lately...

I've spent too much time sitting on keester.

I've been totally uninspired.

I've been a little depressed with all I want to do but haven't been able to.

I've been happy to have the extra time to think about all the ways I am blessed.

I haven't taken a single personal picture...

But yesterday I had a sudden burst of inspiration and took advantage of it searching for nursery ideas online. I started to feel like my old self again! Summer is after all my favorite time of year, but I haven't gotten into a groove yet. I swoon over the silly romanticism of the summer months. Beautiful outdoor picnics, perfectly decorated. Huge chandeliers hanging from trees and such ;)

But alas, most of those things look better in my mind than actually played out. One thing however, that always seems to appease my desire for the romance of summer is a display of flowers on my table.

My church has been so amazing and has arranged for a few meals for us this week. What a huge relief! I haven't been as sick as I know some people get with their first tri-mester, but enough so that I have been down and out for over a month! It's been hard and I'm grateful for loving people to come to the rescue ;)

Yesterday, our dinner from Annette came with a beautiful bouquet of flowers picked right from her garden. The BEST kind!



I love it!

3 vases

I am making it a sort of "thing" that when I get flowers I separate them up and place them in numerous vases... sharing the love around my house :) Well, actually stil my apartment... but soon a house. In fact, we are in the process of buying a house :) Yes, yes we are!

So after Valentine's Day was over, and I was done tossing cookies, I set to separating my beautiful flowers and displaying them in the 3 small vases I have in the bathroom... previously seen here.


The bathroom is the one room in my apartment that I am thoroughly happy in. That sounds really twisted, but it's the one room I felt like I could decorate and be very very satisfied with :) I'll have to post pictures of this in full soon to add to my touring posts.


Spider mums are still one of my faves... next to peonies :)


Ahh, I can't wait for spring!

Welcoming summer

Three weeks ago the peonies were on their way out... and no sooner were they gone than the bright orange of day lilies began to bloom and color the month of July.



This claro pitcher has seemed to take up semi-permanent residence on my kitchen table. I quite like the simplicity of what Meghan did with her lilies this year, but it would not have worked for me in this pitcher, it takes a lot of flowers to fill it!



One of my favorite parts about all seasons that are *not* winter are the ever-changing colors and textures we are presented with in plant form. So, welcome summer, I hope you stay awhile :)

more than a flower

Reading my blog this month you may have guessed that I'm a little obsessed with peonies {grin} They were in my bouquet for my wedding and since then I have been picking them as they bloom and placing them all over my apartment...

And sad as it is that they're all dying off now, I am reminded how beautiful the different stages of life are. We see them blossom so bright and colorful in the spring and as the days wear on, I start taking for granted their presence... as with anything too much of a good thing can get boring :)

I am glad to look forward to the reminder of happiness these flowers bring me next spring...



And hopeful that with their return I will have grown in my life... with God, with Steve, with my friends and in my heart.

They're almost gone...

until next year when we get them all over again :)

touring the apartment

Now that we are back from the honeymoon and things are still out of control starting to settle down, I've been working on cleaning and organizing the apartment. I find doing this so much more fun now that I'm married than when I had my own place, but I'm not sure why.

I've been working on everything little by little, but the kitchen was so clean and pretty much as organized as it will get that I couldn't help but take pictures of it. Plus, there is such crazy amazing light in there that sometimes I just walk in there to feel happier. Light can do that ya know.

This is what you see when you first walk in. Can you tell I'm still obsessed with the peonies?





Two of the cookbooks I received from the wedding is the Betty Crocker vintage cookbook, which is totally a blast from the past because it's the first book I really ever used recipes from :) And then there is the 500 cupcake book. Ooo lala! I made one of the recipes the other night... chocolate chip muffins. And it called for buttermilk... since I didn't have any, I used butter and milk. I am well aware that's not what buttermilk actually is, but it actually worked. They were eaten too quickly to take pictures of.



