today's commute to work {and play} + some photo cards {so it's sort of like two posts in one}

i found it sort of ironic that today's project life 365 challenge was "daily_commute", because mr. b. stayed home today. so it happens that both our commutes look like this today... a walk up and down the hall from room to room. thus my shot of a view from the end of our hall where the bedrooms are, looking down toward the dining room on the other end. it was taken at about 10:00 this morning. YES!... we slept in!

normal tuesdays would have mr. b. getting up at 5:00 am to get ready for work and the twenty-minute commute that gets him there, and they'd have me typically in the scene pictured above. but today is a rare, though quickly trending, treat. his hours have been getting cut on-and-off as of late. thirty-hour weeks when they're slow. back up to forty hours if the work load picks up again.

it's not so grand for the bank account. but it's a big blessing in disguise in regards to getting some work done around the house, because it means an extra day off. saturdays and sundays slip away much too fast and sometimes get filled up with activity outside the home {like last weekend when our entire sunday was spent with friends and family at brunch and dinner out and house-warming visits in between}.

so we cherish his extra days off because, as is evident by the unpacked box in the hallway and the not-yet-hung artwork and framed photos leaning against the walls, we still have lots of settling in to do.

in fact, this very hallway is the one spot we've picked to work on today. our project is to tackle the hall closet {see door knob in shot above}, painting white the inside walls and covering the shelves in hopes of transforming what was once a terribly dark, mint-ish green color to bright white like a linen closet should be.

just like the landscape outside that is currently getting covered in what will end up being around ten inches of snow, this closet is getting a major white-wash. so how appropriate that the photo prompt for today should be commute-related. my every-day is waking up and walking down that hall to make my coffee for the day, then trekking from room to room to work on things that need to be done. sometimes that entails chasing isaac down the hall when he's trying to get away from me or running towards me after hearing key words like "diaper change" or "bath-time".

but today, this hallway is not merely the "roadway" that gets me to work. it's also the destination.

before the painting began, we emptied the shelves and removed them, opening up the tiny room to something quite enticing to a little toddler boy... a little fort or secret hide-away. it even has two step-like shelves built into the floor, so isaac felt compelled to climb and use them as a reading nook while dada got the paint tray ready.










didn't i tell you? awful green, no? couldn't wait to get that thing painted over with layers as bright as our snowy lawn.

* * * * *

speaking of the white-wash outside, it's the reason mr. b. chose this tuesday for his day off. {how nice that they at least get to pick which day they want to take off when hours are cut!}

last week, when we got a significant snowfall, i got the car stuck on three different up-hill streets in our neighborhood, including ours. our front-wheel drive is no good in this weather. terrible handling... the worst of any car we've ever owned. i am so glad that he is able to be home safe with us today and not having to deal with his normal drive in what would be a most abnormal, long and potentially dangerous commute.

anyway, in celebration of the beautiful snow that it coming down so swiftly outside, i thought i'd re-add a few of my favorite shots from my photo-walk post a few days back, but this time with quotes i found about snow or winter. i've been working on these for some potential photo-cards that i've been asked to make for a friend's boutique. these are rough drafts, as some of the typography will likely change. but it's a start...

















no winter quote on this one. just a quote i love...





this next one obviously won't be a card. i just wanted to make a "moving picture" and thought i'd add it too.

in case it's difficult to read, the above quote says "there is a privacy about it which no other season gives you. in spring, summer and fall people sort of have an open season on each other; only in the winter, in the country, can you have longer, quiet stretches when you can savor belonging to yourself." ~ruth stout

here are a few more photoless quotes i thought worth including because they made me smile.

~

"to shorten winter, borrow some money due in spring."

~w.j. vogel

"i was just thinking, if it is really religion with these nudist colonies, they sure must turn atheists in the wintertime."

~will rogers

"winter is the season in which people try to keep the house as warm as it was in the summer, when they complained about the heat."

