Make My Monday- "Life as I See It"

Happy Monday!! I tried to post this at 6:30 this morning...however Blogger had other ideas. Not sure what was wrong...but at last I can post. It's Monday so ya' know what that means...."Make My Monday". I absolutely LOVE these. Getting to know each one of you better just makes my day:)

Today's Featured Blogger is Rhonda Steed from "Life as I See It".  Enjoy!!

Hi, Ronda! I found you just poking around the Net one night. What caught my eye was your Martha Stewart Baking project...reminded me of Julie and Julia. Can you tell us about this?

Sure! My husband is in school. He's been in school almost our entire marriage. (but we are almost done! hooray!) And I've been a stay at home mom for a lot of it too. Some days I feel like he is learning so much and I am not. So I wanted to find something that I love to do but could get better at. And I thought of cooking and baking. I do make most of our food from scratch but I wanted to expand my abilities in the kitchen. I had gotten this cookbook out from the library and was amazed at all the recipes in it. It covers really anything you would want to bake. So I decided to try them all. Then I watched the movie Julie and Julia and decided to make it a real goal by giving it a timeline. It has 209 recipes in it and I wanted to do them all in a year. I'm not going in order or else we would be eating a whole lot of cookies for a month and then a whole lot of cakes, etc. So I just bake something out of it at least once a week. And sometimes (often) I make more than one. Today I made French Almond Macaroons. :) My biggest challenge with it has been finding all the ingredients. Some times I have had to phone my grandma and read her the recipe and ask her what I could substitute for an ingredient cause I just couldn't find it anywhere. That and not gaining lots of weight :)

Your photographs are simple amazing!! Is photography your first love? Tell us about how you got into it and about your business...also any tips for taking better shots?

Ah thanks! I took photography back in college with a SLR and a dark room and all the chemicals. It was focused on photo journalism as I was in Advertising & Public Relations. Then I kind got out of it (didn't have a very good camera).
Fast forward a few years and I was taking lots of pictures of my kids with a point and shoot. A really close friend asked me to do her wedding - which I did - with a borrowed SLR. Found out I love doing this. Then when we got into medical school I convinced my hubby to let me buy a DSLR. And I've been taking pictures for others since then. (almost 4 years). That said I totally still consider myself an amateur!!  I do love love taking pictures. I love taking pictures. I love taking pictures of my own children and family. I love watching a bride and her new husband so in love with each other. I love seeing a mother with her brand new baby. I love being around a newly engaged couple who are completely head over heels in love with each other. I love chatting with kids and chasing them around with my camera. I love when someone lets me try whatever I want to with the camera. I love it when families come with things that make them unique. Pieces of them. Special stuffed animals or skateboards. People who will let me direct them but also interact with each other lovingly and naturally. I am so very grateful for the opportunity to learn and grow as a photographer and get to know so many wonderful people. I'd say one big tip would be to make sure the eyes are in focus. Cause if they are in focus the whole picture will look more in focus. That and learn what the rule of thirds is. It'll improve your photography a whole bunch. And the more you shoot the more you improve!

How did you get into blogging and why?

We used to live in Nova Scotia, Canada (for more school) and I was a long ways from home. I had just had my first kid and I wanted to share scrapbooking pages and pictures and tidbits about our life for our families that were far away. Then if grew into more about scrapbooking. And then grew into more about my kids and life (since I had more kids) and now it's evolved to include cooking, baking, scrapbooking, crafts and my kids. I like to dabble in a lot of things and I think my blog shows that. 

Tell us a bit of fun stuff about you....

If you were on a deserted Island what TOP 3 books would you take?

The Scriptures, The Martha Stewart Baking Handbook (assuming I have a kitchen to cook in) :) and A Joyful Mother of Children: The Magic and Mayhem of Motherhood by Linda Eyre (lets' face it I need reminders to stay sane)

Favorite dessert?

It changes a lot. I think dessert is the best part of the meal. My two favorite flavors are chocolate and lemon. mmmmmmm

What inspires you?

art, quilting, nature, reading, blogs, 

Are there any movies that have inspired you to be a better person? Share them with us!!

mmmmmm  Forrest Gump (my husband told me to put that)

Anything else you would like to add?

Thanks for asking me Leslie!! :)
Thanks so much, Rhonda!! Be sure and stop by and say HI to Rhonda very soon. Take time to enjoy her photos, her recipes and her bits of inspiration. You will love how "at home" you feel.

**By the way...Rhonda is working on a Header for my blog. Can't wait to see it!!

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Okay...on with my WORD from last week. Lots of good stuff happened along with stress. Actually I let it get me down several times. On the up side....my pain level was like a 1 at most. I am so full of energy!!!! On the downside...I let all my "to-do's" drag me down. I literally had to sit myself down and remind myself how blessed I was to have NO pain...I can do ANYTHING without pain and do it with a SMILE on my face!!!

  I can't think of one word right now that really fits...so I will be BACK!!:)