So there's my kitchen. My married kitchen :) Speaking of marriage, I'm shooting another wedding today and then also my own wedding pictures have been posted on facebook! I will be posting them on my blog asap!

on my table

may flowers

Tulips blooming everywhere, makes me happy :)

because he loves me

I could go on and on why I love these flowers...



but really, the only reason that matters is that he brought them to me :) Let's not even talk about the fact that they're green dahlias and they just happen to be my favorite right now... and he remembered that :)



*sigh* flowers in the winter make me smile... who am I kidding, flowers anytime of the year make me smile :)

enchanted

People say that Orchids are hard to care for,
An urban legend that swirls around those bright
Beautiful red, blue, orange, pink, yellow, dark light

Flowered goddesses that
Lean and lounge sensually from every
Elite doorstep, every corporate hallway
And are so often looked past in florist's windows because
A vicious reputation precedes them.



Yet my orchids grow, wild and fair
With hardly a care from me almost-
Green hands, reaching, floating,
Dripping down their own stems
Filling the world of my room with
Such an effortless exotic grace and
Pop.

Orchids are women, a female flower
Undeniably
Then women are orchids as well?
Women are lush, curved, open and pinked
Sometimes blooming, sometimes waiting
Catching the sunlight as it dapples in
White yellow spots on our shiny leaves,
Stems and buds.

People say that women can be hard to care for,
An urban legend that swirls around our
Long hair and pointed shoes,
Everyday goddesses that
Lean and lounge and work and play
And hurt and cry and love and laugh
And try and fail and try and win and
Hope and pray and want and need and
Walk past you, day in and day out
Searching for a place or a way to set down
Our own roots, our own strength

In an world that sighs and says
"They are pretty, but too much work... I'll take
A peace lily instead."

original source for poem found here

flowers on a sunday

When you have a vase of gladiolas on the table, what do you do with them?

If your name is amanda, you take pictures of them...

That's all :)

ooo look, pretty flowies!

I've been finding some super amazing fine art photographs on etsy that I am just falling in love with. I have always loved macro stuff, but never actually had a macro lens, and never even really have been able to play with one.

So I decided to rent the canon 100mm f/2.8... to see if i like it of course ;) However, problem is, for this instant gratification girl, the lens isn't available til 5/20. Ugh. Not like i really have time for this stuff right now anyways.

So I'll just use what I have. Plus it gave me a great excuse to use lightroom... which i'm still getting used to. but i like it so far!





Now, I am happy for the most part with these pictures, and i'm not going to sit here and pick apart what I think is wrong with them. I will say though, that I would have liked someone to help me do these. The combination of a 5ish pound camera in one hand, paper in the other, and a slight breeze made for really hard focusing. That's pretty much my only beef.



I read this on... uhhhh... shoot I don't remember... but it's this lady who does fine art prints on etsy and they are BEAUTIFUL. I pulled out my scrapbook paper that has been collecting dust the last year and a half or so and toted it along with me while photographing these flowers.



Seeing a theme here? lol



I seriously cannot wait to get my hands on the 100. I hope it's as good as I'm imagining. These close crops were all done with the crop tool and I'm hoping I won't have to do that as much with the 100. GAH! I want it now!

Oh, and a sidenote. Apparently I am so out of the loop by not using flickr yet. So I'm doing my best to try and figure it out. I've had one for quite some time, but am now using it to upload my pictures. Can anyone tell me how I make the pictures link directly to my photostream?

the explanation

Remember this picture?



At the end of this post, I told you to be specific when guessing... well, you were. I sincerely hope that "anonymous" was Alicia, because if not, then I have definitely have a weirdo blogstalker on my hands here... what do you think?

Anonymous
You are spoon feeding the girl of your dreams ambrosia (food of the gods) in the drama room perhaps? Or helping her remove a troublesome piece of food from her pearly whites?

And while it may look as though someone is brushing my teeth, Courtney was a little closer with the nasty medicine theory.

But here's the real story.

(ps every post from here til May 23 may just be about Melissa's wedding or very closely related... because basically, I don't have anything else to write about. ha!)

