Bear Mug

This bear mug became the only non-gem souvenir (other than food) that we bought on our vacation.  I love mugs so much which naturally means I have a lot.  I don't know where this one will be stored... I might need to purge some mugs to make space.  I bought this mug from the Knoxville Zoo because of all the animals we saw on our trip, both at the zoo and in the wild, the bears were the most prominent.  I lost count of how many we saw, but it was a lot!  Many of the bears we saw in the wild were moms with their baby cubs.

Nenya can be hard to photograph with strobes because she washes out so easily being all white.  I also was rushing at this point because I could tell that all the hams were basically ready to be done.  So, I while I don't love all of these pictures, I decided to go ahead and share them and make this a learning experience that you really can't rush with little hams modeling for you, especially when you have run out of treats to bribe them.  :)

Okay full disclosure, I think the only reason I actually decided to post these pictures is because I actually loved the way Narya's turned out!  She just looks SO good with all these rich browns!  And the way she is peering over the edge in the second picture just melts my heart!

So you know how I am obsessed with Narya's picture of her peering over the edge?  Well, Vilya did it too!  The similarities between them are too much!  They are both so amazingly cute!!

Gems

I want to take a quick moment to point out that this is my 800th post on this blog!  I never thought I would be such an avid blogger or have actual readers, but here we are!  Hahahaha!  Alright, here's the story on these pictures.  I have to confess that 90 percent of the souvenirs I bought on this vacation were stones of some kind.  I really got carried away!  I have always wanted to buy a big gem like in this series, but I never got one growing up.  So another confession is that I really am not good at spending money on myself.  I am definitely a natural saver, not a spender like my husband.  That being said, if you are surprised like I am at the number of souvenirs we bought, it was all because my husband loves to spoil me and he does that by convincing me to buy the things that I want.  He's really quite amazing!

I love Nenya's little side smirk in the second picture!  She is so dang cute!

I have mentioned in the past that I have been pushing myself to grow and try new things, especially when it comes to lighting.  This means that I don't always get the pictures I want, I don't get as many pictures as I would like, or even that I might not like any of the pictures I got.  So that is why I only have one picture of Narya for this series.  The others were out of focus which is something that I hate posting if I can help it.  I think the fact that I hadn't taken pictures of these hamsters for like two months could have also factored into why I struggled a little more with these.  

But regardless of all of that, I LOVE this picture of Narya because she looks so amazing with all those rich browns and amber colors!

Vilya wanted to hide his face behind the stone.  I don't understand why though because he is obviously adorable!!

Amethyst

You might notice a theme with these recent pictures I have taken.  You see, I really like gems.  The more they sparkle and glitter, the better!  I also specifically really love amethyst.  When I was younger, I would often buy a small chunk of it as a souvenir from the various vacations my family took.  So I definitely already have a lot of amethyst in my home, but something about being on a vacation with my family again turned me into a kid and I just had to get another.  Of course I can't tell where I got each of those individual chunk from now, but they still hold so much value to me.

The nice thing about Nenya being white is that she looks so stunning next to any color, but I especially love the way she looks with the purple of the amethysts.  

I don't know how obvious it is or isn't that Narya is small for being a Syrian hamster, but she really is the smallest full grown syrian hamster I have ever seen.  My understanding is that her siblings stayed small too, so I'm not concerned.  I think it just makes her that much cuter!

Speaking about things that may or may not be obvious, I don't know if you all can tell that there is generally at least one picture from each ham in which they are eating.  I try to time the pictures so the food isn't super obvious (in other words, wait until they have stuffed it and pause to see if there is more food before I take the picture), although there are definitely times when the pictures in which they are obviously eating are so much cuter.  Anyways, using food is a trick I often utilize to get the hamsters to stand where I want them to be for pictures.  Anyways, I brought that up to explain why Vilya has his paws up to his face in the first picture.  :)

Turtle

I FINALLY got around to taking new pictures of these adorable little hams!  Sorry it took so long!  Summers force me to be flexible and spontaneous which is something that I typically fight against happening because I love my routine and schedules.   I was out of town for one week with the youth at my church working in Flint, MI with an organization called Flint Mission Project which focuses on providing help such as new roof, painting, yard work, etc to those who can't afford it.  It was a lot of hard work, but it was so awesome!  I was also in Townsend, TN for a week with my family.  The 16 of us who were able to make it were all in one rustic, but beautiful cabin with the most gorgeous view you could imagine!  We all had a lot of fun and no one got killed so that's a bonus.  Hahaha!  

I always think Nenya looks so dreamy, like a little cloud.  She's just so cute!

So, summer is winding down for me which has helped me get back into at least some of my old routines, including taking pictures of the hams.  This tiny turtle that they are all posing with is one of the souvenirs that I got from our vacation.  I picked him up at Ripley's Aquarium.  I fell in love with him because we saw a real sea turtle in the aquarium.  Honestly, it was so incredible and I'll never forget it!!

Narya is seriously so pretty and just so calm and sweet!  I call her my fav, but that title changes as soon as I pick up one of the other hams.  Haha!

Vilya holds a special place in my heart because he not only looks like my beloved Tarcil, but he acts the most like him compared to the other hams.  He always seems to have the biggest smile and brings so much joy to my life!

Hamster Prints and Products

I just wanted to remind you all that you can get prints and products of some of my favorite pictures of Tarcil! I will also be adding in pictures of my new hammies if you are interested! These make great gifts! I love my calendar of Tarcil. It's so cute and reminds me of the wonderful little guy that he was. :)

This gallery might be my favorite! Within this gallery you will find the results of what started as more of a hobby for me and then become so much more! I have over a thousand pictures of my hamster, Tarcil, so it was difficult to narrow it down to my favorite, but you can see them here!

Thank you all for your support! :)

Succulents

I took these pictures at the same time as the ivy pictures.  All the hams did so well in the ivy, but when it came time to pose with the succulents, they all needed food to bribe them into holding still for these pictures.  The results are still just as cute!

Nenya never hesitates to shove food into her cheek.  It doesn't matter how big the piece of food is.  She always tries to stuff it in her cheek and then if it doesn't fit, she pulls it back out and breaks it into smaller pieces that will fit.  This walnut fit in the first try so it disappeared quickly!  She cleaned her face up after that little talent show.  

I thought Narya would be fine without any food bribes, but she seemed like she wanted to eat the succulent, so I gave her a walnut which she stuffed into her cheek right away.  She looked incredibly lopsided after that.  

Vilya was a little slower with his walnut.  He likes to take a bite or two before saving the rest for later by sticking it in his cheek.  Also, I have to point out that he always looks just so happy!  

Ivy Plants

I really loved this little photo session with the hams and I especially loved the results!  

Doesn't Nenya look so dreamy among all that green ivy?!  She's seriously so cute!

Narya is seriously so good at posing for pictures.  She's so cute!

Vilya thought he could hide, but then he decided he would show everyone how cute he is.