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Today I dyed Easter eggs for the first time ever. I used cool whip and food coloring and they turned out nice for a first try. The whole purpose was to photograph the finished product. The instructions online advised to cut up a paper towel roll in 1" depths to hold the eggs and that did not work out so well for my intentions. Shot glasses however did work pretty well. I have lined them up, put them in baskets, put them in dishes, made circles out of them and just about anything I can think of to get a good shot. Hopefully, I will have these photographs edited and put up within the next few weeks.

I have started branching out and trying to photograph different things. I have been working a lot on still lifes and seasonal/holiday photography. I am currently working on Easter, but considering I just finished Christmas a few weeks ago, I expect to be working on Easter for weeks after the holiday. After the holiday I can purchase props at the after holiday sales at a discount rate, so I will buy a few more items and carry on.

I have already posted a good bit of Easter images. I photographed a cross Christmas decoration and added digital art and was really pleased with the results. I have started adding bible verses and quotes to some of my images. I am constantly adding new images and currently have 7500 on Fine Art America.

Photography is one of my greatest passions and my goal is to share my work... to inspire people...

-Cathy Lindsey

Use discount code YAZPVJ to save 50% off my commission on any of my images!

I have four cats... yes four and one dog. Sugar came with my husband and at the time she was 4 years old. Actually, Sugar moved in a year before my husband.

When we first started dating, my husband had just taken a job where he would have to work out of state during the week. I started going by his house on my way to work and on my way home to feed and let Sugar out. Sugar gave me a hard time. She didn't want to come back in for me and I would have to chase her around the yard. I went over to watch a movie one night and Sugar sat between us and growled at me all night. This is the sweetest, most docile dog, but she did not like me at first.

Sugar lives with an tolerates four cats. One despises, Sadie, despises her. Cricket and Pebbles tolerate her. Dottie likes her. She is the size of a deer. My husbands says they were told when they got her as a puppy that she was part Mountain Feist and part Greyhound, but I don't believe she looks like either. I think she is part Golden Retriever because she has a friendly looking face like a Golden. She has little ears and prances like a horse. I call her our deer dog. Our house is small and she is too big for this house.

When we moved to North Carolina 3 years ago we also had a pug dog, Harley that was originally my daughters dog. Sugar and Harley were the best of friends. Six months after we moved here, Harley died. Harley was only four and was on the heavy side for a pug. I think she died of congestive heart failure. One minute she was here and the next she collapsed. It broke our human hearts, but it shattered Sugar's doggy heart and she grieved her buddy. It was at that time I had to start using dog biscuits as rewards to get Sugar to go outside and to come back in, the depression was heartbreaking. Now, two years later, she wants to go out just so she can come back in and get a biscuit.

She is terrifed of storms and will hide in the shower and cry. It is better here in the mountains than it was when we lived in tornado alley in Georgia. We get storms here but not as severe or as frequent as we did there. Sometimes she starts panicking before a storm hits and we know it is coming by the way she is acting. She doesn't like the rain either and we have to push her outside to go potty even if it is just drizzling.

Sugar loves to play ball. My husband will throw pinecombs and rocks into the woods and Sugar will bring them all back. She is now 13 and is starting to show her age and slow down. She is good natured and well trained. My husband said she was easy to potty train as a puppy and never did all the chewing up stuff like a lot of dogs do. She loves me now, but it took a couple of years to win her over. She will meet me at the door when I come in from work like a kid that is excited to see me. I can let her out for 30 minutes and trust her to stay on the porch or right in front of the house and not wander off.

I talk to all my pets and they all talk back. I can carry on a conversation with Sugar and get her howling... My husband tells me when I am out of town Sugar looks for me and gets depressed when I'm gone. I love my Sugar dog.

Remember discount code: YAZPVJ discounts any of my prints 50% off of my commission.



-Cathy Lindsey

I have four cats... yes four! Three cats was more than enough and I was NOT looking for another cat.

