Poor man's (and woman!) anniversary

January 31 marked the official anniversary of our marriage.

(that was yesterday.)

We've been together, for better and for worse for nine years now.

Since our anniversary fell on a Thursday, we decided to celebrate with a bottle of champagne and a nice dinner last night, then carry on in our own humble way today.

Funds are low this year, so we decided to "lay low" financially.  Translated, that means no out of town trips and watch the spending! So we decided to spend some time doing little activities together in our town. 

 So, this morning we started out by sleeping in. I love sleeping in.  I then decided to make breakfast: a dried cherry popover, bacon and coffee with a splash of Irish cream (gift from my parents).

I've been wanting to go thrift-shopping lately.  I've been reading way too many blogs with the ladies hitting thrift stores and have been feeling left out.  So I decided to start out at Goodwill.

I snagged a couple of good things, but was a little disappointed with the rest of the selection.

Old Navy hooded sweatshirt.

a vintage I.Magnin sweater skirt...80's cool!

 No matter, there is always another day.

We then went straight to Moore Park.

This park holds a little history for us.  Not only was our first official date at this park, but later on Aaron proposed to me on the same steps.

Our first photo from our first "official" date at Moore Park

 

Awww!

I read of an idea somewhere to return to where your first date was and take photos.  I thought it was a great idea.  So we decided to pack my tripod and camera and try it out.

Here are some of the photos:

From there, we decided to try a new "gourmet" food truck named "Mac and Cheese Steak."

There we ordered the special: mac and cheese steak sandwich ( a steak sandwich with mac and cheese on top), chocolate covered bacon and Ntella creme brulee.  We decided it was pretty good, but maybe not amazing.

Then we hit up the local Portland Street Market...again, to pick out a couple bottles of beer: an Oyster stout and some other type of beer for Aaron and a bottle of sassy-sweet wine for me!

After that, we went to Ross and found some curtains that would work for our redecorated room.

Then we were done.

We ran out of places to go....what can I say? It's tough to do much when it's Winter in a small, culture-less town with little money!

So we returned home, did a couple things around the house then ate grilled cheese, drank our beer and watched some movies together.

But we still had fun doing things we normally wouldn't do and just being together.

Now on to year 10!

After shot

ALAS! A single (and very important) house project has been completed!

You may, or may not, depending on how long you've been with me, remember the idea of hanging pictures above our "new" TV chest.  For those of  you not familiar, here is a link to refresh your memory

(I will also add a few before and after pics here in a sec.)

So for those of you a little too lazy to hop on the link above (no judgement from the peanut gallery), here is an inspiration picture found off this lovely website:

I really loved the idea of staggering framed pictures all over the wall, yet still incorporating the big ol' TV.

Here is what we started with:

Frankly? A little too boring for my taste.

So we decided to display photos we took while in Ireland last year.

First, we had to choose the pictures AND the frames, then decide how to arrange them.  Once we did that, we laid the frames out on a piece of paper to make sure we liked the layout. Then we chose pictures and how we wanted those grouped.

Once we were satisfied with the arrangement, we traced the outline of the frames, hung the paper up on the wall and then placed nails right through the outlines on the paper. 

This is what we ended up with:

Voila!

We are quite pleased with the result, and now I can't help but stare at the pictures instead of the TV.

Now I need to add something to sit on the cabinet that adds a bit more color.....

Let there be light!*

I'm determined to make my last photo post fun (?) instead of a chore.

So, I'm going to set the mood.

"The mood for what ?", you may ask.

The mood for light bulbs.

First of all, the "mood music."  Listen to this little music ditty, won't you?

By the way I've never even heard of this song until I hit up my friend google with the words: song lyrics light bulb and BING....this is what popped up.

Believe it or not, I like the song.  A lot.

Well, let's get back to the mood I mentioned earlier.

Now for the lighting.

Are you in the mood? 

Are you thinking of light bulbs as never before now?

Yeah, me neither.

Well, look at this picture then, please?  And I'll never ask you about your feelings for light bulbs ever again.

