Over the years, I’ve started various blogs for myself and for my clients. I know the basics – the ABCs of blogging, yet I’ve broken them time and time again. So, I thought it was time I get back my focus, help me feel like I’m not cheating any old time readers that have managed to stay around and make blogging fun for me again.

I’ve decided to move my personal posts from A Pretty Rock to a new blog, brand new under my name. My name is who I am after all.

As you can see, I haven’t moved all my posts yet. Just too many little details to handle. But you’ll see the posts disappear from A Pretty Rock and reappear at my new domain little by little.

A Pretty Rock will go back to bringing you jewelry related posts. In the coming weeks, I’ll also be adding jewelry pieces for sale back to the website… most likely along with a new redesign.

If you’d like to follow my personal ramblings and photography endeavors, please visit me at YazminWickham.com.

It’s like sending an alcoholic to the liquor store…

Or a diabetic to the candy aisle…

So, I stay away. But that doesn’t mean you don’t have to!

Intergalactic Bead Show Tickets, Atlanta, Georgia

This show will be held at the Gwinett Civic Center from 10am – 5pm on  April 27th and 28th. If you are going to be in town and are interested in going to the show, leave me a comment below telling me your favorite thing about bead shows.

On Tuesday, April 23rd, I will select one random comment as winner and contact them for their mailing address to send them the ticket… just in time for the show that weekend.

What is your favorite thing about bead shows?

Egg-hunting we will go…

Yum… sugar and water!

Not two:

Libraries are for more than just books…

But three egg hunts this past weekend!

Look in the bush!

The girl has been on a sugar high since.

But today, the remaining stash of eggs goes.

How do you handle getting rid of all the eggs and candy?

I also had another auction up for the Nikon WU-1a wireless adapter my husband got me for Christmas. I failed to check the specs completely and turns out it doesn’t work for the D600.

Both were purchased using the Buy Now option, so either I put the amount too low, or they were really good deals compared to everything else listed. (I’d like to think the latter, so I don’t feel like I missed out on some money.)

I have tons of things I need to get listed around the house. If only you could see my garage… Wait! What am I talking about? I do have a camera after all…

And this is even *much* cleaner than it was at the beginning of the year.

So yea, I need to spring clean or sell. I mean, look at this little cutie I found while sifting through stuff!

My mom bought this for the girl over a month ago. It’s a piggy bank where the hat has a coin slot and twists off for easy access to the stash. She sent it since the girl likes playing with piggy banks and most of them are ceramic.

Suffice to say, we’ve had more than one piggy bank go to heaven.

And I’m just now pulling this little cutie out of hiding… partly, because I forgot I even had it! This is why I need to clear out.

The plan is to try and sell the items at least twice and then if they don’t sell, I’ll be sending them to Goodwill.

It’s time to clean house. But I’ve said this before, so I feel a little like I’m crying wolf.

Do you have pack rat tendencies like me or are you great at keeping the clutter down?

So, I’m back to building the snowball and have decided to sell it.

(Don’t mind the overly large watermark… I clearly wasn’t paying attention, but may be a good idea for selling on eBay.)

In the pictures:

• Canon 50mm f1/4 USM
• Canon 18-55mm f/3.5 – 5.6 IS
• Canon RC-1 Wireless Remote Control
• Canon LP-E5 Battery for Rebel series
• Canon Battery Charger for LP-E5 batteries

I just don’t see myself going back to Canon and while, the 50mm lens is oh so lovely and will outlast the camera bodies, I think I’d do better to just list them on eBay. Not to mention, we still need to snowball.

If you’re interested in the auction, you can find it on eBay.

Speaking of eBay, I generally don’t go there directly to sell my items. I used to use a program for the Mac OS called iSale. After trying to updated it three different times and the program crashing on me ever 5 minutes, I decided to list directly from eBay.

Have you seen the new interface?

It was so much easier to list an item. None of that old confusion and overwhelming sense of “do I really want to do this?” when faced with 50 million options to setup. They really simplified the listing process and made a few items automated which makes it much less stressful to list.

I never thought I would say this, but…

Props to eBay.

I think I’m scrapping iSale and simply posting my stuff via the site from now on.

