uggh

it's so much work to pack for 8 months!! Our estimated departure is in 6 hrs. Maybe it would help if I put a cute dress and heels on.

heading west

We've had to re-map our trek out west due to snow in WY, so Yellowstone will have to wait until it warms up a bit. Instead, we will go straight west, through Denver and onto Sandy. We will see some friends there, relax for 2 days, and get some hiking in, and then head south to Bryce & Zion, followed by a night in Vegas to visit an old college roommate. Does anyone know what we can do in Denver or north of there for a day??

more picnic pics

we will miss all our friends here. thanks to everyone who came out and made it memorable. we'll have to do this again next spring!

picnic results

the weather was perfect, all our friends came, and i'm working on editing the other backdrop photos to post on monday. we had a great time with them, as you can see with the horowitz's.

picnic treats

This is my inspiration board for tomorrow's picnic. The top left two are my backdrops for fun photo booth-style pics. We'll have lemon bars, j's family's famous pickled cuc's, pasta salad, hot dogs and cupcakes inspired by these: cupcake blog. It will be a potluck, so a lot of other food will arrive, but this should give us a good start. The cupcakes and lemon bars will be tweaked from a box to make it easy & cheap. I always add fresh lemon juice and rind to the bars and it makes all the difference. The vintage hot dog image (just printed out at home) will hang on the side of the grill.

i'm going to be an aunt! (again!)

J's sister just got their referral from ethopia for twins! A boy and a girl. They are so adorable and I can't wait to meet them. H&E have been waiting so long and it's such a blessing for them to get two at once. We can't wait to meet them. Congratulations!

movin on out

We're moving in a few short weeks to the land of LA for a bit, and I've been browsing the web to find ideas to maximize our small space. Today I came across this great DIY tutorial on design sponge. It will be perfect for our studio! I may make it a little deeper so we can fit in a drawer or two, but I'm really loving this. I wonder where she got that great chair....

birds of a feather

{3 wk old wild bunnies, the poor owl w/one eye}
{Robert, the once pet duck, Damion, the dog that would sit and wave for my pics}
{the one legged pigeon, and the falcon}

The other weekend, Jan took me to Providence Wildlife to do a video piece for school on the lady that runs this operation. It's a great story, and a noble cause. She takes in all sorts of hurt or abandoned animals, particularly birds, and tries to heal them and then release them again. I held the bunnies, watched her feed the falcons large dead rats/mice, and made friends with Robert the friendly duck, and Damion the adorable dog I called Marmaduke. This was a fun trip. Her site shows you the amazing difference one person can make. (ps i didn't bring my camera, so theses were taken w/my phone - apologies for the bad quality)

earthquake this morning

{the SF, 1906 earthquake}

"On April 18th at 5:36AM EDT a 5.2 magnitude earthquake struck southeastern Illinois. The epicenter was located approximately 5 miles northwest of Mt. Carmel, Illinois, 38 miles north-northwest of Evansville, Indiana, and 128 miles east of St. Louis, Missouri. The earthquake was felt throughout Illinois, Indiana, and Kentucky, and as far away as Missouri, Michigan, Ohio, and Wisconsin."

This was the weirdest earthquake I've ever been in, and I've experienced my fair share. Jan & I were asleep in the basement when we awoke to this loud thundering roar - I was sure it was a tornado, and the roof was about to fly off. It was worse being in a no window area, when we opened our eyes, it was still as black as when we were sleeping. Then I felt the shaking, the noise subsided, and I was comforted by the gentle sway of the earth. Earthquake. Cool. I know those. Tornado? Now that would freak me out. We went upstairs to talk it out w/his parents, watched it on the news, and went back to bed. About 11:30am, the aftershock came. No roar this time, just regular shaking. The epicenter was about 30 miles west of here, so we felt the first one pretty strong. No damage, but a few little items off a wall shelf flew off a few feet. It's strange to move across the country only to find out that a natural disaster you left, has followed you.

baby m

3 weeks old, cute as can be. today was my last volunteer session for updated pics for my 'i have a new last name and must change to a new site as not to confuse people' site. i'll post pics of her cute red head brother tomorrow.

new etsy shop

I put up a storefront today on etsy, check it out through this link, or over to the right on the blog. I will be adding new items later this week.

invites are out

I printed the invitations on paper bags, folded them in thirds, taped and addressed them. Super easy. I liked the top part so much I decided to print them on card stock to sell them on etsy. Wouldn't these be great invitations? Buy a set and mail them to friends w/the details handwritten on the back. Perfect for a backyard or park gathering with blankets, big pillows and pink lemonade.

time for a picnic

For those of you in Muncie, dust off those baskets and mark your calendars for APRIL 26th, 12-3 or so. We are going to plan a picnic with all our friends before we move to los angeles for the remainder of the year. Park TBD. Watch your mailboxes for an invite. I am going to print them on paper bags similar to my wedding popcorn above.

more counting with S

{2 apples}

{6 big balloons} (the original plan was 10, but 7/12 popped within minutes of being outside the car. i got a refund)
{7 old books}
{10 balls of yarn}
We did more counting with S this week to finish up her book for samples for my side company Modele Press (was going to be stationary, now is going to be family books). The last photo is her cute baby sister.

twins

i took pics of twin girls today. they are distinctly different but beautiful. we had an empty park, warm weather, and a great contrast of green grass with winter trees. here are some of the results.

new idea

I'm going to take more photos of S to finish our counting book today. Instead of 10 old books (i'll use that idea w/someone else, I just don't want mine getting wet on early morning grass), I'm going to use balloons. I'll post the pics tomorrow! I love lots of balloons together - this photo is obviously a lot more than 10 but it's still inspiring.

where the grass is greener

It's finally spring, so J and I went out to play mini golf last weekend. We're pretty competitive and went to check out a new course but it ended up being lame and easy. We stayed pretty even until the very last hole where he beat me by 2 after my ball went straight into a rock and got blocked. I'm looking forward to checking out some real courses in Cali, complete with windmills, hippos and the works. Those are much more fun.

new pics

Juliann took these on our re-take day w/her Diana, but they were the only ones that didn't come out like we were ghosts. I think the trick is to take people up close or their heads get all ghost-like and creepy. The sad news of the day is that one of our hopes for awesome pics w/my Hassleblad didn't come out. The whole roll was blank and we have no idea how that happened. So sad. These images are great however.