My pinkie promises.

*This was a re-post for the post "blogger" lost...so I tried to make it up to you.

My favorite flowers

Tulips!  They are soooo beautiful this year!

Oh, Deer!

I went on a field trip of sorts the other day in search of new territory (not my back yard) and new sights (again, not my back yard) to photograph.  I decided to drive across town to the lake and meandered through the park over there, then drove along a road that parallels it for a bit.  I saw several new things that were begging to be photographed. 

First, I spotted several deer lying down in a field next to someones house.  I pulled the car over and took pictures of them without them even caring. 

Thanks for the photo-op deer little friends.

Then, as I was pulling away from the deer, which were on the right side of my car, I looked to the left and saw this:

I thought, "are you serious?!"  This scene also seemed a little too posed.  But I couldn't pass up the opportunity.  So I pulled over again and took this picture from my car. 

I felt like a paparazzi of nature.  I got over it though and so did nature.

Anyway, I like to call this "the layer picture" because of all of the different layers: you see there is a goose layer, a grass layer, a water layer, a boat layer, then a hill layer, another hill layer and a mountain layer. 

See the layers?

Layer.

Layer.

Layer.

I apparently like the word layer.

I also like field trips.

Maybe I should do this more often.

Bark, bark...

I have a dear friend (you know who you are) who once rolled down her window in the middle of traffic because she was "hot" ( I think she was just bored) and barked at the man next to us.  He gave us a dirty look and the whole car cracked up (except for her husband).  At the time it made me laugh because I could never see myself doing that and I thought she was a little crazy-pants. 

Things are different.  Now I'm the crazy.  No, I don't bark at passing cars...yet. However, in the middle of silence or if I'm bored, sometimes I'll turn to Aaron and bark at him.  Like this: Bark-bark....bark, bark.  You get the idea......

I'm not 100% sure why I've told you this, because it only reveals my impending insanity but I thought hey....pictures of bark + a story about barking = a perfect post.

Was I wrong again?

Fine.  Here's another picture of bark then. 

Spring is in the air

I've always had a love/hate relationship with spring.  Allow me to explain before you judge me as a bitter and wholly negative individual.  After all, who doesn't like spring?  Nature certainly has a "thing" for it. 

Here's what I adore (not just like) about spring: the longer days accompanied with the warm sun, the chirping birds, new spring buds and vibrant green grass that carpets the terrain.  I enjoy spring so much that I always thought I would like to be married in spring. 

However, there's this one thing that held me back from getting married in and declaring spring as my favorite season of them all: my insane, hateful allergies.  I don't just sneeze a little and my nose doesn't just run a little.  I do all things that pertain to allergies A LOT and I do them well.  So much so that I feel like I have a full-blown cold until spring decides my misery is over, changing all of the buds into whatever they're supposed to turn into.  There.  Now you know.  That is why spring will not be my favorite.  Not too bad, right?

Despite that, I try to enjoy the season and all it offers as much as I can. 

Enough about me....Look what I found!

I'm sorry

So sorry......

     The idea for this photo seemed so much cooler then it turned out.  The idea came about as I was laying on the couch and I could see reflections in the screen of the laptop that was right in front of me.  As I looked into the laptop I saw this image above: a reflection of my two favorite trees that you  have seen several times already.  But they seemed different....because they weren't actual representations of the real trees but reflections.  However, now that I see them they look just like trees. 
    
     So again, I'm sorry.  The prize for creativity does not go to me.
    
     Bleh.

   

Beer glasses on

When the "beautiful" scenery of your town lets you down and out and with little inspiration, simply stack up some of your husbands' sampler glasses and shoot away.  Classy (he he) AND cool.......



Shadow catching

Ever since I can remember, I've been drawn to shadows: shadow puppets, my shadow on the sidewalk, shadows cast on walls. 

Maybe it's because every time I see a shadow I'm reminded of Peter Pan and his shadow.  Here's a bit of the shadow experience from James M. Barrie's 'Peter Pan':

"O Peter, no wonder you were crying," she said, and got out of bed and ran to him. 

