10 Things // May 2015

Fun Shoot Friday // 7

 Happy Friday!  I'm so excited about giving Popcorn and Starbucks a vacation from Fun Shoot Friday and bringing you guys a bit of variety!  I've been tossing around ideas for putting together a field kit for this feature so that I can share cuties like this Gulf Coast Toad I found on Memorial Day.  I happened to have a few of my backdrops in my moms house, so I took advantage of the opportunity and decided to see what I could come up with :)

At The Park // I Love Turtles

We're halfway to the weekend you guys, and I'm ultra excited about it because I'm leaving to go on vacation this Friday!  For the past few years, Matthew and I have headed to Rockport, Texas to spend a week relaxing, hiking Gulf Coast trails, and beach-combing at the Padre Island National Seashore.  I. Am. So. Excited!

Backyard Adventure // Gulf Coast Toad

For all of my American readers, I hope you had a wonderful Memorial Day weekend! I spent mine visiting family, and it was such a nice trip. My little brother and I were about to go do a bit of herping, and actually found this Gulf Coast Toad as soon as we stepped outside! With all the rain we've been getting, I was expecting to find a ton of frogs (which we did find an abundance of), but it was so exciting to find this Toad. Toads are probably my favorite Amphibian. They're so grumpy looking, but I think that's probably what I find cutest about them :)

At The Park // So Many Mushrooms

After all of the rain we've been getting, I've been spotting more and more of these Ink Cap Mushroom clusters pop up EVERYWHERE.  *Side note-if these aren't ink cap mushrooms-please correct me!*   There's something so charming about mushrooms.  They pop up into the pretty puffy awesomeness that they are seemingly overnight which is pretty fascinating.  I've been watching time lapse videos on YouTube for the past 15 minutes...check them out HERE!

Fun Shoot Friday // 6

Have I ever mentioned that Friday is my favorite day of the work week?  It means sleeping in and time to do everything I'm thinking of throughout the week :)  I reeeally wanted to share Popcorn again for this weeks Fun Shoot Friday, but she's just so quick!  She got a LOT of exercise, but I think she and Starbucks talk about Fun Shoot Friday when I'm not looking.  They've decided that he enjoys having his portrait done wayyyy more than she does.  That's okay though, because I never get tired of seeing cute pics of him!  Those eyes are gorgeous and that smile just kills me :)

Amazing Nature // Mammatus Clouds

Since sharing my most recent post of photos from a recent lightning storm, I couldn't help but share these photos.  The wet weather disappeared for a day, but it's on it's way back and it looks like we'll be getting lots more of it for the next week.  I stepped outside the other day, and when I looked up-I was just stunned for a moment.  I had never seen clouds that looked like this before.  I quickly snapped a few photos, and stood outside for a while just marveling over how incredible nature is.  After doing a bit of research, I discovered that these particular clouds are called "Mammatus Clouds".  They typically indicate a strong storm and/or tornado...which turned out to be the case exactly.  We had a particularly strong storm that evening, and if you've been watching the weather news-tornado's have been making quite a stir here in North Texas.

Nature Photography // Stormy Weather

I don't know about you, but here in north Texas, we've been getting hammered with stormy weather for the past week.  Considering that it's my favorite kind of weather though, I've been on cloud 9 about all of it ;)  The weather.com radar is probably the one thing I've looked at more than anything else lately hahaha!  We actually ended up having a tornado while I was at work last week!  Just look at the size of hail we got!

Fun Shoot Friday // 5

It's Friday again, which means it's time for Fun Shoot Friday!  I missed doing one of these shoots last week because I opted to do my monthly goals post instead, but I'm so glad to get back into the swing of things with this cute dino shoot!  Popcorn and Starbucks were both a bit unstoppable during this shoot and I couldn't get them to slow down much.  Popcorn was nearly impossible to capture, so I decided to share the ones of Starbucks instead:

The Time I Met Jeff Corwin

Let me begin by saying that I have been a fan of Jeff Corwin and his work since I was 13.  I obsessively watched his shows, he became my Herpetology idol, and as a teenager I had the biggest crush on him of course :)

At The Park // Toads and Spiders

I'm not sure there's anything i find cuter right now, that teeny tiny toads!  Matthew and I had planned on going to one of our favorite trails for a morning hike, but ended up sleeping in a bit later than planned.  We headed to one of the local parks instead, and wandered off into the trees for a little exploring.  The water level of the creek and lake have risen because of all of the rain we've been getting, and there were soooo many of these teeny tiny baby American Toads hopping about near the water!  They were all about the size of my fingernail!

Goals // May 2015

I have a feeling that May is going to be SUCH a great time for me :)  I reached less than half of my goals from last month (you can see them right here!), but the ones I did accomplish were important to me and I'm happy with the progress :)  April is officially gone, so let's get on with May!  Here are my goals for this month: