Life in a Snow Globe

I can't believe that it's March 5th and I'm doing a post about snow!  How crazy is that people?!

This morning, when I left to go have lunch with Ms. M and my good friend Doug, I was amazed to see how wintry our world was, especially since we've had such a mild winter.  And yes, those are Christmas lights on the railing of our patio, we keep them up year round so that in the summertime it looks like fairy lights, and helps us find our way back when we kayak after dark.

The flakes were coming down fast and furious and you couldn't even see the creek very well or the barn in the field next to us.

It was so pretty though, and it made me feel like I was living inside a snow globe.

The pups even looked like little creatures inside a snow globe as the big fluffy flakes settled onto their coats making them look like reverse dalmatians!

The weird thing was that as I drove the half hour to Ms. M's house the weather changed dramatically.  Over there on that side of the county there was almost no snow on the ground and the trees were not covered the way they were at our house.  And I'm glad I snapped some pictures before I left, because by the time I got back home the temps had risen and there was not much snow to be found at our house either.

I had a lovely lunch with friends and I got to see one little blast of winter before it finally bids us farewell this year.  I guess mother nature just felt like she couldn't let the winter pass by without a little reminder of how things could have been these past few months.

Plus, if I were mother nature I would just want to show off what I can do, like turning someone's world into a snow globe, if only for a few short hours.

In other news, I picked up a copy of the photo editing program Lightroom.  I'm still learning how to use it, but so far I love how much I can do with it, like creating very custom black and white images like the ones in this post.  It allows me to adjust each color and hue so that I can really customize the shades of black, grey, and white in any image...and I'm loving that feature!

I hope your week is off to a good start!

Little Acts of Kindness

The past few days have been a serious whirlwind.  Work has demanded every waking moment of my time and by the time I'm finished late at night, I am ready for bed, so I haven't even surfed blogs or the web the way I normally do.

The good part is that I'm making progress, so even though it is time consuming, it is so worth it!  And I know that the payoff will be worth the effort.

Awhile ago, Linda from Itsy Bits and Pieces showed this gorgeous vintage Dutch tin on her site.  That girl is always finding the best stuff, and her prices sometimes seem too good to be true, except that they are true...so they are that good!

As soon as I saw it, I knew that the colors were perfect for using in photo shoots, so I sent Linda an email asking if she planned to sell this pretty little tin.  Much to my delight she said yes, and she even suggested we do a trade...some of my artwork for her tin.

Umm, heck yes I want to trade!  So I ordered her prints and she shipped me my tin.  When it arrived it was as beautiful as I had imagined, and I've already filled it with a lovely primrose that I picked up at the store yesterday.  The primroses at my local grocery store were 3 for $5 on special, so I snapped up quite a few of them in lieu of buying roses or tulips that don't last nearly as long.

I tucked one into my new tin and filled my wire basket with several others.  I truly love having fresh flowers in my house, there is  just something so refreshing about seeing and smelling beautiful flowers throughout the year.

Of course getting a package is always uplifting too, but especially when it comes from someone as kind as Linda!  She didn't just include the tin, nope, she also included a few other goodies, some of which I will show you in an upcoming post.  But those darling little clay stars above, well they were tucked in to my package.

Not only are Linda and her daughter (who is her partner in crime) super good at finding vintage lovelies, but they are also hugely talented and creative souls who make all sorts of wonderful things from things they find as well as things they make themselves.

And between the two of them they have several Etsy shops which you can visit by clicking on the links on her sidebar, on the right side part way down on her blog.  Just don't blame me if you find all sorts of things you can't live without!

For the past few days I've been up to my eyeballs in talking to manufacturers, learning about anything and everything there is to know about trying to make it in commercial photography.  Some people are so incredibly helpful that you can't really believe it, while others can make it feel like pulling teeth, and for no good reason I might add.

But hey, I'm always up for a challenge.  I was born competitive and those traits have served me well over the years, so I'm not planning on changing any time soon.  But when people like Linda show those little acts of kindness, well it makes you realize that right will always win in the end, because that's what matters most in life, don't you think?

Dreaming of French Flowers

It is cold and damp here today, and it even snowed earlier.  Hard to believe when just 2 days ago it was in the high 60s here!