I wasn't crying about mothers," he said rather indignantly. "I was crying because I can't get my shadow to stick on. Besides, I wasn't crying."

"It has come off?"

"Yes."

Then Wendy saw the shadow on the floor, looking so draggled, and she was frightfully sorry for Peter. "How awful!" she said, but she could not help smiling when she saw that he had been trying to stick it on with soap. How exactly like a boy!

 This shadow happened to visit me in my dining room area.  It came from my mini-chandelier.

I spy with my little eye

A bird.

Can you spot the little guy?

I could watch them for hours.

Maybe I did.

What a wonderful world*

I see trees of green, red roses too
I see them bloom for me and you
and I think to myself, what a wonderful world

I see skies of blue, and clouds of white,
bright blessed days, dark sacred nights
And I think to myself, what a wonderful world

The colours of the rainbow, so pretty in the sky
Are also on the faces of people going by
I see friends shakin' hands, sayin' "How do you do?"
They're really saying "I love you"

I hear babies cry, I watch them grow
They'll learn much more than I'll ever know
And I think to myself, what a wonderful world

Yes, I think to myself, what a wonderful world.

*One of Aaron's favorite songs that he and his mom danced to on the day of our wedding. 

Drip

Drop

Drip





It's a cold, cold world.

I did take a picture yesterday but did not have a chance to view it until this morning.  It was of these awesome, angry-looking clouds.  So I pulled the truck over yesterday, rolled down my window and took a picture.  I saw beauty in those clouds.

This morning all I could see was the ugly, run-down shacks that were under the clouds.  Disappointing. So of course I didn't want to share ugly with you today.  Who needs that?

Instead, I'm sharing two pictures today (one to make up for an absent post yesterday).

First, a little background on one of them: Spring in our little town is always a toss up.  Either we will have a true spring- with flowers, birds chirping and sun or we have snow.  Or both.  This year we've had a little bit of everything, including high winds and rain showers.  This was taken one morning on my way to work.  The small mountain (is it really a hill?) was blanketed with snow and against the cool blue sky it stood out to me.  I can still feel the chill as I look at the picture (thank goodness for heated cars).

The fence and power lines = ugly, man-made obstructions.  The hill that wanted to be a mountain = pretty to me.

Now on to the second picture.  Background:  I love the ocean and always have.  Growing up, my family went to the coast often.  Some of my best memories were trawling the tide pools looking for little crabs or shell hunting. Sometimes I would find those crabs in the shells I wanted the most.  Don't worry, I didn't evict the little guys from their homes.  However, I still have two small jars in my home that are a result of years of shell hunting.  This pic is from my very own living room.  This shell is actually a gift from a Dr. I worked with a couple years back.

Is this real life?

The question of the day (as far as photography)?  What photo op will present itself to me today? 

The answer: these people staring right back at me as I sat in my car.

So this is an A-M-A-Z-I-N-G mural painted on the side of a building in our local downtown.  It was painted
by a local man who was also a teacher at the time.  He's done a couple others around town, but this has always been my favorite.

 It's so real-looking....It's life size...But it's not real life.  Shucks, wrong era.

I looked in a puddle and what did I see?

A big barren tree reflected to me (getting all Dr Seuss on you now)

Fence

It's raining and has been a-l-l day.  My motivation for walking out the back door was a fence. 

Things can get pretty exciting around here.

The end.

A natural

I captured this without Aaron realizing it.  But everything at this moment seemed so ....natural.  The lighting for one.  Beer in one hand and a book in the other.  Happy days.

Not so easy anymore, these pictures

Finding something to photograph was a challenge today.  We were out in service for the greater part of the day and in the car driving for most of it.  We drove by several things that may have been cool pictures, but they were at highway speed.  So...there was no turning back. 

Instead, I had to look for something of interest around our house.  Here's what I found.  Crazy.  Maybe not so interesting.