Holly Anissa » Creatures

365 in 52 [2013] ~ Week Nineteen

Holly — Tue, 14 May 2013 03:17:26 +0000

It’s late, so I’ll keep this short. Please pray for my friend, Renee. I’ve blogged about her several times and you can follow her story on her blog, Team S. She’s battling Stage IV metastatic breast cancer that has returned to her brain for the third time. She will have brain surgery again later this week. Please also pray for my friend Celeste… my young, vibrant friend who had a heart attack Saturday night. She is in ICU recovering from emergency surgery to put in a shunt for a blocked artery.

I had a lovely Mother’s Day and spent the day unplugged from the online and social media world. I didn’t even pick up my camera. I love my family and I’m so blessed to have my mom as my best friend. My husband is awesome and amazing… and my kids complete me.

Day 128 ~ Cutie Patootie

Dominic was playing in the floor and I got a series of great images. I love this look he gives me and how his arms make sort of a heart shape.

Day 128 ~ Happily Watchful

My boys watching for any activity out back. I love how they are both perked up here.

Day 128 ~ Seriously Upside Down

He is so serious and he is upside down. Something about this really draws me in… I might print this big.

Day 128 ~ Unfolding

Taking some images for this month’s Creativity Challenge on Clickin Moms, I got this beautiful shot of the rose in my front yard.

Day 130a ~ See Me

First in a series of six (one more will be shared on the Daily Project shortly). Dominic hollered at me when we were outside… “Mom, Mom… come quick! There’s a lizard on Rocky’s front porch!” I grabbed my camera and macro and was off! This little guy was about 6 inches from tip to tail and was very curious about me.

Day 130b ~ Pose

Day 130c ~ Put Your Whole Self In

Day 130d ~ Other Side

Day 130e ~ Climb

Day 130f ~ Still

Thank you for looking and thank you for the prayers for my friends. <3

365 in 52 [2013] ~ Week Eighteen

Holly — Tue, 07 May 2013 01:33:19 +0000

The troops have been mobilized. We see the neuro this Thursday, we have the FBA underway with a BIP and transition ARD planned for the 17th, we see the endo on the 20th. Help is coming for my sweet Booski.

With all the drama last week, we really just hunkered down and went all-in with family this last week. We spent a lot of time driving around looking at potential new neighborhoods and ate a lot of frozen yogurt. We cuddled a lot. It was nice.

Day 120 ~ Future Hipster

Dominic is too cute listening to Minecraft videos while choosing his favorite froyo toppings.

Day 120 ~ NomNomNom

Yummy.

Day 124 ~ College Grad

Congratulations to Chris!!! He graduated from Concordia University on Saturday with his Bachelor’s of Arts Degree in Behavioral Sciences. We are all so proud of you!!!

Day 126 ~ Chillin

Not sure if this is a grasshopper? He was itty bitty and seriously posed for me.

Thanks for looking and for all of your support last week. I wish you all peace and love.

365 in 52 [2013] ~ Week Sixteen

Holly — Mon, 22 Apr 2013 16:08:17 +0000

It’s been a great week! I was determined to nip this photography funk in the bud by shooting a lot, every day. Shoot anything, shoot everything… aaand I’m sharing those results. They aren’t all good images, but they are all memories.

Day 106 ~ Serpent

Imagine my surprise when I looked out the window to see a 3-foot long snake on my sidewalk! By the time I’d gotten outside with my camera and macro lens, he’d made his way into my garden.

Day 106 ~ Bemused

Playing outside after school, Dominic was telling me a funny story… I think about Minecraft (specifically SkyDoesMinecraft whom Dominic follows on YouTube).

Day 107 ~ Sidelines

With Curtis out of town, Dominic had to come to Special Olympics with us. He didn’t want to come help and run around, so I let him sit on the sidelines with my phone.

Day 107 ~ Soccer

Eventually, I talked Dominic into joining us for practice. Dominic was an official volunteer and got to take part in the stations after the other kids had their turns. He was a happy boy.

Day 108 ~ Car Lane

Some days I walk to get Dominic after school, some days Curtis gets him. Every once in a while, I’ll have to pick him by car. Waiting in the car lane sucks. People are so rude, cutting in line and being unsafe. With nearly 1000 elementary kids here, it’s a miracle anyone can get their child in a timely manner. I liked the juxtaposition of Dominic’s pickup tag hanging from my rearview with the road sign and school bus.

