obviously a love hate relationship....

i put birdseed out for the wrens and the finches.

unfortunately mr. crow thinks if he looks at me, touches the dish and calls dibs, it's all his.

no matter how full the dish is,

he will eat every seed until it's empty. he's greedy like that.

underneath our deck the barn swallows are nesting. they despise mr. crow.

in fact, they dive bomb him instantly whenever he shows up 

and they continue to pester him during his entire meal.

mr. crow doesn't care.

mr. crow likes me. yesterday for an afternoon snack i gave him pretzels and he loved that.

it's probably wrong to love a crow isn't it?

*

a blurry weekend....

the weekend disappeared too quickly

~

first, on saturday, there were computer issues. major issues. 

after the second visit in six hours to the genius bar,  they gave us a brand new macbook pro with all of our beloved "everythings" easily transferred to their new home. 

i had a scheduled photo shoot that day, so you can only imagine how thankful i was that my hubby did all the back and forth computer running. 

and hey, if he wants to call the new matchbook pro my mother's day gift...he can. i love it.

~

the scheduled photo shoot was great. 

a wonderful family with visiting relatives, the prefect cloud cover and my daughter, who is the best photography assistant anyone could ask for, helping me.

obviously i'll bombard you with some of those photos later in the week.

~

then yesterday of course was mother's day,

and all i wanted was to spend the day with my kids. we drove an hour south and spent most of the day with my parents and my husband's parents, which meant i got to talk and laugh with my kids for 6 hours straight. it was fantastic. 

~

today means catch-up

~

this week is going to be beyond beautiful and when it's beautiful outside, i have a hard time being inside on my computer, so i'll apologize now if my posts seem a bit sparse. of course i'll have photos, as they're quick and easy, but my words, well they'll be dancing in the sun with me.

*

who's dancing in you???

so i'm rethinking about a class i signed up for this fall. 

it's a painting class with the extraordinary flora bowley and something i've wanted to do for 

over a year now. well, not just a painting class, as i've done that before with other instructors....

but this class. with her.

~

i keep hearing my heart reminding me that photography is what i'm passionate about now. not painting.

then she throws some glitter in the air and dances under it with a sneaky smile on her face.

silly heart.

unfortunately my equally silly gut starts wobbling all over the place, grabs my heart's outstretched hands and when i squint just right, it looks like they're doing the tango.

are you still here, or did i bore you to death with the talk of painting? 

what about you? have you followed your head or your gut or your heart on something very specific that danced inside you day after day?

these are a few of the tags i made that i was telling you about the other day. these are not my photos on the tags {they are actually pages from anthropologie and toast catalogs} but the words and handwriting are all mine. before i take them to the shop, if anyone's interested in buying them directly from me, send me an email and they're yours.

oh, and why not a few bookmarks, too?

~

for you question mark lovers, i used them in this post just for you. also, i have to admit, i tried pic monkey for some fonts on another project and i like their site. they have a ways to go before they'll ever be the picnik equivalent, but they're getting there.

wait for me...

my older sister warned me. she said just wait until you're forty.

forty came and nothing happened. forty five. still nothing.

~

this year i'm going to be forty eight and it's happened.

i have to wear readers.

~

i've been doodling some tiny fonts on some greeting cards and gift tags that i'll be selling in the little gift shop where i take my "i often have too much time on my hands" photo related goodies to and i just can't do them anymore without having my readers on. then today i was writing in a graduation card and my eyes weren't even tired, but sure enough, everything seemed blurry. readers to the rescue. i just wish people didn't refer to them as "granny" glasses as that makes me feel old and hunched over. 

how about we start calling them "totally babelicious" glasses instead.

the babies are here. 

i didn't even see any nests at the pond and now there's the pitter patter of tiny webbed feet. 

the mama ducks are quite patient, due to all the foot traffic at the pond, but they never take their eyes off me when i'm squatting near the ground trying to photograph them. 

"wait for me, mama...wait"

~

did anyone else grow up with the same language classes i did, where we were taught how to use the words, "less and fewer" in very specific ways. does anyone else go crazy when you hear those words not used the way you were taught, or is it just me.

for example, i would never say, "there are less babies at the pond this year."

now granted, i type in all lower case letters, hate the way question marks look, so i rarely use them and use periods way too often along with who knows what other grammatical  mistakes,

but this one little thing bugs me. 

go figure.

the antique store i always go to, often has these bundles of string. i'm sure there's a name for them, based on whatever machine they go on, but i'm clueless. i now have five of them and i've wondered if this is a weird thing to collect. but with each roll only being two dollars, well obviously i'm over thinking this odd obsession of mine, aren't i.

are you too pretty ??

overall it was a lazy weekend

~

sure we ran some errands, cooked some meals and watched some movies

but everything was dressed in a letterman's jacket 

with a big L for lazy on the front.

just for the beauty i watched "cairo" and fell in love with patricia clarkson. 

mr. holland's opus we've seen multiple times, but we watched it again because we do things like that. "one day" caught my eye because i love anne hathaway and i think i liked it. it dragged a bit in the middle, ended horrifically but reminded me that love and friendship are gifts not to be taken for granted.

did you read this by any chance. i found it interesting in so many ways. 

it's based on taking the "pretty" out of our posts and sharing things that in the past 

we've been afraid to share on our blogs. 

there's a number of blogs highlighted that are participating and i found myself reading many of them last night and wondering what i would share here, that i haven't shared before because i was afraid to tell you and i didn't come up with many things. i honestly think i'm a pretty open book. 

i mean sure, i didn't talk about my dad being in the hospital a few weeks ago, 

because that's his story, not mine. 

{but now that i've brought it up, he had two stents put in an artery and is doing fabulously well} 

~

my blog isn't my journal, so you're not ever going to find out my deepest darkest secrets or desires 

{well maybe when i have a girl tribe get-together at the beach you might} 

but everything else is pretty fair game as long as it doesn't hurt or embarrass anyone.

~

i hope you have the time to check out the link, as i would love to hear your opinion and thoughts on taking the "pretty" out of blogging. now granted, this isn't a new topic at all, but since it seems to have gone almost viral in certain groups due to twitter, i thought it might be interesting to explore.

* 

funny bunny business...

"hey sweetheart...

about done with all that body washing by any chance?

we have plants to eat and homeowners to irritate."

"besides, i'm pretty sure someone's watching you, so we should go."

"oh god. i see a camera. i think it's paparazzi."

"what? paparazzi? looking at us? 

"way to go sweetheart. i'm sure that sticking out your tongue at them will make them disappear. 

you are so special. no wonder i love you so much."

*

happy weekend everybody

hopefully it just started with a laugh

*

ps....see that bulge on the bunny on the right. is that a pregnancy bulge by any chance??

don't be afraid of her...

i stopped at the skateboard park yesterday

~

i've done this before when my usual inspiration puts on her fastest tennis shoes and runs from me or when after i've counted to twenty four, she hides and doesn't come out for days or when she puts her hands on her hips and raises her eyebrows and says, "you expect too much from me." 

so yesterday i gave my usual inspiration a break. i wasn't in the mood to deal with her selfishness and reminded her that there was other inspiration out there. she walked away in a huff, like a spoiled teenager and slammed the door behind her.

i know she'll return.

she never stays away too long as her curiosity always brings her out of hiding. she says she's strong and doesn't have an inferiority complex. but i think she does. just a little.

so i know tomorrow she'll start running around the house again, taunting me with her neediness, reminding me that i can't live without her.

but until then, i'm going to soak up another warm day and appreciate what i found yesterday when my little miss attitude didn't want to come out and play with me.

*

there was a time that i would have been hesitant to stop and talk with a couple of skateboarders, but that seems so long ago. i have found that strangers are usually the friendliest people you'll ever meet. and when strangers are doing what they love to do and you want to photograph them doing what they love to do...well that's what i call a win-win situation. 

~

so i guess what i'm saying is, don't be afraid to get out of your comfort zone every now and then and away from your usual tried and true inspiration. it's good to take a break from each other and almost always, you'll feel better and do better when you team up with each other again.

*

and 

of course, a big thanks to the guys who kept me entertained yesterday