full of light

It was a simple day, but I don't think he noticed. Some fun in the sun, wearing his dirty pajama bottoms all day and a bit of cake. Sounds just about right for a 2 year old.

tickets

I between all of the kids birthday festivities of this weekend, I took a little peak at my fair photographs. I love this one because of the backwards letters on the ticket sign. With ttv (viewfinder) shots everything is backwards. I usually don't notice it, but in this case it is hard to miss. It can now be found here in my shop!

two

to you I wish a year of wonderful memories...

self-portraits in the car

Happy us!
xoxox

where journeys begin

I just read that Michigan has 124 lighthouses, more than any other state, who knew? And, that this is the most photographed one. It is certainly the one I have photographed the most, but then again I have apparently only seen a handful of them on my travels. Apparently there is still a lot of coastline left for me to discover.

My new photograph titled "where journeys begin is available in my shop.
And, if you'd like to learn more about our states lighthouses this is a good place to start. The links show a nice picture and map of each. Happy travels.

beachy

My favorite combination...
viewfinder photographs, my girl and the beach.

where the sun finds you

My new series of "viewfinder photographs" is coming along nicely. I will be adding select prints to my Etsy shop throughout the week. The first in the set titled "where the sun finds you" can be found here. Enjoy!

a good morning

I am no fan of waking up early to catch that golden morning light, (I much prefer the evening) and the only time I do it is on vacation. This day was made even better by the fact that when I finished my kids were still asleep and I got to squeeze in between them for another hour of sweet dreams.

pale

You know if I am up late browsing through my flickr favorites it is because I am awake with one of my kids, both who have frequent nightmares when they are overtired. Rocking with them while I wander online usually gets them back to sleep, but discovering all of these lovely images gets my brain overly excited, leaving me awake much longer than I'd like to be. I love the mix of pale simplicity, and drama.
My husband was asking me what I wanted for our upcoming anniversary, and though I really am just looking forward to a little date, there is something on this page that I would like. But, I'll let you do the guessing. (And, when I am gifted with dozen eggs, I will not be the least bit surprised.)

in the garden

Yesterday afternoon N.J. and I toured some of the lovely gardens of my dream neighborhood in the city, making me even more anxious to fix our house up, and move over there as soon possible. We tested an oh so comfortable hammock, sipped lemonade, made new friends, and practically skipped down the sidewalk from one gorgeous house to the other.

I spend a good amount of time complaining about this city, and a lot of time feeling like I don't fit in here. But, it is nice to know just a few miles away there is a whole little world where people like me, who would rather live in a house from 1915 and don't want to contribute to the sprawling monocromatic subdivisions outside of town, go to live.

Thank you to all of the lovely families to let us into their gardens. You, and your homes are all so charming.

A special thanks to Patricia at craft synergy for posting her interview with me today!

And many, many Happy Birthday wishes to my favorite lady! xoxoxo

Summer Resolution #2- Explore

I adore this girl, she is such a good mix of really girly, and tom-boy. She loves worms, frogs, firefiles and most other crawly things, and spends a good amount of time each day trying to catch something, not minding to get dirty or messy, though usually wearing some sort of ball gown, costume, and possibly some high heels.

This lady bug hitched a ride inside in her hair today, and she spent the next hour letting the lady bug climb over her body. The lady bug was supposed to go back out to live with her bug family tonight, but I think it got lost somewhere in my sunroom where it will probably mutiple into a million more lady bugs. At least I have my little bug wrangler here to usher them out into the world.

Summer Resolution #1 - Wear More Dresses

I was shocked to walk into the mall this weekend, and see all the stores had their back to school clothes out. Where has summer gone? And, what do we have to show for it? What happened to all those things we wanted to do, projects around the house, day trips to the beach, farmer's markets....I realize that we probably have a good 2 months before I have to bring my sweaters out of hiding. But, I do want to savor each bit of sunshine that is left, which means spending less time in front of the computer, and more time outside in bright colored sundresses. I hope you'll join me.

viewfinder notecards

It has been a few weeks since I have been making these, but I forgot to mention them here...My square viewfinder series photographs are now available in notecard form in my shop. You can choose from any of the square format cards which can be seen here. Just leave me the title you would like upon checkout. Printed on a lovely, thick (208 gsm) 100% cotton paper, and just over 5 inches, they make the prefect summer thank you note, or wedding card. (Matching envelopes included.)

july 4

Three firework shows, three days of non-stop eating, one traffic mess so bad we parked our car and walked home, and 2 very overtired kids later we have offically done the 4th of July.

A special thanks to Joy, of Oh Joy! for featuring me on her gorgeous site this week. And, if you haven't already seen her lovely new bedroom, you must check it out

here. I love that Joy is so kind to share all of the places she purchased her bedroom treasures, and how wonderful her layout is for her wall art. I have been wanting to create a random mix for our large living room wall, and seeing Joy's room finished is definately the inspiration I needed to go ahead hang all the little pieces of art I have saved up.

Speed Racer

There is a wonderful comfort in really knowing someone, like when my husband and I get into the car for any trip over 10 minutes and I know he will start analyzing each car we pass, trying to decided which car he would buy if suddenly gifted with a great deal of money, critiquing the design and questioning the car companies naming of different automobiles. And, it only gets more fun the closer we get to Detroit.

So,when we met up with my mom for a family barbecue this weekend, I was looking forward to the comfortable familiar, her showing up late, taking 2 hours to make a salad. (that fact I am not even slightly exaggerating. Though to give her some credit, it is the best salad I've ever ate.) But to my surprise she was there much earlier than me, we ate before sunset, and she raced around with the kids afterward. Yes, raced! Who knew she could move so fast. I think she has been secretly training, setting up little time trials with her retired Floridian neighbors. In the end I think most of us were outrun by the 7 year old, but mom gets the award for the greatest effort, and definately looked the most fabulous doing so.