Michele Whitacre Photography

Tuesday, July 29, 2014

Self-Portrait | July 2014

I can't even believe I am saying this, but this month brings with it the 3 year mark since Kevin and I packed up and said goodbye to Indiana and relocated to Arizona. In so many ways the past 3 years have gone by in the blink of an eye! Yet, in so many other ways it feels like they have lasted for an eternity. We have been through so many huge changes - which have been mostly good, but they've also been insanely stressful. And we have finally reach THE END! We are completely unpacked and starting to settle into our new house and our new area of the valley. Kevin is finally 100% done with everything involved in completing law school and is now working a job that he is really enjoying and we are hoping will turn into a full-time position. Fingers-crossed.

After spending 3 years working like an insane person while just trying to keep my head above water, I finally have time to refocus my attention on all of the things I have been neglecting. Number one on the list is my health and fitness. So, I joined a gym! And the majority of this month has been spent trying to develop a new habit of working out.

This month's photo was all about capturing the memory, as opposed to quality photography. It was a last minute decision to grab this picture with my cell phone (via my hubby taking it) post workout. I was dressed in the most horrific neon green tank top, which makes my skin tone a lovely shade of "are you ill?". And let's not even talk about the atrocious lighting. Hence the black and white edit!

Did you miss some of my past self-portraits? Clicking here will take you to all of my self-portrait blog posts. Clicking here will take you to my self-portrait Facebook album.

Michele Whitacre is a portrait photographer serving Phoenix, Arizona and the surrounding area.
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© 2014 Michele Whitacre Photography LLC

Sunday, July 20, 2014

BBL 2013-2014 | Join a Gym

#17 JOIN A GYM

Why did I include this on my Bucket List?

My original bucket list item was to join a group or club, but when we decided to buy our house a little sooner than anticipated I decided a new gym closer to home was a top priority instead. It is often difficult to stay motivated to go, but I really do enjoy using the machines at the gym, not to mention I just like the overall gym environment.

Was the experience what I had hoped it would be?

Kevin and I found a gym that is right around the corner from our house for a very reasonable price. It doesn't have 100% of the equipment that I would like, but for the cost it is impossible to complain.

The details...

When we moved, we had friends tell us that they were members of the gym right near our house and told us they really liked it. It took us a while, but we finally made the time to check it out and decided to join on the spot!

Do you want to see my entire 2013-2014 Birthday Bucket List? You can find it here. Did you miss my 2012-2013 List? You can find it here. Or my 2011-2012 List? You can find it here.

Wednesday, July 16, 2014

BBL 2013-2014 | Read 40 New Books

#11 READ 40 NEW BOOKS

Why did I include this on my Bucket List?

I love reading and always have, but sadly it is one of the first things to go when I get busy and/or overwhelmed, which seems to be my state a lot lately. I put this on my list to remind myself to take some time out for one of my favorite things.

Was the experience what I had hoped it would be?

My reading wasn't quite as consistent as I might have hoped, with me reading a ton some months and not at all others, but overall knowing I need to get my 40 books in during the year kept me reading more than I would have otherwise.

The details...

Here is a list of the books I have read since my last birthday:

1. Ladies Night by Mary Kay Andrews
2. River's End by Nora Roberts
3. W is for Wasted by Sue Grafton
4. Inferno by Dan Brown
5. Troublemaker by Janet Evanovich
6. Troublemaker 2 by Janet Evanovich
7. My Husband's Sweethearts by Bridget Asher
8. The Forever Marriage by Ann Bauer
9. The Sister by Poppy Adams
10. A Sweethaven Summer by Courtney Walsh
11. Small Change by Sheila Roberts
12. Revive by Frank Lipman
13. The Time Keeper by Mitch Albom
14. Photographing Families by Michele Celentano
15. Theodore Boone: Kid Lawyer by John Grisham
16. Where We Belong by Emily Giffin
17. Fifty Shades of Grey by E.L. James
18. Dare Me by Megan Abbott
19. Bookends by Jane Green
20. Wedding Night by Sophie Kinsella
21. Maybe This Time by Jennifer Crusie
22. The Other Woman by Jane Green
23. Strange Bedpersons by Jennifer Crusie
24. Cover the Butter by Carrie Kabak
25. The Christmas Quilt by Jenniver Chiaverini
26. The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness
27. Babyville by Jane Green
28. Charlie All Night by Jennifer Crusie
29. Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O'Dell
30. The Coldest Girl in Coldtown by Holly Black
31. Lean In by Sheryl Sandberg
32. Cruel Intent by J.A. Jance
33. Justice for Sara by Erica Spindler
34. Fly a Little Higher by Laura Sobiech
35. Angus, Thongs and Full-Frontal Snogging by Louise Rennison
36. Deadly Fear by Cynthia Eden
37. Year of No Sugar by Eve Schaub
38. The Trouble With Paradise by Jill Shalvis
39. Vision in White by Nora Roberts
40. The Surgeon by Tess Gerritsen

Do you want to see my entire 2013-2014 Birthday Bucket List? You can find it here. Did you miss my 2012-2013 List? You can find it here. Or my 2011-2012 List? You can find it here.

Monday, July 7, 2014

BBL 2013-2014 | Watch 40 New Movies

#12 WATCH 40 NEW MOVIES

Why did I include this on my Bucket List?

Watching movies is one of my favorite past times, so I really didn't need any extra encouragement to watch more of them. However, I put this on my list with the hope that it would inspire me to watch the movies that Kevin contributed to our joint collection that I still haven't watched after 6 years.

Was the experience what I had hoped it would be?

I did watch a ton of movies this year - many more than the 40 I intended to watch (and counting!) as you can clearly see from my list. However not many of those movies were the ones we have at home that I still haven't seen. As it turns out there's a reason I haven't seem them after all this time.

The details...

Here is a list of the movies I have watched since my last birthday (I'm going to keep updating it until my next birthday):

1. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
2. Don Jon
3. Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy
4. After Earth
5. Red 2
6. Grown Ups 2
7. White House Down
8. Charlie Bartlett
9. Seeking a Friend for the End of the World
10. Running Scared
11. Now You See Me
12. Zoolander
13. Broken City
14. This is the End
15. A Thousand Words
16. Life of Pi
17. Everybody's Fine
18. Rango
19. I am Legend
20. Pain & Gain
21. Girl Most Likely
22. The Hunger Games: Catching Fire
23. Jobs
24. Friends With Kids
25. Spanglish
26. Happy Accidents
27. A Cinderella Story: Once Upon a Song
28. Lol
29. Bachelorette
30. Greenberg
31. American Hustle
32. Nowhere Boy
33. Prisoners
34. The Sitter
35. Peeples
36. Carrie
37. Thanks for Sharing
38. City Lights
39. Dallas Buyer's Club
40. Bad Grandpa
41. Shaun of the Dead
42. The Color Purple
43. My Sister's Keeper
44. Auntie Mame
45. The Other Woman
46. Rear Window
47. Amelie
48. Taken 2
49. Closed Circuit
50. World War Z
51. Mama
52. Man of Steel
53. Gravity
54. Pacific Rim
55. Godzilla
56. The Wolf of Wall Street
57. The Amazing Spider Man
58. Last Vegas
59. 22 Jump Street
60. Anchorman 2
61. Sex Tape
62. Thor 2
63. Adult Children of Divorce
64. Let's Be Cops
65. House of 1000 Corpses
66. Ride Along
67. That Awkward Moment
68. Save the Date
69. Love Is All You Need
70. Her
71. Labor Day
72. About Time
73. Dear John
74. Room With a View
75. Swimming with Sharks
76. Divergent
77. The Bling Ring
78. Four Rooms
79. The Devil's Rejects
80. This Is Where I Leave You

Do you want to see my entire 2013-2014 Birthday Bucket List? You can find it here. Did you miss my 2012-2013 List? You can find it here. Or my 2011-2012 List? You can find it here.

Friday, June 27, 2014

Self-Portrait | June 2014

The end of June brings with it the six month mark since moving into our new house, which is so hard to believe! I spent part of the month continuing to unpack and organize the garage. I was finally able to get rid of some of the stuff that we had moved from Indiana thinking we would use it in a new house but it just didn't fit for one reason or another. I still have a little more work to do before I'm completely finished, but it feels good to be making some real progress towards finally getting settled into our new home.

I have no idea why we waited until the start of the insane Phoenix summer to work outside, but Kevin and I also spent the entire month working on our backyard and our pool. When we moved in, our yard was full of old tree stakes. Since I'm a klutz and kept kicking and tripping over them we decided we needed to remove them. Of course they were super heavy duty and we were unable to pull them out, so we had to dig around them and cut them off several inches underground. It was a huge job and took forever. Of course, once we thought we were done we found a few more. Sigh. But those can wait for another month. Possibly a cooler one! The few more we found actually don't stick up all that high and they are in a part of the yard we rarely walk though, so they aren't quite as big of a deal.