April 18th was a beautiful day. It's nice that those days are coming closer together finally.

I have never been to a more beautiful bridal shower, and while there was certainly no lack of drama, the location was perfect. It was held at the country club Melissa's aunt belongs to. Most of the bridal showers (ok all) have been in churches or someone's living room *grin*



The food was incredible, the presents were abounding but most of all, Melissa looked so beautiful. Ok, like, I'm not a guy, and when I saw her, I was like oh SNAP son! If she looks this good today, what is she going to look like on her wedding day?!?! Jim's a lucky man ;)



Melissa's little cousin brought her all her gifts... so cute!



Again with the cuteness... what the heck?



We all kinda forgot about the whole "giving stuff away for games" thing... oops! but melissa is amazing, and forgave us lol! She did a way better job than I woulda done for this anyways haha! I wouldn't have been nearly as generous. She framed 3 of her best landscape pictures and then made up these baskets that were to die for. I mean seriously, the whole she-bang of B&B works stuff, a photo album and matching candle. Seriously Melissa, what the heck? ;)



This is Melissa's teacher of the deaf, Mrs. Donovan, from kindergarten to sixth grade. This woman made a profound impact on her life, what an amazing thing it is to have such a relationship sustained all these years



The flowers at the country club were to die for. I coulda stayed out there breathing in their beauty far longer than I actually did ;)



look how classy I am with no shoes on. Yep, that was because I was running around taking pictures of flowers. No shame I tell ya :D This is the wedding party minus one who couldn't make it. From left to right: Kristina (melissa's cousin-to-be), Bunny (hopefully soon melissa's cousin-to-be ;), Melissa, me, Amy (only the coolest person ever next to me of course)



And then there was cake. Yes the cake. And oh my how it was delicious. Some people must notta thought so though, because when everyone had left there were still a few places untouched cake *gasp!* at them!

So below, you will see...



Amanda being fork-fed someone else's confiscated cake! Alicia was the server... Jim's mom was the scowling observer... Amanda was the one saying OMG take a picture RIGHT NOW!!!

And that my friends, is how it happened :)

Public Market

Here in Rochester, we have a public market that is up in the city. I went once back in the springtime on a field trip with one of the girls. I wasn't able to really take it all in since I had Andy with me and there were a LOT of 3rd graders, not to mention all the regular people there.

Anyways, I have wanted to go back since, not only because the prices are amazing, but because I knew it would be a really great place to take pictures. (always the ulterior motive... heh!)

The first thing we saw were peaches.

Gloriously delicious and amazing.

I have been eating peaches everyday for like a week now. I love them!


These were shaped funky and I just thought they looked cool.


As we moved along, there were sooo many different kinds of fruits and vegetables.

I seriously couldn't handle how amazing everything looked... I tried really hard to narrow these pictures down to less, but I really couldn't.


Yah, the carrots are dirty, but they're huge! and I love that you can see that woman's hand with the money :)


Man, these almost look good enough that I wish I had some for dinner... but actually I love asparagus. The only bad thing is the way your *pee* smells after you eat it! But hey, that happens with garlic... and i'm not giving that up either.


mmm... I didn't used to like summer squash or zuccini. But after years of having it on the table during the summer, I am a convert. I love it steamed and then with some parmesan and garlic... sooo tasty!


Could these raspberries look any better? I mean seriously, I am drooling right now as I'm writing this.

I LOVE raspberries.

That probably has a lot to do with the fact that I don't get them often. We bought some though and I promptly consumed them. I could just sit there and eat them for a really really long time.


Then there are these... sour cherries.

Oh my goodness, how I wanted to make a pie. But I seriously don't have time for things like that right now. Maybe come winter I will be able to do some stuff like that!


There were also a ton of fresh flowers and other beautiful plants.


I was so bummed that we didn't really have time to stick around and enjoy ourselves to the extent that I would have liked, but there's always next time!

And next time is THIS saturday.