Cute as a bug

She brings a whole new meaning to the phrase. Don't you just want to pinch those little cheeks?

Look Mom!!... No Hair

It's not the first time in my life I've done it, but it's probably the first time I've done it so, well, drastically.
Anyone who knows me, knows that I, like a normal girl, have a deep connection to her hair. A love/ hate relationship to say the least. To do anything to it to make it any different takes a small miracle for me.
But it was time.

So, I cut it. 15 inches. It was a lot. (Sorry big brother) I didn't cry like I thought I would. But now... two days later, I kinda wish I had it back, kinda. Just a little. Mainly because I think the giant roll brush is going to give me carpal tunnel, or bring out arthritis, one of the two!

Do Your Freckles Go All The Way Down To Your Toes?

I desperately wanted to ask her that.... she had the cutest little freckles, that I'm sure will disappear as she gets older. Right now they add to her orniness, that side of here shone through like the sun in July. I loved it.


She was older and her freckles had already faded, on the brink of being a young lady.

It was only , oh.... 20 below with the wind chill. These guys were such troopers for hanging out on the cold rocks with me!

It's Time

Every once in a while, every couple years or so I go through a phase. I call it the "phase of laze". You know the one. The one where you stop going to the gym for a while. Then you have one pop, which leads to another, which leads to a brownie and pretty soon you're on a sugar train (which in my case is a very dangerous train to be riding) and then you become so fatigued from the sugar overload that you stop eating healthy foods and lay in bed whenever possible and then your immune system breaks completely down and then you get sick and the bed is your home. Yup... that's me. I'm jumping off this train. It's time.

I've been fighting the cold for 2 1/2 weeks. Fighting it with gingerale and brownies. Oh, and lemonchello. The homemade kind. In my hot tea. It's a healthy fight I've been fighting.....

Well I decided I needed to get off my duff and do something productive today. Make someone else's day good. Feeling good sometimes starts on the inside.(Ok, Ok, I made a hair appointment of course. Getting on the right path always requires beauty regimens too!) So, before going to story time I made out a few good fortunes for random strangers. I wrote them out and when we got the the library my little one and I put them in random books and magazines. Who doesn't love to open a book and find a nice note from a complete stranger?!!!! I know I would get a kick out of it! I think my favorite part was putting notes like " you are beautiful" or "you are awesome" into the Judy Blume section (for those of you who don't know who Judy Blume is, she wrote a series of books for little girls to read, the ones that make you feel like you're not such a freak when you're at that really freaky stage in your life)

I think it was a good start to ending the laze phase.... tomorrow.. healthy food. Back to the good stuff!!!

Bellybutton Fetish

Shindig Food and Decoration

Had a little gathering here last night. There tends to be a lot of gathering in my house. If there is something to celebrate, you can bet there's a celebration going on here! The menu was jam packed of finger foods, which by the time I was done eating, it felt like a meal! These were the dessert. I normally don't serve a lot of sweets at gatherings, but I have been wanting to try these for months, and holy moly cow, they were worth the wait!

If you've ever had baklava, then you'll know about the dough for these. Phyllo. It's amazing. It like baking with sheets of really thin paper.


White Chocolate Mousse Tartletts
Ingredients

1 and 3/4 cups heavy whipping cream

6 ounces white chocolate

1 package phyllo sheets

about 1/2 cup unsalted butter (melted)

dust melted butter over one phyllo sheet, layer with another dust with butter. repeat for 4 layers. cut the phyllo sheet into six 5 inch squares. fold into small muffin pan leaving the edges sticking up. bake for 10-15 minutes at 350 until golden brown. let cool completely.

For mousse:

Melt the white chocolate and 3/4 cups of heavy whipping cream in saucepan on low heat. While that is cooking beat the remainder of the whipping cream in bowl until soft peaks form. When chocolate/cream mixture is completely melted, slowly fold into whipped cream and whip it again for another couple minutes.

Spoon mixture into phyllo cups. Top with whatever you want. The picture is grated chocolate., but I also topped them with fresh blueberries.



