Inspiration Monday

I just love the look of painted kitchen cabinets.  I am slowly branching out beyond basic white and finding myself able to appreciate cabinets in colors like the robin's egg blue the mint green pictured above.  We are still cottage shopping.  Nothing has been decided yet (we are close), but I think that whatever cottage we end up buying, there will be some fun color in the kitchen.  In the meantime, I have been helping my mom plan her kitchen redesign and her cabinets are going to be this wonderful soft buttery yellow.   Mmmm, good enough to eat.

What colors have you seen in kitchens lately that have caught your eye?  I would love to hear!

Looking for more inspiration?  Follow my boards on Pinterest, here!

Happy Monday, friends.  

Photography

I've always said that if I had nine lives, I would spend one of them as a professional photographer.  I absolutely love a beautiful photo.  I love the creative use of light and angles and perspective and the sheer joy of capturing life as art. 

After my son Wynn was born I bought my first dslr camera- a Canon EOS 20D- used, from a friend who does professional photography and who was looking to upgrade her camera.  I didn't have the slightest clue how to operate the camera once I had it in my hot little hands so I signed up for an online course that I saw advertised on my friend Layla's blog. I was such an eager student and soaked up as much as I could during the four week course on basic photography.  I also took a second class from the same instructor-an overview of editing in Photoshop. I have been taking and editing pictures constantly the past few months.  I just love, love love it.

My dear friend Tracey asked me to take pictures at her son Cole's first birthday party this past weekend.  It was so much fun.  This is such a rewarding hobby-Tracey told me that she cried when she saw the photos I captured and that was just the best compliment I could have asked for.  Here are a handful of photos from Cole's first birthday party.

This last photo is my favorite from the day-daddy kissing the icing off baby Cole's hands.  His eyes aren't even open and you can see the profound love on his face.

All photos taken with my Canon EOS 20D with a 50 mm 1.8 lens, edited using PSCS5 (and free actions from The Pioneer Woman)

Is photography a hobby of yours?  How did you learn your dslr? Any fun sites or books that you recommend?

Rejoicing in Motherhood

 I hope that everyone enjoyed a beautiful Mother's Day.

This was my second Mother's Day as a mother myself and the joy of it still seems almost unreal.  I hope that it always stays that way . . .

                                                                                          Mr. Dream Boat

I am in the process of making some design changes over the coming days, please excuse the dust!

Bedtime

I have read the little blue book at so many bedtimes that I have every verse memorized.

"Look at the clock.

What does it say?

It's time to go to bed.

It's the end of the day!"

He sits in my lap.  He strokes a loose strand of my hair and stares bright-eyed at the pictures.

How I love him, love him, love him.

I close my eyes and recite the words of the book by memory.  Eyes closed, head bowed, the words of his story are my prayer.  A thanksgiving. Another day draws closed.  Another page of his childhood about to turn and give way to memory. 

His eyelids are heavy and eager to dream.  He cuddles up to me, nurses, and drifts so softly to sleep.  He knows the scent of my skin and like his stories, I have every detail of him memorized.  My tiny dreamer.

I recite the details of him in my mind so that I will never forget . . .

"Good night my precious. . .

Go to sleep

Go to sleep . . .

Shhh shhhh shhhh." 

Wynn's bedtime book (and the cool story behind it) here.

Under Water

Our basement flooded last week.  We have been busy bailing out and salvaging memories.  It has been a time-consuming, soggy mess. 

Somehow I was so busy playing with Wynn that I didn't hear the basement filling up with water as it happened . . . I walked down to the basement about mid-morning with baby on hip and  basket of laundry in hand and stepped into ice cold water that was above my ankles.  I gasped out of raw shock-mostly because of the freezing cold-and then my eyes slowly took in the scene and my mind started to grasp what had happened as I watched a pair of baby booties float by in ripples of rain water.  

As I sit writing, we are finally on the other side of the clean-up, which included a team of professionals, soggy carpet removal and approximately 1,000 loads of laundry.  There isn't a shred of clutter left to my name-a bright spot, I suppose.  Our load has been lightened to say the very least.  I cried because I had to throw out the guest book from our wedding-pages torn and bleeding ink-it simply couldn't be saved.  Plus stacks of old photos in water-laden albums.

I am reminded for the second time in as many years that waters may rise but that it is no matter, for my savior walks on water and my treasure He safe guards in heaven.

"Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust [and water!] destroy, and where thieves break in and steal.  Store up for yourselves treasures in heaven . . . For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also."

Mark 6:19-22