Have you ever sold any camera gear on eBay? How did it go for you?

Sometimes the hardest thing is to keep going. I can’t tell you how long I’ve been gaining and losing the same 5 pounds…

Sure, we stop and start over and over again. I can just about guarantee anyone who is trying to lose weight has tried to lose weight once before. If losing weight was an easy thing to do, we’d all be skinny.

There would be no obesity epidemic in America.

But it’s not easy. It’s hard.

And the champions are those who refuse to quit trying.

Champions are those who make small changes every day.

Are you making small changes every day to get to your goal?

Crowd at C.A.S.A. Superhero 5k Run

There were a ton of people and they encouraged you to dress up as superheroes.

Doggie dressed as Krypto!

Even the pups were all decked out!

My little Green Lantern Swinging

Since it was held at a local park, we had a little bit of time before hand to run around the playground. She loves the swings!

As you can see, we decided to go as the Green Lantern family. I picked up a white shirt for myself, a green sweatshirt for my hubby and I used a white t-shirt for the girl. Printed out three iron transfers and ironed away!

I also made a tutus!

One for the girl…

That’s Mrs. Green Lantern to you!

And one for myself. After I made all that effort to make her tutu, she decided she didn’t want to wear it. I was a little bummed, but so be it.

The walk was lovely. Sunny day, not too cold (especially after having to cancel the run the day before due to massive rainstorms two days prior and continued flooding in the park.)

The Green Lantern knocked out!

The girl even got in a nap.

We had a ton of fun.

I won a birdhouse! Now, where to hang it…

And I even won a prize for my costume. The tutu was worth it!

And we’re very sore now. (The hubby has a way of making us push it out when we exercise together. He keeps saying he’s just trying to keep up with me, but I’m always about one step behind him…)

I also think I may have to fork out some money for a gym membership. I have an on-off case of plantars fasciitis that severely flaired up after the walk. I may be bicycle bound for a while.

All in all, it was a great weekend!

What did you do this weekend?

My final weigh out left me at 221.0. I was short 2.1 pounds of my 218.9 goal.

I’ve learned my lesson on betting on my weight.

Bummed about losing out on the pot.

More bummed I lost my money.

I suppose I should be happy I lost the 7 pounds.

Maybe I’ll get back down to 217 soon like last October… and beyond.

How are your goals going… or how did your DietBet go?

I’m hoping next week I’ll be back into the better swing of things.

{39/365} Musical Tubby Time

{40/365} Fashion Plate at the Park

{41/365} Say Cheese!

{42/365} We’re sleeping with loveys lately…

{43/365} Would you like some coffee?

{44/365} When I grow up, I want to be just like mami…

{45/365} Mmm… Strawberry fudge for Valentine’s Day

For Christmas, we bought the girl one of those kid cameras. The hubby works for Best Buy, so his employee purchase price wasn’t expensive and we figured if it kept her from wanting to play with my camera all the time, it would help a lot.

She seems to love all things camera… the key chain above is just more proof.

Do you find your little ones want to be behind the camera, too?

Don’t give me that look. You know if YOU were invited to shop for free, you would.

So I did.

Doesn’t hurt that I do like most Old Navy clothing, for the most part. I did purchase my latest workout gear from there.

Once I got my gift card for shopping, the hubby and I headed out to our local store to pick up some items for the girl. I don’t have pictures of the trip for you, because, let’s be honest, even with a second pair of hands, keeping the girl busy and out of trouble is a big job. The last thing I wanted to deal with was my camera as well…

There were a few workers who were kind enough to entertain the girl for a bit while she colored and played with her balloon, but they were there to work, not babysit. Therefore, we hopped to it, picked up our stuff and skedaddled!

Voila! Here’s our loot:

Well…That was most of it. The other two pieces I couldn’t find online on their website are below:

Minnie Mouse and SuperGirl T-Shirts

I’m totally in love with the Minnie Mouse shirt with the attached bow. And while you can’t see it, the SuperGirl shirt has a velcro cape on the back. I’m saving that for a special event in a few weeks.