And since I didn't really want to buy decorations, I decided to make lots of bows..... out of magazines. I had them in glass bowls around the house. It wasn't over the top, but added a little touch. You can find out how to make them here. I used a glued gun with mine though. I loved how they came out and was always surprised how they looked.

Travelers

I have a few people that travel a few times a year to have pictures taken. These are the little ones that surprise me the most when I see them. This one... well, just look at her. Filled to the brim with spunk and orneriness. She's a redhead, what else would you expect! I was so happy to see her and how much she's grown, but was even happier now that I finally got to meet her little sister.

Also a redhead... and full of spunk too! They traveled 5 hours before these... and I think they did a magnificent job of modeling for me!

Confessions

Everytime I see this little man I think two things. One... he's going be be a great football player and two, that I understand his addiction to his thumb. Though I never played with my belly button and sucked my thumb like he does (which by the way is one of the most adorable things I've ever seen!) I did suck my thumb for a long, long, loooonnng time. Long enough that I had to get braces over the whole ordeal. Apparently, as I learned later in college, there is a Freudian stage that one never surpasses if they become thumb suckers. I am a prime example. I chew on things, pens, nails....etc. It's all part of the stage I never got out of. I turned out pretty normal. Except for one thing. One tiny little thing...I still sleep with something soft by my mouth. My blankets and sheets have to be made of a certain cotton or the long sleeve shirt I wear does. I know crazy. Just adds to the depth of me!!!! Sorry if that was too much info... confessions of a thumb sucker can border on lunacy I know!

Got it. Used it.

The the card. Maxed it out. The library card that is. We spend a little time at the library a couple times of month, but I've vowed that we need to spend more time there. My baby boy has been a reading maniac (or book maniac) since day one. He absolutely enjoys books above toys. Soooo, instead of buying them and going broke, we got a library card. I decided I better use it too in effort to save as well. See.... I like buying books. I like to stack them up. Plus it's just another opportunity to shop! Though I rarely read something twice. So, in an effort to fulfill my obligation to read a few classics this year I started out with a little one (I already read Twilight (had to see what the hype was about) this week, which I bought, but it was unavailable at the library) so I don't really feel bad about this thin classic as my next choice.

Now all I need is a smoking book bag.

Oh and in case you're interested...there is story time at 11:00 Saturday mornings and 6:30 Thursday evening. We have an award winning library.... it's a wonderful place for imaginations to run wild!

A Boy in White

I said it before and I'll say it again.... there is nothing cuter, more simple, more perfect than children in white. Put them in a white room covered in windows.... and there you have it, perfection!

Curls and the Blues

Well, back in the saddle again, back from a long break. I was so happy to be able to shoot in one of my favorite places today. A front porch....full of windows! It's a natural light photographers dream come true!

Not only was I surrounded by windows, I was surrounded by blue eyes and curls today. The most endearring curls I have ever seen on a child. I was amazed at them!!! Both of them had marvelous blue eyes to boot!

I want to blow out another wish......

The day before he was born, I found myself in the doctor's office for one of my twice-weekly stress tests. I got to get hooked up to machines for an hour twice a week and listen to my baby move around for a whole hour. It was my favorite part of my pregnancy. I relished every second of it. I had also been having contractions and was able to see them happen and not feel them for a month, so I'm grateful I wasn't allowed to have him on my own, as I was induced. Less than 24 hours later, a trip to the jewelry shop (I needed some earrings for the occasion), a Chinese dinner, and a sleepless night later, he was here.

His nose was smashed. His toenails were non-existent and he was really really hairy. Black hair. He was the most beautiful boy I had ever seen. I didn't sleep that night either. I held him from the minute they handed him to me, until the minute we left (with the occasional relative sneaking in a second here and there), and then I held him for the next 6 months 24 hours a day. I became an overprotective mother the minute he arrived. I became what I think I was always suppose to be. He brings out the best in me. I'm am so grateful for the color he has brought to my life.

He's three today. Three. He talks...no he jabbers in full sentences and demands to be heard. After he blew out his candles tonight, he asked if he could do it again, because he wanted another wish. It's hard to choke back tears when you have to tell them it's another year away and they will have to wait, secretly wishing inside that year will go by ever so slowly.

