In My Easter Bonnet . . . Colorful Easter Carnage

Ok so it’s not really carnage.  Nor am I wearing a bonnet.  What defines a “bonnet” anyway?  It’s Spring!  Easter is Sunday.  I love this time of year!

Granted, it isn’t warm out, but it’s mild and there’s no snow and I made it through another Maine winter and hardly had to wear my long johns but still complained about the cold and waited patiently for this day or days like these.  Maybe not so patiently. 

Beyond finally basking in the light at the end of the tunnel, I love this time of year for so many reasons.  The crocuses are up in the yard.  The robins bob around my front lawn.  The daffodils are poking up bright green through the desolate garden beds.  Flowers will bloom!  The sun will shine!  All will be right in the world! 

And with Easter at our doorstep, the very best of it all . . . PEEPS. 

Ok, I have to admit I love peeps.  I tried chocolate bunny peeps (are they still a peep without a beak?) and almost melted into a puddle. 

I should probably get help.

This morning I worked out for two hours.  See how I try to justify my complusion?

This afternoon I ate two (so far) blue peeps.  With their little brown dot eyes . . . I couldn’t resist!

The Cadbury eggs have been around for a while, too.  I have to proudly say I have been able to stay away from them, even the caramel filled one.  And caramel is my favorite gooey sweet substance on earth.  You could put caramel on a tire and I’d eat it.  Well I guess that doesn’t hold true since --- ta da! --- I haven’t eaten a Cadbury egg.  I have had many opportunities.  I buy them for my daughter, who loves them and therefore I use it as a bribery tool to get my way.  I wish I could record an evil cackle after that.  I don’t bribe (much) I reward, but I tell her in advance what her reward will be . . .

When I was a kid, my sister and I would wake up so early on Easter morning and slither downstairs where my mom would have placed two identical (they had to be or we’d kill each other) baskets of Easter goodness. 

Growing up Catholic and therefore being forced to participate in the Lenten ritual of sacrifice I would usually have given up candy or some other innocuous item, since back then I really had no true vices from which to abstain.  I was a kid.  What do you know about sacrifice when you’re eight?

So after forty days with no candy that heaping basket was looking mighty fine.  My sister and I would sit on the floor with the baskets.  Mom and Dad would be awakened by our chatter and would haul out the camera as we dove in.  

Jelly beans by the thousands.

A pastel rainbow of wrapped chocolate things.

The aforementioned PEEPS!  (this must be where my habit developed.  So much for an innocent holy life without vices).

And always . . the star attraction . . . a huge chocolate bunny.  (Sorry but for some reason I don't have a chocolate bunny photo)  Colored candy eyes, sometimes a smart little bowtie . .  usually hollow but I didn’t know the difference.  I’d go for the ears; my sister, the feet. 

Somehow we’d survive the sugar overload in time to put on our Easter dresses that were purchased special every year for this occasion.  Sometimes scratchy.  Sometimes rough.  The Easter parade of matchy jumpers and patented leather shiny shoes still haunts me. 

Obviously this holiday has scarred me.

But now, I cope by buying my daughter the Cadbury eggs and picking up a couple of racks of Peeps, then hiding Easter eggs around the just bloomed crocuses and daffodils.

Enjoy my spring flowers and Easter candy visual overload.  I did it just for you. 

The dewey magnolia . . .

Next up:  Garden Season!!!

and it begins . . .

New Year New Ideas New Life

A friend of mine gave me this sign as a gift and I just love it.  I’ve always been a fan of New Year, almost more than of Christmas.  While I realize that I’m writing this seven days into this new year, it’s not for lack of the new ideas and other new things I’ve experienced and begun to execute in the past seven days. 

Our Christmas this was year one of new technology (a Kindle Fire for me and an iPad 2 for my daughter – hooray!).  Of course that brings with it a learning curve, and since I love learning new things, it was a great opportunity to dive right in.  I downloaded my first two book that very night. 

Our Christmas vacation, the first of its kind for us, was lazy-lounging-foody-restful and actually made me anxious to go back to work in a way.  Other than entertaining my sister and her boyfriend on New Year’s Eve and staying up past midnight (I think this was a first for my asleep-on-the-couch-by-8:30 husband) and one big event I’ll get to in a minute, it was a Christmas vacation of gluttony and sloth.  I loved it. 

