I’ve been doing a lot of work around the house lately getting things organized, simplifying, paring down and throwing things away/donating. Sitting down too much doesn’t agree with this pregnancy (I get pins and needles in my legs, not to mention that persistent lower back pain), so I have been trying to avoid discomfort by walking around my house and being productive! It’s been working out great, and while it’s not “exercise” it still gets me moving in ways I hadn’t anticipated.

This past week, I stocked up on some organizing supplies at Target and got to work in our bathrooms.

My guest bathroom (which is also the kid bathroom) wasn’t really disorganized, but there was a lot of “stuff” on the counter and no real place to put an extra roll of TP or a tissue box. A plastic shoebox solved that problem, and now holds the aforementioned items, plus some room spray, a lotion, and Zachary’s bubble bath. Now the only items sitting on the actual countertop are hand soap and a candle. So much more tidy.

My master bathroom was by far the most disorganized. Every time I try to clean the bathroom counters, I always get frustrated by how much makeup is on the counter and how many bottles of this and that I have to clear away. I do use all the different bottles (soap, perfume, toothpaste, contact solution, hair stuff), but there are just so many of them. Another plastic shoebox solved this problem as well, as all the bottles now live in a shoebox giving me easy access and an easy way to move it out of the way for cleaning.

Additionally, I found an old lucite makeup organizer under my counter just taking up space. I cleaned out the bathroom junk drawer/makeup drawer and now have room for the organizer and ALL of my makeup! I think that cleaning out the bathroom drawers and cabinets is going to have to become a yearly activity, because I was shocked at how much old makeup was in there, not to mention the random expired contact drops, creams, and bottles of Advil! I filled up a whole grocery bag with junk and was astounded by how much crap I have held on to over the years. I’m sure I could even get rid of more things if I went through the drawer again…

My husband Adrian has always disliked the makeup being out, so he’s been really pleased, as have I — having all of this space available has really made it so much easier to keep our bathroom tidy.

This photo from Pinterest was my inspiration.

While my makeup drawer will certainly never be as neat and tidy as Martha Stewart’s (I contemplated posting a photo so you can see how I did it, but it’s better left to your imagination – and Martha’s is prettier anyway, lol), it’s much better than it used to be, and best of all, there’s now plenty of room on my bathroom counter!

How often do you organize your makeup drawer and bathroom cabinets?

Almost forgot to do WW today! Here’s an Instagram shot of our vegetable side dish from dinner the other night – Brussels Sprouts Hash. It was one of the most delicious things I’ve ever eaten! The recipe called for pearl onions, but I just chopped up a little more than half an onion and caramelized it since I didn’t have any of the pearl variety. Definitely going to make this one again! Meal planning is proving to be a fun and healthy adventure for 2012!

A couple days ago, I did a recap of my 2011 resolutions, and was pretty pleased with how many of them I accomplished.

My motto for 2012 is “Get Things Done” and I think my resolutions for this year will reflect that.

1. Spend 30 minutes a day (at least 4x a week, let’s be reasonable here) doing something productive or organizational around the house – cleaning up the kitchen, doing dishes, folding laundry, sorting mail.

2. Read at least 50 books this year (same as I did last year) – if I hit that, read 75! Additionally, record my reading adventures more on my blog – I’ve been reading so many good books, and want to share them with others.

3. Finish designing our family photo albums and get them printed. There is no excuse for not having an album from our honeymoon seven years ago. Get caught up before things get busy! Yes, this is a repeat resolution from last year since I feel that I didn’t do well with this.

4. Maintain a healthy weight during my pregnancy and eat well afterwards in order to drop any excess, hopefully by the end of 2012.

5. Spend at least one day each month sorting through things to get rid of or donate. I actually started doing this a while ago, but I need to continue, since we are going to be clearing out my office for the new kids’ room and swapping Zachary’s current room with my current office.