In 2015 a beautiful white cat with black spots showed up at our house. She was friendly and took up with us. My husband and I both fell in love. She became the outdoor cat. We started feeding her and loving on her every chance we got. It wasn't long before I named her Dottie and gave her the nickname Dot Dot. We found out that she was a neighbor's cat and was 3 years old. He had remarried and this was his wife's cat and her name was Ally, and she did not like his two dogs. She did, however, like our dog Sugar.

At the time Dottie came into our lives we knew we were moving from Georgia to North Carolina and we wanted her to come with us, because we adored this baby, and apparently we needed one more cat. We asked our neighbor if we could take her and we got his blessing... but it became a joke between us that we stole his cat. We also knew that we would have to make her a house cat because of the wildlife in the area we were moving. We started that transition before the move and it did not go smoothly. Cricket, Sadie and Pebbles did not like her at all... Pebbles hated her. I think we could have worked it out if Pebbles had not been in the picture, but she wasn't going for it. When we first moved, one of the ceiling tiles was open in the basement and Dottie crawled up there and stayed for awhile. We put food down and a litter box and tried for about six months to acclimate all the cats to one happy family. We finally relented and just let Dottie live in the basement, where she still resides and is living happily ever after.

Our house is small, I mean really small, not quite tiny house standards but close. The main floor is 520 square feet and one bedroom. The basement is the same size. We are in the process of making the basement our bedroom and moving Sugar, the dog, down there with us. Dottie and Sugar adore each other and I think if they stay down there together when we are not here it will be a win win situation. Our laundry room is down there and we go down almost daily and Dottie smothers us with her love. She is huge! She is at least sixteen pounds of pure affection.

My mother and her friend that is close to my age, Tammy came for a visit two years ago and stayed in the basement while they were here. I had a blow up mattress and a futon. My mother took the futon and Tammy took the blow up mattress. My mother rolled over early the next morning to see Tammy trying to get out of that mattress that had collapsed in the middle. She was struggling with a 16 pound cat clinging to her chest to get out of that sunken mattress. My mother had to help her out and is still laughing years later.

Dot Dot is the sweetest of all our kitties, and maybe just maybe the sweetest of all kitties world wide.

Facebook loves cats... and so do I... lets talk about Sugar... the dog.

-Cathy Lindsey

I have four cats... yes four! Two cats was more than enough and I was NOT looking for another cat.

In 2007 my Dad has just died a few months before and my Mama, who was living alone for the first time ever, was having Coyote issues. She had called animal control and they had told her she would have to pay a trapper to come and get them. My cousin had come and taken out a couple of them for her but it was still a concern. My Mama had noticed a pregnant, then not pregnant, cat crossing her yard for months and all of a sudden the cat was gone. She was convinced a coyote had gotten that mama cat. Then one day she could hear a cat crying for hours in a woodpile beside her house and called me to come investigate. I loaded up a cat carrier and a can of cat food and was on my way, even though I had no idea what I was going to do with the cat when I caught it. The cat was just a baby, maybe four weeks old and it was hollering so loud it was just pitiful. I put the can out and then stuck my open hand toward the baby and it came up and sniffed and I grabbed her. She was scrawny and had the biggest ears I have ever seen, and one eye had a huge scratch and was swollen shut. I am convinced that a coyote had killed her mama and siblings. She was a white tabby cat and had a big tabby heart on one side. I told my daughter that we were putting her in the screened in porch and finding her a home, she was NOT going to be our cat.

We were scheduled to leave on vacation with my mother in five days. My close friend Tammy was feeding the cats while we were gone. My daughter started hanging out and domesticating the kitty in the screened in porch and named her Pebbles. After we left on our trip, Tammy started sending pictures of her girls holding Pebbles. When we got home Pebbles started standing at the back door crying to be let in and that is how Pebbles ended up becoming part of our family.

Pebbles is spunky and cantankerous and has given Cricket, my oldest cat, a run for her money since she arrived. When I put the food bowl down at night, Cricket went first and Sadie would patiently wait about three feet behind her until Cricket had finished and left the room. The first dinner that Pebbles was served in the house, she just sashayed to the bowl and started eating with Cricket and Cricket swatted her and threw her across the room. Pebbles would not cower, she would not stay down, she marched back to the bowl and started eating and was thrown across the room over and over until weeks later Cricket just gave up. Cricket and Pebbles fight and slap at each other constantly and have since day one. They also beat up Sadie every chance they get.

