Joy of Love: Day 18, 19, 20 and 21

Day 18: Going out

Vince left on Friday evening to go on a mountain biking trip!

Day 19: When They're Gone

Vince is always warm, while I am always cold. We usually keep the thermostat between 65 and 67 when we're home, but when he's gone, I get to turn it up without hearing him whine about how hot it is!

Day 20: When They're Home

As I've mentioned before, I lived with my grandparents on and off for a while when I was growing up. When the family gets together for dinner over there, it's always like I'm going home. My parents have moved from the houses that I have lived in with them, so going to their houses isn't like going home. It's not that I'm uncomfortable, but my grandparents house, however, will always be home.

Day 21: Hands

My grandma feeding her first great-grandbaby, Alyla.

Joy of Love: Day 15, 16, and 17

So I haven't been able to take any pictures for my class because Vince hasn't been home early enough!

Day 15's assignment was 'kiss', Day 16's was a 'together' self portrait, and Day 17's was 'staying in'. 

Day 15: I managed to get a kiss in, though I wish it were better!

**Edit: I like it better in black and white...

{Click to view larger}

Day 16: I took a self portrait of me and my loves while on our walk today. 

Here's a sequential picture of how it went down. I was so worried they were going to look the right direction at all!

Day 17: When V and I stay in we cook. Very frequently, we make messes...

Vince had made a mixture of mayo, worcestershire sauce and horseradish and put it in the fridge while we made our BLTs. When he opened the door, the bowl fell out and splattered all over him and the fridge! 

It also happened to be the last of the mayo, so we were pretty bummed that we didn't have any to put on our sandwiches.

Joy of Love Day 14

Today's assignment was to take pictures of our wedding band or jewelry. If you remember, I did my 'wedding band' tattoo the other day! And since Vince doesn't wear jewelry, I had to do my own. I've taken pictures of a lot of my jewelry anyways, and I didn't feel like taking a picture today so I'm reposting one. This will be in my Etsy shop eventually and is possibly my favorite piece:

The reason I didn't want to take pictures today is because I didn't want to do ANYTHING. I've had a 4 day weekend {!!} and did something all day every day for the past 3 days and just wanted a day to relax. So I laid on the couch and watched Bones on Netflix, various shows on TV, read Wicked Lovely, ate GF mac and cheese that I made 5 days ago, and spaced out. It was awesome. And then Vince got home and I felt super lazy, so I made some BLT's, one of my top favorite foods. 

Anyways, happy love day! 

And for those of you that don't have a lover, check out Danielle's post, it's pretty great.

Joy of Love Day 13

Our assignment today was to take a picture of a routine we do everyday. I thought of all the things I could have taken pictures of, but I didn't like them. I got shots of Vince drinking coffee, making his lunch, the girls napping...but when I sat down to look at the pictures I wasn't satisfied. 

Then I thought, we take showers everyday! 

I thought it would be pretty neat to take a picture of our shower. And I'm sure you guys are all sick of seeing pictures of Vince, as beautiful as he is. 

Joy of Love Day 12

The assignment today was to focus on the eyes! I didn't have much time today to get funky or anything, but I took some while Vince and I were hanging out at my grandparents house.

I took some of my grandpa, who had me count to 3 so he could look up into the sun...

...some of my beautiful grandma who my friend always think is my mom...

...and of course Vince...

I love going over to my grandparents house, as does Vince. It's always a lot of fun to talk to them and to play games like Phase 10 and Pounce. They're probably going on a mission for the LDS church in January, meaning I wouldn't see them for 18 months! The longest time I've ever gone without seeing my grandparents would be like a month, so 18 months is kind of unfathomable.  It makes me want to spend as much time with them as I can now, I'll miss them so much!

I also got a cute picture of my aunt and uncles dog Bella with grandma in the background. 

Their other dog, Brewster, was busy running crazily around the backyard with an empty milk jug. It was pretty cute.

Joy of Love Day 10

For Day 10 of the Joy of Love class, we were told to take a picture of a place our loved ones are comfortable in. 

Roxanne is so peaceful and calm when she is on top of Vince and I and cuddling in some way. She tries to nuzzle up on our necks, lay on our bellies, and in general just stand on us! When we hug, she tries to 'hug' us as well and jumps up on our legs and we scratch her neck together. She is such a precious little dog and is way more in love with us than Izobel is!

Joy of Love Days 7, 8 and 9!

Oh my goodness, I'm totally slacking on this photo thing! Oh well, life catches up with ya sometimes...

So the Day 7 photo assignment for Monday was to take a picture of generations. Seeing as how I couldn't gather up a couple generations of my family yesterday, I'm going to skip that day. The teacher did say that if our family wasn't around to save that assignment for another day! So I'm going to do that.

Tuesdays assignment, Day 8, was to take a photo of a gift from the heart from someone we love. This picture is very 'personal', but I guess all of them all! I guess it's a little touchy to me because of what people think about it.

A few months ago I was having a really hard time figuring out what I wanted out of my relationship with Vince. I took a little time apart and stayed with my grandparents so I could get a little time for myself and get away from the situation I was so used to. I am SO glad I did because it erased any doubts that I had. 

It made me love him even more and know in my heart that this is the exact situation I wanted to be in. To show him that I was committed to him and that I wouldn't 'leave' him again I wanted to get this tattoo on my ring finger. I know that Vince and I will always be together. There's no doubt in my mind about that, and he knows it too.  

I was going to go get the tattoo without telling him, but then I got nervous and told him about it! He was surprised I was going to do it but you could tell he was ecstatic about it and loved the idea. I see that as his gift to me, because he knows tattoos are permanent and he knows what it would mean if I got the tattoo.

