3/8/12. Window. #marchphotoaday

Here's a view out of my living room window. It's a GORGEOUS day out. My husband has tomorrow off work. So in my world, it's technically Friday. It's going to be 60º on fake Friday in IOWA. In early March. This just doesn't happen enough.

3/7/12. Something I wore. #marchphotoaday

Something I wore. My trendy-ass nerd glasses. And purple nail polish. I pride myself on how well I paint my nails.

3/6/12. 5'clock. #marchphotoaday

While driving to my mother-in-law's house to celebrate her birthday, my husband spotted these people riding over the overpass on the interstate. I thought it was something you don't see everyday while cruising down the interstate at 70 mph. Leave it to my husband to spot this. He notices everything. That's one of the many reasons I love him.

3/5/12. A Smile. #marchphotoaday

Well, I was going to go the "take a picture of my darling baby" route for this one... I decided that I do that enough already. So I went with these cute porcelain fishies my parents brought to the hospital when we had our darling baby. My dad said they screamed Chelsea, so he had to get them. I love them. Right now, they're in my son's room. Soon, when he can walk, they will not be.

Happy Monday! I know that's a difficult thing to wrap your brain around, being happy on a Monday... A sindicated radio show advised, "Google something that makes you happy. Example: dogs in wigs." That will perk up your Monday. Then before you know it, it'll be Tuesday!

3/4/12. My bedside. #marchphotoaday

Lamp my dad built, remotes, witty coaster to hold nighttime water, baby and mommy books, and bobby pins.

3/2/12. Fruit. #marchphotoaday

Today's photo for the March Photo A Day is fruit.

I actually haven't eaten grapefruit for awhile... I've had a couple sitting in the fruit basket fot a little over a week. It sounded refreshing this morning and like it would take a good picture.

Grapefruit reminds me of my grandpa Marco. Every morning, my grandma would go into the kitchen, get the coffee started and often put a couple English muffins in the toaster oven. While that was all going on, she'd take a whole grapefruit to my grandpa in the living room. Then he would sit there and peel it and eat it. This caused their house (and my grandpa) to constantly smell like grapefruit. It's one of those smells for me that brings back so many memories.

Also, on a less heartfelt note, the glass of water with lemon. I heard recently that if you start your day off with a glass of water with lemon, it will sort of align you for the day. I think it might be a placebo, but it seems to work for me. Whatever works, right?

3/1/12. Up.

Looks kind of like yesterday's post. This one is supposed to capture the pretty sky. But as I've mentioned before, I am not the greatest photographer.

2/29/12. Something I am listening to.

You can't see the wind in the picture, but it's what I've been listening to allll day. Happy Leap Day!

2/28/12. Money.

We have two of these bad boys filled with change and a few bills. It's just begging to be spent on our next vacation on Colorado.

2/27/12. Something I Ate.

Photographer I am NOT. I want everyone to know that first. I have a mother-in-law and two best friends who are amazing photographers. It's a skill I feel I don't need to posess.

That being said, here's a picture for today's post. Something I Ate.

This is a picture of a twice-baked potato that my mother made yesterday for my husband's birthday celebration. She's an AMAZING cook. I feel that genetically, I got a lot of her cooking abilities, but I don't like to admit to it because I hate cleaning up after I cook.

Usually, my mom cooks very health-concious foods, as my dad had a heart attack three years ago. Occasionally, she cooks Paula Deen-Style. Either way, whatever she cooks is scrumptious. So the menu for yesterday? Burgers (beef provided by my parents neighbor who raises cows that roam and eat grass and be cows) on the charcoal grill (mmmm, charcoal), twice-baked potatoes with bacon, and red velvet cake with a white cherry frosting (she uses vanilla from Mexico that gives it an incredible flavor.)

2/26/12. Night.

Last night, to be specific.

My favorite neighbor hosts an "adult prom" every year. The theme was superheroes. Jen (left) made a KILLER outfit and named herself "Flying Solo". I was Princess Peach and my husband was Mario. Betsy (right) was one of the Power Puff girls. In this particulary photo, you can't really tell what we were supposed to be dressed up as, as we had embellished our costumes with some of the random props laying around.

We also drank a lot. That's why this blog is choppy and now it is over.

2/25/12. Green.

So this is the picture in our living room. I got the idea from Pinterest. You take an old print and put sticky letters onto it. Then you're supposed to spray paint it white and peel the stickers off. We decided we liked it this way. Mostly because I haven't gotten around to the final two steps yet.

The quote is from the song "Rest of Our Lives" on a Mike Ness album. We both love Social Distortion and a lot of the lyrics in this song we can relate to. Not all of them, as it is with most songs.

Also green: Our walls. We just painted them a few weeks ago and I'm IN LOVE with how serene it makes our living room. Plus, we live in Iowa and there is six inches of snow on the ground right now, so it helps to see a little green.

2/24/2012. Inside my bathroom cabinet.

I am female. I am also a hairdresser and I occasionally do work as a makeup artist. So I will be putting two photos up of my bathroom cabinet. Because my husband cut out part of our wall to make extra space to accomodate all of my the items that I deem essential for getting ready in the morning.

