finding jen's view

another year gone

2012-02-11T01:08:00.004-05:00

Sorting and organizing and trying to make sense of the chaos recently, I found a CD of images my mom had scanned and sent my way. Baby pictures of me. Some with her, some with my grandma, some with my big brother. Some with my papa, like the two shown above.

My own baby girl will be 6 months old next week. And I try not to spend too much time thinking about how she'll never on this earth know her maternal biological grandfather. My papa. 16 years ago, he went on ahead of us all to glory…and I wouldn't wish him back, really, for anything. God always knew the number of his days.

And it's not like Lucy is missing out at all in the grandparent department. My stepdad has been an accomplished grandfather for years, and I'm pretty sure he couldn't love her more if she was his own flesh and blood. I'm not worried that she won't know a loving grandpa…she's got one on each side of the family!

But I want her to somehow know my father, and all I have are some fuzzy photos and typewritten letters and imperfect memories. Imperfect memories of an imperfect man…from his inhuman cheerfulness in the early mornings to his fascination with new technologies to his bizarre attachment to microwave cooking to his thorough enjoyment of a good book or a bitter cold winter day. I think there are a lot of things about me that are very much like him.

Maybe I'd just like Lucy to know that her mother came by some of her oddities honestly :)

one hundred and fifty-three days

2012-01-17T10:43:00.001-05:00

You've rolled over a handful of times, but haven't really done it on purpose yet.

Your mama smooches your face about a thousand times a day. You even smooch back…sloppy, drooly, messy kisses!

Recessive gene eyes! We're still wondering if they'll stay blue. Or maybe go grey?

You've discovered your feet, and are quite fascinated by them.

I love that this was an accidental photo.

We have matching sneakers! But yours won't fit for too much longer.

Not one smile did you crack during this photo shoot. I guess we needed daddy here, because you've always got smiles for him.

You're doing great with the unassisted sit…you can't get there on your own yet, but you can stay up for quite a while if we sit you up. You do tend to just plain tip over when you're done, though.

You can scootch backwards on your tummy, and can dial yourself around in a circle on your back. You love to stand up on mama or daddy's lap and just stare all around at things…sometimes with commentary.

You are very serious and observant when we take you out and about, and you don't give out smiles to just anybody. Same with the camera…you tend to give it a dead-on stare, rather than one of your brilliant smiles that we love so much.

You are exploring all the different fun things you can do with your voice…from the breathy screech to the low giggle that's almost more of a chuckle to just general babbling. We rarely get that giggle, either…it's mostly just when we are changing you into your jammies at night. Or when you're over-tired and mama tickles you relentlessly…but that particular giggle often quickly changes to a cry.

We love you, Lucy Paige…more after these one hundred and fifty-three days then we did on day one. It's so fun to watch you learn and grow and explore your little world. May God grant us wisdom to teach you truth and guide you safely.

elephant seals

2012-01-10T01:32:00.004-05:00

At first, it just looks like a beach strewn with boulders. But then you realize that the "boulders" are occasionally moving…flipping sand into the air, making noises, rolling over…um, giving birth??

Okay, this first guy is a certainly not giving birth…nor is he rolling over or doing much of anything. Peak mating season isn't for another few weeks, so apparently he's resting up.

These girls look to be having some territory issues? Or maybe just having a friendly chat…

Some sand flipping in action…

Mama & baby just chillin'

Elephant seals nurse for about a month, during which time the mothers are fasting and losing about 1/3 of their body weight, while the baby is quadrupling her weight. Amazing.

This is just a small section of the rookery where these seals come each year to give birth and mate. Strewn with seals.

These last three are of the same mama and her pup. I'm guessing he was pretty brand-new.

If you're curious for more info, check out the friends of the elephant seals website here.

Christmas recap

2011-12-26T18:14:00.002-05:00

By a day or two after Christmas, I'm over it all and don't want to see anything Christmas related until after Thanksgiving the next year. So I thought I'd hurry and get a post up with our Christmas decorations for this year commemorated and our baby girl's first Christmas documented so then we can move on to the new year!!

Welcome to our home :) The typewriter serves as our guest book (when I remember to have people "sign" it). The tree is meant to be a card holder, but I like it better by itself, so I ended up using the typewriter as our card holder as you can see further down. I want to spray paint that bright silver star with something bronzish…maybe I'll get that done before I pack it away for next year. The wreath is a fresh one from Trader Joe's.

Thomas Kincaide really isn't my favorite, but the painting below was my husband's before we met, and since it's 5th Avenue in NYC and not a cottage or a lighthouse, and since it covers the weird cut-out nook above our fireplace, it stays. And it works really well for Christmas, I think. I hung ornaments from the top of the frame so they would float in front of the glowing sky.

The vase hold our glass ornaments, since we have a tree-trimming open house every year, and invite plenty of families with children…I put out all of our unbreakable ornaments for that, and keep the glass ones safely out of the way. The stockings are all handmade…mine & Dave's were a wedding gift from my oldest friend…um, not that she's older than all my other friends, but that I've known her longest. Can't figure out how to say that correctly! Lucy's stocking was made by a dear friend back in NY…I love the jingle bells and that her name is knit right into it. The tree needs one more strand of lights, and I think we'll go back to the short-needled kind next year. Much easier to actually hang ornaments from, instead of them sprawling on the surface like they do on this one!

After using whatever I had on hand for the mantle, I decided it needed some candles, so I headed to TJ Maxx…and found my favorite…fake, remote-controlled candles! yay! So weird. And Dave hates the way they smell, so we barely "burned" them at all. But it just cracked me up, the way technology has taken over everything.

I have loved receiving so many Christmas cards from far away friends and family…it's fun to see how folks have changed and grown over the past year.

Here's the card we sent out this year. She really does.

Look what we found under our tree yesterday! A wee bundle of joy. She's my best gift this year, for sure.

She was super smiley, as if she actually knew what was going on.

She did great opening her gifts…and playing with the paper :)

I love how she smiles like crazy for her Daddy…and how he interacts with her. He's her biggest fan.

Sigh. I found her cousin's pictures from last year in this outfit…her cousin who is now walking and talking. That'll be her next year!

This shot will get put into an ornament frame for adding to our tree next year…love how our family has changed each year we've been married.

snickers and smooches

2011-12-24T01:15:00.004-05:00

Somehow I forgot to mention that Lucy has started giving out super sweet and slobbery kisses. She practically gnaws my cheek off. Probably won't manage a picture of that, so I'll just share a turquoise tutu photo with you instead.

She also just the other night gave us her first continuous laughter. She's been giggling just a bit here and there, but it's mostly just a "heh, heh" and a smile in the midst of crying as she tries to make up her mind which emotion is winning out at the moment. But the other night as I was getting her undressed to put her pjs on, she just started laughing and kept going…now I want to do anything and everything to get her giggling again!

Like I said…I'm loving this adventure.

amazed

2011-12-23T02:03:00.005-05:00

Some days it just hits me all over again. This is our girl. For life. She's ours to care for and love. Ours to snuggle and smooch. Ours to try our patience every day. Ours to sacrifice time and freedom to be with her, to not miss a moment of her growing. Ours to raise in the "nurture and admonition of the Lord." Ours to tickle and rock and hum to. Ours to feed and clothe and educate.

There's days I wonder that they let us take her home from the hospital, days I have no idea what I'm doing, and no idea why she's crying or how to comfort her. Nights she just plain doesn't want to go to sleep.

But then there's nights she sleeps for 11 hours and eats and naps on a perfect cycle all day long and plays contentedly in between. Days that she smiles up at me with such an innocent, whole-hearted grin that I just want to grab her and hug her and smooch that sweet face a million times. And I do.

I'm in awe of how beautiful she is. How such perfection came from the two of us, I just don't know! Except that the Creator-God had His hand in it. And we're so grateful she's so healthy. So grateful we didn't have to spend her first weeks visiting her in the hospital like one family I know. So grateful she's not waiting for a kidney transplant like another baby boy I know.

Yes, those lashes, they kill me.

She's so precious when she's just waking up. She's so happy to see me coming into her room. The photos above & below were from a morning I brought her downstairs (after stripping off her wet pjs and changing her peed-through diaper). She was waiting to eat, and so sleepy and smiley and stretchy.

A friend of mine, years ago, when talking about his firstborn daughter, told me "she breaks my heart a thousand times a day." I don't know why that phrase stuck with me all these years, but I think I get it now. Every moment with this girl as she is right now is fleeting. She's almost unbearably amazing in all the things she's learning, in all the ways she's growing and changing.

I know. The eyes. They kill me too.

She recently discovered her feet, and found that she can fold herself in half. And I love to watch as she tries to figure out what to do with these new discoveries.

I love this adventure.

so fast

2011-12-04T16:49:00.005-05:00

My baby girl is almost four months old, and these are the things I don't want to forget:

The completely bewildered look she wore for the first few days of her life…
The way she stretches when I unwrap her and she wakes up…bending almost backwards, with her little legs tucked up and her arms free of her swaddling, reaching for the sky…
The sight of her perfect profile as she snacks and snoozes…
The sweet look of total satisfaction when she's done eating…drunk on sleep and mama's milk…
The peace on her sweet face when I finally lay her down…
Watching her snooze on her daddy's shoulder…either with her nose squished into his neck so I wonder how she's breathing, or facing to the side, her mouth a lopsided triangle of contentment…
Her pure, clear voice as she "ooo"s at me…
Her full-faced smiles…
Her "flopsy" pose at the end of a feeding and I attempt to burp her on my lap…head drooping towards her knees, arms straight out in front like she's about to fold in half…
The conspiratorial grin she gives me when she's almost done eating and just wants to goof off …
Her thorough enjoyment of having her face washed at bath time…
Her delight in her Daddy singing her special "poopsie" song…
The pouty lip quiver right before the all-out wail…
The weight of her on my shoulder as she gives in to slumber…
The look of delight she gives me when she's just filled her diaper…
How she hooks her tiny arm around my shoulder when I'm carrying her…
Her "whole body smile" she gives when she wakes up…

Over the past several weeks, Lucy's hands have found each other, and she's grasping things and pulling them to her mouth. She loves to suck on her blanket or burp cloth or bib or whatever cloth she can get her hands on. She babbles away to her mama and daddy, and touches our faces and gives us spectacular smiles. Her daddy cheers louder for her to roll over than he does for the football game…she's not quite there yet, but does go from back to side a lot…it's intense, this waiting for the complete rollover! She attempts crunches when she's sitting in our laps and can sit up with only a bit of assistance.

I don't want to forget these things. Nor do I want to miss today because I'm longing for the way things were. She grows and changes so fast, and I feel like I can barely keep up…as soon as I think I've got some things figured out, she goes & changes on me! I'm loving getting to know the person she is…loving the time I get to spend with her…loving being her mama.

oh, christmas tree, oh christmas tree!

2011-12-03T19:43:00.007-05:00

I can't remember the last time I went to cut down a Christmas tree. (Okay, actually, I can. It was a few hours ago. Humor me.) My last few single Christmases I walked around the corner to the boy scout lot and got a tiny 3-foot table tree and carried it home to my tiny apartment. Our first two married Christmases, we just went to a lot and found one already cut for us. This year, being our baby's first Christmas and all, I guess we're feeling nostalgic for the family outing to cut down a tree.

And every man needs an excuse to wander around outside with a hacksaw in his hand and a measuring tape hooked on his belt!

The few short-needled trees we saw growing made Charlie Brown's tree look stunning.

Sixty-four degrees and clear, sunny skies was a bit of a different experience from my childhood memories of Christmas play practice and lots of snow and boots and snow pants and a sled and chainsaws. But I'll take it.

We debated getting one of the ones they ship in from Washington state…which seemed much more like Christmas trees to us…but decided that we would go with the local Monterey Pine instead. Perfectly shaped, very full…and I'm thinking we can just throw ornaments at it and they'll lodge themselves in amongst those long soft needles just fine!

introducing…

2011-09-16T16:46:00.009-04:00

Miss Lucy.

who is already a month old! (I think I've mentioned before that I'm not very timely with my posting.)

This girl has turned our world upside down.

The first few weeks of being her mama were the toughest weeks of my life. From the long, hard labor that went nowhere to the totally un-wanted c-section that got this stubborn girl out at 42 weeks, to the feeding issues and recovery time in a crowded hospital, this experience has challenged me at every turn.

I even wondered at times if I would be able to say it was worth it in the end. Just look at that face, though.

I love you, Lucy, more than I'll ever be able to explain to you.

