Springtime!

I'm embarrassed to admit that I still have 3 rolls of slide film sitting on the counter ready to be sent out. All my pictures of the first buds of spring languish in the canister. Soon, I hope.

For now, I have these strikingly similar photos of tulips I recently bought for my daughter. She recently learned to say the word, "flower," and know points them out everywhere. Even in places I didn't notice them previously.

I love the dreamy quality of overexposed shots. Though the faux-grain of digital is not anywhere near as pleasing as film. Here, I was trying to decide whether the blown out window adds or detracts from the mood. My opinion changes with each picture.

On Roses, Drawer Knobs, and Buffaloes

 

I have been trying to be really crafty the past few weeks, but somehow I can't seem to get anything finished. These rose knobs are intended for a jewelry box that my dad made. Of course, when I told him I was making knobs for it, he told me he had wooden knobs to put on it.  Hmmmm...I wonder why they were not on there when he gave it to me? Anyway, I guess i will see how these rose knobs work before abandoning them for wood knobs.  I have one step left before installation, which is to glaze them. For some reason this is taking me the absolute longest time to get done. Actually, I know the reason - she is about three feet tall and loves to "help" with just about anything I do. Particularly, if it involves coloring and a paint brush is an indicator of a type of coloring even if the paint I'm using is clear. So, I wait for an appropriate nap time where the house is clean, the documentary in order, emails answered and so on. The waiting continues.

In an unrelated subject, I am very upset that Colorado was snubbed by the NCAA tournament. This isn't just me acting as a grumpy graduate bemoaning on behalf of her alma mater, many sports people agree with me. Even the ones on ESPN. By the way, I watch college basketball, mostly the Tar Heels, but I watch CU when I can, though they usually are losing. CU is not a men's basketball school (the women on the other hand, rock). But, not THIS year, they actually did good. And what happens? They get snubbed. I don't understand it. If there is one thing I have learned after leaving Colorado is that everyone is this country loves Colorado. Funny, cause I always thought it was a little square (Hee Hee). I just had to put it out there that I'm upset. Go Buffs. Oh, and, Beat Duke (this is a plea to anybody that plays them, please).

Anxious for Spring

We (my daughter and I, somehow my husband escaped) have been sick these past weeks and haven't been doing much. Yesterday, was our first walk outside in awhile and I started seeing little buds all around. It made me wistful for Spring so I thought I'd post some flower pictures from the past to lift my spirits. Soon it will look like this!

Wordless Wednesday (Last Flower)

Rain, Rain

Though I spent a lot of this week trying to persuade my daughter from the door. She constantly points at it and hands me my shoes so we can go outside. A couple times I thought if she realized it was raining outside she would want to stay inside. But, it turns out she likes to play in the rain just as much as the sunshine.

I love rainy days inside and when I could distract my daughter from the door with a book or crayons and we sat and listened to the sound of the rain on the roof; it was blissful. Soon, I'm sure I will be dreaming about letting her run around the yard again. For now I am so excited about the change of weather and am thinking I will even be able to change my summer clothes out for autumn/winter. The excitement.

In a couple weeks we are visiting Asheville, NC, which is in the mountains. I hope that the leaves will be changing there so I can get some good pictures. We have just a few select trees that are no longer green, but the piles on the ground seem to be getting larger everyday.

Varied Thoughts

My camera battery is dead and my supply of photographs is dwindling. It's times like this that I am thankful that I go overboard when taking photos of flowers at the various gardens. Hopefully, I will remedy this tomorrow. We have had an exciting past few days. Yesterday, we were rear ended at a stop light. Luckily, we're fine and looks as though our bumper took on all the pressure. I've never been in an accident as a passenger and it is a definite shock to the system because I had no idea what was coming. Of course, a crying baby and the immediate, desperate concern for her well being probably also had to do with the tension in my shoulders. Within a minute of my freeing her from the car seat she was laughing and playing; thrilled to be able to crawl all around the car while we waited for the police. Thank goodness it is all over.

It has been raining nearly non-stop these past few days. We are greatly in need of rain here, so it is a good thing. Plus, I am so tired of these 90+ days, I desperately want to pull out some sweaters and long sleeved shirts. Even all the rain hasn't made it too much cooler due to the thick humidity. On our walk today I saw plenty of joggers in minuscule shorts. Oh well. I know fall is on the horizon because the leaves are slowly changing, but it sure is taking an awful long time. I know that I will wake up one morning and the leaves will all seem to have changed over night. It always seems to happen that way.

