Photo project. Week #2

Here is the second week of my new photo project.
Enjoy!


Days spent playing while in pajamas are the best!
11.06.11


Best (doll) friends.
11.06.11


My mushroom pot pie looks angry...
11.07.11


Have you voted yet?
11.08.11


Life-sized paper dresses by the very talented, Kai.
11.09.11


Weaving is addicting.
11.10.11


An embarrassing family photo.
11.10.11


Family
11.11.11


Family
11.11.11

Family
11.11.11


Pocky
11.12.11

New Project. Week #1

I have been taking at least one photo everyday for about a month.
I however, have not posted them here yet.

That is my next goal - to start posting them on a near daily basis.
For now enjoy a glimpse of the last month of my life.


Passion Works art in progress.
Jeremy A.'s cut-out.
10.31.11


Visiting artist, Migiwa making art with a Passion Works artist.
10.31.11


The pink Christmas tree at Passion Works Studio!
11.01.11


The pink Christmas tree at Passion Works Studio - again!
11.01.11


Our Minecraft pumpkin.
11.01.11


I NEED my own button maker.
11.02.11


A beautiful paper dress by the talented Kai.
11.04.11


A beautiful paper dress by the talented Kai.
11.04.11


An afternoon spent knitting lace - win!
11.05.11

Oh little guy...

It is official - my almost four year old is going through a new phase.
It is a mama phase.
He cannot get enough of me.
Typically this is expresses by running full force at me to give me a hug.
That would be welcomed gesture if his head didn't line up with my pelvis.

Tonight's dialogue:

Me: "Why don't you play in your room or watch the movie with Daddy and Livvie?"
Aiden (in his whiny voice): "I just want to sit on your lap."

That is sweet, but Dude, you weigh 40 pounds...

Ah, another weekend came and went.
To quickly I must add.
Also, it wasn't one of those fun-filled, "time escaped me" types either.
Instead it was a lot of moving and cleaning.
We emptied out my art studio and converted it to a rental for a friend.

I'm a little sad to lose the space, but we will be refinishing our basement soon.
That could work right?

My original plans were a trip to Olive Garden and Borders
I'm a sucker for their mass-produced bagged salad and bread sticks (true story).
However, the moving squashed those plans.
Instead, I made a delicious blue-cheese smothered steak with roasted zucchini and yellow squash.
See here and drool meat eaters (sorry veggie pals):



However, all of the moving turned out to inspire some good.
John and I rearranged our massive rectangular living room with odd door placements.
It is now divided into multiple spaces (living and dining/board game playing).
This makes it feel more inviting and entertaining ready.

Speaking of which, we are doing tonight.
It is rumored that John makes the best flatbread pizzas.
What does that mean?
A Richland Ave pizza party with the neighbors!

Yesterday the Universe hated me.
Nothing truly bad happened.
It was A LOT of small things compounding into one meh morning.

For example the first thing my three-year-old said to me was:
"No, I want yogurt for breakfast!"
Which was promptly followed by a crying-on-the-floor tantrum because he ate the last yogurt the day before.
Then I could not find any matching shoes.
I poured coffee, but did not get to drink it.
Then I arrived at work, and was able to escape an hour later to get BP coffee.
Alas, there was a line for BP Sludge and by the time I was able to pour my cup, the pot was empty.

Instead I took a page from my friend, Jamie's, book and settled on a Frappuccino (of course the pre-made bottled variety and some Oreo Cakesters.



I made it back to work with sanity in hand.
I enjoyed the first Cakester (ahh, sugary bliss).
And then promptly spilled the Frappuccino down my chin and all over my shirt.
(Fail - sad face)!

Here's to a day filled with better energy!
(Hopefully?!)

Have you ever had those moments when you wonder how did I end up here?
Recently I (and my husband) have been having many of those moments.

Moment #1 - I am almost 30. 30? 30!
What does that mean?
I need to start figuring out grown-up life.
i.e. retirement.
My husband has a policy through his employer.
Sadly I do not.
However, I do now have an IRA set up
Score!

Moment #2 - Wow?! How did we end up with that many bills?
I know how...
student loans and those pesky student credit cards
oh yea, and don't forget our mortgage and car loan.
But alas, with a frugal lifestyle (and some allowances of course), we will be debt free by 35!
I can live with that.
In fact, if we stay on track, we can actually be debt free in 3.5 years.

Moment #3 - I need to live a frugal life, but that isn't limited to finances.
Sure finances segues into consuming less, and enjoying what we have.
But it also means, be more frugal with my time.
i.e. saying "no" to the things I don't want to do, and spending less time on the interwebs to enjoy the hobbies I say that I never have time for.
Facebook - you can wait.
In fact, you kinda suck.
We also need to be more frugal with our space.
We have so much stuff packed into our home, and truthfully we don't need it.
All it does is crowd the things we actually love and clutter our minds.
A clean space = a happy family (or a happy me at the least).

