Saturday, October 30, 2010

Fire in the Sky

A List of Five...

I feel especially thankful for:

...All the beauty that surrounds me in this world...
...The glorious change in seasons...
...A refreshing glass of iced water...
...The health of my family...
...Creativity...

I am getting ready to pursue a very big dream I've had for a very long time. It is going to be a very time consuming endeavor. I am happy to have the support of my family and friends. I plan to maintain this blog as I have time and energy. I hope you'll stay with me through this journey!

XOXO!

Sunday, October 24, 2010

Reminiscing....

I don't have a lot of words today.

I've been feeling sad about a few things and today, I felt happy looking back through little photo collections on my computer. This one made me smile. It was from Mother's Day this year.

That was a really good day.

Thursday, October 21, 2010

Knit One, Purl One

I saw a picture of a sweater similar to this one in a knitting magazine. I loved the sweater and decided it was something I could handle knitting. I bought the magazine for the pattern. There is a matching hat, too. I started it on Monday this week. I still have to knit the sleeves for this, but my hope is that Quincy can either wear it to school tomorrow or to Gramma Margie's birthday party on Saturday. Needless to say: It knit up quickly! Yay! I love fast-moving projects....not to mention that for me, knitting stripes is very addicting! I might even have time to squeeze in that crazy color combo request of Quincy's. He wants a Halloween sweater in black, orange and green. ;)


Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Sunshine On My Shoulders


I was messing around with my daughter's cell phone and caught this lovely image. I was thrilled with it! That was when I asked her, "Who knew clutter could look so pretty?" She looked over my shoulder and exclaimed, "That is so cool, Mom!" Now, both of our phones have this image as our wallpapers.

Looking at it makes me think of John Denver's Song Sunshine On My Shoulders

I hope you are feeling happy, too!

Sunday, October 17, 2010

Autumnal Vibrations


autumnal |ôˈtəmnəl|adjectiveof, characteristic of, or occurring in autumn

Just the word itself seems so fancy yet makes me feel almost giddy. This is my absolute favorite time of year. As a child, I could never quite grasp why so many people were so animated by their enchantment by this stretch of three months. Then, it actually seemed ... pointless. The trees were dying and everything was brown and ugly. It took a level of maturity to appreciate that the trees really only stay these brilliant colors for a short window of time. It really IS a special time, I think.

Now, as an adult, the allure comes from a perfect mix of the cooler temperatures, the light seems to shift to a richer amber, the sky is a more brilliant blue, the thoughts of warmer foods like soups being simmered all day and then eaten with my family around our dinner table. For me, autumn means warm woolen sweaters, rich colored leaves to decorate the trees in the neighborhood, icy cold floors to greet my toes first thing in the morning. There are so many reasons to love this season. What are your reasons for loving this season?

Currently, I am limping along while my regular lens is "in the shop." I hope to have it back soon. I sure do miss it. I have used an older auto focus lens, but it was injured, too, and using it just annoys me. I am reminded why I decided to go ahead and just replace it. Right now, I am using only my 50mm lens that came as a kit lens with my very first SLR camera as a gift to me from my parents for my 15th birthday. Yes! I STILL have it. And...YES it works on my DSLR. I've done a little experimenting with it. While I wouldn't use it to shoot a wedding....at least not exclusively, I am grateful I can use it to capture some fun shots like this one.

During this time of learning patience with the repair shop, I have tried to relax a little more when snapping away and I am not even looking for technically correct images. Not every photo that works well hast to be completely thought out or possess technical strength I just want to have fun and I simply cannot go a single day without taking a photo.

Before my post production edits, this capture includes those happy, crisp-white, puffy clouds backed by absolute cerulean. It also include the nearly naked top branches of tree across the street from my house. I sat on my cement stoop in my bright pink striped jammy pants. My feet were bare. The sun was shining. The air was warm. This was a beautiful moment I wanted to freeze forever......don't you ever have those?

All On A Saturday Night!