My dear friend Andrea, who knit me a blanket for a wedding gift, spent who knows how many hours knitting Lucy this beautiful blanket that I want to wear as a sweater! It's one of the most precious gifts I was given. She also had Lucy's full name put onto a set of wooden blocks…shown in the second photo here. The felt flower was made by my friend Julie, who started making and selling all sorts of cute hair accessories recently, and I won this one in a contest she ran! Love the colors in both, and how they work so well together.

stuffed

2011-08-07T19:35:00.005-04:00

I went to a baby shower a while ago for a friend who loves to make things. Not everyone appreciates a little handmade goodness, but others who like to make things usually do. So I went ahead and jumped into as-yet-uncharted territory for me, and made a "softie," as such things are apparently called in this world of crafty blogs. I had seen the beginnings of my friend's nursery design, and knew there were a lot of woodland creatures and lots of green, so I hunted for an easy pattern online and searched my stash for some fun fabrics and came up with this sweet owl. Found the pattern on Emily Ashby's blog here. Nope, I don't know Emily…but she's got a bunch of fun projects on her blog…both freebies and some patterns for purchase…go check her out!

And I liked it so much that I then had to make one for my girl. Who says an owl can't be zebra-striped?

And then, just to challenge myself a bit more, I decided my niece needed an elephant for her birthday. Found a pattern in one of the issues of Stitch magazine. Yeah, I think the elephant is a bit weird, too. It looked much cuter in the magazine!

we interrupt this blog…

2011-08-03T23:09:00.002-04:00

…to do some tweaking. Bear with me. I want bigger pictures, so I needed a wider template. This could take a while.

It looks like this is going to involve manually changing the size of my photos in each post and then re-posting all of my old posts with larger photos. If you subscribe to my blog, that probably means you will get tons of notifications while I edit and re-post. What a pain.

If I were you, I would just unsubscribe for a while! I won't be offended if I lose any and all followers during this transition. Though I will attempt to figure out a better way before I do every. single. post.

besides, hopefully I'm going to have a baby tonight or soon and won't have time for this anyway. If that's the case, my apologies for the old posts with the tiny photos!

my belly goes to the fair

2011-07-17T22:57:00.006-04:00

This is my belly these days. Yes, there's a baby in there. She leaves surprisingly little room for food.

This is what went into my belly at the fair this weekend. A taco (just one, really. The asada was for me, the carnitas was for my husband).

I needed to save room for the funnel cake, after all.

yum. I'd like another one of these right now.

I don't think I've ever been to a county fair before. I wasn't sure what to expect. We saw a lot of goats on tables.

Seriously. There were more. On tables.

And a whole building full of chickens of various colors and sizes. And turkeys that were all the same color and size. I didn't even take any pictures of the turkeys, because they were so amazingly ugly.

We also wandered through two swine barns, where I didn't take any pictures because they were pretty much all sleeping with their butts facing us. Not much of interest for the camera in a sleeping pig's butt.

Same with the cows. They were, however, the cleanest cow butts I've ever seen. Many of them were in the process of getting blown-dry and hair sprayed in preparation for getting auctioned off. I think. I'm still a little hazy about why all the animals are at the fair. They mostly all looked the same to me.

We actually went to see some photography a friend had entered in the fair…he won some awards, and I enjoyed browsing through the displays and thinking about if I want to enter some next year. Procrastinator that I am, I now don't have to think about it for another 11 months or so. Maybe I'll enter this curious guy.

brief was thy stay

2011-05-17T09:00:00.001-04:00

A year ago, some dear friends of mine got the worst kind of news. Their college-age daughter had died. It was an accident, no one was to blame. It was one of those completely out-of-the-blue tragic things that slap you upside the head and heart and make you wonder why why why why?

It was the kind of news that doesn't make sense when you first hear it. I remember someone telling me years ago of a young man who had died unexpectedly…I had to have the person repeat the sentence twice and then say it back to them before it actually clicked and I understood what was being said. It was something I had no frame of reference for in that moment…it was so unexpected that I couldn't hear the words.

So a year ago, I read the emails and the facebook status updates and the news reports over and over, hoping to see that there was some mistake. But it was true. And it finally sunk in, and I cried my heart out for my friends who's girl was gone.

She was sunshine, this girl.

Every memory I have of her is of her smiling or laughing. She was great at focusing on the person she was talking to, I think because she genuinely loved people. There was nothing fake about her. She loved the Lord Jesus and wanted nothing more than to do the things that would please him.

The weekend after I made the trip north for her memorial service, my husband and I went to Charleston, SC, where we encountered an old cemetery behind a church. I noticed the light playing with the remains of a tombstone, and went to get a closer look. I love the bits of the engraving I could read:

Died…
…brief was thy stay
…of Love
…have called thee away
…have borne thee above

Even without trying to fill in the blanks, these words made me think of her. 20 years on earth is a brief stay…but she was full of love and has been called away…borne above…to be forever with her savior. And even as I have grieved for her family, I have rejoiced for her. She is in the place of unending joy and satisfaction.

And even as her family grieves still…and will always, on this earth, miss her…one day there will be a reuniting that will last forever.

the pier

2011-05-12T12:54:00.001-04:00

Took a walk down the pier last night to see if the pile of sea lions was there again. Saw some cool colors and textures along the way.

Sure enough, we found 'em.

From the first time I saw this bench, I wanted to do a photo shoot here. Finally strolled past with some willing victims :)

Then we became victims ourselves!

out to the beach

2011-05-04T11:52:00.009-04:00

We drive through farm country to get to the ocean. Not sure what's growing here, as we were whizzing by pretty fast when I shot this out the window. I'm kinda surprised it's even slightly in focus.

Broccoli, cauliflower, artichokes, strawberries, flowers…all of these grow in the surrounding areas. There's also vineyards galore and ranches sprawling over the hills. But my post header promised some beach, didn't it?

There's a stretch of beach that you can drive onto…ocean on one side, rolling dunes on the other…

We kicked off our shoes and strolled along, looking for treasure.

Camper? Hearse? Didn't see a funeral happening, so I'm pretty sure it's the former.

Wrapped up the afternoon with lunch in an old train car diner.

grody

2011-03-07T13:03:00.004-05:00

I am thoroughly and completely grossed out by snails.

Mostly because I've stepped on a few. And they make this crunch/squish sound that just makes me want to hurl.

My husband can testify to how freaked out I get when I do this. He likes to joke about having them for dinner. I'm pretty sure I couldn't down a snail for a million dollars. Seriously.

I wear gloves and long sleeves when doing any gardening type work, because I just don't know what I would do if one of them touched my skin. **shudder**

I realized after a while of being grossed out by them, that many people actually think they're cute! What?? I mean, they print cutesy kid fabric with SNAILS on it! Really?? Like I'm going to make my kid pajamas with creepy slimy smooshy icky creatures on them??

Apparently, there's an appeal there that I'm missing.

So, this morning, when my husband said "hey, look, come'ere, quick" and I thought it was a bird or a cat or something out back, and saw, instead, a snail slllllooooooooowwwwwlllllllllyyyyyyy making its way across the cement, I decided to take my macro out there and take a closer look.

Still not cute. Still rather creepy. Still don't want to eat one. Still am going to freak out when I accidentally step on one.

But they are kinda cool after all.

most successful

2011-02-28T19:31:00.005-05:00

The day after we found out we've got a baby on the way, my husband and I decided to finish unpacking all the boxes that were piled in the baby's room so we'd have a place to put this kiddo when he/she arrives! Because apparently, these 8-pound bundles of joy come with about 800 pounds of stuff.

Some of the boxes in there were boxes I had retrieved from my mom's attic on my last visit to my childhood home. Amongst the "treasures" contained therein was a plethora of medals & ribbons & trophies & plaques…most of which had not enough information on them to indicate why I had ever received them. So I had my man snap this shot of me wearing ALL of my medals before putting them in the "donate" pile. I posted this shot on facebook with a caption along the lines of "who knew I ever needed this much affirmation when I was a kid?!"

Of all the trophies & plaques that I uncovered that day, however, the two below are my favorites. Click to embiggen and enjoy all of the retro/cheap award details.

Can you just see my five-year-old self dashing 50 yards…and possibly even passing other five-year-olds on the way? Part of me wonders if there were more than two contestants, though! I love the typewritten peel 'n' stick label on the block of wood that was probably cut and painted by hand in a teacher's basement.

The one that really makes me laugh, though, is the one that deems me "Most Successful." There is no specification regarding this success. I have no idea if this was a sports trophy, an academic trophy, a bible club trophy…or what.

At this point, it doesn't matter to me what it was for. I'm keeping it, and I'm going to display it prominently where I can see it.

If you know me, you know that I'm not anywhere near being a type-A, driven, accomplished person with huge goals and checklists and a clean desk and a filing system. I rarely feel "successful"…like I have my act together…like I've accomplished all that I could have today. (Remember when I said I was going to try to post every day this month? I only managed 50% of the days of the shortest month of the year. UN-successful!)

I have come to terms with the fact that I am not a very productive person most of the time…I make lists and then do things that aren't on my list. I wait until the very last minute to do pretty much anything. I'm not a planner, and I have total ADD when it comes to cleaning or organizing or running errands or even just gathering what I need before I walk out my door. I'm very easily distracted from my (loosely defined) goal.

But now I have a reminder that I was, at some point in my life, Most Successful.

At something.

orchid or alien?

2011-02-23T20:44:00.004-05:00

The more I look at this one, the more I see a creature and not a flower. Maybe if aliens looked like this (and not like the x-files ones), we wouldn't be as afraid of them?

My addled brain aside, this was taken in San Francisco at the Conservatory of Flowers in the Golden Gate park (which isn't really all that close to the golden gate [which isn't really a gate, either], btw).

bridges of san francisco

2011-02-20T23:32:00.006-05:00

The mystery I wanted to solve when we visited San Francisco recently was this: Why is the golden gate bridge…not golden?

As you can see, it is red. Quite red. (Seems like someone told me recently she knows someone who's job it is to keep painting the golden gate bridge over and over again. Dangling from the heights in harnesses and such. Sounds both exhilarating and frightfully depressing at the same time. You're never finished!)

The answer (why it's red & not golden) really isn't all that interesting. Apparently, the "golden gate" is the passageway between the hills that the bridge spans. Maybe you really need to approach the city from the sea to understand. I'm guessing it has to do with the golden color of the California hills most of the year?

Now, the Oakland Bay Bridge…that one looks golden.

Except when it's completely shrouded in fog. Then it's gray.

Or invisible.

corrosion textures

2011-02-18T15:30:00.009-05:00

I am completely enamored of the textures and colors of corrosion. I am inexorably drawn to rusty, weathered, worn things. I headed out one afternoon expressly to capture all of these flaky manhole covers I had been seeing around. I think being so close to the ocean, the process of corrosion has been intensified. Painting them seems to have no effect but to add to the depth of texture that occurs as time goes by.

Sometimes I wonder about this attraction to decay…is there something flawed in me that I find this lovely?? There is just something about watching the effects of time and environment and exposure…it fascinates me. Sometimes it's ugly. But many times it's beautiful.

two for one

2011-02-16T21:22:00.004-05:00

The reflection of a sunset and the rise of the moon. On display out my kitchen window as I stir the sauce.

And it changes moment to moment…ablaze with light and color…the clouds sink and the colors grow softer until they disappear altogether turning the evening sky to monochrome.

strawberry lemonade & tulips

2011-02-13T19:36:00.006-05:00

Apparently, daily blogging just isn't part of who I am. I just plain forget all about it some days, with all of life that is happening.

Today, I thought I'd share my "recipe" for strawberry lemonade. It's that much more enjoyable if your sweetie has purchased some lovely pink tulips for you. Heck, buy the tulips yourself, for that matter…that'll work just as well.

Okay, strawberry lemonade. I made this based on a vague memory of a Rachel Ray 30-minute meals episode I saw a while back, so you can probably find a real recipe if you want to look for it instead of winging it along with me!

7 or 8 ripe strawberries
4 lemons (fresh picked off your own tree is optional, but not necessary)
1/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup water
plus more water & ice

Dump the 1/3 cup sugar & 1/3 cup water in a small saucepan over medium heat, and stir it until it dissolves. let it cool. (they call it simple syrup on the food network.)

Juice those lemons!

Smash those strawberries! (I used a potato masher)

Put the strawberries in the bottom of your pitcher, add your lemon juice, some ice and water till your pitcher is mostly full.

Taste, then start adding the sugar water until it's as sweet as you want it. I like mine tart, so didn't use all of the syrup…if you like your drinks sweet, you may want to make more to begin with. Add more water as desired. It's far from an exact formula. I have a small pitcher, so this made only about 4 tall-glass servings for me.

Pour yourself a glass and think about sunshine!

I'm not a beach girl…

2011-02-10T15:11:00.005-05:00

…not if being a beach girl involves baking in the direct sunlight and 90-degree heat for hours at a time, anyway.

I'm totally a beach girl when it involves much cooler temps, lots of rocks & caves and driftwood, and no other people on "my" stretch of shoreline.

