Paper Mama Photo Challenge: Favorite from September

Nothing is more peaceful than a sleeping baby :)

Poor Man's Macro Photo Challenge

Oh I love Photography...Not as much as you, you see. But I still love photography. Always and forever. 

I like takin' pik-chaaas. Maybe because I have a horrible memory and photos help to jog it. I was on the yearbook staff my junior year of high school then senior year I was Photography editor (which is really just a fancy name for picture girl).  I stopped in college--nursing school left no time for extra-curriculars. My grandmother bought me a Nikon D40 for Christmas one year. With Living in Hawaii and having a baby, my interests in photography have slowly increased. I now have a Canon Rebel T1i with the kit lens and a 50mm f/1.8 lens. I wanted to try and find fun photo challenges to...well, challenge me. 

I found this neat tutorial and thought I would give it a go. 

Supplies you will need:

•SLR camera

•2 Lenses (doesn't really matter what kind)

•Lots of Light. Sunlight, External flash, whatever you've got... I was next to a window and used my speedlight flash. 

Thats it! I guess that's why they call it the poor man's macro :) 

This is what you need to do:

1. Switch both lenses to manual focus. 

2. Place one of the lenses on the SLR (I used the Kit lens)

3. Make sure both lenses are zoomed all the way out 

4. Turn the other one backwards and hold it to the the front of the lens on the camera. So you want both lenses to be facing each other. 

5. Hold them where they are completely touching or really close. 

6. Get close to whatever you are taking a picture of. Really close. Like pretty much touching it. If its blurry still, get even closer. 

7. Its a little tricky but fiddle with the focus till the image is clear. 

8. Once I could see the image clearly, I just moved slightly forward and backward to get the whatever object in focus. 

9. Take a TON of shots. Its hard to tell exactly how the image will turn out. 

This is the quick and dirty way to do it. To make things easier you could use a tripod and/or a macro coupling ring like this to hold the lenses together. On to the shots.... (click to enlarge)

This is the flower shot with my 50mm lens

Here are the Macro Ones. 

 The black ring around was made by me holding the lenses slightly apart. 

The color on these is crazy with the sunlight

 Here is the coin shot with my kit lens

 The flash was reflecting in a really cool way during these photos. 

So, try it out this weekend. Send your Photos to < Heather @ ayoungwifestale . com > and I will post them up here. Happy Clicking :) 

Elizabeth Hurley: Breast Cancer Awareness

Being a mom is hard work.  I think it's hard to understand if you don't have kids. I LOVE being a mom more than I ever could have imagined, but it's also the hardest thing I've ever done. You are needed 100% of the time (especially since I am breastfeeding). I can't just say--"oh, i'm tired. I think I'll take a nap." JR does let me take naps occasionally when I give him the puppy dog eyes and bat my lashes. 

It always cracks me up when we have had a long day out and JR says "I'm gonna take a nap when I get home." Excuse me, but unless Milo naps--nobody naps :)   The past 3-4 days have been particularly hard because Milo has been waking up every 1.5 hours at night. She wakes up hungry, eats, and goes right back to sleep. I have been super worn down. I'm going to blame it on a growth spurt. Thats what I blame everything on. It makes me feel better to have a reason. 

Any time I am really drained from Milo, a sure fire way to make me feel better is for us both to climb in bed and play. Milo laughs, giggles, smiles, gives me kisses, blows raspberries on me. It totally makes everything better. What do you do to rejuvenate after a long day with the wee ones?

So... on to more exciting news. Yesterday JR informed me that Elizabeth Hurley would be at Estee Lauder in Selfridges for their breast cancer awareness kick-off. If you buy any of their pink ribbon make-up products a substantial portion goes to breast cancer research. Considering my past few days with milo, I figured retail therapy would do us both some good. We dressed in PINK of course. With both of us wearing pink and my hot pink MacLaren Pushchair (gotta use the UK lingo now:) I looked like I was in some sort of cult.... a happy, girly cult.  

We got there and I purchased the Lavish Pink Lipstick which was part of their Pink Ribbon Collection. JR has already commented on how pretty my lips look and he didn't even know I had it on. I'm not a big lipstick person, but its kinda sheer like lip gloss. 

We were the first in the line to get her autograph.  All of her entourage were just fawning over Milo. Here are some pictures below from the event. 

Before the crowd got there

 After the crowd got there. Check out the video guy posing :)

Milo was tired of waiting in the line, but loved looking in the Lit make-up mirrors. 

There's no denying. The woman is GORGEOUS!

She was so smizing

The photographers and their high tech gear. 

A gentleman volunteered to take a picture for us. Wish you could actually see our faces. Now I have no proof... "I did see Elizabeth Hurley, I really did. Its me, I swear!"

After all the fun, I walked around and checked out the rest of Selfridges. 

 Checked out some of the baby clothes... I so would have bought this adorable Burberry Coat for Milo. Except it was like $300 and I'm not crazy... well, I'm not that crazy. 

A few of the stations on our way home: 

Milo loves the camera....and the camera loves her. 

and....One for the road. 

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. I don't know why its called awareness month. I mean, we all know. I know there are a ton of great events out there. I'm going to be looking up to see if there is anything else going on around here. What are you going to do?

