Le Potager

So here is my fledgling potager. I just scatter planted all of my seeds. It is getting to the point where I am going to have to thin the bunch. I plan on doing that this weekend. The weather here has been so tempermental. I am hoping that my plants make it beyond this stage so that I can eat them! I have planted: radish, turnip, carrots, spinach, tomatoes, sweet peas, strawberries, mesculen, red lettuce, bell peppers, melons, jalepenos, squash, and a variety of herbs including lavender, rosemary, sage, lemon thyme and basil. I would like to place a brick path down the center of my garden and I want to move my small fountain to the back. If I have the energy (and Rodolfo is willing to help) I plan to attempt these projects this weekend too!! There is always so much to do, so many things to learn, and so little time!

Other Spring Images

This rose is named Penelope and sits right outside my kitchen door. It has exploded with blooms and is so fragrant. Everytime I walk out my back door it smells like spilt perfume!

Gigi has been in love with her baby doll as of late. She puts her to bed and wakes her up about 20 times a day. Here she is watching her baby as she sleeps.

Spring Fever

Spring has been finicky this year. It vascilates between darn cold and outright hot. To where oh where has the mild weather disappeared? Mother Nature's (my neighbor) azaleas were in full bloom just last week (see in the photo) and now they have quickly faded. I'm so glad we at least took a few pictures while we had a chance.

Those Terrible Twos!

Two year olds are delights and terrors because they so fully express every emotion they experience. Adults filter through emotions and only show what is appropriate to the situation, to the etiquette, to the end results desired. Two year olds, however, have not learned to distinguish between appropriate and inappropriate levels of emotion. They temper nothing towards the situation. They just say and behave exactly how they feel. They are on full blast at all times and this is both a pleasure and a pain. A temper tantrum in the middle of Target is embarrassing, refusal to wear X is anger-inducing, and yet the sheer excitement over a bowl of ice cream, or a trip to the park, or a BIRTHDAY CAKE is so 100% delightful, charming, fabulous, oh!! For all of its pains, the joy of watching a little one's eyes alight with delight makes me ask the question: Who cannot help but adore this moment in a child’s life? I feel priveleged to share this moment with Georgia. What makes it even sweeter, even more precious, is that I know inside, though I wish it would never happen, but I know that this moment will pass. The toddler will become a child, who will become a teenager, who will become an adult. But right now, today, this small window in Georgia’s life, I GET TO OBSERVE, to enjoy, to be a part of. I get to be the one who introduces her to butterflies and swimming pools, to ice cream sundaes, the beach, Disney World, etc. And that is beautiful. Being a part of this introduction to the world, to get to re-experience for myself the magic of blowing those fluffy round weeds in the wind, well, quite frankly, it is an honor. I love the terrible twos! How I hope it lasts a while longer.

Happy Birthday Wally!

Wally turned 5 years old on the 19th! He has been an excellent pooch these past 5 years and I cannot believe that he is now older than me and Rodolfo in dog years! We didn't do a birthday party as we have in the past, but he is still our loved puppy. We love you Wally!

Domino Folds!

Just found out a week ago that one of my all time favorite magazines has closed its doors. I'm so sad the Domino era has ended! It was a great magazine, albiet, one that tempted me beyond belief in the decor department. I coveted practically every room in that magazine, not to mention the lives of the people whose homes were featured. It was a rather off-beat but classy publication and I will be hard-pressed to find a replacement (Cookie magazine could be a worthy substitute.) So, anyway, I had to take it off of my blog links. I have, however, added two new ones that are interesting if you haven't taken a look. They are "Daily Walks" and "Paris Breakfasts". Daily walks is a photoblog of a woman who takes pictures on her daily 5:30 AM walk. She has BEAUTFIUL discoveries everyday. "Paris Breakfasts" is about a woman who spends a lot of time in Paris and paints her breakfasts there-- she then sells them on etsy. I just discovered this one but it really makes me long to return to Paris. Happy blog reading!

Easter Fun

Easter came and went in a flurry. The day was rainy, surprisingly. Easter is usually this gloriously pastel day with baby blue skies, puffy white clouds and pink sunsets. Maybe next year it will be back to normal. Since both of my sisters were in town, we took the opportunity to snap some family photos. Laurie's husband took the group shot. He also snapped some cute ones of Gigi. Thank you Michael for the photos!

Coloring Easter eggs at Olmama and Olpapa's house.

Here is Elle with her namesake. This is Granny's second time to do a 4 generation of women shot. Isn't she lucky?

And here is the fam. Mindy has a broken foot and didn't want her foot to show. Funny that she is the only one on the back row whose foot is actually showing!! :)

Popsicle Weather

It was warm enough today for popsicles! Hip hip hooray!

Jake, Grace & Georgia

Okay, I have no idea what I am doing in Photoshop. I need to take a class. I've been fiddling around with the different effects. Last night I woke up at 1:00 AM thinking about Photoshop, got online and couldn't get off until 4:45AM reading all I could about processing.

One of my best friends, Amy, and her sweet children, Jake & Grace are in town for Easter. We met at the park and stayed out there for 2.5 hours playing and having fun! Georgia and Jake held hands as we walked to the picnic table. As we were making our way to the picnic area, a swarm of elementary kids started pouring out of buses. I don't know where they came from, but Amy and I ended up racing a bunch of 10 year olds to the tables, literally. We both broke out into a sprint at the same time leaving little Jake and Georgia to toddle their way to our claimed territory. Georgia is potty training and doing well, but the park potties were a little too dirty for her taste. Throughout our picnic I could tell that she needed to make a pit stop. She was sending all the signals. After a meager attempt at the goal, instead of waiting for me to put her shorts back on, she ran out into the picnic area with only her Elmo panties to hide her little bottom. I realize this is no big deal, but it was a little unexpected to see my daughter running around the Yukon park in her panties. Ah the joys of motherhood!

RAW

Well, I've discovered RAW and have been shooting in it for the past 3 days. Shooting in RAW sounded intimidating but was as easy as a flip of the switch with my camera. The problem came when it was time to process all of my images. I've been reading my eyeballs out trying to figure out how to work with these images in Photoshop. I don't know anything about Photoshop but have learned a TON in the past 48 hours. Finally, finally this evening, with Rodolfo's help, I was able to convert my files over from RAW to dng. And now the fun can begin!! Here is one of the first photos I took in this new format. (It had to be converted to JPEG to post here on the blog.) I haven't had a chance to touch it up yet.

Georgia has said some really funny things lately, including "I hope the wind doesn't blow my chapstick away" (she loves putting on chapstick and is sure to do so before every outing). And now I can't remember the other comment. I've been holding onto this comment all day and now that I'm blogging I can't remember it. Maybe it is because it is well past my bedtime, or perhaps it is because Rodolfo has Batman on here in the background. Whatever the reason, I hope it will return to me sometime soon so I can write it down.

Tata for now!