I love the beaches here on the central coast of california. If you're in the mood for crowds, there are piers & surfer beaches. If you want some isolation, there are some more secluded stretches. If you just want to sit on a rock and watch the waves roll in, you've got that, too. Just bring a jacket…it gets downright chilly sometimes!

You can explore tidal pools and caves and find sea creatures and collect driftwood and rocks and shells.

Of course, you've got to read all the signs carefully, as huge stretches of the shoreline are closed to protect the snowy plovers during their nesting season. Since we've seen them running all over on the open beaches, I tend to think they're not really in all that much danger. But that's just me.

It was fun exploring things when we first got here and my husband had some time off for house hunting and settling in. He took me to beaches I never would have found on my own.

And even some of the more touristy places are fun…watching the pelicans dive for their dinner at Pismo (occasionally a lazy one lands and hopes for a freebie from one of the many fishermen along the pier).

On the Avila pier, follow the barking to find the pile of sea lions sunning themselves down below.

Yep, give me these beaches over a body-strewn stretch of white sand any day!

the upside-down lemon

2011-02-08T23:34:00.002-05:00

This one lone lemon on our tree is growing up instead of down. I wonder what it will taste like?

I'm playing a bit with adding textures to my images, too. Mostly I don't like what I end up with, but I was happy with this one.

silhouetted cuties

2011-02-07T19:15:00.006-05:00

I was just reminded about these silhouettes I did a while back for a friend, of her two girls and her nephew. I've seen these done all over the internet, and there is so much you can do to personalize them…adding names and/or borders, or pasting them onto scrapbook paper.

Then frame them and hang them on a wall! There are actually people who can just look at someone's profile and use scissors to cut it out on black paper…I'm in awe of them. I need a good profile photo and photoshop to get this done!

I love how the little guy's eyelashes were actually so long they showed up in profile!

high contrast

2011-02-06T00:47:00.002-05:00

just a photo I snapped on my morning walk last week. too tired for more words tonight!

poppy in the sunshine

2011-02-04T17:24:00.004-05:00

Just thought I'd send a little sunshine and flowers your way today. I feel oddly removed from winter here, but clearly remember many many days in a row of a monochromatic world.

I actually sometimes miss those days covered in shades of gray…those days that make springtime when it comes so much more dramatic and breathtaking.

I love living where we are…but I do hope that one day we will live somewhere with all four seasons, clearly defined! Right now, I see naked trees, and a few with fall-colored leaves hanging on, and some with springtime blossoms already. I can't remember what month it is!

I captured this poppy (and several more) in the Golden Gate Park in San Francisco the week after Christmas.

before & after: footstool

2011-02-03T22:07:00.001-05:00

I'm 5'2"

I need footstools in my life. My feet tend to not reach the ground sitting in most normal furniture. I also can't reach the top shelf of my kitchen cupboards or our bedroom closet without some sort of vertical assistance.

I like being short. petite. whatever you want to call it. But it does explain my footstool "collection." I had to leave one behind when I left NY…no room in the car for even one more thing.

So when my husband had to go to the auto parts store, and there was a thrift store next door, with a bunch of stuff sidewalk-sale style outside, I was immediately drawn to the stacking footstools. Two for the price of one! And the price, my friends, was a mere $3.95.

As hideous as they were, I knew I could make something out of them. They were Ethan Allen, with totally sturdy bases and really hideously dirty and torn vinyl covers.

So I went to town, ripping out the 3 million and 2 staples holding it all together. The foam was still in good shape, as was the bottom board the vinyl was stapled to.

For some reason, whenever my husband and I are out and about and we see a zebra or other animal-print covered chair, he says we should get it. So I went with zebra.

I sanded down the base and spray painted it a glossy black, then I used the cover and piping I had ripped off as a pattern and sewed the top, top piping and side pieces together, then wrapped that around the foam and the bottom board and stapled the bottom piping on at that point. It was a pain. And yes, I've only done one…not sure when I'll get to the other one, as it hides under my desk, and it perfectly functional and invisible.

And I like it.

And yes, I realize that I have more before photos than after photos. And that from a photography standpoint, the before photos are actually better photos. And I see the smudge on my lens that I didn't see when I was taking the photos.

Perfection is not my game, procrastination is. But I'm posting this now, and not worrying about taking better pictures. Of a footstool.

horseradish deviled eggs

2011-02-02T22:52:00.006-05:00

On our way across the country, we stopped in Memphis, TN. It was insanely hot in Memphis. So hot my sweat was burning lines down my face. Sticky and hot. So hot that I didn't care one bit that it was too early for dinner, or how expensive the first restaurant that we came to was…I just needed air conditioning. and ice water. I don't do that kind of heat well.

I don't even remember the name of the restaurant, but they had several unique animal heads mounted to the walls. And a crystal chandelier hanging above our heads, which was the only thing I took a picture of while we were there, but the focus was all goofy. so I'm not showing it to you.

Dinner was delicious…though I don't even remember what I had. What I do remember is the appetizer. Seems they had a tradition of doing a different deviled egg each night for an appetizer. And the night we were there, it was a horseradish deviled egg. With tiny shrimps on top. I could do without the shrimp, but the horseradish was great.

Several months after our memphis adventure, my husband and I were reminiscing about those horseradish deviled eggs. So I thought I'd make some. Then I made them again, and decided to take pictures along the way.

So here's my random post of the day: not a recipe, really, because I didn't measure anything, but, in the tradition of the Pioneer Woman, a step-by-step photo tutorial for a twist on your traditional deviled eggs.

You start, of course, with hard boiled eggs. you can probably make them just as well as I can. My "method" is cover the eggs in cold water, bring to a boil, boil for a minute (or until I remember them) then turn the heat off and let them sit for 18 minutes before rinsing them in cold water. (or is it 14 minutes?)

Sometimes they come out beautifully, like this time.

So…crack those shells off and gather your ingredients!

That's kosher salt in the tiny white dish. use whatever salt you normally use.

Slice those orbs end to end, hopefully revealing this luscious golden yellow yolk. with no greenish stuff going on. (what causes that, anyway?)

Scoop the yolks out into a dish.

Add a dollop of each of the wet ingredients…mayo, mustard & horseradish.

Add salt, pepper and paprika to your liking (helpful, I know!). then mush it all up to blend it all together and scoop it back into the whites.

Arrange on a plate and add something green (tiny basil leaves here) just to make it look pretty. then devour. and wonder why you only made two!

if this was for a competition cooking show, I'd have points docked for presentation for that tiny dot of egg filling that landed on the plate. sigh.

the golden hour

2011-02-01T22:21:00.001-05:00

that hour just before the sun sets.

a random photo just to say hey.

I've been busy growing a baby lately, so haven't really had the energy or brain to blog here.

but I just got a great idea from a friend…let's post every day in February…it's the shortest month, after all!

why not go from nothing to all in one day?

edit: my blog still thinks I'm on eastern standard time, so I'm changing the date on this one! it was before midnight pacific standard time!

from bud to seed

2010-09-08T17:55:00.007-04:00

I find myself preferring the image of the dying rose over the one of the newly opened bud. how about you?

I'm learning the teeniest bit about roses, now that I have adopted the care of three bushes of them. I still have no idea what kind we have or just what I ought to do to (for?) them to make them thrive.

And now I know what rose hips are. They are the seed pods that develop after the petals fall off, and they are useful for all sorts of things like jellies and teas and medicines and such.

If I invite you over for rose hip tea, however, you'd be wise to decline. Too much snail poison floating around.

Does anyone else see the leaping dancer in that last shot?

bees in the lavender

2010-08-30T14:31:00.003-04:00

I want to take walks with my camera more often. You just never know what you'll see when you look really closely at something ordinary.

A friend told me a while back that my photography shares with people "the world they pass by every day unaware." I find that I am often also unaware until I slow down and look at things through my lens.

On the other hand, I find that I will sometimes miss the bigger picture if I have my camera glued to my face the whole time I am somewhere. Finding just the right "in between" is my challenge.

the daisy on my sill

2010-08-25T11:39:00.003-04:00

in our new house, we have a lovely deep windowsill behind the kitchen sink. I've always wanted one of those. A perfect place for a lovely bloom to catch the morning light.

I have many many photos of our journey to the west coast to share. I'll try "unpacking" more and more of those along with all the boxes we have yet to open :)

I was wondering what this was…

2010-08-09T23:31:00.002-04:00

I just wanted to thank Anna Maria Horner for identifying a flower I had been wondering about. I snapped this on a trip to Charleston, and had no idea what it was.

Turns out it's a blue passion flower. I love the weirdness of it. The tendrils, the spots, the odd symmetry, the colors. The creativity of the Creator is continually amazing to me.

(I just did more reading on this at wiki, and thought the naming and symbolism was interesting. Check out the paragraph on etymology at this link if you want to know more)

a handmade challenge

2010-08-09T14:07:00.009-04:00

several months ago, someone posted on facebook that she would send something handmade to the first five people to comment on her post…and then post the same status themselves. So I hopped on board…commented on her post, then reposted, promising to send something handmade to the first 5 people to comment on my status…sometime in 2010. (I didn't require them to reciprocate, wanting to keep it open for anyone. I'm nice like that.)

Mind you, I barely know the vast majority of my fb friends. Most are people I went to college with, or high school, or I would say hi to at church. A lot of them are people that I think I would love to be real life friends with, but I don't live near any of them. A few of them are truly good friends right now…a few were good friends years back.

It was therefore a bit difficult coming up with ideas of what to make for people, since the commenters fell into all of the above categories…but I just decided to make some projects I wanted to make anyway, and they could be my test subjects. I'm telling them to feel free to give it away if they decide they just don't like it or wouldn't use it!

The first project I finished was the emmeline apron by Meg at Sew Liberated. It was a pattern I had bought impulsively ages ago just because I thought it looked really really cute. Nevermind the fact that I almost never wear an apron while baking or cooking. I thought maybe I would if I had one like this! And it's reversible, so it's like two aprons in one.

I made this while trapped upstairs in my craft/sewing room while the tile guys were destroying our kitchen to put in new tile so we could sell our house. My fabric choices were based solely on what I had on hand, but I think it worked out just fine. I didn't have large enough cuts of fabric to do what the pattern said to do, so I pieced some together to make a large enough panel for the one side. And I like that side best. (Maybe because the green side is so wrinkled??)

I did some decorative stitching on the edges, and learned a few things about this apron as I went along. I think I would do less gathering for the top part next time, or at least pay more attention to making it even, and would try to use lighter weight fabrics also. Though I really like the look of the finished apron, it felt a bit bulky to me when I had it on, and I don't think I would wear it much if I kept it. Some of the fabrics I used were fairly heavy weight quilting cottons, so if I used some lighter weights, that would likely cut down on the overall heavy feel of the apron. Perhaps I'll try it again some day.

The girl I sent it to is a mom of 4 (or 5?) boys, and I thought she'd maybe like something feminine to combat some of the testosterone buildup at her place! She said she likes it, so that one worked out well :)

The next project I made was a bag from Anna Maria Horner's book, Seams to Me. I think it's called the taxi tote, but I don't have the book handy, so I can't check on that.

I wasn't sure if the recipient would like the crazy orange fabric with a recycled pillowcase as a lining…but I really love the combo, and since she had a picture of herself standing in front of a gorgeous flaming orange tree, I figured she couldn't be totally opposed to the color!

A chapstick pocket is a must.

The bag is just the right size to fit a few magazines or folders into, along with whatever daily essentials you carry. It was pretty floppy, so I would use more interfacing next time (I don't remember if I even used what was recommended in the book), and probably add a few more interior pockets. Maybe a magnetic snap closure, as the button & loop I made didn't really work all that well. I used premade bias binding, and liked how it worked out. Sure saved me the time & trouble of making my own.

I miss this fabric now. Wish I knew where I got it, but I think it was a clearanced one from way back before I even started sewing. Bummer. I'm a big fan of orange.

So that's two out of five projects done and sent on their way. Three more to come. I think I know what I'm going to make for one of the remaining three, am unsure about another, and am pretty stumped on what to make for the lone guy commenter. He probably forgot he commented, but I'm going to make something anyway!

the road trip quilt

2010-07-27T08:11:00.001-04:00

A few years back, I spent the better part of a year driving an hour and a half to work each day. It was a lovely drive in the spring and summer months. I loved watching the progression of the green-to-gray ratio along the roadsides. The first touch of bright spring green peeked out from amongst the bare gray trunks and dark evergreens in the early spring. As summer approached, you'd see more and more shades of green as the naked trees sprouted their leaves until eventually all along the highway was a wall of various shades and hues of green.

When I started collecting fabrics, I'd grab a half yard here, a fat quarter there, and it started to get pretty obvious that I was predominantly drawn to greens. I think those road trips, and growing up in a place where the greens came and went with the seasons, contributed to my love for the color green in most of its variations (no minty greens, please!).

