It's days like these when I know that, as many mistakes as I made over the years, I still must have done something right. I mean if your grown up kid says "Sure, no problem." when you ask him to do something rather crazy for your latest class photo assignment, you can't have been all bad as a mom right??
I'm not allowed to say what the assignment is yet but this is an out take. It was -15C (probably -24 with the wind chill) and this guy was good natured enough to sit in a snowy field in shorts and a muscle shirt with a cold beer in his hand. (His hat, snow-pants and gloves are stuffed in the cooler.)
As I was looking over the photos I took I remembered a conversation I had with Henry a few weeks ago.
He teased me about being a 'wild woman'. Which I most definitely am not . . .
I told him how sorry I was that he ended up with 'sensible' over 'wild'.
And then he just . . . looked at me. And started to laugh . . .
"Well okay, I know some of my projects aren't always sensible, but in most things I'm pretty sensible!"
"In your head maybe!" and he laughed even harder.
Then I laughed a bit, looked at him and said "but I am!" He kept laughing. "No, really!!"
The
thing is, I really do think I'm pretty sensible. In fact I've always
believed that I was a sober, sensible, down-to-earth kind of girl.
But,
now I'm starting to wonder. As I think about it, I'm pretty sure two
people who know me well are rolling on the floor in hysterics right now.
(You know who you are !!!)
I'm thinking about some of the things I do that might not seem very sensible or even down-to-earth to other people.
So,
I'm curious . . . Do you see yourself the way others see you, or do
they say things about you that have you questioning how well they
actually know you. Or how well you know yourself??
And . . .if you know me . . . don't you think I'm sober, sensible and down-to-earth most of the time???
I've always had stories running around in my head.
They never get out though.
They just lurk and then, every so often, demand to be brought to life.
That's easier said than done though, right? How many of us share the dream of writing a book one day? But where to start?
What makes me think I could even write one?? I mean, my spelling is atrocious, my grasp of grammar is worse and . . . well, I didn't even finish high school . . .
Here's the thing. My parents separated when I was 11. (And then divorced a few years later.)
There were several turbulent years after that. Lots of moving, lots of new schools. Pretty tough stuff for a shy introvert. I moved here just before I turned 16 and finished grade 10 in our little private school. I would have had to finish high school in a huge public school. One known to be rather rough at the time.
I couldn't do it. My mom promised I wouldn't have to go back if and only if, I found myself a job. Not long after, while out for breakfast one day, I applied for a job and got it! That, for the most part, was the end of formal schooling for me. (Poor mom. I found out years later that she'd figured I wouldn't have the courage to get a job. She'd thought it was a safe promise to make. . .)
So. Stories in my head, and a story I kept telling myself about why I couldn't write them down.
Stories want to be told. My stories found another way. They snuck up on me through my photography. The Photoshop Artistry course and then the more advanced Awake class I'm taking, began to show me another way to tell a story, one told with digital artistry.
But it didn't stop there. Stories still nagged me to write them down.
So now I am.
I'm combining photography, digital art and words into an 'illustrated' short children's story and Nelena and her girls agreed to be my models for the project.
I hope it will be a good story but, even if it isn't, at least I won't have to regret not trying . . . (If there are any English teachers out there interested in editing an amateur's work . . . drop me a line. I'll need all the help I can get! ;) )
The first 'illustration' is at the top of this post. I'm also sharing other images taken during our storybook photoshoot. It took the whole day, with Holly doing hair and makeup for these three lovely ladies (the girls got blush and lip gloss!), but my, was it ever fun!
This is the above image before I worked some digital magic on it . . .
The day began with hair and makeup.
It's not all glamour as this girl can tell you . . .
But she soon got into the swing of things.
Her big sister hung out with me while I created the wreaths for their hair.
Once we got to our beautiful garden, (not mine, this one belongs to my dear friend Nicole) it was time to get into character.
How exactly do fairies act??
Let's think about it with tea and cookies . . . or in this case, apple juice and cookies.
No photoshoots are problem free.
"You're worried about my wreath when there are wasps flying around my head?!!"
The girls were game to climb a ladder in hopes of seeing themselves fly in their story. Of course there's always a spotter close at hand!
Then it's time for a little fun!
We got many, many beautiful images, ones I hope will make lovely illustrations for my story one day.
Until then I'll leave you with these . . .
A big thank you to Holly, Nelena and the girls for helping me with this dream!
Several months back, my cousin Leona asked me if I'd be interested in doing the flowers for her son Scott's wedding.
I was pretty intrigued by the idea. Years ago, my sister Lisa and I helped our younger sister Tamara do wedding flowers for one of her family members and I had done bouquets and boutineers for my niece Rebecca's new sister-in-law a few years ago as well, so I'd had a little experience.
This was a little more challenging though. I was going to be in charge and I was doing all the flowers.
Hmmm . . . would I do it?
Of course I would! I love a creative challenge and when it involves fresh flowers, I'm hooked!
Once Leona and I had scoped out a local handcrafted shop and figured out how to balance between rustic (her), elegant(me) and reflect the vintage the bride was looking for, (and that I love) I was ready for the first step.