Tonight at dinner, my son and I talked about where he wants to go for his special trip this spring.

When our daughter was the same age, we sent her to London and Paris with a friend.  It was to be the first of many trips abroad on her own.  She loves to travel, and if her finances would allow it, I think she could be happy living the life of a Nomad.

We consider ourselves very, very fortunate to have been able to expose our children to different cultures through travel.  And the college our son attends actually requires a study abroad experience in order to graduate.

But before he goes abroad for an entire semester, we want to give him the same opportunity to travel for a week or so to some place he finds appealing.  Right now, he and his friend are having trouble deciding just where they want to go.

Of course if it were up to his dear mother, well I would have to say France...maybe Normandy.  I've never been to that part of France, but both the beauty and the historical significance of that region has always appealed to me.

For now I will have to settle for looking at these beautiful flowers and day dreaming about my time spent in France last fall.  I think if I ever win the lottery, I will become a world traveler.  I would love that way more than a big fancy house and an expensive luxury car!

If you won the lottery, what would you spend it on?  Would you travel, or would you stay right where you are and build your dream home?

Landmarks

Thank you everyone for your wonderful comments about my last post!  I read each and every one of them (thank you Droid!) while Mr. Tide and I were away helping our daughter who ended up taking a trip to the emergency room last Thursday in the wee hours of the morning.  Unfortunately for her, she has inherited some of my reproductive issues, and suffered a ruptured ovarian cyst...ouch!  She is feeling much better now, and thankfully she has a wonderful roommate who took very good care of her until we could get there the following day!

The house pictured above is what we call the Mama Bear, Papa Bear, Baby Bear House.  For those of you who live in southern Maryland, it is a sort of landmark.  I'm not quite sure where it got its name, or who owns it, but I think most people who know of its existence have always called it by that name.  

I actually took the picture at the request of a friend of mine who has always loved this little unassuming house.  I think it resonates with her, and with me, because it is so simple, yet so charming.  When my kids were little they had a joke that I only liked run down houses.  It's true, I do love a fixer upper that has tales to tell and wears her years with pride.  I think you can just feel the love and happiness that once filled their rooms and even the yard when you look at them.  Can't you just hear those screen doors slamming as children darted in and out, chasing lightning bugs in the summer or going to fetch wood to feed the stove during the winter?

Anyway, it's a present for my friend, whose birthday is coming up.  She doesn't read my blog every day, so I think I am safe to post it.

I guess landmarks are what help us to find our way.  Long before GPS' showed up on everything from our car's dashboard to our smart phones, these were the coordinates that let us know where we were and how to make our way back home.  Mr. Tide still laughs when I give directions based on where things "used" to be.  You know, you turn right where the Ford Dealership used to be, next to Mr. So and So's house that was torn down years ago, the one with the big front porch, and then you go down the hill by where we used to buy our penny candy, and over the old railroad tracks that no longer exist?!  Seems simple enough...right?

A sense of place, I think that's why we use directions that link us to our past, and why we would want a picture of the Mama Bear, Papa Bear, Baby Bear house...before they tear it down and put in a doggone Wawa or self storage place!

The Water is Wide

This lovely Mute Swan graced us with his or her presence on a walk this evening.

Black and White

Remember as a child, everything seemed so cut and dry, black and white so to speak?  You knew the general rhythm of things, adults took care of the scary or difficult stuff so that all you had to do was play or maybe do a little homework and some chores.  For those of us with happy childhoods, that was how life went day to day.

Right now I have two friends, both of their names start with the letter "J," and for them life is not so black and white.  Life has become infinite shades of gray as both of them are fighting, and thankfully winning their war against cancer.  One is newly diagnosed, while the other friend has been undergoing treatment for quite some time now.

I hate cancer and all that it requires both mentally and physically!  Yet as the bystander, all I can do is let them know how much I care and to give them some support.  It's not much, and I wish there was more I could do, like wave a magic wand.  But some things just aren't that easy once you are all grown up.

Wishing you all a very calm weekend, and if you haven't told someone in your life how much you love them lately, please do...it will mean the world to both of you!