Favorite {Photo} Friday--Lightness

{Photo taken in Northern Italy, about a mile from our house.}

Whoa.

I'm still overwhelmed by the amazing--and I mean amazing--response to my last post.

After I posted it, Jason whisked me off to dinner. Out of the house, away from the computer, so I couldn't sit here and obsessively check for comments. Talking about other things, eating spicy Thai food and drinking amazing wine, so that I was too distracted and enjoying myself too much to wonder if anyone was commenting, what they were saying.

I shouldn't have worried. :)

(But the dinner was nice.) :)

The most amazing thing to me is how everyone keeps telling me how strong I was/am to write it down, put it out there. And the whole reason I wrote it is because I felt so weak that I couldn't go on anymore carrying the burden alone! So that was a very real gift that I received, the chance to see myself through other peoples' eyes for a moment. Very real and very unexpected and so very, very needed. Thank you.

The second most amazing thing is all the personal e-mails I've received. Women who have gone through this. Who are going though this. Who never told anyone how long it took them to get their baby, and how painful and expensive it was. Who swore me to secrecy because people still don't know. Who thanked me for putting what is in their heads and in their hearts into words.

Wow. Amazing.

I feel incredibly honored that people have shared with me, and I'm overwhelmed by people who've thanked me. I want to say, "You're thanking me? No no no, you have that backwards, I'm thanking you!"

I've been so overwhelmed, actually, that I'm still processing it all; I haven't responded to everyone's e-mails, I haven't called everyone back. I will try.

But it's hard to want to sit in front of the computer or talk on the phone, because finally, finally, finally... I actually feel like getting up off the couch. And doing stuff. Cleaning. Tackling my To Do list. Running errands, which I did all morning with Jason.

Today I actually, out of the blue, thought of a new jewelry design.

After three months of barely touching my workstation, this is a major victory; I'd actually even considered closing my Etsy shop altogether.

I feel lighter. I feel free-er. :) I feel like a normal person again, a person approximating myself.

And you all gave--are giving!--me this. Lightness.

Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Favorite {Photo} Friday--Cheese Makes Everything Better

It's been a rough week. Tonight I got to go hang out with some girlfriends and eat ridiculous amounts of fancy cheese and drink some wine, and it was just what the doctor ordered.


Thanks, ladies, for helping me process some things, and for listening, and for being my friends. :)

Favorite {Photo} Friday--Miracles

It's a crazy world we live in these days, what with Facebook and Twitter and blogs. Less than two years ago when I first went to Inspired Artist Workshop, I met two women who were best friends via their blogs. They'd been best friends for quite a while, talked on the phone all the time, but the first time they met in person was that weekend. Honestly, I had a hard time not looking at them like they had three heads apiece; I thought the whole idea was completely nuts. [The fact that they turned out to be not very nice certainly didn't help matters.]

Soon after that I started this blog, and I opened a Twitter account so that my donors could follow along with me as I texted in updates about my Avon Walk. Both were great ways to stay in contact with my friends and family.

Later that year I opened my Etsy shop. Customers found me on Etsy and went to my blog; friends followed my tweets and saw when I posed new items on Etsy; people saw my comments on other peoples' blogs and came over to my blog, or to the shop; my friends posted my Etsy items on their Facebook profiles so their friends found me, too. It all got very interconnected very quickly.

And I began to understand how people who've never met in real life can be such wonderful friends.

Since I work from home, Twitter is my equivalent to the proverbial water cooler. And reading peoples' blog posts is often the equivalent of an intimate chat over lunch. Except I can do it in my pajamas, without leaving the house. And if you're thinking, "Well, it's not really a conversation because it's one-sided, since you're just reading their blog," then let me tell you that it's not one-sided. Many times I've left a blog comment and the author writes back to me, and we have an e-mail exchange back and forth. Someone will tweet about their child being sick; others of us will respond with sympathy and concern, and later ask her how her baby's doing. Someone will share good news, and others of us will rejoice and congratulate her. We read each others' blogs and share in each others' daily ups and downs on Twitter. In short, we become invested in each others' lives, no matter how wacky it sounds.

And through this crazy internet world I've come into contact with several beautiful women who have suffered the worst kind of loss; losing a child. Sara lost Joel. Arianne lost Mabel. And two years ago today, Beth lost James and Jake.

After reading Beth's lovely post today I've been reflecting on what a miracle it is to have a healthy baby (and how too many people take that miracle for granted).

So of course the only photo I could post today for Favorite {Photo} Friday is my sister's second little miracle, Lily Grace. [For the record, my sister is a NICU Nurse and does not take her miracles for granted.] Lily just turned two; I took this photo when she was baptised at three months old in 2008.


Be grateful for your miracles, friends, and hug them tight. :)

Oh, and the good news is that both Beth and Sara are pregnant again!

Favorite {Photo} Friday--Stargazer Lilies

If it were possible to get drunk from smelling flowers...


... I'd be soooo wasted this week.

Today I'm driving to Virginia Beach for a scrapbooking crop. If you're not a scrapbooker, a crop is where a bunch of scrapbookers get together in a huge room and all scrapbook together. It's kind of a weird concept but it's totally fun. I've been prepping for weeks now, printing photos, choosing papers and embellishments. I'm meeting some friends there so it should be a great weekend, and I hope to get some pages done to add to the scrapbooks.

Happy Birthday to my mother-in-law, Jo!! Hope you have a great day!

Favorite {Photo} Friday--Winter Olympics, Torino 2006

Man, I love the Olympics.

