Pictures from Summer

We went to Oregon for four days this summer. It had been three years since I'd been home, and I was literally aching to get on the plane. The Mister and I had a great time and made a solemn vow to go home every year, no matter the cost or the schedule. It's important for my mental health.

The lavender farm was amazing. The drone of the bees was unreal. That's Mt. Hood in the background.

We did the "Fruit Loop" through Hood River and stopped at the Mt. Hood Winery. Yummy, yummy!

We stoppped at Multnomah Falls.

I had to visit the Duck store. Because I love my Ducks and it's hard to be a Duck fan in Colorado. BTW, I am very bitter that the CU Buffs are going to be polluting my Pac-10. Like, so bitter I'm still having a conniption fit about it. I'll get over it but it will definitely take some time.

More pictures later...

Springtime in the Rockies

These are all from our neighbor's tree. She teaches youth piano and voice lessons, so as I was taking these pictures I got the pleasure of listening to a youngster trying to play Neil Diamond tunes on the piano.

Tweetie

SIL is hoping to use these bird vases for her wedding in September. I liked them so much MIL bought me one for my birthday. They will look beautiful this summer with my red and pink dahlias!

Guitar Practice

This one came out rather dark, but it's my favorite.

The Mister has a classical gig (his first in a long time) coming up on 5/8, so there's a lot of practicing going on at our house. It's a very pleasant way to work in the evenings.

Schmaps

I'd never heard of Schmaps until they contacted me through my Flickr account. Apparently they liked one of my pictures from Australia and they asked to use it for their new guide for Sydney. I received notice this weekend that mine made the final cut!

Camera Fun

The Mister at play

New Camera

Our old camera was starting to fade. It was my first birthday present from the Mister (I turned 30!) and it ended up being one of the best presents I have ever received. Although I still love that camera it was starting to be unreliable and I didn't trust it to hold up to the rigors of our trip. I'm planning on taking a lot of pictures! My little stash of teaching money went to a new camera, a Sony Cybershot. It's perfect--small, has all of the features that I wanted, and it takes lovely photos. Examples to come, just as soon as the memory card that I forgot to order the first time arrives!

Great Pumpkin

Who's the cutest Halloween baby? Why, Nephew is, of course! Love, love, love this picture.

Pictures from the Summer

Big goofy dog named Gus. Part Lab, part St. Bernard, part big slobbery mess. I wish I could claim him as my own, but he belongs to the Mister's aunt and uncle.

Sunflowers, goats and pumpkins at Miller Farms. I have a fondness for all three, but especially goats.

Yampa Valley Beauty

Today we approached the ranch from the south which took us past Stagecoach Reservoir.

The ranch property includes several homesteads in disrepair that date back to the 1850s to 1890s.

There's also a graveyard of old farming equipment.

BIL is in the middle of haying season. Here's the "finished product" before it gets stacked for the winter.

The Yampa River provides irrigation for the hay and water for the livestock.

It's always relaxing to visit this oasis in the mountains.

Home on the Range

The Mister and I are off to Steamboat for the weekend to visit Little Sister and BIL. We have a hectic weekend of nephew-cuddling, hiking, BBQing, and sleeping in planned.

BIL's family has been ranching in the Yampa Valley since the late 1800s. His Grandma is the Grand Dame of Steamboat and is regularly profiled in magazines and newspapers. BIL's family is committed to preserving the ranching traditions in an area that has very quickly become a popular tourist destination and a town where you have to have at least a million dollars to get into the housing market. Here are a few pictures:

Little Sister and BIL got married in the meadow. This is where they had their ceremony.

The cows live on some very valuable and beautiful real estate.

This is the original homestead (built in the late 1800s). It's known as "The Bunkhouse". Little Sister and BIL lived there for a year before they bought their house. You can see the chinking in between the logs. It's heated in the winter by a cute little cast iron stove.


This is one of the barns on the property. It's in a bad state so they use it only for hay storage. BIL hangs Christmas lights off of it during the winter because you can see it from across the valley.

I will take more pictures this weekend. Grandma's house (the main building) has a wonderful story and history, too. Then of course there's the hot springs, the marmots, T-bone the crazy ranch dog...it's a good thing our camera holds lots of pictures!

Mostly Unpacked

Now that we've been in the house for a year and we're feeling (mostly) settled, I thought I'd post a few pictures of my favorite features.

I'm pretty sure I got the idea for the fabric/embroidery hoop display from Alicia. Everyone on the internet has done it--I also saw it on the Martha Stewart show--but it fit two criterion for me: 1. it was inexpensive and 2. it used up some of the scraps that I had accumulated.



Don't tell the Mister, but I really like the neutral color of our paint. My heart was set on painting but the Mister's heart was set on leaving well enough alone. Although the color reminds me of every rental and flipped house we saw on the market, it does make the room feel really warm. It also makes our black picture frames pop.

The big picture window in the living room still manages to make our tiny Christmas trees (real tree = expensive!) look big and beautiful. The wood floors have a lovely honey color to them.

All right, enough of the real estate lovefest. I don't dare show you the downstairs or the backyard!

Yucca Yucca Yucca

Huh. So that's what it looks like when it blooms! This is in our front yard. Good to know...

Mother's Day in Photos

My Pretties

I received my earrings from Sulu Designs over a week ago and I've worn them several times. They match almost everything I own and strike a nice balance between pretty and professional.

After taking this photo of myself with a very powerful camera, though, I believe I will be purchasing some exfoliating and anti-aging cream this weekend.

Here We Come

We bought tickets to Australia last night! Our credit card is whimpering but we're so excited I can ignore that. Sister-in-Law and future Brother-in-Law live in Sydney, so we're going to visit them over Christmas. How am I going to wait 8 months? I'm not good at waiting…

Photo found here.

Practice

The Boss just purchased fancy-schmancy camera for our team to use to develop a database of images. I was practicing with it a few weeks ago in an effort to learn how to take a decent picture and did a photo series of my cube. Exciting subject, I know. However, even in the short amount of time I've had with the camera I've seen an improvement in my work. It's definitely been fun and makes the hours in my cube interesting. A quick glance at the books on the left just confirms the presence of my inner geek.

Have A Good Weekend

Image via vogueflowers.com

Pretty

Rainy Day Peonies via Pear Biter

Since I Wasn't Reading...

I did some sewing. Tutorial via The Small Object.