Kitty Deschanel | Food, Wine, and Travel Adventures Across the USA

I've been enjoying my snazzy new DSLR camera (if you missed my hella spectacular Canon T1i deal - yes, hella - click here .) Truth be told, I have zero knowledge when it comes to how to use it properly. I've been picking up tips from The Pioneer Woman and am waiting on two photography books that I've put on reserve at the Albuquerque library. I suppose I could read my user manual, but UGH it's boring! To properly gauge how my photography skills improve after learning what each of those little symbols on the dial stand for (there are so many of them!) here are the very first photos I've taken: Whatever could be inside the bag? Ooh, popcorn!   Sexy Nerd pondering our risk from the wildfire burning right outside our window , while casually munching on macaroni and cheese. Seriously. Doggy shots. In a post titled First Photos , I'm sure you expected there would be doggy shots. Is Pica photogenic or what? Look at that...

*Update on 4/21/11* This giveaway is CLOSED ! Thank you to everyone who took the time to enter! I have a funny  Shabby Apple dress  story, plus photos of my all-time favorite Shabby Apple dress , the Baja (worn in the snow - I was freezing!). Thanks to everyone who voted for their favorite Shabby Apple dress! The results are clear - you love all the dresses, (no surprise there) but there's one in particular that makes your heart skip a beat.  Behold the ruffled, rusty-orange Cider: Cute, cute, cute! Haven't heard of them? Shabby Apple sells super-cute (obviously) women's dresses and little girls dresses. They even sell swimsuits and maternity dresses! There are a lot of things I like about the Shabby Apple website, most notably their Helping Women Worldwide page, which explains that "every $100 donation from Shabby Apple Dresses provides at least 20 women with access to financial services - and the chance to live a life without poverty." Not too shab...

Yeah, I'm kind of a big deal.

*4/7/11 Update* The giveaway is well underway, but people keep coming back to this post and voting for the dress that did not originally win, making my giveaway post seem screwy and ridiculous. You people make me smile. I'm looking forward to seeing who the poll winner is by the time the giveaway is over. Who knows? Perhaps Shabby Apple will let the winner choose their own dress. Exciting news! LambAround has been contacted to participate in a giveaway with Shabby Apple , meaning I get to select one amazing dress to randomly give to a reader. Pretty nifty, right? There's just one problem. Shabby Apple emailed me an extensive list of dresses to choose from, some for adults, some for kids, and even a few maternity dresses, and, although I've narrowed down my choices considerably, I just can't make up my mind on which dress to feature for my giveaway. As you, my reader, are the one who may end up with the dress, (sadly, there will not be a dress given to yours truly, so ...

Technically, my birthday isn't until next week, but I just checked my email and had 15 birthday deal messages! Let's see...if I use a coupon a day, starting tonight, I'll have used them all by April 18th (and will have eaten more than my fair share of pretzels, burgers, sandwiches, and brownie sundaes - gotta do it now before I get too old, right?) I owe all these nifty deals to a website (with which I am not affiliated in any way) I stumbled upon a few years ago: freebirthdaytreats.com . Just select your state, right-click on each business, and open each site in a new tab. Soon, you'll have more birthday goodies than you know what to do with. And, even if your birthday is not coming up, many of these companies will send you a welcome offer for signing up!  Free dinner just for being born? Why not!   Sexy Nerd would like to add that the "right click/open in new tab" thing is the reason my computer is always so slow, even though that's complete nonsen...

Welcome, everyone, to another exciting conclusion to the week's voting for the Best in Show award! Drumroll, please... ...drum, drum, drum, drum... (Yes, I have been playing Mario Party. Why do you ask?) Hooray! Way to go, Little Rays of Sunshine ! Your new blog has only been up and running since February and you're already scooping up all the fun awards of the blogosphere (and you're already up to an impressive 106 followers - hopefully more after this posts!) So, my lovable and lovely LambAround readers, are you into blogs featuring super-cute babies (I know you are!) Feast your eyes on this: Emma Grace - cutie patootie! What a super photo! For more on this ups and downs (mostly ups!) of this sweet family, click here . Thanks to everyone who participated in the Not "Baaad" Sundays linky party. The next round of Best in Show award nominees will be announced soon!