So, when I decided I needed a quilt to keep for myself (I have been severely reprimanded by some quilter friends for giving away my first few), it was fairly obvious which fabrics I would use.

I like simple, so I went with simple. 7" squares of widely varied greens with some more gray-toned squares throughout. Below is the finished top.

I found a sheet at Target to back it with, and added a pieced strip of the front fabrics.

I qulted it in the ditch from top to bottom, then with random lines from side to side, using clear thread.

and here it is, all quilted and bound and washed. Another reason I call it the road trip quilt, is that I finished binding it as we traveled across the country.

I had the hardest time finding the right fabric to bind this with! I really wanted a bright green with a yellowish tinge to it, and couldn't find the right color anywhere. I finally went to a quilt shop with my mother in law, and she found the perfect fabric for it. I had been wanting a solid color, but this robert kaufman print had all the perfect colors and shadings in it to make a great binding for all these varied greens. nice find!

summer in a cup

2010-07-26T13:45:00.004-04:00

Nothing says summer like perfectly sweet strawberries with fresh whipped cream.

And if you can buy a cup like this from a street vendor, then listen to a really fun jazz band while sitting on a curb with your best friend (whom you happen to be married to), enjoying a cool breeze and the softening light of the setting sun, well, I'm not sure there's a more perfect evening.

Throw in a liege waffle (we need to try them fresh…these were not all they had been touted to be)…

a beef rib for my man, a chicken kabob for me…

and a fantastic bunch of kids making music with buckets and garbage cans…

and you've got just a few reasons I'm loving west coast living!

by the way, am I really old enough for the (really awful) fashions of my youth to be making a comeback?? I totally wore purple skinny jeans. My parents wouldn't have let me do the safety pin thing…way too edgy.

my pet heron

2010-07-19T00:24:00.005-04:00

Okay, so he's not really my pet, but I like his sense of humor. And the way he just sorta stalks along, turning to look at me every now and then to see if I'm still there, and standing really really still in hopes that me and that black clicking thing on my eye will just go away and leave him alone.

But I don't.

So off he goes, into the gloomy fog.

the end.

zippers and ruffles

2010-06-23T15:38:00.005-04:00

A while back, I took a class at my local quilt shop. We were learning strip piecing or string piecing for making quilt blocks, as well as a couple of "quilt as you go" methods. I had a blast doing the string piecing, and ended up with a couple of quilt blocks, but not a ton of desire to do a whole quilt like this just yet. I didn't have enough scraps. I'll get there, I'm sure.

I also decided it was time to figure out how to make a zippered pouch, and used one of the strip-pieced blocks to do so. I had just been reading gussy's blog (she's a fun read, and has cute stuff for sale!), and was inspired to add a ruffle to my pouch.

So here it is…stray strings and all. It's got all my makeup in it now. so handy.

I had a couple of squares that I rejected from my latest quilt because they were more brown than green, so I went ahead and made another pouch, trying another method of assembling the bag, this time with a lining. My first try had one side of the pouch with the lining fabric on the outside instead of the inside. Which I may have just left alone, except that I really like the outside fabric a lot, and don't really love the lining fabric as much.

I also messed up this zipper a bit. It's functional, but I will definitely do it better next time. Turns out my sewing machine didn't really like hitting that little metal jobbie at the end of the zipper. Must pay more attention next time!

and again, against my grain and totally following a trend, I added a ruffle (maybe more of a pleat?).

and I like it.

small things

2010-06-12T10:11:00.002-04:00

Sometimes it only takes a tiny thing to take something from old and tired to fresh and new.

Meet my gray wool cardigan that my mom bought me for my birthday several years ago. The binding was coming unattached at the back of the neck, so I hadn't worn it in ages. I knew I could stitch it up, but didn't think I could stitch it up very neatly, and though I used to be quite comfortable wearing holey clothes around (I went to college in the early 90s…grunge was hot), I felt maybe I ought to look a little bit more grown up and responsible than that these days!

So…I stitched it up, sloppy as can be, then sewed a ruffle to it to hide it. The ruffle was just a piece of ribbon left over from who knows what…probably some kind of gift wrap or packaging or something. I really don't know. I just sewed a long stitch right down the middle of the ribbon, without backstitching at either end, then grabbed a thread and pulled until it was all gathered and ruffled to my satisfaction. Then I pinned away and sewed it on.

And wore it. Once. Then I found that the collar was pulling away on the other side…time to do some more hand-stitching!

Below is a shirt/dress/tunic I got ages and ages ago…at the GAP outlet, judging by the slashed tag. Somehow I did once upon a time wear it as a dress. But it shrank and I grew, and now I can wear it with jeans…but no way can I get away with it by itself! The label says dry clean only, but I've been washing it all this time, so that probably explains much of the shrinkage. That may also explain the weird color shift the buttons have done. I think they were actually navy to match the dress when I bought it. I pulled it out of my summer clothes box the other day and wore it and realized that those buttons really looked dumb. I also realized that sewing a button on is not rocket science. So I found some lovely buttons at JoAnn Fabrics and viola! An updated tunic.

How many articles of clothing do you have that you haven't worn because they need a 10-minute repair?

Since first writing this post, I've also altered a dress (un-puffing some sleeves) and a skirt (de-bulking some crazy inverted pleats) that I'd been meaning to get to for ages. I've got pants to hem and another pair to sew a hook to…easy, small things that are way cheaper than going out and buying a new pair!

magnolias, southern style

2010-06-10T11:43:00.007-04:00

In my old neighborhood in western new york, there was an entire street of magnolia trees that would take your breath away when you stumbled upon it when they were in full bloom. Somewhere in my archives, I have photos of that street, but if I wait until I find them to post this, I'll never get on with the rest of my day.

The first two images below are some magnolias from new york. Lovely, lovely blooms. The trees on the street full of them had blooms shaped more like the pink ones, but were more white tinged with pink. A whole row of these trees blooming at once is amazing.

Down South, live their gigantic, creamy white cousins. The pink one above is probably the size of a tea cup. The ones shown below are the size of dinner plates!

What I had never noticed before were the amazingly beautiful innards of a magnolia bloom! I don't know my floral anatomy, so I won't even try to name all this stuff scientifically, but have you ever seen a more interesting flower center?

It's even beautiful when it's dying!

I think this one may be younger than the first shot…

I'm amazed at the purity of the petals.

And the subtle texture.

Open or closed, it's a stunning example of Creation.

And, once again…it's even gorgeous when it's dying. Like old parchment.

Thank you, Jesus for such stunning beauty to enjoy!

creatures small

2010-06-08T11:25:00.004-04:00

found these guys in my parsley this morning. I don't think they ate too much of it.

this guy wasn't in my parsley. But I think he didn't really like me creeping closer and closer with the macro lens.

trying again

2010-06-03T12:15:00.005-04:00

Many many many years ago, a friend taught me to knit. She actually cast on for me, so I didn't learn that part, but I did learn how to knit and purl. And I knitted and purled off and on (mostly off) for years. Probably 5 or 6 years. On one scarf. Until another friend said "will you please give me your scarf so I can finish it for you and you can wear it?" So I did. You can totally tell which 2/3 of the scarf I knit, and which 1/3 of the scarf my friend knit. Lumps galore on my side.

I don't really know why, but recently I decided I wanted to learn to crochet. I mentioned this to my friend at my local quilt shop, who happens to be right next door to my local yarn shop. Long story short, I was convinced to give knitting another go before learning crochet.

So, my new friend at the yarn shop actually taught me how to cast on for myself, then walked me through the steps to creating a dishcloth, knitted on the diagonal, so I learned increases & decreases at the same time. My first attempt looked like a holey lumpy kite. Not even close to being the square it was meant to be. It's not a weird camera angle…it really looks like that!

But I felt like, towards the end, I was actually getting the hang of things. So I tried again. Don't mind my tails. I still need to weave those in. Or something.

And I think I've improved about 3000%. Although I have a long ways to go towards reaching knitting consistency! I think I'll make another dishcloth or two to keep practicing before I attempt something to wear or give as a gift.

a party in the sky

2010-06-02T15:13:00.008-04:00

I have a degree in journalism. I am not a journalist. I am right now proving that fact, by posting photos of an event that's a month old. It's not news any more.

I'm sure there are better photos of the airshow online somewhere. I'm sure the Thunderbirds have their own publicity photos that are fantastic.

But I want to remember that I was there. That we escaped the crowds, if not the heat, taking advantage of the preview day. That I got close enough to the F16s to touch them and smell them…not just hear them roar over my head while I'm on the highway.

So, without further ado…I present…the Thunderbirds! (and some other planes that I won't even attempt to identify, because I'd likely get them wrong).

That last photo has a story that goes with it. It goes like this: my husband says to me at some point, oh, it looks like they're going to do the starburst formation, where they all fly together to one spot then abruptly take off in all different directions, It's a really cool maneuver! We waited expectantly, but it didn't happen. What did happen a couple of times was a lone jet buzzed right over our heads from the back of the "playing field" so to speak, and I missed getting a picture of the underside of the plane by seconds. I don't like missing shots like that.

So…with that background, there was a moment when I KNEW that lone jet was going to be coming in from behind at any moment, so I had my camera trained on the sky BEHIND US while the rest of the jets were all together out in front about to do something or other. I just figured it would be another group fly-by. My husband was saying "Jen, Jen, look!! Get this!" or something like that, and I was like "no way, I'm going to get this straggler guy when he buzzes us this time!" and I totally missed the starburst. But got the aftermath. Which you see above.

Moral of the story: listening to my husband is a good idea.

And no, the lone jet didn't even buzz us that time. Never got that shot either!

chives

2010-05-11T17:30:00.006-04:00

Who knew herbs could be so pretty? When I got my chive plant last spring, it just looked like a bunch of grass. I didn't end up using it very much, so I wasn't going to get more this spring. Turns out they come back all by themselves! With flowers!

A bummer about our upcoming move is not being able to take my little herb garden with me. But since everything seems to thrive with a bare minimum of effort on my part, I'm hoping it'll be just that easy to get it going again on the other coast.

more bibs and a hippo quilt

2010-05-10T14:40:00.012-04:00

For those of you who are really into this blog for the photography, I really am going to try to intersperse all this sewing with some of my pretty pictures! Bear with me. And thanks for listening. Reading. Watching. Whatever.

I mentioned in a recent post that we've got two nieces on the way. Time to show you some of the things I've made for niece number two (numbered in sequence, not importance!). I made them before I knew she was a girl, so once again (see my first set here) I needed to go for gender neutrality. Which works out well, since her nursery is going to be bright primary colors…not much girly-girl pink and purple going on in her life, I'm thinking. We'll see when she gets here :)

The bibs are a variation I came up with using a basic pattern from Amy Karol's bend-the-rules sewing book. I embroidered the words, added a strip of the backing fabric to the front, and topstitched it all in bright orange. No need to be subtle about barf, spit and drool. One fat quarter of each fabric gave me plenty for the backing, the front strip and the ties for the bibs as well as coordinating burp cloths. Because when you can clean up barf with style, it makes it less gross, right?

In another nice coincidence (does the Spirit lead fabric choices??), I had picked up some fabric at IKEA and figured it would make a great blanket/quilt for a baby. And I knew that my brother and sister-in-law can handle some of my crazier color choices. Once I had the quilt done, I found out they were pretty much decorating the nursery with all IKEA stuff, so the lime green hippos will look right at home.

This is my cheaters baby quilt. I did zero piecing. Just sandwiched my front and back together and quilted away. I had tried free-motion quilting on placemats a while back, with some success and some frustration. I had since then taken a class at my wonderful local quilt shop and learned a couple things, so I thought this would be a great time to try it out on a slightly larger piece. I'm not sure I'd be able to do this on an even larger quilt…but then again, I never thought I'd even be making quilts at all.

I love pairing a crazy bright color with something neutral, like this grey dot. Without any piecing on either front or back, this turns into a reversible quilt. And at approximately 36"x36", it's just about the right size for a stroller.

After a trip through the wash, you end up with this fun crinkly texture.

I have found that the hand-sewing part of the binding goes much faster for me if I sit at a table to do it. I tried sitting on the couch and binding while watching TV, and it takes me forever to finish (maybe because I'm really only sewing during commercials!). If I put myself at the table and listen to podcasts, I can get a lot of binding done in much less time than I thought I could. It's still my least-favorite part of the whole process, though…maybe as I get better with the hand sewing, I'll like it better. We'll see.

tiny sundresses

2010-04-30T12:16:00.008-04:00

I'm not sure where I first saw oliver + s mentioned, but somewhere, I ran across mention of a free pattern they were offering for a sundress. In my quest to learn how to sew, I must admit to being fairly cheap. I think I have only purchased one pattern so far. Most things I have made are from basic tutorials…some are simply measurements, some have free patterns you can download. Since I am a beginner, and bound to mess some things up along the way, I like it that there are so many free options out there for me to get my feet wet. If I find I enjoy making clothing, I can think about buying some patterns. We'll see how it goes.