I love the hope, the struggle, the passion the athletes must have. I love the human-interest stories that give me the athletes' back stories and make me feel for and better know who they are and what they're about and the battles they've faced. I love the commercials, especially this one, this one, and this one--I cry every time! I mean Dan Jansen, sitting on the ice, head in his hands? You can just feel his heartbreak. The Zhangs, trying that throw again after disaster? The pain in her face, the concern in his; her courage to try it again is triumphant in and of itself. And all those young athletes--the possibility, the potential, the hope, the years of work ahead, leading to triumph or to anguish, determined in a split second. Oh my word, pass the tissues, please!

In 2006, when the Winter Olympics were in Torino, Italy, Jason and I lived about five hours away. So of course we had to go!


Here's us, up at the Freestyle Aerials competition. We never did get to see it because they had to move it to another day due to the snow (there's a whole other story here, but that will have to wait for another day), but we had a lot of fun waiting around and talking to people. :) The jump ramps are up behind us to the right of me in the photo.

We also saw a Short Track speed skating event, and a Skeleton event (like Luge except they go down head-first on their stomachs instead of feet-first on their backs). It was great to be there and experience the Olympic Spirit in person, and I'd love to be able to go to another Olympics someday. But I did miss a lot, since we were there instead of watching it all on TV (and there, tickets were expensive and/or sold out). We didn't get to watch the Opening Ceremonies, or any other events besides the ones we attended... but what I missed most were the human-interest stories. I love hearing about peoples' stories. I suppose that's why I like scrapbooking; when I look at other people's pages the first thing I do is read the journaling. So I'm really looking forward to hearing all the stories this year. The interviews, the profiles, the sagas--bring them on, I've got the tissues ready!

And I loved watching the Opening Ceremonies tonight. LOVED it. I loved learning about different aspects of Canada; I loved the whales and the beat poet and even the weird Celtic Punks. I especially loved the Parade of Nations. I cheered for all the countries I've been to and love, like Czech Republic and South Korea, Slovakia and Belgium. I cheered for all the countries who have only one or two or a handful of athletes. I love that they must know that they don't have a very good shot at a medal, but being there and experiencing it all and doing their best is enough; I love their hope and I love their pride. I cheered for Italy, and I cried, remembering our time there and missing it so much, and remembering Daniele walking with his fellow Italian athletes two years ago in Beijing.

And I cheered, of course, for the United States most of all; for Apolo Ohno and Lindsey Vonn, for Shaun White and Bode Miller, and for all of the athletes we'll come to know over the next two weeks.

Enjoy the Olympics and have a great weekend!

Favorite {Photo} Friday--Snow Men

We went out to shovel the driveway in the snow, because it's easier to shovel 6 inches at a time than to wait until it stops snowing and then try to shovel out through 24-30" or whatever they're predicting. Of course we turned it into a neighborhood party. Here's the men!


Mark, Jason, Steve (aka Santa) and Brian. Love our neighbors!!

Have a good, safe, and warm weekend!

Favorite {Photo} Friday--I See The Moon and The Moon Sees Me

This has been a rough week. I mean, a really, really rough week. Monday started out incredibly well with a dinner with some friends; I got some much-needed face-to-face conversation with women and it was amazing. But everything slid downhill fast fast fast after that. I'm fine; I'll be fine. I'm not dying, Jason and I are as strong as ever. But I'm not going to say any more than that, except to ask that if you have any spare prayers or positive thoughts laying around, I could really use some sent my way. Thank you.

Tonight was the Wolf Moon, as I just learned thanks to Twitter, so I put on some gloves and grabbed my tripod and took my camera out onto the back deck.


I'm still learning photographic tricks and I'm still learning my camera, but I'm pretty happy with this one, all things considered! And by "all things" I mean that my tripod was balanced on three different objects and I was perched on a stool and it was freezing cold out and I had gloves on and couldn't see any of the buttons on my camera so I kept pressing the wrong ones. LOL!

We're supposed to get a bunch of snow tomorrow so we're cuddled in hoping to stay warm, and the fridge is stocked ! Have a great weekend!

Favotre {Photo} Friday--Grandpa Earl

Today was kind of a rough day, emotionally. The kind of day where you have a complete hormonal meltdown in the kitchen and have to sit down in the middle of the floor. Jason was awesome and eased me out of it, and then just as I was coming back into my normal self, I happened to look at my perpetual/special dates calendar and saw that today is my Grandpa's birthday.

And then I started crying again.

My grandpa's been gone for many years now, but I still get choked up every time I think of him, because I just miss him so damn much.

So I started digging through my boxes of photos, looking for an old photo of my grandpa on his favorite horse, when he was so young and handsome and looked kind of like Roy Rogers. My aunt had the original scanned in and gave me a copy of it not too long after he died. But I couldn't find it, so I started crying again.

So instead, I'm going to show you two other photos that my aunt gave me. Several years ago she took all the photos that my mom had sent her while my sister and I were growing up, and she put them all into albums for us. Which is so awesome! Anyway, here we go:


I love that he's wearing the party hat. :) I'm the one in the back apparently trying to figure out how to operate a party horn.


Here I'm younger, obviously. I still remember that stuffed animal, it had a music box inside that would play when you wound up a key sticking out of its hip. :)

I love how engaged he is with us/me in both of these photos.

I love how this past Christmas, at home in Oregon, we talked about him and retold a couple of his many, many, many stories. He was such an amazing storyteller. I want to capture some of these stories, put them on paper, while I still remember and have family to help me remember what I've already forgotten.

But now, I'm emotionally spent. I'm cried out. So instead, I'll just tell a short story that always makes me smile to remember.