At one point our backyard and pool deck was lined with landscape lights, but the previous owners didn't keep them in good repair. So when we moved in, the majority of them were either missing or broken, and we decided to take them all out and replace them. Kevin and my dad replaced half of them a few months ago, and we finished the rest this month. Given the number of lights we replaced it was another time consuming and exhausting job, but we are thrilled that they are all in and we can now light our yard at night!

Our yard has several large trees in it that provide us with a lot of amazing shade and gives our backyard a wonderful, tranquil, relaxing park-like feel. It also means that our yard is constantly full of branches, leaves, flowers, mesquite nuts, pods, etc. - the majority of which seem to head straight for our pool! It has been a constant battle trying to keep it debris free so we can actually use it. We finally decided it was time to break down and buy an automatic vacuum to go along with the automatic skimmer we purchased a while ago. So after much research we finally decided on one and purchased it. After a bit of trial and error we finally figured out how to use it properly, and for the first time since we moved in we have a clean, debris-free, usable pool. Woo Hoo!

So, here I am finally enjoying some relaxation time after so much hard work this month...

Did you miss some of my past self-portraits? Clicking here will take you to all of my self-portrait blog posts. Clicking here will take you to my self-portrait Facebook album.

Monday, June 23, 2014

BBL 2013-2014 | Look Up the Meaning/History of My Name

#33 LOOK UP THE MEANING/HISTORY OF MY NAME

Why did I include this on my Bucket List?

I doubt I ever would have came up with this idea on my own, but I saw it on someone else's list and thought it was a really cool thing to do.

Was the experience what I had hoped it would be?

It was! It was fascinating to learn more about my name, and to read about all of the famous people who share it.

The details...

I basically just did a google search, looking for websites that talk about the origin and mean of names, and then visited a bunch of them. Of course my first name is Michele, but I often had to search the common spelling of Michelle to find more information. My middle name is Elizabeth, so I decided to search that, too.

I've included some of the information I found on some of the websites just for kicks:

According to www.behindthename.com:

Michele

According to the website, the name Michele is not ranked, but Michelle is ranked #168 in popularity in the United States.

Excerpt from website:

Italian form of MICHAEL

Excerpt from the website on the name Michael:

From the Hebrew name מִיכָאֵל (Mikha'el) meaning "who is like God?". This is a rhetorical question, implying no person is like God. Michael is one of the seven archangels in Hebrew tradition and the only one identified as an archangel in the Bible. In the Book of Revelation in the New Testament he is portrayed as the leader of heaven's armies, and thus is considered the patron saint of soldiers.

The popularity of the saint led to the name being used by nine Byzantine emperors, including Michael VIII Palaeologus who restored the empire in the 13th century. It has been common in Western Europe since the Middle Ages, and in England since the 12th century. It has been borne (in various spellings) by rulers of Russia (spelled Михаил), Romania (Mihai), Poland (Michał), and Portugal (Miguel). Other bearers of this name include the British chemist/physicist Michael Faraday (1791-1867), musician Michael Jackson (1958-2009), and basketball player Michael Jordan (1963-).

Excerpt from the website on the name Michelle:

French feminine form of MICHEL. It has been common in the English-speaking world since the middle of the 20th century.

Excerpt from the website on the name Michel:

French form of MICHAEL. Michel de Notredame, also known as Nostradamus, was the 16th-century French astrologer who made predictions about future world events. This is also the German diminutive form of MICHAEL.

Elizabeth

According to the website, the name Elizabeth is ranked #10 in popularity in the United States.

Excerpt from website:

From Ελισαβετ (Elisabet), the Greek form of the Hebrew name אֱלִישֶׁבַע ('Elisheva') meaning "my God is an oath" or perhaps "my God is abundance". The Hebrew form appears in the Old Testament where Elisheba is the wife of Aaron, while the Greek form appears in the New Testament where Elizabeth is the mother of John the Baptist.

