The 31 Project

Yesterday was my 31st birthday.

On a whim, I decided to tackle a photography project. I asked 31 strangers to give me advice for my next year and asked to take their picture.

Here are a few from the bunch.


"Never trust Craigslist."
- Thomas


"If you don't protect what you've got, you'll lose it."
- David


"Take advantage of everything. Do it! No regrets! You will be lots of people in your life. Don't ever get too complacent."
- Donna


"Trust in God. Clean house. Help others."
- Bo

You can find all the photos from the project here.

I'll be back tomorrow to talk a bit about the project and my thoughts about it. Hope you enjoy it!

duality

I took a break. I've been living more life than I thought could fit into the space I've been allotted in this lifetime. I've been happier than I can ever remember. I don't recognize myself, which leaves me ungrounded. I'm exhausted.

My sweet husband bought me the camera I've been wanting for years for our anniversary this year. I really really love it. I've been taking some fun pictures. So I'll probably be back here more again, if you'll have me. :)

A Great Birthday!

Wonderful pieces of my day:

• That moment when I woke up, normal, and had the little, silent aha moment of "It's my birthday!"
• I was the first one out of bed, if only by a few seconds.
• Addison came out of his room, pillow in hand, and he said, "This is my birthday present to you, mama! We can keep it in between our rooms." Melt.
• Ben made me french toast for breakfast.
• A million and one birthday wishes on facebook!
• The quiet of a coffee shop. I got to read part of the newspaper, do as much of the crossword puzzle as I felt like, and write a blog post.
• A man at the coffee shop came in with his white fluffy shitzu-type dog wearing a periwinkle sweater. He proceeded to show us his dog's tricks. The man would say a number and the dog would bark that number of times! Impressive!
• Couple of bites of a cheddar bacon biscuit.
• Discovering the absolute best antique shop I've ever been to, and finding a number of things I wanted. And, for once in my life, letting myself not worry about money and buying every single one of the things I wanted. Awesome.

• Cup of lavender chamomile tea.
• Pulled pork sandwich at Bunk Sandwiches. (cross #1 off the list!)

• Quiet lunch with my husband and sister.
• Stumbled upon crazy 24-hour House of Elvis art thing...

• Another Portland photo booth. (progress on #5!)

• A vegan cupcake made by my sister and served on a china plate!

• Cup of hibiscus ginger tea.
• Dr. Mario, pinball, Frogger, and racing games.
• Cargo.

• A simple dinner and a Tigger movie for Addison for an overall easy evening.
• Letting Drew eat food (mushy baby food) with her fingers and make a big mess.

• Birthday cards from special people.
• Phone call from my dad.
• Living room dance party, and birthday ice cream with Addison and Ben.
• Quiet evening.
• Cup of relaxing tea.
• Going to bed early.

Valentine's Day: Weekend in Review

It was a lovely weekend, by all counts. I am appreciating the weekends even more right now while I'm working extra hours for a few weeks. I look forward to having my quiet Mondays back, but for now, I am squeezing in as fun good family time and taking care of me time as I can!

Addison had a Valentine's Day party at school on Saturday, which was fun because it gave me a reason to dress Drew up like a living Valentine!

Isn't she sweet?

I was proud of Addison, too because he truly made all 30 of his Valentine's for his friends by hand. I didn't get a picture of them, but I made a heart out of Elmer's Glue and he sprinkled the glitter on each one. He also wrote his name and his friend's names on about 8 or 9 of them and I did the rest. Not bad for a 4-year old! Then he helped me choose a lollipop for each one and tape it on. Hooray for handmade! It was a bit of work, bu mostly a lot of fun. I was proud of myself for letting glitter get all over the place and not worrying about it too much.

On Sunday, Ben and I got lucky. Addison went to his first "dropoff" birthday party for his best friend, and my mom was in town and watched Drew for a couple of hours. We were freeeeeee!

Now let me just say, we get our fair share of dates. We are lucky enough to have wonderful family members in town who are frequently willing to take the kids so we can go out when one of our friends has a birthday or, well, just because. But these types of things are usually at night when we are already exhausted from the day, and our destinations are usually to group functions and certainly all planned out.

