Weekly iPhone Roundup - Holiday Edition {11.19 - 11.25}

 It's that time of the week again. This week is a smidge different, it's still photos from my phone, but it's mainly holiday related. I mean, I don't guess that makes things too different, but I guess some of this would get a dedicated post. Maybe... I don't know where I'm going with this.

We went to the tree farm earlier today and normally when we go to a tree farm I take my camera, but there was something SO off with today that I didn't even bother. I'm glad I didn't, because there were like 4-5 people there and they all worked there. It was a kind of smaller place to begin with, so bringing my camera would've made things hell awkward. They were very, very nice, don't get me wrong, but it felt like they were watching our every move. Not thinking we were going to steal, but wanting us to buy something. 

My aunt and uncle also went, but they rode in a separate vehicle this time. Well there were some very beautiful water lanterns for sale for the staggering price of $53! Probably 90% of their stuff was grossly overpriced, so I wasn't jumping at the opportunity to buy anything. Well my uncle locked onto the lanterns and was asking my aunt if she liked them and, of course, she did. We he ended up asking the lady how much they were and if they had more in the back, which they did. Then out of nowhere he shouts, "We'll take it!" Um...  excuse me? He didn't even ask my aunt if she wanted to get it, he just went for it.

Well my aunt was very obviously irritated at his $60 purchase. LaVaughn and I were equally shocked and surprised at the audacity. A little back story on my uncle real quick: he's been off work for like 8 weeks with his knee. He's gonna end up having a knee replacement, but his insurance isn't paying him as much as he would normally be making, so things are tight for them. I know this, LaVaughn knows this and my aunt damn sure knows it. So you can see where her anger comes from. 

This was kind of the mindset of the whole day, just a lot of irritation and uncomfortable situations.

And to top the tree farm experience off, their trees were like so ridiculously tiny and carried a price tag that weighed more than the tree. We headed to Lowes after, which was a total bust. Thankfully Menards saved the day and we were able to find a 7 1/2ft tree for the same price as the micro trees from the tree farm.

Black Friday shopping was also a bust. I wanted to get this stupid little vacuum for like $20, but Farmington Walmart was out, as was Desoto's. I also wanted to get the $10 J-Lab ear buds, but they were sold out as well. We did, however, make out with 6 of the $1 wax melts and an awesome Blackstone set for my aunt and uncle. I take that back, we also got the 4 pack of mini cookers that Walmart had. Still... total suckfest. I also missed out on the 65in TV that Walmart had that I wanted to get my aunt and uncle for Christmas. Now I'm gonna have to swallow my pride and try to find a decently priced one that doesn't make me want to puke.

I guess I'll stop there. I hope your holiday week was less eventful, unless it was the good kind of eventful, of course. 

This is my moms youngest dog, Hyde. He came on a drive with my and my step dad, Jeff, to pick up some Chinese food.

He was very anxious after his papa left.

But he still wanted to cuddle me.

A pretty little golden tree from Dollar Tree.

I think this was from Tuesday, this is when we got the inflatable ornaments hung up. 

Messy Thanksgiving prep.

The coconut cream pie I made.

First time making these pumpkin bars. It's from a very old recipe... I also hate that it's sideways.

This is the iced pumpkin bars. They were So delicious!

Here are some of the Christmas trees from Bollinger Farms.

They were pretty, but they're like yard decor, not really big or full enough for Christmas Trees.

They had some very pretty wreaths.

They were crazy priced though, like $30-$50.

This is the only picture I took inside because it was kinda awkward and very quiet.

Here's the Bollinger Farms sign.

And here's the $60 church water lantern. It's beautiful, but not worth the price.

Happy Thanksgiving {2022}

 I want to apologize for my very winey and depressing post a couple days ago. I was just really down and getting into my feels, but I shouldn't have ranted like I did or complained about stupid stuff that has no relevance. I tend to overlook how blessed I am and really take some things for granted. Thank God I have what I have and am able to do what I do. 

