Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Amber and Tatanka- one more from last weekend


Whenever Amber visits, she always acts super excited to see me, but really, it's just my dog she's excited to see. One time when we were visiting them in Portland a few years ago, Amber showed me a photo collage of her family she'd done for sharing time at school- no picture of Aunt Robyn and Uncle Shawn on there, but Tatanka was prominently featured. :)
Anyway, Amber and I went on a long walk on Monday and here's some shots from that.





Back at home, Maddie showed me all about how it is being two

and Nora just was.

Monday, March 30, 2009

FYI

Just in case anyone was dying to buy me something, these did go on sale today.
. . . . Oh, tiny dancer. . . .

Thursday, March 26, 2009

beautiful milpitas girls . . .

hanging out at the edge of the foothills, with the last of Sunday's warm light and cold air.










Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Amber laughing

I went down to the motherland- (Milpitas of course)- this weekend because Holly came down from Oregon for spring break. We had such a nice time hanging out. . . I've got lots more pictures to share but I wanted to start with these beautiful ones of Amber, completely and absolutely giddy over hanging out with the girls. I just love how you can hear her excitement here.



Monday, March 16, 2009

April and Eduardo- sneak preview

I had such a great weekend with April and Eddie- they had a truly intimate and especially meaningful wedding and I was so grateful to be a part of it. There will be a much bigger post on them in a few months after I've had a chance to work on their pictures, but for now I just wanted to give them a little sneak peak. I've only had a chance to just briefly look through things, but it looks like there will be lots and lots of wonderful images guys! (if I do say so myself :))



Thank you, Thank you for including me in your day. You guys have a beautiful thing!

Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Gardening- the first month

I have been loving my new found hobby of gardening. . . although I guess it's not really new. I've tried it a few other times in the past, without much success, but this time I'm all about food, no more pretty lawns and flowering unpronounceable plants; I think I can be much more dedicated to the idea of growing food, and it helps that Courtney and Nate are joining us for this project. Their excitement helps to counter Shawn's lack thereof for this endeavor, although I think now that things are growing, even Shawn is excited. I pointed it out the other day when I caught him all into the sprouts, but he still claims he doesn't like gardening, just science. Still, I think he is liking it just a little. Anyway, I've been taking pictures the last few weeks and here's what we have so far:

The very beginning:
Back in Jan, when it was just all dry weeds and sand.



Week One:
We planted about a dozen things in seed form: collards, onions, green onions, beets, butter lettuce, chard, spinach, squash. . . .



Nate and the lemon tree.


And then there just had to be a bunch of pictures of the dogs mixed in here. They are possibly the worst gardeners ever, but they make for cute garden gnomes.



That "box" there on the right side of the garden was made by Nate the week before we planted anything.


And then we planted a few other things which we bought already started in small containers: garlic, artichokes, shallots, strawberries, the lemon tree and a feijoa tree.


You might start to think that you are seeing a lot of pictures of just Nate working, but really that's not true; he just likes to pose for pictures, that guy.


I think I forgot to take an overall view one of our first week :(


Week Two:
This week we dug out the area for potatoes.






Tatanka did a lot of thoughtful thinking.



We also brought out an old bookshelf and made a planter box out of it over on the left side of the garden. The other image is the area designated, via bricks, for the potatoes after we worked that soil. Also, back in the corner there is where we planted peas in hopes that they will grow up that side fence lattice.


after week two:


And now for a look at how our seeds have been doing. These were just sitting on our kitchen table. Look at them- aren't they magnificent!!





Week Three:
This week the nursery finally had blueberry plants so we were really excited to get those planted. We also planted a raspberry bush and a blackberry one, even though everyone says not to since they completely take over huge areas. But I figured I'll probably kill lots of things so if even just one thing thrives, it at least guarantees me some level of success.




We transplanted some of the little seedling things from their warm and safe home on the kitchen table to the cold and harsh realities of life outside in this box. Unfortunately I'm not sure that some of them handled the move too well, but more on that later.


The squash though, they handled it like champs!


And look at our first strawberry!


After week three: Shawn's parents visited us this week and Chuck made one of my dreams come true. For as long as I can remember I have wanted a hammock in my backyard, and I was telling Chuck about this and he went out and bought me some cement and built me some posts!! I've even had a hammock that I bought in Belize like 5 years ago sitting in the garage waiting for this day- so exciting! So anyway, that's what those new posts are. And you can also see that we built another 3-sided, bottomless box for the left side of the yard.

Tuesday, March 10, 2009

David's Bar Mitzvah

I love this family! I photographed David's older sister Ariel's Bat Mitzvah about 3 years ago, so it was so fun to come back all this time later to photograph David's. And their family has just been so nice to me. They've given my name to so many of their friends, sent me a wonderful gift basket as thank-you, and are an all around hoot! Plus, mom's name is Robin so you know they are terrific :)





My favorite shot from the day- Robin helping David get situated.


Grandpa gave this tie tack to David before he passed away last year.
















I never knew this place existed, but at the top of the 4th Street Parking Garage in Downtown San Jose, there is this ballroom- it's owned and catered by The Fairmont- and that's where David had his party. The walls of the foyer are all this thick partially opaque Lucite-ish stuff and I loved the light they let in! Made for really fun family photos.










David had a James Bond 007/Casino themed party, complete with a guest painted gold (Gold Finger's date).
















Partying with the Jr. High crowd!