6. Be a better blogger. That includes redesigning this blog, too. Another repeated resolution from last year.

7. Shoot more for myself and capture more details of family life. Capturing my life no matter what format it’s in (DSLR, iPhone, Point & Shoot) is important to me, so while I would LOVE to use my DSLR more often for personal stuff, it’s often more convenient not to. My goal is to just shoot as much as I can, with whatever I have available.

8. Make a concrete plan and to-do list of what needs to be done to get the kids’ new bedroom and my new office finished in a reasonable amount of time BEFORE baby #2 gets here. June is much closer than it seems!

9. Take more time out of each week (or at least each month) to spend on marketing for the business, such as working on my photography blog, business facebook page, or meeting with other vendors. Another repeated resolution. I feel like I could have done a lot more than I did last year, and want to make this a focus as well in 2012.

10. Start meal planning at least 3 nights per week so we always know what we’re having for dinner – and most importantly, it’s good for us. Have reliable alternates with items that are “in stock” so I can whip something up on tired nights or non-planned nights.

11. Put together a rough schedule for each day, and follow it. Working at home, sometimes it’s easy to slip into taking lots more breaks than you normally would, so I want to have a good idea of what I should be doing at what time, with a goal to stay on track so I can keep up with my backlog.

12. Spend lots of time with family and friends, and make more wonderful memories!

What’s your most important resolution this year? What are you looking forward to getting done in 2012?

I love this photo (iPhone 4s, Instagram)! Zachary found his love for Play-doh a few months ago, and it’s greatly increased in recent weeks. We do Play-doh every day now (sometimes more than once a day). I enjoy this time for him to be creative and use his imagination.

What crafty toys do your kids enjoy playing with?

Last year I made 11 resolutions and I thought I’d take a look back and see how I did.

I think I did better than usual, but I will be repeating a couple for 2012 for sure.

Here is the rundown:

1. Sleep more. Quit staying up until 3am working. Nothing is THAT important and it can all wait until tomorrow.
Definitely succeeded here. I never stay up late working anymore. I’m thankful I made this decision – I have felt much healthier since I started getting more sleep. Granted, I still stay up late sometimes watching a movie with my hubby or reading a good book, but I think I can count the number of times I was up at 3am this year on one hand! Yay for sleep!

2. Start reading again. Go to the library. See if I can hit 25 books – if I make it, read 50!
53 books this year! ‘Nuff said. I think I will aim for 50 again next year, and raise it to 75 if I hit 50. So thankful my mom gave me a Nook as an early Hanukkah gift. I owe it all to the ease of using my Nook!

3. Finish designing our family photo albums and get them printed. There is no excuse for not having an album from our honeymoon seven years ago. Get caught up before things get busy!
okay.. I did not do so well with this. I started working on Zachary’s first year book, but didn’t get any further than that. I did manage to print up another custom calendar for 2012 with personal photos, and I made a book of my iPhone snaps from our summer vacation, which was good. Since I’m taking some down time this year with being pregnant, I am really hoping I can get more books done.

4. Lose weight before I decide to get pregnant again!
Well, I didn’t really lose any weight, however, I’m 14 weeks pregnant today and haven’t GAINED any weight! I don’t want to gain more than 20lb this time around, so I am happy to be staying on track.

5. Get things organized better around the house and in the garage. Stay on top of organizing/cleaning on a regular basis.
While my house is still not completely organized, it’s better than last year for sure, and I’ve donated and thrown out a lot of things that we don’t use. As I prepare the home for baby #2, I can only improve upon this in 2012.

6. Fill up the walls with artwork – either my own prints or original artwork found on Etsy.
Done! I have a few more pieces I want to get, but overall I’m pleased with the number of family photos I’ve printed for our home this year.

7. Shoot more. I believe that I have a gift with the camera, and not using it for myself is a disservice both to me and my family.
I don’t think I did a wonderful job at shooting for myself with my DSLR, but I did use my iPhone camera a LOT and captured tons of great memories with that.

