a tulip a day...

matt and i drove up to Skagit Valley saturday to catch the last of the tulip festival. it was photographic heaven for me, and matt even enjoyed himself. i came home with hundreds of photographs of flowers, and since tulip season is coming to a close, i thought i'd make them last, so we can savor them together... so i'll post a couple every day until i run out or get bored...

the weather was lovely. grey skies until we got up there, and just enough sunshine to keep us warm. came home with three bunches of tulips for myself, and a bottle of local passion fruit wine. and had more candy than either of us needed. (ever had white-chocoloate-dipped licorice? i have. it's fab!)

so the photo above was just one of my many favorites. shallow depth of focus, which is what blurs the tunnel formed by the petals so much that it has that ethereal feel. i may process this one a little further, and then do something amazing with it in my dining room...

and this photo is another lovely one. much like photographing a classical concert, it takes some creativity to photograph the same thing over and over again and still come up with beautiful, unique images. i like the angle on this one. without the tilt, it'd be rather boring.

more tomorrow. happy monday.

cookie press fun...

a friend of mine gave me a really nice cookie press at my bridal shower 3 years ago, and i'm ashamed to say that i never took the opportunity to use it. but honestly, all those little bits and pieces intimidated me a little.

after our garage-sale-ing on saturday, i had a hankering for something sweet to go with my coffee, so why not bake... i was motivated, matt was napping, so i pulled out the cookie press and went to town.

it was easier than i expected, thanks to the directions that included pictorial instructions for putting the thing together and loading the dough. (directions work, imagine that!)

but actually using it was another story... i guess they were serious when they said "ungreased cookie sheet", (an instruction i usually ignore) because i couldn't for the life of me get the dough to stick to the greased pan on the first click out of the press. i'll let you see the results on the first pan for yourself:

look closely. a little iffy, huh? well, they tasted good, and i suppose that's really all that matters... at least when i'm not serving them to other people. it took a few pans to get them to look right (er, better, anyway), but i was feeling like a pro as i finished up the last of them. and there's something about wielding a high-falutin' kitchen gadget that makes you feel ever so domestically inclined...

garage sale goodness and 10,000 photos

we hit up about 30 garage sales on saturday. a handful by bike, but most by car because they were all several miles and downhill from our home. (downhill there is fine; but uphill home, with a pack full of treasures, is not so good.)

and what a pack full of treasures it was. yum. my goal was to find some interesting things to add to my studio, to hold stuff while i'm working... so i ended up with a glass candy jar, which will store ribbon (that i might wrap on wooden spools or clothespins); a set of glass salt & pepper shakers that will hold beads or something small and pretty; a bracelet for me; a silver oval-shaped dish; a silver clamshell compote (i assume) dish; and a gorgeous peach-colored vase with an embossed sparrown and cherry blossoms which i forgot to take a picture of.

and two teacup saucers, (also pictured above) which are now hanging in my dining room next to one that was left lonely when it's partner got knocked askew and met it's demise against my tile floor:

mmm, i love yummy, vintage-y things. and i only spent $13. what fun.

and about the 10,000 photos - i felt it was a worthwhile landmark to mention. i realized when proofing Easter photos that I hit the mark of 10,000 photos on the camera, at which point, it rotates back to 0001. 10,000 photos in about a year! i put about as many miles on my car each year as well. ;)

garage sale season is upon us...

tomorrow, our neighborhood will host the annual community garage sale. they've published a list of over 100 neighborhood garage sales, and i'm holding it in my hot little hands.

i think we'll go via bicycle if the weather is nice. and i'll be withdrawing my spending money from the nearest ATM on my way out the door tonight. i'm hoping to find some treasures, even though i don't really know what i'm looking for. maybe some yummy vintage stuff. i'm especially drawn to the ones that specifically listed "antiques" and "vintage items" (code for "old crap" i'm sure) in their descriptions.

and maybe i'll get to take some photos this weekend. of what, i'm not sure... i've been thinking about photographing my starbucks coffee cup collection (yes, it has indeed become a collection) and my vintage jewelry collection (grama, i may need some of your help identifying the stuff you gave me - i'm afraid it may have gotten mixed in with the rest...) but not until i have a cool setting for it.

and because i'm incapable of posting sans photo, and i haven't shared all of my favorites of my neices in their easter dresses, i leave you with this photo...

