Project 52 - Flowers - Week 34

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• “Photography for me is not looking, it’s feeling. If you can’t feel what you’re looking at, then you’re never going to get others to feel anything when they look at your pictures.”
  — Don McCullin

• “Photography is a way of feeling, of touching, of loving. What you have caught on film is captured forever… It remembers little things, long after you have forgotten everything.”
  — Aaron Siskind

• “To me, photography is an art of observation. It’s about finding something interesting in an ordinary place… I’ve found it has little to do with the things you see and everything to do with the way you see them.”
  — Elliott Erwitt

• “Taking pictures is savoring life intensely, every hundredth of a second.”
  — Marc Riboud

• “My life is shaped by the urgent need to wander and observe, and my camera is my passport.”
  — Steve McCurry

• “Photography is the story I fail to put into words.”
  — Destin Sparks

• “Which of my photographs is my favorite? The one I’m going to take tomorrow.”
  — Imogen Cunningham

• “I wish that all of nature’s magnificence, the emotion of the land, the living energy of place could be photographed.”
  — Annie Leibovitz

Project 52 - Saturdays - Week 33

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My people were constructing this past weekend. Jesse was working on repairing the hole in our ceiling from a water leak. We left it open for a long time to make sure that the leak was fixed and finally feel confident to close it up. Knock on wood.

And Riley worked on putting together a book made out of magazine clippings. I told her she should do words and pictures so she cut out ads for the words and found a couple pictures of women that looked like me. Lol. She added some other pictures and then we stapled it together to make a book. Unfortunately, she only had workout, and home repair magazines. Not exactly exciting, but they did the trick. I love when we can find easy activities that entertain her for more than 5 minutes.

Not every weekend is super exciting, but that doesn't mean they aren't satisfying in the end. These are my people and this is our life.

Random Wrap Up

Last weekend, Riley and I finally got around to camping in the backyard. It's become a yearly tradition for us - so much so that she insists that I sleep in the tent with her and not her dad. I'll take it. We have fun although she also associates this time with being able to play on her Kindle which will be a big surprise when we go 'real' camping in the future.

Usually, I bring out books and try to get her to bed at a reasonable hour. I knew she was tired so I thought she might fall asleep early. She even shut off the Kindle on her own and laid down around 8:30, but that lasted less than two minutes. I've given up the fight since she doesn't seem to fall asleep before 10:00 or close to. Hey, it may just be camping in the yard, but it's still exciting.

On Saturday (and Sunday) we went over to my rental property to fix the garage door and discovered that there had been hail damage back in May. While I walked around the house and wrote down all the 'to do' items, the neighbor shared with my dad and husband that other neighbors were getting new roofs. Long story short, I was got hail damage too and insurance is covering most of my list so I'm happy about that. If only I could convince them that hail damaged my sidewalk.

While at my rental we got to officially meet the guy next door. His mom moved in the same week I did 13 years ago. She got sick about three years ago and recently died. I've sort of had a chance to meet him in the past when he was yelling at some neighbors, but blew him off for another man with an anger management issue that has lived in that house. Turns out he kicked out the old anger management issue guy and was super nice to us. Even so, he's the type of guy who you want to keep on your good side. He had this big solid guard dog that he had shipped over from Germany. The dog apparently knows three languages, but English isn't one of them so I better brush up on my German commands.

On Monday, we participated in a practice bus ride to prepare Riley for kindergarten. The first half hour was incredibly boring and focused more on the safety issues parents might want to know about (camera's on the bus, etc). This was followed by the kids watching a VHS of people in Winnie the Pooh (and friends) costumes from 1982 (my guess) taking the bus. Yeah, it was pretty old and cheesy, but the kids seemed to take away all the safety rules they needed to. Once that was done we hopped on the bus for a short ride. The kids got to get off the bus and practice and each ended up with a coloring book, a bracelet, and fake tattoo. I thought it was a painful event to attend and was jealous of Jesse (since he stayed at home), but Riley loved it.

Riley's been dealing with a loose tooth and by Tuesday it seemed pretty close to coming out.

From earlier in the week when I noticed the adult tooth coming in behind her baby teeth. Can wait until those silver caps are gone.