For about $78, we picked up the following:

• 3 t-shirts
• 1 top
• 1 Supergirl t-shirt with cape (I’m a geek. I really couldn’t pass that up.)
• 1 pair of pull-on jeans
• 1 pair of colored khakis
• 1 sundress

Everything was on sale, which was great, but if I could have found the clearance section for toddlers, you know I would have been there picking out pieces.

I sent the girl to school on Tuesday with one of the outfits from above. It does look a little big on her, but she never seems to truly fit into her size clothing. I may have to start hemming and tailoring clothing.

Oh, and this is the last shirt we picked up. It was supposed to be our Valentine’s Day outfit for school. However, we’re having a not-so-Happy Valentine’s Day, since she’s sick. :( I kept her home for the day to avoid infecting the other kids. (Unlike some other mom, since she got sick on Tuesday night so she must have brought it from school. Grrr.)

We’re planning on stepping out to pick up supplies for some heart-shaped 2 Ingredient Strawberry Fudge to surprise the hubby. I’m hoping all the cutting takes her mind off being sick… without passing it on to the hubby, that is…

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Are you doing anything special for Valentine’s Day or Un-Valentine’s Day, as you may celebrate it?

I was selected for this opportunity as a member of Clever Girls Collective, and the content and opinions expressed here are all my own.

Fan at Full Speed – 1/320sec f4.5 at ISO 2000

They other day, while we took the girl to get her sillies out at Catch Air, I noticed a lighted ceiling fan. Perfect tool to create my slow shutter speed shot!

Who doesn’t love a light trail photo? (Except when the setting is as “blah” as this…)

Slow Mo – 1sec f/32 ISO 2000

I didn’t have a tripod with me which is why the lines aren’t completely smooth and cylindrical. Just imagine me laying on the ground of the play area trying to be as still as possible taking these photos.

I’m sure the workers thought I looked silly.

Slow Mo B&W – 1sec f/32 ISO 2000

I thought it’d be a fun photo to snap in black and white, but it appears my hand wasn’t as steady with that set.

Guess these aren’t bad for my first set of light trails ever.

Have you shot light trails before? Leave me a link in the comments to your best light trail photo!

My husband started throwing our little girl up in the air. (I ended up using one of those photos for my Project 365 last week, but I’m sure you won’t mind if I use it again for this post.)

Going Up?

Coming down…

Gotcha!

As I eluded to, my monkey flying was not part of my shooting plans for that moment, so my settings weren’t perfect for freezing time. These were all shot at 1/500 secs at f/1.8 with an ISO of 5000. As you can see, my husband is perfectly in focus, but my girl is a little out of focus.

If I had it to do over again, I’d go with a faster shutter speed and change my focus mode to servo.

Regardless, I love this series of snapshots. Even if they’re not completely perfect, they’re keepers.

Do you keep your “snapshots” or must your photos be absolutely perfect?

I’m beginning to think I’m wrong about that.

Mmm… Cookies…

For me, a few cookies turned into 10… that I can remember, because I really wasn’t keeping count. A problem to be addressed another time.

Back to the cookie story… we went to bed late, around 11pm. At 3am, I was up with the beginnings of acid reflux. I laid in bed for 30 minutes, until I finally decided to get up and start my “day” by reading my bible, then surfing the interwebs.

While I was sitting on my couch downstairs, I started thinking about this acid reflux and my pretend baby belly sticking out impeding my easy access to the keyboard. There are other tell-tale signs I’ve been noticing here and there that something isn’t right with my body, but trying to address one of those issues previously with a doctor lead me nowhere. And I don’t mean simply that I’m fat, but that my eating and exercising isn’t getting me where I need to be and my body doesn’t always function as it should.

I remembered coming across a book recently called Wheat Belly: Lose the Wheat, Lose the Weight, and Find Your Path Back to Health and have been wondering for a long time if I had some sort of gluten allergy.

Have I been checked out? No. As a Puerto Rican, the last thing you want to hear is that you have an allergy towards wheat. When we decided to part with pork products years ago it was hard. The thought of parting with bread feels like sheer torture compared to that. (*sniff* pan sobao)

(We still get questions from family as to the why of the no-pork.)

But I’m thinking of going gluten-free for a month. I figure 30 days would be enough time for me to get a good idea of whether or not this is really going to help me, or if it’s just another fad I’m making myself believe will work.

