Em and the Nikon D3100

I'm not sure if I mentioned before that I got a new camera. A DSLR finally! And I'm loving it. But I still have A LOT to learn, especially with lighting. Em was kind enough to let me take pictures of her. Black eye and all! We went to Central Park in Saugus and hiked up the trail. It may surprise people just how many beautiful places you can find in the Santa Clarita Valley.

One of my Dad's best friends, Ron, was kind enough to GIVE me one of his telephoto lenses that he doesn't use anymore. Kind of as a birthday present.

It would also be nice to have a good editing program. Right now I'm just using the one that came with my camera. Although I'm kinda getting over the overprocessed look.

She's a looker! :) I can't understand why she hasn't gotten snatched up yet!

30 for 30

I have a confession to make...
I like clothes.
You can always find people to compare yourself to. There are those who shop way more than I do and have walk in closets full of clothes, and there are those like Charlie Brown. You may wonder if they only have one outfit. Period.
Either way, I need to break the sinful habits of overspending, lack of self control, vanity, the list goes on. Obviously I cannot fight any sin apart from God. Dependence on Him in prayer. He also uses violent language in the Bible...He tells us to cut off our hand or eye if it causes us to sin. I wouldn't say this experiment is going nearly that far. And I have to admit...this is kind of a fun way to work on this, because I can take pictures and blog about it and such. But I digress. Let me explain the 30 for 30 project.

I did not come up with this idea. I saw it on two other blogs. But I thought it would be just the thing for me to try in the month of July! You pick 30 pieces of clothing from your wardrobe and you can only use those pieces to make 30 outfits for a whole month. (And July just happens to have 31 days so...extra challenge! Ha.) It teaches you to "shop your closet" and to see just how much you really don't need that super cute blue sweater from Anthropologie.
So without further ado...my 30 picks:

3 pairs of shorts

2 pairs of work pants

2 white tanks

3 sweaters (for the sometimes chilly office or church basement)

A couple of t-shirts and nice shirt that got left out of the "nice shirt" pic

2 pairs of jeans

4 skirts

2 dresses

4 tops

and 5 tanks

Well! I think those oughta last me just fine! Really I'm kinda embarrassed that I even own this many clothes. I can already tell I don't need anymore! Stay tuned for updates on Project 30 for 30!

Pretty Pretty Princess

Does anyone remember that game? Emily and I used to play it all the time at our friend, Thais' house. A player wins when they collect all the jewelry; necklace, bracelet, ring, clip-on earrings, and best of all, the crown! It would really stink if all you got was earrings each time around.

Well I feel like I experienced the adult version of that game a couple of weeks ago at a Jewelry Party, only we made the jewelry and the winners were the ones who found the best beads first or actually snagged a headband to decorate before they were all gone. (No "crown" for me.)

But I did make a necklace and a couple of bracelets. (One is not shown because I don't like how it turned out.)

I took these pictures at home and I'm so sad that I didn't bring my camera to the party! It was at Melinda Welch's house and I think she is pretty much the best decorator that I've ever met in real life. And she added super cute decorations for the party. Oh well.

She also served the best homemade donuts. They are baked and contain healthy ingredients, but they were so good! And she makes really yummy lattes.

The party was so much fun and the jewelry was surprisingly easy to make. :)

Father's Day

(Watching for the cuckoo to come out of the clock at my Grandma's house in MI.)

This is a day late, but I don't want to miss an opportunity to write about my Dad. Here are some random memories I have of him:

In Kindergarten, my Dad drove me to school on his way to work and if the freeway was packed, we would get off at Paxton and drive through the neighborhood. No matter what season, there were tons of houses that left their Christmas lights on all year. So as we'd drive down the streets we'd take turns saying, "There's one! There's one!"

When I was in High School, Dad drove me to and from church on Wednesday nights. On the way home we would listen to Perry Mason mysteries on the radio and we'd bet each other a penny on the exact time we would make it home. (For some reason we never paid up.)

Also in High School, somehow my friend Kristin convinced me to keep the J.V. football stats with her. (Even though I didn't know anything about football. Which is probably why I had football players yelling at me for not attributing the correct plays to them.) Anyway, Dad drove us to and from the games and explained all the plays on the way home. (He kinda drove me to a lot of different places. Poor guy.)

This one time Em and I were driving with Dad somewhere and this song came on the radio. For some reason, Dad started "rapping". Or trying to. It was sooo funny. Em and I were cracking up and so Dad started cracking up. He was laughing so hard I thought we were going to get in an accident!

This one day Em and I were watching the Disney channel or something and this Donald Duck "music video" came on. It was an old cartoon of Donald working in a wood shop. The tune was really catchy and so Dad, Em and me started whistling it. Ever so often we would remember that video and one of us would try to remember the tune. Someone always wound up getting it and I still remember it to this day.

