As you know or maybe you don’t and you’re just now finding out (which is totally fine), I have been involved in at 365 day self portrait project.  I got pretty excited about this project a few times back and have never been able to complete it.  I was challenged by one of my headshot clients Andrew Baker (which he’s famous on cruise ships by the way!) to finish it.  I decided to take him up on it just since I thought this would be a good year to document myself, with all these baby changes going on and all.  But then the other side of my brain has been thinking alot (that’s trouble).  So here’s where I’m at…….Actually I was going to just decide to change this myself but I think I’ll leave it up to you guys.  Let me lay out my new plan first though.  NEW PLAN:  Involves a picture everyday still, 2 self portrait pictures a week (one Tummy Tuesday and then a regular one), 5 photos per day of anything but they have to be somewhat creative (no bottles of hand lotion bc I can’t think of anything else).  OLD PLAN: 365 pictures of myself in the shot somehow.  A few reasons I have been thinking about changing it up……

-I have been noticing little things around me that I would love to shoot but really have no real good reason to (now I could post them daily)

-I have been wanting some art work in my house of my photography but obviously I don’t want a bunch of pictures of random couples (as beautiful as  they might be)

-I feel like a failure when I post images with letters from Google because I don’t feel like taking my picture that day

-I don’t feel like forcing myself to take a self portrait of my hands or something useless then writing about it is really the point of the project anyways, it’s about being creative.

-I have enough self portraits now!  :)

So I want to hear your opinions.  Should I stick with the OLD PLAN or change it up and go with the NEW PLAN?

I’ll post a few images I took today just as a sample of things to come…..

My mom is in Engineering and in one of their classes she’s in a group that  has a bunch of fish to take care of and produce a filtering system and keep them all alive.  Here is one of her team’s fish.  I will name him Harry.  I think Harry was a little irritated with me today.  They needed some good pictures for a powerpoint so I offered to help out.

Man we live in a beautiful area!  I took this as I was driving home, obviously yes I got out of my car to shoot this.  I just loved the way the light was coming through the trees and all the yellows!!!

I thought the ground looked cool.  For some reason this image reminded me of the ocean?  (Insert your own interpretation here)  This was taken on my way home as well, actually as I was walking back to my car from the above shot.

Enjoy!

-erika

Why do we get so much crappy junk mail?!?!?!

Oh and of course I deleted our address for protection!  :)

TW and I are currently watching our short clips from Hawaii while we were trying to surf.  They are hilarious!  I might just have to upload a few later! ha ha

Enjoy!

-erika

Today was our second ultrasound (but this is the big one where supposedly you find out what you are having).  In preparation for today I went for a walk then laid out in the sun with the doggies for an hour and got a little sunburned (nothing bad -it’s actually already gone- just added some color!)  TW came home and I decided I wanted to sport the color that we thought it was going to be.  While my shirt is very purple that’s the closest thing to pink I had, and obviously TW is team blue!  I thought it would be fun to have a shot of us before we went in with our guesses.

I can’t describe how cool it was to watch that little dude in there move around so much when I haven’t even felt it yet!  It was really amazing to me that we have technology like that.  Oh and little guys heart was pumping away!  I think it was about to burst out of his chest!  Yesterday I mentioned the heart rate was 158 and today it was 163.  We got some pictures of his face and profile (which I’ll go ahead and post on Sunday after our party).  We also got pictures of the boy/girl parts and they sealed them nicely in an envelope so we couldn’t peek.  We took them to Rick’s Bakery to have them make some cupcakes for us so we no longer have possession of those images, darn no cheating!!!!  While our tech was searching around in there we let her know ahead of time we can’t find out yet so she’d keep telling us “ok you can’t look right now”.  TW was trying to peek so hard!!!  We will find out on Sunday and I’m sure we’ll let you guys know!!!!

GOOD NEWS:  Baby has 10 fingers, 10 toes, 4 heart chambers, 2 arms, 2 legs, 2 kidneys, a spine, ribs, both sides of the brain, nose, mouth, stomach……..yay we aren’t having a weird alien!!!!

Enjoy!

-erika

I woke up terribly today.  It started with a charlie horse then I noticed I had a scratchy throat.  Now I’m all congested and I’ve been sneezing all day long.  Went to work, went to the Dr. (baby’s heart rate was 158), went grocery shopping, then went to the basketball awards banquet in Huntsville.  I remember those days………fun times I wouldn’t trade for the world!  Ok I’ve gotta not end on a complaining note so I am greatful that I get to spend the evening with my hubby and that he’s able to be home every night.  Right now that’s all I can muster up “feeling” greatful for, in other words I’m ready to go lay down!  Good Night.

Enjoy!

