I love it when Jennifer and Olive come to visit. Since they moved back to California in April, much to the family's sadness, Jennifer and Olive have been able to get back up about once a month to ease our pain.
Not only do I love that Jennifer does the dishes when she's home (and a myriad of other chores we all hate but now have to do in her absence), but I love that after dinner, no matter the evening, almost all in attendance enjoy a cup of tea. I like to wander to Jean's china cabinet and chose a tea-cup from her lovely and eclectic collection. I daresay it's one of those small, profound pleasures that I live for.
Add one (or five) of Jean's pumpkin cookies, and you have one blissed out madame.
Hope yours was delightfully spoooky. Mine was a little get-together on Saturday night wherein I was not drunk enough to endure friend's singing Karaoke.
Oh, and I have to share these of my toddler nieces!
Smart Clara as a dalmation puppy, Teresa as Cruella DeVille.
For one sweet year of my life, I had both my nieces living within arm's reach. The very next year, they both moved to California to join my other 3 nephews and 4 nieces. Though I am used to separation, my heart has never been very good at it. It therefore makes the visits that much sweeter. Olive is Joel's sister's girl, and I relish in her sweet spirit, keen sense of humor, and active mind. I'm doing my best to ensure she becomes a photographer...she is well on her way to knowing the buttons on my camera at least!
Goodness me, I am STILL reeling from all the haps of this blissful 3-day weekend. Wherever shall I start?
I came home from work on Friday, not only to these gorgeous earrings made by my soul-friend, UmberDove...but also to an ENTIRE evening of solitude. I took a quick run, I bought a bottle of wine, I made myself some ravioli, I watched an inordinate amount of trash TV, I journaled, I cried over videos of my niece, and I bought my sister a plane ticket to come up to Seattle and see U2 with me this weekend.
A leisurely Saturday morning with tea and ElleDecor...this picture is also starring my new coffee table...which I am absolutely enamored with! I do love craigslist.
Then it was a walk to the farmer's market, a stop for our favorite spinach smoothies, and then we simply
couldn't resist the temptations of a lamb schwarma and some ginger iced tea. Oh dear delicious gods. If you ever find yourself wandering Seattle's University district, hungry and thirsty, aimlessly hoping to find the perfect sandwich, let's talk about Schwarma King.
After we returned home, I sat to write for a bit whilst watching Joel work on the tomato beds. Looking back, Joel and I both really enjoyed this time specifically. I love hanging out with him at home, doing the same thing...but I love doing our own things even more...coexisting in different tasks to our mutual happiness. It just gives me great pleasure to look out my window and see him doing something he loves...not to mention the lusty glances that were exchanged through that window. Caliente!
We then strutted our stuff downtown to attend a burlesque show (I purchased this vintage dress when visiting Kelly, and I feel that it and me were indeed meant for each other). We were feeling so fabulous that we stayed afterward and listened to some live music in the lounge, then walked to a new (to us) pub in Pike's Place Market, The White Horse Trading Company. Books and ale, yes please!
After all that walking in my heels, home felt amazing.
We spent Sunday lounging with Jenn, Brian, and Olive...doing laundry, eating homemade cornbread, laughing at Olive. A perfect day. Olive is enamored of cameras, especially Auntie's DSLR. She will sit for whole minutes on end toying with the buttons, snapping photos, and since she always wants to be doing this while in my lap, I certainly do not mind! I took several videos of her entertaining antics.
Monday, I woke to the wonderful news that Devon had her baby boy, Ethan! After a lovely talk with the exhausted mom, I got to work moving all my books, re-potting plants, refreshing the jasmine collection around my house (I'm obsessed lately) and general nesting. We felt we simply had to have mexican food on Memorial Day, so off to soak up the margaritas at Chupacabra . Then it was a leisurely trip to the Goodwill, where I bought even more stemware (if you have been to my house, you know of the inordinate amounts of drinking vessels Joelio and I tend to collect. This time I found two pretty slutty brandy snifters, two victorian-looking wine glasses, one gorgeous leaf-embossed shot glass, and one small-stemmed crystal port glass). I need an intervention. Then we decided to try another bar close to the store, but it was very blah.
We came home to watch several episodes of Doctor Who and plopped into bed happy and wishing every week could be Monday's off.
Thought I would take a moment and show you the dramatic difference between using my new flash by itself and using it with the Gary Fong Lightsphere.
My living room is obviously filled with more beautiful light in the left photo, though I have some work to do on the focus and exposure.
Joel came home and found me taking a nap. He started playing with the camera and despite me looking seriously tired, the skin tone on the left photo is much more flattering (and completely unedited). I really think this diffuser makes people look much better than the harsh flash.
Jenn and Olive and Brian came over for dinner. I snapped these to see how it might affect photos of children, and although you can't see Olive's face in the left, you can see the color and skin tone is much more true (especially flattering to Jenn's ridiculously lovely skin).
Last one, I promise. Again, the warmth of skin tone in the left picture is dramatic compared to the right.
I love my new toy.
And just for the hell of it, I will now show off my niece and her cuteness