When I was in college I was home for a summer break. Grandpa was over and I was heading out to meet a boy (I don't even remember who and of course it doesn't matter). As I was walking out the door, Grandpa yelled,

"Be good!

And if you can't be good, be careful!

And if you can't be careful, name it after me!"

Quite a sense of humor, my Grandpa Earl had. Love you and miss you sooooo much, Grandpa.

Favorite {Photo} Friday--The Dance in The Dalles

Apparently it's "Retro Week" on Facebook, so everyone is posting old photos of themselves. My best friend from high school, Lisa, is here this weekend for a convention and I drove in today to have lunch with her and her mom (who came along since it's a fun convention). So I decided to find an old photo of the two of us, which I'm sure she'll love. If you didn't hear the sarcasm in that, trust me, it's there. :)

The story that goes along with this photo is almost too much to believe. Looking back it seems completely asinine that we even did this, but then again, it was high school; pretty much everything we did in high school was utterly ridiculous! :)

Now, I'll try to keep this as simple as possible, but pay attention, 'kay? So Lisa was friends with a girl named Sarah. Sarah was on the swim team, and in her travels for swim meets she met a boy, whose name I cannot begin to remember, who went to another school about two hours away in a town called The Dalles. Sarah being a teenage girl, of course she liked him even though he lived far away; she probably liked him more because he lived far away, drama being a primary tenet of teenage girlhood. So this boy--let's just call him Brian, to make it easier--asked her to come to a formal dance at his school. Even though he lived two hours away. So she somehow cons her mom into this plan, whereby Sarah will bring Lisa along, and Brian will ask a friend, and it will be a foursome going to the dance. Oh, and Lisa and Sarah would stay overnight at Brian's mom's house, did I mention that part?

At the last minute, Sarah's mom comes to her senses grounds Sarah for something or other, and says she can't go to the dance. And here's where it should have ended, right?

But Lisa and I, being the sweet girls we were, just felt awful for these two boys we'd never even met, suddenly dateless to a big formal dance. I mean, just imagine. Like, how totally, like, embarrassing!!

So we decide that we will come to the rescue, and I will go in Sarah's place. Even though neither Lisa nor I have met either of the boys. Even though it's two hours away in the middle of winter. Even though I don't have a dress and I have to borrow one from our friend Alyson who is much more beautiful and dramatic than me and could actually pull off enormous shoulder poofs.

My mom talks to Brian's mom and is assured that we'll be safe and she won't let Brian sneak into our room in the middle of the night and all that jazz. So, just like that, we pack our bags and our dresses and get ready to drive two hours to go to a dance with some guys we don't even know. Lisa's step-dad John puts the tire chains into the trunk of Lisa's awesome Chevy Cavalier, just in case we need them, and we head out.

When we're almost to The Dalles, we take a wrong exit. And in the process of turning around, someone starts to drive down this enormously huge hill. In the snow. In a Chevy Cavalier. There's a parking lot about halfway down the hill, so I urge her to pull in. But as soon as she turns the wheel, the car slides sideways and the wheels start spinning and we're stuck. So I get out of the car, trying to check out the situation, and Lisa keeps spinning the wheels. And I just start laughing, hysterically. So I'm standing outside in the snow laughing so hard I can barely breathe, and Lisa's inside the car, spinning the wheels and crying and screaming at me, "It's not funny!" This is what friendships are made of, for sure.

The car is at an angle across the road on a hill, so I decide the only thing to do is to drive the rest of the way down the hill so we can get to a flat spot to put on the chains. So we get down the hill, and I ask Lisa how we put on the chains, because John had said that he'd show her.

John only told her. Telling a high school girl something she doesn't want to know and doesn't think she'll need to know is exactly the same as not telling her at all.

But I'm a smart girl, I'm sure I can figure out tire chains, right? In my letterman's jacket and cotton gloves, in the snow?

Let's just say that there was more crying and more laughing by both of us, and NO ONE offered to help us. Eventually I figured it out, with frequent breaks back in the car to warm up my FROZEN hands, and we made it back up the hill. At the top of the hill it turned out that there was a bar, and for some reason a lot of men were sitting outside the bar on benches under an awning. Just as we drove past them, one of the chains came off, so I made Lisa stop the car so I could go back and pick it up. All the men watched me walk back to the chain, pick it up, walk back to the car, put it in the trunk, and get back in the car, while they said not a single word, let alone offering to help. This used to make me really mad, until I realized that they were sitting on benches outside a bar on a Saturday morning in the freezing cold January weather while it snowed; I don't want to say they were mentally deficient, but let's just say that they probably wouldn't have been much help to us anyway!!

Eventually we made it to the correct exit, and met the guys, which was hilarious in its level of awkwardness. We went back to Brian's house and got all gussied up and Brian's mom took our picture!


Then we went to the dance, which was weird and incredibly awkward, because of course everyone at the dance was staring at us like, "Who the heck are they? And where did that blond girl get that ridiculous dress? And why isn't she standing up straight?" Lisa and I kept trading the guys as partners, because Brian's friend (far left) was weird and neither of us wanted to slow dance with him. Eventually we all went back to Brian's mom's house and played this totally fun game called True Colors. Lisa and I looked for it for years afterward and could never find it, but it looks like a re-released version is available on Amazon now! I'm tempted to buy it but of course it wouldn't ever be the same (not to mention that I have a ton of games that we never even play!).

In the end of course I'm glad we went, because this is one of those stories that are such a part of our friendship. But seriously? How nuts!

Happy long weekend!

Favorite {Photo} Friday--Books

I've mentioned before how much I love books. I also love supporting small businesses, recycling, and getting a good deal. So imagine my sheer and utter disappointment when I drove to my local used bookstore back in December and it wasn't there. Their big sign was gone and there was just no trace of them.

