you so yummy....

i couldn't help it. 

i couldn't stop myself from taking this photo and sharing it with all of you 

as a thank you 

for all the antidotes and concoctions you shared in regards to sleeplessness and menopause.

~

now all together

let's walk hand in hand and shout 

"me so yummy"

*

{heck, let's chant this everyday for the rest of the year}

no tips today, but can you give me one....

okay women

{especially those of you who are my age or older}

what do you use to help you sleep at night 

when menopause raises it's ugly head and steals your slumber

~

i just read that sleeplessness from menopause could be a major symptom for years

and

if that's the case

i am so pissed

{as if all the other symptoms weren't enough}

but

i'm ready to put on my boxing gloves and fight

as long as you can tell what i should be fighting with

~

thanking you ahead of time for anything you can share with me

*

a mood doesn't always have to be bad....

these photos were beautiful before i even touched them

and

maybe i should have just left them alone

but

for some reason

the viewfinder boxes

seemed to capture the mood i am in

isn't that the case with most things

~

i know when i get dressed,  it's my mood that dictates what i wear. 

it's also my mood that dictates what i eat, when i eat, who i talk to, what work i get done, where i go, what i buy, how i write, what i photograph, if i have a glass of wine, when i pick up the phone and who i want to spend time with.

~

so call me moody....but in a good way.

*

i'm a mom through and through and always will be....

it's already wednesday and i want to scream "wait. i want a do over. or at least give me one day back.

~

yesterday i cleaned. not my house. but the house where my son and 4 other boys have been living. 

the house where 213 of their closet friends have been hanging out for months.

it was disgusting and i had to shower afterwards to rid myself of the grime that had somehow slathered itself all over my body, like poorly applied lotion, BUT i have to admit, that it's been along time since i've worked so hard on something, where i could stand back and really admire the results.

don't worry. i wasn't alone. my son and the other boys were helping me. and sure they could have done it without my help. but guess what. 20 year old boys still need their mothers or at least a mother figure around when it comes to cleaning a 4 bedroom house that's going back on the rental market. 20 year old boys also need a mother around around to scare the crap out of the above mentioned friends when they stop over in the middle of our cleaning project. 

"don't even think about coming in here today or any other day this week. do you understand me. you are not to set foot on these premises anytime this week. got it"

yep. those were my exact words,

spoken  in a low voice while i gave them a look that they don't ever want to see again.

~

whew. okay. enough of that.

the sunflower field down the road from us should be completely filled in by this weekend. 

i was there this past sunday and only a hundred of the thousands of flowers had opened up. 

also, i found some strangers to jump for me, so that made for the perfect afternoon. 

i love this photo. i call it half awake.

so since i'm now out of words

 {due to fog brain caused by inhaling too many cleaning products yesterday}

and

you're probably tired of reading 

i'll keep it simple by showing you the rest of the photos from our weekend

you know i love kids....

and

this past friday

i was lucky enough to spend 2 hours with children between the ages of 2 and 4 as they played and created and laughed. all of this took place at the glitter workshop, here in madison and if you're local and reading this and have little ones that need to do something this summer, you can still sign up. i'll be going back to take more photos....and ummm, maybe to play. it was really hard for me to walk by the glue and tissue paper table and not make anything.

i will have to say though, i think the salt and food coloring table was the big hit of the day, especially for the boys.

i can hardly wait to see what theresa has planned this week.

not necessarily in this order....

i hope your weekend is filled with so much happiness

that you have to write it all down

~

we watched arthur {the new version} last night and laughed so much. i even shed a few tears at one point. if you love russell brand and want something light hearted to watch, i highly recommend this movie. tonight we're off to see justin and mila. i love that man and want him at my next dinner party. i know that's weird, but i just think we'd have a really good time. and since i dance anywhere, with anyone and he loves to dance, well...why not justin. right. 

maybe i should make a youtube video asking him over. oh wait. that's already been done. damn. and since i'm not overseas protecting my country, he'd probably laugh at my invitation.