What does all this mean?
I guess we are all (kido's included) going to evaluate what's important to us, and eliminate those things that are not.

Enough rambling for today.
I have a Mini full of things to purge...

Monday, June 20, 2011

I was the only one that had to go anywhere yesterday.
My husband and kids kidnapped me at lunch, and took me to Casa.
Delicious hippie food!









My lunch was followed up by a short afternoon at work.
We made lasagna for dinner.
After that, I started watching The Criterion Collection on hulu.
We decided to approach it chronologically.
First up was The Kid by Charlie Chaplin.
It kept my 6 year old engaged the entire time.
We both like it for it's humor and sweetness.
Tonight's film will be the Swedish film The Phantom Carriage.

My Sunday via photos:

Why hello, beautiful!
What are you?
I spotted this plant on my morning walk to pick up the paper.



I also baked the most awesome loaf of bread.
Have I ever mentioned that I am a master at it?



I didn't forget about father's day either.
We spent the afternoon at the Columbus Zoo.

For Memorial Day Weekend our family decided to go on a mini vacation.
I guess you could call it a "stay-cation."

We opted to go to a hotel called Cherry Valley Lodge.
Aside from having beautiful courtyards and yummy food it also houses an indoor waterpark.
Needless to say, our kids were thrilled.





As an added bonus, the lodge is close to Utica - the home of Velvet Ice Cream.
Even more exciting than that, it was the same weekend of the ice cream festival.






So let's recap -
Beautiful hotel
Indoor waterpark
Festival devoted to ice cream located at an ice cream factory.
This all added up to a happy and relaxed family over Memorial weekend.

Last November we bought the property directly beside our house.
At one point the two houses had been on the same lot.
However, the previous owners separated the houses hoping that they would be easier to sell.
What does all this mean?
The two houses are once again owned by one singular family.
Also we own two acres in the middle of our city!

It has been doing nothing but raining for over a month, so with the little bit of sunshine we were finally able to explore.
Simply put, our yard is amazing!
It is nearly all wooded, and has quite a few little treasures in it.
We stumbled across wild grape vines, way more maples than we can ever tap, and possible paw paw and pear trees.
There are also hickory nut and black walnut trees.

All of this exciting!
In addition to watching these gems, I am undertaking a more sustainable lifestyle by nurturing my own seedlings.
I tried a few years ago and failed epicly,
However, when turning my compost today I discovered a bounty of veggie plants.
They are my new project.
Wish me luck!

My husband and I are turning into Disney-philes.
We took the first week of May off to celebrate our anniversary.
We thought about going to the beach.
Instead, John decided on Disney.
Who would say "No" to Disney?

Here are a few pictures of Goofy, Mickey, and Minnie greeting us

Step in Time

It's obvious that I am a failure at this blogging thing.
It takes to much commitment.
I'm not sure how my friends do it.

The only thing I find myself being able to do consistently is photograph.
Here is a fun one that I shot today.



It is an illustration by one of co-workers.
This is his favorite scene in Mary Poppins.
Enjoy!

Now I am off some video games.
Geesh, I am such a kid

If you know me, then you know that I enjoy taking photographs.
However, I find it cumbersome to always have my Nikon with me.
I do have to say that I love my smartphone for that reason.
Small and mobile, it allows me to catch the improptu

Here is a one of those sessions:

The Eat-In Challenge

My husband and I are foodies.
We love to eat.
Not only that, but we rarely ever bat an eye at spending upwards of $80 on a single meal.
That, however, can put a huge dent in our disposable income if we eat out several times a month.
Currently, we spend approximately $400 (Sometimes more) on eating out.
That's on top of our monthly grocery bill.
Taking all of that in consideration, we are currently spending about $1000 a month on food.

Amazing isn't it?
While we love food and the experience of dining out, we've decided to cut back.
We would much rather spend that money on vacations or weekend trips with our children.

This led us to the eat-in challenge.
We are challenging ourselves to only eat out twice a month.
These dining out experiences mean everything.
So if we go out to Brio's twice a month fine.
That also means, if we go to Taco Bell twice a month fine, but we're done.

We are now on Day 9 of the challenge, and have successfully played by the rules.
We have already ate out for the month, so that is why we are only on Day 9 when today is the 10th.
For the new year we took our children to Buca di Beppo, and it was delicious!

Anyway, here are a few of the meals we have made so far during our challenge:

Rosemary-dijon crusted pork loin with roasted veggies and a mixed green salad.




Getting the kids involved. We made french loaf pizza and of course the bread was homemade!


mmmm, Curry!






The most amazing veggie Lasagna ever!