Friday Chaos Blog Hop!!

Friday Chaos Blog Hop!!!

Yay!! I'm so happy to be co-hosting with the Friday Chaos Blog Hop ladies :)!! This has seriously been the most successful blog hop for me so I strongly encourage you all to participate if you're looking for more readership! Have fun!

<div style="text-align: center;">

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">

<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZI5s2-QAoKzht7P5dv_bpR7KWDecawscWAR0mWPT-xDtc5Ea-QjmRs64mioR2ZZAJ9P3XE236imKTpZe5Fk_5KcC_IxPeXMqpqaWI4xdMbaL9vxMmnO6wlpjeNEm1Y6mPKLffwpxALs8/s1600/rules.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="454" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZI5s2-QAoKzht7P5dv_bpR7KWDecawscWAR0mWPT-xDtc5Ea-QjmRs64mioR2ZZAJ9P3XE236imKTpZe5Fk_5KcC_IxPeXMqpqaWI4xdMbaL9vxMmnO6wlpjeNEm1Y6mPKLffwpxALs8/s640/rules.png" width="640" /></a></div>

</div>

<div style="text-align: center;">

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">

<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguita0bLiZ452CO6T3FvWDX0Yt8fW9prAluKOmEMazXpRvDmZA4FZ_wWv08FN8Y9S5gfpw4CDUw0X0YvbbfEpYsKOkgBVTb9TIshDkHLmywMok-MD0JXG9ll9Je9z1-jeLxKgW2VFbNdE/s1600/small.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguita0bLiZ452CO6T3FvWDX0Yt8fW9prAluKOmEMazXpRvDmZA4FZ_wWv08FN8Y9S5gfpw4CDUw0X0YvbbfEpYsKOkgBVTb9TIshDkHLmywMok-MD0JXG9ll9Je9z1-jeLxKgW2VFbNdE/s1600/small.png" /></a></div>

<br />

<!--more--></div>

<div dir="ltr">

<pre style="background-color: #f0f0f0; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); display: block; font-size: 90%; height: 50px; margin: auto; overflow: auto; padding: 10px; text-align: left; white-space: pre-wrap; width: 180px;"><span style="color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">&lt;div align="center"&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.ohsoamelia.com" title="ohsoamelia"&gt;&lt;img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEJHsxVSKUDbQvBkBnzKI-Vzk312G_YCpUStWRhjBs2pRKbbczKufH_vf3w6KaGtU1UrNQ1siMopAbBEve0Q06OcgQABB8s9SFb2nGmioQBCQJulspNvN9ubWsWVPMkBR73Ye03xwTsoo/s1600/FRIDAY+CHAOS.png" alt="Ohsoamelia" style="border:none;" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</span></pre>

</div>

<center style="text-align: left;">

<span style="color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></center>

<center>

<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Blog of the week</b></span></center>

<center>

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">

<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKNxWMb0kR7vGn37kWxyNVAK4B121cRBfOE8gov1BcoHmZu41LSjN9NG4E87KT5dS1PbTQyOd9djpnald_3HNZm5_q8MR7l-ZfAr-8LuwzanL0TuTbT1iI0W6jSMEoNcLqr7cKnvzVChY/s1600/blogbuttonwpic200px.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKNxWMb0kR7vGn37kWxyNVAK4B121cRBfOE8gov1BcoHmZu41LSjN9NG4E87KT5dS1PbTQyOd9djpnald_3HNZm5_q8MR7l-ZfAr-8LuwzanL0TuTbT1iI0W6jSMEoNcLqr7cKnvzVChY/s1600/blogbuttonwpic200px.png" /></a></div>

<div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;">

<br /></div>

</center>

<center>

</center>

<center>

<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Kristine -&nbsp;<a href="http://www.heartshapedsweat.com/">Heart Shaped Sweat</a></span></center>

<center>

<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">"Hi I'm Kristine, Enjoying_Life with 2 crazy boys, a soldier, lots of gym time and open road running. Raising my family fit &amp; beautiful, no matter where we call home!"</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />"Honey's mummy follows my journey through mummy hood to a beautiful little girl and baby boy. I am a qualified beauty therapist, ex air hostess and one time city EA. So glad to have found my ultimate calling - bringing up beautiful babies. </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We moved to Surrey from London, with Honey's daddy - a professional rugby player and sausage maker."&nbsp;</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /><br />Don't forget to come by next week and link up to see if you're featured as <b>Blog Of The Week!</b> <br /><br /><b>Featured Co-host</b></span><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">

</div>

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">

<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiHPC9HbhPwj-hd8lmXnyWFzIXMLBkevXK9q1TQ55IjMLIwkcfrwaLAbaTmIAQUjs2d1iJe64pcDA_AHm5ZMC_3aFZdU064qiT4ZeCVdqGRqYTtwaLzBVUH1bRwXydWGGMYMwiIzkLrq8/s1600/ageekinglasses150x150-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiHPC9HbhPwj-hd8lmXnyWFzIXMLBkevXK9q1TQ55IjMLIwkcfrwaLAbaTmIAQUjs2d1iJe64pcDA_AHm5ZMC_3aFZdU064qiT4ZeCVdqGRqYTtwaLzBVUH1bRwXydWGGMYMwiIzkLrq8/s200/ageekinglasses150x150-1.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>

<div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;">

<br /></div>

<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Stephanie @ <a href="http://geekinglasses.typepad.com/a-geek-in-glasses/">A Geek In Glasses</a><br /><br />"</span>Hi everyone! I love all things Vintage and our house shows it. I believe Glasses are like shoes, you can never have too many pairs!!! Momma to an Irish Dancer and Wife of a Medieval Swordsman, follow our adventures in Thrifting, Crafting, Photography and Life.."&nbsp;</center>