{for those of you who don't watch the news, i'm sorry this doesn't make sense}

*

oh, hi friday.....

have you ever been so busy that nothing really gets done 

and 

your head feels like it's spinning in circles 

yet when someone asks you 

what have you've been doing 

you reply "oh, not much"

that's kind of what life has been like around here lately. let's just blame it on the heat.

i've been listening to a lot of music and there are two songs stuck in my head. on replay. 

at any given time, you might here me {from out of nowhere} belt out 

"lay me down on a bed of roses" 

or

"this time i'm not leaving without you"

{do you know what songs i'm referring to} 

i hope whatever your weekend has planned for you 

that it's filled with love and flowers and some "at the top of your lungs" singing.

because jumping makes me happy....

in case you wanted to see what it looks like from my point of view right before i scream jump....

well this is it.

one.two.three.

JUMP

how do i get everyone to look at me all at the same time...pray.

and 

now everyone 

JUMP

*

{this is the best family ever and you will continue to see more photos from my time with them}

 {i have added a few over here}

photography tip friday.....oops it's monday. oh well

she didn't know me

so she had every right to be scared

and

at least she thought about looking at me

well maybe not

i don't take a scowl personally. honestly, i think the sun was in her eyes. maybe.

oh, now that's better.

her adorable older cousin, who she completely loves, was being silly and i see a grin.

but still, looking at the stranger with the camera, is not going to happen.

but wait. there it is. the smile and the laugh i was looking for.

perfect i tell you. perfect.

so what's my tip. patience. patience is my tip. 

~

now granted, i can completely blow up while being stuck behind slow drivers on the road or while waiting for the coupon lady in the grocery store to find the right coupon, only to be told it's expired. 

but when it comes to kids, especially during a photo shoot, i have tons of patience. i honestly know that at some point, they will warm up to me and smile and hopefully even laugh. 

the best part though, especially since candid shots are my favorite to capture, is when they forget i'm even there. oh yep, that's the best part. always.

*

did you laugh today....

if not 

this first one will make you laugh

~at least a little~

well

if you haven't laughed today

and

if the idea of eating grandpa didn't make you laugh

then maybe you're not happy

and

that's just plain sad and upsetting

but

with this handy chart above you can fix yourself

oh and this

well this should probably be on a shirt i wear everyday

or

hanging on my front door

or 

maybe on the wall in my office

~

tomorrow's monday

are you ready

*

{thanks pinterest for entertaining me when i should be working and for making me laugh}

{all signs above found on pinterest}

butt i couldn't resist....

giving you a little sneak peek

~

i'm editing photos this weekend 

from a photo shoot i had this past week

~

butt

oh my gosh

the cuteness is overwhelming me

*

{lately i've been falling in love with photos that are still shot on film and giving an amazing amount of credit to those photographers. this photo i decided needed a bit of that film love, so i tweaked it a bit} 

5000 photos to go....

well, i did it. i took a break. a breather of sorts. 

~

did i get anything painted or sewn. nope. but i went to the grocery store and my almost 12,000 photos are finally somewhat organized and archived correctly. accomplishing that, literally devoured most of my days and even a few nights. believe me. it was not a job for the weak.

i survived by eating these sandwiches. 

here's my secret. day old multi-grain bread, with a layer of provolone, roasted red pepper hummus, fresh basil and crumbled goat cheese. grill just like you would any grilled cheese sandwich and devour. 

i kid you not. these are the best.

this is artwork by new friend ryan. 

his grandmother and mother each have a booth at the wednesday farmer's market i go to. 

i think he'a fairy of sorts. 

not everyone can magically hide among sugar snap peas and create beautiful pictures.

i have to admit. 

as much as i love all the produce i buy twice a week at the market. 

i like him best of all.

*

happy weekend everyone. 

i hope the breezes around you are soft and gentle and that you wake each morning to an orchestra of birds playing your favorite songs. and if you can, buy yourself a basil plant and live off of it for days and days. i promise you'll love it. 

oh weekend. thank you for being you.

*

{all photos sooc}

bee yourself.....

hi. i'm beth.

i have a problem. i can't do it all.

~

believe me. i really want to. but i can't. unless i take a break

~

i want to play on pinterest and organize my boards. i want to make a hanging bunting {just like ashely did on her july 1st post}. i want to send out some of my postcards to all of you, with handwritten notes attached. i want to clear off the top of my desk, so i can actually see the beautiful old pine underneath all those papers that are screaming at me. i want to rearrange every room in my house and paint a few walls.

