Photo Challenge, Day 14: Eyes

Or eye. Mine, tired, but at least with a little mascara...

Photo Challenge, Day 13: Yourself with 13 Things

I'm a pillow addict. I need more couches, chairs, beds, benches, etc to hold them. This is a swath of my collection. Oh, and did I mention that I love color and wild patterns...?

Photo Challenge, Day 12: Sunset

I missed sunset the night I was supposed to do this post, and then realized that there's nowhere high in Wheaton that I have access to anyway. So, the upstairs of our house will have to do. Love the pinks on nights like this!

Photo Challenge, Day 11: Something Blue

If you're a parent, you understand the fury this scenario can spark. In the middle of re-diapering a squirming, screaming, incredibly strong 1-year old, I get to the point of affixing the last flap and...rrrrrrrip! ARGH! This is my something blue.

Photo Challenge, Day 10: Childhood Memory

This is one of my favorite ones so far. I thought I didn't have anything here that was a memento of my childhood, but realized that my mom just gave Dane a jelly jar of marbles. It was so fun to think about how I used to treasure these, choosing them more like jewels than like game pieces. I kept my in a purple velvet pouch with satin drawstring that never stayed closed. My favorite one was the one right on top, a clear, iridescent shooter, with just a hint of yellow that reminded me of the moon.

Before editing:

After editing:

Photo Challenge, Day 9: Someone I Love

This is my love, Aria. At a year old, she's one of the happiest babies I've ever seen, so it's really funny to us when she pulls out her serious face. I was working on the f-stop in this one, and haven't gotten it right yet. But I love this photo never-the-less; the light was so pretty that afternoon.

Photo Challenge, Day 8: A Bad Habit

My main vice...sugar. Lots of it. I'm addicted these days. I loved taking this photo, using outdoor light, and getting the tiny shadow on the individual crystals. While cleaning this up, I may or may not have just licked the remainder off the board.

Photo Challenge, Day 7: Fruit

Still don't love this picture...couldn't capture how pretty the sprayed-silver pumpkins were with all our yellow leaves and the oddly-summery sunlight the last few days.

Update: Editing is a good thing...

Photo Challenge, Day 6: From A Low Angle

My husband and I got back from a birthday trip (alone!), to find that our son had gotten Dad this balloon to celebrate. He might not realize that when you get gifts for others, THEY should be the ones that like them:)

Photo Challenge, Day 5:From a High Angle

If you're from WI, you may recognize the iconic design of this chair. It's a miniature from my parents, to help me remember my alma mater. Many an afternoon/evening were spent in one of these, playing cards, watching bands, drinking a beer. Good memories!

Photo Challenge, Day 4: Something Green

This is a new toy we just got for...well, possibly Mark and I, but the colors are amazing. I used our newish Elph Power Shot because I wanted the spot focus, which I don't think I have the right lens for on our EOS.

Photo Challenge, Day 3: Clouds

This is my attempt at making lemonade without lemons...it was the clearest day in the world here today. Not a single cloud all day. Still tonight, nothing. So, my fix: take a photo of the picture over our bed. The photo above is of a photo my sister took, enlarged, edited and gave us as a gift. I've always loved it, and I know I'm stealing a bit, but it's a fun way to pay tribute to her:)

Photo Challenge, Day 2: What I Wore Today

First things first, my beautiful, 4-ish year old wedding rings, some rockin' studs from White House | Black Market, a scarf from my lovely sis, a Calvin Klein 3/4-sleeve tunic, and black Gap jeggings. Perfect for a 68-degree fall day including church and kids and small group. Then at 4, our way back to church, we realized Mark was wearing a polo the exact color of the scarf. Not cool to be matchy to your spouse in his book;)

To get this photo, I worked on learning how the shutter speed and F value affected the shot. I still don't perfectly understand how they work together, but it was great to feel like I'm starting to get some of the basics down.

