My new Nikon D3200 SLR camera arrived July 16th just in time for our vacation at Lake Lure North Carolina. I have had so much taking pictures with this camera, and the detail is phenomenal.

This week I got some nice shots in of mama bluebird feeding her babies in the mealworm feeder my husband made for me. I never thought when I put up three bluebird houses that I would actually get all three of them filled with bluebirds—amazing! We also have two other bluebird families that live in an old tree on our property on the other side of our garage. I'm truly blessed and enjoy watching them bring their young to the feeder and hope you will enjoy seeing them as well.

Its is difficult to see how pretty the adult female is through the plexiglass on the feeder, but the young one sitting on the top waiting its turn to be fed is really clear and very cute.

I have hopes in getting much more proficient in taking some professional pictures over the next year. I want to be able to capture some amazing wildlife and birds to set up a file of reference photos that I can do watercolor paintings from.


I will have an opportunity this week at an onsite photography workshop taught by professional photograph Kim Vensel. I'm really looking forward to it and hope that it is a beautiful evening at Moraine State Park.

Tuesday morning I went to my friend Colleen's to photograph some of her flowers. She has one of the most amazing and beautiful flower gardens I've seen in a very long time. I've included some of those shots for you to enjoy also.

Chimney Rock

We are finally home from vacationing in Lake Lure North Carolina. What a beautiful area! Went into Chimney Rock (a neighboring town) and visited some local shops, played miniature golf, and topped it off with a wonderful dinner at Genny's. The next day we went back to Chimney Rock traveled up Chimney Rock mountain and took an elevator up to the chimney rock off the side of the mountain what a fabulous view of Lake Lure. We snapped a few pictures.

Lake Lure shot from Chimney Rock

A long time coming . . .

Have you ever had something exciting take place in your life that you totally forgot to share? I did just that. Four exceptional friends of mine believed in me, enough so, that they were willing to sponsor the cost of printing my snowman series of watercolors into greeting cards. I was so overwhelmed with their generosity and kindness and thrilled too.

The process was a long one and I finally received the cards, all 1600 of them, three days before Christmas. It didn't leave me too much time to sell them for Christmas but I did have some sales throughout the winter months and that was a real blessing. What I forgot to do was share the photos with you of the cards so here they are. And if you would like to purchase any, you can find them on my website: www.whiteoakstudioandgallery.com. A portion of the proceeds helps feed and clothe orphaned children.