I decided to snap a 'before' picture that showed her with a big toothy smile

And Wednesday, while I was gone getting my hair cut, Jesse wiggled the tooth out. I missed the big moment, but was able to 'help' the tooth fairy craft a letter which we placed under Riley's pillow along with a dollar.

Unnecessary and unflattering picture of me getting my hair done. You'll have to imagine the outcome for now.

When Riley woke the next morning she silently read the letter. You could tell she was processing everything, but later declared that her favorite part of the letter was when the Tooth Fairy says "Have a fairy nice day!" Riley really was beyond excited and brought her letter with her to school on Thursday to show everyone and then followed it up on Friday with showing everyone the dollar she got for show and tell.

Dear Riley,                                                                                          

I see you lost your first tooth! You are growing into such a big girl. I’m so proud of you for letting your dad pull your tooth out. You are such a brave girl!

Thank you for giving me your tooth. I will add it to my treasured collection. I’ve left a little gift for you.

Soon you’ll see another tooth to take the old one’s place. The new one will last a very long time. Please be sure to brush your teeth twice a day and floss. This will keep your new teeth healthy.

Another way to keep your teeth sparkly and clean is to eat good snacks. Stay away from too many sweets and eat lots of fruits and vegetables.

Have a fairy nice day!

Your friend,

Tooth Fairy

  Of course, before school on Friday we took another picture for comparison.

Later she told us that one of her friends shared that her older sister didn't get a dollar or a letter from the Tooth Fairy. We worried that maybe we did too much - we certainly didn't want other kids to feel like they got jilted by the Tooth Fairy, but then I actually did some research and discovered the going rate is just over $4.00 a tooth. So, I guess, we are the cheapskates.

The rest of the week was fairly mellow, but included visits with both grandparents which seems like a good way to wrap up yet another summer week. 

Project 52 - Portraits - week 32

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When using only natural light I've found the garage to be a great tool when it comes to taking portrait shots. I'd always heard this, but it wasn't until I took some shots of Riley in her dance recital dress that made me realize how amazing the garage could be. I totally want to create a 'floor' and backdrop that I can pull out as needed so you don't realize that I'm actually taking pictures in a grungy old garage.

This week Riley agreed to be my model again while I tried out another technique. Not really a photography technique per say, but I needed the right picture to do this. I've been thinking about her impending start of Kindergarten and thought it would be fun to add words right on the picture. I probably should be waiting until she is about to start kindergarten, but I just couldn't wait. To start I took a few picture with her a little off center. And let me note that these pictures are totally Riley. I did ask her a couple times to look at the camera in a certain way (including grumpy face), but it was just mostly her personality coming through. Sometimes I just start asking her questions interview style and I get some great pictures that way (in fact, she asked me to record an interview in the midst of this so I did).

Check out those catch lights in her eyes? And that background? It's an old piece of sheetrock with a couple footprints on it. I had her sit a couple feet in front if it and tried to place her head in front of the visible footprint. This one was a little close for my vision so I backed up a little so I would have more negative space to add words. 

Then I went into Photoshop, picked out a few fonts and colors and added some text.

I've never really felt the need to put text on my photos before, but now I want to do this to capture her milestones through out the years... or at least for when she starts kindergarten next month. We'll see how long I commit to this, but it would be fun to look back on over the years if I can.

CSA

Jesse and I have thought about joining a CSA for some time, but didn't trust ourselves enough with the food. We were pretty sure we'd end up wasting much of it and in the end the purchase wouldn't be worth it. However, some of our neighbors were talking about it on NextDoor.com and suggested Earth Dance Farms. We liked that they had multiple sized boxes so we could get a small one to start this year and make sure that it was a good size for us before jumping to something larger. They also had a spring share, a fall share and an egg share that you could opt into. Initially, we decided to do the summer half share and the egg share, but then decided to add on a spring share. Since we are significantly into summer I figured I should finally talk about it here.

There were three spring shares delivered every other week which were filled with a lot of greens. The initial egg deliveries were a little heavy. I started a week late so I got 3 - 4 dozen eggs every other week to make up for the missed week. That was a little much for me (since I'm the only one that eats them), but I was able to give some to my dad and a neighbor so all was good. We have thrown out a couple things which was part of bad planning, but otherwise we've been able to eat everything and figure out what to do with it. This is certainly pushing us to try new things. Jesse even made a beef stew with the greens we received and we discovered that we all like (even Riley) kohlrabi.

