Got my Camera!

I bought the Sony Nex5 this summer!!!!! I've been using it like crazy. Now I can't wait to buy different lens for it. Here are some of my favorite pictures I've taken with it so far...

Takes Action Shots so well!

Has a nice Shutter Speed control to get this great shot...

or this great shot of the same view!

so pretty!

the aperture setting is nice too.

snapped this shot while in a moving car

such beautiful colors come through amazing!

I love this picture!

another great shot of color!

because I can shot continuous shots I can capture even the littlest movement

:)

a very pretty close-up

love the distance in this shot

So as you can see I have been having a great time playing around with my new camera. I have some fantastic shots of the family as well. So happy I spent the dough to get this new toy!

How Time Flies!

 

When did Summer start? I can't believe it's almost over. I've been so busy with work and play that I have made no time to blog at all. I played a little too hard a couple of days ago and now I'm in bed for the day with a slight injury...which gives me ample time to blog...it's a win - win situation I guess. I hope to have something posted shortly. Hope you are all enjoying your summer!

Photography Cheat Sheet!

http://pinterest.com/pin/13060324/

I can't wait to buy a new camera! Right now I'm looking at the Sony-Nex5....so excited!

But, and it's a BIG but, this is will be my first DSLR camera. Meaning I have no idea how to function one. !!Yikes!!

I've been reading up on how to use a DSLR camera and I've got to say it's very confusing to me. One of my favorite sites that I follow, Kevin & Amanda, has a fantastic quick how-to manual that I've been going over and over. Now only if I could get the terms to stick in my mind I should be on a roll.

This great little photography cheat sheet may make its way from my printer to the inside of my jacket pocket when I finally get started with the pictures. 

If anyone has any suggestions on what DSLR cameras are good for first-timers I would love to hear your opinions. The Sony-Nex5 appeals to me because of the compact body it offers. My main reasons for wanting this camera are to bring it with me while hiking, going to family events, and macro shots. I love the sleek, little body it offers. The couple of downers I found so far while playing with are: 1. it doesn't have a viewfinder & 2. there are few to no "hot" buttons. 

Despite these...I think I would still love this camera. ....I'm so excited!!!

Millie's Fling by Jill Mansell

Summary:

When Millie Brady saves Orla Hart's life she doesn't realise how drastically it will change her own - not least because the boyfriend who was proposing at the time stormed off in a huff. Actually, Millie's relieved. She's happy to enjoy a man-free summer in Cornwall. But Orla has other ideas. She's determined that Millie should meet the man of her dreams. Trouble is, Millie's taste in men doesn't tally with Orla's. The one who really interests her is Hugh Emerson, and he's the man with whom Orla's adamant she mustn't get involved...

My thoughts:
Here is my 3rd book review for the 2011 Show Me The Free Reading Challenge which I found off of Amazon's Top 100 FREE e-books! ....And picked out because of the lovely cover! (...hanging my head in shame on this bad habit once again)

I was quite amazed at the length of this e-book! Holly smokes, I think it was a little over 500 pages. And the great thing was I didn't even notice while reading. Now that's a sign of a good book. Millie gets her self in all kinds of situations from the very beginning when her boyfriend leaves her stranded on a cliff's edge because she ignored his wish to move in together to help a distressed woman about to throw herself off the cliff, to the very end when she travels on a Double Decker tourist bus around London in nothing but a see-threw nighty. 


Not only is Millie's Fling about (of course) Millie and her crazy antics but there are side plots coming out of everywhere. I loved it! We meet poor Orla, (the distressed woman about to throw herself off the cliff) who happens to be a bestselling novelist with a whirlwind issues going on, Hester who is Millie's selfish roommate with boy issues, Lucas whom every girl wants and every guy wants to be like, and lovely Hugh who breaks our hearts with his wife's tragic death. There is so much going on!


The best part about all of these side plots is that they are all tied in so fantastically well. What I really like about Jill Mansell's writing style is the way the characters in her book all speak so witty. Millie's Fling is a fun read and gives a hilarious view into other people's love life. 


In the end, Millie's Fling is one big old book of people just looking for that "special someone". And boy are we all on a ride for some knee-slapping, "oh no they didn't say that" moments, and "it's about time" situations. So read up and have a blast!

.....Some of my favorite quotes from Millie's Fling are....

"I’m telling you now, show me a man with an ugly secretary and I’ll show you a man scared to death of his wife." - Orla Hart

"And wine for the fridge. (Their fridge was extremely fond of wine.)" - Millie's internal thoughts

Paper flower

Along with reading I also really enjoy scrapbooking and card making. 

I follow this great blog called Lollyrot-Scrapbooking and on her site she had a link to this video she made. I think I will have to try this technique.

 It looks like such a fun thing to add to my pages. :)

Firelight by Sophie Jordan

Back Cover: 

A hidden truth.
Mortal enemies.
Doomed love.