Pebbles also fell in love with my husband when we started dating. She followed him everywhere and still does sometimes. My husband's nickname is Bubba, and Pebbles nickname is "The Bubba Kitty".

Pebbles purrs louder than any cat I have ever heard and can be really affectionate when it is her idea. She will sometimes lay across my neck and night and I can feel the vibrations of her purring and just let it lull me to sleep. Pebbles is my wake up kitty, although sometimes she wants to wake me up at 1 am. She will pounce, play and purr and touch my face. I have to bury myself under the covers and hide. She is no lightweight. That little scrawny kitten grew into a fourteen pound big girl. She feels like a concrete block when she lands on me. She loves to play and although she is now 11, she is more kitten than any of our cat babies. She acts like she doesn't like the dog, but I did catch her taking a nap curled up to Sugar once.

Stay tuned for: Facebook loves cats... and so do I... lets talk about Dottie... the cat we stole from our neighbor...

Remember discount code: YAZPVJ discounts any of my prints 50% off of my commission.

-Cathy Lindsey

I have four cats... yes four! Sadie holds the number two position in our herd and she is almost 12 years old. My daughter and I had moved in 2006 and Cricket, the cat, was our only pet. I was delivering mail at the time and my close friend, Tammy, was getting a kitten from one of the routes she was delivering and wanted me to get one of the other kittens. I rode with her to pick up her kitten, and came home with my own.

Sadie was the runt of the litter, she was tiny and about half the size of her brother that my friend adopted. She is a tuxedo cat. She was six weeks old and Cricket hated her, and I had to keep them separated for awhile. She was sweet, yet skittish, and easily bullied... and still is. My daughter named her Sadie and I thought at the time it was a unique pet name and loved it, however, since then we have realized almost everyone has a dog or cat named Sadie.

Sadie hides from strangers, but is very affectionate and loving. The others have their moments, but she is usually begging me for attention. She is my cat. She follows me everywhere. If I am talking on the phone, she will stand up and start tapping my arm until I pick her up. She will also head and body nudge. If you stop petting or ignore her, she will take her head and nudge you and if that doesn't work she will throw her whole body into it. She is my drama queen.

She despises the dog, Sugar. Sugar is the size of a deer and Sadie is scared of her. Instead of hiding and staying out of the dogs way she bullies and intimidates her and sometimes calls the other cats for reinforcement. It is getting so bad, that we are in the process of moving our bedroom to the basement and move Sugar with us. Sugar is also getting older and the bullying is taking its toll on her. We will let her come up when we are at home when we can monitor their interactions.

Sadie is a sweetheart, when she isn't bullying the dog. She is still petite, with a little round belly. She is, like Cricket, always starving and second in line to the food bowl. She knows her place and holds back until Cricket is finished. She is one of my three upstairs cats, we have one separated in the basement... more about that later... tune in for lets talk about Dottie. Cricket and the other upstairs cat Pebbles, pick on her mercilessly. They beat her up every chance they get and she cowers down and takes it.

She sleeps with me and loves me the mostest. I adore her little furry self, she is delightful. She is my mouser and likes to put the toy mice in the dogs water bowl, just to harass her.

Stay tuned for my next blog: Facebook loves cats... and so do I... lets talk about Pebbles...

Remember discount code: YAZPVJ discounts any of my prints 50% off of my commission.


-Cathy Lindsey

I have four cats... yes four! Cricket is the elderly maiden of the group. My daughter and I picked her out at a local pet store in 2003 when she was just a kitten, probably 3 or 4 months old. My daughter, who was 7, wanted an orange cat... and Cricket is orange and came with a red-headed attitude. Her name was posted as Cricket and since my daughter wanted to name her Pork Chop, the name Cricket won out.