I'm an anxious person and have a lot of issues with things like that. Unfortunately I'm predisposed to anxiety and depression - it runs deep in my family - plus I experienced a lot of psychological abuse when I was a child, so yay. I really didn't want to use my blog for complaining or wining, but I guess I just needed to vent. 

Anyways, Thanksgiving dinner prep was in full swing all day yesterday. I'm not going to go into great detail, but we were cooking from like 3pm until 9pm. Somewhere around in there, anyways. Today when I got up I made the dressing, cranberry sauce and green bean casserole. Then, of course, engorged way too much, but I'm thankful that I was able to. 

Earlier today I went out and took some pics around the yard. It was super hot in the house and the temperature was pretty mild outside. It was cloudy, so I didn't have to worry about harsh, early afternoon lighting. I think I'm finally starting to get the hang of this camera, because I really like a few of the pictures that I got today. 

Tomorrow we're headed to a new Tree Farm to hopefully get our Christmas Tree from. It's a place in Bonne Terre called Bollinger Farms. They're new this year, so I'm sure their prices are ridiculous. Hopefully not, but it would be nice. I really miss Beck's Tree Farm, but they've been closed down since like 2018 or something.

Anyways, I guess that all for now... Happy Thanksgiving!

Hung the Dollar Tree inflatable ornaments today... they're not even and it kills me.

I know it's probably hard to tell, but there is so much detail in this picture. I was amazed with how it looked once I saw it on the computer. There's no posting editing either, this is straight from the camera.

I'm still trying to work out my shutter and ISO on this camera, it's basically the same, but since this is an FX camera, it's a smidge different.

There's great detain in this photo of tree bark too.

The lighting on the bathroom wall.

Out Christmas Village at night.

The little Christmas Village always looks so nice all lit up.

I took these Christmas Village pics with my Tokina lens.

A nice macro shot of the bread cubes I made last night for homemade stuffing today.

I took a couple more, but they were super dark.

Dried and decayed basil leaves.

There's something so beautiful about fall leaves.

Some dried and dead flowers.

There's a lot of awesome detail in this picture too.

Raindrops on some parsley.

I love this waterdrop on the end of a tree branch. It turned out really good I think.

I'm clearly obsessed with raindrops, but check out the awesome bokeh of the 105mm lens.

This is a raindrop in one of the little pom pom weeds.

Beautiful pine branches.

Moss and a leaf on the roof of an old dog house.

The focal point is off a bit here, but I still like it. Mainly because I love leaves.

One more picture of the dead mammoth basil leaf for good measure.

Let's Chat... {The Walking Dead, Thanksgiving & Christmas}

 Warning, potential long post ahead!

I don't have an insane amount to talk about or anything and it's nothing like super serious. I just want to ramble for a little while to whomever may or may not be reading this. It sometimes helps to let my emotions bleed into my blog every once in a while.

This is kind of random and something I haven't talked about on my blog in literally years, but I'd like to talk about The Walking Dead for a minute. As I'm sure almost everyone knows, TWD series finale was Sunday and it's just like really sad and depressing to me for some reason. I've been a HUGE Walking Dead fan for year. I remember seeing the preview for it back in 2010 and couldn't wait to watch it. I wrote the name and date down on a piece of paper and taped it to the back of the door. LaVaughn and I fell in love from day one and watched it religiously every single Sunday.

Until they killed Carl...

If you read the comics and love them as much or more than the TV show, then you had to have been pissed at the decision to kill him off - I know I was. Then Rick being written off the show half way through season 9 with the final nail in the coffin. After Carl died it didn't feel like the same show. When Rick left it wasn't the same show. Don't get me wrong, it's still a good zombie show, but it wasn't The Walking Dead anymore. LaVaughn and I stopped watched for over a year or maybe longer, then we finally decided to give it a go.

We watched all of season 9 and up to episode fifteen on season 10 and that was it.