Marked as special at an early age, Jacinda knows her every move is watched. But she longs for freedom to make her own choices. When she breaks the most sacred tenet among her kind, she nearly pays with her life. Until a beautiful stranger saves her. A stranger who was sent to hunt those like her. For Jacinda is a draki - a descendant of dragons whose greatest defense is her secret ability to shift into human form.

Forced to flee into the mortal world with her family, Jacinda struggles to adapt to her new surroundings. The only bright light is Will. Gorgeous, elusive Will who stirs her inner draki to life. Although she is irresistibly drawn to him, Jacinda knows Will's dark secret: He and his family are hunters. She should avoid him at all costs. But her inner draki is slowly slipping away - if it dies she will be left as a human forever. She'll do anything to prevent that. Even if it means getting closer to her most dangerous enemy.

Mythical powers and breathtaking romance ignite in this story of a girl who defies all expectations and whose love crosses an ancient divide. 

Sophie Jordan's Website 

My thoughts:

This book has a beautiful cover which instantly drew me in, I know I'm a little bias when I see pretty covers...anyways... if you're not as fickle as me and you need a good story line to draw you into a book then I would suggest taking a moment to read the opening chapter of Firelight. Sophie Jordan introduces the world of the Draki in a breathtakingly described early morning sun rise. 

The Draki are a mythological race of human descendants from dragons and Jacinda is the pride of the race, she is the only fire-breathing draki in ages. Because of this she has been chosen to marry the son of the pride's leader.  Jacinda has other plans however, she cannot sit idly by and allow all those around her to dictate her life; she needs freedom and the room to breathe.

When a daring adventure of hers turns bad and she narrowly escapes death from the hunters of her race her entire world is flipped upside down. Jacinda, her twin sister Tamra, and her mother flee the pride's safety in the middle of the night. Jacinda and her family relocate to the middle of the dessert ... the one place her mother feels the draki will not look for them. The desert is virtually a prison to all draki whose bodies crave the cool weather similar to her previous home in the mountains. 

Now the fun begins. To state quickly...Tamra is Jacinda's twin sister and has never manifested into her draki side, because of this she has been begging their mother, who intentionally killed her draki side to relate to Tamara, to flee the pride where she does not fit in. Tamra is ecstatic to finally be free of the draki pride, she can now fit into the high school scene where humans are just humans. She is having the time of her life living in the desert and going to a public school. Jacinda on the other hand is slowly dying inside. Her draki is unable to manifest easily in the open, hot climate of the desert...which is exactly what her mother planned to happen by relocating them to the desert. Jacinda's mother is extremely aware of what Jacinda means to the draki pack...she is solely a "breeding mare" - for lack of a better work. The draki are desperate to produce other fire-breathing draki and look to Jacinda as being the means to accomplish this. 

What Tamra and their mother are kept in the dark about is that Jacinda only survived her daring adventure when a hunter chose not to give up Jacinda's hiding spot the day she was almost killed. The hunters of the draki are ruthless humans who track and kill the draki race for their dragon skins and for "studying" as they ruthlessly kill them. 

The hunter who sparred Jacinda is Will, an amazingly good looking high school boy who struggles with his own dangerous internal conflicts. ( Here comes the paranormal romance struggle of a human dating a paranormal being. I LOVE IT!!) Jacinda instantly recognized Will in the high school hallways, Will does not know who Jacinda is since is only saw her in her draki form...but they are still instantly drawn together. Jacinda begins the struggle with herself of staying away from Will, who unknowingly stirs her draki side to life. She must avoid at all cost exposing the draki's one secret...that they can shift into human form to protect themselves. 

The other boy in Jacinda's life quickly finds his way back into her life after discovering where Jacinda and her family fled to. Cassian is the son of the pride's leader and is not easily willing to allow Jacinda to kill her draki. He is an Onyx draki, the largest species of draki, and intends to marry Jacinda.  .... I instantly do not like Cassian for his high-handed, machoness and poor reasons for wanting to marry Jacinda. However, after he finds Jacinda and approaches her he confesses to her that he truly wants to be with her and not just for the fact that she is the last fire-breather. 

Jacinda is relieved to know that if she truly wants back into the pride she now has an easy way in...but Will is keeping a tight hold on her. What is she to do?

Firelight is a great book which gives a new realm of young paranormal romance besides vampire and werewolfs...dragons are now in a close running for my favorite supernatural beings. <3 

It's a very easy read and I quickly had it finished and now cannot wait for the next one in the series, Vanish to be published in September of 2011. Sophie Jordan leaves us with a real cliff hanger...which I love and hate at the same time! I really look forward to Vanish exploring more closely the relationship between Jacinda and her sister Tamra. And of course the romantic love triangle...can't wait!!