earth hour

Tonight at 8:30PM (local time - wherever you live), Earth Hour begins. Show your commitment to the earth by switching off the lights for one hour. It's not much, but it will help. And maybe while you're having your Earth Hour party, or whatever else you decide to do in the dark, you'll think of other small ways you can help our environment. Whether you believe in global warming or not, you should respect the Earth for the gift to you that it is, and keep in mind that you're sharing it with everyone else. Would you burn down the house you share with someone else, even if it meant they would be left with no place to live? I hope not. Register to Vote Earth at http://www.earthhour.org.

I'm switching off the lights early tonight. Will you?

drag the shutter

Our latest location photography assignment was called "Drag the Shutter." The instructions were to take photographs outdoors at night, and indoors in low-lighting situations, using a slow shutter speed, with available light, flash, or both. We were allowed to have movement in either the subject or the background. I chose the subject. The photos posted below are not the finals for the project, but they are fun, and they are a few of my personal favorites. I photographed Arlie interacting with herself, as well as the two of us being ghostly together. Enjoy.

i love him

This morning, before a shower, real clothes, and makeup, Henry and I had a photo shoot. He was just so precious playing in his playpen that I couldn't resist photographing him. He is changing so much so quickly, I feel like I should be taking a picture of him every day. He inspires me to get my camera out more than anything.
Speaking of inspiration, I've been thinking a lot lately, and I feel the need to share. . . It's come up a lot recently that there are a lot of things I want to do and see, but can't or won't because of Henry. Sometimes, I almost can't help but think that a lot of my dreams and goals are put on the back burner by motherhood. But then, thinking about it, I realize that I don't feel that way at all. I believe that our society has just programmed me to think that way. After all, most people seem to think that having children young can and will derail your future, and cancel out your dreams. I disagree. In my heart I know that Henry is my future, and he is my sweetest dream. I'm convinced that you can't really know what love is until you have a child, and you'll never truly be grateful to your mother until you are one (thanks mom!) Since having Henry, I look at things very differently. I'm not really jealous of my friends that get to travel the world, or my classmates that are going to be famous artists straight out of school because they get to do so much for their art outside of class. Why? Because I know I have the sweetest, most adorable person waiting for me when I come home, and I'll have him forever. Everything in life comes and goes, but family is the one thing you can't choose, and you can't get rid of (for better or worse!) Sure, I'd love to travel till my feet couldn't carry me anymore, and I want to be known for my art, but I'm cool with waiting till Henry is old enough to hike to Machu Picchu with me, old enough to attend all of mommy's gallery openings. And I haven't lost one ounce of ambition. If anything, I have more dreams than ever, because I have the best reason to dream. For now though, Henry is priority. I'm going to enjoy these fleeting moments where I'm the only girl for him.

Our Photo Shoot:

snow photos

I don't have time to write because, now that I've uploaded these photos, it's time to feed Henry his dinner. . . I just wanted to post a few more images of the snow, so here they are. Enjoy!

city snow

Hey everybody, it's a blizzard! I haven't seen snow like this since I first moved to Virginia, ten years ago (was it really that long?!) We're a week away from Spring break, and VCU has had to cancel all classes due to snow. So exciting! I'm in a really good mood today because I get to stay home, which means Henry gets to have mommy around for a fourth whole day, and mommy is going to knit up her own blizzard of baby booties. . . and squares.

The snowfall was absolutely gorgeous last night, so I had to venture out. My younger brother, Asher, is here visiting for a couple of weeks, and my friend Arlie was here to do an HTML assignment (which we of course didn't do when we saw that the snow was really happening.) We bundled Henry up and went out to play. Arlie carried Henry, and I carried the camera and tripod. Henry liked the snow at first, but wasn't too thrilled when it hit his face. I wasn't thrilled with that either. Anyway, we froze ourselves a little bit, ended up having to take shifts standing in the lobby with Henry so the others could play in the snow, and I got some really pretty shots.

My self portrait:

City stuff:

Group shot:

Henry afterwards, still in all his layers (pj's, hoodie, hat, pants, socks, shoes, socks on hands, coat, etc.):

And finally, I wanted to post this picture that Arlie took of Henry before we went out. I think it really shows how much his face is changing from his front teeth coming in:

That's all for now. Hopefully I'll get to go out and play in the snow again today, and then I'll post more photos. Check back tonight!

leftovers, books, and some things i'm working on

When my Valentine's Day roses died too suddenly for me to hang them up to dry, I plucked all the heads off them, stuck them in a pretty jar, and (of course) photographed them. Very pretty.

Lately, I've been getting a lot of Amazon.com gift cards with all the points from my credit card (just goes to show I've been charging way too much.) Because I'm such a dork, I've been using them to build my knitting/crochet book library. I'm fine with getting patterns and ideas online, but there's definitely something to be said about the inspiration I get from holding something tangible in my hands. Good photography helps, too. Don't get me wrong, Ravelry is great, but a bad photograph can really kill an otherwise beautiful handmade object. (I'm not saying the pictures I take of my knitting are the greatest, but then I barely have the time to knit, much less make amazing images of what I've created.) Anyways, my baby knitting books are by far my favorites. Two really good ones I've found are Easy Baby Knits by Claire Montgomerie, and Simple Knits for Cherished Babies by Erika Knight. The patterns are beautiful and simple, and the photographs are absolutely gorgeous. Below, I have posted a few for you to see:

Finally, some projects I am working on. I've been knitting squares and squares and more squares, which I will soon join together to make plush baby blocks to sell on Etsy. I've also become obsessed with knitting booties. As you can see, I'm currently knitting a newborn pair in wedgewood blue. I think they're precious.

henry's booties

Now that Henry is 8 months old, I finally got around to making him a pair of booties. . .


I think they're adorable, and they are made from 100% organic cotton grown in Peru. The yarn is so soft, I can't imagine wanting his little piggies to wiggle against anything less! I will have booties like this and in other colors up in my Etsy shop soon.