i n • p u r s u i t

I took this photo of Joan earlier this week. Mike had left the back door open and Joan followed him inside! She looked around for a few minutes and then walked right back out. Mike says she was disappointed that there wasn't a mountain of corn in the dining room!  Our animals LOVE to follow Mike around. Bella because she's curious and the chickens because they're hoping for food. This means that when Mike walks outside in the morning, he's got two chickens doing their funny chicken run to catch up with him and Bella at his heels. 

I took Bella to get groomed at PetSmart yesterday and before paying, I wandered through the clearance section of dog clothes. I ended up getting her the only piece of clothing that I was pretty sure she would hate: pink bunny booties. Worth it? Definitely. If you want some booties for your dog, PetSmart currently has the yellow duck , green turtle , and black cat booties on clearance on their website. Outfit details: Neckerchief: Free with grooming & bath (so actually expensive) Pink Bunny Booties: $3.67

Sometimes, I try so hard to dress interesting that I want to wear nothing but jeans for a while. That's how this week has been. I've been in jeans all. week. long. Sometimes, I'll top my jeans with my Red Wings tee-shirt other times, I'll go crazy and wear a cute top and cardigan.  This was half and half: gray boy-friend tee with pretty cardigan. This outfit is not striking. It's not ground breaking. It's just comfortable and cute. I've been recently thinking about how I mostly only do outfit posts when I feel I have a post that is "worth" sharing. Which means its interesting and pushing my limits. Well, duh, you might say. Isn't that why you started So Much Pretty in the first place? Well, yeah. But I think I'm going to be changing it up a bit. You'll see more outfits that are my everyday dress along with the outfits that took me ages to pick out. You see, I spend so much time in jeans and t-shirts. And my comf...

On Monday , I won a PetSmart gift card from work, so my sweet little Bella got this adorable tee that I've had my eye on. She loves it and jumped up and down when she saw me come home with new doggy clothes. I'm SO not kidding. She's such a girly girl. A girly girl, that is, who eats grass, chews sticks, and rolls around in the dirt. Tuesday , Bella and I had a great run at our downtown park. We did a total of 4.13 miles in about 65minutes. Minus 5-10 minutes for playing around. And let me tell you....my dog actually jumped in the water. My dog. Who hates water. What made her do this? Well, obviously, there were DUCKS WHO NEEDED CHASING!!! She chased them into the water and then stood at the edge, watched them for a moment, and then jumped in after them! I was like, "Woo! Yay, Bella!" And then she immediately regretted her decision. [Seriously, if she could talk, I thinks that what she would have said.] So, she swam right back to the bank. ...

It's been quite a while since I last sat down and wrote a blog post. Like a *real* blog post. Something more than a few sentences or a few photos. There is so much going on. I've re-written this start of the blog several times because I'm not sure what to write about! Not me. #1: I use a mac. #2: I wish I had that cocktail ring. ;) I just added this photo because I felt like this space really needed it. [ source ] Shoot. I just spend a several minutes blogging and sharing with you all about my new job. Only come to find out that I already told you about it . Let me say something, however, that I didn't say before. God wonderfully and amazingly provided me with this job. When it was decided that I'd start job searching, this was the first one I applied to. And it was the only one I applied to that I thought would be more than just a job but something I might actually enjoy doing. After all, I was applying for the position of social media manager. I us...

I've just returned from getting my blood drawn. I've never had so much blood drawn as I have in the past few months. And really, getting all that blood drawn really adds up. Especially when they heap on the testing they do to that blood. Yikes. But that's not really what I wanted to write about. We all know how expensive medical care can be. What I wanted to write was just a little update on my heart. Friends with caring hearts have inquired. It's nice to know that people are praying for me. :) My heart is fine. It's rather content, actually. I'm absolutely loving my time with my husband and my dog. I'm focusing on my photography. (If anyone in Greenville needs photography, call me! I need the money. ~_^) I'm having lunch/coffee/drinks with girlfriends and photography friends. I love going to my Ladies' Bible Study (though, they have childcare, so...irrelevant). All that to say, I'm loving my life. I get that this is the lot that I'v...

By now, Bella is used to having a human who often has a camera stuck to her face. When we first got Bella, the camera scared her. She'd hear the shutter and run away. Now? She's a pretty tolerant doggie and will sit for me, so sweetly, until I'm done taking her photo. And how do I reward her? By taking photos like this: love the fisheye effect!

This is the look of forced submission. Starting to struggle... This is what we call the "crazy eye"

 Bella almost always takes Mike's spot on the couch one he gets up. I guess she assumes that he warmed it up just for her.

I'm only just now realizing that my knees aren't in this photo. Oh well. That's what she was doing.  She's a knee-sniffer.

Stole her toy so she would look at me for a photo. Yeah. That got her attention.

She has actually commandeered both slippers in the pair. Which is okay, really. Because the cute squiggles fell off the top of the other one. And what's the point of wearing them if they don't match? I realized that I used to take a TON of photos just for fun! I don't do that so much anymore. I kind of wish I did. I love taking photos. So, that's why you are looking at a bunch of photos of my scruffy mutt. She's one of my favorite subjects. I guess we're boring her. So, we'll leave her alone. For now.

she does not play fetch. she only plays keep away.

waiting very patiently and wondering why on earth i called her nodding off attentive as ever, once she hears her name called rubbing her nose looking out the window watching the neighbors stretching adorable sleeping pup i love my dog!

So, in this installment of P&S, I don't actually have any photos taken with a point & shoot camera. Disappointing, I know. But what I am going to show you is how you can have a nice fancy camera and still take terrible photos. Flash is your friend, but only if you know how to use it. And that means bouncing, diffusing, and other things I won't be getting into today. Is the pop-up flash on your camera your friend? Well, here are two photos you should see. This first photo was taken with my Canon 60D and a Sigma 28-80 lens . I flipped the mode over to "Auto" and low and behold, because it is in the middle of the night and the lighting in my house is rather low, the flash popped up. And this photo was captured: "What a cute dog!" You might say upon seeing this photo. "I mean, I think she's cute. She looks pretty creepy!" Oh, friend, I concur! Also, I promise I took that photo with my camera. My $1000 camera (plus lens...

Valentine's day, so I wore pink. I LOVE pink. This here is another one of those old navy maternity shirts I talked about in this post . Again, NO BABY. This outfit is exciting because I am wearing socks over jeans and my hair in a ponytail. Anytime my hair is in a pony, the day is a success. That is, until my hair grows out and I can put it in a pony everyday. Bella is my 2nd Valentine. Here I am, letting her be in my picture and she goes and licks my chin. Gross. Rotten little mongrel. Afterwards, I sanitized my whole face. And those of you who don't think that's gross clearly do not appreciate how often your dog licks his or her own butt. This flower is another one made by Stargirl. They're getting to be some of my favorite accessories. Here is my face. Pretty natural here, except I think I'm wearing eyeliner. I'm not sure why I'm posting this photo and can only hope that it doesn't scare you off. See that earring, it's a coffe...