Outtakes 1-9

I said, "stand here by that teal looking fence."

They looked at me. I said, "just be be yourselves."

(I know it's a god-awful color for a fence and I was cursing as I tried to edit the pictures 

along with Bean's hot pink sweatshirt, and Grace's bright white fur coat.) 

So enjoy the show. Out of 20 shots, here are outtakes 1-9:

She is so proud of her fish-lips skills.

 

Of course Gracie needs to attempt it too.

A minor distraction. Curiosity was nagging...

I see you lookin' at me, lookin' at you...

Poses got a little creative. Haven't you seen top models do this?

The old leg-on-fence and fly-away pose?

Okay, so try and be serious. Really.

Halfway serious works.

(Please do not judge me by my daughters choice of outfits today. The Funshine Camp shirt, cut off sweats with brown boots and hot pink sweatshirt...her "day off from school" get up. A girl's gotta be comfy!)

a moment

I was up at 6:30am and out the door at 7:15--so rushed my stomach couldn't "stomach" breakfast. (And I love breakfast.)

For the next 10 hours I run from one thing to the next consulting my sticky note list a few times so I wouldn't forget where I was going.

Home at 4:30. I have eaten a half cup of plain yogurt with pomegranate seeds and walnuts, a string cheese, half an apple and a TJoes grab bag of nuts. Oh and a few slices of sliced turkey wrapped in a piece of bread (no time for mustard or mayo). 

I am home for a few minutes by myself (and by few, I mean like 3 minutes). The light is fading so I step outside with my camera into a cloudy afternoon where even more daylight is being sucked out of an already fading day.

As I stand there, I look down the street to see my daughter walking with her buddy on her way home from a play date. She steps up onto the porch and I aim my camera down in her general direction. I have no idea what my fstop is or my shutter speed. I look at my view finder and see her half caught in the frame, frozen in a moment that has come and gone so fast that I barely remember it happening at all. 

Just one second, out of 86,400 in my day...captured forever. 

The most beautiful moment of my day.

Gettin' Crafty

I have always been the crafty kind. I have dabbled in many arts and crafts and love reading crafty blogs--wishing I had the time and money to be doing a "project" every weekend. Several years ago a friend of mine and I started up a little boutique during the holidays. We gathered all our crafty friends and sold our stuff for a couple of days. We transformed my friend's house into a nifty, cool, little store and all our friends would come and shop and buy our things. It wasn't your typical cheesey boutique. It was cool, and fun and grew to be a very large event. The money I made covered all our Christmas presents and then some. Then I moved away and it got to be too hard to keep coordinating it all, so we gave one last farewell boutique and people were sad to say goodbye.

Fast forward a couple of years and here I am getting ready to do it all again with another friend, in a new town. I am making these little magnets, 300 of them to be exact. I am selling them with little silver tins so people can pick their own color combos and put them in their own tins. 

My husband thinks I've gone crazy with all that I am doing. But it is just another outlet for my creative spirit--you gotta feed it!

I love making these little goodies for the same reason I love photography. They are little pieces of art and the gratification is instant. I have realized over the last few years that I am a artsy spirit stuffed inside a product-over-process personality. This explains why I have failed at scrap booking: it never ends. I need an end. I need to see my creative vision realized, like now. It is why I found my photographic spirit soar when digital photography became available. I could instantly see the fruit of my creativity and learn from my mistakes in the same moment. (Can you tell I am a hands-on learner?)

In the next two weeks I will also be sewing my brains out. I am making some baby blankets. Of course I get drawn into coordinating all the cute fabric that I find online, but now I have to sit down and sew it all up. I am dreading it--and now you know why. The process is too long. I need to hire someone to do my dirty work. Oh to be a top designer with all my little workers floating around working my visions into reality. That would be so cool. Someday...

Life goes on

I promise that this is not one of those "the dog ate my homework" kind of excuses...

I attempted to post yesterday but my internet connection was "having issues" as it often does in this lame internet connection part of town. My kids even complained that they could not log into Webkinz (horrors!) and iTunes (horrors for the 10 year old) and so I gave them the news that God was giving us a day off from the computer. A forced sabbath, if you will.

Saturday, I wound up crafting all day with my daughter, getting ready for a boutique I am hosting in a couple of weeks. The hubby and son went on a 7 mile cub scout hike that left the older of the two crippled with aching hips and shins. (Welcome to 40 pal.) I later went out shopping with a friend and discovered every store in the mall was having a 25% off everything in the store kind of sale. Is that normal before the holidays? I was quite pleased. 

As I write, my daughter is in bed...asleep. She has been asleep since 4:30pm. This is a result of two late nights in a row: movie night with the family (Monsters vs. Aliens) and then dinner and hockey game over at friend's house (of which I was not there, and why they came home late--cause dad was in charge.) Oh if I could just go to sleep and wake up at Thanksgiving.

I have a feakishly busy two weeks ahead of me. Like crazy busy. I look at the picture I posted above and I remember how peaceful it was to be there. It reminds me that though my world is spinning fast, the grass continues to grow and life goes on. The earth has not come off its axis, the sun rises and sets every day, and I am still breathing. When my life gets chaotic I remind myself of these things. It's all about perspective. One day at a time.

Ducky Mayhem

Let me explain...

It's the first week of November. We are smack in the middle of our school's fall fundraiser: selling 3lb tubs of cookie dough. (Yes, I said 3lb tubs.) Chocolate chip, triple chocolate, snicker doodle, sugar, white chocolate macadamia, rocky road, peanut butter and peanut butter chocolate chip, candied butter crunch, lemon cranberry...am I missing any? As an incentive to sell these monster tubs of dough the kids are able to earn rubber ducky key chains. (Yes, I said, rubber ducky key chains.) On specific mornings they arrive at school early, join the ducky line and receive a ducky, or two, or three, or four as an award for their amazing salesmanship.