About a month or so before he entered the hospital, the two of us went on a drive out to Ventura to meet with a graphic designer that does work for Grace to You. I (still am) interested in graphic design and so Dad wanted me to be able to talk with someone who knew the ins and outs of the profession. It was a beautiful day and we got Starbucks afterwords. I asked my Dad to tell me a story about himself that I had never heard. He told me about how when he was younger he and his friends decided to go on a "hike" in Michigan. They were just old enough to go on a long hike by themselves. Nothing really eventful happened to them, but he said it was just to much fun and they went far and were gone most of the day. He just seemed so happy remembering it.

There are so many other sweet memories I have with my Dad. I miss him sooo much! I am so thankful to God for giving me such a great Dad. And I am so thankful that I have a heavenly Father who provides and protects.

I have a problem...

I am one of those kinds of people that try to read...well, what looks like a million books at once! Ever so often I will get so captivated by a book that I can't put it down and I'll actually finish it. But most get added to one of these giant stacks near the chair in my room. It's bad. It's like a disease. Emily made it worse by giving me a Kindle for Christmas. Oh dear. If anyone knows of a cure, would you please pass on that valuable information?
The other day I tried to clear out the books that I'm DEFINITELY not reading right now. I think I made a significant dent. Emily was not so impressed. What do you think?

The red box IS in the first picture. In case you were wondering.

Empire State Building

These aren't great pictures, but I wanted to post this to show how much I'm loving my new lamp from Carly's yard sale! Here's the shadow it casts on the wall:

Here it is in daytime:

And at night:

The pictures definitely don't do it justice, but it fits in my room so much better than I had even imagined. Thanks again, Carly!

Mad About...

Vintage bicycles!

Good thing my birthday is coming up and this is the one thing I asked for! I can just picture cruising down some street in Ventura on a warm summer day with a nice crisp beachy breeze...mmmm....

Pink Dinosaur

Most kids have a favorite stuffed animal growing up. For normal kids it's a teddy bear or a dog or maybe even a floppy bunny. But for me it was a pink dinosaur. That's all I wanted for Christmas of 1989. My mom searched high and low wondering where she was ever going to find it, but she finally did in the gift shop at the end of the dinosaur ride at Knott's Berry Farm.
The pink dinosaur was aptly named, Pink Dinosaur. For a short while it seemed that she needed a more...clever name, so I changed it to Christine, after my middle name, but it didn't last. Deep down I already knew she was dubbed Pink Dinosaur. Changing her name was like....changing her personality. That's right. I said personality. Just like Toy Story or Muppet Babies, our stuffed animals came to life, when we played with them, and maybe even when we left the room. ;)
Here's what Pink Dinosaur was like the day I got her: And here's poor Pink Dinosaur now...

Poor Pink has clearly seen better days. No more toenails, no more purse or presents. (I cut those off about 5 minutes after I opened her.) No more eyelashes or kissy lips or even pupils! But I still love her!

Five O'clock Bird

If this picture looks strange to you, it's because this doesn't happen. Dogs are not allowed on my bed, let alone in my room. But sometimes, I'm driven to take drastic measures. Allow me to explain...

For the last few years, come springtime, I have had a little visitor oustide my window. RIGHT outside my window. One of my favorite things about my bedroom is the window. There is a wide ledge that I could turn into a window seat except that it's a little too high off the ground and would look strange. Instead my bed is set right against it so that I can lean on a pillow and look outside ever so often as I read. My favorite time to do this is right after I get home from work. The sun is at the perfect spot so that it shines through the tree outside my room and highlights the little fuzzy white things floating around that cause all kinds of allergies. Anyway, it looks beautiful. And the little visitor comes around at this time and I appreciate him. He adds to the moment. I always call these moments "glimpses of Heaven."

But at five o'clock in the morning, we're talkin' a whole different ballgame. At five o'clock in the morning, I can't stand that little bird. I often pray harm on him. I imagine someone marching out of their house and chucking a stone at him. Or you know, I just pray that he will fly away. (I may or may not have yelled at him.)

On Monday morning I was in the midst of the previously described scene when somewhere downstairs I heard a bark. And for a millisecond, the bird stopped. "Chirp chirp chirp TWEET, chirp chirp chirp TWEET, chirp chirp BARK ---- chirp TWEET."

I thought it just might solve everything. Maybe if I invited Tacy onto my bed, she would hear the annoying bird and bark at it and it would fly away. So I called for her. And I got this.

I don't know if you can see this very well. But it's a faceful of slobbery dog. And that's all I got. No bark. No bite. Just dog and bird and no sleep.
On my way to work I stopped by Starbucks to get some oatmeal and there were these cute little birds outside chirping and hopping around and I was thinking of how God even takes care of them and feeds them and their chirping in the morning is probably out of hunger and I felt just a tad...guilty. At least until five o'clock the next morning.