bright autumn sun bio picture
  • A quick introduction :)

    Hi, I'm Karen Lisa, a 28 year old work-at-home professional photographer. I blog about my life with my sweet baby boy Zachary, loving husband Adrian, and our little dog Maya.

    I love: photography, Twilight, any song by Stevie Nicks, road trips, good music, handmade jewelry, True Blood/Sookie Books, cheese, Harry Potter, animals, traveling, and caviar. What makes you happy?

    Access this site via {siren.org}, {brightautumnsun.com}, or {lifecameraaction.net}! :)

Wordless…. Friday? Shooting on a train

I totally forgot about Wordless Wednesday this week. Zachary was home from preschool sick from Monday to Wednesday, so I was with him pretty much 100% of the time he was home. By 1am on Wednesday, I was falling into bed and realized I forgot to post a photo. Then yesterday, I was going to post… but I also forgot, mainly because I was doing so much work. I’m still working like crazy today, but I do have a photo.

Adrian snapped this image of me with the Canon G11, admiring the scenery while I photographed images from our White Pass train tour on our recent trip to Alaska (yes, I know I still need to make a post. I’m slacking).

You can see me bundled up, carrying my Shootsac lens bag, with my favorite FL Gators hat attached (Go Gators!!).

Shooting on the White Pass

JenSeptember 3, 2010 - 12:19 pm

Awesome shot! ^_^

caseySeptember 3, 2010 - 1:48 pm

that is a super neat shot! Like the blur and the bright camera bag!

NicolaSeptember 4, 2010 - 12:08 am

Awesome pic :-)

AngelaSeptember 7, 2010 - 1:00 am

Uh oh. Sounds like Zachary is building up his school germ artillery! It’s better now than Kindergarten when he’s at school long days 5 days a week. He’s going to need that cast iron immune system!

Great picture! I’m looking foreward to all of the details of this trip!

AngelaSeptember 7, 2010 - 1:02 am

*forward

MollySeptember 8, 2010 - 12:02 am

What a beautiful picture!!!! I hope that Zachary feels better soon poor little dude!

Laurie Berkner CD Giveaway Winner

The winner of the Laurie Berkner CD & Putumayo CD was…. Gianna!

I’ve contacted Gianna by email. If I don’t receive a response within 48 hours, a new winner will be drawn.

Stay tuned for a new giveaway soon! And don’t forget to vote for this blog!

Flashbacks to my childhood

Sorry guys, no Mixtape Mondays today on occasion of my little dude being sick and working ALL weekend. I just don’t have the heart to put one together right now.

In the mean time, check out the True Blood Season 1 Soundtrack, hopefully in honor of the TB ep I’m going to watch tonight, assuming Zachary falls asleep. *sigh* Now on to today’s blog post….

So, as I mentioned, my little guy is sick. Zachary has his first case of the flu! Have you ever dealt with the flu in a not quite 2 year old? Well, let me tell you something, you don’t want to. It pretty much sucks. There is absolutely nothing worse than seeing your little baby feeling so awful!

Getting him to fall asleep was so hard. I had to lay down with him in his bed because he didn’t want to be by himself – of course, there isn’t much room in a toddler bed, so I sat next to the bed at times and rested my head next to him. When that didn’t work, we laid on a blanket on the floor. When that didn’t work, I sat in his chair and held him as he cuddled with me.

I pretty much did whatever Zachary wanted to do throughout the evening to make sure that he was as comfortable as possible, and I think I succeeded because when morning came, I could tell that he felt better, while I felt pretty terrible – LOL.

In my seriously sleep-deprived haze last night, as I went in and out of sleep sitting next to my poor sick baby, I started to have a flashback to my own childhood, thinking about all the times that I got sick as a little girl, and remembering my mother doing exactly what I was doing for my baby – sitting next to me, giving me Tylenol, making sure I was drinking fluids, and rubbing my back.

Though Adrian and were both horribly exhausted, the thought brought a smile to my face, because we were willing to do anything at that point to make Zachary feel better because we love him so much, and I’m sure our parents probably had many a night like that when we were children. It’s nice, in a way (though at that moment it was awful), to live through experiences like that, just to see how our parents have felt for us at any given time in our lives.

If you like my blog, would you mind clicking here to vote? it just takes two clicks to give me a vote! Thanks! And don’t forget about the Laurie Berkner CD giveaway ending tomorrow night!

judyAugust 30, 2010 - 10:24 pm

Thank you…that was very touching that you remember ……… It was well worth all the time we invest in our children, as you are a wonderful mother yourself!!! Children do learn what they live.

Review: B. Toys, Spinaroos & Stackadoos

Do you love toys? I do. One of the reasons I love being a mom is because I get to experience childhood again playing with my son. As I child, I remember how much I LOVED my toys. There were certain toys that I still remember today and a happy feeling comes over me. I’ve always hoped that my son would have that feeling about some of his toys, too.

Enter B. Toys, an amazing modern toy company.

Just B. Just You. B. You.

