May 22, 2021 The second year we were here we got an early start on summer beach fun, no need to wait for spring to officially end. It was warm and nice enough at the end of May for the kids to hop into the bay and go for a swim. I’m sure Alistair and Ariana were the first to throw off their clothes and jump in the water, but Arin decided to join them for some salt water shenanigans. It was a beautiful and sunny afternoon, but that still couldn’t tempt Mom and Dad to join them. Arthas still…
On my birthday this year I had some spare time so I decided to make a slideshow of photos and videos from all the years past. Well, all the years that show up on my Amazon Photos ‘Look Back at This Day” section, that is. So basically from 2006-2020 with a few years left out or represented by a single cupcake photo. I added in a few snapchat videos over the years to spice it up a little bit too, and I was so excited to post it up on my birthday. My video software had other ideas, however. I…
Finally managed to take a proper video of the kids in 4k, and it’s from this past weekend so it’s current too! It’s also not a short video and not in phone format so basically a real youtube-style vlog for once! The weather was nice and warm so we decided to all go outside and explore the woods around our yard. Two years ago we did a lot of work clearing out trails and getting rid of prickers, but of course they have all grown back now! We also had almost completed a trail through our giant patch of reeds…
I came across this author several years ago but was reminded today of how much I loved her – both her children’s books went right into my Amazon cart and were read many times in our home. My favorite is But Who Will Bell the Cats? and here are some images of how she created the book. I spent hours pouring through her gorgeous behind-the-scenes blog about how she made these amazing fairytale images, of course, and you can too: butwhowillbellthecats.blogspot.com This book is called But Who Will Bell the Cats, and is based on an Aesop’s fable. The author,…
While I had some time waiting for Ariana’s Girl Scout Meeting to finish, I decided to go over to the Town Beach and film some of the sights and waves as I walked along the shore. I was so excited because I thought I had a great quality video to upload, but when I got home found out the ‘super steady’ setting downscales the resolution a lot, so the video doesn’t look that great. Now that I know, I might go back another day and film this again, or just try filming some of the other local beaches. You can…
Welcome to a typical early morning waiting for the school bus to arrive to take Ariana and Alistair to kindergarten and first grade! We get to wait at the end of our driveway for a little while, and today the kids decided to play tick-tac-toe with sticks in the driveway. The November weather is still pretty mild, but cold enough for jackets, and happily today we didn’t have to huddle together for warmth as there was no biting wind. The video also shows a quick look around at the late autumn trees with pretty yellow leaves that are still clinging…
I just uploaded a new short video to our Lands Beyond Seas Youtube channel for the first time in five years! Its a short video montage of Arthas and Ariana playing outside on a cool but sunny mid-November day. I took a lot of photos but no video, luckily my phone saves motion photos and stuck together they make what I think is a super cute video. The kids enjoyed playing on their tree fort swing set, swinging on all the swings, and running through the yard and the crunch leaves during the early evening. It’s a bit chilly so…
I’ve just uploaded some new prints to my photography shop and wanted to share them here too. If you like any of them you can head over to the Old Lantern Lane store and purchase them in a variety of sizes and formats, all the way through tiny magnets to full size gallery canvases and everything in between. I don’t have very many prints uploaded to the storefront yet, I had a lot edited and ready to go but they were lost in a hard drive swap and now I have to go back to the originals and re-edit them.…
Now it is finally time for Part 2 of Trick-or-Treating… a few months later. I spent a lot of time working on videos recently and even though these pictures were all already edited, they kind of fell by the wayside but of course, I did not forget, so without further ado, here they are. If you’ve seen Part 1 of Trick-or-Treating for 2021 you’ll know that it was a gorgeous evening, we went out early for once, and got back in record time. We caught the most amazing sunset which made for a ton of spectacular images that I just…
Halloween evening this year was an absolutely spectacular night for Trick-or-Treating. The weather was quite warm, the sky put on a stunning sunset, and the neighborhoods were swarming with costumed people in a merry mood. I edited a ton of pictures so this is going to be a two-part post, enjoy! After last year, where trick-or-treating was banned due to the pandemic, it seems everyone was eager to have a fun All Hallow’s Eve. Children, adults, and even the elusive teenagers were out in droves, all in costume and in a festive spirit. For Arthas, I picked out the cutest…