8. Be a better blogger. That includes redesigning this blog, too.
Totally failed here. I had a busy year and didn’t blog as much as I wanted to. Plus I didn’t redesign the blog. That’s happening in 2012 though.

9. Work during working hours. Use the time after the baby is in bed to work on things that don’t include sitting motionless staring at a computer screen. After all, why be your own boss if you can’t enjoy it?
Done. However, Zachary tends to go to bed pretty late, so instead of working on personal things, I typically ended up reading or going to bed myself. :)

10. Take more time out of each week to spend on marketing for the business, such as working on my photography blog or meeting with other vendors.
I did this too. Not as much as I could have, but I worked on a lot of networking for my business and have lots of plans to continue next year.

11. Make more memories, have more adventures, and enjoy life as much as I possibly can!
Done, done, and done!

So, how did you do with your resolutions in 2011 and what are you looking forward to next year? I’ll be posting my full set of resolutions in the next couple days. I’m excited to get started with some new goals!

I can’t believe it’s already October. I absolutely LIVE for this time of year, seriously. With pumpkin-flavored-everything surrounding me and the weather finally getting a bit cooler (like, not 90 degrees) here in South Florida, life is looking awesome! This time of year is the absolute best! I’ve already picked up a couple mini pumpkins from Publix but I need to dig out my fall decorations and pumpkin holiday lights. I just can’t wait until it starts to get cold (you know, Florida cold, so the 50’s and 60’s)! I’ve been pretty busy with work lately, but definitely taking time to enjoy the season!

Halloween is one of my favorite holidays and I’m looking forward to taking Zachary around the neighborhood again this year. He loves holidays now and he’s been asking me about a pumpkin costume, but I haven’t been able to find one that I really like. Seems like with pumpkin costumes, the little girls really get the benefit here. If anyone knows of any fabulous pumpkin costumes for toddler boys, I would love to hear your input. Feel free to send me a message using the contact button on my blog.

One tradition in our family each fall is to go to a pumpkin patch before Halloween and take photos. In Florida the pumpkin patches aren’t as great as the ones up north – here they are usually at churches or garden shops. There is one I haven’t been to yet, though, which looks amazing! it’s about an hour drive from us in Boynton Beach and seems to be worth it for photos, especially now that Zachary mostly agrees to pose for me. The farm is called Bedner’s and they have a U-Pick and a pumpkin patch which opened this past weekend. I can’t wait to go check it out and take some photos of my little guy with the pumpkins!

I found this fun fall decor idea via Pinterest and Apartment Therapy today. What a fun way to liven up your pumpkins!

Keep an eye out for my Wordless Wednesday post, I’ll be sharing some images from my South Florida fall photo session with Zachary at one of my favorite little parks here in Coral Springs!

I saw my first space shuttle launch while a freshman in college, at Cocoa Beach with a close friend on March 8, 2001 – Discovery. My second was on June 5, 2002, from my college dorm apartment while on the phone with my mom – Endeavour. My third launch was Columbia, with my then-boyfriend (now husband) Adrian, on January 16, 2003. That was the final launch of Columbia, and I still remember waking up with Adrian on the morning of February 1st, in shock that the shuttle had been destroyed on re-entry.

Of course, after the disaster, the shuttle program was put on hold. After it was reinstated, we tried a few more times to go up and see launches, but they kept getting scrubbed and timing didn’t work out. When Discovery was being retired a few months ago, the three of us drove up to Titusville with my parents (and what felt like a million other people) and got there just in time to see Discovery’s last launch on February 24, 2011, and the fourth that I’ve seen in person with my own eyes.