Seriously? I almost cried.

I'm so dependent on used bookstores (that one and online) that when I realized earlier this week that I need to buy a copy of Cry, The Beloved Country for my book club next week, I had a moment of panic. Now that my bookstore was closed, where would I get the book? There wasn't enough time to order it online! [It never even occurred to me to go to Borders or Barnes & Noble!]

So I drug myself into the shower and then threw on some clothes and slapped on some makeup, to leave the house for the first time in a week. I was planning to go to the library to check it out, which I don't like to do for book club because I can't make notes in the margins and dog-ear pages. But before I could do that I had to go to the bank, which meant that I had to drive past the shopping center where the used book store used to be.

And then I saw it. At the opposite end of the shopping center, there it was!! My used bookstore! In a bigger location!

Seriously? I almost cried again, but this time for joy!

And what's even better? I know, I could hardly believe it myself that there could be anything better, but there was: a free books bin outside the front door!


All of these beauties were in it! Essential Keats, a book of short stories set in Oregon (my beloved home state), the B and G volumes of an old World Book encyclopedia, and an old edition of the Merck Manual I can understand. But To Kill a Mockingbird and Gone With The Wind? In hardcover? In any event, I snatched them right up! I also got some other fun falling-apart stuff that I'll use in collage (that's why I got the Merck and the encyclopedias, too).

Oh, and I got Cry, The Beloved Country for $3.28, as well as an Agatha Christie novel for $.81!

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I still need to do a post on my One Little Word and the necklace I'll be offering for it... I haven't forgotten, just been holed up trying to get well. :)

Have a great weekend! :)

Favorite {Photo} Friday--SOOC

I think I'm going to like this new camera, oh yes I do!

I realize that this is not a prize-winning or inspiring photo, but if you'd ever used my old camera you would understand how excellent this is.


This photo is straight out of the camera (SOOC). I didn't have to edit the brightness or contrast or color or anything. And it's of food. Often food will come out looking less-than-appetizing when photographed--that's why they make the food inedible by coating it with sprays and lacquers when they photograph food for magazines!

This is our lunch at the airport when we flew home from Oregon to DC. The Portland airport (PDX) was ranked the best airport in the country by Conde Nast Traveler... for three years in a row! 2006, 2007, and 2008... in 2009 it slipped to second place. Growing up in Oregon I didn't travel by plane a lot, but obviously the airport I spent the most time at was PDX, even if it was just to pick someone up. Remember the time before cell phones and the internet (and the internet on cell phones!) when you had to wait around airports for delayed flights? Ah, childhood. Anyway, PDX was my reference for what airports were all about, so when I grew up and started traveling around, other airports shocked and appalled me with their lack of recycling or their griminess or their waaaaaay overpriced and/or totally mediocre food. Portland rocks. And this meal was no exception; totally delicious salads, onion rings, and dark beer, for reasonable prices, and with excellent service. Imagine!

But back to the subject, I really think I'm going to like this new camera. And I've almost completely gotten used to the redness of it; I don't even say, involuntarily and out loud, "It's RED" like I did for the first three days whenever I saw it. :) I need to put my 50mm 1.4 lens on her and see what we can do then, wheeeee!

I'm getting sick so I'm going to save my "Hooray for 2010" posts for later this week, but they're coming... hopefully, assuming this cold doesn't knock me down and out! I'll also be announcing my One Little Word and a special necklace deal!

Happy New Year!

Favorite {Photo} Friday--Yes, It's Red

If you follow me on Twitter or we're friends on Facebook or you've come within 500 feet of me while I'm trying to take photos, then you might've heard me complaining about my camera. It's a Pentax and nobody else uses Pentax, which doesn't bother me that I'm not a "cool kid" with the same camera as everyone else, but does bother me because there's no one else I can turn to when I have Pentax-specific questions, or to offer-up Pentax-related tips and tricks like so many people with Canons and Nikons do. What does bother me is that it takes forever to focus if anything at all in the viewfinder is moving; I can't use it to take photos of my nieces since those beauties never ever stop moving. As if that's not bad enough, the camera makes these really annoying noises while it's refusing to focus, noises that make me want to throw it, as hard as I can, through a wall. Yes, not even through a window, but straight through the damn wall and onto the lawn outside, like I'm Superman. And there are some other wonky things that piss torque me off about it; the more I learn about photography, the more my camera pisses torques me off.

Jason has heard, more than 18 zillion times once, about how much this camera annoys me. How I have to wait for just the right light and put the camera on a tripod and jump up and down on one foot while crossing my fingers and singing the Latvian National Anthem, just to get decent shots of my jewelry. And then run downstairs, upload them to my computer, see which of the 1400 I took came out okay and which I need to re-take, and start all over again. And then edit EVERY SINGLE PHOTO for contrast and brightness, because I just CANNOT make the camera do what I want, no matter which settings I try and how many practice shots I take and which Eastern European countries' national anthems I learn.

The problem is that I have all these nice lenses that I've acquired that fit my Pentax [like this one and this one, both of which cost a lot less when we got them than they're listed for now, holy crap cow, I'm glad I looked these up to link them, I feel rich now! :)]. And when I looked up the later-model Pentaxes, specifically the K20D, the reviews of it list the exact same problems that I have with mine (the ist DL). But when it comes right down to it, my camera is holding me back in my business; I hate listing new things because it's such a dang process to take photos of all my pieces. So I was just about ready to give up and go ahead and buy something totally and completely new. I decided on this back in, say, September.

