My girls go to the sweetest little preschool called Asbury Community Christian Preschool.  It is about 5 minutes from our house & we have come to love it over the past 3 years.  This is Emma’s last year here *sniff  sniff* and I was honored to be a part of their killer fundraiser this year.  I mean there is so much creativity & talent among these mothers you just wouldn’t believe it.

I was brought in to the annual fundraiser a little later than the rest of the committee, but when they had me to one of their meetings, I was blown away.  They were talking silent auction, live auction, lettuce wraps from P.F. Chang’s, children’s artwork  hung throughout the school, live music, etc.  Well, needless to say, these wonderful plans we had were thwarted by a TON of snow.  We weren’t able to advertise like we wanted, the weekend of the event was when a ton of other events were rescheduled to happen, and ticket sales just weren’t what they needed to be to make a profit.  So, in their amazing flexibility, these mothers decided to change the fundraiser dinner & auction to a week-long presentation of the kids’ artwork hung throughout the school hallways and place every item up for silent auction in the school’s lobby for parents to see & bid on.

Oh, and we had a little surprise for the parents too (and this is where I came in): next to each and every 209 pieces of artwork is a matted 5×7 photograph of the child that created the artwork.  And I got to capture them all!  I was so excited to be able to do this for my girls’ school!  Over the course of 3 days in November, I got to meet each and every child that attended Asbury, get them to pose for me, bribe them with Skittles, and just firm up how much I LOVE what I do!  It was an honor.

So….back to the fundraiser.  When parents walk down the hall to drop their children off, they are greeted by their child’s artwork and a photograph of their child.  I mean, c’mon, who WOULDN’T buy that?  These fundraiser committee moms are geniuses!  I was helping out with sales this morning and they got so many parents coming to the checkout table saying, “I want that artwork!  Where do I pay?”  How awesome is that!  I’m excited to see all the great things that Asbury does with the funds they raise this year.  Great work ladies!  Here’s a few more photos so you get a little idea of what it all looks like….

She’s a little late for the Polar Bear Plunge, and no, we don’t live in any tropical place.  In fact, we live in Maryland where were are being prepared for yet another snow storm sometime today into tomorrow.  “They” are predicting anywhere from 10 – 20 inches…AGAIN!  And here is my little Emma donning her bathing suit!  I guess the girl has some serious cabin fever, or maybe she is trying to will Spring & Summer to get their butts in gear!  Whatever she is thinking, she’s doing it while wearing this swimsuit & flip flops.  She’s also packed her little suitcase with clothes for “hot weather” as she tells me.  Maybe she’s planning on sneaking out to Florida or someplace tonight.  I better keep an eye on that one!

And if this snow is getting you down, I have two fun things for you!  First, go to Accu Weather and watch this crazy meteorologist.  You’ll crack up!  His name is Jim Kosek & he’s CRAZY!  Second, go to Living Locurto & download some FREE printable & super duper cool Valentine’s.  They are for boys or for girls & might help if you are stuck inside for a few days.  And it also might be Valentine’s day before we get back to preschool!

I’m off to clean up the Summer things and make my kid put some clothes on!

Today we trekked through 30 inches of snow for this lil’ guy’s birthday!  Well, not really.  The 30 inches ended on Saturday, so it’s probably close to about 1 to 2 feet packed down.  And Lucas just lives about 10 houses up from us.  So it wasn’t THAT bad, but I like to have one of those, “We used to walk to school with no shoes in the snow….” stories like your grandparents used to tell you.

Today was Lucas’ 3rd birthday party and luckily everyone invited lived in the neighborhood.  Lucas is a major Cars fan (the movie) so his cake was Cars, the decorations were Cars, and most of his presents were Cars.  We felt so lucky to be able to get out & walk to our dear friends’ house to celebrate with them.  Thank you Lucas for inviting us all!  Happy birthday!

When I took our puppy, Ruby, out this morning to potty, I saw that this snow wasn’t going to last long.  It was so soft & fluffy, and stuck beautifully to the trees around our house.  I went back inside & snapped the photo above of a little tree.  There wasn’t anything spectacular about it.  I think shooting in snow is a little difficult.  It’s hard to make white things stand out when there’s nothing but white behind them.  So, I opened this photo in Lightroom & decided to try some of the free presets I downloaded on it.  This preset is called “Cold Desire.”

And that brings me to the Photos I’ve been looking at:  Presets Heaven.  Pierre created the site Presets Heaven and it holds nothing but FREE presets for Adobe Lightroom.  They are awesome!  There are soooooooo many to choose from.  I loved how this one made my one little snow covered tree stand out from everything else behind it.  What a huge difference!  Here’s how the photo looked SOOC (straight out of the camera):

Now I realize I just blogged earlier about NOT fixing things in Photoshop, and I don’t feel this photo needed any “fixing.”  I just wanted to play around with it & see what I could transform it in to.  I had fun!

Happy snow day….again!

Um, who else thought it would STILL be snowing here in Maryland at 5 o’clock?  I didn’t!  The snow is still coming down strong.  And then a quiet knock came on the front door and hello Robin & Chris!  What a welcome surprise!  Robin is my sister-in-law & Chris is her love.  They came by just to check on us & clean off the car.  Aren’t they sweet!  I made them pose for this photo before they cleaned off the car.  We tried to do the pose like the farm, his wife, & the pitchfork, but it was kinda cold.

Happy snow day!