-erika

I couldn’t get my blog post in last night bc I went out with TW his cousin Tyler and his brother Luke out to eat after I got off work and then to Walmart afterwards so we didn’t make it home until a couple minutes before midnight.  I did however get a shot in, just decided to post it today. ………  I’ve been a little  busy………

Could this day get any worse……………………..

Enjoy!

-erika

Today TW and I went on a little canoe float down the river.  We had originally planned to go camping tonight, but when we saw the weather was so beautiful we decided on a float anyways.  Well that and the fact both of us work in the morning and TW’s neck is still pretty sore from getting bucked off that horse earlier this week.  So this is a pretty funny little story.  We started off as usual, you know put the canoe in the water, get in, and paddle.  Ellie had a blast by the way and she was super duper tired on the way home (we made her swim and run alot  :)  Anyways we are floating along and TW notices these big huge blue water containers stuck in the brush, which there’s alot of it, I’m guessing from all the rain and snow we’ve had.  He thinks he needs whatever it is……..oh of course these will be perfect to feed my horses with.  ”I was going to have to make a horse trough anyways so I’ve gotta take these home”…….  my thinking ok fine, they will be at the other field and I’ll never have to see them in my yard.  He goes and gets them and attaches them to our canoe to float behind us.  We keep floating.  We came upon this paddle boat that was lodged in the brush as well.  TW just had to have this item too!!!  He seriously spent like 20 minutes moving it back and forth and tilting and pushing it to get it out.  He hopped on it and rode it to shore, where he spend another 20 minutes draining all the water out so he could attach that to the back of our canoe too…. I definitely made it very obvious that I didn’t want a paddle boat out sitting by our pond for the rest of our lives, people get those then they never touch them again!  Oh but he assured me he was going to make money off of it by selling it on craigslist.  So I’ll just put it out there that if you’d like to purchase our wonderful treasure you are more than welcome to contact me and I will load it up and deliver it!!!  By this point it’s getting pretty super close to sunset and I’m cold and hungry just wanting to go home.  We pull into the shore where our truck is parked and of course my self portrait has GOT to include our items that we river shopped for so I ran to the truck and set up my camera.  Please understand this is the best I could do to get a shot.  I had to balance my camera on some tree limbs and run in sand and hop in the canoe all in 10 seconds!  It’s not the best image, but you totally get the point!  :)

Enjoy!

-erika

I haven’t been feeling like the most beautiful Erika on the planet recently.  I understand that this weight gain is good and that it is for a good purpose, don’t get me wrong, but I sure do hate it.  I don’t enjoy feeling bloated and heavy.  I don’t enjoy wearing my jeans unbuttoned as if I can’t button them.  I don’t enjoy feeling self conscious in a tight shirt.  I don’t enjoy avoiding mirrors.  So today I decided that I would dress up and make my 365 post a pretty Erika, one that I felt gorgeous in my skin.  (Obviously that would not include a whole body shot either).  I think I spent two hours getting ready. Just took my time putting on makeup and blowdrying hair.  Nothing really that special here but I feel beautiful and that’s what’s important today.

ENJOY!

-erika

So I was browsing the internet today for some inspiration on my 365 project.  I came across this website that is providing mini challenges.  I decided to take part!  Today’s was “Mouth”.  This is what I came up with.  I can roll my tongue and do this clover thing.  (weird fact: a girl from middle school, Rachel Rivkin, taught me how to do this at her aunts house, I sat in front of the mirror for hours teaching myself this!)  Another fact…..did you know that my husband can’t even roll his tongue!?!?!?!  Hey wasn’t there something about this in Biology where your kids either will or will not be able to roll their tongue according to the parents?

Enjoy!

-erika

Today is 18 weeks.  I really can’t believe we are about to find out what we’re having in 9 days!  That seems so crazy.  It felt like so long ago when we first found out and like agony to wait that long!!!!  Now it feels like we just found out yesterday in the hotel room all over again!  I’m pretty excited and we’ll for sure keep you posted.  I have an appointment on the 14th and we find out the 15th so I’m sure there will be lots of news floating around.

Week 18:

At five and a half inches long and five ounces in weight, baby dotson now may be large enough for me to feel twisting, rolling, kicking, and punching around the womb, that I’ve yet to feel. It is also developing yawning and hiccupping skills (supposedly I may feel those soon, too!) and has a very own unique set of toe and fingerprints.

And just a quick inside look!  Wow…..

Enjoy!

-erika

Alright today I kept wondering what in the world am I going to do a self portrait about, I couldn’t think of anything good.  Then as I was listening to the radio 101.9 they ask That Darn Question and I thought I knew the answer so I called in.  Now if you heard the answer today you heard my voice on the radio!  Which means YAY I won!!!!    If you didn’t I would like to hear your guesses as to what the answer is.

Here’s the question:

Fifty percent of dog owners give their dog what?

Just comment below with your guesses!

Enjoy!

-erika