Just Because

I came home one day and this beautiful flower was waiting for me.  I asked Kyle why and he said just because and smiled.  I’m such a lucky woman!

Screen on the Green

Since joining the board for our condominium association there has been a lot of interesting information, a fair amount of resident drama, and tons of email.  One of the parts I really do enjoy is helping with the community events.  A couple weeks ago we had a 20 foot movie screen in our courtyard and we had a cookout/picnic with our residents and then we all watched Hugo.  We had about 40 or 50 people come to the event and besides a chilly breeze once it got dark it was a great event.  I would highly recommend watching Hugo to anyone who hasn’t seen it yet.  I absolutely loved it! 

Wine Glass Painting

Some of you may remember that a couple months ago I took a wine glass painting class with Larissa and we had a blast.  I knew I wanted to try it on my own but I never seemed to make the time.  Then I had a brilliant idea of buying the supplies to take to the beach since there is inevitably always at least 1 rainy afternoon or evening on every vacation.  I also thought my mom and Anna would really enjoy it as well.  We didn’t get a chance to do them until the last day but on Friday I sat down with my parents and we painted wine glasses.  It was really reasonable, less than $10 for supplies from Michael’s with a coupon and $6 for plain wine glasses from Target.  I’m so bummed that I didn’t get a picture of theirs as well but here are my two finished products.  One is inspired by the lighthouse and palm trees on Tybee Island and the other is just a fun little pink flower.  I’ve recommend this craft to anyone, it’s super easy and a lot of fun!

Dancing on the Beach

Growing up I had TONS of dance pictures taken, really it is crazy how many posed pictures I have in costumes ranging from beautiful to hideous.  When I was younger they took the school picture approach to dance photography or at least they did at the studios I attended.  There was always a generic backdrop, canned poses, and cheesy smiles.  Over the years I have seen friends post beautiful dance photos out in nature and in street clothes and I’ve always been envious.  This started my obsession with talented photographers like Richard Calmes and my hobby of collecting dance inspiration photos, some of my favorites are from his nature dancer series.  Since Kyle and I were heading to the beach I figured why not give it a try.  Kyle was such a sweetheart and woke up at 6:15 AM one morning on vacation and we headed to the beach.  The jumping shots didn’t turn out as well since our camera isn’t the best with motion but there a few shots that we got that I really love so I wanted to share them.  I’m also still planning on doing a dance photo shoot with Alex one of these days.

Book Loving!

Here is an update on my progress in my Book a Week Challenge.  I have been kicking butt and taking names!  It helped that I always become a complete book worm at the beach and completed four books during our one week break but so far I’m up to eight complete in 6 weeks.

·         The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin

·         First Meetings by Orson Scott Card

·         Memory Wall by Anthony Doerr

·         Purple Cow by Seth Godin

·         Sweetly by Jackson Pearce

·         As You Wish by Jackson Pearce

·         The Girl Who Chased the Moon by Sarah Addison Allen

·         Twyla Tharp: The Creative Habit by Twyla Tharp

My plan for the remainder of the month is to tackle - Imagine: The Creative Habit, My Side of the Mountain (reread from childhood), Cleopatra, and The Dip.  I’m taking full advantage of the request system with the Dekalb Library and have a ton of great books requested to keep me on track with this challenge.  

At the end of my one year challenge I will post a quick recap of every book I read and something interesting I picked up from each one.  Stay tuned!

Spring Break 2012: Tybee Island

There are lots of benefits to being married to an educator but one of my favorites is that it means I still get to have a Spring Break every year.  This year we decided to do something special for our families and rented a beach house for the week and invited our parents along.  It felt really nice to be able to do something to show our appreciation of everything they have done for us and it gave everyone a chance to spend some quality time together.  The only rules were no discussing religion or politics and as a result everyone got along incredibly well!  We enjoyed lazy days at the beach, walks around the island, a day trip to Savannah, great food, happy hours at the house including homemade sangria, and reading on the screen porch.  The weather was gorgeous and it was just so nice to be away from the stress and craziness of work. 

Here are some of my favorite pictures from the trip: