Not a Full Effort

I've been giving a lot of thought lately to my life and what direction I'm headed in. As I was doing this I had the realization that I've been doing things "halfway" for too long.

Let me elaborate a bit, growing up I didn't really try hard in school. Mainly because I didn't have to. It just came easily to me. Once I got in high school I had problems with math, but that was about it. I still made good grades in everything else by not giving 100% of what I could have given.

That attitude in college burned me big time. If I have any regrets in my life, college is it. I didn't try like I should have and my GPA from college, although not bad, isn't as good as it could be either.

The last couple years post college I haven't let this attitude get to me as much. I wasn't sure what I wanted to do as a career and now that I've narrowed it down to two choices I can concentrate on what I'm doing. I realized yesterday talking to Sean that I've kind of been half-trying at photography as well. I'm just sort of doing it, without really planning or putting anything into other than taking the pictures and editing them.

Now I've sort of drawn-up (well at least in my head) a plan for going further with this photography dream. I wanted your opinions yesterday so I could sort of gauge the interest level in my photography. One of these days (hopefully soon) I'd like to have a website up where you can order prints from me. I'm looking into a flash site for my photography too. Anyone have any experience with Photobiz? I'd like to know your opinions if you have.

I think it's time I gave it my full effort.

Chatty Cathy

Today I'm going to be a bit of a Chatty Cathy. I've got a lot on my mind.

1. Thanks for the birthday comments yesterday. They made my day!

2. I got my Forever 21 order in today. Nothing like new clothes to brighten my day.

3. This is totally random, but I love vintage or vintage-esque shirts. I ordered one with this last clothing order and it's so cute.



4. My boss is leaving for a similiar position in Germany. I've decided to give it some time here and see how I like the person who replaces her. Then depending on that and if I start my Masters I may or may not continue to work here. Don't get me wrong, I like it here, I like the money and I feel grateful to have a job overseas BUT sometimes I feel like I'm missing out on the whole overseas experience.

5. Megan starting her own business has encouraged me to work some more on starting my own photography business. Currently I'm researching some more lenses/lighting equipment. What I want my website to look like and I'm still working on the name for my business.

I do have a question for you out there and please be honest. Would you purchase photography prints of the subjects that I shoot? Such as travel, landscape, etc. Eventually I want to photograph children, families, etc, but I also want to continue to do other forms of photography.

Today is a Special Day!

I might be a little biased about it being a special day, but it's my birthday! More specifically it's my 26th birthday!



Sean and I are going out to dinner tonight, but I already have my presents. He got me a much needed external hard drive to store all my pictures on and the 2nd and 3rd season of Big Love. The third season isn't released yet, but I can't wait to watch the 2nd.

Do you guys have any birthday traditions? Growing up my Mom always made me my cake. I always chose strawberry cake as the base of it though. She also always let me plan my birthday dinner. I loved being able to choose what I wanted to eat for my birthday. That's probably a tradition I'll continue with my own children one of these days.

Oh and FYI, I'm planning a giveaway in honor of my birthday, BUT I need to get a few more things for it, so look for that within the week.

Just a Taste

Here's a few pics from the weekend. More should follow in the next couple of days.

Can I just say I think Italy hates us? Let me explain.

Wherever we go in Italy we always have some sort of trouble. Gas strikes, heavy traffic and this weekend? Train strike. We drove, but in Cinque Terre we overheard some people talking about a train strike. No big deal, we thought it started at midnight. Uh no. It started at 9:00 p.m. By some miracle we caught the last train to La Spezia. I'm so glad we did, because when I heard we might be stuck in the the next to farthest town from where we were staying I almost started to cry. No joke.

First up: The cheesy Pisa picture.



Next up is the non-cheesy picture. I was going for the 50's vintage postcard vibe



This was probably the most Tuscan picture I got. I think the best "typical" Tuscan views were south of Siena and we didn't go that far.



I loved the color of this Vespa



Our first seafood platter of the weekend. It may not look like it, but it was delish!



Monterosso (one of the Cinque Terre towns)

Tote Bag Wanted

Does anyone have any good suggestions for tote bags? I'm looking for one that is sturdy, cute and fairly large. It doesn't have to be monogrammed though. I thought about the standard ones from LL Bean, but I want something cuter. I do however, what something the size of the large LL Bean bag.

Any suggestions?

Tour of Tuscany

Originally Sean and I had planned on leaving for Tuscany this morning, but Italy had other plans for us. Currently there is a gas strike going on in Italy and all gas stations have been shut down since Wednesday night. They are not due to open until Friday at 10a.m. We have about 1/2 tank of gas, which in my careful mind is not enough to get to where we want to go and then search for a hotel if need be.

So....we are leaving early tomorrow morning. We plan on staying in Lucca, which is easy striking distance to Pisa and a few of the Tuscan hill towns we plan on visiting tomorrow. Saturday will be Cinque Terre and I'm finally going to get to swim there too!

Early Sunday morning we're going to drive back to Vicenza so I can work. I'm a little disappointed we aren't leaving today as originally planned, but in reality we are only a couple of hours from Tuscany so I figure this will be one of many visits.

Look for cheesy pics of me holding up the Leaning Tower when I get back!

Ciao!

Austria in Pictures

Here are a lot more of the pics I took while on the trip. I still don't have them all edited, but these are some of my faves.



Boomer enjoying the room



The decorations in our bathroom



The random no camping sign down from our hotel. I thought it was kind of random.



I loved the mountains around us. So beautiful!



This was one of the more famous landmarks in Innsbruck, supposedly the emperor used to sit out underneath it and watch the people below.



Kebabs. Sean and I probably had three of these while in Innsbruck. So delish!



One of the pubs we visited.



Sean modeling the local hats



My baked potato with parmesean, tomatoes and rucola.



No joke that this was five minutes later. I was STARVING!



A bar we passed. I thought it's sign looked like the one in the Cocktail movie.



One of the main streets in the historic center



Lamborghini I spotted from our hotel window



I love the style of the churches



Odd display in one of the windows



My amazing Chicken Shai Korma at the Indian restaurant



I showed you guys a pic of this church the other day, but here's a shot of it with my wide angle lens.



This was the beautiful organ in the back of the church



The interior of the church.



More mountains...couldn't get enough of them



My first attempt at a panorma with this camera. It still needs to be tweaked a bit.