~unknown

"winter is the time for comfort, for good food and warmth, for the touch of a friendly hand and for a talk beside the fire: it is the time for home."

~edith sitwell
{yes!... i quite agree!}

~

well, as long as i'm at it, i thought i'd also post my favorite photos of the two friends i went on that photo-walk with.

carrie's...   

amy's...

we now all have our photos from the walk added to a group pool on flickr.

it was so much fun to see their shots... many that looked much like mine {because we all had the same idea}, but many that were so different too. those were the shots i'd see and think "why didn't i think of that?" that's what makes this fun!

finally, i am adding a shot they each took of me as i was photographing that day. i've converted both to black and white, but loved each of them even when they were still color.




i so loved the way carrie's shot is composed. and i'm smitten with the way amy caught sun flare in the background of her shot. two really great shots that i'm really honored to be a part of! it's fun to see what you look like while taking pictures... a rare window to a view we never really see as photographers. so i was glad they took these. we all had fun with shooting each other shooting that day.

* * * * *

well, now it's 5:00 pm, and the shelves are done... almost. everything is painted. but it wasn't all work and no play. i took time out here and there to do this post {which i started shortly after i shot my "daily commute" photo}. and then there's isaac...




pretty much all he did today was play. his starring role?... the lamp that came alive.

with that, i better get back to work before the boss hubby fires me! i've still got three more shelves to cover with contact paper. then i'll finally have a place for all our blankets and sheets and such. hooray!

but before i go, would you like to see the {almost} finished product?...

a much-improved transformation, wouldn't you say?

from house to heart

this was going to be a post about my new butterfly chair... or rather, a post about my enthusiasm and excitement over getting it as a house-warming gift from mr. b. yesterday.

oddly enough, i didn't even take it out of the box until this morning, even though it came home with mr. b. last night. but not for lack of giddiness or anything like that. i just had other things that i was working on... i.e. getting the kitchen finally unpacked now that the cabinet interiors are completely cleaned {what a nightmare that was} and painted. i really needed to free up some counter space so we could start having normal meals again.

lest i digress even further, though, i'll spare you from the boring details of what i'm doing in the house lately. anyway, even this morning, one might think finding the butterfly chair and freeing it from its folded up state in its cocoon of a box would be the first thing i would do. but craving coffee won over my desire to finally see my chair. i wanted to be fully alert to take in all that i could while i admired my latest seating addition.

anyone who knows me well or has been to my home {or recently helped us move *cough*} knows my strange obsession with chairs. i can't help it. i just really like them. so many different kinds from so many different times and places. i think this love for chairs might be in part because i so enjoy shopping at vintage or thrift stores, and most of the time, i only find what i call "loner chairs"... chairs that have become separated from their original mate or dining set of six... or whatever the case be. it's hard not to take home these old abandoned gems.

and to me, vintage chairs have far more character than most chairs made today. so i sort of ended up collecting them. i've even been known to rescue some from sides of roads... as they sat awaiting their impending dumpster doom.

if i don't happen to find my chairs used, i still tend to get seating that looks vintage, even if a new piece.

such is the case with my new butterfly chair. i've had my eye on this style chair for a while... ever since i saw these patio beauties on one of my favorite blogs. she originally blogged about the butterfly chair here and here. {oh, how i'd love to have this cowhide cover!... but i'll settle for the camel-colored version i have, which came with its base from world market.} 

anyway, i know my chair isn't an expensive vintage piece with a nice sleek base like the base one would find on an original 1938 jorge ferrari-hardo butterfly chair. but i love it anyway. and knowing the hubby got it half price with an extra 15% off is even better {'cause i can tell you right now that an original would cost just a tad more}.

well, that's about all i have to say about that.

here's where my post takes a turn...

coffee consumed, i was on to bigger and better things... camera in one hand, scissors for busting open the taped box in the other. it wasn't long {maybe three or four steps into my mission} that i learned i had a little 3-foot tag-along.

not surprising. he pretty much tags along wherever i go, whatever i do. so i let him observe at a safely-away-from-the-scissors distance.

once open and assembled, it became very clear to me that i had an inspector for a son. of course, just curiosity-driven, he walked around the entire chair and looked at every aspect of it that he could. but i got a chuckle out of it, because he looked like an actual quality-control furniture inspector... like he was on the assembly line, making sure everything was up to par with this chair... well, all except for the wearing-nothing-but-a-diaper part. or, maybe not. maybe furniture inspectors only wear diapers on the job. i honestly don't know.

all i know is that it passed inspection. so some climbing was in order. he just had to be the first cat to try out this sweet new landing pad.

and he was it for a bit of a surprise...

not quite the upright support that he was used to from all the other chairs he has tried out in the short year he's been climbing/testing the furniture. limbs were flailing. slipping and sliding down into hard-to-get-up-from positions was inevitable.

but no matter. he had a blast anyway...

as did i, watching him.

it was actually quite comical... watching him try to maneuver around in that chair. as awkward as it was, i couldn't help but think it was made just for him.

and when he wasn't wiggling, he'd sit quite still and take advantage of the funny position he found himself in... using his very high-up knees as a perch to balance his car on.

he tried that scene out for a while. when it became old hat and he was ready to get out of the chair, it proved to be difficult... for him. 

for me, it proved to be hilarious. i could have helped him out. but i'm mean like that. it was way more fun to watch him struggle.

i think he gave in when he realized he wasn't in such a bad place, and there was really no reason to leave quite yet. so he sank back in and enjoyed his stay for a while.

that was when i realized that my photos for this post were less about the house-warming gift i got and more about the heart-warming gift he is.

but i'm guessing if you were to ask him, he'd say it wasn't about either.

i think he'd say it was about the fun there was to be had.

just a hunch.

last days

dear isaac,

i had very much hoped to record so much more during our last few days in your first home {second home, if you count my tummy as your first}. but things got quite hectic, and our move turned into an eleven-day ordeal {see last post}. a very exhausting, sometimes stressful, nothing-went-as-planned eleven days.

so, i'm lucky just to have taken a few pics of you in the rooms we once roamed. rooms you once ran around it... where you learned first to crawl, then walk. rooms where you hid so, so many things... like the pen cap to the fancy pen i received for standing up in a dear friend's wedding. i finally found it after a year when your dad and his friends picked up the large king-size bed to load onto the moving truck... there it was, on the carpet right smack dab in the center of the space that the bed took up, where no eyes or light could reach. i had searched every corner and cranny to no avail. only to find it on moving day... not far from where you sat in these photos.

these photos. oh, these photos. i love them so. i was busy in the living room, just around the corner a short distance down the hall. dad too. but he happened to look in on you at this very late hour on one of our last nights there. just you, a lamp, our tool box and one of your little matchbox cars.

unbeknownst to me and you, he took a similar photo with his phone. he showed it to me as i packed, and it made me stop. it took my breath away. i hadn't noticed in my busyness that you had been being so good and patient and content... with just a simple little car in an empty room... not even the bright orange tracks that you got for christmas to push the car around on.

just a tool box.

and his photo said it all {which is why i had to grab my camera and get some of my own}... a very good-natured little boy subjected to crazy eating and sleeping schedules who hardly fussed or complained, though nothing familiar surrounded you for those hours on end while we tirelessly packed and cleaned. hardly a complaint. just creative ways to play with your car.

as if you knew what we needed to accomplish... what needed to be done. my!!... if this is a taste of our lives to come with you, we are going to have an easy go of it. 

i can just see it. we won't have to push you to practice whatever sports or instruments you decide take up. we won't have to find ways to keep you entertained when we go on vacations. we won't have give you all the latest electronics and gadgets when you become a teenager.

maybe.

