Never Leave Home Without It!

My camera isn't very fancy, but I love it, and it's small enough I can tuck it in my purse and never be without it. The rare times I forget to put it back in my bag after unloading pics is when I have kicked myself for missing an opportunity for a great shot! Like the other morning around 6:30am on my way out of Lowe's and the ducks were swimming across a foggy pond with a brilliant white heron in the background. Damn.

I've had a Canon Powershot SX100 for a couple years. I'd love another, namely a Canon Rebel XS DSLR. But my beer budget won't afford my this champagne camera! So imagine how tickled I was to find out Artfire is giving one away...not that I ever win anything but it doesn't hurt to try. And like my sweetie says, you can't win if you don't.

Their contest is really cool too, just share your handmade holiday stories with them. How nice is that? I love a handmade, homespun Christmas, and have always made a lot of the gifts I give. The whole economic meltdown is a great motivator for this option too.

Now the selfish side of me wants to keep this contest to myself, but then I wouldn't be serving my fellow photographers very well if I did. And you don't have to buy anything or belong to Artfire, but I wish you would check Artfire out, and not just because I have a shop there, of course!


The rules are simple and you can enter three times, three ways. So head over to the contest page and get started! You'll have to get a little creative and think back to those stories you wrote back in school: What are your plans for
a Handmade Holiday? Write a blog, share on Facebook and subscribe to Artfire's Newsletter, simple enough and the reward could be way better than getting an 'A'!

Vintage Kids Digital Collage Sheet by Needful Things

Stalking the Real Florida

It's easy to find the tourist version of Florida, just follow the billboards! But to find the "Real" Florida, you'll have to dig deeper: Into the backwaters, the hardwood hammocks, cypress swamps and meandering spring-fed rivers. You'll need to trek along the Heartland ridge, through scrub oak forests and under the vast shade of age old oaks. And walk the crystal clear, sand-bottomed, shallow creeks along pristine banks of palmettos and ferns.

Yes, the beaches are lovely, and theme parks are fun. But the hidden treasures of Florida, the pioneer's version of the "Sunshine State" is what challenges the imagination and captures the poetry of a photographer's lens.

Take a walk on the "wild" side...