In a recent post I mentioned that our cat, Ocho, who was 4 ½ years old, was hit by a car and died.  It happened just before Thanksgiving.  We all cried about this.  He was a huge member of the family and we missed him like crazy.  After some time had passed, I began to think about a new cat.  We missed having that life in the house, someone to greet you when you got home, someone to race up the stairs after coming in from the rain and jump on you in bed – with a mouse in his mouth.  Now that’s love. 

So the big event I mentioned before is that after I had mourned the death of our beloved Ocho, and as part of the healing process, I believe, I began to research Maine Coon Cat breeders in the state.  Although Ocho was a stray, we fiercely believe that he was part Maine coon.  His personality, that more of a dog in a cat’s body, his desire to “help” with everything we did, his “hanging out” with us around the house, was not typical cat, but it was typical Maine Coon behavior.  They’re even known to retain their “clowny” kitten playfulness throughout their lives. 

So to honor the first, we got two.  A male and a female.  The male was what we sought out and the female was just too pretty to not take her.  Her name is Belle and his name has yet to be decided.  I gave my daughter the naming rights on the girl and she’s been studying French and was looking for something that meant “pretty” so “Belle.  The naming rights for the boy go to my husband, for whom this was a surprise.  He hasn’t made the call yet.  Now we have these two little beings in our lives.  Fuzzy, rambunctious, purring little beings. 

On to the new ideas section of this post; these are some of the goals I wish to accomplish this year:

1. Develop a new website for my photography work – one that targets a more commercial, more fine art market to sell my work on a larger scale.
2. Learn how to create mixed media art using my photography, collage material, paint, whatever is on hand and works, and bring my artistic development up a notch.
3. Create a cohesive, intentional marketing effort to get my work out there. 
4. Get back in shape and feel better about myself – yeah, I know, everyone does this at this time of year – but I mean it . . .
5. Make this a year of art shows and person to person sales.
6. Put more effort into my Etsy and Ebay outlets to sell my work. 
7. Go to 7 places I’ve never been; 3 outside of the state of Maine.
8. Publish an article – in print – and get paid for it.
9. Create an email marketing plan and write regular newsletters.
10. Invest in new equipment, mainly upgrade my computer, but also consider getting a new lens and perhaps an iPad for presentational purposes.

To this goal, I like to create some incentives, something I can go back to to be inspired to move on, to refresh my brain.  I like doing collages.  I clip inspirational sayings, words, photos from all kinds of sources and create a spread that highlights the direction I want to move.  Earlier this year I did one with words that flowed from the present space I was in into the end result I was hoping for.  Recently, with the new year, I did one with the words and images of the goals I have for the year.  The above photo and below are some of the parts. 

Check back here often;  I will continue to post examples of this and the other work I’m doing as well as updates on how these kittens are faring in our home.  By the looks of them in this photo, they’re doing pretty well so far.  

PHOTOGRAPHY: In the garden . . .

Fresh picked yellow pear tomatoes in the bath

I can hardly tear myself away.  My camera sits on the counter by the door when I’m home.  I watch for the right light, for the sun to hit those leaves just perfectly, bringing out the texture and fragrance, and I go out and shoot. 

I need the thyme

This garden season is winding down and I’ve been photographing the progress and bounty since the seeds hit the dirt.  From the first emergence from the soil to the time they came to the kitchen, my camera has been as much a part of my gardening tools as watering can.

fell in love with the peppers early on

I thought I’d share the results of my hard work.  Hope you enjoy each little detail as much as I do.

Lots of bee activity on the sunflowers



Tomatoes early in the summer



Soon, tiny green tomatoes

Then a nice little group

Then into the harvest basket

ready to eat . . . yum!

 

portugal hot peppers

love the little guy

after a while, they got all twisty

then they got picked

nice harvest

late summer

containers bursting with peppers, tomatoes, herbs, and flowers

pots of peppers



beautiful basil



rosemary



sage with water droplets



all comes together for some awesome salsa

pretty and fragrant lilies



row of morning glories against that blue sky



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and then the sunflowers bloomed



love the bright yellow against that blue sky

love how they twist and intwined

feels like you could just slide right in

just look at them so hard at work

the tomatoes and green beans ready to eat

something very satifying about eating what you grow yourself

That's the end of my self indulgent food porn for today.  I would love to hear from anyone who enjoys photographing their garden's success and harvest.  Is there anyone so obsessed? 

On to the newest thing . . . the hummingbirds.  Beware.