picture color- day 30 {piecing it all together}

Today is the last day for my Picture Color class. Mosaics were suggested as a fun way to wrap things up.



This month I realized how much I {still} like the color pink.



I took an impromptu trip to the Rose Garden today- a great finish to a color-filled month- and played around with the many colors found there.



And- I saw this amazing purple fence. I loved how the people had mainly greens and a few white flowers behind it, so that the fence really stood out. I decided, though, that if I had a purple fence, I would love to plant red, yellow and orange flowers in front of it...

picture color- day 2 {iconic color}

picture color- day 1 {color of bliss}

picture color- day 29 {sunrise, sunset}

Well, there was no visible sunrise or sunset but I caught some blue skies poking through.

picture color- day 28 {color of happy}

It's like fireworks *and* sunshine...in Pink and Purple!

picture color- day 27 {going back in time}

Instant pigs.

picture color- day 21 {ambient yellow}

picture color- day 26 {whimsy}

Eva and I looked for evidence of whimsy everywhere we went today. All over the park she pointed out color to me and each time we decided it was beautiful, but not necessarily whimsical. Finally I noticed the pony riding in her basket on her scooter and I thought- what could be more whimsical?

2011 upick chronicles

More strawberry picking yesterday, this time with friends. I picked 6.8 pounds of hood strawberries and noticed that the picking had definitely slowed down from a few days before. My feeling is that a few more days of sunshine and a little more heat will help ripen them up to make for easier picking {again} next week.

picture color- day 10 {creating with color}

picture color- day 25 {heavy metal}

picture color- day 24 {library of color}

picture color- day 23 {meaning of color}

Don't be blue. There's more parking on the upper levels.

picture color- day 22 (inspired by...)

We were supposed to take a photo that was inspired by another photographer. I've been really enjoying Chase Jarvis's The Best Camera is the One That's With You and decided to try something out that was similar to a photo in his book. I took a few photos with his quote, "It's not always about creating pictures. It can be about finding ones that already exist," in mind. Which then led to this photo of Eva which is more about this quote, "The moniker 'creative person' makes it sound like I always know where my ideas come from. I don't." I'm really happy with it, particularly because it was a surprise and also because it was one of those decisive moment shots.

2011 upick chronicles

First upick for us today. We picked (mostly rainier and some puget reliance) strawberries (13.46 pounds) at Baggenstos Farm. I love picking berries and was so pleased to be there today. Strawberry picking is nice for a few reasons, even if they aren't my favorite berries. It is early in the season and my kids aren't burned out yet from picking. It's usually not hot enough yet to be uncomfortable. It can even be overcast, like it was today. And Eva usually enjoys picking as well, so the picking goes doubly fast.

I made sure to take a few moments to enjoy being outside with the berries. I miss being in the country frequently and when I'm out at the upick, I try to remember to take a look around at the big sky and vast spaces that can feel so peaceful to me.





Now what? Eva said she doesn't want me to make very much strawberry jam this year because she doesn't really like strawberry jam, which was amusing to me because she used to be the main person who did like strawberry jam. And why I made it. (Well- let's be clear. I made it because I like making jam. But I don't like eating very much jam, so it's nice to have someone who likes it...) I guess we'll eat a ton of strawberries for now, freeze some and make a little jam. I'm hoping to pick strawberries a few more times before the raspberries kick in. Once there are raspberries (and then other berries) to pick, I find it hard to pick strawberries any more. Right now is a special time with just the strawberries out there for picking.

or something like that.

if i had more community. if it were easier to make friends. if it were easier for my son to make friends. if i lived on the other side of town. or somewhere else. if i didn't have as much lawn to mow. if i were different. if i ate (or didn't eat) certain things. if i had more time to read. if i made time to read. if i had time. if the weather were different. if i got more sleep. {or something like that.}

and really, it's not that any of these things is wrong. {or that there is a wrong.} to want.

(of course not.) it's just that- right now- without them {or with them} is living, too.

and honestly, it's the balance between the two. the list at the top- and- what is. {and anything else in between.}

picture color- day 20 {corrugated color}

(Fresh hamster nibble sticks.)

picture color- day 19 {color of calm}

picture color- day 18 {what's your shade?}

picture color- day 17 {color of light}

Catching the light. It was a good day for it too!

picture color- day 16 {nothing but blue skies} addendum

Favorite blue. I meant to take a photo of these yesterday for nothing but blue skies but didn't. Decided to go ahead and do it today.



{And} favorite blue jeans.

picture color- day 16 {nothing but blue skies}

picture color- day 14 {statement of color}

picture color- day 15 {playful pause}

I was playing around with a hopscotch grid that I drew. (In pink chalk, of course.)



And Eva added some ruffles to the border. A girl after my own heart.

picture color- day 9 {texture color}

Eva and I had a lot of fun with this one as well. We spent quite a bit of time one afternoon checking out the textures of different colors, particularly those of the plants in and around our front yard. Then on our walk that evening. Then the next day. And the next.



I actually took this one a few days later because texture was still on both of our minds.

picture color- day 13 {ordinary colors}

picture color- day 12 {polka dots}

This was a particularly fun day. Eva and I looked everywhere for evidence of polka dots. We found our polka dotted chalk. I got the idea to include the peas while we were eating peas for lunch.



Then, while I was thinking about the polka dotted pea shot, Eva decided to go ahead and just draw me some polka dots of her own! (With the polka dotted chalk.)

picture color- day 11 {red and pink}

picture color- day 8 {punctuation mark}

Eva's dancing boots.

portland walking tour

We went on a walking tour of downtown Portland today with a local homeschool group. I think one of my favorite parts was getting to try out two different echo chambers in the downtown area, one in Pioneer Courthouse Square and one further south, near the Keller Auditorium.



Both kids in the funky chair at the Center for the Performing Arts. Samuel was being timed by one of the moms and you can see by his face that something is up.



Anansi topper outside Center for the Performing Arts and the world's smallest park, measuring just 24 inches across.



Portlandia (second only to the Statue of Liberty as a large copper statue) and 19th century building with iron and grotesques (gargoyles without the water...) Apparently they used to use the different decorations on the buildings to give directions, as in- I'm in the white iron building with the grotesques sticking their tongues out...

The tour guide brought magnets so the kids could find out which of the older buildings had iron in them for decorative purposes. Portland has 20 iron buildings (down from 200), second only to New York City for cities with iron buildings.



Salmon Street Fountain and Eva looking at the Willamette and the Hawthorne Bridge.



There was a fantastic flower display in Pioneer Courthouse Square.




The kids doing crayon rubbings. (There is one block with several bricks with words and quotations etched into them. The tour guide brought crayons and paper for rubbings.)