We were invited to spend the evening with a friend and her son. We were on our way to their house when I spied this most lovely sunset. I know I say it a lot, but I truly feel blessed to live in such a beautiful place on this planet. I've also said a lot that, "When God made Colorado, He was showing off!" I know there are other beautiful places on this planet, but I am particularly fond of Colorado!

I just loved this door art welcoming us.

Inside, there was an abundance of warmth, friendship and delicious food.

Thank you, God, for my wonderful friends! And thank you, Rose. We had a delightful time!

Monday, October 11, 2010

Milestones

Also in my recent absence, I celebrated another birthday! We LOVE birthday celebrations around here. My children gave me a lovely little party. They selected Cilantro Enchiladas and Amanda's friend sent me a beautiful carrot cake. It was a wonderful little party! We had a terrific time!

Thank you, my sweet babes.

I loved this shot of all the preparation of the cake and Quincy capturing little video clips. I just had to share it here.

Sunday, October 10, 2010

One Ringy Dingy! Two Ringy Dingy


I'm not even sure how we decided on hydrangeas for our wedding flower, but it really worked out well. We used a mix of fresh and silk flowers. My bouquet consisted of fresh white hydrangeas spray painted with the lavender color I loved and then the florist included some lovely ivory roses.

Three days after the wedding, the bouquet still looked fabulous. I decided to play around with it a bit and got some close-up shots....with our rings as I wasn't sure our wedding photographers got a shot like this one. And I really wanted one.

All of the details were just perfect and I loved each of them. I have finally gotten to see our photos from our photographers and I was still just so happy about how the day perfectly unfolded.

Friday, October 8, 2010

A Fourteener

I wish I could load these photos in chronological order...but blogger is not very user-friendly that way, apparently. So I will share these photos with you of my recent fourteener hike with my sister in the order BLOGGER allows me. It seems to skip around a bit...sorry for the confusion it might cause.

My sister and I decided we needed a little more time together. We decided to hike in the mountains...but we didn't just decide to hike ANY mountain! We decided we wanted to hike a fourteener. For our first hike, we chose Mount Bierstadt. It's elevation reaches 14,060 feet above sea level!

Mount Evans is behind my sister on the left-hand side of this photo. The sawtooth that connects Mount Evans to Mount Bierstadt looks mean and unfriendly! Doesn't it?


This is my sister near the summit. I shot this photo to show the massive boulders we scrambled over to reach the very top.






Very early into our hike, we spied a moose. It was truly a thrill as neither of has ever seen a moose in Colorado.
Near the end of the day; after six hours of hiking, we made it back to the car. We were tired....very tired and really ready to fall into our beds.


At the summit, the air was very thin and made it difficult to breathe and think clearly. In fact, we'd encountered a man who really was in trouble. He was struggling with dizziness and disorientation. He'd hiked up the side of Mount Evans, then over the sawtooth and met us at the summit of Mount Bierstadt. Living in Colorado, we often hear warnings and are cautioned about signs of altitude sickness. After living here for so long and hearing about altitude sickness so much, a person tends to tune it out and maybe even blow it off. I have to admit, I was a little worried when I saw this guy was very clearly confused and I didn't even know him. We encountered another couple. She was a nurse and he was a very experienced hiker. She helped keep the confused hiker from getting into any more possible medical trouble.

Looking over to my right upon reaching the summit, I will admit: I felt a bit squeamish. I was feeling a sense of urgency to get back onto more level ground, for sure!

Once we had gotten to a certain elevation my legs felt so heavy. Each step was small and felt like it took so much effort. Well, because it did! Every hiker huffed and puffed their way up the rocky trail. Some even joked with us as they hiked near us about how we all trudged along.

My sister and I stopped long the way to eat lunch and take in the views. She packed healthy turkey sandwiches to fuel our hungry bellies.

Hey, SissyPoo! I am ready to go again. Are you?


Been A Long Time Gone


in the time that I have been absent, I've gotten married and my younger daughter got her driver's license. She was pretty darned happy about it!