I started out by making a few boards on Pinterest and sharing it with the bride to get a feel for her style and colours. Once she had chosen her favorites, I headed to Costco to pick up an assortment of flowers I thought we might use. Leona and Annemarie (the bride) came over for a visit and I put together a few ideas for the bouquets. The next step was to raid my styling shelves for a variety of vases, china, cake pedestals and glass cloches as a starting point for the floral arrangements that would decorate the church and reception. (I learned about keeping an assortment of pretty things to use for
styling Thanksgiving dinner tables, a Christmas mantle or even just a
pretty vignette on my side table from Rachel Ashwell) I also got to see Annemarie's beautiful wedding gown and figure out how to incorporate a vintage pin belonging to the groom's grandmother.
It's so much fun to take all the pretty things I've collected over the years and find a new way use them together. Once we added a beautiful plant stand I had tucked in a corner of my office, the look started to come together.
Roses were ordered from Costco online and the rest of my flowers came from our local wholesale florist. I must say, figuring out just which flowers to use in addition to the ones we did the trial with, as well as how many of each would be needed, was pretty tricky.
Thankfully, the woman at the florists was very helpful.
As the wedding came closer, I started getting nervous and began haunting YouTube for tutorials on everything from making hand tied bouquets, to how to construct corsages and boutineers. It never hurts to take a refresher and some of the beautiful work out there was so inspiring.
My stomach grew queasy, sick at the thought that the roses might not be delivered in time, or, delivered, but broken or wilted . . .
Did I have enough flowers?? Too many?? Would the school's refrigerator hold all the arrangements??
My antiperspirant got a real workout the week before the wedding.
A project like this was too big for me to do alone so I recruited my daughter Holly and friend Audrey, as they both have an excellent sense of style and have had experience doing flowers before.
All that sweating the week before also made me question whether I had enough help. . . thankfully, Jesse wasn't working yet and he too has a great sense of style and he's super handy!He was recruited as well.
That turned out to be a lifesaver. Holly went to bed the night before our big day sick, and woke up the next morning even sicker. She came anyways, but we were all grateful for the extra pair of hands.
Instagram (alifeofwhimsey)
Instagram (alifeofwhimsey)
Instagram (alifeofwhimsey)
The roses arrived right on time. I picked up the flowers from the wholesale and got straight to work prepping the flowers. Outer petals and thorns needed to be removed from 200 roses, then leaves and unsightly petals had to come off all the other flowers. Jesse spent the evening getting the center pieces for the reception prepped.
The day before the wedding arrived and we loaded up the truck and headed to school where we were going to put everything together.
You know what??
It was great fun. We all had similar tastes when it came to putting everything together and I love collaborating with other creatives. Everything turned out beautifully and aside from a few glitches like the fridge being too cold and freezing some of the flowers (good thing I had extras to fix the arrangements with!) it went much more smoothly than I had expected. My help left around supper time and I finished up around 11 that night with a few fixes needed the next morning due to the freezing that occurred to some of the arrangements and a couple of bouquets.
It was an amazing creative adventure and I'm thankful for the opportunity to take it.
I ended up with waaay too many pictures for this post even though I neglected to take a good close up of the bouquets, corsages or boutineers (It seems that, although I ramble in both word and photo, I was not thinking like a photographer or blogger during this project . . .) so I indulged myself and made a short (non HD) video slideshow with them instead.
Nine years ago I started a business I'd been dreaming of for most of my married life.
A few months ago I said good bye to that business and, because I like to go all out no matter what I do, I threw a goodbye party in the garden where it all began.
I thought it might be bittersweet. Hard to let go.Painful even.
It has been none of those things.
The best part of my business has always been my garden and I haven't lost that. If anything, my garden has become more precious to me, as it is once again a place of refuge, rather than a portfolio of my style and skills.
Which is a good thing, because the crop of weeds I had growing didn't say a whole lot about my style and skills . . .
As a matter of fact, my next door neighbor, while commiserating with me on my inability to get ahead of those nasty opportunists, confided that she occasionally fantasied about getting out her rototiller!
Thankfully, my sweet husband okayed getting in some outside help, and Shyanne powered through both the front and back gardens in a two day long weeding marathon.
Which means the rototiller can stay where it belongs . . . next door! Whew . . .
Flowering has already started to slow down so I had every gardener's lament on my lips as the guests arrived "You should have seen it last week!"
Along with, "Have a glass of wine and something to eat!" of course . . .
I am so thankful for everyone who came and celebrated the end of an old dream and the beginning of a new one.
I had the loveliest time with all of you. My only regret is that I couldn't snuggle down into the sofa in the gazebo and have a long, leisurely visit with each and every one of you.
Perhaps what's needed are a string of intimate, one on one parties . . .
There's still a little wine left.
If you couldn't make it, here's a virtual party. I wish I had more shots of the actual party, but, I was so busy enjoying it, I forgot to document it . . .
The sign of a successful party rather than a neglectful photographer???
There's been a lot of photography stuff going on lately and I thought it was time for a change of pace.
It's been ages since I've posted about baking and I figured today was the perfect day to remedy that. (aside from the 27C temps.)
When I know I want to get baking done on a hot summer's day, I make sure I get up early and open all the doors and windows to cool things off before I get started.
It's been busy around here and there have been a few too many spontaneous trips to the grocery store for goodies, so the other day I was determined to do a little baking.
I got this recipe from my mother-in-law years ago and it's one of my favorites. I get three loaves at a time, they stay nicely moist for a few days and, as with most homemade goodies, they satisfy you for a lot longer than a couple of cookies out of a box.
So. . . without further ado, I give you Cinnamon Loaf . . . (a big thank you to Idelle Peters for the lovely ('recipe card'!)
And, if, like me, you like to see how a recipe's supposed to come together you can check these out . . .
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