Purple

As you may have guessed from seeing corn in the background of my pictures, I live on a farm.  I was feeling kind of frustrated and a little overwhelmed the other day, and being that fresh air does the soul good, I figured I'd take a little walk around my yard and up my road to help clear my head.  I felt so much better when I got back in.

1.  I picked myself a few flowers and weeds to put in a tiny antique vase on my kitchen counter.
2.  My farty, annoying, and always loving dog, Kona.
3.  Chris' grandma let me take her picture.  "Good," she said, when I told her I wouldn't get her face. / One of the many butterflies enjoying nectar on my butterfly bush.
4.  Flojo can't come out on walks, so she watches patiently at the window (and this always makes me kind of sad since we do everything else together).
5.  Where the kind of gravel road turns to complete gravel road.
6.  More of my weed bouquet.
7.  Another butterfly, and Kona's favorite position on the front porch.

When you're feeling overwhelmed or bummed out, what helps you clear your head?

hello.

How have you been?  This summer has been busy and awesome, and it doesn't look like it's going to change anytime soon!  Sometimes though, when I have a slow day and I can stop to play with my camera (and still try to figure out how to use it with all those settings and switches and buttons), read, thumb through old magazines looking for painting inspiration, watch Buffy on Netflix, or just sit outside with Flojo and watch the birds, it's nice, and I try not to think of all the work that's waiting on me...

So how has your summer been?  What do you like to do when you get a quiet moment to yourself?

Happy hatch day!

Happy Hatch Day to my beautiful, silly, playful, smart, loving, amazing baby, Flojo!  Today is Flojo's 8th hatch day and I plan to give her all the treats she wants.  I'd say I also plan to give her all the kisses she wants plus some, but that's actually every day.  Here are some of the most stand out memories from these last eight years with my best friend...

1. When she was learning to fly, first she would take a little jump and flap her wings two or three times and seem so proud of herself even though she didn't go more than an inch or two; then a few days later, after she got the hang of flapping, she would do more flapping but end up going backwards.

2. The time (shortly after she was able to fly a foot or two) she quickly ran down Chris' arm, stole a marshmallow from his bowl of cereal and then flew with her stolen loot toward her cage.  Until then we had no idea she could be so quick!

3. We were still hand feeding her when Easter came, so Chris put those little pastel plastic Easter eggs around her with one opened so it looked like she'd just hatched (second picture in this post).

4. The time she had to have Marvel Aid (bird medicine) which kept her up the ENTIRE night climbing loops in her cage, and every time she got to the top of her cage during a loop, she'd hang upside down with one foot, squeak a few times, then continue the loop.  It's was a sleepless night, but she was feeling back to her old self in the morning!

5. Each and every time she falls asleep snuggled against my chest, every time she quietly whispers to me and rubs her cheek against mine, every time she gives me one of her sweet kisses, each time I get to rub her feathers and watch her eyes get sleepy, and every morning I get to wake up and see her beautiful face light up when she sees me.

Lately...

Lately I've been thinking about my blog, but not actually doing anything with it.  I haven't been inspired to post anything lately, and honestly, I've been living life more lately rather than stressing over what I should post, when I should post, and how many people will read it.  I have to be honest, it's been refreshing.  Hannah and I had an almost 4 hour lunch yesterday during which we talked about how with instagram, twitter, facebook, etc., you almost don't need to blog anymore because people can keep up with you in real time.  It's so true.

I've been working on getting some new prints made, and with new prints comes more to organize (and I'm kind of running out of room with my current system).  I can't quite explain why making new prints gets me so giddy, BUT IT DOES!  Also, just a little FYI if you're in the market for new art, I'm having a 20% off sale on ALL 8.5"x11" and 11"x17" prints in my shop this week if you use the code FEBRUARY20 during checkout!

Also, speaking of Hannah, she made this to do notebook, as if she knew exactly how bad I am at time management and procrastination.  From now on I vow to keep this either by my laptop (where I tend to make most of my notes that end up getting lost) or in my bag so I have no excuse not to get work done!  Oh, and check out her shop, she makes really pretty cards, notebooks, and paper goods.

I know I've shared a picture before of Flojo leaning headfirst into a jar of peanut butter, but I don't think I've ever tried to explain just how much she LOVES granola.  Chris made two batches of granola yesterday (amazing man, right?) and it didn't go unnoticed.  When Flojo eats something she thoroughly enjoys, she tends to quietly talk and squeak while she eats.  It's always cute, and if you can imagine it, it's even cuter when it's echoed as she's talking and eating with her head inside a glass cookie jar filled with granola!

we match

when i decided to wear this outfit the other day, i didn't really intend to imitate flojo, but once i took the pictures with her, i realized we were wearing the same colors!  i guess i really do think about her all the time, and now that's just filtering down to my outfit choices...

crop top: thrifted // skirt: target // shoes: aldo // parrot bracelet: vintage, little tree vintage

i have to tell you, i am so happy to be blogging now, you can't even imagine.  virginia was hit hard with a freak weather phenomenon called a derecho on friday.  one minute things we fine, and the next, trees were falling, lightning was striking, and just about everything was being damaged by wind gusts of almost 90 miles per hour.  we're without power and probably will be for another week, according to the latest predictions.  we're lucky enough to have a small camper and a generator we can hook to it and run for a few hours at a time, but there's nothing like home (which, luckily is all in one piece with no trees through the roof or walls), and having this small piece of normalcy - blogging - is such a treat right now!

i'm not sure if there was damage to a phone tower, or if there are just so many people on their cell phones, but signal is spotty at best, so i'll cross my fingers and hope that i'm able to blog some more this week and read your posts as well!  but i'd actually just prefer to have electricity and get back to real life...

the trouble with watering plants.

i've always liked to think of myself as having a green thumb, and that may have come from my parents' love of landscaping and manicuring their lawns, or maybe it started a little later when i worked part time at a greenhouse during high school. either way, i love plants, and i love the added color they can bring to a room. i have plants in most every room of my house, and one day each week they can expect a good, healthy drink of water... unless flojo helps. the trouble with watering plants is that, to a parrot, all time is play time.

when she first sees that i have the pitcher of water she'll squeak and talk and walk down my arm to check it out. then she'll stand on the rim of the pitcher, stick her head inside, and squeak and talk some more, looking out occasionally at me (whether it's to tell me about the water, or to see if it's okay to go in, i don't know). after she's thoroughly discussed the water and pitcher with me, she'll go ahead and start flapping her wings in the water, fanning her tail feathers, and making a wet mess. once she's played in the water that i've been trying to pour on the plants and the pitcher is empty, she'll hang down in the pitcher and talk a little to be sure there isn't any water left. and then instead of watering plants, i start working on cleaning up her bath puddle.

watering plants probably isn't quite as much work to someone who doesn't live with a bird, but to a curious parrot, everything is an adventure!

i want to come outside...

so many times i've gone outside only to find flojo on the loveseat by the window watching me. she'll dance and talk and do anything she can to get my attention! each time i've seen her by the window, i've regret my decision to go outside without my camera. on sunday, i finally remembered to take it with me so i could take her picture, and a video of her dancing to get my attention!




flojo just makes my heart so happy! lucky for her, i won't be spending much time outside this week as it's supposed to be rainy, and i saw that the high temperatures are only supposed to be in the lower 70's, and even the upper 60's in the middle of the week! WHAT?! i love weather like that because it makes me feel so cozy and snuggly inside reading a book or working on jewelry.

so how was your labor day weekend? ours was good and bad. chris's grandma died on sunday morning, and even though we all knew it was coming, it's always hard to understand or accept a loss. monday was nice though; last month we'd signed up for a marathon to benefit the rachael horton compassionate care fund, which was started after rachael (chris's cousin) and her husband aaron died in an apartment fire in april. it was amazing to see the number of people (over 200) who came out to support rachael's dream and honor her memory. so i guess it's back to jewelry work for me. have a good tuesday!

from film with love.

i spent part of this morning scanning in pictures i recently had developed from a roll of black and white film. the roll of film was from my college days, so it was obviously very expired. i was excited to find it nonetheless, and even more curious about how the pictures would turn out given its age. i'm breaking the pictures into two groups so you don't get photo overload, so i'd say i was pleased with the results! i only wish i could have processed and printed them in the darkroom myself!

a while back, and i'm talking the end of last year or beginning of this year, i mentioned something about how i wanted to get a "brain goldfish." the fishie at the top was my brain goldfish named cadillac. sadly, he didn't live very long, and staying true to myself, i'm late showing you a picture of him. on to happier things, i think my favorite picture from the entire roll is the third one down of kona's profile. i remember my first semester of black and white photography, the professor said to go ahead and get the pet pictures out of the way so that we could focus on other things later. i love looking at pictures of architecture, candid pictures of people, landscapes, etc., but sometimes i have a hard time even thinking to take pictures of other things because flojo and kona are among the most important and cherished things in my life, and i'll never develop a roll of film that doesn't include them!