Except I'm a Maximizer. I can't make a decision about a purchase this big without researching it to the Nth degree, and I haven't had the time or the mental energy to devote to an Nth degree search, so I just haven't done it. I've dealt with the annoying, I-want-to-throw-it-through-a-wall camera, and tried to focus on how lucky I am to have a nice camera, and how I'm learning to use it better, and blah blah blah I hate my camera.

So imagine--I mean, seriously, just try to imagine--my surprise when I opened up my Christmas present from Jason on Christmas Eve, and found this:


Yes, it's fluorescent red. I realize it's hard to tell in this photo, so here's another shot:


Here it looks sort of fluorescent coral. It kind of changes depending on the light, but if you remember the 80's, then you remember this particular color. Fluorescent red; in some lights it looks almost hot pink, except there's a little too much orange in it. That drink glass next to the camera, in case you're wondering, was to help dull my senses.

Here's another photo from the Internets:


So, I must admit, quite frankly, that the red freaked me the heck out. I love red, but aren't cameras supposed to be, you know, not fluorescent black?

But sweet, sweet, Jason did the researching for me; this is a brand-new model from Pentax. So brand-new that he didn't even know if it would arrive in time for Christmas!! The initial reviews are much, much better than the reviews for mine or the K20D. I didn't have any small children handy, so my awesome mom ran back and forth across the living room, and holy crap, this baby took her photo! And it didn't make any noises that made me even think about throwing it through a wall! It just took her photo as she zigged and zagged across the living room! [And really, how many moms of 34-year-olds will zig and zag across the living room late at night on Christmas Eve? Awesome.]

Obviously I have a lot to learn about this new doll, and I have to get used to the fact that she's fluorescent red, but I'm super excited to work with her and see how she does. And Jason's already promised that if I don't like it I can sell her on eBay, LOL! :) Actually this model is available in America in black and white, and limited edition colors of (fluorescent) red and navy; in Japan it's available in customization of I think 20 different body colors and 16 different grip colors... now that would be something to get used to! I guess our boring old black cameras are going to be a thing of the past... does that make me a trend-setter? LOL! :)

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!

Favorite {Photo} Friday--I Like Snow?

Remember when we almost didn't make it home for Christmas last year because there was a record-breaking snow and ice storm in the Pacific Northwest?

The good news is that there's no snow predicted for the Pac NW this year, hooray!

The bad news is that there's a shitload record-setting amount of snow about to dump on us here in the Mid-Atlantic region. Starting around midnight.

Since our plane is scheduled to depart at 8 tomorrow morning, this timing is not ideal.

So we're throwing everything together a little bit early and heading into a hotel near the airport, just to make it a bit easier on ourselves. Whew, will I be glad to get to Oregon!

I've been stressing about this all day, reading weather reports (even when I don't want to be, like on Twitter and Facebook updates and people sending me text messages) and worrying, so I decided to grab a couple photos of one time when we had a TON of FUN in the snow!



If we ever When we get to Oregon I'll hopefully have time to write about this fun trip in the Alto Adige region of Italy with our friends Keith and Katie. I wrote a bit about it here but there's more to tell.

But for now I have to go dry my hair and finish packing up some jewelry supplies for presents I haven't have time to finish yet! Wish me luck and safe and uneventful travels! :)

Updated to add: We made it safely to the hotel. Alaska has not cancelled our flight yet, although three other airlines have cancelled ALL flights tomorrow. So it's looking like we're going to spend the snowy weekend at the Sheraton, although we still have hope (even if it's just for the sake of having hope). I feel like crying but I know this is just a stupid travel problem, and it annoys me that I'm not able to be calmer about it and I'm so stressed. Taking lots of deep breaths, reminding myself of the much more serious and sad problems that so many of my friends are dealing with today, and staying close to Jason. Wish us luck!

Favorite {Photo} Friday--Christmas Markets

On Wednesday I was stricken with the worst case of homesickness for Italy that I've had in a long, long time; maybe even the worst case ever. I have a post mostly written about that and I hope to finish it up and "publish" it this weekend. But of course it made me think about being in Europe during this time of year, and how much I miss it! I've also made a friend on Twitter (I know, what a crazy world we live in!) who's an American living in Germany... I keep telling her to go drink some Glühwein for me. :) So that's made me think about it, too.

I wrote a bit last year about Christmas Markets. I love European Christmas markets. Looooove them.

I mean, hello? How could you not?


Beautiful beautiful. Every time I get frustrated with my photography I should look back on my photos from five (or even three) years ago... oh, the things I could make my camera do to these babies now! But still, I love it.


And another one just for some color and variety. :)

Tonight I'm off to cuddle on the couch with Jason and watch a movie... he's been waiting for me so I'd better not keep him waiting any longer! Have a great weekend!

Oh! And I'll be taking Etsy orders through next Tuesday only... so if there's anything you've been meaning to order, now's the time!! :)

Favorite {Photo} Friday--Date Day

Jason took the day off work today, and as chance would have it we both needed to run down to Fredericksburg, a city about an hour away, so we decided to make a day of it and drove down together. After our errands were done we had a little time, so we went to Old Town and re-found a little coffee shop Jason had been to before.

I'm not a Starbucks person. I know, I know. I'm just not. I brew my own espresso at home and make my own cappuccinos and I never, ever, ever have an urge to go to Starbucks. So when I got this beautiful drink, I just had to take a photo of it because it felt so special! I love that pattern the barista made!