Among Christians, this name was originally more common in Eastern Europe. It was borne in the 12th century by Saint Elizabeth of Hungary, a daughter of King Andrew II who used her wealth to help the poor. In medieval England it was occasionally used in honour of the saint, though the form Isabel (from Occitan and Spanish) was more common. It has been very popular in England since the reign of Queen Elizabeth I in the 16th century. Famous modern bearers include the British queen Elizabeth II (1926-) and actress Elizabeth Taylor (1932-2011).

According to www.meaning-of-names.com:

Michele

The gender is male or female, it means 'like the lord' and its origin is France.

Or

The gender is male or female, it means 'Gift from God' and its origin is Hebrew

Or

The gender is male, it means 'God like' and its origin is Italian, and it is a form of Michael

Elizabeth

The gender is female, it means 'my God is bountiful; God of plenty' and its origin is English

Or

The gender is female, it means 'my God is my oath' and its origin is Hebrew

Or

The gender is female, it means 'consecrated to god' and its origin is biblical

According to wikipedia:

Michele

Excerpt from the website:

Michele, pronounced ‘mi-shell’, is an English female given name that comes from the French Michèle. It is a variant spelling of the more common (and identically pronounced) name Michelle.

Michele, pronounced ‘mee-KEH-leh’, is also an Italian male given name, akin to the English male name Michael.

Both names derive from the Latin Michael referring to archangel Michael, and originally derive from the biblical Hebrew name מיכאל (pronounced mi-kha-el) meaning "Who is like God?".

Elizabeth

Excerpt from the website:

Elizabeth is a feminine given name derived from the Greek Elisávet (Greek: Ελισάβετ), which is a form of the Hebrew name Elisheva (אֱלִישֶׁבַע), meaning "My God is an oath" or "My God is abundance." "Elizabeth" appears in the Old Testament as the name of Aaron's wife ("Elisheva"), and in the New Testament as the name of the wife of the priest Zechariah and mother of John the Baptist. It has also been the name of several saints and queens.

The name has many variants in use across the world and has been in consistent use worldwide. Elizabeth was the tenth most popular name given to baby girls in the United States in 2007 and has been among the 25 most popular names given to girls in the United States for the past 100 years. It is the only name remained in the top ten US girl's names list from 1925 to 1972.

It has been among the top 50 names given to girls born in England and Wales as well as in Canada and in Australia in the past 10 years and has been in the top 100 most popular names given to baby girls born in Scotland and Ireland in the past 10 years. Elizaveta (Eлизaвeтa), a Russian form of the name, has been in the top 10 names given to baby girls born in Moscow, Russia in the past 10 years. The name is also popular in Ukraine and in Belarus. One of the most popular variants is Isabel or Isabella. In French there is the variant Isabelle.

Do you want to see my entire 2013-2014 Birthday Bucket List? You can find it here. Did you miss my 2012-2013 List? You can find it here. Or my 2011-2012 List? You can find it here.

Thursday, June 19, 2014

Griselda + Phil's Sneak Peek {Maternity Sesssion}

Griselda and Phil took another spin in front of my camera last week in honor of their new arrival due August 2014. There are not words to describe just how much I love how their maternity session turned out! These two are so cute together, and Griselda is so full of sass and so much fun to photograph. I simply adore both of them and I'm excited for them as they prepare for the new addition to their family.

They asked to have their session at the park with the LOVE statue, which is a gorgeous place for photos. We got lucky and their session fell on one of the nicer days we've had this month. So, while it wasn't exactly cool, it wasn't quite fry an egg on the sidewalk hot, either - at least not for me or Phil. Poor Griselda might have a different opinion of the situation. We did their photos on a weeknight evening, so we didn't even have to wait too long for our turn in front of the statue, which was an added bonus.

Seriously, could they be any cuter!!...

Phil and Griselda decided not to find out if they are having a boy or a girl, either way one lucky kid is on the way! He or she is going to have some pretty awesome, loving parents.

This is one of my favorites...

So sweet!...

I just love how happy they both are in this one!...

Another favorite...

Griselda, you are STUNNING!...

Another fav...

Phil told me that during their last session their fur kid, Cudi, stole his posing mojo because he was too worried about how Cudi was behaving to concentrate, but he was prepared to rock the posing this time around. I think he succeed! These two definitely make posing for photos look easy...

Too adorable for words!...

More sweetness...

And, finally, with the statue...

Griselda + Phil, As always, it was awesome seeing both of you and spending the evening hanging out with you guys! Thank you for the opportunity to take these photos for you. It's an honor capturing these special moments and memories for you two. Congrats on the new addition to your family!

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