe??? I think this would be a lovely tea party food...

Savory Salmon Dill Cheesecake
¼ cup plain dry breadcrumbs
3 (8 oz. each) packages cream cheese, softened
3 large eggs
½ cup sour cream
2 Tbsp. flour
1½ tsp. grated lemon zest (optional)
¼ tsp. each salt and pepper
4 oz. sliced smoked salmon, coarsely chopped
6 green onions, thinly sliced
2 Tbsp. chopped fresh dill

Heat the oven to 325ºF. Coat the bottom and sides of an 8-inch springform pan with nonstick spray. Add breadcrumbs and tilt to cover bottom and sides of pan.
Beat cream cheese with mixer on medium for 1 minute or until smooth. Beat in eggs, one at a time, until blended. Beat in sour cream, flour, zest, salt and pepper until combined. Stir in salmon, green onions and dill. Pour into prepared pan and smooth top.
Bake 40 minutes or until center is just set. Remove pan to a wire rack to cool completely. Refrigerate covered.
Shortly before serving, remove sides of pan. Place cheesecake on serving plate. Garnish as desired, and serve!

Love

I'm entering this photo over at Beside Quiet Waters. The theme of the contest is "Love." I had a few shots I wanted to enter but they needed some fixing up, and one of the rules is your photo must be SOOC (straight out of camera - no editing).
This isn't a terribly creative idea by any means... I mean, everyone thinks of hearts when they hear the word "love"! Ah well... at least it's something. :-)
The contest ends today, so there's still time to enter if you want to!
*Edit: Guess what... I won! Thanks, Lauren Anne!

The Winner!

The randomly drawn winner of the desktop calendar giveaway is... (scroll down!)

Kristin!

Congrats, Kristin! Please email me to claim your prize!

Thanks to everyone for entering!

Wordless Wednesday - Cuteness!

I Heart Faces - Winter Wonderland

I've posted this photo before, but I like it so I'm using it again for i heart faces this week. The funny thing about this photo is that I was telling my sister how I wanted her to pose, and she was doing this awful fake smile while looking up. So I started mimicking her and that made her really laugh so I could get the photo I wanted. :-)

I Heart Faces - Smiles

Low light and cities... two things I really don't like and two things that, incidentally, appear in this photo. :-) This is one of the most delightful young women I know. She has such enthusiasm and an infectious smile. This photo is from when we were walking back to the train station in the city at night after a glorious evening of singing Handel's Messiah. It was a totally candid shot - she just turned around and smiled at me and I took her picture. Even though it is low light, I love it... it really captures her sweet personality. Not to mention I like the bokeh... :-)

A Giveaway!

***The giveaway is now closed to entries.***

We all love free stuff, don't we? Well in honor of the new year I'm giving away a free set of calendars for your computer desktop! Each month features one of my floral photographs, with a handy calendar in the corner. Here's what you get (in month order, from left to right, top to bottom):

Want to win it? Here's how:

Mandatory first entry:
• Leave a comment on this post saying which photo in the set is your favorite.

For extra entries:
• Follow my blog (click the "Follow" button in the sidebar) or subscribe to my RSS feed. Leave a comment saying you did so (only one comment, even if you both follow and subscribe). Those who already follow/subscribe may just comment saying they already do so!
• Blog, tweet or post on Facebook about the giveaway with a link back to this post. Leave a comment with the link to your post. Only one comment, even if you do all three.

Maximum 3 entries per person. Giveaway will close January 20, 2011. Winner will be drawn at random and announced on January 21, 2011.

I Heart Faces - Best Face Photo of 2010

I am so excited that i heart faces is starting up again! What a tough choice, to pick a VERY favorite face photo from the whole year! I was debating between two, but this one won. I just love this little guy's expression, with that raised eyebrow. :-)
EDIT: Thanks to everyone that voted for me! I ended up 81 out of 839 photos... not bad. :-)

Hello, 2011!

I was originally going to post these photos on New Year's Eve as we were getting ready for our party, but then the guests showed up. :-) So you're getting them after the fact!
I'm a natural light lover, but you can't always shoot in natural light... so you make the best of it. :-)

I decided to play with bokeh on this one... all those shiny, sparkly party hats come in handy!

You can't have a party without sparkling grape juice!

This is our traditional New Year's Eve game. Sjoelen! It's a Dutch shuffleboard game (my mom's family is Dutch).

I hope you all had a wonderful New Year! It's crazy to think that 2010 is gone already... but I'm looking forward to what God will do in 2011!