Then we went to see The Blind Side, which I loved. What an extraordinary story, and Sandra Bullock was so good in it that you totally forgot that it was her and not the actual woman the story's about. And now I'm speaking with a little bit of a drawl. :)

Then we went out for a fabulous meal, and now we're back home. So I uploaded the photos I took today (which weren't many) to choose and print one to add to my December Daily album. I cropped the above photo and then realized there was a nice blank spot on the left where I could do the same thing Ali did here. So--get this--I decided that instead of buying Ali's templates, I'd try to do it with my own handwriting! And then--get this!--I actually figured out how to do it! I wrote out "december" a bunch of times, scanned it in, did some Photoshop stuff, added a line and two circles, and voilà! It's so not perfect but you know what? Before I started I didn't know how to do a lot of the steps required, and now I do! So that's awesome.

Now I'm off to go hang out with Jason some more, watching comedy. The very best part is not just that we had a really great day together, but that starting next year he'll be working a "9-80" schedule, so he'll have every other Friday off! Although we didn't intend it to be, today was a great example of how we can treat those Fridays like stolen time, having dates together and doing fun things. Hooray! :)

Have a great weekend, friends!

Favorite {Photo} Friday--Cranberries

Our sweet neighbors Steve and Roxanne always invite over all the "misfits" they know who don't have anywhere else to go for Thanksgiving; isn't that so lovely? My parents often did that when I was growing up and now I get to experience it from the other side. :) And how convenient for us that it was right across the street! :)

We had a great group of ten of us and Roxanne cooked up a feast. Yummmmmm! Her friend Becky made this gorgeous dessert and I couldn't help playing with my 50 mm lens. It's not a fabulous photo, but I'm learning about my lens and I loooove cranberries and the color red, so this is so luscious to me!


I hadn't slept well the night before, so add in a big meal and some Tryptophan and I was falling asleep at the table after dessert! So I went over to the couch and fell asleep; Roxanne covered me up with a nice blanket and the kitties came to cuddle me... what is better than that, I ask you? I'm still laughing that I even did it because it's so unlike me, but it just goes to show how comfortable I am with all our neighbors!

I don't like shopping during the best of times, let alone during busy times; I'm also, ahem, not a morning person. In short, there's no way in hell you would catch me getting up at 4 a.m. to fight the hordes on Black Friday! When I rolled over and saw the time was 9 a.m. I laughed and thought, "Some crazy people have been shopping for four hours already, I'm so glad I was sleeping instead." Ha ha. :) :) How about you, did you score any deals that will make me wish I got out of bed on Friday? Or just have fun watching people act insanely? I'd love to hear about it! :) Leave me a comment! :)

I hope you had a great Thanksgiving and are having a great long weekend!

Favorite {Photo} Friday--In Search of Photobooths

It seems like years ago that I went to Orlando to visit Lori and go to CHA, but it was only the end of July! The past week or so I've been itching to work on my mini-book for Orlando and then Anke posted some of her photos from that weekend on Facebook, so I decided to go through my photos and start to pare them down to edit and send them to print. Looking at the photos I was reminded of a funny common theme so I thought I'd post some of them for this week's Favorite {Photo} Friday!

[Note: I could go on and on and on about how I met Lori, how we became friends, how my trip to visit her was serendipitious in eight ways and totally needed in eight zillion ways not even known when we booked the trip, how much she means to me, how much I love her and her friend Anke, how I want to move into a cul-de-sac with them both as my neighbors, and how I'm already plotting my next visit with them... but it's 10 p.m. on Friday and I need to get this posted so I can spend some time with my husband! So here is the quick & dirty version, okay? :) Keeping in mind of course that I'm neither very quick nor very dirty, but we're speaking comparatively, okay?]

[Also note: click on any of the photos to view them larger.]

So: When we were in Orlando Lori took me to Cafe Tu Tu Tango. They had a photo booth and we thought it would be super fun to get our photos taken after dinner, so we scrounged up enough coins and sat down to take our photos and had a blast.

And then we waited.

And waited.

And waited.

No photos. We asked inside and they told us that it happens sometimes; they gave us our money back, but we were still disappointed.

So I decided that we should take our own photos in the photo booth! So we sat in the photo booth and I held up my little pocket camera about where the camera was and snapped four quick photos.

Tonight as I was going through the photos I found these four photos and decided to try to make my own photo strip with them, so a Google search came to the rescue and I found this post with a free Photoshop template and brief tutorial (assuming you 1) have Photoshop Elements and 2) sort of already know how to use it) to make a photo booth strip! Hooray!


Isn't this CUTE for a faked photo booth strip? [So yeah, I know I did something wrong and the proportions are a little off, but it makes us look thinner, so pretend you didn't notice, mmmm'kay? Thanks!]

Then we went to CHA and the DCWV booth had a photo booth! So of course we snapped up the chance to have our do-over and get our photo strip. But it didn't come out as a strip, and it had advertising in the middle.


So we were still excited, and the photos are cute, aren't they? And I love how the bottom corners of each photo are rounded, but the top corners are square... sort of random and cool! But it wasn't quite the same. We were banking on Photoshop to help us out when we got home.

And then, randomly, we decided to go back to Cafe Tu Tu Tango because Claudine had an hour or so to go out to lunch with us, and it was close by and yummy.

As we walked in, I happened to look down and spot this:


It printed out! Who knows how long after we left, and I'm actually surprised it was still there and didn't get thrown out or stapled to the abandoned photo wall (yes, they have an abandoned photo wall!).

In any event, I'm so glad that we have three different versions of photo booth photos! :)

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Lots and lots and lots and lots going on this weekend! My day tomorrow is full to overflowing and Sunday I need to catch up on a ton of Etsy orders--HOORAY! I have a TON to share (with photos, even!) and I'm hoping to fit it in at some point very soon. Fingers crossed.

