Photo Friday again already?

May 30, 2014August 22, 20141 Comment

So…how did that happen? Wasn’t it just Monday yesterday? Not that I’m complaining, mind you, it’s just that I’m now left wondering what in the world happened to the month of May. It was just May Day last week, right?

Right? No? Okay, fine.

Well, today’s theme is movement. If you follow me on Instagram, you’ll know I’ve been spending quite a bit of time out in my yard taking pictures of all the pretty things sprouting up from the ground. We’ve had quite a lot of wind lately, too, so getting those great shots has been something of a challenge.

Yesterday, though, I headed out across the driveway and got down in the dirt to get a shot of the pretty green shoots coming up in the neighboring field. I’ve been wanting to do this for a week or so, but I just haven’t made the time for it. Until yesterday, that is, while the boys were occupied with the cat.

It’s the little things. 🙂

Of all the shots I took yesterday morning, this one is probably my favorite, and features tiny little corn stalks waving in the wind.

2014-05-29 11.38.49

Don’t forget to stop by Charnele’s blog – she’s got an amazing photo to share with you all today. 🙂 Happy Friday, everybody! Have a fantastic weekend!

Photo Friday Blues

May 23, 2014August 22, 201414 Comments

That’s right, today’s theme is blue:

IMG_20131205_112005

Me: What shade of blue?
Seymour: You know, blue.
Me: Yes, but what shade – sky blue? Baby blue? Cerulean? Aquamarine?
Seymour: Just blue! Crayola blue!
(drive to Lowe’s)
Seymour: Yes, I’m looking for some blue paint.
Paint guy: Okay, what shade? We have 887 different varieties of blue.

Sorry, every time I hear the word blue, I recall the time we painted Bubbles’ bedroom. It just never gets old. 😀

But this picture is not of his room. This is my steamy bathroom window one morning this past winter. I just love this picture; it’s got so many shades of color, and the texture in it is just fantastic. It reminds me a bit of all the ice in Frozen (great movie, by the way, and despite the fact that I’ve seen it a zillion times since Easter, I still haven’t tired of it yet).

Anyway, happy Friday! Does anyone have any big plans for the long weekend? Tell me all about them in the comments so I can live vicariously through you – we’re staying home this weekend. And don’t forget to stop by Charnele’s blog and see what she’s got up for this week’s extra-blue Photo Friday!

Photo Friday: Change is in the air!

May 16, 2014August 22, 20143 Comments

Today’s Photo Friday theme is change. What with moving and attempting to downsize, I’ve got plenty of change happening in my life at the moment, but I chose to ignore all of that today and instead focus on the changes happening around me. In the space of a month, the life-giving rain has taken us from scenes of death and decay to the blossoms of youth, and it’s a change I relish every year.

From death and decay…

…the life-giving rain has bestowed up on us…

…the blossoms of youth.

Don’t forget to stop by Charnele Henry’s blog and check out her wonderful photo post! Have a great weekend, everybody!

Photo Friday returns!

May 9, 2014August 22, 201413 Comments

Today, I am exhausted. With a capital E. We’ve finished moving and have begun the Great Unpacking, and I’m not sure which I like less. So while we find our belongings (and maybe even our minds), here are some pictures of what the last couple of weeks have been like. Moving with family is always interesting, and probably a lot less stressful than moving with strangers because you can be yourself, whether it’s good, bad, or ugly.

If you can’t be yourself around family, who can you be yourself around?

So: Family. Moving. Pictures.

Home is where your story begins.

Our game room looks so lonely…

And I wish I could bring our pantry door – designed by Seymour! – with us.

Oh, Bubbles. 🙂

Thumper wants to pet the kitty, too!

Moving is hard work.

Did I mention that I have a partner for my Photo Friday posts? Because I seem to remember mentioning something about it. 🙂 Anyway, thanks to the Blogging 201 course I took last month, I met the lovely Charnele Henry and we decided to collaborate on Photo Fridays. We chose the theme of family, which fit in nicely with my move. You can find her post here, and be sure to check out some of her other posts, too! There’s a lot to see.

Happy Friday, everybody, and if you’re traveling for Mother’s Day this weekend, safe journey! I’ll see you all back here on Monday. 🙂

Lost in a moment

September 28, 2012August 22, 20142 Comments

So I’m a little late with my Photo Friday post today. But hey – it’s still Friday, and look, I’ve even got a photo!

Photograph by Minson Photography

This is one of my favorite wedding pictures and in honor of my third wedding anniversary Wednesday, I thought I’d share it. It’s not quite candid, not quite posed. We took pictures both before and after the ceremony because we didn’t want to see each other beforehand and also because that way we wouldn’t keep our guests waiting at the reception hall quite as long. This shot was captured between posed photos, when Seymour and I clearly weren’t paying attention to anyone or anything but each other.