This-- this was different. We had no plans, and it was gorgeous outside and it was broad daylight. I came up with a quick plan: to make it to as many photo booths in Portland that we could in the 2 hours we had. Game on!

First stop was the obvious choice: The Ace Hotel

We got our photos in a jiffy and headed to House of Vintage on Hawthorne.

We had a little fun browsing around, too. ;)

We were running out of time, so we decided to check out some of the Portland Food Carts we never get a chance to try. We sampled some deliciousness from this Creperie, and devoured them in minutes.

Mine was smoked salmon, cream cheese, lemon and arugula. Ben's was baked eggs, mushrooms, gruyere and spinach. To die for, really.

It was an amazing couple of hours. Long overdue. And because we only hit two of the places on our photobooth list? Means we have another date coming up soon.

How was your Valentine's Day?

I *heart* fall

Today

I borrowed this great little meme post from Benita over at Chez Larsson

Today...

Outside my window... scorching heat at 97 degrees, but believe it or not, this is relief from the past few days of triple-digit weather.

I am thinking... about all the birthdays I get to celebrate at this time of year.

I am thankful for... children who nap at the same time.

From the kitchen... cookies and cream ice cream.... mmm my favorite, though not helping with my efforts to lose the post-partum belly.

I am wearing... a brown gaucho skirt from Target, and vintage-style brown tee.

I am creating... nothing right at the moment, but I have a few ideas up my sleeve if I can ever find the time.

I am going... to take a nap... if I ever get off the computer!

I'm reading... lots of blogs, Parents magazine, and Dreams From My Father by Barack Obama

I am hoping... our offer is accepted on the house we want!

I am hearing... the whirrrrrr of the a/c and the silence of a house with sleeping children.

Around the house... my cats are sprawled out, stretching as much as possible, trying to stay cool

One of my favorite things... knowing my maternity leave isn't quite half over.

A few plans for the rest of the week... heading to my dad's house for a weekend barbecue to celebrate the his 60th birthday, and my sister's boyfriend's 29th!

A picture to share...

growing

Our laptop isn't working... doh! This is such a bummer on a number of levels, one being that I can't get the pictures off of my camera to upload and share with you. I really hate blogging without pictures, and I sort of hate using others' pictures just to pretty it up around here... It feels like cheating.

So, I guess the best thing to do while I wait for the computer to be back in good working order is to post some oldies. That's sort of fun too.

One year ago....

It had just gotten warm enough for a spontaneous trip to Jamison Square for some splashing.




And my little boy had just learned how to feed himself his own soup.


Two years ago...

It had just gotten warm enough for Addison and I to enjoy our first picnic together on the waterfront.


And I was just starting to pay attention to my own photography...


Oh how wonderful it is that each year brings many of the same things so we can see how we've grown....

I'm alive.....really

Just distracted and busy and happy and enjoying life...
I promise I'll be back eventually, and hopefully soon. Sometimes life is just too good to stop and blog about it... But I have some great pictures from the past couple of weeks to share, so stay tuned...

xoxoxox

verticals + warm memories

While exploring around a vintage shop the other day, I found myself drawn to this woodstove.

I have no way to prove it, but I swear this could be the very woodstove from my childhood house. Perhaps it isn't. Maybe a million of these were manufactured and they can easily be found. But I like to think this might be the very stove that warmed my frozen mittens and damp socks on winter days in 1986. It could be, right?

my camera is joining itself to my hip

Somehow it feels like I've been away from my blog for weeks! Life has gotten busy lately and I've missed being here.

Today was fantastic. Addison and I spent the sunny afternoon perusing shops I've been wanting to peek into, eating ice cream, and running races on the sidewalk, and racing matchbox cars at home.

My camera is becoming more and more a part of me, and I sometimes feel insatiable in my desire to explore the city and take photos. I am certainly disappointed each time we head out somewhere, whether to a friends house for bagels or downtown to window shop, and I arrive only to discover I've left my camera at home. It can really sort of ruin my trip.

But today I remembered, and it was so satisfying to come home with a camera full of images.

Here are a few of my favorites:







I'll post a few more tomorrow.
How was your day?