Photo #1:

This is our actual cabinet. Take note of my high-end hair products (Kenra and Moroccan Oil) and my husband's lowEST end hair product (Murray's Pomade). It kills me that I buy all of these expensive things to make my hair look good and he buys a product that costs less than $2 and always looks great. Men really do have it easy. At least in the grooming department. (Let me say real quickly though. I have tried out a lot of mens' hair pomades and Murray's, which can be purchased at Walgreens and Wal-Mart, is the best I've found. Check it out if you want a great pomade.)

Photo #2:

And this is the hole that my husband cut into the wall for my extra stuff. It's not crooked. The picture is. My photography skills are crooked. So here, you will see my perfumes and three varieties of the same exact comb. More hair products, Marianna bobby pins (the BEST as far as I'm concerned), headbands, makeup, glasses. Right here, it is at it's cleanest. I have kept it at this level of clean for nearly two weeks. A new record for me.

So in addition to this, I literally have a small suitcase of makeup, a table-full of hair products and tools, and a closet containing more grooming items (for both of us). I would honestly consider myself very low-maintanence, so I can't imagine what high-maintanence girls are like.

Happy Friday everyone!

2/23/12. My shoes.

So I decided not to narrow it down to one pair. I have three pairs of shoes in my life in the winter. More in the summer. Right now, I have my Nike running shoes (which I don't really do a lot of running in currently, but I DO exercise in them), my Emu black boots (I also have the same pair in beige suede) that I wear EVERYWHERE, and my pink owl slippers I bought from Target as a gift to myself before my little one was born.

I used to have lots of four to five-inch heels in all varieties, but then I realized two things. 1. I am 6'1". Quite tall for a woman. If I don't want people asking me constantly if I "played basketball in high school" (I didn't) or how tall my parents are (5'11" mom and 6'3" dad)... I should refrain from making myself any taller. And 2. heels suck the LIFE out of my feet. I'm quite good at walking in them, it's a natural talent God graced me with. But they hurt so bad and I feel that if your feet hurt, no matter what you're doing, your mood is automatically dropped by at least 50%. So. I will stick with flats and a good self-given pedicure.

2/22/12. Place of Work.

So today's photo is supposed to be my place of work. I'm a housewife/housekeeper/stay-at-home mom. Whatever you want to call it. I love it. It was definitely something I was too cool for before I had my son, but I wouldn't want in any other way now. Let me give you a rundown of my day. Wake up at the same time my hubby does and (depending on the babe) make coffee or feed the baby. Change diaper and babe's clothes. Exercise. Eat. Do housework. Repeat. Run errands. Upon returning home, change diaper, feed babe, feed me, let doggie out, more housework. It doesn't sound too awful and it's not. But what people should know is that (and I'm sure you've heard it before, but listen this time) you can't call in sick from being a mother. You don't get vacation days. "Me time" is in fifteen minute intervals in the infrequent event that the baby is peaceful for more than a few seconds. Laundry and dishes get mundane. I'm by NO means complaining. I'm so lucky to be able to stay at home with my little one and his sister (the dog) every day. But before you turn up your nose and act like whatever it is that you are doing is so utterly important, remember that this is what's important to my family. And a lot of other families feel and behave the same way.

Oh. And I do hair a couple days a week. Some days, I have to juggle taking care of a baby while my clients (all of which are friends, thankfully) patiently look on. It's no easy task, believe me. I've got it pretty well figured out, though.

So. As a woman that has taken many "career" paths in life (last time I counted, I think I'd had over 30 jobs in my life) I think I have a pretty sweet gig at this point.





2/21/12: Fave Photo of Myself

I have a lot of photos of myself that I like. I will not lie. I am a ham. I love to have pictures taken of me. BUT it's not because I'm vain, really. It's mostly because I like documenting things. Especially things that are apt to be beautiful memories. I like having photos of everything going on around me. It's easier to tell the story that way when you look back.

So. Here's today's photo:

There are SO many things that I love about this photo. It's on my wedding day. The necklace that my mommy is putting around my neck? It's a family heirloom that (we believe) is a good luck charm. I look pretty dang decent. I'm in my little downstairs "salon" that my now-husband helped me put together. The photographer is one of my best friends, Beth, and also one of the people who signed our marriage certificate. (Along with her husband, Boonie, who happens to be my childhood neighbor.) I could probably come up with 1,000 reasons why I love this photo, along with almost every photo I have saved to my hard drive. I'll cut the rambling. Have a good FAT TUESDAY!

2/20/12. Handwriting.

I FINALLY have started the photo-a-day thing. I've been meaning to for quite a while now. The first photo is of my handwriting.

I really like handwriting. I think that it's fast-becoming a lost art, which is sad. When I was a kid, other kids ostracized me because I was so obsessive about my handwriting. I would get really close to the paper as I was writing and it mezmerized me. Ink or lead flowing onto paper to create these beautiful, yet common designs. Letters. Turned to words. Turned to lists, stories, equasions. To this day, I still have a profound respect for those who have beautiful or unique penmanship. I love putting pen to paper, even with a grocery list. And for the record, I'm not trying to be deep, here. I really do love writing.