Everyday Life #7 MABEL

I have a new lens, lovingly named Mabel. She's a 105mm micro 2.8f and she's fabulous! As everyone named Mabel should be. My first playdate with her was this weekend and I thought I'd share.

duo

cyclops

jungle

all seeing

orange abstract #1

untitled

  

sea of pink

Happy Birthday!

March 16th is my mother's birthday. She is amazing. She is one of the very, very few people who has been fortunate enough to figure out what she was born to do and has gotten to spend almost all of her adult life doing it. She is a mother, a teacher, an educator, an advocate, brave, strong, a grandmother, gardener, creator, an artist, baker, daughter, sister, wife, loyal friend and confidant. 

She raised me with lessons of  Don't stoop to their level", "kill them with kindness", and "If that was you, how would it make you feel?... Then that's your answer". 

She taught me to make cookies and cross-stitch. Helped me with homework and let me succeed and at times fail on my own. She's helped make me who I am and I'm so very glad she is my daughters' Nanna. They are so fortunate in that regard.

Happy Birthday, Mom! Thank you for all you have done and continue to do for me. I love you!

Everyday Life #6

I don't think  I would describe myself as nostalgic...

BUT, while making my coffee this morning I realized how much I love storing my coffee in a blue bell jar that was my grandmother's. She canned ALOT. I do a little. But it always reminds me of her and how I miss getting the box of jam, or preserved tomato juice that made the BEST bloodies on the planet.

And then on Sunday, I looked out my window to see my little one STOMPING down the driveway with her Romper Stompers. They will forever be Romper Stompers to me because there was a TV show an eternity ago called Romper Room. Think Sesame Street meets Barney. Well, my sister got to be on it (so green with jealousy) but was kicked off because she was told to act like a duck and she insisted on acting like a chicken. Her conciliation was ROMPER STOMPERS! We clomped for YEARS on those things.

So, apparently, I am a bit nostalgic. Probably REALLY so to most people. I don't hold onto it as to feel like it was SO much better then, but I cherish it as a part of what makes me and hopefully my family who we are and what we are "made" of.

Everyday Life #5

 quail eggs 2013

narcissus study no.2 2013

Everyday Life Project #4 baking

Knowing when to let go when teaching to bake is a hard thing to learn. I used to make chocolate cookies by myself. The first time I attempted it to surprise my mom it went disastrously wrong. I measured all of the ingredients like I was supposed to, but didn't feel the need to follow the order and combine wet ingredients then incorporate dry ingredients. I just added them one at a time... BAD IDEA! They were awful. 

In trying to spare my daughter that painful lesson I forget what a great life lesson it was. I've NEVER done it again!

So Saturday I let my daughter make chocolate chip cookies... all by herself! And they were amazing.

Everyday Life Weekend #3 - Snow Snow Snow

Saturday in Charlotte, NC warm and raining, then cold and sleeting, then snow and sleeting, then sunny, then REALLY cold but no precipitation, then thunder snow storm and about 2.5 inches of snow in 20 minutes. CRAZY day, but fantastic!

  

Everyday Life weekend #2

Just finished a wonderful visit with my sister and family in Seattle. My sister is an architect and has an incredible style. That kind of style that you always want to strive for but the fact that you are striving for it means you'll never truly reach it because you are trying too hard. Her house is an etension of her personal style. It also is the biggest reason that she is very successful at what she does. We should all try to be and reflect who we really are... maybe then our house will feel as comfortable and cool as my sister's does.