from film with love.

i swear i don't feel like i do, and i must not realize it, but i think i must talk about birds and flojo a lot. it seems like the first bit of concrete information people have about me is that i like birds, and if you're not a bird fan, please forgive me, for i know not the time i spend discussing my fine feathered friends. BUT, since we all know that i tend to gravitate toward all things avian, let's just go ahead and talk birds even MORE, and more specifically, FLOJO! i have a stack of pictures that i got developed a couple months ago, but i either haven't remembered to scan them in or i've been busy doing something else, although half the time i'm not sure what that something else is. behold, my beautiful baby (and some flowers too since i think i have a handful of other interests)...

and the deets in case you're wondering, i use 35mm film. and i'm a total film snob; i will fuss and cry and throw a fit if i have to use anything other than kodak.

the jewel thief.

i had originally planned to scan in pictures from the first roll of film i used in my olympus pen ee half frame camera, but i ended up not really thinking about it until just a little while ago, and if i'm being honest, i didn't feel like it! i had a long ichat today with my good friend brittan, i jumped on the trampoline, and much to the surprise of my floors, i vacuumed them. i like a clean house as much as any marine (no, i am not a marine, but my dad was, so i think i get my cleaning tendencies from him), but sometimes life happens and it's just more important and enjoyable than cleaning! anyway, flojo is crazy and things with her are black and white; either she loves something or she hates it. we didn't realize until the other night that she got so crazy over watches and wanted to kill them! if i were you, i wouldn't trust her with my jewels - you may not get them back...

i love the way she pushes it around and tries to pick it up and throw it even though it weighs as much as she does! also, you'll notice a pair of mangled blue jeans. those are flojo's. she knows that she dominates blue jeans, and if i even say blue jeans to her, the reaction ranges from an afro and wide eyes to an afro, squawking and maybe even a warning bite! i told you flojo is crazy!

february 16th is the best day ever!

because it's my baby's birthday! miss flojo, love of my life, celebrates her hatch day today! she's six years old, and honestly, i have no idea where the time has gone. from the moment i laid eyes on her, i knew i was in love. she was three weeks old, completely bald, and had barely opened her eyes. many would say she had a face only a mother could love, and maybe it's true, but the fact is, i love her enough for a thousand people and know that i've never seen anything as beautiful as her. so, happy hatch day to my best friend, my partner in pretty much everything, and my reason for getting up each morning!

speaking of birds, chris and i went up to the blue ridge parkway today (in the blue ridge mountains) to watch the banding and release of a golden eagle. it first came into the custody of the wildlife center of virginia when someone discovered that it was stuck in a coyote foothold trap. unfortunately one toe was severely injured and needed amputation, but only after the eagle was stabilized because of anemia due to severe blood loss. after about a month of recuperating, it was released today. because golden eagles are so rare around here, there were TV and newspaper reporters there, along with a pretty sizable crowd! i took my half frame camera to hopefully get twice as many pictures (but because i'm short and there were so many people, i wasn't able to get as many as i'd hoped) so i'm going to show you those soon!

i hope you've had a good hump day!

kitten update...and flojo, too!

If you remember from an earlier post, I became the mother to little kittens one Saturday afternoon after Chris discovered that their mother had been hit and killed by a car. Well, the babies that were once 4 ounces and fit in one hand are now about 13 ounces (it's difficult to tell for sure because they never hold still), six weeks old and so full of energy, just watching them makes me tired! The kittens are so cute and sweet, I find myself spending hours at a time just watching them play; I love the innocence of baby animals!

Although I may spend lots and lots of time playing with the kittens, that fact is, Flojo (aka Dinosaur Toes, aka Nutty, aka Kooky, aka Misses Baby) is my one and only, so I can't exclude her! Usually she doesn't like having her picture taken because she prefers attaking the camera, but today she was such a good little model!

I went to the pool this afternoon and spent time with my Grandma, and she force fed me cookies, brownies (no, I don't really like chocolate, but something about Grandma's brownies are so good...maybe the nostalgia) and coke. I got some sun, which can be difficult for me since I'm pale like an albino, but of course it was all almost completely gone by the time I got home! So, I'm going to do it again tomorrow with friends, and hopefully I'll have a tan to show for it! What have you done this weekend? Gotten in any swimming this summer?