my camera + you

Affordable pictures anyone? Click link below

http://meredithward.blogspot.com/2011/09/my-camera-you.html

New Blog

I have a new blog...it's here. You should go there instead.


-Thanks,


Meredith

my back hurts

My back hurts really bad from working on our garden the past few weekends. It's definitely much harder than I had anticipated. I've been wanting to do a garden for a few years, but thought, "we may move soon, and I would hate to do all this work only to leave it behind." But years have come and gone and we're still in the same place and God's been convicting me lately of using what he's given us now instead of putting it off for later.

My Valentine's Day present...seeds;)

We dug up the sod from the area so we could transplant it in front of our house. This was the worst part. Sod is surprisingly very heavy, especially when your wheelbarrow's front tire is a little low on air. We (my dad) plowed last weekend, bought some dirt mixed with chicken poop, and leveled everything off. I planted my spinach Monday morning. Apparently the frost/cold doesn't hurt spinach for some reason. This is the crop I'm most excited about because we eat a lot of spinach around here. I'm waiting for warmer weather and no fear of frost to plant my other seeds. I started seeding some cantaloupe and peppers about a month ago inside. I had to do some research to figure all this stuff out, but still think I probably messed up somewhere along the way. First sprout many sprouts! I'm hoping these sprouts keep growing, especially when I have to transplant them into the garden. Is it crazy that I pray for my plants? I breathe on them too...heard it helps. I can't help but think about the parable of the sower in Mark 4 every time I check on my plants. It's so cheesy, but I feel sad for the seeds that haven't sprouted because I relate them to people who don't know Christ or who say they do but have no relationship with him. I even dug through the dirt to check on the seeds and put them closer to the top so they could get some sun, but realized that I can only do so much to make these seeds sprout. Just like in peoples' lives, we can only do so much. Ultimately Jesus is the one who saves. It challenges me to be a "sprouter" - to be in the word and constantly asking God how I can change and grow to be a better woman of Him. It's so cool how much I'm learning just from planting seeds. God is pretty cool in how he speaks to us. I definitely recommend starting a garden, even if it's small. Your motivation can be to donate your crops to soup kitchens and food pantries. You can look up which ones accept produce here. Say a prayer for my sprouts;)

a year in pictures

I'm such a bad blogger.

I will try to improve.

When Jack and I first got married I decided to do a "yearbook" of pictures each year. I'm so glad I did because I already love looking through the two we have and remembering some really good times. It also motivates me to take more pictures of not just special occasions, but some of the everyday as well. I am always a little disappointed at the end of the year when I don't have as many as I thought I did, but it's better than none. It also is a good way to showcase some pictures without having to spend money on tons of prints. I am starting to design our third one and picked out some pictures of highlights throughout the year.

It snowed last year...twice...





We celebrated Valentine's Day at the Poinsett...surprise to me...If I had known I wouldn't have let him spend money on that, but it was really nice and we had a great time!



We rescued the sweetest puppy on our way to Georgia. We named her Georgia.



We celebrated our 2nd wedding anniversary in Savannah, Ga. We stayed in an upstairs apartment of a town home instead of a hotel which made it feel like our own little vacation home;)





We made our first visit to Tybee Island while we were there. It was so nice before the crowds showed up, but once the tide went out the beach went for miles and miles...I really have never seen anything like it...hard to explain.






We swam a lot...



We took our first trip to Skytop Orchard after hearing about the apple doughnuts...





Did something I've always wanted to do around Halloween...a corn maze!



Time came to get rid of Jack's hand-me-down recliner...got him a bargain 2-seater for his birthday...





Surprise dinner for my birthday cooked by Jack...It was tasty!



Got our pictures made in our wedding attire one last time!



Went on our annual trip to get our Christmas tree...with two dogs this time.



Decorated with retro lights again.



Had our first white Christmas as a family.


It was a very good year and we were blessed to be able to experience a lot of new things, see new places, and create lasting memories. I think we're most thankful for God's provision and Him choosing to discipline us in so many areas. Many times I wonder why certain things happen or don't happen and feel like we're the only ones struggling with certain things, but it always ends with us thanking Jesus for growing us in that certain area and showing us our need for Him. He is so good and I'm excited to see what He does in 2011!

really like this

My husband got this in an email and forwarded it to me. I read it after complaining about something not worth complaining about and was immediately convicted of focusing on the unimportant. Thought I would share.


You will enjoy the new insights that Rick Warren has, with his wife now having cancer and him having 'wealth' from the book sales. This is an absolutely incredible short interview with Rick Warren, 'Purpose Driven Life ' author and pastor of Saddleback Church in California .
In the interview by Paul Bradshaw with Rick Warren, Rick said:

People ask me, What is the purpose of life?
And I respond: In a nutshell, life is preparation for eternity. We were not made to last forever, and God wants us to be with Him in Heaven.
One day my heart is going to stop, and that will be the end of my body-- but not the end of me.
I may live 60 to 100 years on earth, but I am going to spend trillions of years in eternity. This is the warm-up act - the dress rehearsal. God wants us to practice on earth what we will do forever in eternity..
We were made by God and for God, and until you figure that out, life isn't going to make sense.
Life is a series of problems: Either you are in one now, you're just coming out of one, or you're getting ready to go into another one.
The reason for this is that God is more interested in your character than your comfort; God is more interested in making your life holy than He is in making your life happy.
We can be reasonably happy here on earth, but that's not the goal of life. The goal is to grow in character, in Christ likeness.
This past year has been the greatest year of my life but also the toughest, with my wife, Kay, getting cancer.
I used to think that life was hills and valleys - you go through a dark time, then you go to the mountaintop, back and forth. I don't believe that anymore.
Rather than life being hills and valleys, I believe that it's kind of like two rails on a railroad track, and at all times you have something good and something bad in your life..
No matter how good things are in your life, there is always something bad that needs to be worked on.
And no matter how bad things are in your life, there is always something good you can thank God for.
You can focus on your purposes, or you can focus on your problems:
If you focus on your problems, you're going into self-centeredness, which is my problem, my issues, my pain.' But one of the easiest ways to get rid of pain is to get your focus off yourself and onto God and others.
We discovered quickly that in spite of the prayers of hundreds of thousands of people, God was not going to heal Kay or make it easy for her- It has been very difficult for her, and yet God has strengthened her character, given her a ministry of helping other people, given her a testimony, drawn her closer to Him and to people.
You have to learn to deal with both the good and the bad of life.
Actually, sometimes learning to deal with the good is harder. For instance, this past year, all of a sudden, when the book sold 15 million copies, it made me instantly very wealthy.
It also brought a lot of notoriety that I had never had to deal with before. I don't think God gives you money or notoriety for your own ego or for you to live a life of ease.
So I began to ask God what He wanted me to do with this money, notoriety and influence. He gave me two different passages that helped me decide what to do, II Corinthians 9 and Psalm 72.
First, in spite of all the money coming in, we would not change our lifestyle one bit.. We made no major purchases.
Second, about midway through last year, I stopped taking a salary from the church.
Third, we set up foundations to fund an initiative we call The Peace Plan to plant churches, equip leaders, assist the poor, care for the sick, and educate the next generation.
Fourth, I added up all that the church had paid me in the 24 years since I started the church, and I gave it all back. It was liberating to be able to serve God for free.
We need to ask ourselves: Am I going to live for possessions? Popularity?
Am I going to be driven by pressures? Guilt? Bitterness? Materialism? Or am I going to be driven by God's purposes (for my life)?
When I get up in the morning, I sit on the side of my bed and say, God, if I don't get anything else done today, I want to know You more and love You better. God didn't put me on earth just to fulfill a to-do list. He's more interested in what I am than what I do.
That's why we're called human beings, not human doings.
Happy moments, PRAISE GOD.
Difficult moments, SEEK GOD.
Quiet moments, WORSHIP GOD.
Painful moments, TRUST GOD.

the updated chair.

I'm making time today to blog for an announcement...
I'm in school taking 10 hours working towards my PTA degree and having to make all A's.
I started working part-time at an outpatient Physical Therapy clinic.
Which means...I have LIMITED time to do anything now...
Which means photography is taking a third row seat, along with watching tv.
I'm more than excited about this change and thankful Jesus has timed everything perfectly and guided me in this direction through open doors and the desires he's placed in my heart. I love photography and hope to continue to capture awesome people and events, but honestly, I don't miss the time behind the computer. I went a week without opening my mac and it was glorious! I LOVE doing what I'm doing now--no computer or desk involved;). I love learning and working where I can meet new people every day and develop relationships with them. So, I will probably not be taking any clients because they would most likely not get their photos back until Christmas or Spring break next year..;) Feel free to email me if you happen to want just a few pictures done because I could probably handle that. I hope to pick it back up a little once this semester is over and my workload is slightly lighter. I'm also going to offer a very discounted session for people who want to book a session between now and Dec. 31 for this coming up spring/summer.

So, with that said, I did make time this weekend to finish a project that's loooong overdue...

It's almost been a year, and I've finally gotten around to redoing the rocking chair Jack gave me for Christmas. I had so many color/fabric combo ideas and just couldn't make a decision. I was going to go for a neutral-white look, but decided to spice it up with some color;) The chair needed lots of work and I honestly had no idea what I was doing...as you will see...

This is the chair before..



After some paint...



This was the hard part..what and how to cover the spring with...



I laid down a towel for some rigidness and three layers of batting...



I had alot of imperfections that needed hiding on this chair. So for to hide the ones on the front I turned the fabric wrong side and attached so that when I flipped it over the patterned side showed and looked seamless with the chair.





I couldn't get away with doing this on the back:(



So I had to think of a way to hide the staples...BRAIDS! This was really the only thing I could think to do. I had an excess of fabric on the edges of the back, so I cut strips from it and braided them across the back and glued the in place hiding the staples.



For the back cushion I just covered a board with batting and covered with fabric.



The sides had small wooden poles hammered into them. I'm assuming the helped secure the fabric that was previously there. I took those out and painted them and then nailed them over my fabric. I cut the excess and folded the ends under and glued them to the chair.





And the finished project...



She still needs some touching up with paint, but I like her.

I'm really surprised I had time to do this. I had to make myself complete this as it was wasting space in our place because it was unusable. Feel free to come by anytime and try her out;)

Peter & Parker • Greenville, sc photographer

I had the best time photographing Peter and Parker. They needed some updated pictures and I was more than flattered she asked me. Parker and I met our freshman year at Clemson. I was immediately drawn to her personality and awesome style. She may not remember this, but Parker was sitting with me the night at FCA where I accepted Christ. I remember smiling at her as I got out of my seat and scooted by her. I'm pretty sure I may never forget her because that moment will forever be ingrained in my mind.
Anyways, like I said, Parker has awesome style and she brought it for the shoot...


































They're the cutest.