Have a great weekend!

Gratitude Project 2009 Day 4

Wow, we have a logo now! Thanks to Paula! :)

I am thankful for/that:

1. My friend Kellie had her baby! Carli was born yesterday and mama and baby are safe and sound!
   
2. For once I'm caught up on my book clubs! One of my clubs doesn't meet in December and the other one will meet while I'm gone, so I don't have another club meeting until January, which means I get to read whatever I want for a while!!
3. Jason is off riding motorcycles with friends today, which means I get most of the day to myself, the perfect day for an introvert who just had a house guest! :)
4. Greek yogurt... it's sooooo good!
5. Cherry Coke Zero; I know I shouldn't, and I try not to drink much soda, but it's such a guilty pleasure!
6. Cycles can be broken, and knowing that it's a cycle is half the battle.
7. Learning from others' mistakes.
8. I don't have much bad food in the house, because if I did I'd eat it all today. I'm especially craving gummy bears and Doritos, neither of which I ever keep in the house. If I really really want to buy something but I don't, I think of it as "saving" money; the same applies to food I really really want to eat but don't--think of the calories I just "saved"! :)
   
9. Hummus.
10. Our house didn't flood during the recent storm (unlike some friends in Virginia Beach!). :(
11. I got to hear my niece on the phone today and she made me laugh--gwocka wocka wocka means gorilla, apparently. :)
12. Jason came home safely from his motorcycle ride and he had a great day.
13. Jason cuddles me every night as I go to sleep; even if I come in to bed after he's already asleep, he'll usually wake up enough to cuddle me. :)
14. I'm never bored. I have far too many interests to ever be bored, and my brain is too active. When I used to run I'd think up math problems to solve while I ran, just to keep myself occupied while I ran. See? Never bored.
    
15. The new vacuum that Jason got me, which is soooo much better than my old one.
16. Burt's Bees lip balms.
17. L.L. Bean Wicked Good Slippers.
    
18. Patience.
19. Hot baths.
20. Soft, fluffy towels.
    

In addition to the people I linked to yesterday, here are some new ones (either new people or new posts)! Click on the name for the main blog page, and each Day for a direct link to that post. Zanne (Day 1); Katherine (Day 1, Day 2); Sooz (Day 1, Day 2, Day 3); Jilliene put Day 3 up last night and Day 4 this morning; Katie posted Day 2 today.

Favorite {Photo} Friday--Dad + Gratitude Project 2009 Day 2

My Dad has been here since Tuesday and he's leaving tomorrow, so in honor of Dad and because scanning and showing photos last week was so fun, here are some photos of me and Dad!

My favorite photo, at the Oregon coast:


The back of this photo says 7A, and it took me a minute to recognize that this must be the number from the film negatives--remember those? LoL!


And the back of this one says 12A. I love the Olympia Beer shirt my dad's wearing!


Starting out a Fun Run:


Further along and still having fun, apparently!


Fishing, my dad's all-time favorite hobby. He fishes for steelhead and salmon and smokes it... it's the best smoked salmon you've ever had in your life anywhere in the world, I guarantee you. He even made some for my wedding!


And now, on to the gratitude!

I am thankful (for):

1. My love of reading and love of letters and words, and that I'm a good speller! :)
2. That I asked Nunzia, our neighbor in Italy, if she'd teach me how to make pasta. She did, and gave me cooking lessons in her kitchen every single week for months! I made completely-from-scratch lasagna tonight and it was soooooo good!
3. People who are kind just because it is the right thing to do.
4. That I'm learning more about myself and my limits and accepting and adapting to them.
5. That gasoline here in America is less than $3 per gallon (in Italy it was $6-7 per gallon).
6. My Epson printer/scanner; it makes me annoyed sometimes but it's pretty cool that I can just scan something in really quickly!
7. Our health insurance, which covers most of my Chiropractor visits.
8. A strong marriage going on ten years. We've been through a lot and have seen couples shatter at less.
9. That I'm finally starting to be able to ask for help when I want/need it, even if it's "dumb" like tonight when I needed Jason to open a jar for me but he was on the phone. I really needed it opened right away so I asked him to put down the phone and open it. Previous versions of me would have waited until he was off the phone and been mad that I had to wait... STUPID.
10. That I can see the light at the end of the tunnel, even if it is just a teensy tiny pinprick at the moment.
11. My washer and dryer and that I don't have to hand-wash all our clothes. I mean, I really hate hand-washing things! Hooray for machines!
12. That I'm from Oregon so while everyone else is getting totally depressed about all the rain I just put on my raincoat and go about my business, LoL!! :)
13. My fuzzy flannel pink sock-monkey pajamas. Lori sent them to me and I'd totally love them anyway but knowing they're from her makes them that much better!
14. Cheese. I know it might sound stupid, but man, I really love cheese! We had a Roquefort and Apple pizza today, and cheese really does make everything better. YUM.
15. That I'm starting to learn my way around this crazy area that I live in, and I'm also learning how better to use the GPS to make it take me where I want to go the way I want to get there! :)
16. Hilarious people on television who make me laugh out loud instead of just on the inside.
17. Etsy orders, hooray!
    
18. My awesome mailman Mike who is super sweet.
19. Jason and my dad cleaning up after dinner so I could put on my pajamas and relax and finish The Lost Symbol!
20. Fridays!! :)
    

For even more gratitude, check out Jilliene, Heather, and Lori! Let us know if you're playing along in the Gratitude Project, and have a great weekend!

