these friends

i'm missing my girls today.
just wanted to share some more fun pictures of them.
<3

why i love being a photographer:

• i can capture my point of view as ART
• they say "a picture is worth a thousand words...."
• i love the feel of the camera in my hands
• the world is a beautiful place, full of love and life and memories.... and i can savor that always with a photograph
• there are stories out there that only i can tell, that only i can share
• people can be their true selves in front of my lens, and i am blessed to get to know them
• i can give a gift
• i am an artist
• i truly enjoy the process: location, personality, shooting, encouraging, editing, and giving
• then i can use my creations in my other hobby: scrapbooking (it all goes hand in hand)

my mum took this picture of me getting ready to shoot the ceremony at shelby's wedding. i didn't even notice, or see the picture till i started editing. i <3 it. it pretty much captures me, in that moment, doing what i love to do. see the slight smile on my face, amidst the concentration?? :P
its special to me.
thanks mum.

wedding #6

that's right folks... i've been to 6 weddings this year. holy cow: THAT'S A LOT!!!

anyway, on saturday september 20th my friend kimi got married. i was supposed to be a bridesmaid, but respectfully declined (being so far away). too bad though, i could of got a really cute green dress!! :P lol.

i'm so glad she's happy.

a clever game

answer these 12 questions, do a Flickr search for each of your answers, choose 1 photo from the first page of search results that you like the best, and turn it into a mosaic.
delightfully insightful.

the questions:
1. what is your first name? (shaina)
2. what is your favorite type of food? (chinese)
3. what high school did you attend? (okanogan)
4. what is your favorite color? (pink)
5. who is your celebrity crush? (christian bale)
6. what is your favorite drink? (white chocolate mocha)
7. what is your dream vacation? (boston)
8. what is your favorite dessert? (oreos)
9. what do you want to be when you grow up? (photographer)
10. what do you love most in life? (laughter)
11. one word to describe you. (emotive)
12. your flickr name. (shadylane)

give it a try.
see what happens!
mine makes me happy!

here are the links for the pictures:
1. Seattle Library - Shaina, 2. #46/08 Happy Chinese New Year..., 3. Okanogan Rail Line - Okanogan - Aug 12, 2006, 4. Island, 5. Christian Bale, 6. White Chocolate Mocha, 7. Boston Skyline at Dusk, 8. Oreos 3, 9. Decipher Reflections from Reality, 10. sheer laughter, 11. emotive., 12. down the road

days of photo editing are my favorite!

so i've got a cd full of pictures from shelby and charly's wedding that i've been working on~ so much fun. while at the wedding, and all the family was together, my aunt kathy asked me to take some pictures of her kids and grandbaby aiden. so i edited them for her today, along with some others i'd like to share.





and here are some more of my favorites from the wedding.




i really hope that everyone likes their photos. i simply love being a photographer and continuing to learn and grow in my skills and personal view. its a fun process.

its wednesday....but this is my "weekend update"
(cuz monday and tuesday are my "weekend")

i went shopping
and found things that fit
and make me feel good about myself.
its my new favorite store: maurices
and i'm going back as soon as possible!
and the tiny scrapbook store was having a sale!
i got stuff i needed (and used it that night!)

my sister megan came to visit.
i missed that girl....
she is turning into a beautiful woman.

:)
i took her shopping! and gave her 4 bags of clothes out of my closet.
feeling good to purge....

monday was bookstudy.
signing is feeling natural again.
i interpreted a big chunk of the meeting on tuesday.
and was proud of myself.

i love my coffee job. :)

chris and i had our first fight.
but we're all good.

i got to drive the car a lot! it made me smile.

i talked to kelly.
i talked to micah.
i talked to RD.
i talked to my mom.
and then i paid the phone bill. :P

this is last night's sunset.
pure magic.

all in all.... that's all there is.
and i'm writing it down.
......

it was a productive night

i ended up making 7 layouts and finishing my group of ATC's.
the steady hand; faulty heart art journaling class has been such an inspiration to me so far and expanded my creativity already! these are the 3 pages i've made from the tutorials so far:




then here are the other pages i did. i used some of the stuff from my new september SFAC kit. loving the colors on this. :D





i am feeling so good about all of this. i had just a fantastic day yesterday. i even bought some new clothes that fit! imagine that! and all the things i purchased at the scrapbook store i used and i scrapped all but one of the pictures i printed out. hopefully there is more to come!

enjoy the rest of your weekend!!

*today i*

-slept in for the first time in 2 weeks

-took a nice long shower

-got to drive our new car to work and parked her so i can stare out the window at her! :)

-painted my fingernails black

-saw myself in this quote:
"I am one of the searchers. There are, I believe, millions of us. We are not unhappy, but neither are we really content. We continue to explore life, hoping to uncover its ultimate secret. We continue to explore ourselves, hoping to understand. We like to walk along the beach, we are drawn by the ocean, taken by its power, its unceasing motion, its mystery and unspeakable beauty. We like forests and mountains, deserts and hidden rivers, and the lonely cities as well. Our sadness is as much a part of our lives as is our laughter. To share our sadness with one we love is perhaps as great a joy as we can know - unless it be to share our laughter.

We searchers are ambitious only for life itself, for everything beautiful it can provide. Most of all we love and want to be loved. We want to live in a relationship that will not impede our wandering, nor prevent our search, nor lock us in prison walls; that will take us for what little we have to give. We do not want to prove ourselves to another or compete for love.

