So I've been slacking A LOT lately. The holidays really bring out the lazy in me. With all the cooking and cleaning and organizing -ugh. I didn't have much time to come on here and post. Well FH and I bought a DSLR with our Xmas money and GC's. Its a Nikon D40X - amazing peice of equipment, btw! I still don't know how to use it properly, so my shots aren't that great yet. If you have one of these and would like to lend me a hand, please do so - I need all the help I can get! I am having problems taking close-ups. I can't get too close with my camera on the macro setting otherwise it won't take the picture. I don't know why, but... whatever. So here is a couple of pictures I took. No real theme, just me fooling around.

beam me up biscotti!

My mother and I baked some tasty cranberry pistachio biscotti today, and MAN are they good! I figured since this week's theme is "food" that I would snap a few pics of our fabulous cookies.
I got really up close and personal with the cranberries *drools* and now my mother thinks I'm insane *thumbs up* because I am snapping pictures of dried fruit and raw dough. aaaah well!
Oh and if someone can give me pointers on how to take macro shots WITH a flash but WITHOUT a shadow, that would really help a sister out! you can see it in the first cranberry shot.
Here they are!

The Mask

I must apologize for my slack these past few days. A lot has gone on around here so I haven't had time to take any pictures. I managed to take one this morning though. Its a ceramic mask that I got many many moons ago. Its really pretty up close... not so friendly looking far away though! lol enjoy!

Mandarin Lights

Have you ever been to the Mandarin? Its a Chinese restaurant chain... not sure if they have them all over Canada, but they're quite popular here in the GTA. I took FH out again tonight because I wanted to see some Xmas lights. Half way to downtown Brampton I changed my mind and told him to take me to the Mandarin instead. The one in Brampton does up a huge light display around this time of year. It is so gorgeous. There isn't a tree on the entire property that isn't completely covered in lights. I snapped a few photos, but they don't it justice. You have to see this place with your own eyes to truly appreciate it.

I didn't try for any creative shots tonight. It was too damn cold! I just tried to capture the colours and that was it. My poor fingers were frozen.

Well the weather outside is frightful.......

freezing rain.... snow.... slush = no good photo opportunities! I was really upset all day because there was no way I could get out and take some decent pictures. Everything in my house is so blah - with the exception of our unfinished Xmas decor, our entire house is beige. I like beige... but I wanted COLOUR! So I convinced Marco to take me out in the car and look for something cool to photograph. We ended up in the A&P. Yes... I am officially the "crazy lady with the camera" who goes into grocery stores at 10pm to take pictures! Yep, got a few looks while I was in there. I am somewhat pleased with my shots.... who knew you could get great pictures in the supermarket?

Just to start

I have decided to join the girls in the "picture a day" challenge. Unfortunately my camera decided to die on me today, so I was unable to take any pics. Intead, I leave you with this; my all time favourite picture from my trip to Italy this summer. There was a serious thunder storm keeping us up all night long, so we decided to open the door to our balcony and watch. As soon as I did that, the clouds parted and the sun started to rise. It was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen.