My love affair with Atlanta

I have to say, I just LOVE living in Atlanta! The city is beautiful, the people are so nice (true "southern hospitality" DOES exist!), and there always seems to be something to do. Seriously, every time I open my email and read one of the 153 Atlanta newsletters and discount sites I've signed up for, they are pushing some sort of event, exhibit or festival. Don't even get me started on the festivals. There is one every weekend. Especially in the Fall, this city just seems to love their festivals. No complaints here! We had a few back in Tampa but most of the time they were hot, crowded and overpriced. There are also farmers markets everywhere and one just happens to be across the street from our place every Saturday morning. I have yet to check out the one at Piedmont Park, but I heard it's great! Maybe this weekend...

Anyway, another thing there seems to be plenty of here are parks, including my beloved Piedmont Park. Attached to Piedmont Park is the Atlanta Botanical Gardens. We've only been there once before. Back in December, we went at night for their Holiday Lights display (which was beautiful!). We had yet to see it during the day, so we strolled through last Saturday afternoon. Here are a few pics from our visit. My favorite are the bumble bees. Oh my gracious are the bees here huge!! I risked getting close enough for the sake of good shots, and it was totally worth it. Surprisingly, I ended up with no bee stings. Just some really cool pics. 

Butterfly in the sky...

If you immediately started singing the theme song to "Reading Rainbow" after reading my blog title, then you just scored some points. Who doesn't love a good 80's show?
I know I've been MIA for awhile, but it's for a good (and big!) reason. More to come on that later on (nope - not pregnant. Guess again). I was playing with Penny in the yard on Friday and noticed how my neighbor's tree was sprouting a bunch of yellow flowers yet again. It's definitely spring! I also noticed this bright orange butterfly that was clearly obsessed with these flowers, as he kept flying over and landing on them, leaving and coming back minutes later. He played this game for awhile until I finally realized he probably just wanted his picture taken. So, I did just that. He didn't sit still very well, but at least I got close enough to get a few shots.

Oh - and chances are, you'll have that theme song stuck in your head for the rest of the day. You're welcome.

I'm a pro now!

Well, not yet. But I did get to take my photography course this Sunday! It was a long day but very informative. I had purchased a deal through LivingSocial a few months ago before I even got my camera. My dad has a really good Canon so I was going to borrow his before I got my own. It was put on by the Florida Center for Creative Photography. They did a classroom session from 9-3:30 and then we went across the street to the park to take some test shots. I still have a few things to learn but they gave us all a DVD with the info from class so that's a great help to use as a reference. Here are some of the pictures from the park.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Since it's Valentine's Day, I thought I'd appropriately post something that's pretty and pink. I bought these flowers over the weekend since I thought they were so bright and pretty! They add such a nice touch to the house. The colors are so vivid that I didn't even need to edit the colors in the pictures - these are actually what they look like. Granted, it's not natural since the water they are in turned hot pink, but that's OK - it just adds more color to the arrangement :)