The thing that gets to people is that he doesn't have one yet! I got it as a commitment to him, and he's going to get one in place of his wedding ring, meaning he won't get one until we get married. A lot of people express that they think it's weird that I have it even though I'm not married, but at the same time I don't need a certificate saying that I'm going to be with him until one of us dies. I just know and I'm confident in that.

So that was Day 8. 

For Day 9, today, we are supposed to take pictures of their passions and hobbies. Seeing as how I already took bike pictures and that's his one hobby that occupies his life, I took a picture of his hands. 

He is ALWAYS working with them and fiddling with stuff. 

He also wouldn't let me take a picture of what I really wanted, him working on a bike. I went to his work near closing but he said he would be too embarrassed. Silly!

Joy of Love Catch-Up: Day 1 and 2

So I signed up for the Joy of Love classes on the 3rd day, but the first two days were send to me as well. I've caught up!

Day 1 was to show what our love does:

Vince eats!

Day 2 was to show the best or the worst of our love.

I chose a picture of Izobel lookin' good.

Joy of Love Day 6

Today's assignment for the Joy of Love class was to take a photo of something our love loves. {Does that make sense?  It sounds weird to me...} 

Vince absolutely loves bike riding, more than pretty much anything. When we first were hanging out, I rode a lot with him; we got me a new bike and full body gear and went shredding all the time:

While I had a lot of fun doing it, it was more stressful than stress relief, like it is for him. We were always riding super gnarly trails on the edge of giant cliffs! I still enjoy regular bike riding, just not trails that I definitely need full body armor on. Now I just shuttle everyone and take pictures. =]

He's been a downhill mountain biker for over 20 years though and rides as often as he can. I like that he rides because it keeps him in great shape. {AKA very sexy.}

Because he loves riding so much, I took pictures of one of his many bikes! I couldn't decided on just one picture though, so here are a few:

{Tire}

{Shifter}

{Pedal}

{Chain}

Bike riding is also a thing Vince and my dad have in common, which is pretty cool. They frequently talk about bikes when we all hangout and different spots to ride. Vince is also teaching my dad different things about fixing bikes since he's a bike mechanic!

Joy of Love Day 5

I'm freaking out right now, I'm so excited!

When I started the Joy of Love class {I know, a whole 5 days ago} I kind of ignored her little photography tips at the bottom assuming I didn't have time to figure it out. Today I said to myself, "Why the hell are you taking the class if you aren't going to learn anything and WHY IN THE WORLD would you pay over a $1000 for a camera you don't know how to use?!"

So I read through the few tips that I ignored and it's like my relationship has changed completely with my camera. Just figuring out the ISO this morning has opened up a million new possibilities for me! 

Here's an example:

Can you tell which one I like better?

I really wanted to get the 'white out' {or 'washed out'?} effect without having to edit the effect in, which is why I put it in the window sill, but that obviously didn't happen when it was on 'auto'.

There have been so many times when my subject is too dark and I don't know how to lighten it without using flash. I'm sure there are so many more settings I can do that would have a similar effect to this, and I'm excited to learn about them! She {the lady doing the class} is hoping that by them end of the month we'll be able to take all our pictures manually. MANUALLY, people. 

I managed to use my old manual 35mm camera that I got from my grandma {hey gram!} but there were so fewer buttons than on my Canon Rebel T1i. 

In case you can't tell, I'm super excited. 

If you want to learn about this kind of stuff, I so encourage you to join this class. 

Anyways, the assignment for Day 5 was to take a picture of something you love to hate about someone you love. 

Here's the photo I picked for my Joy of Love Day 5:

I HATE it when Vince leaves a half drank cup of coffee on the table. 

The bad thing about this is that our new dog Izobel is so big that if she runs into the table the cup will dump over, spilling all over the tablecloth! It also leaves terrible stains inside the cup and makes it look like I never wash our white dishes. 

Joy of Love Day 4

Today's assignment for the Joy of Love photo class was to take photos of a loved one. It could be on them, on the hanger, old clothes, etc.

I chose to take a picture of Vince's that are always bunched up on the bathroom floor...

{click to see larger}

It's been fun so far because I'm taking pictures of things I normally wouldn't! I mean, how many of you take pictures of just a guys beard or clothes on the floor? 

Yesterday I got an email that had the assignments from Day 1 and Day 2 so I'll work on those over the weekend!

Joy of Love Photo Class Day 3

So I am going to participate in the Joy of Love photography class that's free from Willette Designs! Why do I want to do this when I already have so much stuff going on?

{1} I want to become a better photographer.

{2} I can always use a little more joy in my life. It's so easy to get caught up in the small details {like how I had to stay late after closing to meet with a police officer because a drunk fell asleep on our couch chair and peed himeself then WOULDN'T LEAVE THE LIBRARY!} and I really don't want to focus on these things. I want to focus on the things I love and the things that bring joy to my life.

{3} It'll be fun to annoy Vince and ask him to pose for me, like I did for todays photo.

{4} Umm...did I mention that it's FREE!

Do you want to sign up, too? Do it now! {Sign up here.} *Edit: It's an online class*

I missed the first 2 assignments, so I'll just start with Day 3 today. 

The assignment was to take a photo of someone you love and focus on something that has changed, whether it be age, hight, belly size, balding, etc. We were also encouraged to compare it to an older photo, if one was available. 

For Vince, I focused on his beard.
The first picture I just took and the second was from a few months ago.

{click to view larger}

I LOVE his beard when it's short. Not shaved, not long, just short. He looks years younger and is more attractive, but during the winter he hates shaving it because it's too cold outside! I understand that, but sometimes you have to make sacrifices for love. 

=P