Happy Birthday baby boy.

One More Candle and a Trip Around the Sun

Today I woke to celebrate the 1st anniversary of my 29th Birthday. While I love New Years, it never really truly seems like a new year for me until the 5th of January. A time to start again.

Now, I know I've mentioned I don't really like resolutions.... but the right side of my brain (or is it the left?) really likes to make lists of things to do. I like lists. I like them a lot. So here is a list for this year. I've actually done this every year for quite a while, but this year I'll share. They aren't resolutions, just ideas. If they don't all get done...that's fine by me. Ok, Ok, deep inside... I really like to see them crossed off. Speaking of crossing off... #21 is already done!


1. Move
2. Visit a new country
3. See a new state
4. Go to Elmo (the town)
5. Dance on a rooftop
6. photograph something beautiful by moonlight
7. Master knitting ..and pearling.
8. Sew a garment
9. Publish something
10. Paint something hangable
11. Build something with wood.
12. ice skate
13. cook something extraordinary
14. help someone in need.
15. produce something from recycled materials.
16. Read three classics
17. Read three new authors.
18. photograph something extraordinary
19. Go to a "You pick" besides a pumpkin patch
20. Watch 2 classic movies I've never seen.
21. Let someone else take my photo.
22. Join a new club/group
23. Rollerskate
24. Get a library card and use it.
25. Make a quilt
26. Do something that makes my family proud.
27. See a field of flowers
28. Ski uneventfully
29. Sleep under the stars.

One of a Kind

I have a very good friend in Fort Collins that makes the most unique, one of a kind jewelry. For Christmas I special ordered a bracelet for a grandma in the family and when I got it I was incredibly jealous. I really wanted one. Well, to my surprise, on Christmas morning when gifts were being opened, I found this under the tree. I was elated!!!! My husband and I agreed not to exchange gifts this year, but both couldn't resist.

She is able to put most anything you want on them and you can have the back and front engraved. (there is an inscription on the back of this one as well, but I had a really hard time shooting this, a macro lens is on my very long list of things I "need")

Here are some ideas I thought of to put on them:
may your crayons never melt
vivere, ridere, amare (Live, laugh, love in Italian...C family...that's for you)
carpe diem
grow old with me
you are the twinkle in my eye
...and the list can go on and on and on

If you are interested in them, shoot me an email, leave a comment, call, chase me in your car, (though people have told me that I don't really notice when I'm being chased in the car) however you want to contact me, I'll get you her information.

The Boulders and Rocks

January has always reminded me of the color blue. The most pale kind of blue. Like the color of snow in the morning when it has first come down and blankets everything...to me the world looks blue then. It looks peaceful. And sparkly. I tend to correlate most everything to a color, it's a little quirk. January also makes me think of the word "fresh" or "clean" as well. I'm a New Years cleaner. Meaning I do all my spring cleaning at the beginning of the year. I clean out the closets, the drawers, the floors, the walls, add fresh paint here and there, clean curtains... you get the picture. New Years must be clean. It's a little quirk. I have lots of them, like eating ice cream in the bathtub in the winter because I despise being cold...... but that's what makes me me.

I'm not in the practice of making annual resolutions. I normally have a perpetual list of behavioral traits that need tweaking. Maybe someday all the kinks will straighten out. I feel though as if I need to change the things I have control over and the quirks, the little things, they will all work out on their own....if they don't then I'm going to make for one eccentric older dame. My bet is on the latter, but I'm alright with that.


A great piece of advice I heard last night was simply this: Worry most about the boulders and the rocks and the stones and pebbles will all find their place.


In case you harbor any superstitions for the new year, go ahead and have a hefty bowl of this, black eyed pea stew (which was absolutely fantastic, and if you want the recipe, please let me know and I'll be happy to round it up for you!). ....or eat cabbage (which is absolutely not fantastic), or pomegranates. I ate all three today. I think I'm covered.







Happy New Year All!!!!! May 2009 be stupendous!!!!