day 48/365 together (self-timer + self-portrait = blurry)

day48, originally uploaded by Darolyn Hamada.

This is my first try with the self-timer on my camera. Blurry blurry blurry...when you do self-timer, do you have to do manual focus? I did and, obviously, I didn't do a good job focusing. But, you get the gist. Me and Cassidy playing "princess"...she's much better at it than I am.  Joy of Love day 17 is all about togetherness, even if it's blurry.

day 47/365 together

day 47, originally uploaded by Darolyn Hamada.

Together and kiss...covering Joy of Love days 15 and 16 in one shot (since I only had a chocolate kiss for day 15). This is my self-portrait from my iPhone. I couldn't figure out how to use the timer on my camera...I'll save that for another day.

On another note, I don't know if you can see the huge band-aid on Cassidy's chin. She fell last Friday and scraped it up and needed glue to close it. Awesome...By the way, today is picture day at school. Yeah, a school picture with a huge band-aid. Like I said...awesome.

day 46/365 my kiss

day 46, originally uploaded by Darolyn Hamada.

It's not what you think...So I had to travel today for work. I left the house at 4:45 a.m. and got home at 9:30 p.m. And when I left my love was sleeping. And when I got home, she was also sleeping.  So I couldn't get my kiss picture. I had to settle for the next best thing to a real kiss...chocolate! Joy of love, day 15, kiss...I think. I lost the prompt. It disappeared out of my email and I can't find it anywhere on my computer or my email. So, I think it was kiss.

day 45/365 bling

day45, originally uploaded by Darolyn Hamada.

Happy Valentine's Day. I hope everyone had a great day! Joy of Love, day 14, is all about jewelry, wedding bands, to be exact. But since I already blogged my wedding bands, I thought I'd dig into Cassidy's jewelry box. For her birthday, my SIL gave her pretty, sparkly jewelry with pink and white "diamonds." It is just about Cassidy's most precious possession, I think (besides her bear). She feels like a princess when she wears her jewels. And she stores it in a jewelry box with this weird looking ballerina with blotchy eyes. It's like her eyes burned out from watching over the bright jewels. Hah! Well, Happy V-day, and happy day 45 in our year-long journey.

day 44/365 routines - that's how she rolls

day44, originally uploaded by Darolyn Hamada.

It's fitting that the Joy of Love prompt for today is routines and that it falls on a Sunday. One of our Sunday routines is to do laundry and fold clothes. I H.A.T.E. folding clothes (it's just going to get unfolded, right?). Well, fortunately, Cassidy L.O.V.E.S. to fold clothes. But when she folds, she rolls so everything ends up looking like a burrito. I think it comes from her Montessori school where they're always rolling the mats and putting them away. Hey, whatever works.

day 43/365 the soul

day43, originally uploaded by Darolyn Hamada.

The eyes are the window to the soul, or so they say. Yuki's eyes are so dark against her white fur...who knows what's behind them, if anything. Sometimes I wonder.

day 42/365 dreams

My girl dreams about getting married. She talks about it all the time. She even has her groom picked out. Joy of Love day 11 is all about dreams. What does your loved one dream about doing?

day 41/365 space

Joy of Love day 10 is space - where they are comfortable. The most comfortable place that my love loves is her bed. And (having had to sleep there quite a bit more than I would have liked) I can honestly say it IS comfortable. I love that she loves her bed. And that she would rather sleep in her bed than my bed!!! Woot woot for that!

day 40/365 passions and hobbies

Today's joy of love was a tough one for me (although when all is said and done, it seems pretty obvious). I took so many different pictures today. This morning, I took some of Cassidy watching her ipod. After school, we went to the park but it was so dark, my pictures were blurry because I couldn't see what I was focusing on. Then I took some more of Cassidy watching her ipod before bed (I know...too much watching the ipod!). Then I took some of my cat. And I was happy with none of the pictures I took. They were all blurry and not very exciting. Then it dawned on me...what about MY passion and hobby? So, I took a blurry picture of me taking a picture of me. Happy day 40/365. Thanks for looking and commenting!!

day 39/365 Joy of Love day 8

day39, originally uploaded by Darolyn Hamada.

It's day 8 of Joy of Love -- GOSH, I wonder how much longer I can keep this up?-- Today's Joy is what they have said, done, promised, given. So, of course, I chose to photograph my rings. I waited until the last minute to do it, so I didn't have much light and had to use my speedlite, which was a mistake given the reflection. So, it's not the best picture. But I think it represents what the Joy of Love is about!

day 38/365 lucky girl

Day 38, originally uploaded by Darolyn Hamada.

Joy of love, day 7, is all about generations. I'm cheating a little (ok, a lot) on this post because I didn't take these pictures today. I took them on our vacation. But I thought they'd be perfect for this generations post because the pictures are Cassidy with her grandparents. I am so lucky that my parents live really close by and are so involved in Cassidy's life. She's so lucky to know them.

day 37/365 who THEY love

Day37, originally uploaded by Darolyn Hamada.

Today's post is all about bear-bear. Bear-bear is Cassidy's well-loved, most favorite friend. Cassidy LOVES LOVES LOVES her bear-bear. And even though she's 5, she has slept WITHOUT him, like twice since we got him. TWICE! The most recent time was two nights ago, our last night of vacation. Cassidy packed him up in her back pack and slept without him. She was proud to not sleep with bear-bear and talked about "putting him on the shelf" when we got home. But once night time rolled around at home, she wanted her bear-bear...her real, true love.

In other news, I finally get to process photos at home on my computer! (I've been using my iPad the last couple weeks and the results are not great, I know). Today, I used Erin Cobb's clean color processing for PSE. I've only gone about 1/2 way through the video, but so far, I think I like it.

Thanks for your comments! And for your encouragement!!! Happy day 37.

day 36/365 love to hate

Joy of Love day 5---Love to hate. So many things to chose from for today's assignment!!! I actually took a couple pictures. One was my husband sitting on the couch with a remote in hand, but my picture came out blurry. The other choice...my husband with ear phones on listening to his iPod. Why do I love to hate this? Because once the ear phones go on, and they go on often, I become a single parent. He ignores everything, and is oblivious to all of his surroundings! Yes, I hate the ear phones!

day 35/365 Joy day 4

day 35/365, originally uploaded by Darolyn Hamada.

Today is Joy of Love, day 4, what they wear. These pictures speak to what Cassidy loves to wear--my shoes (even if they are ugly Danskos--usually they involve some type of high heels, but since we're on vacation, we have my ugly, yet comfortable, shoes). She also wears dresses...and by that I mean ONLY dresses.

Joy day 4 also happens to be vacation day 6/7...ugh. Thanks for looking!!!

day 34/365 my how you've grown

Joy of love's day 3 assignment is to compare a photo from the past with one from the present and show in the present photo how the person in the past photo has grown...or something like that. I think our "then" photo was taken when Cassidy was about 1-1/2 or 2. Same profile, same bear. But oh, how you've grown!!

day 33/365 how they look

day 33/365, originally uploaded by Darolyn Hamada.

This morning, I caught Cassidy putting "diamonds" on her face...a couple on the cheeks, one on the nose, a couple on her ears for "earrings." So I snapped away...and captured her "how they look" picture for Joy of Love. Her quintessential picture--bottom right with the squished nose and tongue stuck out.

day 32/365 joy of breakfast

Like many of you, I started Joy of Love today, which is Willette's free mini class! Today's assignment, what they do. When Cassidy ate breakfast this morning, I snapped some shots of what she does...goofing off while eating breakfast! Ahhhh, the joy of love!!!