I’ve got the song “Lost in This Moment” by Big and Rich stuck in my head right now and I think it fits this photo perfectly.

And now, if you’ll excuse me, a great big hunk of man is calling my name. ¡Hasta luego, mis amigos! 🙂

Room-ba!

September 21, 2012August 22, 20145 Comments

We’ve lived in our house for three years now and have done some extensive remodeling in that time. Almost every room in our house has had something done to it. At last, we’ve crossed Tomcat’s room off our list.

Photo by Kay Kauffman

Since we have three boys, we have a set of bunk beds. The littler two aren’t quite old enough for them yet, but they will be one day, so in the meantime, Tomcat gets to choose whether he has top bunk or bottom. While they’re great for accommodating a large number of children in a small number of bedrooms, they’re not so great when it comes to repainting a room. Case in point:

Photo by Kay Kauffman

As you can see, the bunk beds were a bit of a problem. Did I say problem? I meant to say that they posed their own special challenge (by which I, of course, mean that they were a colossal pain in my back side).
Seriously, having something that big in the middle of the room when you’re trying to paint really sucks. But! It gets better behind the cut.

Well, fooey…

September 14, 2012August 22, 20142 Comments

Oil Painting Workspace (Photo credit: nimbu)

I know I promised an exciting (Ha! :)) photo essay on repainting Tomcat’s room for today’s Photo Friday post, but the thing is, well…we’re not done. Oh, I’ve got a few before pictures, and we’ve got two coats of primer on the ceiling, plus a coat of paint and three coats of paint on the walls and two coats of paint on the radiator (I won’t be sorry to see that thing go as soon as we can afford to redo our heating and lack of cooling system). But the plastic is still on the bed and the floor, the tape is still on the light fixtures and the woodwork, and every night this week, we’ve looked at that wallpaper border and sighed with exhaustion. Also loathing. Maybe even a few other things.

So with no pretty, pretty after pictures to show off, I’m going to wait on that post-bedroom-remodeling post I had planned. Seymour wants to get the border put up Sunday, so maybe one day next week, I’ll get it done. That sounds like a nice, reasonably distant time.

Meanwhile, today is the day for the entries to fly in the agent pitch contest for GUTGAA (short for Gearing Up To Get An Agent). My entry didn’t make it into the morning pitch session, which literally filled up in seconds. Amazingly, we didn’t break Gmail. 🙂 The afternoon session starts in mere minutes. I had my finger hovering over the send button on my email this morning and my eye on the clock; I hit send as soon the clock hit 11:00 a.m. (well, 10:00 a.m. here), but I was just a bit too slow. Hopefully the afternoon session won’t be quite as crazy as the morning. There are 200 available slots; 100 remain as of this moment.

Okay, I just hit send. Let the waiting begin.

THIS JUST IN: I MADE THE CUT!!!

It’s another Photo Friday!

September 7, 2012August 22, 20146 Comments

Here we are, at the end of another week, and I must say I’m glad of it. I’m not looking forward to spending the weekend painting, but that’s another story. Anyway, on to the photo of the day!

Photo by Kay Kauffman

Today’s photo features Tomcat, my oldest son. Clearly this is not a recent photo, as my darling baby boy will be nine on Wednesday. Nine! How the heck did that happen? Oh, right. I blinked. I remember now. He was just over two and a half when I snapped this picture, slightly older than Cricket is now. He looks so little! And now he’s so big! I can’t believe I have a third grader on my hands!

Quick! Get me a brick! Get me some rope! Get me a drink!

The vacation post

August 17, 2012August 22, 20144 Comments

The world-famous Butter Cow, hand-crafted by Sarah Pratt.

Once again, I find myself penning a post about a family vacation. This time, summer has come and gone, taking our family vacations with it. This time, due to school starting in the middle of August (don’t ask me why), we were forced to cut our trip short by a day and decided not to go camping. See, from what I understand, schools are not supposed to start till after Labor Day (September 3 this year), but they are allowed to apply for a waiver if they would like to begin prior to that date and the governor can either approve or deny the request. I can’t recall him ever denying a waiver request and I can’t recall school ever beginning after Labor Day; it’s always started in August, and it starts earlier every year. This year, our school started classes on August 15, but I know some schools were in session last week.

But I digress. Instead of going camping up north like we’d planned, we headed south, invading Seymour’s parents’ house for a few days and running ourselves ragged.

Circumstantial influence

August 4, 2012August 22, 2014Leave a comment

Due to circumstances beyond my control, my usual Photo Friday post didn’t make it yesterday. As a result of other circumstances somewhat more within my sphere of influence, I’ve now had time to put it together. Stay tuned – it should be up this afternoon!