You can see Me and Milo in a video here. Its just a flash of us, but we are there! My videographer, JR, had to work at his other job today :)

Turn and face the strange Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes

Hey everybody out there! As you might have noticed, the blog has gone through some changes in the past week. I am trying to make our blog nicer for all our wonderful readers. I love you all. Thanks for reading!   I hope that you like the changes I have made. The most obvious change is the blog name. If you know me, you know I am extremely indecisive. I couldn't make a decision so I temporarily selected "Our life in words" because it couldn't very well stay as "Bookers in Hawaii" since we no longer live in hawaii. I have been racking my brain for a couple of weeks now. It seemed like everything I thought of was taken.... even Baby anaconda. Its this hug JR gives me and Milo. I was flabbergasted. 

Well, it hit me today when I was reading my friend's blog, A Merry Life.   A Young Wife's Tale!!!! I know, it's perfect right? If you don't think so, don't burst my bubble....and its kinda to late because I got my own domain! I thought it would be easier for you all to remember. So, for those of you that have our blog bookmarked, you can switch it over to ayoungwifestale.com 

Well since you have sat through my long ramblings today, you shall be rewarded......right after this back story :)  Well, my husband is extremely musical. He plays the guitar, ukulele, saxophone, piano, drums, and pretty much any other surface he can tap or beat on. There is a music shop near our apartment and they have kids instruments in the window. I knew it would only be a matter of time before he decided Milo "needed" an instrument. Well, today that time came. We went to the shop and found this xylophone thing that is made up of large plastic colorful tubes. You can use them in the case or take them out and beat them on things. Well that sounds just perfect for Milo who loves to beat on things. SOLD.  So we brought them home....and this is what we did for like an hour. 

Note that we are reading music from a paper by the camera....and the rude call at the end of a video was a telemarketer... We dont even live here permanently and still get at least 3 calls a day. Ughhh... 

Yes we are such dorks.... but we have fun! 

Thanks again for reading guys and gals! Our numbers just keep increasing--slowly, but surely. Let me know your thoughts (in the comments section) about the new name and other changes. Or I would love to hear if you have any ideas.  For you lovely bloggers out there, I also added a button. I was so proud of myself for figuring out how to do that. Honestly, I couldn't have done it without this tutorial :) 

Let's recycle a Bunny!

Happy Monday! Hope everyone had a great weekend. I know ours was chocked full of stuff. Before i get into our weekend, I have a few pictures from last week's Baby led weaning escapades. 

 This one isn't baby led weaning. Its just cute. 

 Watermelon

 and Watermelon again.... Believe me. I now have seen the Watermelon Crawl and the song doesn't mention that it's no fun to clean up. 

 My nappy headed darling eating sweet potato. 

 Who like's sweet potato????  I DO!!!!

 Watching TV... I know, Im a bad mom. Blah blah blah. 

 Brocolli again!

 Inspecting her food

 This is her new hello kitty cup. It has a pop top that she loves to drink out of. She is a hawaii girl after all--hello kitty is in her blood. 

On to our weekend.... Friday, JR gave me a little "me" time. I went to get a haircut and had the best scalp massage and shampoo I think I have ever had. I wanted to give the guy a hug after he finished, but I thought I might look like a weirdo. You know, some people are huggers. They hug random strangers. I am not one of those people. But that massage was so good, I almost broke code. After my hour or so of "me" time, I felt like a new woman. (I still feel weird calling myself a woman. Like its too grown up. But I don't think you get much more womanly than having a kid--so I guess I hit womanhood). 

Then we went to dinner at the Botanist. They had a great little lounge area for us to have dinner. Eating out with a small baby is so much easier when they have room to move around.

A lounge is best, but a booth will work. A table and Chairs is probably the least baby conducive scenario. So anytime we find a restaurant with a lounge area or booths, we make a mental note to revisit.  

Snuggles with Daddy

The waitress was smitten with Milo and brought her a flower. (because babies love to eat flowers and rip them apart :).

 "Oooh Pretty" I'm quite expressive...lol

Yes, we are color coordinated. Yes, I plan it. No, I'm not ashamed. 

 Milo has also started to eat some of our food. Nothing too crazy--just bread and sometimes veggies. This makes our eating out experience a little easier too. It keeps her occupied. 

 taking some of daddy's bread. 

 Saturday we went to the Natural History Museum. Its free, which is really nice, but means that it was super packed.

 It was surprisingly similar to the Museum of Natural History that we visited in DC. I don't know why I expected the history of nature to change from country to country :) 

 Don't let this empty area fool you. It really was packed. This is just the boring area of the museum.... it was filled with things like this. 

 This is the decomposition of a bunny rabbit. I kid you not. The audio playing was saying "Let's recycle a bunny!!!" It was disturbing. The parents didn't want their kids to have nightmares. 

 Ooooh....Aaaah

 Life size whale. Can you imagine swimming in the ocean and seeing this below you. 

This is the outside of the museum.  

 My Studly Hubby. 

 Milo wanted her picture taken. She kept pulling at the camera. 

After that, we had lunch and walked down to Harrods. I have been really wanting to go. But after battling the crowds, we walked in and JR immediately asked to go home. Normally, I might pout till he agrees to stay, but I didnt. That should be a testament to just how tired we were. We are going to go back another time. So we came home and chilled out the rest of the day. Sunday we were bad and didn't go to church. JR got up with Milo and let me sleep an extra hour, bless his heart. Then I got up and he slept an hour. Then Milo decided she needed a 2 hour nap.... Then we moseyed on down to the cafe in the square for lunch.... and some sweets. 

 Be jealous. These were delicious. 

 Drool. 

 Milo and JR. Its scary sometimes how alike they are. 

 Yeah, we're awesome. 

Mommy and Me!

Well ladies and Gents, thats all for now. I hope you have a wonderful monday! Keep an eye out this week. I have more posts planned as the week goes on. Peace out!