Cricket is now 15 years old and has been part of our lives for a long time. When she was a year old, she ate thread, and it had wrapped around her intestines and she almost died. A $1000 surgery saved her life. I was a single mom at that time and luckily had just gotten back my tax return and was able to extend her life and here she is 14 years later going strong.

She is a wild woman,or cat, at times. For several years she would hide under the bed at night and wait for me to go to the potty or to get up and charge my ankles and wrap herself tightly around one of them and bite and kick as hard as she could. It was one of her things. Another one of her things was chasing bottle tops. My roommate at the time taught her to fetch bottle tops and bring them back. Yep, we had a cat that would play fetch... and yes, she would beg for the top of any bottled drink she saw. My sister laid a drink on the counter with the top halfway on and she attacked it, and caused a spewing mess. We moved from that rental house when Cricket was three and when the movers picked up the couch there were hundreds of bottle tops underneath.

Cricket loves everyone, especially if they do not like cats. She has never met a stranger and will jump in anyone's lap and refuse to leave. We had to start locking her in the bedroom when the cat haters came to visit. She loves attention and soaks up affection, but will bite if anyone (including me) tries to push her off of them. She is the favorite to most of our friends because of her loving personality, and is definitely my daughters favorite.

When I started dating my husband in 2010... Cricket fell in love. She is the other woman in my life. She has to sleep on top of him every night that he is home and scratch her face against his whiskers. If he sits down or leans over she will jump on his shoulders and refuse to leave... sometimes I have to help get her down. She is smitten with him and if I get too close... she will growl. Sometimes it's funny and sometimes it is not so funny.

At 15 she is showing her age. She isn't bright orange anymore, she has faded. She used to be plump and now she is getting scrawny, although she is always hungry and begs for food constantly. She is the smallest of all the cats we have. Now that she is older, she is just plain ornery and we just leave her be and let her come to us. It makes me sad to think our matriarch's years are numbered. Cricket has enriched our lives and there will never be another cat in our lives like her.

Stay tuned for my next blog: Facebook loves cats... and so do I... lets talk about Sadie...

Remember discount code: YAZPVJ discounts any of my prints 50% off of my commission.

-Cathy Lindsey

A bear! He saw a bear!

My husband and both leave for work at 4:15 am. The other day he left five minutes behind me. We live on a mountain and it takes at least ten minutes to get off of the mountain, because of the curvy roads and the 20 mph speed limit, and I see wildlife every day. That morning I saw about five deer, a skunk and a young possum.

I was driving up at work when he called to ask me if I saw the bear walking on the side of the road. No... I did not! I am so jealous! I have wanted to see a bear since we moved up here and he saw one first. He said he saw something move and slowed down and realized it was a bear, that was heading the same direction as he was. He could see it's big butt waddling along and it did not pay any attention to him. I had a camera in the car and although it was pitch dark I would have still tried to get a picture, of the bear's butt!

I love the wildlife on the mountain. I feel fortunate to share my home with all the wildlife and look for them passionately, every time I come and go.

-Cathy Lindsey

I have really been depressed after I found out my Canon 7D cannot be fixed. We are going to Southport, NC in May and that is a new destination for us. I am so excited to discover and explore the unknown and that is best done with a top-notch camera in hand.

The itinerary is as follows:
* Sunset Beach
* Bird Island - state preserve barrier island connected to Sunset Beack, known for Loggerhead Turles and purple salamander.
* Sunset Beach Fishing Pier - I love piers!!!
* Sunset Beach waterpront Park
* Calabash Fishing Village
* Waterfront Seafood Shack
* Silver Coast WInery
* Callahan's of Calabash - 35,000 square foot gift shop
* Ocean Isle
* Ocean Isle Fishing Pier
* Shallotte
* River Swamp Park and take a swampboat tour
* Holden Beach
* Holden Beach Fishing Pier
* Bald Head Island - rent a golf cart so I can see more
* Ferry to Bald Head Island
* Mojo's On The Harbor - restaurant
* Old Baldy Lighthouse - I am a lighthouse fanatic!!!
* Smith Island Museum @ Bald Head Island
* Oak Island NC
* Oak Island Lighthouse
* Oak Island Point
* Fort Fisher
* Fort Fisher State Recreation Area
* Kure Beach
* Kure Beach Pier
* Kure Ocean Front Park
* Coquina Outcrop - Looks beautiful!!!
* Enviromental Overlook
* Southport
* Southport - Fort Fisher Ferry - and photograph Price's Creek Lighthouse
* Southport Pier And Riverwalk
* Provision Company - restaurant
* Fishy Fishy Cafe
* North Carolina Maritime Museum
* Old Brunswick Jail
* Fort Johnston - Southport Museum & Visitors Center
* Southport Marina
* Olivers On The Cape Fear River - restaurant with a view
* Franklin Square Gallery
* Shagger Jacks - restaurant