I read so much stuff Sunday about the finale and saw peoples posts about how they've watched it since day one, yadda yadda yadda. Yeah, I'm sure a lot of people did, but I feel like they're probably the Daryl stans that are only in it for him. Someone who wasn't even in the comics to start, I might add. Idk, I think a lot of it has to do with making me feel nostalgic or something. It makes me think of old times and just depresses me. I miss the fall of 2010 so much, it was just an amazing time and the fact that it was 12 years ago sucks. It was just really depressing to me, which I know is probably so silly, but that how it makes me feel. I'll never forgot the first few seasons of TWD and how amazing they were and how much LaVaughn and I enjoyed watching them.

Now on to Thanksgiving... like how is it already almost the end of November?? I had to do a ridiculous amount of grocery shopping yesterday for all the stuff that LaVaughn and I are making. We're mainly making deserts this year, but I'm also making homemade stuffing and cranberry sauce, LaVaughn is doing the potatoes. Plus we're making this one type of dip that my aunt and uncle like, plus cheese ball dip. We also go some of the fancy frozen yeast rolls instead of making them homemade. My aunt and uncle are doing the turkey, ham and chicken and dumplings. She's also doing the stuffing that they like with all the nasty stuff in it.

 All of the prep and desert making is happening tomorrow... should be interesting.

Now on to Christmas. I'm always super festive around the holidays and I absolutely love Christmas shopping. Idk what's going on this year, but there's just something off. I feel like I'm the only person in my immediate family that is excited about it. LaVaughn and I always Christmas shop together for my aunt and uncle, my mom, Jeff and Jake. We've only gone one time and that was two weeks ago and we just got like 4 things. I know people Christmas shop by themselves all the time, but it's not something I'm used to, so it's kind of depressing to me. I feel like no one cares and it's getting to the point where I don't even care. 

I hate it.

I don't know why, but it's super easy for me to get sad and depressed anymore. I'm a genuinely happy person, but damn... this is just getting to me. Even writing all this out is making me a little sad and depressed at the thought. I think I'm just going to stop mentioning anything to LaVaughn and let her approach me when she wants to go someplace. I'm just gonna start shopping online I guess, cause I'm too bummed out anymore.

First world problems, I know.

Anyways, I'm done crying and complaining about stupid stuff that I shouldn't be complaining about. Here are some pics that I've taken with my new camera over the last week or so. It's nothing special and they kinda suck because I'm still getting used to this camera.

Here are some pictures from my D750 with my 105mm 2.8 lens:

Here are some pictures from my D750 with my Tokina 11-20mm 2.8 lens:

Giant Christmas Village

Thanksgiving prep plus Black (Thursday) Friday deals!

We've been in full swing Thanksgiving Day prep since Monday, but hardcore today. The bread has been made, cake, pies, pumpkin rolls, cauliflower salad, potato dishes -- basically everything! We're also shifting all of the Christmas decorations around in the garage for Friday. It's our tradition, like many others, to get our tree the day after Thanksgiving.

We're also in Black Friday prep mode. We have everything written down for tomorrow after dinner, even though I know we'll forget the list or not even bother with it if we do remember. There are some amazing deals this year that I hope and pray we can get our hands on.

We go for the movies and games 70% of the time, but there are several other things that we want to get people. Our Christmas list is small this year in the way of people. Our family has disbanded over the years and changed. Aside from my sister, there are 3 other people that I care about buying for and being around -- my aunt, uncle and Shawna, the girl I work with. She doesn't have it easy and really needs something there that can care for her. Such a sweet girl, she shouldn't have to live the way she does.

That's for another time, I suppose.

I guess I need to stop blogging and finish cooking. Not too much time left to prep. I won't have time to blog tomorrow and there's a good chance I won't blog Friday due to more shopping and the tree farm. So until then, have a Happy Thanksgiving! Stay safe, have fun and most importantly, be thankful...

Cauliflower salad in the works!

I love how clean and festive the kitchen looked before we cooked again, lol.

Gotta have pumpkin rolls on Thanksgiving, and before. :)