picture summer- day 24 {larger than life}

Eva surprised me with this bunny ballerina costume. It worked for the jump shot too!

picture summer- day 23 {life is but a dream}

Playing around with a blue plastic bucket, some sunshine, water and this sailboat Eva made.



Miniature wishing well.

picture summer- day 19 {jump shot}

picture summer- day 21 {spacey} again

Eva at the upick.

picture summer- day 17 {visual interest}

Eva {and I} waiting at Oaks Park this weekend.

Sawyer

Our new kitten Sawyer. He's nearly 4 months and all white.





Eva and Sawyer.

picture summer- day 10 {summer memories}

Fourth of July (more)

The kids playing with sparklers on the Fourth.

Fourth of July

This year Eva really wanted a 4th of July hat. She wore it for the parade and received many compliments from those going by in the parade.



When we bought Eva's 4th of July hat, we also bought two mini-hats for the guinea pigs, which of course they loved. Here they are as patriotic and festive pigs.



A neighbor took our picture before the parade/ Eva with the pigs. Everyone in their fancy hats.





Our neighborhood 4th of July parade passes right in front of our house.



Eva decorating her 4th of July cake. There is peach jam between the layers! Yum!

picture summer- day 1 {here comes the sun}

So I had so much fun with Picture Color that I decided to sign up for another class with Big Picture Classes. Picture Summer is another email-a-day class but this time self paced and with a focus on summer rather than color.

Here we go. Day 1.

picture color- day 1 {color of bliss}

picture color- day 27 {going back in time}

Instant pigs.

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?

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.

picture color- day 17 {color of light}

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

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 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 8 {punctuation mark}

Eva's dancing boots.