Day 108 ~ Award

Jenny is rocking her junior year at Texas State. She was honored by the College of Fine Arts with an award… Outstanding Member of Lambda Alpha Epsilon, the criminal justice fraternity to which she belongs. It was an incredible honor.

Day 109 ~ First Frog of the Season

Anna has always loved frogs and toads. Now that we’ve had a little rain, they are coming out to play. Anna was thrilled to find this little guy and was ever so gentle with him.

Day 109 ~ Hi Jenny

Jenny got to visit for the weekend. Since she worked all day, she was a bit tired and was happy to sit and watch Anna and I play frisbee. Her gorgeous blue eyes always have a sparkle!

Day 109 ~ Paw Fuzz

I shared this on the Daily Project also… from the family Haemodoraceae, the Kangaroo Paw flower.

Day 109 ~ Trio

Also from my mom’s garden, I love finding clusters of three.

Day 109 ~ Outgrown

Heading back into the house with the sun setting, I saw this snail shell abandoned on the tree trunk… outgrown.

Day 110 ~ Doll Show

For two months, Anna has been anticipating this doll show coming to Austin. She was on extra good behavior the week before to be able to go and she really enjoyed seeing some of the reborn artists she had met in New Braunfels and San Antonio at previous shows. The place was really crowded and their were only two tables of reborns, so it was a quick trip. Even here, she has trouble with eye contact but she does love holding the babies!

Day 112 ~ School Day

Dominic looked so cute this morning that I had to get a quick snap before school.

Thanks for looking and I hope to have higher quality photos next week… sometimes you just have to push through the creative lulls to find your art again. I hope you have a wonderful week!

365 in 52 [2013] ~ Week Fourteen

Holly — Mon, 08 Apr 2013 18:36:13 +0000

Tuesday morning, Dominic was sick again… it looked like another PFAPA Syndrome cycle but it was good news that he made it more than two months without a fever cycle. His infectious disease doc had him take a single dose of Prednisone Tuesday at lunch and the fever didn’t come back. Wednesday night, ready to return to school Thursday, his fever returned at nearly 103. Off to the pediatrician… he had a secondary sinus infection and the beginnings of bronchitits. This happened last time too… he got pneumonia. So he started antibiotics. He finally went back to school today. So we didn’t do a whole lot last week! He was feeling better with no fever over the weekend, so we met Jenny in San Marcos for lunch, but mostly we took it easy. I took a long walk this morning to decompress.

Day 94 ~ Ill Again

After his fever returned and before we’d gone to see his pediatrician on Thursday, Dominic was burning up and laying in the bed beside my office desk. I let him sleep for a while before going to the doctor.

Day 95 ~ New Growth

I noticed that our rose bush out front was wildly out of control a few weeks ago, so I trimmed it back. I was so pleased to see new growth this week. What a beautiful specimen.

Day 95 ~ Refuge

As part of CMpro, one of our members suggested that we create a collaborative project for Friday’s Daily Project post using a yellow balloon. This was my vision… to have a yellow balloon floating under an umbrella that is also floating while it rains all around. It took ages to set up and I wasn’t happy with the outcome, so I didn’t post this one. You can’t even see the water in the background!

Day 95 ~ Yearning to Float

This was my entry for the yellow balloon collaborative project for the Daily Project.

Day 96 ~ Urban Hug

A trip to San Marcos to meet Jenny for lunch yielded an unexpected lovely moment between siblings.

Day 98 ~ Quack

My power walk this morning was interrupted by this inquisitive duck.

Day 98 ~ Shrooms

Working on a Creativity Challenge for Clickin Moms, I got an extra image that I liked… cool, textured mushrooms.

Wishing you all a quiet, healthy week. Thanks for looking!