I think all these places deserve a Canon 6D in hand, what do you think? Has anyone used lensrentals.com? Does anyone have a Canon 6D? I would love to hear personal experiences or recommendations? Just comment below and I will check it out. I also would love ideas of what to see when we are on our trip in case I have missed something!

Renting would also give me a chance to try out the camera I want and see if I really like it! That sounds like a win win to me!

The image I shared is Van Hyning's Cockle Shells. It is a pastel that I painted in 2012 from a photograph of cockle shells that I had taken in Buxton, NC.
You can find that image in my collection: Pastel Artwork and Oil Paintings. Use discount code YAZPVJ to receive 50% off my commission on this or any of my images.

-Cathy Lindsey

My heart is broken...

My heart is broken. I took my Canon 7D to the camera repair shop a couple of weeks ago to get the shutter replaced. It is my best and favorite camera. I also have another Canon DSLR and a Canon pocket camera. I received a call from the guy that works at the camera repair shop a few days back letting me know that he did find some water damage in the camera, but he was going to install the shutter and see if he could get the camera working. Well, the bad news is it is not fixable. I bought that camera in 2013 and I have shot my best photos with it.

I am pretty sure the damage was done when shooting swans at Pea Island National Wildlife Refuge in late November of last year. It was drizzly for the entire weekend trip we make to Nags Head, NC. I have never thought twice about shooting in wet conditions, but I will from now on. I am going to buy raincoats for my cameras from now on!

I'm thinking of stepping up to a Canon 6D, however I currently cannot afford it. Photography is an expensive hobby. For now I will research and dream of the day that I can get my hands on a new camera.

-Cathy Lindsey

After a couple of days of rain the sun was shining, so I grabbed my cameras and atlas and hit the road. I hit one of the first roads close to my neighborhood and found myself on a narrow dirt road in a sketchy neighborhood that soon dead-ended into a large dumpster with a bunch of men standing around it. I am thankful for 4wd and I was able to turn around in a ditch and boogy on down the road, I did not want to end up in that dumpster! The next road I went down circles around behind our neighborhood and I could actually make out some of the houses in my subdivision. The area was beautiful with lots of old buildings and barns.

I then headed north toward the parkway and went to The Lumps overlook. The views there are outstanding! I took a few shots and headed toward Mount Jefferson, one of the state parks that I have been wanting to see. On the way I came up on these cow looking critters and they were right beside the road and since I was the only car on the road and there was plenty of room to pull over, I was able to get up close and personal and take a dozen or so shots. After research I think that they are Highland Cattle. I also got some good shots of a cute little donkey along the way.

Mount Jefferson State Park rises more than 1600 feet about the surrounding landscape and it has been calling my name for three years now. The park had three overlooks and a parking lot at the top that was pretty full so I bypassed the .3 mile hike to the top this trip. I stopped at all three overlooks and the views were amazing. As with most North Carolina parks I have been to, there was no charge and that is always awesome!

I am a big fan of trip advisor and check out things to do and restaurants for everywhere I travel or want to travel to. Trip Advisor lead me north to Pie On the Mountain where a review stated the best pizza in High Country. I went inside and ordered a pie to take home and it was very good.

What a wonderful day, I am truly blessed.

-Cathy Lindsey