I Promise

I'm coming back, Blog. I promise.
I'm overwhelmed with my photography final.
I have spent hours and hours at this point, trying to make something I don't know how to make in an picture and it isn't going well.
You know how I am by now, don't you?
When I have it in my head to make something, I have to make it. I am almost there.
Then, you know what?
I kind of can't wait to not take some pictures - to wait until I like something enough to photograph it instead of photographing something somebody else tells me to.
Soon.
I'm coming back soon.

My Girl

Our boys were away for the weekend, so Emma and I had a grand, girls-only time.
She had a chorus concert to sing in this weekend, so Saturday, we spent extra time on her hair, and put on a little mascara and a brand new dress from Grandma.
It's important to me that, as she continues to grow, she feels beautiful. Emma is at an age where girls become so much more self-aware. Their differences, rather than being a point of pride, begin to be points of shame and I so very much want for her to continue to see herself as unique, amazing individual. So we took special time to fix up and as I was blow-drying her hair in the mirror, she stood on her tippy-toes, smiling a radiant smile in the mirror at the sight of herself. That made my heart just swell with joy.
Her satin-y dress swirled around her knees and her hair swayed when she walked. Feelings like that don't come along every day, so I took lots of pictures of my gorgeous baby.


My mom and dad took us out to lunch at a nice local spot; my grandma came along too.

It's a place where they also make lots of fancy cakes, which is kind of Emma's dream job at the moment.


We all made sure Emma felt special. She has always struggled with stage fright, but was so excited to sing in this concert. I was practically holding my breath with hope that she wouldn't cry or pass out.


I think maybe that it was all the people on stage with her. Maybe she's an ensemble girl and not a soloist. I know I am. Here she is at the pre-concert warm-up:

And here she is, singing her heart out.

We came home and made that fantastic grapefruit mint salad I posted about yesterday. We harvested the greens and mint ourselves, still in our fancy dresses. We washed all the lettuce, sectioned the grapefruit, and stirred up the dressing.
But once dinner was done, we did what girls do best. We made an ooey-gooey pan of brownies with a giant chocolate bar broken into it and we watched a girl movie.
It was the movie Emma, of course.

Thought You Should Know

I just thought you should know - I just made this grapefruit mint salad and it. was. amazing.
I'll be back to regularly-scheduled posting soon...

Photography Class

I guess I am nearing the end of this semester's photography class (*sniff*), and I haven't had time to show you the last project I worked on. We made fine art posters.
The idea was to photograph a collection of things and arrange them on a poster. So. I did just that.
This first one is a collection of sand and shells. You all (mostly) know that we go to the beach on the Summer Solstice every year. That's the only day of the year that I let my kids collect shells willy-nilly and I always take a little sand. Then we fill a milk bottle with our treasure and put it on a shelf. This year, we will fill our tenth bottle! Anyway, I was in a rush during class, so I didn't have time to think of clever text, but here's the result:

This next one was really fun. Remember the sewing box of my great-grandma's that I got for my birthday a couple of years ago? Mindy helped me group and set up the items (she's such a great prop stylist!) and I really enjoyed seeing my little treasures in a different way. This one...this one made sense to me. I am a maker. I use whatever I can find to make things. So, I titled this one with a directive - Make.

I'll get around to posting the full-sized, watermarked (!) photos of all these, I hope. I am feeling very backlogged in photographs to share, not to mention knitting and the rest of life! Sigh. We'll catch up soon, won't we?

Gratuitous Baby Pictures

I hung out with Mindy & Mr. Nolan today. He was happy. You will be too after you look at these pictures.





And finally,


If you are not smiling yet, you have a cold, cold heart indeed.

My Guy

Andrew played in his first All County Band concert this weekend. He was 2nd chair euphonium, which I think is pretty impressive!
This really is a pretty awful photo, but it's all I ended up taking, so, there you have it. Isn't he so grown up? Ugh.



It was such a great experience for him - playing with other kids who work as hard as he does to make good music. By the time we left, he'd also heard the high school bands play. They were incredible. I hope it gives him something to look forward to. In (gulp) high school.

Daily Bliss: beautiful, slow rain for two days straight
Wake-up Playlist: Muse, Unnatural Selection

Again With The Busy

So. I'm pretty busy right now. I'm coming to the end of a two-week stretch that has tested my ability to manage all of my hats at once, but I'm not quite there yet. I've been moving between photo shoots and homework and teaching and cooking and mom-ing too. Oh - and church-ing and broken-car-ing and things like that as well.
Tonight, one of my responsibilities was taking this big kid to All-County Band rehearsal.

My brain is just refusing to focus, though. I bought a new toy today. Mindy and I went to an antique store and we both bought a vintage camera. Then we went on an adventure to find film. By the time we figured out how to re-spool the film that's currently available onto the spools in the old cameras (Google, Google, Google!), I ran out of light. Besides, I only get 12 exposures, so I don't want to waste them on just anything. Consequently, my mind is very busy thinking of what, exactly, it wants to see on prints from this camera.
I have always loved the surprises that come when you develop a roll of film and it's been such a long time since I've had the pleasure. Absence definitely makes the heart grow fonder. In fact, absence can fan the flames of desire, if this is any indication. I want some pictures from this camera, like, yesterday! And you guys do too, right?
Now, I need to take some and send them off and scan them. Whew.
OK.
It may be a while before you see them.
In the meantime, I will be busy trying desperately to focus on my other responsibilities.