Life in the Bluebonnets

Holly — Thu, 04 Apr 2013 15:24:55 +0000

This won’t be a portrait post of my children (or anyone else’s) in the Texas bluebonnets. As much as I have tried over the last 21 years, I have NEVER managed to get a good photo of my children in these beautiful wildflowers. Someone is always grumpy, no one looks at the camera, the grass itches, there are bees, it’s hot, I don’t want to take a picture, she’s pushing me!… it’s always a fail. So this year, I decided to forgo even trying. This year, I took my macro lens (love me some 105mm magic!) and stepped out into the field behind my house. And you know what? I discovered that there is an abundance of life in those bluebonnets. So much so, it make me cringe to think of how we had trampled plants all willy-nilly in the attempt of getting one good bluebonnet portrait. I ended up going out twice, both times during the Golden Hour; the first time, it was overcast… the second, it was sunny. Anna was with me the first time and was enchanted with the ladybugs. We caught them a couple of times and I tried to get an image of one on her hand, but they would rapidly crawl around and takeoff. There is an image below called “Takeoff” where the ladybug was just getting ready to fly, but I was disappointed that I didn’t get the entire bug in focus. So when I went out again by myself a couple of days later, I attempted the takeoff shot again which culminated in the image called “Taking Flight”… one of my new favorites. It wasn’t easy balancing the 105mm with one hand while holding out the other! I’ve shared a couple of these images on the CMpro Daily Project and I should probably insert them as a Lightbox to increase page load time… but I couldn’t bear to see them as anything but full size. I hope you enjoy them as much as I do. <3

Day One

Abundance

In Bloom

Blossom

The Lone Star

Rapid Retreat

Takeoff

Gathering

From Above

Unexpected

Day Two

Surprise Spider

Beetle War

Bluebonnet Sunset

Drunk on Pollen

Made it to the Top

There are actually three insects in this image. Can you find them?

Taking Flight

Big as a Blade

In Plain Sight

I think shooting non-portrait types of images can be an incredibly rewarding and soul-enriching study. Thanks for looking!

365 in 52 [2013] ~ Week Twelve

Holly — Mon, 25 Mar 2013 18:18:19 +0000

This week Anna had several rough days. It was tough. In-school suspensions (two), multiple calls and emails with her principal, teacher, and neurologist, tears (mine and hers). We are seeing her psychiatrist this afternoon. I’m not sure if she needs a med adjustment, if she’s dealing with hormones, or if she’s having deeper behavioral problems, but I’ve promised her we will help her get control again. It breaks my heart to witness these rapid changes in personality and mood, and not be able to know what is best to help her. But in the midst of upheaval, there is normalcy too (actually our normal is more chaos than not). We went to soccer practice, played frisbee outside, and I got a little time to myself and met up with some other Central Texas Clickin Moms last night.

Day 79 ~ Soccer Season

I took this at Special Olympics Individual Skills soccer practice, hoping to get several more images with Anna playing. But she had an odd episode and ended up not playing at all.

Day 80 ~ Lily SOOC

From my mom’s garden… just resized for web.

Day 80 ~ Fallen 1 and 2

While playing frisbee outside with Anna, a huge flock of birds took off from a neighbor’s tree. One flew into the garage and stunned himself, falling to the ground. At first, I thought he didn’t make it as he was laying on his back, but after a while, he flipped over so I crept quietly over to see if he was okay. I was able to take a photo with my macro lens before he flew away later.

Day 80 ~ My Heart Stops

I took my first image, Pensive, for the CMpro Daily Project and got this one too… I love this boy so much.

Day 83 ~ Tableau

Taken at Republic Square Park in the Warehouse District in downtown Austin during our CM meetup.

Have a wonderful week and thanks for looking!

365 in 52 [2013] ~ Week Seven

Holly — Tue, 19 Feb 2013 02:45:44 +0000

I was hit with a cold this week and had several days of being quite ill so I didn’t shoot every day. But I’m feeling much better now and the weather is just starting to feel like spring. I even saw some buds on a few trees! This week also brought me a gently used 35mm f/2 mid-week so it was nice getting to know a new lens and have a bit more reach indoors.

Day 43 ~ Watching

Anna will sometimes stand at the narrow window by the front door and look outside. Sometimes she’s waiting for Daddy to get home, sometimes she’s watching the squirrels frolic. I like to catch her watching and I wonder what she’s thinking.

Day 44 ~ Skinny Macchiato

My favorite drink at Starbucks used to be the Caramel Macchiato, but I hadn’t had one since joining WW in October. I was pleased to discover that a Tall Skinny Macchiato is only 3 points, so I had a little indulgence.

Day 45 ~ Another Starbucks

This time to meet with the seller of the earlier mentioned used 35mm f/2… I did not get another Skinny Macchiato however. I was too intent on playing!

Day 46 ~ Mid-Meow

My mom had the day off so I went over to help her move some furniture around. Of course I had to take the new lens and try it out… mom’s cat, Kitty Magee, was more than happy to meow for me.

I did get a clever self-portrait yesterday but didn’t really shoot much this weekend… too busy playing with the kids. I’ll share that in another post though. Hope every one has a great week and thanks for looking!

365 in 52 [2013] ~ Week Five

Holly — Mon, 04 Feb 2013 19:31:01 +0000

It’s hard to believe that the first month of the year is already gone.