{despite appearances, no daffodils were harmed in the making of this picture.}

wednesday ramblings...

it seriously bugs me that i feel obligated to post a photograph with every blog entry. many times, i think that's what keeps me from posting at all. not that this is an obligation any of you instated. it's purely self-induced. i'm kinda OCD that way.

so here's my rogue attempt at blogging sans photo. the weekend was good. not fabulous. not long enough. but good. got a little gardening done - weeding an the like. went to home depot, expecting to come home with a carload of budding ranculuses (ranunculi?) but arrived only to find that they were sold out. well, not completely. they had one. but really. what could i do with one, when i have a whole bed of bare spots in front of my house?

tried to scrapbook last night for the first time in ages, i think. i was pretty unimpressed with myself. oh well, at least there's nothing to let go to my head... back to the scraplifting until my mojo returns, i guess. i've been making some cards, trying to use up scraps. what a losing battle that is. one card hardly makes a dent in my scrap file. 10 cards hardly makes a dent. 25 cards. now we're talking. but Lord knows, i don't have the diligence for that.

and because the OCD runs rampant, i simply can't say goodbye without a photo. and as long as you aren't tired of easter pics, i'll share one of my favs from my shoot with my neices:

that one was a happy accident. she looked down just as i hit the shutter. i couldn't have posed it so perfectly.

thinking about gardening today. the bed in front of my house is filled with daffodils, and a few miscellaneous things i couldn't name if my life depended on it. looking for something to fill in some of the gaps there... or at least the gaps that will be there when "my" dandelions meet their match this weekend.

my weekend seems blissfully unscheduled in comparison to last weekend, so i'm planning some yardwork. a little spring cleanup. and hopefully, some planting. these ranunculuses make me salivate.

pimp my prizewheel

{disclaimer: lest you think the content of this blog has suddenly taken a turn for the worst, today's title was shamelessly borrowed from MTV's hit show and in no way reflects the actual thoughts, feelings or events of the author or her household. they don't even watch the show. right, okay, on with the post...}

for years, our children's ministry has had a prize wheel - possibly one of the coolest features of our program. the original prizewheel, picked up by my predecessor at a garage sale, was created for use in a Nordstrom's promotional event. with minor modification, it was introduced to the kids in our program and has been a big hit ever since.

but it's seen better days. wobbly casters, weak frame and finish nails used for pegs, which scratch little fingers, made it a walking (rolling) liability. and it was hard on the eyes - black wheel and hot pink/orange base. matt's been talking smack about taking it home and fixing it up for months.

so last week, he casually suggested that i pack it into the car after service and we'd work on it during the week leading up to easter. i still think he didn't think i'd go for it.

but i did. so we hauled it home, and began planning. we knew we wanted new pegs, sturdier frame and casters and a fresh coat of paint. but neither of us anticipated exactly how much work it really would be. and did i mention it was the week before easter? my busiest week of the year.

matt let me do the sanding and painting, and give my input on some of the design, but he did all of the hard stuff (except the selector - that was my ingenuity). we put our heads together and pulled off a pretty incredible finished product, if i may say so myself:

so the wheel is metallic silver - not grey - and looks sweet up front. the red is - i kid you not - "rapture red". it was that or "flaming sword". totally not kidding.

and i was ever so close to painting flames around the base, but i decided that might send the wrong message for a church program...

the whole project took us at least 15 man hours? cutting, sanding, painting multiple coats, lacquering, drilling, gluing, stapling, nailing. more work than meets the eye for sure.

and we covered it with a sheet and wheeled it out for an official unveiling on easter sunday. the kids were suitably impressed!

where's my paper bag...

