Online Photo Workshop

I am so excited about this week...My friend, PB asked me to take part in an online photography workshop...there are 5 photographers who are involved in this project from all over the globe. We were given our assignment last week and we had to turn in our favorite three pictures . Each day this week, a new set of three pictures will be posted, you can comment and vote on which picture you want to be in the show. Just go to this blog and see all the great pictures.


The Assignment we were given is called Wabi-Sabi:"Wabi-sabi is the Japanese concept that speaks to the art of imperfection, and/or the willingness to accept things as they are. Wabi-sabi is about process, not product. It is about decay and aging, not growth. Wabi-sabi requires that we slow down to take notice of hidden things, imperfections, and the passing of time. If you like control, it takes courage and trust to practice wabi-sabi.To practice wabi-sabi means to accept nature’s process, including impermanence and the absence of life. You can start by taking notice of the details in your everyday life. A spiderweb full of dead bugs in the window frame. An old chair with chipped paint. A yellowed newspaper. These things could be dismissed as ugly and without value, but wabi-sabi teaches us that we are in a constant state of change and we must value that which is in the moment" (p. 74-75)

The assignment came from the book Living Out Loud: Activities to Fuel a Creative Life by Keri Smith (she also has a blog at http://www.kerismith.com/blog)


The Critique begins today. Mollie will post 3 pictures each day from one of the participants. The Critique discussion will take place within the Comments. There will also be a Poll on the side bar for you to vote for which photo will be in the Show.

Here is the link to the critique: I, Mollie

Here is one of the picture I took for the assignment but didn't turn in for the critique:

Off to search for some eggs left by a bunny...in two inches of snow.

Happy Easter!

Today, we woke up to snow...I am so very, very ready for the snow to be gone and the sun kissed months of summer to come. My joy this morning was in making a cup of warm coffee before I braved the cold to go to work.

I orchestrate my mornings to the tune of coffee. ~Harry Mahtar

Running of the Green Lucky 7K

Today was the first run of the season...we did the Running of the green Lucky 7 K in Denver. It was fun, green, and very, very cold. It was so cold, that I ended up running with my down vest on. For the first race of the year, I am pretty darn happy with my results...I ran the 7K in 44:32...and had a pace of about a 10 minute mile. My knees didn't bother me the entire run...I take huge joy in no knee pain. Here is a picture of Amanda and I with Rocky the Leprechaun before the race:

Saturday, March 15, 2008::
I love watching my friends grow pregnant (physically pregnant or paper pregnant). We had a shower for my dear friend Corrie who is having a boy in May. I take joy in watching my friends go through the wonderful process of becoming a mom. I also take joy in this wonderful recipe that I made for the shower. This recipe would be great for all those Easter celebrations we have coming up next week:

Hash Brown Potato Casserole:

1 (2 lb.) bag frozen hash brown potatoes
2 (8 oz.) cartons sour cream
1/2 c. chopped onions
1 (10 3/4 oz.) can cream of chicken soup
2 c. shredded cheese, cheddar, sharp or other
2 c. corn flake crumbs
1/4 c. butter, melted
Thaw potatoes, combine soup, sour cream, onion and cheese; mix in potatoes. Spray 3 quart casserole with Pam, put in mixture. Mix melted butter and crumbs and sprinkle on top. Have oven preheated to 350 degrees and bake 1 hour.

I could eat these potatoes all the time.
I also take joy in how after making two 9X13s of coffee cake for the shower and having them fail miserably, I was able to walk in to the grocery store to pick up a platter of coffee cake for $4.99. Praise God for grocery stores and cheap coffee cake.

Friday, March 14, 2008: I was blessed today by my parents taking Blake to Horton Hears a Who so I can get some stuff done today. My parents are so wonderful at watching Blake.
I also found great joy in Blake allowing me to do her hair today. It did take some bribing on my part, but I Love the outcome. In the last few weeks she has started really smiling at the camera. I asked her if I could take a picture of her before she goes to the movie for the first time and she started actually posing for me. This little girl offers me so much joy and I am so very blessed by her life.