We've received all sorts of items: arugula, romaine, cabbage (multiple varieties), kale, chard, asparagus, chives, radishes, green onions, cucumber, tomato, potato, braising greens, kohlrabi, mint, cilantro, popcorn, strawberries, raspberries, broccoli, peppers (multiple varieties), basil... and so on

I was going to take a picture each week, but that quickly went to the wayside. There are a total of 18 summer weekly shares which means that we'll be getting fresh food deliveries through October 22. The CSA drop off site is nice and close to our house which has made this a feasible endeavor for us.

Will we do this again? Probably. It's worked out really well and you can really tell that this food was picked fresh. We are definitely CSA converts.

Project 52 - Summer Strolls - Week 31

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As I sit here the rain trickles down outside. In fact, it's been raining off and on all day and I sort of wish we'd have a nice big storm. Nothing too scary, but something that makes you want to curl up on the couch with a book, a cup of tea... and probably a handful of Himalayan sea salt dark chocolate covered almonds. Just sayin'.

But on the other hand, I love me some summer and as I edit my pictures from yesterday I can't help thinking I wish I lived somewhere that was 'summer' all year long. Oh, who am I kidding, I'd be delighted if I lived somewhere where the winters were 30 degrees or higher. Anything is better than subzero.

At any rate, yesterday we went for a walk to the park to soak up the beautiful day. Riley whined a bit because we took the long route so we told her she could get out and pull the wagon herself and she did.... willingly.

Of course, that didn't last forever, but it did last longer than expected and most importantly the whining stopped.

Lol. Love my husband and how he 'tolerates' my picture taking

 And while she played a the park I may have found some flowers to photograph.

 Awe, summer. Still loving every bit of you... rain or shine.

Summer

You guys! It's August already! Summer is moving way too fast (as usual) and I'm starting to panic about all the things we haven't done - beach! camping! etc!

This past weekend I suggested the beach (which Riley was all about), but we decided to check out another item on our list - paddle boating at Centennial Lakes. Neither Jesse nor I have been there before which seems like such a shame (and makes me feel like I need to find all those other local things we haven't explored). We've driven by it a gazillion times without really knowing what was behind all those shops off of France Avenue.

When we were in the Black Hills we talked about paddle boating with Riley. It didn't work out while we were there so we decided we should do it when we got back home. Better later than never, I researched a couple places nearby (Lake Calhoun and Centennial Lakes) and we headed out for a little summer fun. It was a hot day so a half hour on the paddle boat was enough, but I would totally come back here... for the paddle boat, lawn games, mini golf, walking, etc. They also have kid activities/music during the week (Wednesdays and Fridays, I think) and entertainment in the evening.

(Side note: if you have a waist band Fitbit, attach it to your shoe to get "credit" for peddling on the paddle boat.)

Oh, another thing we've been doing this summer is going to swim class. Well, Jesse or I simply chauffeur Riley to her swim class. We've been meaning to do this for years and finally got around to it. She's really apprehensive when it comes to water - she wants to be in it, but is very cautious and doesn't trust Jesse and I one bit.

Anyhoo, class one and two started with crying. Between week one and two she stressed daily about having to go back to swim class on Monday. She was bordering on hysterical when I brought her on week two, but the instructor basically told me to get out and as expected Riley chilled out. There is a big window where we can look in and she can see us so it was nice to see her pull it together. By week three she was a-ok and she was jumping in the pool with minimal help. By week four? She was swimming - at least the beginning of what I would call swimming, but it was swimming.

So proud of her and she's clearly proud of herself too.Tonight she proclaimed that she jumped in by herself and that her favorite part was swimming by herself. I'm really amazed that she's come this far in such a short time. Her instructor, Danny, is pretty straight forward. I don't get a lot of warm fuzzies from him, but he's encouraging and it seems to be working.

This is huge!

And so is this!

And that's our summer update. Now to pack the rest of the summer with more fun things...