Happy Independence Day!

Handmade Crochet Hooks & Succulents ♥

This past weekend I had a little photo session with my two loves:

Crochet & Succulents

Thought it might be fun to share. ;)

BTW, the hooks in these photos were carved by my awesome hubby.  Whenever I'm feeling in-need-of-love he surprises me with a new hook.  He takes first prize.

Monster Cucumbers!

It's too bad these giants turned out bitter!  Aren't they just so fun to look at though?!  Oh well, off to the compost pile they go... I couldn't help but make a little Instagram collage too. hehe

For The Love Of Corn

"Waiting Patiently" (Photo #2)

Waiting patiently for warm bodies and warmer days.

"A Romping Hike" (Photo #3)

We love to go on adventures in our front yard.  Willy brought snacks (leftover mac & cheese from Mar Mar's house) and Molly grabbed her video camera.  The dogs love showing us their favorite play spots way out front where the squirrels like to hide.  In this photo Willy is marching closer and closer to Molly till he finally crashes into her....punk.

2014 Photo Project...Dare I Take The Challenge?!

365 Inspiring Photographs

I follow a lovely little knitting blog called Polka Dot Cottage.  Her most recent post was about starting a 365 day project revolving around photography.  She is starting her 6th year-long photo project (Wow!) which has inspired me to give it a shot as well!  Her project will be structured, taking specific shots per day based on a monthly theme.  I think I'm going to be a little more generic and take 365 photos of things that give me inspiration.  

"Stripped Away" (photo #1)

This photo is such a great depiction of Winter.  Everything is bare and exposed.  You can really see all of the intricacy of the twigs, bleached by the sun, twisting together and around each other.  Reminds me of beautiful lace.  Dare I say...I'm feeling inspired! ;)  As Google puts it, inspiration is "The process of being mentally stimulated to do or feel something, especially to do something creative."  Bring on the inspiration!!

Exploring with Ms. Cortez

The Trip

Last month we were lucky enough to take my in-law's recently fixed up 1974 Cortez motor-home out for her maiden voyage (can you say that for motor-homes or is that only for ships?).  Our destination was Morro Bay where we parked Ms. Cortez at the Morro Strand RV park.  I've never stayed in an RV park (that I can remember anyway) so I'd say this place was pretty nice.  They had good facilities and full hook-ups at a reasonable price. As we are pulling in to Morro Bay and the kids had the windows open in the back.  I heard them breath in deeply and say "Ahhh, smell that ocean air!"  I took their advice, opened my side window, stuck my head out and breathed in deeply...Wow.  The downside of Morro Strand RV park?...downwind from a Waste Water Treatment Plant.  Nooot really ocean air that you're smelling there kiddos.  But I was good and kept my mouth shut (at least in front of them) so they enjoyed the "ocean air" smell the whole trip. Kids, you gotta love 'em.

The Dunes

Almost immediately after we arrived the kids wanted to go to the beach.  Morro Strand advertises that it is within walking distance from the beach so we put on our sweaters and headed west.  Half a mile later we saw sand (phew!).  The beach was actually really cool.  There were dunes everywhere and the wind was so strong that all the sand was brushed smooth making it feel as though were were the first people to discover a lost island.  So we recorded our discovery, searched for shells and treasures washed up to shore, and made our way along the beautiful beach towards town.

Flying Kites

The next day we woke up knowing exactly what we wanted to do...fly some kites!  There is this great little kite shop down town Morro Bay that we visited after breakfast.  Will had already done research on the type of kites that we wanted so we were quickly in and out and headed to the windy beach to set them off.  It's so funny to me that holding a string and staring up into the sky at a little floating piece of material can be so exciting and interesting to a 5 & 6 year old.  I got bored fast (wait, who's the child here?) and frustrated that the sand kept blowing on my camera and towel so we didn't spend too long on the beach before we trotted off on another adventure.

This picture depicts pretty much the entire trip...Molly and Daddy far ahead of Willy and me 'till something interesting happens and Willy sprints off to check it out for himself.

Climbing on Rocks

On our last day we headed out to Morro Rock to do a little rock climbing.  Oh how thrilling it was to climb the rocks to the big red "DANGER" sign...and then keep going!  It's not expressly forbidden to climb out on the rocks so of course we went for it.  Molly and Willy carefully watched me to make sure I didn't slip or fall in any way.  Really though, they are better climbers and more coordinated at that sort of thing than I could ever dream to be.  The tide was down so we saw tons of colorful starfish and barnacles stuck to the rocks.  We saw a few crabs, some weird seaweed and several things we couldn't even identify.

We left Morro Bay with wonderful memories, took Ms. Cortez back to her home and promised that we would take her exploring again soon.

Happy Birthday, Exeter!

This past weekend our hometown of Exeter celebrated 100 years at the annual Fall Festival.  Molly's preschool decided to do their float with a birthday party theme and told all the kids to dress up as presents.  Will meticulously measured, cut, and wrapped Molly's box and I had fun making the biggest bow I could think of.  I'd say it turned out to be a success!!

Instagram!

I just found the most amazing photography app on my iPhone: "Instagram".  They have several beautiful (pretty exaggerated, but still pretty) filters that make any ol' photo look like a work of art.  Here is an example:

Before

After

So fun!  I can't wait to try it on all the darling photos of the kids!

Unplanned Vacation

 A few weeks ago MarMar decided to take the kids on a special kids only beach vacation.  So we packed them up for a weeks worth of fun and off they went to Pismo. 

Will and I were excited as well because that meant that we got a week to spend together, just the two of us.  Little did we know how soon and how much we would miss our little ones.  It wasn't until the 2nd day that we were planning our own little road trip down to Pismo to say "Hi", have dinner with them and head home. Well, as you may have guessed, what was meant to be a snapshot, ended up as a movie. 

We stayed the night with the kids, Marlene, and her little helper Lily (whom I almost forgot to mention...sweet, sweet daughter of Marlene's friend, loves the kids and the kids love her, and is such a helper without even having to ask...just darling).  The next morning, Marlene and Lily packed up and left Will, the kids, and me to have a spur-of-the-moment family vacation!

The weather was to die for (thanks to Molly's prayers, below), the beach was super sparkly clean, the water was perfect, and there weren't very many people there at all.  Our recipe for fun!  Oh, by the way, all of these pictures were taken on my precious iPhone 4!  I mean really, can you believe it?!

Surveying the Land

This weekend we decided to begin the journey of starting a garden.  Will has been planning for years but I don't think that will ever stop.  There is so much to do before you can actual plant the garden.  The first step is to get a lay of the land and decide where and how the garden will be planted.  So we set out to survey the land.  Thankfully I remembered to grab the Rebel and sling it around my shoulder before we headed up the hills.  The day was just so beautiful a camera (or at least my camera and photography) couldn't get any where near capturing it.  However, I did shoot a few beauties that I'd like to share:

Surveyor William.  The house behind him is our neighbors.

The kids setting out on an adventure to Sario rock

If you can see, Will is the tiny guy in the middle of the shot.  This gives you an idea of how far I was hiking around.  Will got to stay in his comfy spot on the hill while I moved 25 feet at a time to hold a 25 foot pole straight up and down in the gusty wind while trying to take a photo of the amazing scenery.  

Adventures on Hill Drive

Here are some amazing pictures that I took while on an early morning adventure walk to check out the Coyote dens near the edge of our property.  I've been using our digital Rebel (it's an older one, not sure what model) and loving it!  I'm working on taking everyday photos from artsy angles so they are more interesting to look at.  Like anything, practice makes perfect.  I can already see improvement in my photography!

Molly was playing with some flower weeds.  She was very conscious of the camera though and was giving me some great angles to work with.  She is such a little model!

Bleached snail shells.  Amazing huh!

Mommy and Molly adventure boots.

Bubble Angel

Sprinklers!

Fun in our backyard on July 5th