Anyway, once I found this free pattern, I knew I needed a victim (or two) so that I would be more motivated to actually finish the project. I got in touch with a friend back home and got sizes for her two girls (who are, quite possibly, the cutest little girls on the planet. I kid you not.). So, with a goal, and some fabric I had bought forever ago, and one Old Navy shirt that so did not fit me any more, I was ready to go!

Here they are, posing on the back of my Adirondack chair. The girls' mom tried to send me a photo of the girls in the dresses, but alas, my phone plan doesn't let me receive photos. I know. I'm in the dark ages.

I really like how simple the dress is…and how many options there are to make it your own design. It can be worn alone in warm weather, or layered over a shirt with a cardigan over it in the winter. You could do a pattern for the main part of the dress and solids for the top. You could add embroidery or applique or ruffles or whatever! I think it would be cool to use a daddy's old jeans to make dresses for his girls.

I have to say that the pattern (there's a link on the right side of the blog. it's called the popover sundress) was really very well written…as one would expect of some folks who are in the business of creating and selling patterns! I base my evaluation on the fact that I was able to follow it…not on any comparisons with other patterns I've used. It's been several months since I made the dresses, but I don't recall any real hassles I encountered. I would definitely consider purchasing one of their more involved patterns in the future, based on my experience with this one. And no, they aren't paying me to say that. They don't even know I exist!

baby girls

2010-04-21T20:13:00.007-04:00

I mentioned the nibling a while back, and that was before we knew that the nibling is actually a niece! Since the nursery is painted the color of a certain rather famous bear, and I was fortunate enough to find some fabric featuring that same bear, I whipped up a blanket & dress and a soft rattle block for her before heading up to the baby shower.

I have since found out that there is another niece on the way in my own immediate family…so there will be more baby girl sewing shown here shortly!

And, since babies seem to come with a whole lot of stuff, I made a little fabric basket to help corral the stuff.

I love it that so many crafty folks are posting free tutorials for fun thngs to make. I've linked above to the tutorials I used to make the dress, block & basket. Thank you to Made by Rae, London Mummy & The Sometimes Crafter for sharing your expertise with us!

The blanket was just a piece of quilting cotton & a piece of flannel sewn right sides together with space left to turn right side out, then finished with a decorative topstitch around the edges. No batting, no quilting…and I love the drape and feel of it with the flannel backing…it's a great lightweight blankie for the babe :)

oh…and here's some proof that sometimes I need to slow down and actually look at what I'm doing. I sewed the skirt on upside down the first time around!!

a photo safari

2010-04-21T11:46:00.008-04:00

I took a walk at a local park yesterday. And can't really think of the right words to go with the photos. So here they are. Proof that Spring is in full swing here. It actually feels like summer most of the time lately. The bright azaleas just around the corner from the spooky cypress swamp is an interesting juxtaposition.

I love the bright green color of the first photo. The color of new life.

And the last photo…proof that magnolia blooms the size of dinner plates are on their way!

why i love him so

2010-04-12T16:55:00.006-04:00

okay…one of many many reasons I love him so. He fixes things. He researches and figures it out and takes it all apart and puts it all back together. Gotta love a man who can make sense of the insides of a VW!

And yes, he did get it put back together, and it has traveled many many miles since then. I just forgot to take an "after" photo!

ah…but here is my latest mileage evidence…my mom & stepdad have put at least another 1,000 miles on it since we left it with them.

and yes, this is also the evidence of my lack of cleanliness.

Go ahead, ask me how I took that photo while traveling 50mph.

this I recall to my mind, therefore have I hope.

2010-02-11T10:35:00.005-05:00

Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live:
And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die.

Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me.
In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.
And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.
And whither I go ye know, and the way ye know.
Thomas saith unto him, Lord, we know not whither thou goest; and how can we know the way?
Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.

But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope.
For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him.
For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep.
For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first:
Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.

Wherefore comfort one another with these words.

I'm remembering my papa today. It's been 14 years. I wish he could have met my husband and walked me down the aisle and all that. But I'm grateful that we'll have eternity to catch up!

Scripture portions are from the Gospel of John and I Thessalonians.

one year ago today…

2010-01-24T06:00:00.000-05:00

…I married my love.

And I'm increasingly convinced that it was an excellent decision! He is my best friend…the one I can trust with everything. The one who makes me laugh until I can't breathe. The one who holds me when I'm crying for no apparent reason, without trying to fix me. He provides for me, and helps me, and fixes my car and eats whatever I cook without complaining.

Babe, you are a treasure. Thanks for marrying me. I'm looking forward to many anniversaries to come!

For all of you who are not my husband (he's seen the photos a few times!), here are more pictures of our wedding day. With some explanatory notes.

Note: all images courtesy of SoulCam Photography. More info on Scott and Robyn at the end of the post.

The "free" dress. Also a great example of how strong command hooks are.

Me wondering if they could just drop it over my head from here.

my shoes were a ten dollar bargain, with vintage clip-on earrings that kept falling off. Hot glue gun to the rescue!

Thanks to my amazing friend/hair stylist/makeup artist, most people probably didn't realize that I was sick. Another friend/bridesmaid recommended several supplements/herbal remedies and such, so I was drinking weird teas and extracts and really really hoping I didn't sneeze on my groom.

Here's my handsome man…not the slightest bit nervous, he says. Being in the Air Force, he's used to pomp and circumstance and ceremonies & such.

I loved my flowers. I had seen an all-green boquet at a wedding years ago, and it had stuck in my mind. Looking at it now, I still love it, but it maybe doesn't go all that well with everything else. Oh well. It's dried beautifully into shades of cream and green and brown and sits in my dining room. The necklace was my "something borrowed." The friend who lent it, along with a beautiful pair of earrings, also jumped in at the last minute and took care of all those weird details you don't even think of until that day. Like fixing all the bridesmaids' necklaces (magnetic clasps and chokers don't mix all that well!) and handing off payment to the espresso bar guy.

I loved the bridesmaids' bouquets! Those silvery gray ball things…I never knew anything like that existed! that's really a living, growing thing!

Since it was January, we had a snow girl, rather than a flower girl. I found silver snowflake confetti, and she scattered it down the aisle. From what I hear, she was bound and determined to scatter ALL of it, and stood at the end for a bit, trying to empty the basket!

Good thing she didn't dump all of them, though, as the remaining ones gave her something to do during the ceremony!

We said our vows, poured our sand and sealed it all with a kiss. or two.

I think I started to relax as we walked back down the aisle together. The important part was over, and at the end of the day, it's the ceremony, the vows, the things we said to each other before God and all those witnesses that really mattered. From this point on, the soup could be burned, the chairs could collapse, the heat could not work, but we would still be married.

At our first meeting with the wedding coordinator, when she and I were gabbing on about trees with white lights on the stage, and silver branches and snowflakes here and there, and where everyone would stand and who was walking me down the aisle and prelude and postlude music and all that, Dave was mostly concerned with what time he had to show up, and where he could get his uniform on. I know there are some grooms who are very involved in the look and feel of a wedding, but Dave was happy to let me handle most of those kinds of details! There was, however, one thing that he was insistent about. I was informed early on in the planning that we would have a "McCracken Cake" for our reception! Betty is a friend of Dave's family, and has been baking cakes for them pretty much all his life. It was as delicious as it was beautiful!

The photographers have this fun thing they do called the crazy booth. We failed to have it announced early on in the reception, so we don't have as many random photos of the guests as we may otherwise have had, but it made for some really fun shots as things started wrapping up.

I am much more comfortable behind the camera than in front of it!

the brother and his wife

the other brother and his wife

my girls :) I could write entire posts on each of these girls and the unique relationship I have with every one of them. I love them each dearly…and am so very glad they were all able to be there for this day. I also really love their outfits! I bought enough tops for me to have one, too, and I've worn it several times since then.

another group of ladies whom I love.

I met our wedding photographer almost 20 years ago, when I was a student at Word of Life Bible Institute, and he was the staff photographer there in the upstate New York headquarters. We didn't stay in touch much, but a few years ago, in one of my phases of googling people from my past, I came across his blog and found that he and his wife were really stellar wedding photographers! I loved the idea of someone I knew doing our photos…and knew that we would get some great images of our day with Scott and Robyn on the job. I'm so glad they were willing to travel, toddler and all, and I really love the images they captured.

the nibling

2010-01-23T15:19:00.001-05:00

Nibling = a gender-neutral term for a niece or a nephew.

Dave's sister and her husband are getting the grandchild thing going for the family! It's out on facebook, so I think it's safe to say so here :) And I'm having fun doing some baby gift sewing. I'll probably do a bunch more once we find out if this is a niece or a nephew, but for now, the nibling is getting some fun burp cloths and bibs.

Hopefully I've given them to her by the time this posts!

Because babies aren't all cute all the time. There's some barf, spit and drool that comes with them. And poop. But hopefully that won't be on the bib.

Uncle Dave wants me to do a "boogers" one next.

details

2010-01-21T10:13:00.016-05:00

A year ago right now, I was fighting a head cold, getting my eyebrows waxed, and thinking about all the last minute details that needed to get done before my wedding. My love surprised me by getting to town a whole day early (right after the eyebrow wax…I was still all pink and surprised-looking!), and we had a romantic late-night Walmart run for I don't even remember what.

In all the time that I was planning things, I was browsing lots of wedding planning blogs, checking out all the great details that other brides were working on…seemingly on an unlimited budget of both money and time. How they managed to not only do the planning of every intricate detail, but also blog about it is a mystery to me. Except that I've come to the conclusion that most of the more successful blogger types (the ones who post a lot and attract thousands of readers, etc) are much more type A personalities than I am. I'm so type B…not a single driven bone in my body.

So, in the true spirit of a total procrastinator, I have decided to post some of the wedding details now…a year later! I did manage to take some photos along the way, but not a ton…so we'll see what I can dig up.

As a graphic designer, I simply couldn't have anyone else design our wedding invitations. I've been doing invitations for others for years, and it just seemed silly to turn elsewhere for my own. Besides, the ones I would have really wanted were insanely, crazily expensive. Like eight bucks PER INVITATION. Nope. Can't do it.

I really like the look of bare branches, so went with that as a theme of sorts for our invitations and decor. I figured it would fit with the January in New York thing. My husband jokes that we decorated our wedding with dead trees. He's got a point there.

I had the printer letterpress the branches in silver ink. I failed to say "hey, the thing I love about letterpress is the nice deep indentation that adds texture to your final printed piece." So he didn't really hit them all that hard, and no one would know these had been letterpress printed. However, 98% of the people I sent the invitations to probably don't even know or care about the differences between offset and letterpress printing. But I still get that disappointed feeling in my stomach when I think about it too much.
I was going to put in dummy text so I wouldn't be annoyed about the blurring…but I didn't have the right typeface handy at the moment, and I'm not taking the time to hunt it down. Sorry.

If I don't tell you there's something wrong with these, you won't know, right? Okay. I won't tell you. I'll just say that I need to learn to communicate more clearly to people whom I am paying to render a service. Like hair stylists. And printers.

I have this mild obsession with really nice paper. Thick, textured and beautifully colored. I went with a heavy barely-ivory paper for the invitations, and these gorgeous silver envelopes. I've known for years that I wanted an odd size for my invitations…something to make them stand out a bit. So I went with the long skinny envelopes that open on the narrow end. I designed mailing labels with the branch art that wrapped around from front to back, so I could get the return address printed on the same label as the recipient's address. The green love stamps worked out okay, though they're not my favorites.

I had grandiose plans of scouring the woods and harvesting branches myself. But then I found bunches of willow branches already trimmed and bundled at the Christmas Tree Shop for maybe 2.99 a bundle. Yep, that saved me some time. A few cans of silver spray paint later, and we had "décor," thanks to a very helpful bridesmaid and her basement!

The mom of my maid of honor also came to save the day when she found these white branches on clearance after Christmas. She loaded up her trunk full of them for me!

Another good friend had a mother-in-law who had owned a bridal shop for years, but had just closed it down. She had a few dozen dresses that she just really wanted to be rid of. So my friend brought a bunch back with her after a visit, and we played bridal shop for an evening. I found a lovely dress that was "me." Very simple, with really long flowing chiffon sleeves. Do you know how hard it is to find a wedding dress with sleeves?? Bummer that it was a size too small. But yet another friend recommended a seamstress for me to go see, and it turned out that this seamstress said she could let the dress out enough to work…but I would have to find a lace to match what was there already. She was pretty doubtful I'd be able to. But the Lord really does care about all those silly little details, it seems, because the first place I went, I found the perfect lace. I have looked and looked at the dress, trying to find the seam where she added to the original, and I can't find it.