Favorite {Photo} Friday--Aunt Susan

Sixty years ago today, in a small hospital in Oregon, one of my grandmas had given birth the day before, while my other grandma would give birth the next day... yesterday was my Dad's 60th birthday, and tomorrow is my aunt's 60th birthday! The story goes that my grandmas talked back and forth across the hallway. :) Ahhh, coming from a small town! :) Great stuff. :)

But this post today is about my Aunt Susan, for two reasons: first, my dad doesn't read my blog and Susan does, and second, because something happened this week that would have caused me to do a Favorite {Photo} Friday about her even if it hadn't been her birthday this week!


I think I've mentioned my aunt on here before. When Jason and I moved here just over two years ago we came here for his job, but a big fat bonus was that my Aunt Susan and Uncle Bob lived nearby. I've always been close with my aunt and I was really excited to live so close to her.

Little did I know just how close to her I'd be living! Our plan was to stay with Susan and Bob for a week or so, until we could find a furnished apartment (which are fairly plentiful here in the DC area). We wanted to look for a house to buy (our first!) and I wanted time to do it and not feel rushed into anything. (All of our "stuff" was in military transit from Italy--talk about a slooow boat!--so there wasn't a big rush there.) Susan happily agreed to this plan when I told her while we were in Italy, but once we were at her house she invited informed me that it was stupid to waste money on an apartment and that we'd be staying with her and Bob for as long as we wanted/needed to.


We were lucky enough to buy a house when the market was... well, let's just say that it was a buyers' market; it hadn't hit bottom yet but as buyers we had our pick of a lot of homes. Add in that I'm a Maximizer and it was our first ever home purchase, and you can understand that we looked at a lot of homes! I wish I'd kept track of the number, actually! Then even after we found a home, there was--what, a month?--until closing.

In all, Jason and I lived with Susan and Bob for just over two months. I would be kicking someone's ass out after two months, no matter how much I liked them! But I can't remember a single argument between the four of us [well, okay, maybe between Jason and I, but hello, we'd moved across an ocean and were trying to buy a house! LOL!]. And even after we technically had our own house, we didn't get our "stuff" for three more months, so we had a good excuse to be regular visitors at their house. :) And since she spoiled us so much when we were there, of course we wanted to be there all the time! :)


Even as we were more settled in to our house I'd drive in to have lunch and spend time with her. We'd stay there overnight if we had an event in DC (because they live so much closer than we do and are near a Metro stop) or if it was a holiday. In the morning she'd make us waffles with berry sauce and scrambled eggs and ham. I mentioned she spoiled us, right?

But, as they say, all good things must come to an end. I knew that Susan, an Oregon girl after all, was itching to move back to Oregon when Bob retired; it's been the plan for as long as I can remember! So, this past May they bought a place in Oregon and Susan moved back; Bob will retire early next year and join her permanently.


Like I said, this happened in May, and my first bullet point in this post was about it and how I'd "almost pulled myself out of the depression it left me in. (Almost.)"

HARDY HAR HAR I say to that! Because this past Thursday Bob called me to ask if I could come by the house that weekend; they'd gotten an offer on the house (I didn't even know it was up for sale!) and he wanted me to verify which furniture we wanted. Okay, yeah, sure! So we headed over on Sunday.


Since I've been there last, Bob's loaded up a couple of pods and shipped them to Oregon. So the house is basically staged, with their own furniture and art, for showing. But even though it was their furniture and art, it just seemed... well... empty!

I was absolutely fine when we were talking to Bob about the logistics of the move, when closing would be (he'll be moving into an apartment until he leaves), etc. Then he kindly and thoughtfully went downstairs to watch football while Jason and I talked over which items we wanted to incorporate into our home.


As soon as he left I felt like, PUNCH ME IN THE GUT, why don't you? HOLY SHIT IT'S REAL. They're leaving. They're GONE. And, okay, in all honesty, Bob is a great guy, incredibly brilliant, very kind, a fabulous uncle. But really, it was more like, SHE'S GONE. She's really, really GONE.

THIS SUCKS ASS.

And, I'm sorry, I know that's a gross and vulgur thing to say, but sometimes, well, sometimes it just suits.


Some notes about the above photos:

• In the spirit of embracing vintage and my awesomely stylish friend Cindy I just scanned these in and didn't do anything except take out the red-eye.


• The first and second photos (in reverse chronological order, since the second one was taken on our way up to the mountain and the first one once we were on the mountain is my favorite) are from a trip when Susan and Bob came to visit and took me--just me!!--up to Mt. Hood to play. It was the summertime, which is why I'm in a tank top. I distinctly remember being thrilled--thrilled!--that I got to go with them by myself without my younger sister; I also remember feeling very anxious that I would let them down and be too boring or not worth their time. As I hope you can see in the first photo, I had a blast playing in the snow with my aunt! It's one of my favorite memories and I'm soooo glad that they took the time to take me--a punky kid--up to the mountain when I'm sure there were a dozen other things (at least) they could have done instead!


• At a much, much younger age than the previous two photos, here's me and Susan. Check out her awesome overalls! I love these photos.


• Here's Susan teaching me wrestling. I have very clear memories of this and it happened on many occasions! In these two photos, however, she is kicking my butt! Those pajamas I'm wearing are homemade by my mom and they were so awesome that I'm surprised my aunt is beating me in our wrestling match! Like my pajamas should be super unbeatable suits or something. :)


• In the last photo we're riding a water ride somewhere here on the East Coast. Hershey Park? We'd (meaning my mom, sister, and I) come to visit and Susan took us around someplace.

So Sus, Happy 60th Birthday! I can't begin to tell you what you've meant to me over the years and what you mean to me now. I miss the hell out of you and love you more than you can know. Happy Birthday!