Prayers and well wishes for Felix!

Mr. Felix Wilson Bates has had a minor set back in his plan to rule the world.  He has a really bad case of bronchitis and asthma.  His breathing has been very labored and he has been feeling very crummy.  (Nolen and Trevor, he feels your pain).  He has been given two steroid shots, and must take some antibiotics and other meds.  He is upstairs resting in a quiet room away from his crazy sister who barks her head off at just a leaf floating to the ground.  And I am sure he is enjoying the peace and quiet where she can not chase him into every corner of the house. 

In no time he will be back to modeling for the camera...

...giving his signature look...

...scaring the daylights out of us with the threat of his bite...

...telling me to get the hell out of his face...

...leaping because of Jules/said toy/any person trying to pet him...

...and being evil :)

We love you Mr. Wilson.  While sweet Angel is wishing that you feel better because she cares out her brother, Jules just wants someone to chase.

Gettin creative

 Because of all the goodies I received from Christmas (photoshop, lenses, filters, books...)  I have really been trying to brush up on my photography skills.  What I have tried to focus on mostly is shooting manually.  Why have a camera like this and not take full advantage, right?

I have really been focusing in the f-stop, which in my words, is a way to focus more on one area, while other areas that are near are blurred.  For example, if I had not changed the f-stop manually, the picture of the paint brushes would be focused on the brushes, water, and cup.

Again (although I need more practice on moving subjects) Jules' ear is blurry while her eye is not because I manually changed the f-stop, or aperture.

And here is just a picture I painted.  The background is a two-tone type of technique I tried.  First, I painted purple on the blank canvas.  On top of the purple, I painted green.  Then, I laid a paper towel with a neat texture on top of the canvas, and then pulled it off which exposed the purple underneath with the neat pattern intact.   Although it is much easier to see the texture in real life, it looks very neat.  Enjoy!