After The Rain

A brief rain/sunshine mix made me run outside to find a rainbow!
No rainbow.
Drat.

As I stood in the sprinkles, I surveyed my front garden and it's post-winter explosion. Boy, I have quite a bit of work ahead of me this holiday weekend! But instead of lamenting over the amount of weeding and pruning lay ahead, I grabbed the camera and captured a wet garden before the evening light faded.

Sometimes, it's best to stop and enjoy the details.

Embrace Life.

My day started at 7:15 am when I met my friend Harmony at a downtown bakery for coffee and pastries. Tummies filled and caffeine in hand we hopped a few blocks over to the Farmers Market––my first time there, can you believe it? Roaming at a leisurely pace we packed our bags full of goodies for the week. Some basil, aspara*gas* (as hubby calls it) and fresh lupine's for me and a week's worth of produce for Harmony. I fell in love with the work of a local man who makes lazy-susans out of wood scraps. His craftsmanship is impecable.

We scooted from there to make a creative workshop hosted by our friend, Diane. I have blogged about her before. She's such a doll and comes up with the best projects. The eight-or-so of us made a beautiful creative mess and shared a few recipes, too!

Home for lunch with hubby and then it was off to the greenhouse. Dirt, fertilizer, hanging baskets, annuals, and two tomato plants later, I am home. A lasagna dinner and a quiet house round out the evening as I sit with the sounds of a purring kitty on my lap, birds chirping and the clicking of our laptops.

Today I feel as if I truly embraced life.

Scribble Scrabble

We recently spent a lovely afternoon with Lil' J and her family. Her Daddy is an ol' friend of my hubby's which made the shoot extra special. Lil' J is a sweet, energetic girl who thought our studio flash covers looked like TV screens, thoroughly enjoyed scribbling on the backdrop (love that!), and was focused on my collection of Scrabble tiles.

Now I'll admit, not being a Mom I'm not totally up on developmental milestones, but I was pretty impressed that as I pulled the Scrabble tiles from the jar, she recited them back to me! Not bad for a 20-month old, huh? For more from shoot, click here.

Birthday Butterflies

A few shots of a birthday cake I made this weekend for my niece. I had never before made a cake or frosting from scratch and I'd never worked with candy-makers chocolate. I would definitely make it all again, but probably with a cream cheese frosting next time. The buttercream was very good, but a titch too sweet for me. As for the butterflies––oh my––chocolate and nonparerils everywhere! Tip: be quick, patient and stay close to your microwave.

On a side note, I was telling my Mom this was the one time I wished I owned a stand mixer, which would have kept my kitchen (and me) safe from the attack of the flying frosting bits. "Really" she says as we trotted down to the storage room. Lo-and-behold, a funky vintage mixer that was their wedding gift. It still works! Thanks, Mom. The next cake adventure will be a little less of a mess.

Kitchen: disaster. Dishes: immense. Birthday Girl: happy.

Cake Recipe from Beyond Toast
Buttercream Frosting Recipe and Butterfly How-To from Annie's Eats

Bay-bee Ba-LOO-ga

A fun time photographing Miss P in her "Baby Beluga" costume on the eve of her dance recital. Thanks to Aunt Kelly who styled all her beautiful curls, (so jealous!). Click here for more pics from the session.

Possibilities, Numerous.

I stopped painting regularly about a year ago because I felt stuck. So, I switched to fabric to infuse creativity in my subject matter which I'm still having fun with (can't wait to show you what's in the hopper!)

Then my work-friend, Diane invited me to her Stampin' Up workshop. I'm not a scrapbooker or a stamper mind you, but she had some cool projects lined up (that included fabric) and I needed a creative morning with girlyfriends. And as with everything, I discovered a cool new toy. It became quite the debate...a spiffy die cutter-tool and it's accessories or a food processor? Hmmm.

Fast forward to last weekend for some playtime with my new toy (Mom, if you're reading this: food processor is on the holiday list). I'm having way too much fun and it's what I needed to take my painting, and crafting, to another level. So as a thank you to Diane, I made her this "card" for helping to inspire me.