Part of the problem is this… I know going gluten-free requires a lot of prep work. I’m slack on that and really like my quick meals. if it takes me more than 10 minutes to prep, I’d better really like what I’m eating. So I’m worried it’s going to cause me some issues in that department.

Regardless, I’ve been looking at the following 3 books as starting points to help me plan out meals:

Quick-Fix Gluten Free
This, of course, is my first pick. I have another recipe book called Everyday Easy Recipes: Irresistibly fresh meals in just 20 minutes (Better Homes & Gardens), that I absolutely love, because it really helps me get from prepping to dinner on the table quickly. My husband is sometimes not graciously patient when he’s starving and all I need is one “quick” question from a client to turn my “just 30 more minutes in my work day” to an hour and a half later. I’m hoping this book will help me in those days of last minute fixes.

The Everything Gluten-Free Slow Cooker Cookbook: Includes Butternut Squash with Walnuts and Vanilla, Peruvian Roast Chicken with Red Potatoes, Lamb … hundreds more! (Everything Series)
I love crockpot meals. They make everything so much easier. I’m hoping this one will help out in that aspect.

Gluten-Free on a Shoestring, Quick and Easy: 100 Recipes for the Food You Love–Fast!
I read somewhere eating gluten free is 400% more expensive than regular eating. From the few pages I read, it seems this book is a good primer on how to reduce that cost. However, the author does stress the need for cooking from scratch, so I already feel some of this will be time consuming. Despite that, the book seems attractive and right up my alley.

So I have tons of questions for you this post…

Are you gluten-free?

How hard was it for you to switch?

How much prep work do you do?

Do you have any of these books or do you recommend any other ones?

Pick one or all to answer. Help me sort this out!

Something to look back on and go “Holy cow I can’t believe what’s happened in one year!” The first big milestone.

Last weekend, we attended another 1st birthday party and boy it was fun:

It was a Minnie Mouse birthday party…

With lots of cute Minnie Mouse themed accessories…

And lots of lovely personalizations…

With the birthday girl all decked out in her Minnie Mouse costume.

Isn’t she just the cutest?

Look how cute (and huge) these cookies were!

They were practically irresistible to little hands.

There was lots of musical chairs played…

…and clearly the birthday girl had lots of fun.

There was a face painter…

Who did a wonderful job!

With lots of lovely designs…

Resulting in some serious cuteness!

Of course, the birthday girl had to be painted as Minnie Mouse…

Cupcakes and…

And cake were had by all!

(Can’t tell you how much my girl watches the Minnie’s Dress Shop cartoons… in anything but English, none the less!)

Look! There’s Minnie now!

These little paper blowers were great!

Lots of fun to play with, but no noise at all… my kind of toy!

Everyone invited had tons of fun.

And some were even tuckered out!

Yet the birthday girl kept going strong!

(BTW, if you’re looking for her Minnie Mouse 1st birthday party supplies, my friend got hers from Birthday Express, the same place I got the owl birthday party supplies for my little girl’s 1st birthday. Love them for parties!)

What’s your favorite milestone to photograph?

LoseIt Weekly Summary

As you can see, I’ve had some trouble getting back on track since the holidays.

I thought, before I got any further into the 4 week challange, I should record my measurements again to see how I progress:

The measurements from 10/31/2012 where the last ones I took last year.

Suffice to say, I had a hard time finding where I left my measuring tape…that, or the girl re-appropriated it.

Wouldn’t be the first time.

How are your fitness goals coming along?

Last week, I went back to basics with aperture. This week, I’m going back to basics with ISO.

The assignment at DigitalCamFan was take one photograph with your lowest and highest ISOs.

0.5 sec at f/1.8 ISO100

1/125 sec at f/1.8 ISO6400

1/500 sec at f/1.8 ISO25600

One of the reasons I purchased the D600 is for its low-light capabilities.

Our living room

Since most of my shooting is indoors, (don’t mind the mess) I don’t have the best of light situations and my usual target is constantly moving, I’m almost always shooting at ISO 6400. I love my camera just for that. But…

As you saw, at ISO 6400, you start noticing some grain.