Simple Joys

I was reminded this week at church about how important it is to recognize simple joys in the daily grind. The challenge was purposed to the students to find 20 things each day they take joy in over the next week. I have been really trying to notice and name the everyday blessing that bring joy. For the next week, I am going to be blogging about the simple and pure joys I am blessed with daily.

Thursday, March 13, 2008: Spring is creeping in...yes, I know there will be snow tomorrow, but for now, I am taking joy that the chives I planted last year just popped out of the ground...fresh herbs are just a few short weeks away!

Things have been so busy for our family so far this 2008. We have been busy doing adoption stuff, hanging out with the youth group at church, potty training, trying to get hired at the fire department, a little bit of running, not to mention our regular work stuff. It has been very crazy and on top of it all, we have been hard at working doing a much needed face-lift for our little house. We moved into our house January 17th of 2005 (the same day we found out we were pregnant). The front of our house was built in 1911 and someone put on an addition in 2003. We have big plans for our house...including taking down some walls in the near future, adding another bath, and finishing part of the basement. Here are some of the things we have done thus far in 2008:

1. My Coffee sign I got for my birthday a few years ago from my parents finally has a home in our kitchen.

2. This is our lovely orange living room...this color makes me so very, very happy

3. Our green dining room with our huge clock...I Love this clock and this color.

4. Believe it or not, this is our bathroom floor.

5. Andy painted our cabinets black and I found this awesome hardware at the Habitat for Humanity Outlet.

6. Andy installed a new pedestal sink...this makes our 115 square foot bathroom feel much bigger.

7. We found this amazing light at target...Andy hard wired it to our bedroom ceiling...did I mention it was 75% off.

8. My wonderful mother-in-law got us this cool Eat sticker from Upper Case living.

oh gosh...

I just registered for the Nike's Women's Marathon in San Francisco on Oct. 19th. They had such an amazing turn out last year that they are drawing names this year to see who gets into the marathon. I am excited, and nervous, and I can't wait to finish a marathon.

I'll let you know if I get in!

Girls with Guitars

One of my new favorite pictures...I have not played the guitar in a very, very long time. I got my first guitar for Christmas when I was in 9th grade. I loved it. I was never wonderful at playing the guitar, but it was something I really enjoyed. I started playing a ton in college...but it seems like everyone in college plays the guitar. I would very rarely play in front of an audience...it was more something I just enjoyed doing by myself. When Andy and I got married, he presented me with this beautiful purple guitar...I love it so much. It deserves to be played more often than I am doing right now. I brought it out the other day while Blake and I were stuck in the house and Blake loved it. She keeps asking me to play it. This morning, she wanted the guitar to sit in her lap...oh the smiles on her face when I let her hold it.

My husband is a very passionate person. He is passionate about being a father, and doing a job to the best he can, and he is very, very passionate about the outdoors. I know he has always been this way. When he first moved out to Colorado, he was so homesick for Washington and his family, I knew the only way he would be happy in Colorado was if he grew to love the Colorado outdoors...the first Christmas he was here, I gave him a snowboard...the first ski season he was here he went up 63 times. He then started to become passionate about climbing 14,000 foot mountains...and then came the mountain biking. He just loves being outdoors. Every year he anticipates the first snow like a kid hoping for a snow day. We'll this year he was able to fulfill one of his dreams...to board Silverton. Silverton is located in southern Colorado and had 38 feet of snow when he was down there! Him and his friends drove down there on Wednesday and he boarded on Thursday. When I finally spoke to him on Thursday night he told me that Silverton is the place where dreams are made. They found out that the Warren Miller film crew would be filming at Silverton while they were there...just a little something else that made this whole experience even more exciting for him.
Another outdoorsy thing we did on Friday was to go to the Banff Mountain Film Festival in Denver. The films are about the outdoors, so many of them are inspiring and make you want to get out of your seat and learn how to free climb or mountain bike, or for some, even base jump (I am not one). The film festival was so much fun. To see when the film festival will be coming to a city near you click here.