Photo Challenge, Day 1: Self-portrait

Today was the first day of the photo challenge, and let me tell you, I've been thinking about it since I signed up. Since I have no experience doing this, I didn't know if I should be literal or if it was about creativity, or skill (of which I have almost none). So, I'll give you a couple of photos. Thanks for looking!

This is me at my most alive...I was doing a chalk drawing as part of the Loop Alliance GoDoGOOD celebration downtown this weekend. We were down for Mark's birthday and it was so refreshing to be in the sun, creating art, watching people, being free!

This is my more serious, straight-up portrait. Our house is pretty dark, so I found a little light by the front door and took this shot. It ended up somewhat underexposed, and hence a little grainy after editing, but I still like it. It's how I feel about life right now. Turning my face toward the light.

Back to Life...again. This time with photography

Okay, another reup on my personal blogging life. I'm doing a 30 day photo challenge, starting tomorrow, at the advice of a good friend who knows a thing or two about actually becoming a photographer. I have no real skills to speak of, but am excited to try and be a bit better, as I'm exploring if this is something I'd like to do for reals. yo. I'll put up a photo each day and would love to get your take on it! PLEASE!


http://ourwiredlives.com/2011/09/04/october-challenge-30-day-photography/

Easy Beer Bread, so good!

3 cups flour (sifted)
3 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup sugar
1 (12 ounce) can beer
1/2 cup melted butter (1/4 cup will do just fine)

Preheat the oven to 375. Mix dry ingredients, making sure that you either sift the flour, or whisk once combined. Mix with the beer, pour batter into a greased loaf pan. Pour melted butter over the batter. Bake for 1 hour, remove from the pan and let it cool for at least 15 minutes. It has an awesome crispy crust and is a very thick, hearty bread. Perfect for with soup on these ridiculously cold spring days!

Hello again

So, as you can see, my last post was the day before Ari came. It's been almost 7 months, crazy!, since then, so I figured I'd get back on it. Today is a recipe that I've been trying to make for a few days, only to realize that the shortage of canned pumpkin is kind of a drag. I'm thinking about subbing sweet potatoes, but haven't gotten there yet. Will update once I give it a try. My sister made this super easy soup for us, and I couldn't get enough. Savory and just a tiny bit of sweet, mmm, so good on a cool day, with fresh bread for dipping.

2 Tbsp. olive oil
1 medium to large onion chopped
2 Tbsp. chopped garlic
2 cups chicken broth
2 cups 100% pure pumpkin
1 13.5 oz. can of classic, not light, coconut milk ( I used Native Forest Organic Unsweetened Classic Coconut Milk.)
1 tsp. of salt or more or less to taste

In a large pot saute onion and garlic in olive oil over medium heat, until onions are soft. Be sure they do not brown. Once soft, add the pumpkin, coconut milk and chicken broth. Simmer and stir until well blended, about 5 to 10 minutes. Add salt to taste and serve.

The push before the big push, part 2

Downstairs Powder Room
From blank white, with a clamshell sink and the cheapest fixtures you can find, to kind of more inviting with a little color. Not a thing to do about the fixtures in a rental, but paint has always been my favorite answer to changing a room anyway:) We put all of our architecture and Chi-town related photos in the bathroom, which actually unified them in a nice, new way. It still needs something along the knee rail, but we're not going to do curtains, as it's already a dark room. I need to keep thinking...any suggestions would be appreciated!



Dane's Room
This room still kind of drives me nuts, as paneling is so dark. It's a basement bedroom, which makes it a little cave-like for my taste. Mark, on the other hand, loves it. I think he's hoping Dane will inherit his mole ways so they can sit in a dark living room and watch TV together:) We added bright bedding, a rug, all white furniture and frames and it's actually not so bad now.

