Stepping Outside My Comfort Zone.

Ok, this is going to be a lengthy post.  And opening myself up a bit here, more than I normally would.  Another step outside of my comfort zone.  

These are not photos I have taken, but ones that were taken of me for a change.  Since I am usually the one behind the camera, there are few pics of me.  And if there are any, well, candid could be a good way to put it.  Kind of like the photo of me in this post from my Running With Scissors Blog.  

When my friend Sandra Enns, who owns and operates Blessed Memories Photography, announced she was including women's portraiture under the name of Fleuri Modern Women's Portraiture and she had some dates available at a special introductory price, I took a really really really deep breath, and sent Sandra an email to count in me.  And afterwards I thought to myself, "What the hell am I thinking, I am not a model.  When I try sexy, I end up with comedy"    

I don't like having my picture taken, usually because I don't like what I see looking back at me.  And talking to more and more women I see that I am not alone.  Motherhood is an amazing experience, but the body is left with what we see as less than desirable attributes.  And day to day life can leave a woman feeling less and less feminine. Seeing the magazine covers while in line up at the grocery store with those gorgeous models, can sometimes get the most confident woman to doubt her appearance.  And at times it feels like that around every corner we are made to feel less than worthy because we don't live up to society's "ideal" of how a woman should look, dress, and be.  How many times have you seen that gorgeous outfit in a shop window, and said to yourself "Love it, but I don't do or go anywhere to wear that outfit"   How many times have you looked in the mirror and thought "My face is too fat, my thighs are too fat.  If I could just lose the weight." etc.  Or asked yourself "Why is it that every other single wife/mother/woman out there has it more together than I do?"  I don't know any woman who hasn't.  

After some soul work via some online course from Brave Girls Club (If you are looking for some Soul Restoration, I highly recommend taking their online courses. Worth every single penny and more.)  I have decided to stop living my life in fear of my own power.  That we all have this glorious inner light, and I am going to let mine shine.  After 30 years (yes, that is my age (cough cough)) of negative self talk,  These portraits are a big big step on my journey, of loving who I am right here, right now in this life of mine.  This life that is what I make it, and I am going to make it amazing.  You cannot put a price tag on this experience  It is a truly amazing experience.  Worth every single dollar we spent on this.  

The photo shoot is at a secret location, couple of outfits from casual, to formal to even lingerie (I wasn't that brave..........yet) from your wardrobe that you love, or use this experience as a means to justify some shopping.  At the location you are the Queen for the day.  The amazing and stunning Gigi, our local aesthetician, did my make up, while I sipped champagne and nibbled on chocolate covered strawberries.  Champagne helps with the butterflies, and I had about a million of them fluttering in my tummy.   And the gorgeous and phenomenal Sandra and her equally gorgeous and phenomenal assistant (thank you Barb) get your outfits ready and the magic begins.  

The nerves disappeared and I ended up having so much fun, we laughed, we giggled, we weren't quiet!!   I left feeling re-energized and thinking that I DID IT!!!  I really DID IT!!!!  And it wasn't so bad.

And then to see the proofs.  Oh my!!!  I couldn't believe that was me, seriously, that was me.  Sandra helped me to lose 20 lbs instantly!!!  What a miracle worker!!!  LOL

Below are some of the pics that amazing day.  You can see my before and after shots on Sandra's blog here .  If you want to feel like a Queen for a day, or just need a boost in how you feel about yourself, I highly recommend a session with Sandra.  

March Madness

Hello!!  Lots going on here.  Spring has arrived early here in Southern Ontario, we really never had a winter to begin with, which I was not impressed with.  I like real winters with snow, lots of snow, better than dull, grey, boring, dead looking when there is no snow.  

Last week, I saw my first robin in our backyard, now our yard is full of robins, finches, nuthatches, starlings, etc.  

Dalwhinnie's Kong, she got all the peanut butter and treats out.  Waiting for the next round.

I have also been busy with some crafting projects.  Here is a sweet 3 x3 card holder I made while at my Stampin' Up! team meeting a couple of weeks ago.

A layout I made, picture is from our trip to Quebec City while on summer vacation last year.

You find out more about this layout and the cardholder project at my Stampin' U!p Blog, Running with Scissors 

Looking out my front window at the new houses going up.  I miss the views of the countryside we use to have.

The weather here has been phenomnal for March Break.  Sunday we reached temperatures of 15 C.  Goodbye winter coats, hello light jackets.  We went for a walk Sunday at a trail nearby.  And Daniel had to find a spot in the sun out in a field during our hike.  Don't blame him one bit, after months of little to no sunlight, we all need these kind of days.

An old farmer's fence on the trail.

This particular trail you can feed the chickadees who will eat right out of your hands.  We didn't bring any bird food with us since we had Dalwhinnie with us.  But that didn't stop some of the birds from hanging around us.   This little fellow had quite the conversation with me.  I just need to figure out the cloning tool on photo shop and get rid of that little twig hanging in his face.

With the warmer weather nature starts to wake up from its winter slumber.  This colourful moth was in the middle of trail soaking up the sun's warmth and spreading his wings.  