Day Thirty-One ~ The Birds 1

Anna and I were leaving Lowe’s (I’m doing a room makeover in Jenny’s old room) and I saw this HUGE flock of grackles down the strip center… I had to investigate. There must have been over a thousand birds in the trees and parking lot. It was crazy.

Day Thirty-One ~ The Birds 2

Sam’s Club draws a crowd.

Day Thirty-One ~ The Birds 3

Looking up at one of the trees yielded this shot.

Day Thirty-Four ~ Doodle Grin

Sometimes when I’m holding a treat, Charlie grins a little. So cute!!!

Day Thirty-Five ~ Lily Pollen

Curtis brought me flowers a few days ago and there are two gorgeous lilies in the bouquet. One opened up yesterday and I knew I wanted to get a macro shot of the pollen today. I also decided to try the new Oil Paint filter in Photoshop CS6… it’s pretty amazing. I think I might take a digital painting class.

Thanks for looking! Have a great week!!!

365 in 52 [2013] ~ Week Four

Holly — Mon, 28 Jan 2013 21:45:49 +0000

This week was busy… a couple of appointments, one for Anna and one for me, I got on a spring cleaning kick and have been chunking stuff left and right, then my sweet Pickle got sick yesterday.

Day Twenty-Two ~ A Dog and His Boy

I love the light in this spot by the sliding glass door in our living room. Charlie loves to sit here and look out at the greenbelt. Dominic loves to sit in the floor to pet Charlie. They reminded me of one of my favorite children’s books called The Puppy Who Wanted a Boy.

Day Twenty-Three ~ Crafting

Dominic’s favorite thing to do these days is play Minecraft. He’s a genius with Minecraft. His favorite server is Egleboglecraft… a family friendly server that is really strict about language and actions, run by a really nice dad and son team. Dominic has advanced quite far there and is well-regarded. You should see some of the stuff he’s built!

Day Twenty-Four ~ Bedtime Story

My children are so lucky… they have an incredible father. Every night, Curtis reads to Dominic from his iPad before bed. They are reading The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe now. I tried to get Dominic’s perspective from his bed… with Daddy sitting in the recliner reading to him. <3

Day Twenty-Five ~ School Zone

Friday, Curtis left for Houston before the kids went to school. After getting Anna on the bus, Dominic was ready early and it was a really balmy morning, so we decided to walk to school. This view and this particular sign, is one that all three of my children have seen every day for their entire lives. Jenny started at our elementary school in kindergarten, then Anna went there (until her campus stopped providing special education services), and now Dominic attends the same school. I love that they have roots.

Day Twenty-Seven ~ Late Night Errand

Dominic started running a fever Sunday morning. It’s been just over 8 weeks since his last fever cycle and we will be going to see his Infectious Disease specialist Tuesday. He gets a high fever, sore throat, body aches, and a tummy ache with the cycle every 6-8 weeks and is sick for several days. His doctor thinks it’s PFAPA Syndrome (periodic fever, aphthous stomatitis, pharyngitis, and adenitis) which means cyclical fevers and sore throat. The only thing that sounded good to him was a milkshake so Anna and I ran out to get him one after dinner. Anna got on my phone to watch YouTube and I just had to get a photo of her. I know her head looks somewhat disembodied but I didn’t have much room to work with twisting around in the driver’s seat!

Day Twenty-Eight ~ Sick Day

So my sweet Pickle stayed home from school today and will likely be home until Thursday. He has missed so much school. And his cycles seem to be getting worse which is unusual. I asked him if I could take a photo, thinking that some day after he’s outgrown this illness, we’ll look back and remember how frequently he was sick. My sweet boy. <3<3<3

I’ll update if Dominic’s doctor has anything noteworthy to say. Thanks for looking, hope everyone has a fantastic week!

Project 52 [Twenty-Twelve]: Week 39 ~ Tiny Toad

Holly — Sat, 29 Sep 2012 21:55:54 +0000

The My Four Hens Project 52 theme this week is wild card, which means we could photograph anything we want! We had some rain last night lasting throughout today. When I took Charlie out for his last pee last night, he found something in the garage and kept trying to paw it. I rescued this teeny, tiny toad. I put him in the habitat last night so Anna could see him this morning… she adores toads and frogs. This little guy is sitting on the side of a small bowl, about 2×2″. He’s probably no bigger than a dime in diameter, that’s how small he is! What a cutie!

Thanks for looking!