25 Days of Christmas--Well I'm gonna try!

Let me preface this by saying over the years I have been OBSESSED with Oprah's Favorite Things shows.  I looked forward to it every year and especially loved it in the early years when things were ACTUALLY affordable for me to purchase!  I remember one of the first years she did a wine garlic mustard from a company called Singing Pig and it is still one of my favorites.  The company was based out of the Sacramento area (looks like they've moved) and they would come up to Redding to various craft shows and I would stock up on their products (they are ALL good).   Anyhow, I digress, the last few years I haven't enjoyed it as much--in fact a sort of jealous rage and irritation at the insane women in the audience builds inside me, but yet I still can't turn away! 

Another side track-my obsession with the Favorite Things show even morphed into an incredible event that one of my close friends, Stephanie and I put together for 5 years straight.  We've been on hiatus for a couple of years, BUT we might have a new event debut in 2011 so stay tuned.  The event that we put together was called the Annual Basket Party and began in 2004.  It took place in a local restaurant with about 18 friends where we exchanged baskets that were filled with our 'favorite things.'  5 years later the party had morphed into a huge event held at a local country club with hundreds of people in attendance over the years and thousands of money raised for the Oprah Angel Network and causes close to our heart!  We are both very proud of what we accomplished. 

So, anyhow, back to my point with this whole post!  I'm going to attempt to post daily an item that is one of MY "Favorite Things".  I was going to just do a top 10 later in the month but I was inspired after reading Heather Armstrong's Blog this morning and she is doing a post for 25 days straight.  Be sure to go and check out her blog and see the beautiful family portraits she has posted in her first entry!  :-) Maybe one day I'll be in the position to give away some of my favorite things just like Oprah does! 

Now that my long winded intro to this endeavor is done....look for my favorite thing #1 to posted later today!  Thank you and feel free to leave me a comment telling me what your favorite things are! 

Favorite Things - Photography

For fun (and to stop talking about running for the moment), I thought I'd periodically post some of "My Favorite Things" to my blog.  I always love reading other blogs and finding other's favorite things.  My bank account doesn't usually love it but that's another matter entirely!    

Photography is a big love of mine.  It's a hobby that has sadly fallen to the wayside in the last year or so. Well I take that back, my camera has seen a whole lot of action in the way of jewelry photography (which is an entire beast in itself!)...this year I intend to focus more on broadening what I capture with my camera. 

In addition to taking photograph's, I love to look at others work.  Last year we had Heather Armstrong, a local photographer, who's blog I stalk frequently, take our family portraits.  I love, love, love every photo she took!  Here's a video I put together of some of the ones we chose, she took hundreds of photos so it was really hard to narrow down to just these ones.  

http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=8681911&server=vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=1&show_portrait=0&color=&fullscreen=1

Family Portraits from Heather Armstrong June 09 from LISA LEE on Vimeo.

For more info on Heather and her photography, please check here..... Heather Armstrong Photography  

Another one of my favorite family photographers is Tara Whitney.  She is located in Orange County, California and one day I hope we can book a session with her.  Here is her blog...Tara Whitney...Just be blogged...