matt just wasn't ready to give back the bunny suit, and insisted on wearing the head (and the mittens) all the way home - through the drive-thru, while pumping gas, etc - after saturday's easter egg hunt. i was pretty embarrassed - especially as he garnered more attention, as evidenced by shouts of "HAPPY EASTER!" and "YEA, EASTER BUNNY!" from adults in passing cars. but obviously, i wasn't embarrassed enough to not take a picture. ;)

bright monday...

did you know that early christians called the monday after Easter "bright monday"? given the darkness surrounding Jesus' death, i think it's quite a fitting name.

the egg hunt on saturday was a hit. just enough kids that everyone went home with all the eggs they could handle, and the easter bunny was a hit, which leads me to....

reason #4,983 why i love him:

{he'll set aside all masculinity to don a furry bunny suit complete with pink tummy to make 50 kids very, very happy. that is true manliness.}

so we had a blast. mostly kids from the church, a handful of kids from the neighborhood near the park. a few close calls, a few last-minute crises, but over all, we were good. probably the most humorous (now!) moment was matt splitting the butt-seam of the bunny costume at 11:30pm the night before. guess who sews, and guess who does not. lucky for him, my superior seamstress skills made use of a rediculous seam-allowance which resulted in about an inch more wiggle room in the costume. it fit more comfortably (and more family-appropriately) after the mending. better to have that happen at home the night before than at the park the day of, right?

and i even had a chance to take a few photos, thanks to a great team of volunteers who took care of lots of the little things so i didn't have to rush around. my favorites though included the bunny (surprise!), and my neice. while her baby sister loved the bunny, rebecca wasn't so sure herself. only well after the hunt did we take her aside and let Uncle Matt (or Uncle Bunny as I slipped and called him) remove his bunny head to show her he was inside. she warmed up a little... but not a whole lot. it didn't matter that Uncle Matt was in funny clothes, she really just wasn't sure about that head:

so then Uncle Matt had a plan - he'd draw her close, wait until the camera was ready, then flip the head on. bet you can guess how that ended:

well, okay, he made 49 kids very, very happy...

On the third day...

"He is not here. He has risen, just as He said."
~Matthew 28:6

No matter how many times I read the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ, I am still in awe. My mouth is left speechless, my brain void of intelligent analysis and I simply want to shout:

"Yaaaaaaaaaay, Jesus!!!"

Happy Easter to you and yours.

Good Friday

i was asked to read the crucifixion passage from the book of Luke at tonight's Good Friday service, so i spent some time pondering it this morning during my quiet time. and as we've prepared for Easter this year, one verse keeps coming back to me this season:



trying to keep my head above water and enjoy the real meaning of Holy Week without getting bogged down by the to-dos. but last night, i learned that my major cohort in the egg hunt planning & execution has to leave town for a family emergency today. she was going to run things tomorrow so i could just be there to help, meet people, and hangout with camera in tow. so, now it's down to me. but that's ok. i've handled bigger, hairier events. we've got a crew of volunteers coming in for various setup tasks, and the issue she's facing with her family is far more important. there's only one task that leaves me needing to be in two places at the same time. and to make matters worse, i managed to injure my ankle last night. still not sure how i did it, but it hurt so badly i could barely walk on it. a little better today, but i'm not moving very fast. but it'll all work out. in theory.

you can bet you'll hear about it monday. and if i don't have a chance to post, have a blessed Easter.

of eggs and forecasts...

when i heard that we were expecting 72 degrees on friday, i assumed we could also expect lovely weekend weather to compliment our Easter festivities. apparently one should not assume.



oh well. saturday's egg hunt will go on, rain or shine. but it seems there's a 30% chance we'll have a very wet bunny.

looks like spring...

the plants and trees all seem to agree. now if only they could inform the weather.

took my sister-in-law and neices to the WPZ Rose Garden saturday for a little photo shoot in their Easter dresses. we weren't really sure what to expect, since the garden is primarily roses and it's not anywhere near may yet, but we were pleasantly surprised to find an abundance of bulbs in full bloom. i'm only about half-way through proofing, but there are my favorites so far.