one fourth, when i was a kid, we went over to uncle bill's house (family friend, not real uncle) and he was really excited about his newly-installed surround sound. we listened to the 1812 overture with all the lights off, just blasting. after a while i laid down on the floor and closed my eyes (no need, of course.) but i've loved that piece of music ever since.
remember that, traveltwin?
for me, the memories that really stick out about the fourth of july are quite typical: laying on big quilts and oohing and aahing over ever single firework, eating homemade air-popped popcorn (my family's specialty) while the light faded from the sky, and getting so excited for the fireworks to start, watching fireworks from a friend's swimming pool one year...
i remember the year that hubby and i had just gotten together officially. we had a long distance thing going at first and weren't around each other on the fourth. i remember watching the lights shatter in the sky and just aching, aching to be with him.
my dad got too close while he was lighting them one year and singed holes in his shirt.
this year, (like the last three, i believe) traveltwin has been in australia for the 4th. man i miss her while i'm watching fireworks.
i think she's having people over for s'mores.
what's more american than that?
have you heard about the 52 strangers photography project being done by andrea at hulaseventy? every week she goes up to a random stranger and asks to take their picture. isn't that amazing? i think she's done 9 weeks so far. read about her first week and her first stranger (and her nervous exhilaration) here.
*post title came from song title "strange & beautiful" by aqualung's album also called "strange and beautiful"
the only good thing about living in a place where it's almost constantly windy is that is prime for kite flying. the other night m. headed outside with mr. mama to fly her brand new mickey mouse kite. i stayed inside with the wee one until hubby ran in and told me to watch m fly it. i headed outside with the camera, and this is what i saw. meanwhile, the light was so beautiful that i think the pictures turned out great. no thanks to me as the camera was set on auto.
for more pictures of the kite flying session, click here.
i'm sure most people with kids know that they might be giants does kids' albums. this new one with numbers has some pretty fun songs on it.
so i hear that dan zanes used to rock out in a non-kiddie band, and switched genres when he had kids. parents around the country are so glad he did! some favorites of his are: malti, around the kitchen, and dance party.
for the kids is a great series of albums that has really good musicians singing covers of old songs and some originals in kid-friendly ways. this last installment, the third, might be my favorite yet: it's got over the rhine singing "the poopsmith song", and other great tunes from rogue wave, damien jurado, great lake swimmers, and hem. yum! it seems that pretty much every little girl i've seen in our neighborhood has long hair. many of them have moms who take the time to fix their hair in pretty braids, piggy tails, curls, and lots of other creative fabulous up-dos. we usually let millie run around with her hair not fixed. this is for a few reasons. 1) when it comes to her hair, i'm kinda lazy. 2) she HATES to have her hair combed. i mean HATES it. this goes beyond the normal ouchies that most little girls give out when having their hair combed, this is like full-on crying and wincing EVERY TIME i go to comb her hair. 3) unlike most little girly-girls (and m. is VERY girly,) m. doesn't usually want to have her hair up.
so this weekend we came to a decision: it wouldn't be so bad if we cut her hair quite short. even though all her friends have long hair. even though it seems to be quite unpopular for little girls her age. and let me tell you, we are SO HAPPY with this haircut! she can comb it out herself, it looks cute without doing anything to it, and it really suits her cute heart-shaped face. and it's going to be a great 'do for the summer ! hooray for short hair!
a new bike with a retro vibe. my current bike could probably be considered retro since i got it for christmas when i was about 11. but there's something kind of wonky about one of the wheels, and let's face it, it just doesn't ride like it used to. plus, i'd love to take my kids on bike rides on something that looked like this.
a nikon d40. this one, i know, is a major not-necessity, and so expensive, but oh, how i want one! they take such beautiful pictures, and really, when you consider what i'm taking pictures of most of the time (my kiddies) then it's impossible to have too nice of a camera, right? i mean, right??
a piano. about this, i am not going to be picky. any old piano will do, as long as the keys are all there and it stays in tune relatively well. let me just say that i took piano lessons for years, maybe 8 years, of my adolescent life (and organ lessons for a summer.) without a piano to look at and pound on and practice "clair de lune" on, i must say, there's a bit of a hole in my heart.
aaahhh. a sewing machine. sometimes i wonder how much of this desire is based in fantasy and how much in reality. i do know how to sew, and i have all these fantasies of creating beautiful sundresses for m. out of awesome vintage fabrics. but in all truth, i wonder how much i'd really use it...i want to say "ALL THE TIME!" but this is one of those, wouldn't know until you try kind of things, i'm thinkin'.
beirut.
they're a great, odd-sounding, different kind of band. perfect for when you feel weird and don't know why (a mood i've been in quite frequently lately.)
this is a pic of my parents (aren't they both gorgeous?) back in the day, before they were married, before they were even engaged i believe. i love old black and white photos, especially if they're of people i know.
having known them only all of my life and not all of theirs, it's difficult for me to imagine what was going through my parents' heads at this time, what they felt for each other, what was going on in their lives when someone held a camera up to them and snapped this moment in time... but i'm so very glad this moment was captured.
it makes me want to take more pictures, even of the moments that i feel aren't very noteworthy or maybe aren't even happy times... having records like this around 50+ years later is so worth it.
sometimes i look at the gorgeous photos on flickr and i find myself wanting to live inside these peoples' houses, the day they captured, or, let's face it, sometimes i just plain want their lives.
the following posts are just a very few of my favorite images on flickr. please enjoy.
but i didn't. it's a flickr image of a drawing by lisa congdon, a very talented self-taught artist.
it's funny that i love this picture so much because i'm actually scared to death of those chair rides, or sky rides, or whatever they're called. but it's just such a pretty image, no?