Weeks before the fundraiser was to begin we all wondered at the effectiveness of the duckies. Really? Duckies...dressed as a football, leprican, skeleton, flag? Our kids will really be begging to sell cookie dough just to own a prize ducky? But our cookie dough rep, the one that actually came up with the idea (the one we now worship), assured us that it would work, that at other schools the duckies were a hit. We would not be disappointed. Okay...sign us up. Who wants to be left behind the ducky wagon?

So here I am 5 days into selling cookie dough, and I can personally attest that the ducky mayhem is in full force. Full. Force.

 

The "ducky line" this morning? A mile long. Total mad rush. 

Parents who have never stepped onto campus? In the "ducky line", with their kids.

Kids who have never participated in a fundraiser? Selling cases of cookie dough.

Trading duckies? Oh yeah. Deals are going down on the playground.

Feeding the duckies? You have to! At recess time the "feeder moms" come out to feed them pretzels and crackers...their favorite food.

Nap time for duckies? Of course! When they are in the classroom. Asleep in the cubbies.

A special ducky of the day? Uh huh. Announced every morning--a special prize for the lucky owner.

Twenty four different ducks? Twenty four. And new ones every year.

Peer pressure at it's finest? Yep. Who wants to be left standing with out a duck?

 

Money being raised for our public school? Yes and hallelujah!

Best (and stupidest) piece of marketing I have ever seen?  You bet.  And it's working. 

Worth it? Totally.

If it raises money for a sorry California, budget anemic school then I say, bring on the duckies! We have five more days of living on ducky planet and I can live with that. Because who knew that our little public school could be saved by such a silly fun little rubber ducky?

That skeleton ducky? Number one coveted ducky. Only 10 of them exist at our school. If you own one, you guard it with your life.

Channeling Dr. Suess

Yesterday was bubbles, today it's boots. 

Bubbles and boots. 

B B B

So a little something a la Dr. Seuss...

Big B little b

What begins with B?

Big bouncy bubbles

and some boots to bust a boogie.

hmm...

and some boots to bust a boot scootin' boogie?

and some boots to break a....?

and some boots to walk a buggy?

Totally not satisfied with that last line. 

Dr. Suess seriously had the gift. I apparently do not.

Did you know that on a dare he wrote a children's book using only 50 words?

 Green Eggs and Ham. 

I'd say those 50 words pretty much locked him into a cushy retirement.

I, on the other hand, have a long way to go.

Froggy Bubbles

(I could totally make some cracks about having my own "Bubble Boy" but I will refrain.) Instead, I will share what my son did after school today. He won a froggy bubble blower at school for selling some cookie dough and instead of giving it to his little sister he came home, ripped open the package, inserted two AA batteries (so the frog can "ribbit")) and went outside and completely lost himself in a cloud of bubbles. (Have I mentioned he's 10?) I swooped up my camera, eager for practice. Geez, bubbles are hard to capture, but I had fun.

There goes my house floating away in a monster bubble...

Bubbles against the window. I can hear my dad now with the corny joke: 

"Look, it's the back side of a bubble!"

I do not know what these bubbles reflected that made them blue, but I  thought they were cool.

And super cool that I caught that bubble within a bubble. 

After awhile, Zach figured out how to make froggy blow ginormous bubbles. 

"Holy Huge Bubble Batman!"

"Dude! Stand back! Catch it! Catch it!"

Yes, it was quite the bubble afternoon. As I write, the battery connection in Froggy has gone hay-wire. He is now on the kitchen counter croaking like a broken record. The batteries are wearing down and he...is...sloooowly....crooooaaaking.

He's had enough for one day.

When you are two...

When you are two, you can hang out freely in a cool matching green track suit 

and everyone says, "Oh, look how cute he is." 

When you are two, you stand in awe of the big boys with wheels and say to yourself, "Someday...someday."

When you are two, you find the perch at the top of the slide gives you the best vantage point.

But you cry, "Mama, I need your help to get down."

When you are two, a ball is the best form of entertainment,

and you say, "Who cares if it's a Cinderella princess ball?"

When you are two (and a boy), you grab the steering wheel and say, "Vroom Vroom" cause you already want it to take you somewhere. You want to be in control. 

When you are two, you wanna be on the move.

Moving is your work.

Work is play.

And Mama says, "Play is good."

(It wears you out for some good sleep!)

Now, if you could just let your Mama catch her breath so she can keep up!

Lovin' those eyes!

I think I need to dedicate November as "family month". I get to have some fun capturing some friends and families this month--all good practice for me as I need it and want it and enjoy it!

Above is a favorite of mine from a recent shoot. I love the reflection of the pond blurred in the background and his fall colored eyes...oh those eyes! If you look closely, you can see me reflected in them. :)

Below are some from the rest of the shoot. That little guy in the top right corner...the cutest thing ever in his argyle sweater, strawberry blond hair, freckles, and blue blue eyes. He cried when I told him I could not go home with him. Next time buddy. :)

Happy Monday!

So So Serious

This little man's mama warned me that he was serious. 

Like serious with a capital "S".  That's ok, I said, we'll try and get at least one smile.

Things that made him smile?

His ball.

The teeter totter. 

And my son, the 10 year old, playing peek-a-boo with him in the red tunnel.

Maybe it was the fact that they both shared the same name,

or that they both share those big, blue, wide-set eyes and to-die-for lips,

or that my Z once had those wispy curls too...

Whatever it was, being around this little guy this morning brought back memories--made me want to go pull out the old pre-digital photo storage boxes and find my little blue-eyed boy.

I know he's in there somewhere.