Back to the Routine

My mom left on Tuesday and yesterday my routine felt all out of whack and I couldn't make it to the computer. I think I (we) are getting back on track; mostly because I am back to having my "me" time tonight. My husband and daughter are passed out. I can use the computer and watch anything I want on TV. Small pleasures.

Today is my good friends birthday. I have known her for about two decades. Long time. On her birthday I can reminisce about bygone years, but since she is older than me I always feel young. The only time being older was a benefit was when she turned 16. That was a good year for her. You'd think 21 would have been good, but she said it wasn't too fun because no one else could go out to the bars with her. She was 30 first and will be 40 first. And some people say a month doesn't make a difference.

Of course it comes back to get me because me other friend that I've known for almost three decades is younger than me by a month and a half. So I'll be feeling old in January.

Happy Birthday Lindsey! Love you.

Mother and Daughter Night

Tonight my daughter did not want to fall asleep. It wasn't the cranky, I'm too tired to go fall asleep kind of night. Instead, she was playing and eating graham crackers and having fun. She only fell asleep about ten minutes ago so I haven't had anytime to write a good entry today. Hopefully, you will enjoy these photographs taken at the gardens during one of our mother-daughter walks.

Arrival of Autumn

Nearly every morning I take my daughter on a walk at the bicentennial gardens. During the month of August beautiful butterflies have been everywhere. This last week or so they are starting to be less in numbers. More than often I notice them moving slowly or sitting on a flower with their wings barely moving, even with a breeze.

Today while my daughter gathered rocks and played with her sidewalk chalk, I noticed some yellowed leaves that have fallen from the tree in the front yard. All the flowers seem slightly wilted though sometimes one perfect one tries to peak out its unblemished petals. It seems that Autumn is starting to come around. It has taken awhile it seems because the heat has been so incredibly high.

I have to admit I am looking forward to cool breezes, golden leaves, and sweater weather. I'm sure it is still far on the horizon, but luckily I can finally see it. I know relief is on its way.

Photo from the Past

Things have been so busy here that I haven't had time to scan any new pictures nor take my film to the lab. Soon I will be back logged with photos, but for now I thought I would repost this photo. For some reason it makes me very happy. On Wednesday my sister is moving to Hawaii and she is in the process of getting rid of all of the things she has acquired these past years. Between helping her and working on job applications. I have been swamped and even at this very moment I hear my daughter crying out for me. So I gotta go. I'll try to be back soon.

Busy Day

My daughter is getting her molars and has been very fussy. Today I needed to paint a chair that I am fixing up for our living room. Of course my daughter wanted to "help." So my husband had to keep her occupied, which normally isn't such a big deal if it wasn't for the teething. She wants to be near me all the time. In the afternoon my sister called and asked if I could make cupcakes for her going away party (she's moving to Hawaii) and the party is tomorrow night. My daughter and I had to go to two grocery stores then my husband went for a third tonight for some items I had missed. I just finished them (it's 11 pm) and will frost them tomorrow. I also need to do a third coat on the chair and it will be done. It's amazing to me how busy I stay.

Through all of this my husband has been aiding the poor baby with swollen gums while I bake and paint. It made me think of when we were in Vermont and my husband would take the baby out for the day while I attended the conference. One such day they went to the wildflower farm and he took the above pictures to let me see where they had visited.

Playing Catch-up

We got back from Wilmington a little later than we expected yesterday and were utterly exhausted. I was fast asleep by 9:30 and that hasn't happened in a long time. I have three rolls of films to take to the lab today and should have some pictures up from our trip tomorrow. I hope you enjoy some of these lingering flower photos from the arboretum.

It's nice to visit Wilmington and it makes me miss living close to the beach. Even though we did not visit the beach as often as we should have when we lived there (barely a 15 min car ride); it's really the smell and the texture of the air that I miss. I don't think we can move back there because there is not a lot of work in the city, plus they are letting urban sprawl get out of control, but that was happening when we lived there. Nothing has really changed that much in the three years that we have been gone. Some restaurants have come and gone, Mayfaire Shopping Center has grown, UNCW's campus has grown extensively, but that is about it.

Flowers for Wordless Wednesday

Class Canceled for the Holiday!

We have just returned from a July Fourth getaway in Asheville. I'm tired from the trip and won't be able to post a movie critique. Hope everyone is having a wonderful holiday and/or enjoyed their weekend.

Before we left we received a delivery from Dwaynes Photo that included lots of fun stuff. I am very excited about the above photos that we took with my grandmother's old Kodak Duaflex. My sister had used it once before and her photos had too many light leaks. My husband and I trekked down to the arboretum to take a test roll and I am very excited about how they turned out. Can't wait to use it again.