~

i have to edit photos from two recent photo shoots. i have to clear off all the crap on my computer, due to the fact that i am extremely low on storage and one of these days i'm going to sit down at my desk and my computer's going to wag its gnarly little finger at me and say "not a chance you moron. i am full and it's your fault because you have loaded almost 12, 000 photos onto me" and then it will stick its tongue out and shout na na na na boo boo at me. i have to burn cd's and archive all my photos. i have to go grocery shopping, even though i don't want to. {you probably think this is a funny thing to add to my "have to" list, but honestly, i rarely shop and we've been living off of anything from the farmer's market}

did you know you can add fresh basil to EVERYTHING

~

anyhow

by now you've figured out that i'll be a bit quiet the rest of this week. at least at a whispering level, with maybe a few photos, but that's about it. and just maybe when i come back, one of the things above will have actually happened. oh heck, let me shoot for TWO things.

xo

*

a gentle reminder....

photography tip friday.....

okay

to be honest with you, i'm not really sure if this is a photography tip or merely a suggestion, 

but i feel it's worth talking about.

i think sometimes it's too easy to get into a rut with photography. the kind of rut where we end up shooting only the things right around us. the things we are most comfortable with. the things we find in the perfect late afternoon light, right in our own backyard or the things we see when the morning light whispers it's way onto our kitchen tables.

now i'm not saying that is bad or wrong. but what i'm asking is 

"where's the challenge" "where's the fun" 

"where are the mistakes you learn from" "where are the photos that turn out perfectly, that you thought you'd never be able to take"

i think sometimes we all have the ability to become stagnant. in anything. 

how we dress. what we eat. how we decorate our homes. even how we live.

but most importantly 

{since this is photography tip friday} 

what we see and what we shoot

so really all i'm talking about today, is livening things up. 

seeing new things. going new places. 

finding new faces.

challenging yourself. 

taking your camera off auto.

wait. 

did i just scare some of you with that auto comment. sorry if i did. but i know you can do it. i know you can put your camera on aperture mode and play around with your depth of field. but you have to want to do it. you have to want to shoot crappy photos and screw up and start over again. 

and 

if you want to screw up even more, put your camera on manual mode. i guarantee you'll take photos you hate, but you just might take some photos that you fall in love with.

i was bored the other day, so i grabbed my camera and went to one of our {many fantastic} lakes. 

it was three in the afternoon and the sun on the water was still blinding. 

i used my 70-300 lens for all of the photos i took, as it tends to be my most versatile lens and 

since it was 85 degrees, i only stayed about 30 minutes.

and

in that half hour, i talked to a few hispanic strangers with beautiful daughters and an older gentleman who asked if i was with the newspaper {which i wish i could have answered yes to} 

but most of all, i shot. i shot a ton of photos, while constantly changing the settings on my camera, 

since i was feeling that i wasn't getting the color of the water exactly as i saw it.

but

i wasn't discouraged. i was excited to be challenging myself. 

i was excited to be PLAYING. i was excited to see who or what i might see next. 

and 

i was excited to see what i was capturing,

even though i knew that wouldn't happen until i got home, since looking at the screen on my camera in the bright sun proves to be a waste of time.

so this weekend. go out and play. in a new place. with new "everything" around you. go to a park you've never been to. or an event that you don't want to do {like log rolling} but where you'll have lots of things to photograph. go to your favorite little bistro, but order something you've never had and take photos of it. ask your hubby to go outside and jump for you, if you want to practice the jumping photos i so dearly love. sure, maybe we've already seen your hubby, so you're asking "what's new with that" but i'm guessing we've probably never seen him in midair.

my guess is that once you venture out of your comfort zone, you'll do it more and more often. you'll realize how exciting people and areas right around you can be. now if i was telling you that what you really need, is to go to another country and spend thousands of dollars on a vacation, just for something new to shoot, you'd all be throwing bricks at me and i would totally understand. 

but i'm not. i'm just suggesting you go somewhere new and see things you haven't shot before.

and

the best part. after all your "new shooting" you will feel exhilarated, like you just exercised. 

and

since i don't exercise regularly enough, but will climb up a tree or a hill to frame what i want to shoot, or squat for thirty minutes in order to get a 2 year old on his level. 

well i consider that a win win.

happy weekend everyone

and

happy shooting

*