Having the dress given to me was great…especially since when all was said and done, the alterations cost as much as many dresses out there!

For centerpieces at the reception, I grabbed a bunch of glass trifle bowls from the Christmas Tree Shop, poured in some white sand we got at Home Depot (it was stored outside, and frozen, hence how clumpy it was!), sprinkled some stones on top that I had gathered from the shore of lake Ontario and spray-painted silver, then stuck some of the white sticks in there.

Bead garlands around the base added a pop of color. I can't find any photos of them in the photographers' shots, but here's one somebody snapped during the set up the day before the wedding.

My maid of honor had the idea of getting mugs custom made and having them be used at the reception and taken home as the favors. We ended up going with a standard coffee mug style, since the cappuccino style mug was so huge and way more expensive. These were a huge hit, and since there were lots of extras, people took home entire sets of them (in the white paper gift bags we provided)! I wanted them to be a design that didn't scream "wedding favor" yet still reminded people of Dave & I and our wedding day. So I used the graphics from the invitations and put the date on the back of the mug, really small. Another advantage to this mug style was that it could be printed all the way around. perfecto.

The paper lanterns were a challenge to hang. I have to say that being rather sick the day before the wedding worked out to my advantage. I showed up at the reception site with all the stuff I had collected for decorating and promptly got sent home to rest because I felt (and looked!) so awful. The team of volunteers was amazing…pulled together by my oh-so-amazing maid of honor. They transformed the place into a happy, bright fun space for our afternoon reception of soups, espresso bar & desserts.

I went home and from a mostly horizontal position on my couch, designed the programs for the ceremony.

I had seen another bride and groom use sand instead of a unity candle, and really like the idea. I have been to a lot of weddings, and have found that as far as symbolism goes, the unity candle falls rather short. The main candle is supposed to symbolize the joining together of the two individual lives into one…which is great, except that so often, the bride & groom have a hard time getting that candle to light (I've seen the pastor step in and do it for them on occasion!), and then ten minutes later, that candle gets blown out so it can be taken off the stage. I liked the sand, because once you pour the individual vases of sand together, there is no way you can separate them.

We took it one step further, and had some people who had played an important role in our lives (including the bridal party) add small vials of sand to the vases our moms carried. So that is the part that I called "the walk of our lives" on the program.

I am so grateful to so many people who helped plan our day. The ladies who baked desserts, everyone who showed up to help decorate, the musicians who practiced and practiced and played/sang so beautifully at our ceremony, my maid of honor who totally took over working with the caterer, the family friend who made the lovely & delicious cake, the caterer and her team who worked in less than ideal conditions and made us a delightful lunch spread. To tell you of the brie appetizers and the various toppings she created would be another post entirely.

I'm planning to share more of the finished details in another post soon, with photos from the professionals. Stay tuned!

a year in food

2010-01-15T12:52:00.001-05:00

Sometimes the table is cleared of my laptop and the mail and random bits and pieces of my day and it's set with flowers and real place settings. Sometimes we unload our McD's bags here and snarf french fries while shoving the mail and random bits and pieces to the other end of the table so it doesn't all get greasy and salted.

Regardless of what it looks like at the time, this is the place where we normally eat. We can look out the window at the setting sun and watch the neighbors walk their dogs on the golf path as we transition from day to evening. From time apart to time together.

Meals in my single days were often consumed in several courses…consisting of "what is it that I want to eat right this minute?" "okay, now that's gone…what do I want now?" My husband has been known to eat a box of ice cream sandwiches and call it dinner. I tend to want three meals a day…he's content with one big one, plus snacks. I love creamy, cheesy sauces and lots of veggies. He would rather steer clear of anything close to alfredo sauce.

The first time I came down to visit, Dave was planning to cook me dinner the one evening I was in town. He was all excited to do his bourbon/honey marinated steaks on the grill (dee-lish, btw). That afternoon, as we were talking about dinner, I asked him what else we were having besides steak and got a blank look in return. Steak was what was for dinner. (I convinced him I needed something green, so we stopped for some zucchini on the way. whew.)

There's lots of places here to get fresh produce, starting in April sometime…they truck stuff up from Florida and set up roadside stands. There's a farmer's market at the local fairgrounds where you can get all kinds of locally grown goodies…including some crazy grapes as big as plums!

Strawberry season lasts from April through June…in spite of a crazy hail storm in there somewhere. You can get a big bucket, picked that morning, for $10 at the local farmers market. I buy one and we eat and freeze & make jam. Homemade waffles with strawberries, smoothies, pound cake topping, strawberry shortcake…and plain old bowls of deliciousness. We took full advantage in 2009…and are already looking forward to April to start again!

my love makes me coffee…
and I make him cookies…

we grill a lot in the summer…and eat on the deck if it's not crazy hot…

I've introduced Dave to edamame…it's a keeper! So glad I found it at the commissary, as none of the local places have it. They don't know what they're missing! Of course, there is swiss chard in abundance down here, and I've yet to try any. I'm probably missing something good, too…

Just thought I'd throw in a shot of my hostess outfit here. As many patterns and tutorials for aprons I find out there, I have yet to make myself one. A dish towel tucked into my jeans will have to do for now. I posted back in june about the appetizer course I hosted for the progressive dinner. More scrumptious food photos are here.

we love a good salad…

and adding basil from my own pot on my back deck to anything makes it better! I'm looking forward to trying lots more herbs this year.

the teapot and tea flowers were a wedding gift…almost a shame to use them up, they are so pretty!

there is, of course, the occasional breakfast visits to ihop and waffle house with my love. There are some things you just can't cook at home.

and I will leave you with a lovely bowl of granny smiths…which became my Thanksgiving pie.

I feel like I'm going to end every post for a while with how frustrating the new blogger editor is. I think maybe I'll just go back to the old one while they get the kinks out. Assuming, of course, that they plan to get the kinks out. The spacing issues and image sizing is making me twitch.

Thanks for joining me for my year in food!

the things I didn't post

2010-01-13T12:54:00.001-05:00

2009 brought a lot of change for me: marriage, a several-states-away move, and a career change from full time graphic designer to wife and homemaker and occasionally a freelance designer. All very good changes. All welcome changes. But transition is still hard…even when it is desired. I left all that was known and familiar and came to this place…a place I never would have chosen to live…to be something I had never been before.

It was the best year of my life.

I didn't blog much. There was a lot of processing going on, and I am just not one to throw that all out there to the world at large. I took a ton of pictures…but just never got into a routine of editing and posting and talking about them.
So, here are some pictures I didn't post in 2009…but that I'd like to share here for posterity or something. Some snapshots of our year in transition.

We enjoy sitting on our back deck and watching the golfers as they attempt to hit their balls out of the reeds. We're about halfway down the 10th fairway, and we collect a lot of balls that end up in our yard. The house gets hit every now and then, but is mostly blocked by the trees. The neighbors across the fairway have a pond with fountains in it. This is way better than the gravel parking lot that was my backyard back in my single days!

Sometimes, it hails. We get great storms here!

We bought me a bicycle…it's the only thing that will get me moving when it's 85 degrees at 9 in the morning. I can eek out about 8 miles if I hit all the nooks & crannies of the neighborhood. The golf path is a great ride, too…best to take it around dusk when most of the golfers are done for the day.

One of the fun challenges we had was combining my stuff and his stuff, and turning his bachelor house into a home we both love and feel comfortable in. It's a beautiful house in a great neighborhood…he did a great job picking it out when he moved here! But we had each accumulated a lot of stuff in our years of living alone…a yard sale and then a trip to IKEA was in order fairly early on. We got rid of some things we really didn't like all that much, and then found some pieces that were a bit more functional and fitting with the rest of our things. I have to say, our decorating styles are really quite different! But there is some overlap…so we just have to find that overlap and live there.

These are just a few corners of our home…maybe I'll do more like this later as I get the house staged. The mirror used to be brown…it was my first spray paint project, and I love how it came out. I've done several more since then…am thinking about a before and after category on the blog. There's just always so much more to do…like refinish that dresser shown below!

I really love front porches. And adirondack chairs. Love it that we found these on clearance at the "end of the season" which is when the weather starts feeling more like summer in NY and it's not so hot I start dripping sweat upon walking out my door. It was great to have a place to sit and read in the shade even into the weeks when the weather got cooler.

Here's just some bits and pieces of creation we are surrounded with here. Pine cones and mushrooms and frogs and bunnies and birds.

2009 was fantastic. It was a gift from God to have such a year…stress-free and full of love and life and joy and the fun of being newlyweds. There were no deployments to deal with, no separations at all. There were misunderstandings and some examples of lousy communication on both our parts…but mostly we just really enjoyed this first year together…the year of transition as we figured out what it meant to be husband and wife…to share our lives with another. We traveled and spent time with good friends and made new friends and explored new places.

There's more I want to post, but blogger has made the posting process painful and confusing!…so maybe you'll get more of 2009 later…and maybe not. no promises either way :)

thrilled.

2009-12-31T23:13:00.001-05:00

so, there's a bunch of photography blogs/sites out there that I read. One I found a while back is Pioneer Woman. Her website is way more than just photography…it's hilarious accounts of daily life on a cattle ranch, amusing photo stories of her basset hound's nap times, amazingly delicious recipes with step-by-step cooking instructions, lots of photography tips & tricks and the occasional contest. Well, I finally opened a flickr account so I could throw a photo into her contests every now and then, with really not much expectation of ever getting noticed. If you check out the pool for her contests, you will see that there are 21,000+ photos in the pool so far. Not sure how many enter each contest, since they are all grouped together, but there's hundreds upon hundreds. The few times I've entered a photo, I almost can't find it again, b/c it takes so long to scroll through all the pages of submissions. Somehow, someway, Ree looks through the submissions and picks winners. But first, she picks handfuls of images that stand out to her in some way.

She noticed me. If I were the squealing type, I'd do it. I think I stuttered when I hit Dave and said "look, look! it's my photo! on a famous blog!" or something along those lines.

She called the picture soft and sweet.

There are amazingly beautiful photos to browse through, if you have the time. There's nothing to vote for, nothing I gain by posting about this, except bragging rights. Oh…and a thank you to my mom, who bought that ornament at some point, and hung it on her tree 2 years ago so it was there when I had my camera in hand, lounging around in my pajamas on Christmas Eve.

I'll show you the photo here…but go browse through the rest. You may find some more favorite blogs!

enlightened

2009-12-31T22:11:00.019-05:00

The town we now live in has one tourist attraction: Swan Lake and Iris Gardens. For the month of December, they string up millions of lights and put Sumter on the map. They've got the standard disney characters & santa, reindeer, etc…but I love love love how they light their trees.

Check it out.

ornamental

2009-12-31T16:06:00.002-05:00

Just wanted to share an assortment of ornaments…

This one is from Pottery Barn from last Christmas. I kept hoping they'd go on sale for crazy cheap and then I could use these to decorate for our wedding…but they never went below $1…which is what I wanted them to be to get the quantity that I wanted! I grabbed a few for us anyway. This is my ornament style…bits of nature, lots of texture, and a little sprinkle of sparkle.

This is another PB one I picked up on clearance. I'd somehow like to have a tradition of a photo ornament of us each year. This photo is of us at Dave's unit holiday party. I just wish I lived near a PB so I could grab another photo ornament on clearance this year!

This is Bumbles. It seems that Dave's family has been consistently gifting Dave with Bumbles ornaments for quite some time now. We have quite a collection. This one made it onto the tree.

I don't remember where I got this sparkly star. But I like it. I have a plethora of various star ornaments. Perhaps one day we can have two trees, and one can be all fancy and the other one will be colorful and chaotic and just plain fun.

This one was a gift to me this year. Love it! It just was so obvious a choice for me, with my love of graphic design and crazy lime green things. It's from another favorite store…Crate and Barrel. Thanks, Becky!!

Maybe my mother in law can chime in with some history on this one. It was in one of the bins of ornaments that got passed to us from her. It looks quite old. But with the current bird craze in blogland, I'm guessing there are many folks whose blogs I haunt who would love this particular ornament.

We picked up this lovely blue and white snowflakey job at a great shop in Niagara-on-the-Lake where we spent our honeymoon. It's Murano glass…if you google that, there's all kinds of interesting info out there. This is made with rods of colored glass that are melded together & then sliced. Or something like that. Some of the pieces they had were stunning…and way out of our budget. I would love to own one of the larger pieces someday…and grabbed this ornament partially to remind myself it exists.

This is another one we picked up at the shop in NOTL. I just plain love this color of green. Can't resist it.

a merry married christmas

2009-12-31T15:27:00.001-05:00

It was my very first Christmas away from my mom. My very first Christmas as a married woman. My very first Christmas in my own home.