<center>

<br />Want to be a featured co-host? Email us and quote 'Option 2'</center>

<center>

<span style="color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align: left;">Link up below and meet some new friends:</span></center>

<center style="text-align: left;">

</center>

<center style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; text-align: left;">

<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;">BLOG</span></center>

<!-- start LinkyTools script -->

<script src="http://www.linkytools.com/thumbnail_linky_include.aspx?id=189398" type="text/javascript"></script>

<!-- end LinkyTools script -->

<br />

<center style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; text-align: left;">

<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;">BLOG LOVIN</span></center>

<!-- start LinkyTools script -->

<script src="http://www.linkytools.com/basic_linky_include.aspx?id=189401" type="text/javascript"></script>

<!-- end LinkyTools script -->

<br />

<center style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; text-align: left;">

<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;">FACEBOOK</span></center>

<!-- start LinkyTools script -->

<script src="http://www.linkytools.com/basic_linky_include.aspx?id=189399" type="text/javascript"></script>

<!-- end LinkyTools script -->

<br />

<center style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; text-align: left;">

<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;">TWITTER</span></center>

<!-- start LinkyTools script -->

<script src="http://www.linkytools.com/basic_linky_include.aspx?id=189400" type="text/javascript"></script>

<!-- end LinkyTools script -->

<br />

<center style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; text-align: left;">

<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;">GOOGLE +</span></center>

<!-- start LinkyTools script -->

<script src="http://www.linkytools.com/basic_linky_include.aspx?id=189402" type="text/javascript"></script>

<!-- end LinkyTools script -->

<br />

<div style="text-align: center;">

<br /></div>

<div id="fb-root">

</div>

<div style="text-align: center;">

<script>(function(d, s, id) {

  var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];

  if (d.getElementById(id)) return;

  js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id;

  js.src = "//connect.facebook.net/en_GB/all.js#xfbml=1&appId=188435132282";

  fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);

}(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk'));</script><a href="http://www.topbabyblogs.com/cgi-bin/topblogs/in.cgi?id=ohmygosh" target="_blank" title="baby blog directory"><img alt="Click To Vote For Us @ Top Baby Blogs Directory!" border="0" height="60" src="http://www.topbabyblogs.com/topblogs/images/banners/top_baby_blog_468x60.gif" width="468" /></a></div>

<br />

Unedited: Day to Day

After some back & forth decision making, I finally decided to incorporate a little personality into my blog. I'm going to do my best to take my good camera with me almost any time I leave the house capturing moments I would normally snap from my I-phone (which is often). I want to show my readers a small tidbit into my life while also practicing my photography. :) I like this idea because normally I only post photos when I schedule a set time to go out and take photos but I'm only sticking to one theme usually (nature). There's so many other things to take photos of!!! Which means, more practice :)

Unfortunately, I just came up with this idea yesterday and while I have snapped a few photos from my professional camera, here are a few tidbits from the past week courtesy of my I-phone (if you follow on instagram, sorry if you've already seen these):

The most beautiful sunrise that I see when the sky is clear on my morning drive to work! I always say I'm gonna take a photo through my window and this time, I finally did! Yay!

I'm serious when I say I'm obsessed with our kitten, Minni. John and I often talk about bringing a puppy into our family, but I just don't know if I can. How would Minni feel? Ugh! Serious problem, guys.

I ran my first 5k on St. Patty's Day! I've just recently taken up running and I'm so proud to say I ran the whole 5k race in 33 minutes and only walked about 3 minutes of it! This is a major accomplishment for someone who always shyed away from running because I found it waaaay too difficult.

Following the last photo, I'm now training for a 10k! I'm addicted to races now (after 1, haha). My ultimate goal is to be able to run the 1/2 marathon come September! Wish me luck!

I read on one of my fave health websites (Women's Health) about a challenge where you have to cook for 31 days! I loved this challenge because I have a bad habit of always wanting take out or restaurant food on Friday nights. Ugh. So John & I accepted the challenge.......

....until Friday rolled around and we decided to get Thai. Challenge=Fail! But we started over and now we are on day 4 of cooking! Yay us! P.S. Just discovered Pad Thai (amazing!)

Me hangin' in John's hat cuddling with Minni. This happens on a nightly basis. I was also watching the Spring Finale of Pretty Little Liars. Anyone else watch? So amazing. What do you guys think of Red Coat?

Me taking a random outfit post today at work. I kinda liked my outfit today, I felt super preppy! Ha.

Hope you enjoyed taking a peep into the life of Little Maple Leaf :)

Blog Lovin'

<a href="http://www.bloglovin.com/blog/5050737/?claim=62yt8hcf74q">Follow my blog with Bloglovin</a>

So I guess Google Reader is closing??
News to me.
If you want to continue following my photography adventures after July, it'd be an absolute honor to have you.
Thanks for the support!

New Layout

I designed a new layout for my blog. A nice simple design.
I want my photos to be the main focus of Little Maple Leaf and I don't want a busy layout & banner to distract from the pictures.

As I learn more about design & photoshop, you may see some more changes. But for now, I'm really happy with the clean look.

In other news, we had a big snow {storm?!} and now it looks like a Winter Wonderland outside. I mean, yeah, it's pretty and all... but I really want to see some flowers & green grass. I debated taking a walk down a trail and snapping some photos... but I'm feeling particularly grumpy today and to be honest, don't really feel like it. It would be beautiful though.

Until next time...