Lazy Summer Day

Yesterday was a very busy day. I did all the laundry in the house, cooked a big dinner, cleaned, took a long hot walk, and a wrote a long post. Very draining. So today we are takin' it easy. I think we'll take our walk later in the day when the heat index hopefully drops a little bit.

Meanwhile, I'll enjoy watching my daughter dance to her favorite songs: this and this. Very different. Hope you can have a lazy summer day this week as well.

By the way is there any way to make Basil stop flowering (as in the second picture)? Is it ok if it flowers? And why do squirrels like to dig up basil? Any ideas?

Wordless Wednesday (Hydrangeas)

One Long Post

Recently, I have been taking many pictures of flowers. The Greensboro Arboretum is near our house and we like to take walks there. They have an amazing variety of flowers that constantly draw me to them. Though, my husband did take the first photo with the bee. I had two frames left and he saw the bee circling the flower. I told him he could have one frame and he was able to get the shot without using my last frame!

On another note, I was very excited Sunday night when I was up late working on this blog I discovered Lost repeats are on the CW at midnight. Many would roll their eyes at me and say, "Oh, Chelsea just get the DVDs!" I would like to argue for watching television as broadcast and not DVD or DVR or Hulu. Not because I am a luddite, though I am often accused of that because I don't have a cell phone.  I don't have expanded cable so if a show is on a cable station like Party Down (which we have been watching this week) or Mad Men then I have no choice to get the DVD. I'm not going to get cable for a couple of television shows. Plus, a good friend of mine gave me a DVD collection of Law and Order (another fave), but I rarely watch it. While it was a wonderful gift I miss the thrill of discovering that Law and Order is on and trying to remember if I've see the episode or not as I watch.

Here is my argument for broadcast shows; to begin with if a show starts at 8:00 pm then I need to be there at 8:00 to watch it. If I miss it, oh well, my life is not over. Maybe, I'll catch it in repeats over the summer. Commercials give me a chance to get a drink, use the bathroom, check my email and actually having commercials makes the commercial break cliffhangers that much more exciting. This is extremely pertinent when watching Lost. Again, if I miss the first minute or so because I stepped away for too long, it's ok, it's television, I'll still understand what's going on. Or, in the case of Lost, maybe not understand what is going on, but enjoying that which I don't understand and languishing that which I believe I do understand. People argue that broadcast television rules your life because you have to be there at 8:00, while I think that DVDs, DVR, and Hulu control you in a more meaningful manner. With these outlets you have to watch the show in its entirety, if someone calls you pause it, and you have to watch every show that even remotely interests you. If at 8:00 ABC, NBC, and CBS have good shows on, I have to pick one to watch, but others will record all three shows and watch them all! That's crazy to me.

So here is the end of my late night rant. I know that television is changing, but I think it is unfortunate. It makes me think of the changes that happened in the movie theater after television established itself in the 1950s. Before television movie theaters played short films, news reels, and b-films along with the featured film. People could pay their nickel and walk into the theater as they pleased. There wasn't really a starting time. Films had to make sense even if a customer walked into it in the middle. Alfred Hitchcock worked hard to change people's mindset with Psycho in 1960. If viewers missed the beginning they would miss the star, Janet Leigh, so there was an advertising campaign telling the public that they had to, "see it from the beginning."  Theatre workers were told not to let anyone into the movie late. It was an entirely new way of thinking about going to the movies. While I think it is important to watch a film in its entirety I also think it would be nice to just sit in a theatre as long as I want watching shorts, newsreels, and all that jazz. Sort of like when you sit down to veg in front of the television in the middle of the night and realize there is a repeat on of a show you really like.

Procrastination

I am trying very hard to sit down and write. The ideas are floating around in my head, but I am finding too many distractions to focus. Earlier my daughter was playing outside and kept trying to eat bird poop while I was trying to write my documentary proposal. I always hand-write my work first, which makes it fairly easy to follow her around with a notepad and sit where ever she decides to play. I think I am procrastinating because the proposal is not very fun to write. Pre-production on a documentary is very tedious to me. Unlike a narrative (fiction) film a documentary really comes together when editing, so I am excited for that stage even though it is far, far, away.

Speaking of narratives my other distraction is that I have a fiction script that I want to start writing and am much more excited about. I'm refusing to let myself work on it until the doc proposal is done. There is a very good chance the documentary will get made and not such a good chance for a narrative feature, which is why I need to focus primarily on the doc. You'd think that would light a fire under me, but so far it is not working.

I won't get anything else done today because my sister is coming over in a couple hours so that we can shoot something for a video to post tomorrow. I think this one will be good. I'm very excited and this time there is a real actress and not just my husband!