There have been plenty of years in the past that I haven't even pulled out a single Christmas decoration, relying instead on the white lights I had kept up from the year before, and the ornaments I had hung in my doorway and never taken down. I never spent Christmas Day in my apartment anyway, and was usually so swamped at work those last few weeks beforehand that I didn't even have time to relax until I headed down the Thruway to mom's house.

This year, we decided to continue a tradition my husband's family had started when he was a kid and have a tree-trimming party early on in December. I admit, I was a little unnerved by the thought of a bunch of people I barely even know being responsible to decorate my Christmas tree, and told my husband that I reserved the right to rearrange at will when everyone left that night!

We found a tree, hauled it home and dubbed it The Christmas Column. Not exactly the picture-perfect tapered tower. More like a cylinder with a hole in one side.

I'm a white lights girl. The more the merrier. And I have a nice collection of ornaments from Pottery Barn and Pier 1 and such. And I think all of that together with a few splashes of color makes for a stunning tree.

As you can see, we have colored lights and lots and lots of colorful ornaments. There is no symmetry or rhyme or reason to where anything is on this tree of chaos. And it's lovely. It is fun and full and joyous. The kids really enjoyed the ornament-hanging, and having a teenaged girl handy to move them from the bottom 18" of the tree onto the top was really helpful. There were still plenty of clusters, and we've had ornaments diving off the tree regularly ever since.

We hauled Dave's dad's old Lionel train out of the attic and put it all together. Dave had a great time getting it up and running, and the kids at the party thought it was great!

I found a wreath that needed some TLC, so I made a bow with leftover ribbon from our wedding, and stuffed bunches of things that I had on hand all around it. Much better.

I made way more food than we could possibly consume for our first annual (my brother says I can't use that phrase, but too bad) tree-trimming party. We had a mix of fellow air force families, neighbors and friends from church who came and hung ornaments on the tree and ate cookies with us.

Cutout cookies were made and consumed in abundance, from the "ancient family recipe" shared with me by my sister-in-law. (I think it's from Betty Crocker or something!). Dave finished the cookies before Christmas rolled around.

We headed to a beautiful church downtown for their Christmas Eve service and enjoyed singing some of the old carols by candlelight. I just wish the candlelight part had been longer and that we had sung more carols. There is such beauty in the words and melodies of so many Christmas hymns.

grateful

2009-11-30T19:58:00.008-05:00

for family

for perfect pies (can I say that about my own pies?)

for a super delicious turkey (in spite of the classic rookie mistake)

for new recipes shared at the last minute

for a table topped with wedding gifts galore.

I hope you understand that it's relief and gratitude…and not arrogance…that makes me say this first Thanksgiving meal of ours was amazing!

The turkey was seasoned (with rosemary I grew!) & cooked to perfection and the made-from-scratch stuffing (dressing?) made even my stovetop-loving husband happy. My family classic rutabaga made it feel like a real holiday to me, as it has always been the one constant in holiday dinners for me growing up. And the pies really were perfect…maybe I've inherited my mom's knack for really great crusts! My sister-in-law made the gravy, and it was just right.

We ate all we wanted, and our fridge is still full of leftovers.

We are blessed. And grateful. God has given us so very much more than we ever dreamed of.

my bargain dress

2009-11-04T11:29:00.005-05:00

Anybody else out there like to browse around in TJ Maxx/Marshalls, searching for the crazy clearance items that are almost like them paying you to take things out of their store? I'm the girl wandering around muttering to herself, trying to figure out if three dollars is too much to pay for a picture frame with a scratch on a corner or no glass. (My husband would say yes, indeed, it IS too much, seeing as how we have no less than 40 picture frames [I just counted] propped up against the walls of our dining room, waiting for me to put them somewhere that makes sense).

But wait. This post doesn't have anything to do with picture frames. Notice the title. It says DRESS.

So, I was wandering around TJ Maxx this summer, hoping to find a dress to wear to a wedding in September. It's not that I didn't already have any dresses. I have a few. But none that were really wanting me to wear them to a wedding. Well, one would have been great, but that dang zipper won't go all the way up…what's up with that??

I have tried on a few dresses in TJMaxx by one particular designer/studio and really really liked the graphic design patterns of the dresses, and the fabric that drapes perfectly, and the colors and the styles…but just never wanted to spend $40 on a dress that I didn't really need for anything. Does that make me cheap? Frugal? Whatever. I couldn't do it.

But then…on the clearance rack…for no reason I could see…was one of those dresses.

You can see the "original" price here (I don't know where on earth they actually sell for a hundred and eighteen bucks!). You can see the great color combo, the great fabric pattern design, the fun understated ruffles…oh, and the plunging v-neck that threatened to expose my belly button for all the world to see!! Who wears these things like that?? I mean, really? Is that necessary? Drives me batty, sometimes, the secrets girls don't keep.

Moving right along. Do you see the clearance tag here? That says $10? That meant I had to try the dress on to see what could be done about it. Turns out it pretty much fit perfectly everywhere else.

And there was a double ruffle going all the way around the neckline, so I could do some discriminate snipping, and use the extra to fill in that crazy vee.

It took a little bit of sticky stuff to keep the ruffle together while I sewed it in place, and it's a good thing it's ruffley, so I didn't have to have it all perfect and everything, but I was quite pleased with my $10 bargain dress + an hour or so of effort. And I already had the perfect accessories (bought on clearance another time, another place, of course!)

And just so you know I do smile. I just didn't think my head was going to be in that picture when I took it! Here's me and my sweetie at the wedding. Don't we coordinate nicely? :)

the buttercup bag

2009-10-30T16:11:00.008-04:00

If you frequent sewing blogs at all, you've probably seen the free pattern for the buttercup bag, created by Rae of Made by Rae. I tried my hand at it a few months ago with a fat quarter I had laying around. I love the colors in this fabric, and hope that I can find more of it one day. I'd love to build a quilt around these colors!

This first go-round, I didn't have a magnetic snap, so I didn't use any kind of closure at all. Since I was using quilting weight cotton, the bag is pretty floppy. But pretty :) and it went together easily…I only stumbled when it came to sewing the liner to the outside…I have a very hard time getting this step right! Something about how my brain is trying to see the end result, instead of trusting the instructions and just going with it.

It eventually came out just fine. Though I wish I had used brown thread to do the top stitching. It's in the back of my mind to rip it all apart and do the brown one of these days. We'll see.

My mom thought the bag was kind of cute, so when I was visiting her recently, she picked out some fat quarters for me to make one for her. Thanks to this tutorial I found, I decided to attempt a zipper closure. And it really wasn't all that hard. I also added interfacing to the outer fabric so the bag had a bit more substance and didn't just flop everywhere like my attempt number one.

I even made a flower pin to dress it up a bit.

And that's about all I can think of to say about that. :)

how to make a quilt (jen style)

2009-10-16T11:18:00.009-04:00

1. Browse crafty quilting blogs for months, looking for inspiration.
2. Drool over all the really amazing fabrics that are out there to choose from.
3. Decide that you must start making a quilt. today. right now.
4. Drive to the Wal-Mart in the next town, since there are NO fabric stores in your town, and you've heard this WM is nicer than the one in your town.
5. Search WM high and low for fabric.
6. Find none, as for some reason WM has gotten rid of it's fabric department.
7. Fume.
8. Head to Goodwill.
9. Get 4 or 5 100% cotton mens shirts and a bed sheet.
10. Make quilt!

Okay, so I did eventually drive to Columbia to get fabric for the back and the binding, but the front of this quilt is made from old shirts and pillowcases and a bed sheet! If I don't immediately follow through on a creative urge, it never gets done. Heck, even when I do follow through on a creative urge, if it's something that takes more than an afternoon, it often doesn't get done.

Enough about my process. I finally gave the quilt to my dear friend (whose baby is only a few weeks away from arriving!).

So I can share the pics with you :)

1. Choose your pattern. I decided on the a baby sized stacked coin quilt. Inspiration aplenty is on Flickr. There's also a tutorial from Moda.

2. Choose your fabrics. I didn't really follow any one tutorial or set of directions. Just used my graphic design "skills" and a bit of math to figure out how many pieces to cut how large. Mom & Dad weren't finding out ahead of time if it's a girl or boy, so I tried to go generic without going the pea green & sunshine yellow route.

3. As I found out later, it pays to be really, really precise in your cutting. For the most part, I did good. A few times, though, my pieces were too small. I thought I'd just do smaller seams to make up the difference. It was a pain. And nothing lined up, really. But I didn't mind. And I don't think the baby will, either.

4. Lay out your pieces, try to make it look random yet balanced, then take a picture. The picture helped me keep sewing things together in the right order.

5. Don't lose your glasses. I'm officially old enough to need them for sewing and sometimes reading. How did that happen?

6. Basting a baby-sized quilt wasn't so bad. Not sure how I'll do if I ever graduate to a full-sized quilt!

7. Quilt it! This was actually fun. I didn't even try to keep my lines straight. I think this is my favorite part of quilting…the texture that the actual quilting process gives to the blanket. I used clear thread, since my front was so light and my back was so dark. I didn't really want the thread color to be showing. Though I sometimes like that look. My walking foot was vital to this step.

8. The binding wasn't all that bad. I used Heather Bailey's tutorial for this. I'm not great at the hand sewing part of it, but hopefully I'll improve with time.

9. Hunt around for a cute quilt model. Good thing for me, I live with one!

10. You have a quilt! Now wrap it up and give it away!

So, from the first photo I took of my materials to the final photo of the finished quilt, it was 3 months and 10 days. Somewhere in there, you just may find yourself waiting to get the right materials/tools for part of the quilt (my walking foot), so you'll have time to make a matching bib.

more pretty rocks

2009-08-28T15:30:00.008-04:00

My husband and i recently spent some time in Colorado Springs. He had a class to take for work, and it worked out for me to be able to be there with him. Colorado is one of those places I've wanted to visit for most of my life, but just hadn't made it yet. It's a stunningly beautiful part of the country and I'm so glad we got the chance to be there. I loved waking up and looking out the window to see Pike's Peak every morning (the non-cloudy mornings, anyway). Like this one.

It just so happened that some dear friends of mine were there at the same time (us from SC, them from Czech via NY…love the "coincidences" the Father arranges!) I got to spend some time with the whole family at the Garden of the gods…an open-to-the-public free city park with some truly jaw-dropping scenery. We mostly kept to the paths, but some of the rocks just asked to be climbed. Even when the sign said no.

One evening Dave & I drove through the park and took a "wrong turn." When we started heading back the way we meant to go, I found my favorite shot of the day: (go ahead and click on it…it looks better big!)

This next one made me think perhaps I had stepped into Narnia. That rock just needs Aslan to breathe on it and it will spring to life…

Always fun seeing what kind of lens flare you can get, shooting into the sun…

And even when surrounded with huge beautiful things, it always pays to keep an eye out for the small beautiful things…the little bits of beautiful the Creator scatters around.

Oh…and credit where credit is due: I've been playing around with some photo processing goodies I found here. The Narnia shot above uses her "Boost" and "Quick Edge Burn" actions. The rock climbing photos started with her Vintage action…tweaked into something different afterwards. Fun stuff that she's got done so I don't have to do all the niggly steps involved.

learning to be crafty

2009-08-25T17:54:00.005-04:00

A couple of Christmases ago, my family gave me a sewing machine. I had discovered the world of crafty sewing blogs and was getting mildly obsessed with having my own machine to try out some of the tutorials I was finding.

Now that I am married and not punching a time clock 40 hours a week, I finally have time to pursue my crafty dreams. Some people could have handled the craftiness and a full time job, but not me. Not in my apartment with no clear surface areas! I now have an entire room to dedicate to all my creative making urges. The bummer is that I just happen to live in a town with not even one fabric or craft store.

There are tons of tutorials out there for making baby gifts. Quick to make, and using a minimum of fabric, baby gifts are a good way to learn some basic sewing skills…and it just so happens that babies are being born all over the place. It's not hard to find one who could use a few burp cloths & bibs. So that's where I started.

There's not all that much baby fabric out there that is non gender specific, so I just went looking for something pretty and not pink. I love green anyway…especially these springy limey brights. I have a few shirts in these colors. Too bad there wasn't much left over from the gift :)

The bibs were made with a pattern from the book bend-the-rules sewing by Amy Karol…one that I bought around the same time I got the sewing machine, as it seemed like it would be my kind of book…not too crazy technical, nicely designed and easy to read. I think I'm going to go back through it now that I'm actually doing more sewing and see what other projects she's got that I want to make.