who knows. of course, you could change. and if you do, well then, i'll just chalk it up to typical adolescence or teenage-years behavior.

but that's okay too. i just know that right now, at less than two years old, you sort of amazed me.

not that you never cried and never got frustrated throughout the whole thing, because you sure did. but you know what? you were sick... first with a week-long stomach virus that had you throwing up. then with a relapse of your flu virus that had you coughing again and had your nose running twice as bad as the first round.

and on this particular night, you and your mama slept on the floor right there in that room. you conked out while your mama tried to keep you warm and comfortable and couldn't sleep because of all that she knew she should be doing. two hours sleep, she got. if that. laying there awake with you, worried for you.

while i remember that part of it, it's the parts where you made the best of things with the simplest of things that i will remember most. at such a young age, such a pioneer spirit. sleeping on floors. waiting on us from dawn 'til dusk with very little of what formerly surrounded you.

a real bright spot you were... to not have to worry about you too much. well, i did. but i didn't need to. don't even know if i'm making sense. i just feel so happy looking back... knowing that, as tough as those days were, you handled it so well. and i smile to see now in pictures what made me smile then in real time.

i kept finding them everywhere as i flew from room to room like a busy little packing bee. a total of six cars. sometimes they were all together. sometimes strewn throughout three or so rooms.

you found a myriad of places to drive them. none of them given to you or meant for the cars. some of them anchored and un-takable to your new house. all of them super interesting to the mind of a toddler who is fascinated with cars more than anyone i've ever known.

to be honest, it was a little bit convicting... or let's just say, a lesson was to be learned in it all for this big person who sometimes grows discontent and stuck and creatively blocked or bored with life.

i learned, like you... sometimes the fun is to be found under the empty shelves of an old abandoned office with nothing but a vacuum cleaner and some cleaning supplies. sometimes you just have to run around like a crazy person laughing and squealing with delight, one decible louder than the sound of the vacuum's motor, or take shelter under the shelving while you watch someone suck up all the hard-to-reach dust in the corners of spaces.

and smile as broadly as you possibly can while doing so!

and to quote your grandma, sometimes you just have to bloom where you are planted and be glad.

and you have to explore old places in new ways like you never have before. sometimes when there is less to see, there's more to see with. and it can be freeing.

you proved to me in those days that not only could you do it, but so could i if i just let myself... even made myself.

this is how you spent your last days in your first home.

i don't have detailed accounts of all the steps of the move... no precious pictures of me packing up some of your sentimental toys. no documentation of the various rooms as they went through the stages of furnished to packed to empty. {and that's a good thing, 'cause trust me... it wasn't pretty. it was basically what appeared to be an unorganized mess.} i've no room-by-room albums of the fun little place that was once our abode... with all it's interesting characteristics like the round shower in the bathroom or the curved wall in the hallway or the built-in shelving, odd closets and vintage nooks. nothing like what i thought i'd have done.

but i remember how very tired we all were, and i'm so glad i managed to get the few shots i did. i'll remember this move for all the best reasons. and i hope with this post, you will too. you truly made me a proud mama for that small, but rough, slice of your life.

one last photo. i had to capture it when i saw it....

i kid you not... during your very last bath in that nearly empty home, with nothing to play with but a few remaining letters and "bumbers" from your bath-time collection, you put up these letters... WE.

i highly doubt you know that word yet. maybe you recognize it when said and have an idea of its meaning, but i am pretty sure you can't spell it. but it didn't stop me from smiling when i saw it spelled there on the tub wall by your hand... as if you knew... WE are all together. WE all lived here together. WE all got through this tiring and long move together. WE are all moving to a new home and a new life together. WE made it. WE are together. 

WE are.

and i'll always treasure just what i saw there for that last little bath on that last night in our last home.

thanks for hanging in there. as you know full-well, things are not quite settled and normal yet. but they are a whole lot easier than those days. so i look forward to next sharing with you some photos and thoughts from our first days here.

home.

love, mama