Adventure

I took this snapshot off a mural from a Florida airboat company on the road to Titusville. It was a confusing piece of advertising, as it both thrilled me to think that a giant eagle might actually attack our tour boat, but terrified me to imagine a giant talon digging into my spine and scooping me out of the boat for a light snack.

This reminded me of a great story about being a native Floridian...

A friend was flying back from Boston, and seated next to him was a girl that had never been to Florida and she was all giggles and fingernail biting about their arrival to land just as a perfect golden sun was setting into the water, reflective rays bouncing up into the atmosphere and filling it with bright pinks and violets. She says: "God, how gorgeous! (oohing and ahhing looking out the plane window as they descended) Wow, this is what I will always picture, when I imagine Florida!" To which he says: "No, that isn't Florida. You have to take that nearly perfect majestic miracle of a sky, and air brush it onto the side of a van. THAT, is Florida."

All this talk about Florida-- Why?

I am off on a Florida adventure to make some pictures. The results from the trip will be appearing at Snap!, Orlando's first ever Photography Celebration-- if you are in the Central Florida area take a look at this event and get your butts downtown and support it May 20th-23rd. Please and thank you :) I was invited to be part of an exhibit on Florida living by this super talent, if you're in the mood to blog-bounce today, go treat yourself to her space this morning.

I will be back here Wed with shots and tales from the Deep South. I wrote a little about where I'm going in this post, in case you missed it. I am off to see the oyster men of Apalachicola, and the keeper of the Tupelo Bees in Wewahitchka. So excited.

Wish me luck.

All the Love in the Universe~ Me

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Putting it Altogether

I have had my head buried in my computer for the last few days trying to get caught up on a workload that backed up when my laptop fizzled and smoked. I lost all access to my editing programs. Ugh technology. Happily I am all up and running again, and have been slowly catching up. The delay caused a nice surprise, it had been a long time since I had my eyes fixed on a project, and then was forced away from it from some reason. So when I got everything going again, I was taking a second look at the pictures with a fresh set of eyes, I found I was picking all kinds of new selects, and dropping them into the "favorites folder." I felt like I had brand new eyes. Here are just two of the pics from the Ash & Chrissy wedding that made it into the favorites on the second pass, and they are two of my favorites over all. A nice reminder to look away and get a fresh perspective.

I keep meaning to get something regular going on here with our backyard farming exploits. It's getting serious around here, I have a super red sunburned neck, my jeans are always rolled up, and my fingernails are filled with dirt. Every morning, and as the sun tracks down it is designated garden time around here. I finally have it worked into our schedule and it feels good. The kids are into it, and LB is getting pretty decent at watering :)

We got to enjoy eating our efforts the other night, as the lettuce was the first thing we planted to be ready for devouring. Cole's family has a serious salad tradition, and so we have planted all the ingredients to make it fresh this season. It's super simple: lettuce, parsley, mint, cucumber, green onion, tomato, and for dressing a little olive oil, and some fresh squeezed lemon (salt and pepper to taste)

Yum



One of the last things we made room for in the garden was cantaloupe, and they pushed through this week and are ready to spread out. They already smell like cantaloupe. Who knew. I must have looked crazy laying on the ground, sniffing at the sprouts, shouting out: "They smell like cantaloupes!!"



The Littlest Buddy had a long streak of camera shyness and only just recently has started to request that I take his picture again. This morning, before school he started doing the camera sign, and then got super shy when I fired off a burst. He was really excited when he saw himself on the computer. I am hoping he is on his way back to his usual hijinks and showmanship :) I miss taking his picture.



And then all of the sudden, for no particular reason, Tessa decided she was ready to start standing up on her own. She knows it's awesome, because every time she does it, she lifts her arms over her head and lets out a squeal.



Here we go...

All the Love in the Universe~ Me

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Curl

While I get caught up on editing this week, I thought I would share some fun looks with you from the last show I shot out. I picked these selects because I am a HUGE fan of big curly hair, and noticed the artists were doing a lot more curly looks this year. I never understood why women who have gorgeous thick curly curls spend so much time battling it, and trying to keep it straight. Why do you hate your curls? Why?! I mean I have seen women down right get emotional and tear up while talking about how much they hate their curly hair at some of these shows I cover. How did this happen? Who did this to you?

I am old enough to remember when the girls in high school were doing that ridiculous messy heap of giant curly bangs, they did that little curl pointing down, and then the great big stupid curls going up. It was like a butt. AND, being new to using hair tools, many of them had to endure the embarrassment of the scabby forehead burn they gave themselves from their curling iron. I remember being a little kid and watching my sister do this procedure to her hair and being so confused. "Why are you doing that? It's so... BIG in the front. You burned your head!"

I will be caught back up soon. I have a new video I need to finish up for everyone :)

All the Love in the Universe~ Me

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A Walk to the Pool

Apologies for the delay :)

Swimming and floating around in the water was such a big part of Trish's pregnancy, that we had to work it into the series somehow, so a walk to the pool seemed completely perfect. It gave Trish the chance to show off her baby belly in the series, and I just love the confidence that came out of this picture. She looks super! Peter showed up to walk her across the street when he hit the end of the block. And with that, we have crossed the street to our very last block now, and we are staring down at the last set of houses. After that, train tracks, and highway, and strip malls. One last stretch of road. I'm excited for these two.

All the Love in the Universe~ Me

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