I had fun with some decorative stitches on my machine and managed to come out with something I wasn't embarrassed to give away. And the mom says those burp cloths sure do come in handy. I'm just wondering about those bibs…the neck hole seems awfully small…

pretty rocks

2009-07-20T16:37:00.007-04:00

Some quick favorites from my morning hike in the garden of the gods. I tried to set up a timer shot to get me in…you can see just how successful I was with that…the shadow shot will have to suffice :)

I'll have to visit again in the afternoon/evening to catch the light on the other side of the rocks. All around, a breathtakingly lovely place to be. Just wish there weren't so many people around!!

i wish you could smell these pictures

2009-07-06T16:29:00.006-04:00

Green growing things on my deck. I took the first 4 pictures when I first planted my tomatoes & herbs…back in early May. I didn't really know what I was doing, but picked up a bunch of seedlings and some gravel & some potting soil and went to town. Two kinds of basil, some rosemary, some chives, and two different tomato plants. For the smell of the herbs alone, it is all worth it.

The sweet basil makes great pestos. The rosemary is amazing with roasted potatoes. The lemon basil has just about the best aroma ever. I put some into my iced tea sometimes, just for the smell.

A couple of months later, I've got grape tomatoes ripening, and the tomato plants have sprouted up above the deck railing. I'm hoping I actually get to eat some of these!!

and some fun sun flare, just for kicks.

backyard fireworks

2009-07-04T22:57:00.002-04:00

I'm so glad I live in America the free.

Many thanks to my husband, my brother, my grandparents, my father and many dear friends who have served in our military to keep us free!

And thanks to my husband for the private backyard fireworks display!!!

appetizing appetizers

2009-06-12T20:21:00.006-04:00

The ladies' group in my subdivision had a 3-course progressive dinner the other night and I had the appetizer course. I was even ready with time to spare, so I took some photos of the goodies.

Baked brie with peach & pecan topping…amazingly yummy.

Texas caviar…adapted from at least three different recipes…super delicious.

Fruit soldiers…just for fun, and made with locally grown cantaloupe and blueberries.

And bruschetta…locally grown tomatoes and basil from my back deck.

And a good time was had by all. Or by me, anyway. :)

early one morning

2009-05-14T18:24:00.006-04:00

There's just something about an early morning fog that transforms the familiar into something other…something mysterious and unknown. Like you've woken up in another world.

I didn't get any worms, but sure found a few spider webs.

happenings around here

2009-05-12T12:47:00.001-04:00

I got some sunny tulips, just because.

Sweet Mr. Squirrel came visiting. He stayed there on my deck railing for almost 5 minutes while I took pictures. Barely moved the whole time!

You can hear the jets flying at our house…and sometimes even see them.

My mom & stepdad came for a visit, and we headed for Sumter's tourist attraction (yes, there is one)…the Swan Lake & Iris Gardens. Had a great conversation with a duck.

Dave's encounter with the whooper swan wasn't quite as friendly.

The baby geese paid us no attention whatsoever. must. find. food.

The heron put up with us until we were about 10 feet away.

The inchworm had no chance of escape.

The irises aren't out in force yet, but we found a few.

And they grow Magnolia blooms the size of my mother's head. But she'd probably disown me if I posted a picture of her on here. So I won't. Even though it's a lovely head.

I almost forgot the spooky turtles.

closed captioning fun

2009-04-22T10:11:00.003-04:00

Intense, emotional scene. Old friends reunited, one recently escaped from slavery, and run to his friend in the desert oasis.

The friend in the desert tells him: "Here, you too will find pee"

I think "peace" was what they were looking for. Not sure pee is even a close second.

And the rest of the movie The Ten Commandments was ruined for me.

Especially after the hair thing. Have you seen this movie? How Moses comes back from the burning bush with his hair all gelled and swept back from his face? And white? Maybe I missed something in Exodus. I know his face shone, but that's not until later anyway. I don't remember his hair turning white.

Anyway. I may start a closed captioning blooper category. I'll have to collect a few more, though. I love closed captioning.

um, did I mention the wisteria?

2009-04-09T20:47:00.005-04:00

The drippy, drapey wisteria?

It grabs hold of anything it can and climbs and spreads and bursts into color and makes me look for spots to pull off the road so I can capture it while it's still bright…before the blossoms die and the vine becomes indistinguishable from the trees it entangles.

And up close, it almost makes up for not having lilac around.

Love that perfect coil.

peeking through

2009-03-31T20:42:00.001-04:00

For weeks now, we've had Spring peeking through at us…glimpses of white blossoms through the evergreens, pinpricks of yellow through the gray of last season's spanish moss. Reds mingling with greens almost like the colors up North in the Fall.

Spring here is different than in New York. There's not as much contrast as there is when you are moving from months of frozen monotone grey/white landscapes to brilliant bursts of bloom on a muddy green background. In SC, the green/brown roadsides have been in transition for months already…pale greens show up, yellows pop here and there…and then one day there are bushes in full-out radiant white blooms almost looking like they've been snowed over.

These girls were most of what I saw on my walk this morning. Looks like they start out pale yellowy green and develop into snowy white. Beautiful.

My favorite forsythias are few and far between down here. And I haven't seen any lilacs yet…but a girl can hope, no? Until the lilacs show up (please?), I can feast my eyes on these bright beauties just down the street from us.

the gift of warmth

2009-02-26T14:32:00.005-05:00

If you had asked me 20 years ago what the best month for a wedding would be, I would for sure have said October. Maybe September. Certainly not January. But that's how it worked out for me…a January wedding, in a string of weeks of below-freezing days, and on day three of a terrible head cold for me. Not ideal, but hey, in the end, we were married, and that was what mattered the most.

We received so many amazing gifts that day and in the days leading up to the wedding, and a few in the days since…some beautiful things we would never have thought of needing, and some totally practical things we knew we "needed" (I realize that the term "need" is relative, and could be a whole post on its own…). Anyway, one of my favorite gifts was from a friend and bridesmaid and knitter extraordinaire…the gift of a great cozy blanket to chase away the chills of a winter honeymoon (yes, we stayed up North).

Several things I love about this blanket:
1. made by hand by Andrea.
2. made by hand by Andrea while traveling all through central Europe…this blanket has been to several different countries at various stages of it's development, while Andrea traveled to teaching engagements and kids camp, etc. in her life as a missionary in the Czech Republic
3. the color, the pattern, the weight of the yarn…it all comes together to make the perfect blanket for a graphic designer who loves neutral colors and a heavy blanket on me as I sleep! And it goes great with the blue coverlet we found…bonus!

the top photo is where the blanket has found its home…at the foot of the bed during the day (on the days that I make the bed…which are far more than they used to be!!). the middle photo is at the house where we stayed for a week after the wedding…a really lovely rental property in Niagara-on-the-lake that my husband found for us.

sputter

2009-02-23T10:52:00.002-05:00

like a car that hasn't been started in ages…the cough, sputter, groan, whir of the engine…the driver (author) bangs the heel of her hand on the steering wheel, partly in frustration, partly in encouragement, straining to hear the full roar of life coming from under the hood…c'mon, girl, let's get moving!

back when I first started to discover the wide world of blogs…when I was just reading others', with no thought of starting my own…I would find one that I enjoyed…read backwards for a few posts, then just settle down with the archives and read the entire blog in a sitting or two, getting to know this stranger and her kids and her daily life and her creative inspiration. Once I had caught up, I would visit the blog every day or so, hoping for more tidbits…maybe of a life that I wished I had, maybe of a life that just fascinated me for whatever reason. Sometimes there would be thoughtful essays that would make me ponder deeper things, sometimes it would just be a photo of a loaf of bread and I would try to imagine a life that would have me baking loaves of bread just because I wanted to.

What would frustrate me, the inveterate lurker, was when a blogger would simply cease blogging. No explanation, no visit me at my new site, no hint of impending doom in the last post…the last sentence trailing off in screams… She would just not post anymore. And I would get annoyed. As if she was posting for me in the first place. And as if I had every right to know the details of her baby's birth, her new job, her move cross-country, her garden wedding in New Hampshire, her book being published…or just if she got the haircut she was thinking about eight posts ago and if she finished the quilt she was working on and could I see it, please??

Now I get it.

And after three huge life changes all at once, I'm back.

For me, mostly.

Though I hope you enjoy the ride as well.

where God proves once again that there is nothing too hard for Him

2008-10-02T18:00:00.003-04:00

For the past year, Kim had been praying for no rain on her wedding date so the ceremony could be held outside. I hit the road in Rochester for the hour-long drive and drove through visibility-impairing rain much of my way there. I arrived around noon to a light misty drizzle.

Kim showed me the verses she had printed out…with the statement at the bottom that "God is in control and He will choose the weather." We spent the next 3+ hours checking the windows, judging the intensity of the rain and hoping for breaks in the clouds.

Here we are, testing the lighting for having the ceremony under the roof of the veranda. The chairs were set up inside, ready to go.

But wait! Is that sunshine I see?

Decision time. The coordinator said they'd haul out the outside chairs and set them up, in case it clears.

And then, the God who asks Jeremiah "is there anything too hard for me?" and of whom the disciples exclaimed "even the wind and the waves obey Him" steps in and holds back the rain. He held it off for the ceremony and all the photos afterwards…even for a trip onto the golf course.

When we got back to the lodge, it started raining again.

What have you been thinking is "too hard" for God?

(stay tuned for more pics of the wedding soon!)

we interrupt the long, drawn-out silence on this blog to announce…

2008-09-29T21:59:00.004-04:00

yep. mmm-hmmm. that's my hand.

this is what it used to look like:

notice anything different?

maybe this will help:

and really, he's happy about this…this is his happy face.

good neighbors

2008-09-02T22:37:00.004-04:00

it's true, they do.

blissfully unaware

2008-08-07T15:32:00.006-04:00

Apparently, postage went up to forty-two cents. In May. but you knew that, didn't you?

I had no idea. I guess since the only thing I'm sending out has a military address on it, the postal people (and our receptionist) have been having compassion on me and adding the penny stamp. I did wonder why the mail guy didn't take my letter from my mailbox out slot the other day! Guess the grace period is over.

And before you tell me that I can buy those forever stamps, I will say that I think they're kinda ugly.

I like pretty stamps.

couldn't think of a title, but i missed the orange

2008-07-27T15:54:00.004-04:00

I am finally getting somewhere with the 1200+ photos I took for the last wedding I shot! I tend to get a bit overwhelmed with the enormity of a task like that, but once I get into it, I find some gems and I realize that I should have started sooner (if I could have). Fortunately, this bride and groom is quite understanding and hasn't hassled me at all!!

This was my first shoot in our new church building, so it was the first time I had quick access to the height needed for an overall shot of the sanctuary during the ceremony. Fortunately, I didn't trip on the stairs or make a commotion or anything! Take note of the huge pile of rose petals halfway down the aisle, where the flower girl dumped them out, froze, then turned and ran back into the arms of the wedding coordinator rather than endure any more of that nonsense.

This was a great bride to be a bridesmaid for! She just wanted the girls to pick out whatever black dress they wanted, and wear a pink ribbon "somewhere." That was all the direction she gave…and the final look was fun.

I kinda hope this sweet lady in pink is someone special to the bride and/or groom, because I really like the shot regardless, but it would have so much more meaning if this was like the favorite great-aunt who used to babysit one of them or something!

they had the wording of their invitation wrapped around the unity candle. I really like the bejeweled butterflies they had attached.

so, as we were taking the group photos up on the stage, one of these flower arrangements spontaneously fell off its stand. ruh roh. it was lovely while it lasted, though…and it did last through the ceremony!

this was a fun one of the guys…I wasn't sure how it would turn out, with the huge skylights confusing my light meter. No, the groom is not bald…just very blonde! (and by that, I don't mean ditzy blonde, either…I'm referring purely to the color!)

a bit of an overzealous flash…but I like the effect on this getaway shot. It almost seems silly to point out how beautiful the bride is, but I really love this shot…isn't she lovely??

couldn't resist trying this one out. I've seen a few other photographers do something similar and I like the depth it gives. I always loved those photos that have someone holding a photo of…oh, I can't even explain what I mean in words. Does anyone know what I'm talking about?? Actually, now that I think of it, those things kinda irritate me.

Anyway. stay tuned for more…there should be a bunch up in my photo gallery soon.

sigh

2008-07-25T11:37:00.002-04:00

berries & bees

2008-07-18T14:41:00.003-04:00

There is some great berry picking available this week in Rochester! At least there was on Tuesday. I pretty much filled a whole quart of black raspberries at one bush. Filled 4 quarts total, and have been eating berries for the rest of the week. Amazingly delicious.

I came upon one bush that looked to be fantastic picking…lots of beautifully ripe glossy black berries. I started in on it and then found why this bush had been passed over: Mad Guard Bee!!

It's a tiny little home he's got, but he looks to be fiercely protecting it.

I let him…um…be.