That brings us to today. Today was the final space shuttle launch, EVER. The Space Shuttle Atlantis, carrying the crew of STS-135, blasted off this morning, signifying the end of the space shuttle program as we know it and closing a chapter in American history and manned spaceflight. While I didn’t attend today’s launch in person, Adrian and I watched it together on TV. Zachary was at day camp, but we recorded it on the DVR so that he can watch when he gets home later. I couldn’t help feeling chills and sadness watching the engines firing up and seeing the shuttle lift off into space. It was especially sad (but awesome… truly awesome) watching Atlantis separate from the fuel tanks for the very last time.

I feel so thankful that I had the opportunity to share in American History and see four space shuttle launches. I am especially thankful that two of those launches I was able to share with my husband, and that I was able to attend the last one I went to with my parents and my little boy, as well. I am proud to have friends who have participated in space research and worked on engineering projects especially for the space shuttles.

I am hopeful that one day we can celebrate a new space program some time in our lifetime so that our children can still grow up with dreams of becoming an astronaut and exploring the amazing, wondrous space outside of our tiny little planet.

Godspeed, Atlantis!

Image from NASA Shuttle Page

Image from FL State Senator Bill Nelson’s Blog.  Photo cred: NASA/Kim Shiflet
“Thousands of Kennedy Space Center employees stand side-by-side to form a full-scale outline of a space shuttle. They gathered recently in honor of the shuttle’s 30-year legacy as NASA prepared for the final shuttle mission.”

The USA’s Independence Day on Fourth of July is special to our family since my husband Adrian and I celebrate our wedding anniversary. Of course, now we have our little boy to celebrate with, so it makes things even more fun.

We went out to lunch on the 4th of July to celebrate anniversary #7! We have also now been together for 9 years, too. I can’t believe it’s been nearly a decade!

I took these photos outside the restaurant (California Pizza Kitchen – Zachary loved it!) with my Canon G11.

Then we all went home for a relaxing nap! When we woke up, it was time to head over to the Tamarac Sports Complex! The city we live in has so many great programs and one of the best is the 4th of July event. They always have live music, food, and fun for the kids at the Sportsplex each year. We usually catch the fireworks but have never actually attended the event to watch from the field. I am so glad we went this year. We plan to make it a family tradition!

Here is a shot I took of the live band, and a picture of us right before the fireworks began.

It was so hot outside, but well worth the great fireworks display.

Happy birthday, USA, and happy anniversary to me and my hubby! Love you!

All images were captured with the Canon G11!

This is South Florida every day.

Canon 5D | 50mm | f/2.0 | 1/4000 sec.

Edited in Lightroom with my own custom presets.

Yesterday I met up with various photographer friends of mine and had my Canon 5D handy, so when I picked Zachary up from Summer Camp, I couldn’t resist taking a few shots of him in our driveway as it drizzled down rain. It had been raining hard all afternoon, and Zachary wanted to jump in the puddles soooo badly. He was elated when I gave him permission so that I could snap away. I was quite a site to see shooting, btw… I was holding his backpack, lunchbox, sippy cup, the mail, my purse, the camera… not sure how I actually managed to get these focused and composed, but it happened.

Taking these images was a great, flying moment for me, because I captured my little boy doing something that truly made him happy. Not even the fact that he was happy, just the fact that he was doing something that is so integral to his personality and who he is. It’s something I wish more of my portrait sessions were about. Most of the time people are concerned with getting the kids to smile and look at the camera, and sure, those images are great – and I strive to get at least a few perfect smiles for every child I shoot, but for me, my favorite kind of image is of a person (child or adult) lost in thought, being their own person, or caught up in a moment that makes them who they are.

Those are not usually moments that happen when we have a camera handy, as they can often be more private moments and just don’t happen at every shoot, but they are the most telling, and the the most striking, and the most wonderful to capture — to me, anyway. I’ve been lucky enough to capture a few images during sessions that remind me of that feeling. They’ll always be some of my favorites, just as these are some of my favorites of my Zachary.

You can see more of my professional photography at Karen Lisa Artistic Photography | South Florida Wedding, Child, & Portrait Photographer