Declutter your life!

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If you’re like most people, you probably put off organizing your home — your closets, your drawers, your garage, etc.  I’d like to encourage you to start this weekend.  It may be overwhelming and you don’t know where to begin.  I say, start with one closet, or one drawer.  When you organize your home, your mind becomes uncluttered and you make room for new and exciting opportunities to come in!  I usually need to tackle my clothing closet at least twice a year and in the last week, I’ve gone through my junk drawer and my office closet.

These photos aren’t related to the post…but I wanted to share them with you.  They’re somewhat abstract…

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Cleaning up your online existence is even more therapeutic!  If you’re like me, your e-mails start to build up.  You’ll keep e-mails thinking you’ll read them later, and before you know it, you’ve got 100 of them!  I also keep folders of important e-mails, so that’s another area to keep in line.  Don’t forget about organizing your bookmarks.  If you’re a photographer, your photographs begin to accumulate and you literally will have thousands and thousands.  It took me a couple of days to whittle mine down!

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I was going to delete this photo, but I changed the color, contrast, exposure, and voila…I like it now!

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A friend is going to pay me next week to help her organize.  I’ve helped her a lot through the years at no cost, but it’s time for me to make some $!  Don’t procrastinate any longer…take control of your life!

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The Party Place

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Yesterday’s post was about my Aunt Colleen’s 70th birthday and I promised I would put up photos from the house it was held at in Cincinnati, Ohio (aka “The Party Place”).  It’s such an eclectic house, I just had to share it!

Here’s a portion of the kitchen and their fake butler…

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The living room has a comfy retro decor with bright colors.  Notice the Siamese cat on the sofa…

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The entry way butler is serving a cat on a platter to you.  This butler looks a bit snooty…

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70 is the new 60!

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We’ve all heard that expression, 50 is the new 40, 40 is the new 30, etc., well my Aunt Colleen shows that 70 can be the new 60!  I attended her birthday party Saturday evening and my present to her was an enlarged photo of a small scanned photo of my late mother when she was in her 20’s.  When my mother passed away a couple of years ago, I remember my Aunt expressing an interest in this particular photo.  I asked that she open my gift first because I had another party to go to.  This photo is a little blurry, but there wasn’t another one of us.  I know it touched her because I took a couple of photos of her while she was opening it and it looked like she was going to cry.  Anyway, the party was so much fun.  It was held at my Cousin’s friend’s house, which was amazing and I’ll post photos of the house tomorrow.

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This is my Cousin’s wife Courtne with two of their children and my other Cousin’s daughter…

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A Piece of his Heart

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There’s a fairly new surgery called the Wolf Mini-Maze that has a 90% cure rate for Atrial Fibrillation (A-Fib) and my husband had the procedure done a few days ago in Indianapolis, Indiana at the Community Heart and Vascular Hospital by Dr. Randall Wolf.  Here’s a photo of him holding a piece of his heart.  Many people have a procedure called Ablation to help with the irregular heartbeat, but typically they have to return every 5 years for another ablation.  If you’d like to read about the procedure, here’s a link.  What’s really interesting is Randy works for Atricure, the Company that developed the instruments used for the surgery, in conjunction with Dr. Wolf.  He makes the prototypes.  How cool is that!

Randy’s looking quite happy in this photo because he’s on pain medication…

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The hospital has an agreement with a number of local hotels offering patient’s families a discounted rate for their room.  I stayed at the Candlewood Suites located just a mile away and loved it.  Anyway, after the surgery Dr. Wolf handed me the small container with Randy’s left atrial appendage that’s removed during the surgery and said, “Here’s a piece of his heart”.  I took a photo of it in the hotel room and put it on Facebook for friends and family to have a look.  I thought it was pretty funny.  One of my friends said “Glad he’s doing well, but YUK!”  This photo makes it look really big and had another friend worried that they removed so much of his heart.

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Father & Son Photo Shoot

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Since starting my photography business, Sherry Lachelle Photography, numerous opportunities have come my way!  I’ll be taking photos at a fundraiser this week, offering a family photo shoot with an 8″ x 10″ at the silent auction, and just finished a father/son photo shoot a few days ago.  I spent almost 1 1/2 hours taking photographs in a variety of poses of my friend and his son at a local park.  There were some specific poses I had in mind, but I was flexible and the setting provided inspiration for some other poses.  It was a lot of fun and also posed some new challenges.   In addition to having to work around people in the background at the park…like a yoga group, other families and couples cuddling, my friend brought his two dogs and although they are extremely obedient, we still had to move them around and be aware of their location.  His son is the cutest little boy as you can see from the photos and also very good natured and well behaved.

