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#14 - read five books for fun

well number five sure was easy. i'm not quite three months in to the list and i've already read six books for fun. i do love to read, i just don't always make enough time for it. having it on the list is definitely good motivation. so is easy access to my public library!

books read so far:

1. one year off by david elliot cohen. a re-read, actually, but it had been quite a while since i read it last. loved it just as much the second time. it's a real life account of the author, his wife, their nanny & their three children on a one year trip around the world. wanderlust much?

2. the first annual grand prairie rabbit festival by ken wheaton. a story about a young catholic priest in rural louisiana who holds a festival at the church. MUCH funnier and more interesting that it sounds. a great read.

3. the lost symbol by dan brown. the latest installment of the adventures of robert langdon. i still like angels & demons best, but if you are a fan of that or the davinci code, then you'll enjoy this story set in washington, d.c.

4. unclutter your life in one week by erin rooney doland. a great, practical guide to get you started on getting rid of the clutter in your home and at work. i read it once quickly, just to get the general idea. i plan on going back and really going through each chapter thoroughly. an encouraging read.

5. my life in france by julia child with alex prud'homme. i absolutely loved it. i will probably end up buying a copy, so i can re-read it. and i know i would have loved it, even if i hadn't just watched julie & julia, but the movie is what made me aware of the book in the first place.

6. the catcher in the rye by j.d. salinger. somehow, i never read this in high school. oh, how i wish i had! it was a little slow for me at the beginning, and it took a while to get used to the language style, but in the end, i really, really liked it. i can see how it would make a huge impact for younger people.

i'm sure i will be adding to this list as the year goes on, but for now, check off number fourteen!

#10 - surprise someone

oh, boy, did we ever!

some very lovely ladies had an idea to surprise our friend, kristin, for her birthday. everyone was so nervous that the secret would be blown, but we totally pulled it off! a wonderful video slideshow of our photos was unveiled to kristin this morning and she was blown away. it was so great. i seriously couldn't stop smiling all day!!

cross another one of the list!

(i have a couple more surprises in the works . . . can hardly wait to reveal them!)

happy birthday kristin!

wishing you the most wonderful year imaginable. you deserve it!

and we all chipped in and got you something. hope you love it as much as we do. xoxoxo

in a rut

i have been in a serious photo-taking rut lately. i'm sure two months of bronchitis and cold weather have contributed to this problem. also, i have been so focused on the current week's color for sixty-four colors, that i haven't been shooting much else. i really need a flickr meet-up to get going again. who's with me??

(this photo is from last year, btw.)

testing, testing, 1, 2, sibilance

one of my friends, who uses typepad, has said lately that she cannot comment on my blog. i was just wondering if you would mind adding a quick comment, just to see if it works. if you are unable to comment here, but have a flickr account, would you mind posting a comment over there stating that you can't post on the blog? thank you kindly.

five senses friday

playing along again this week with abby's five senses friday. won't you join the fun?

+++++

tasting:

a good batch of clementines. the last bag we got were not good. at all. i was worried that they were done for the season. but then, whole foods came to the rescue with some good ones.

hearing:

the soft quiet of snow falling.

seeing:

new york city blanketed in white. it was so beautiful on wednesday. but, now, it is all gray and slushy.

feeling:

the fur coat next to mine in the waiting room.

smelling:

the delicious french toast that my husband made for breakfast.

hello

maybe my favorite self-portrait to date.

(half) snow day!

nyc finally got some snow! (december doesn't count for me, since i was out of town.) i know my friends in philly, baltimore & d.c. have had enough, but i was pretty excited to have a blizzard warning today! my other city-dwelling co-workers and i made it in to the office just fine, but got the okay to leave at 1:00. so glad that we did, because queens was being blanketed by snow by the time i got home!


(chris really should have worn a hat today!)