That’s B. Toys’ motto. Encouraging each child to celebrate their uniqueness and be themselves, all the while exploring their world and to fully enjoying every moment as children. That’s just one reason why I love B. Toys. They’re one of my favorite toy companies that I’ve come across thus far as a mom, and as long as they keep coming out with Toys, we’ll keep buying them.

Each toy that we’ve purchased from them has been uniquely amazing so far, everything is beautifully designed, and their branding is fun, beautiful and captivating! Their packaging reminds you to recycle, and some of the boxes serve a dual purpose and can be taken off and turned around for an instant gift box. Brilliant, right? Some B. Toys may look familiar to you, and that’s because they used to make toys under the Parents’ brand. In fact, Zachary has a couple of their toys with the old branding, and I was impressed then at the great quality of the product. But their new look is awesome, and truly designed with children in mind!

Not only is B. Toys good to the Earth, but they strive to do more. They donate 10 cents from the purchase of each toy to Free the Children, a charity designed to free children from poverty.

Zachary and I have a few favorite B. Toys – we started with the Hellophone. It’s recordable, so every time Zachary presses one of the buttons, he hears me say, “Mommy loves you!” It makes him smile, which makes me smile. Soon after came the Toulouse Lap-trec, a “neverending sketchpad” with magnetic animal stamps. Little Z loves to draw so this toy was a hit! Another B. Toy we love is their FunKeys, which makes 4 different car sounds and has a little flashlight that Zachary likes to turn on. He also likes using it to pretend to unlock our front door. Clever, isn’t he? :)

I am very excited to have been given the opportunity to review B. Toys Spinaroos and Stackadoos. These are the B. Toys version of Bristle Blocks, yes, the kind you may have played with when you were a kid. But… they are different. They are special.

b toys

Look at how colorful this bin of blocks is? (yes, the Spinadoos come in a big orange storage bin – way cool!) There are all kinds of different pieces in there which you can build anything you can think up. Their toys lend SO much to the imagination. It’s pretty amazing!

In my orange bin, I have both the Stackadoos and Spinaroos stuffed in there, and it’s practically overflowing!  There are so many different pieces that come with each set.

The Stackadoos are the more basic set which lets your child use his or her imagination to build whatever structures you can dream up, in any color of the rainbow. The set comes with a reusable bag, but I put all of ours in the bin with our Spinaroos.

The Spinaroos takes that one step further with spinning structures to stack on to, crazy shapes and faces, and even more bristle blocks! You can get either one, or both of them, but having both is twice the fun! And I really love all the different spinning shapes included in the Spinaroos!

b toys

The sets come with a pretty little guide book with designs and ideas for building your own creations. I tried some of those with Zachary but he definitely preferred to pick and choose his favorite pieces and make something up on his own. I loved seeing that side of him since other block sets we have are very standard, while the B. Toys bristle blocks are so unique and colorful and have very different shapes compared to “regular blocks” – it was truly fun playing with him and helping him figure out how to put his own design together.

b toys

I definitely helped Zachary put this together, but the blocks are easy enough to use that his little fingers had no problem grasping them and connecting them to other blocks. Can you see the look of concentration on his face? He was REALLY into playing with this toy, and after I stopped taking photos, we had a great time building more structures up, tearing them down, and then doing it all over again. I really like the Bristle Blocks that B. Toys has designed because they are engaging, exciting, aesthetically pleasing, and they are a toy that can be used over and over again in many different ways, which is really important when you have a toddler. Bristle Blocks were some of my very favorite toys growing up, and I hope that Zachary treasures his Stackadoos and Spinaroos as much as I loved my toys as a child – and as much as I love these amazing and unique toys from B. Toys!

I have a feeling we’ll soon be buying B.’s brand new set, the Bristle Block Thing-a-ma-JIG’s, which include duck feet, flowers, funny faces, and even more to add to your bristle block sculptures!

I’d love it if you checked out their website (which is amazing – very interactive – and beautiful!), and followed B. Toys on Facebook as well as Twitter. They are always posting about something inspiring – so don’t wait to check them out!

disclosure: I received a box of goodies from B. Toys to review, but all opinions expressed are my own!

judyAugust 27, 2010 - 9:40 pm

What a great and user friendly toy this is. It has a good attention span quality for toddlers and above. Easy for mom and child alike.

amberAugust 29, 2010 - 5:49 pm

I’m definitely going to have to check these out – the boy picked a “bristle-type” toy for his friend’s birthday and every time he goes over he goes right for it!
Amber :)
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Wordless Wednesday: White Pass, in motion

Adrian and I took the White Pass & Yukon Route railway tour on our cruise when we ported in Skagway, Alaska. It was a fun, 3 hour train tour that took us up to the Canadian border. The weather was cold, the air was fresh, and the scenery was beautiful.

View large version.

White Pass: In motion

July 20th, 2010
Canon 5D . 35mm f/1.4L
ISO 200 . f/8.0 . 1/30 sec

@my_motherinlawAugust 25, 2010 - 2:22 pm

love it! This is totally frame-able!
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