This first photo was one of our final shots and also one of the best…

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My friend’s son had a cowboy costume, so I brought a cowboy hat for my friend.  They both look quite handsome!  I’m going to purchase Lightroom or Photoshop, so I’ll be able to take things out of photos…like the line in the sidewalk.

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Boogie Nights and Danny Frazier Band

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Saturday evening nine friends and I had a fabulous time at Hollywood Casino’s Boogie Nights and listening to The Danny Frazier Band.  Hollywood’s PR people contacted me after reading my post about a previous evening I spent with a girlfriend at their venue and wanted to treat my husband and I to an evening out with dinner, dancing and an overnight room which we enjoyed a couple of months ago.  I was thrilled when they also offered a VIP room at Boogie nights and a sleeping room for a group of my friends and I.

Here are my gorgeous friends at the beginning of the evening…

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Lighten Your Footprint When You Travel

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Today we have an article by Cliff Barre from the website Peace, Love, & Travel with Cliff & Tiff relaying some great tips on how to lighten your footprint when you travel!  Here he is… Continue reading →

Discover Treasures While Hiking

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Hiking is such a great way to get exercise, enjoy the great outdoors, and if you’re a photographer, discover treasures along the way!  I’m fortunate to live five minutes away from a 500 acre nature preserve filled with burbling creeks, tons of wildlife, wildflowers, 4 miles of hiking trails and if timed correctly, I can usually have it all to myself.  Tuesday evening my husband, my dog and I took a 3 mile hike and here are some of my discoveries…

Not sure what these are called, but I like…

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Drive by Harley Shooting

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Drive by Harley shooting takes on a whole new meaning when you snap photos while traveling 30-40 mph on the back of a Harley!  The other night was perfect for a short Harley ride to pick up some cheap sunglasses (since I keep scratching and losing mine) at the dollar store and some frozen yogurt at orange leaf.  Before anyone says anything…I know we should be wearing helmets.

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Exercise Can be Fun!

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Playing sand volleyball is a great way to get exercise, socialize with friends and have tons of fun!  I invited about 100 people to play volleyball at Hahana Beach, a restaurant/bar with outdoor sand volleyball courts, in Cincinnati, Ohio and about 13 showed up yesterday.  It was a perfect day for it…with temps in the mid-70’s, low humidity and a beautiful sky with puffy clouds.  One of the ladies didn’t want to play so she took a few photos with my camera.  She got this great action shot of me jumping for the ball…

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I only play volleyball sporadically…on average about once every few years…but after yesterday’s fun I’m definitely playing more often.  I like this photo of Cindy after she hit the ball…

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Friendship Park

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Summertime and parks just go together!  Just this year a friend told me about a park in Cincinnati that I hadn’t heard of named the  Theodore M. Berry International Friendship Park.  I visited in the Spring with that friend and took photos.  You can read about that here.  Anyway, on Wednesday I met my friend Sherry there to walk and have a picnic dinner before heading over to Party in the Park.  This beautiful young lady, named Marie, was there with her skateboard and let me take a few photos.  Her mother was with her and informed me that she is a model.

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Stanley’s Pub Blues and BBQ

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One of my favorite things to do in the summer is to sit on a patio, listening to great music, talking with friends, having a drink and last night at Stanley’s Pub I got to do all of them!  Four bands played the blues beginning with the Leo Clarke Band.  We missed them but loved Band #2 — Chuck Brisbin and the Tuna Project.  Odd name but they were great.

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Loved this belt my friend Laura had on…

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You’re Never Too Old for Pony Tails

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Last night Randy and I rode the Harley to hear one of our favorite bands at a Harley shop, where they set up outdoors and have vendors selling BBQ and beer.  Some strong storms had moved through the area an hour or two before we left, but the radar was clear, so off we went.  Upon arrival, we discovered they had cancelled due to the threat of bad weather.  I’ll tell you about Plan B in a minute.

Anyway, I’ve been trying to think of a way to keep my hair from getting too tangled without putting it in a pony tail and braiding it and came up with this.  I felt like Pippi Longstocking…

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We pulled over on the Harley so I could take a pic of the sunset…

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Plan B…we met my friend Shari (some other friends arrived later) at the Silver Spring House, a local restaurant/bar and had a drink and some laughs.

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Plan B for Jimmy Buffett Concert

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Jimmy Buffett had a concert at Riverbend Music Center in Cincinnati, Ohio Tuesday evening and my friend April (2nd from left) invited a group of friends out on her boat to listen to the concert from the water.  What an adventure!  Here we are pre-party.  (Not taken with my camera…little fuzzy)

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I’ve been boating on the Ohio River for 20 years and have encountered some hairy situations, but this one was the most intense.  I’m usually with my husband (the Captain).  Anyway, here are some pics before all of the “situations” occurred.  Love this photo of April having fun driving the short 10-15 minutes to the concert.  Grass skirt blowing in the wind…

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