(henry seemed unphased by all the snow. he was just happy to be outside!)



i'm so glad that we took henry on a little walk and made a pit stop for lunch. it was so lovely to be out in the snow, since we didn't have anywhere else to be. i'm sure it won't seem as pretty tomorrow. and by friday, it will be a big, gray, slushy mess. but for now, i'm liking it quite a bit. only wish i would have gone over to central park for some photo ops!

dreaming of paris

(photo credits: (top) jennifer causey, nichole roberston, alicia bock, (bottom) alica bock, nichole robertson, anne ditmeyer)

it seems that everyone in blog land is either in paris, going to paris, or just got back from paris.

paris is definitely in my top three of places i really must visit. (the other two being thailand and san francisco. i know . . . how is it that i haven't been to SF yet??)

travel funds are low at the moment, so i'm living vicariously through anne at prêt à voyager, nichole at little brown pen, alicia bock's amazing photographs, and jennifer, patrick and beau's flickr sets.

where are you dreaming of these days?

post secret

oh, how i love postsecret. i can only imagine how much mail frank gets and what a wonderful postal route that must be to have!

anyway, this postcard really stood out to me this week. i love the idea of it and i think this might be the next step in my "practice more random acts of kindness" item from the list.

sixty-four colors

i really, really love this week's diptych.



working on this project with dani has been so wonderful. it's always nice to have a project or goal to keep me shooting on a daily or weekly basis. and going on a color treasure hunt each week is such fun! it's not always easy, but i always look forward to seeing what we each shot & putting them together in a diptych. also, it makes me feel more connected to a friend who lives about 2900 miles away. =)

and i love that so many people want to play along! okay, at first, it really bothered me that everyone wanted to jump on our band wagon. but i got over it, and now i just look forward to the enthusiastic submissions to the group pool each week.

pdx/sea mini book

elizabeth turned me on to mini books and elise blaha's wonderful blog. so, when i saw that elise & her friend were hosting a week long craft challenge, i was all in and asked elizabeth to join me.

monday's word prompt was "wander." that got me thinking how i'd like to make a mini book of our portland/seattle trip last august. (turned out that it took me four evenings to make this book, so i didn't exactly get around to the other prompt words. oh, well!) i started a mini book for my 33 things list, but it's only partially done, since i have to actually complete all the items before they can go in the book. so, it was really nice to be able to start and finish this project in such a short time.



i made the cover out of a pressboard classification folder and cut up some file "out" guides to mark the start of each day of the trip with the date and a little list of things that we did. i also raided my old stash of scrapbook papers & stickers and used a few of them throughout the book, but not too much.



there are a few maps, postcards, tickets and other bits thrown in to the mix, but a lot of the pages are just photos or notes. i also printed out menus from some of the restaurants we went to.









one awesome thing that i discovered while trying to narrow down my photos, is that picasa has a really great collage feature. i set the collage size to 4"x6" and threw a few photos in to it. then, when i had the images printed, i had these great little mini collage pages. no cutting or pasting required! (although i did cut up a few of them.)

i think this one of images from pike place market turned out really nicely.



overall, this project was tons of fun! i'm already thinking up ideas for my next books.

five senses friday

(the W hotel's gift shop window)

i love abby's five senses friday series and decided to play along this week. (mostly because i had a really good one for "tasting"!)

+++++

tasting:

amazingly delicious peppermint stick ice cream from adirondack creamery. soooo goooood.

hearing:

my co-workers' laughter and happy voices that are helping to drown out the dump trucks down on the street level.

seeing:

the lovely, lovely tuilps that my husband sent to me on tuesday (our first date anniversary).

feeling:

my sweet puppy's soft fur.

smelling:

the soft spring scent of the above mentioned tulips, which are contributing to an onset of a little spring fever. =)

LOST

i printed out these rad dharma beer labels (for our root beer) in honor of the LOST season 6 premiere. don't they look awesome? i might have to do this every week. =)

i really love this show. it messes with my head, gets me all confused and frustrated, but then does something super cool that makes me dig it even more. and stuff like this? makes the whole thing even better.

and if you watch the show, then you gotta read doc jensen the following day!

#23 - learn to crochet

(bad blogger, bad! i uploaded these photos right away, but didn't add any text to go along with them!)

when i originally posted my list on flickr, erin offered to teach me how to crochet. so, a couple of sundays ago, we met up at birch coffee in the flatiron district and got to it.


my first partially completed, almost correct granny square pentagon. still, not too bad for my first try!


(isn't erin the cutest? i love her hair this length.)



here is erin's much more professional looking granny square. told you she's good. she was a great teacher, too. thanks again, erin! looking forward to our next crafternoon!