Labor Day - Arches National Park

On Labor Day I went to Arches National Park with Mom, Dad, and our new friend Alexandra (who is visiting from Germany for some job training).

It was a good time, even if trying to take a picture of Delicate Arch without someone doing every imaginable GQ pose all over it is like asking for a Christmas Miracle...

All in all, it was a fun --and exhausting-- day in one of my favorite places on Earth.

Testing...

So, no one has ever been able to receive automatic updates from my blog, and today it just bugged me enough that I tried to do something about it.
Here's hoping.
If you ended up here because you got a notification that I updated my blog, please let me know in the comments -- and if you ended up here without a notification, bless you... and please leave a note in the comments anyway just to let me know if it is/isn't working.
Gracias.

Knight Family Golfing, Take Three

Every year as a part of its summer party festivities, TNI hosts a golf tournament at a local golf course. For the past three years, Dad, Jeff, Amy and I have participated.


It's always a good time, just to be out soaking up the sun, pretending I can golf... but each year we are steadily improving (first year=18 over par, last year=8 or 9 over, this year=2 or 3 over). We're no serious golfers (for three of us, it's the only time we golf all year), but it's really fun to get the occasional* brilliant shot in there.**

So here are some pictures... from Talon's Cove Golf Course in Saratoga Springs.

At the driving range.

Jeff is by far the best golfer among us.

Isn't Amy just beautiful?

Okay, you can't really see her face in this shot, but I still think she is gorgeous.

Either watching a great drive, or looking in the weeds to see if they can tell where the ball went.

*Occasional being the operative word... a rare great shot in the midst of dozens of divets, even more misses, and general ineptness on my part. :)
**I still don't see how people find golf relaxing.

Take Out Photo August Monthly Special - Photo Within a Photo

Marc Olivier of Olivier Photography has started a really fun blog called Take Out Photo. He centers his posts around a monthly theme, and gives a photography "assignment" based on that theme. Participants can then post their assignments on their own blogs or Flickr accounts, and link back to his post via a special setup on the comments page.

I thought with so many photographers in the family this might interest some of you... I gave this month's theme (Photo Within a Photo) a couple of tries...


Attempt 1
I walked in to my parents' kitchen yesterday to find dozens of old glass slides and a light box on the counter, as well as a handheld slide viewer on the kitchen table. Dad is doing a big project trying to scan his own paper-mounted slides, and he's trying to capture grandpa's slides without the benefit of a machine for viewing glass slides (they are much thicker and don't scan properly). Right now it's a matter of putting the glass slides on the lightbox and taking a picture of them in macro mode. Not ideal, but if it's the only way to get grandpa's pictures, then it's worth doing, right?
Does anyone know of a better solution for doing this?



Attempt 2
This consists of me bragging about Heather. Hello, Creativity personified. These items were all made by Heather and I think they are great examples of how she uses pictures of her family.

The vinyl tabletop on the boys' little lunch table had ripped, so heather took the table apart, Mod Podged pictures onto the top of the table, and covered the whole thing with a heavy duty plastic(?) before reattaching it to the table base. Darling.

This is a project I've been wanting to do for a while. Maybe Heather can blog about how to make these (or, since she has a newborn baby, maybe I'll just try and let you know the results). They are old board books that are sanded down to remove the glossy finish, and then covered in cardstock/scrapbook paper (using Mod Podge) and turned into custom-made story books. Here is Taylor reading one about going to the Dinosaur Museum at Thanksgiving Point.

This third project a darling way to display photos of your children and the art they make. This would also be really easy to turn into a mini magnet/cork board, a key holder, or a way to display souvenirs and pictures from a special trip, favorite year of high school/college, etc. There are a dozen variations I can think of for this particular project.

The magic ingredients?? Mod Podge, a plank of wood cut to the desired size, pictures, ribbon, a staple gun (or glue to attach the ribbon to the back) craft paint, clips to hold the art (hooks for keys, a strip of cork or metal, etc.), and a way to hang the finished product on the wall.

I hope this has inspired you in some way--I am definitely feeling the need to go find some cheap board books...

And don't forget to jump over to Take Out Photo and look around. Marc's posts are always interesting, his photography is great, and he has just started a series of posts demonstrating how to do helpful things with Photoshop and Photoshop Elements.

Fun with Words

While blog surfing this week, I discovered THE coolest website (thanks to her). It's a website that makes a word cloud (or Wordle) out of any text you paste into the site.

This is the Wordle I made by copying all of the text on the main page of my blog. Fun, huh? There are all sorts of combinations you can come up with.

This one is "Love Me Tender" by Elvis Presley.

I'm getting all sorts of ideas for having things printed on t-shirts, putting them in clean black frames with white mats, or making someone with a vinyl cutter make one for me so I can rub it on a wall or a board... like this one (which is a combination of "Sleep, Baby, Sleep," "Brahm's Lullaby," and "Goodnight, Sweetheart").

So fun!!

Go check it out @ http://www.wordle.net/

(Disclaimer: If you become a Wordle addict and waste hours doing this, I cannot be held responsible).

Enjoy!

Tété :: "A La Faveur de L'automne"

A post on another blog this week reminded me how much I enjoy French music.

I absolutely LOVE this song. Yes, it's in French. But even if you don't know the language, you may be able to appreciate the unique sound of his voice and the great tune.

Click on the link below to lisen to the song via YouTube.
A la Faveur de l'Automne

Now I'm thinking of all kinds of other songs to share with you...

The Best Day of Your Life...

...is the one on which you decide your life is your own. No apologies or excuses. No one to lean on, rely on, or blame. The gift of life is yours; it is an amazing journey; and you alone are responsible for the quallity of it.
- Dan Zadra

Thank Heaven...

...for little girls!!

Not the best pictures in the world, but here's the little cutie (and all of us who were waiting for her to be cleaned up and presented to the world).

Click here...

Hooray for Hayleigh!

Summerfest!!

I have sadly neglected to pay homage to Summerfest, Orem City's annual summer celebration.


This year my visit to Summerfest was short-lived, but it was still a great time. I got some great earrings from her, and I had a good time trying to get some fun pictures. Some worked, some didn't. The second one looks super fake... not quite sure why.

Coming Soon to a Blog Near You...

Baby Hayleigh is almost here!!!

Heather is going to be induced today, so stay tuned for updates on the pretty, pretty princess!