Laura found what appeared to be a few trees whose trunks grew together in a braid.  So cool.

Yesterday the kids and I went for a hike on yet another trail.  This time, we took off our jackets and sweaters, so beautiful and so warm.  On this particular trail we kept coming across numerous garter snakes who were emerging from their nests after winter's hibernation.  Some of them seemed quite curious about us and I managed to get some good shots of these little guys. 

This one was part of the first batch we came across. He just kept staring at me, not at all afraid even when I moved.

Some green starting show along creek and river banks.

 Crossing a board walk to get over a swampy area.  Lots of these around this particular area.  Playing around with some of the effects on my photo editing software as well.

This particular trail and board walk was closed for obvious reasons.

Found this little guy sunbathing on a rock.

March break is coming to end, it is now Thursday, and the kids and I don't want it to end, the weather has been so beautiful. And it is too continue for the next week as well.  I hope to get in my garden in the few days and see what plants are awakening after their winter's sleep.  Love it!!

Feb. 27

Playing with white balance and saturation levels on a picture  of some bling on a scrapbook layout going into my Bermuda album.  

Feb 25 and Feb 26

Hope everybody has had a great weekend.  Tonight is Oscar night, and right now Dave and I are watching them.  Commercial break and I am posting this real quick.  

Good weekend so far, went out for dinner last night with Dave.  Today was a day home, to regroup and get some laundry and cleaning done.  And some time in my craft room.  

This is a picture I took of a page in my art journal, watching paint dry.  So exciting. LOL

The challenge on the Picablog this week is exposure, playing around with ISO, shutter speed and aperture.  While watching the Oscar`s red carpet program I decided to play around and get some shots of the projector screen.  I love this one of the crowd walking the red carpet.  

I am back!!!

Whoops, I fell off the project 365 wagon, but I am climbing back on.  Life and such got in the way, working on starting up my Stampin' Up!! business, making changes to my other blog, including address which is now riaisrunningwithscissors.blogspot.com .  

But as with everything in life, when you let the ball drop or stumble on a goal, you get back up and keep going.  

Here are a few updates going in my life.

Dave and I went to the Rotary Club of Cambridge Sunrise annual Valentine's ball in Cambridge.  Dave was the emcee, and is incoming President of the club.  It was a fabulous night, I got to wear a new dress and new shoes.  And best of all Dave won a pair of diamond earrings in his champagne glass.  It is part of their fundraising efforts for the evening, for $20 you can buy a glass of champagne, in the bottom of the glass is a pair of earrings.  But only one glass has a pair of actual diamonds, the rest are cubic zirconia.  And Dave won!!!  And since he doesn't have his ears pierced and has no desire to do so, I was the supportive wife and took them off his hands for him. :)  

This picture Amanda took of Dave and I on our way out the door for the evening.

Also going in our life, is purging purging and purging of clutter and more clutter that has accumulated over our 20 odd years together.  We are currently purging the furnace room which is a bit of a mess from water damage repair from a leaky Kitchen sink drain, and getting ready for renovations as we will be moving our laundry room to this area.  I found our box of honeymoon and wedding memorabilia and found this letter which is a piece of history.  For our honeymoon in 1992 we did a Baltic Sea cruise with Royal Caribbean, and one of our ports was St. Petersburg, Russia for two days.  AMAZING!!  Russia was still part of the U.S.S.R at the time (hadn't dissolved yet) and we had to get Visas in order to visit Russia (this was the only port where we had to have extra documentation besides our passports to visit).  I found a package of letters from Soviet Union consulate outlining our application process, and what we had to be aware of (lots of rules).  Unfortunately we had to turn in our visas as we boarded our ship on the last day of our visit, but we kept everything else.  And this is not something I am planning to get rid of.

Monday was Family Day here and a day off from school and work.  The weather was absolutely gorgeous, and we decided to load up kids and dog for a hike over at Dryden Tract.  We had so much fun and for me being the earthy girl that I am, it really helped to clear the cobwebs from my head and ground me for another week ahead.  And of course, as you can tell by the picture, Dalwhinnie thought it was a pretty awesome excursion as well.  LOL

As I mentioned earlier, I am starting up my Stampin Up!! business, and last night was a shoe box swap at Denise's (my team leader).  This is the card I designed and made for the swap.  You can read about it on my Running with Scissors blog and Denise's blog as well. 

And final picture is of the roses Dave gave me for Valentine's day.  Aren't they gorgeous!!!  I am spoiled by my husband.

Day 33, 34, 35, 36

I'm baaack.  LOL  It has been a busy but good weekend.  These next four pics I would like to call Happines is:

Day 33:  Happiness is crafting at Denise's team meetings,

Day 34: Taken with my iphone.  Happiness is hot chocolate at Starbucks

Day 35:  Happiness is a new pair of shoes.

Day 36:  Happiness is a moonlit night.  Almost a full moon too!!!

Day 32

Day 32 - Daniel showing the Science fair judges his Eddy Current experiment.