While my ISO 6400 photos are acceptable to me, I still prefer a more butter-y look. I’ll be working on reducing my indoor ISO a bit to see if I can’t find a good balance.

Do you shoot with a preferred ISO?

Yesterday, I received one of their latest newsletters and it mentioned a website called DietBet…

along with a challenge launched by FitFluential. As of the time I snapped these screenshots yesterday, the FitFluential January Dietbet already had 132 players with a pot of $3300!

If you’d like to join me in the bet and potentially cash in some moola, you have 4 days to decide. How does it work? In short:

1. Sign up.
2. Weigh in 2 days before the start.
3. Work your little heart out and watch what you eat.
4. Weigh in 2 days after the challenge finishes.
5. If you lost 4% or more, collect your dough!

That’s all a paraphrase, but you get the gist.

So who’s ready to break in their Christmas sneakers? I am, for sure!

One of the things I liked about DietBet is you have 7 days into the challenge to change your mind. That means, if you don’t like the concept, you can cancel your participation and get your money refunded. This looks like it’s only a one-time thing, but I like they made it available.

I’m hoping the fact I paid $25 to be part of the bet with a potential of rewarding me bigger helps motivate me to keep under my calorie limit on a daily basis. I work out regularly, so if I could control my eating urges, I know I can lose the 4% needed to win a part of the pot.

Do you think programs requiring you to put money on the line are effective motivators or just a setup for more failure?

Maybe it was when I got my last camera… over 5 years ago. It had been over 15 years since I picked up an SLR. A refresher was due.

Now that I have the D600, I’m more interested in the basics again.

A friend of mine sometimes works as a second shooter for a local wedding photographer. She also does post-processing for him as she has time… but only for him.

One of the reasons she gives for not doing post processing for others is this particular photographer is one of the most technically accurate photographers she has ever worked with. She says when you work with a “lazy” photographer (which, is kinda all of us who own dSLRs), she ends up doing a lot of touch up work. Digital has made it easy for us to just snap shots like crazy with no concern for aperture, ISO and composition.

While it’s nice to be carefree… those of you who shot film, like me, way back when remember it was important to shoot deliberately. It seems digital photography took much of that necessity away.

I won’t lie. I love digital. But she has a point.

Personally, I don’t want to do a lot of touch up work. I have a 2 year old, run a business and still play Domestic Goddess. The better I can shoot my photos straight out of the camera, the less time I’ll spend on my computer correcting them and the happier I will be.

That’s why I’m going back to the basics.

If you’d like to join me, the blog posts I’m reading are found at DigitalCamFan and are only on Week 2.

These photos are my Week 1 results:

1/250 sec at f/1.8

1/100 sec at f/2.8

1/25 sec at f/5.6

1/25 sec at f/5.6

1/13 sec at f/8

1/6 sec at f/11

1/3 sec at f/16

I didn’t finish the series, but suffice to say, I got the point.

Seems I was distracted by a little girl belting out a tune.

What do you think… better technically correct or just easier to fix photos afterwards in Photoshop?

{5/365} Snowman Kisses

{6/365} Birthday Princess

{7/365} I Can Do This!

{8/365} Pre-Nap “Reading”

{9/365} Puzzle Time with Daddy

{10/365} iPad Time

Lots of photos of the girl this time! I’ll have to work on some prompts for the coming week.

What was your favorite photo you took this week? Are you in need of some shooting prompts, too?

It’ s been a surprisingly busy week around here… made my first trip to Goodwill, recycled a ton of things sitting in our garage, slowing digging out of the work backlog from the holidays and browsing plenty of Project 365 blogs. Love getting a dose of photography from like-minded people!

But before I put my head back down for work, I wanted to jump on to share this giveaway from Crave Photography:

Those are some excellent prizes! As much as I want to share this with you all, I kinda want to keep it to myself… in hopes of upping my chances of winning… I’m generally not selfish, but can you blame me? An excellent lens, a one-on-one tutorial and a marketing set. Tell me you wouldn’t at least feel a little bit liking keeping that to yourself…

I’m sure there are tons of other giveaways going on for the New Year.

Have you come across any giveaways you’d like to begrudgingly share?