We repainted a Goodwill corkboard and resale shopt photo of a pelican, repurposed some old cork flooring samples as the backdrop for some sailboat drawings and cut up some mock-ups of an author book from when I was at Tyndale to make the "Imagine" poster.
Drawings of the Cobra that Mark hopes to build with him someday, and then some other car I found online.
Freehand letters in orange and yellow scraps from my fabric closet.
These built-in shelves are one great quality of the room. Excellent for storing all the books and toys we're beginning to accumulate.
We went with a bright, yet masculine scheme of yellow, orange and blue, getting all of our bedding/rug/ etc from Crate and Barrel Outlet. Love that place!

Upstairs Hall
For our upstairs hallway, we wanted to cover the scuffed inconsistent "white" so we mixed up a lighter gray from the one we used in the baby room and primer. It's a soothing color that adds life to the hall without darkening it significantly.

Lastly, we finally hung the Bobbsey Twins books using sawtooth hangers nailed into the back covers. Two tiny holes in the back, and we can always pull them out once we're ready to read them together!

3 days

I'm officially 3 days away from having our little girl, of course, barring any early labor. I can't believe how fast this pregnancy has gone and how different it's been in every way. I've now been pregnant and growing for almost 2 months longer than I was with Dane. I feel huge. I feel tired. And most of all, I feel worried that I won't be able to give two kids what I need to, and was able to up to this point with Dane. I can't imagine what it will be like when I'm not able to give him my full attention when he needs it. I feel a tremendous amount of guilt at cutting his time as my only baby so short, especially when he seems to be entering an age of heightened awareness and neediness. I will miss our quiet mornings and evening book reading together. I tear up when I think about having to share my love with another child, like I'm taking something from him. Everyone I've spoken to says it will turn out great, that being so close in age will make our kiddos best friends, closer than they could be if they were further apart. I realize that they will have to share so many things, and am trying to keep my mind on the positive. It's so hard when my emotions are already experiencing crazy highs and lows.

Dane will always be my first baby, and I have an irrational fear that I'll never be able to love a girl the same way. I do remember having similar thoughts before Dane arrived, thinking that I didn't know how I could love a person I'd never met. All I can say is that I love him more than I knew possible. In a completely different way than I've loved before, but in a way that is almost more powerful and consuming. I have to believe that the same will be true with our new little song. Despite having no plan for how quickly our family grew, both Mark and I think that God let it happen this way for a reason. She's going to be an amazing new blessing and we look forward to meeting our fourth soon.

The push before the big push, part 1

In the last week before we have our second little one, I (and Mark by default) have gotten into full-on nesting mode, finishing a ton of projects we've been meaning to do for months. Here are some of the projects we've done in the last few days.

Master Bedroom

Our room has always been the last to get attention, but once I finished painting our tiny bathroom (from a dark mauve) light sea blue, I decided it would be great in our room as well. We also have a hand-me-down blue metal bedframe, that while functional, was not beautiful. I decided to sew covers for the head and foot board, creating a fabric wrap that definitely updated the look of the bed. A beautiful sheet set we received for our wedding had gotten a hole in it, so I patched that and used it for the covers. I'm not a pro, but was still happy with how they turned out.

We also finally got around to hanging curtains: lightblockers that make the occasional late morning so much more pleasant. We used tension rods that are pretty ugly, but they were cheap, and that works for now:)

Finally, we found a great deal on a large mirror at home goods, which adds a little light and function to the room. I can fully see how large I'm getting at 38 weeks!
Baby Room

We put all the finishing touches on the baby's room; she'd better come out a girl, or we're going to be finding new homes for a lot of pink and fuschia stuff! We completed all the painting, including a new squirrel and a secret message from Daddy. We found a great rug and pendant light at Crate and Barrel outlet, expertly installed by Mark.

I also covered a cheap lampshade with tissue, topping off a clearance lamp from HomeGoods. Complete cost was less than $20. That's my kind of lamp.

Finally, we found a couple old photos of Mark and I as babies, and blew them up so we can compare our new one and argue about who she looks more like. Our final project will be to mount a set of old Bobbsey Twins books, which we found at an antique store near the hospital Mark works at.

Still to come: Dane's room, upstairs hall, powder room