For wanderers, dreamers, and lovers, for lonely men and women who dare to ask of life everything good and beautiful. It is for those who are too gentle to live among wolves."
~James Kavanaugh

-discovered and fell in love with a new photographer

-finally figured out how i could add pictures to my facebook

-signed up to receive the anthro catalog to drool over

-ate subway for lunch with my hubs

-took a drive alone to the scrapbook store in town

-studied my watchtower and watched the DVD

-created things and listened to the football game in the background

-told my husband that i loved him over and over

-made sure my best friend knew i was thinking of her (123)

-dreamed of taking pictures

-looked forward to the sunset

-thoroughly enjoyed the day....

so let me tell you a story....


so yesterday at the place where i work the toilet overflowed.... and BAD! i had the door closed, the music on, and lots of customers so i couldn't hear it running all over the floor. when i finally noticed it there was a huge puddle everywhere. so i just reacted! i turned the water off at the valve, grabbed what towels i had and called the other lady i work with to bring some of her towels down. and i got it cleaned up. then i called the landlord and left a message on his phone saying that i had a bit of a flood and that there was something wrong with the toilet. he gets the message and comes running down. (here is the part where i need to insert that this man is not kind to women, and is one of the most condescending, rude men you will ever meet.) so he shows up. figures out what's wrong with the toilet, fixes it and goes on his way.

then today he comes back by. he hands me a box and says: "you made my day yesterday so now i'm making yours." the box is full of chocolates and and a thank you card that reads: "thank you for your effort. you reacted above the cal of duty."

so there you go! its nice to be appreciated, especially by a man such as him. cool eh?

tonight chris and i are planning on going out to sing karaoke. i am SO EXCITED!!! its been forever since we've went out together. and i miss listening to my boy sing. can't wait.

i decided to get in on Rachel Denbow's new art journaling class: steady hands; faulty heart. i have some ideas floating around in my head.... hoping to get some things together tomorrow and get some pages made.

i am totally inspired......

so i stamped
i hand stitched
i wrote.
and i love it.

this is my bio-page done for THe CrEative TyPe. its not up on the site yet, but i loved it so much i wanted to post it here. :D

i've been feeling creatively stifled lately. not sure why. but then i got a quite note from rhi. exactly what i needed to hear. so tonight i'm going home to create. because *i AM art*
thanks rhi!

i've also started a really cool photography series called: "september sunsets" and i've been taking a picture of the sun setting each day of this month. so head on over to my flickr stream and check it out.
i <3 fall!

Mr. & Mrs. Ford

so this is what i did over the weekend:
my sister shelby got married on saturday to her now husband, charly. it was a simple outdoor ceremony that went just perfect!

and i got to take the pictures!!! wahoo! these two are probably my favorite. so now i've got the big job ahead of me of editing and organizing all the pictures. i'm going to have so much fun. :D

i also finally got to drive the new car. chris stayed home over the weekend so i had my new baby! i love driving this car. too much fun!

in other news: my coffee job is going really well. my boss has already left me alone with the shop. not bad after one week and no experience! and making tips is pretty cool. :P so now i've got the rest of the afternoon off. i'm going to swing by a new antique shop that just opened up and then go home to scrapbook!

happy shaina!

and we took a drive together....
cuz we get 42 miles to the gallon!!!




it was the perfect evening.
the two greatest thing in my life right now: chris and the car!!
i am happy.
and that's a terrific feeling.....

announcement!!!!

i want to introduce my new friend: chloe!!


as you know, chris and i have been having some serious car trouble for the last month. so much so that we've pretty much parked my old car and have been borrowing one from a friend. so we decided to buy a new one.

this is my dream car. its a 2008 ford focus, kiwi green, manual transmission, with the SYNC system in it. pretty much amazing!

i'm in love.... <3

there is a brother in my old hall in omak that works at a ford dealership and he found it for me. he said it was the last brand new one in this color and manual. so we decided to snatch her up!! i am so excited about it. we drove it home from omak last night at got 41 mpg! how AWESOME is that? just what we need. so chris will be using it mostly during the week for his hour total commute.

things are looking up..... and that makes me smile. :D

*the name game*

(just a fun e-mail thing i got from a friend! give it a try, its fun!)

REAL NAME: shaina christina lee-ann longstreet
GANGSTA NAME: (first 4 letters of your real name + izzle) shaizzle
DETECTIVE NAME: (favorite color + favorite animal) pink elephant
SOAP OPERA NAME: (your middle name + street you live on) lee-ann hemlock
STAR WARS NAME: (first 3 letters of your last name + first 2 of middle name) lonle
SUPERHERO NAME: (2nd favorite color + favorite drink) green mocha
WITNESS PROTECTION NAME: (parents middle names) christina elliot
GOTH NAME: ("black" + name of a pet) black tucker

ok that was silly.... oh well. :P

so i started my new job yesterday morning. LOVE IT!!! i made all the blended drinks yesterday and all the drive up window orders today. so much fun! i really like my boss and i'm picking things up pretty fast. and i made 7 bucks in tips today. i've never had a job making tips before, so this is a big deal to me.

in other news: its september!! holy cow. when did that happen? seriously, this summer has gone by soooo fast! but fall is by far my favorite season. i love the crispness in the air, wearing jackets and scarfs, and the changing of the leaves. some people say that its the end of things....the leaves die, everything goes brown, etc.... but i feel so alive during the autumn. it makes me smile just thinking about it. :D

so, in honor of fall....i have the first sunset of september to share with you. enjoy.

<3

I finally figured it out!

so i've been trying to turn my blog into a 3-column layout for months.... but to no avail. perhaps i'm just HTML stupid or something. but thanks to my new pal sandy (and a link to a website she sent me) i finally got it! so with that, and some new yummies from scrapblog, i've got a new layout and look for my blog.

so what do you think??

and just FYI: i've got some exciting news to share on thursday!! any guesses? ;)