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.

on my table

may flowers

Tulips blooming everywhere, makes me happy :)

will it ever be green again?

It happens every winter. Right around the same time too.

I look out the window and wonder in all seriousness if I will ever see green again.



It thoroughly astounds me how every year we run through the same cycle. Complete deadness in the winter, though covered in white... which is a color I associate with life {I find such irony in that}... to a month or so of melted patches on the ground and lots of dead branches and brown hues rampant across the ground. And then before you know it, single green seedlings pop through the soil... and my heart remembers that Spring never fails to come.

But like I said, I just cannot see how we will see any of these ever again. My imagination is stunted, if I hadn't seen it happen so many times before I just wouldn't believe it could happen...



Living in a part of the world where the four seasons are all very evident is a blessing and a curse. I love the changing seasons, but there comes a time in the midst of each one that I wish for another. I often think I would be happier in a place that was {mostly} green all the time. But somehow I think I would lose appreciation for these months as we see new life return.

btw - the spring pictures are from last year {obviously} ;) April 11th actually.

Will it be green in just 44 days again?

blue nails and dreams of the beach

Today is a fairly nice day. The contingency rests soley on the fact that it's still a little chilly. I had to wear 2 sweatshirts and sit in the sun to stay warm *smile*

While we were out there, we (meaning andy and I) painted our nails. Yah, it is unacceptable to do only mine and not his. So now his are a nice shade of blue, and mine "beach sand" which is not the actual name of the color, but I like it better :) makes me feel like i could be there if i just closed my eyes...

Lilac Time!

This post is long overdue. I have been wanting to get these pictures up since Sunday when I took them! But I wanted to play with them in photoshop and all that fun stuff, and so i've been working on and off and trying to narrow down what I would actually share here. It was NOT easy this time! So often I get just a couple good shots, and then I like to pick my very favorite out of those... but I took probably 200 pictures, deleted 50 or so, weeded through what was left to pick about 25 good shots and ended up with the 10 i have put on here.

So here is a recap of Mother's Day and our annual (official, as opposed to unofficial :) trip to Highland Park.


First things first: inhale deeply. I LOVE the smell of lilacs... for me, smells carry a lot of nostalgia. It can be either good or bad. Sometimes I will smell something that reminds me of a time long ago and be taken right back to the memory with such clarity that it's kinda weird. I mean i sometimes have memories from an old movie of when I was 2, 3, 4 and it's like I remember everything from just a smell but never knew i had that memory. Anyways, the smell of lilacs has GOOD nostalgia for me :) and the memories that come along with it are not specific, but more general as I have had the opportunity to make new memories with that smell throughout my life.


Next: mini photoshoot for my mom. I think that my mom is very photogenic, and I have quite a few pictures of her that I really like, but she doesn't always like them (you know how it is with pictures of yourself right?) I was pleased that she liked this one because it really captures her :)


Then we walked through the park for all of about 5.8 minutes before my brother's stomach got the best of him and we rerouted to the concessions. ahhh yes. the concessions. Please refer to this post for more details on that adventure *smirk*


On the way to foodz (term coined by Dan and accepted by all) I spotted so many lovely tulips... the colors were amazing. What I thought was especially cool was that often when you see tulips they are paired with tulips of the same color. These were all mixed colors, so they all stand out so nicely. I've taken pictures of so many this spring and so many times i've gotten one big mass of color as they tend to blend in 2D :)


This is MY picture. This picture amazes me. Hold on for a second and let me realize that I actually took this. Ok, ok, i'm sorry. Don't take this momentary lapse of humility as a serious pride problem in my life :) It's just so much different than the pictures i am used to taking, and it takes me out of the box in my head that i get stuck in sometimes. I seriously look at it and think there is no way I actually took that. Maybe some little elf got a hold of my camera while i wasn't looking and snapped this shot. However, that logic is flawed in that I can tell by the height of the camera when the picture was taken that there is NO way an elf could have achieved such altitude. Unless of course he was a special elf... like Will Ferrell maybe?

This one was taken by Dan as we trailed far behind my parents. I really like this of myself, but am bummed out that the background is more in focus than I am :( I would have had him retake it, but the reason that it's slightly blurry in the first place is because there were people about to walk into my background and he had to snap it quickly. If we retook it, then there would be a lovely family of 5 walking away :) oh well, such is life!

Traditions are hard to come by in our family. This is one though that I hope will stick. It's actually kind of new... we used to drive by Highland Park on Mother's Day occasionally when my Grandma was still here with us, but up until last year or maybe the year before it wasn't an actual tradition like it is now :)

the leaf project

A couple months ago Andy expressed his amazement at the fact that there were no leaves on the trees. Well, my mom suggested that when the leaves started popping out i make a big deal about it, and I decided to take it a step further and take some pictures of the process.

However, the bush that I chose doesn't have an awestriking leaf unfurling process. In fact, it's pretty boring... but the reason i picked a bush instead of a tree was because all of the trees were too tall to take pictures of :) Oh well...

the second set is my favorite, and would you believe it was actually warm enough for sleeveless tanks and shorts for the second set but the third and last set we were wearing almost winter wear? I'll tell ya, this ridiculous weather is too much for me.

The first stage

The second stage

The third (and almost the same as the second) stage *grin*

pre-lilac season

Each year long about May, the city of Rochester is filled with the scent of lilacs. Each city has their own unique festivals that happen throughout the year, like the Snowflake festival in Corning, or the Corn festival in Avon... But i have to say that my very favorite is the Lilac festival.

this is what most of the lilac bushes look like right now,

but there were a few that were early sprouters and had some beautiful blossoms.

Around the park there are some other really beautiful flowers,

so before we had to run back to the car, we were able to capture some beauty there as well.

My friend Melissa (who also has some pics up on this same topic) lives within walking distance of Highland Park... so yesterday we decided to head on over to take some "pre-lilac fest" pics. However, we drove because of the impending storm over yonder. The weather yesterday seriously went from about 80 degrees to total downpour with shooter marble sized hail! I can say though, that when it's summertime weather i do enjoy the occasional storm :)


aaaaalso, another reason for this picture taking outing was the very recent purchase of my new lens! I ended up getting the Tamron 17-50mm f/2.8. To say I love this lens would be an understatement. I tried really hard to get everything I wanted in a single lens, and I can honestly say that the only thing i could have made better is for the f stop to be like 1.8 or 1.4, but i couldn't get it all! This lens really is amazing and i am glad i saved the money for it.

After the storm had passed and the only water falling was leftover raindrops on the trees above, we got out of the car to enjoy these beautiful magnolias (ok i think they are magnolias, but if they're not, then let me know!)

another post about spring

When springtime gets here i melt into a permanent euphoric state. It really doesn't matter how tired i am, or how many things i have to do... I just LOVE this time of year. In the past, I have reasoned with myself that winter isn't really as long as it seems and summer isn't really as short as it seems, because really, there have been years where we are still swimming in october, and have been out sun bathing in shorts and tank tops in april! So therefore, my reasoning is that the seasons are actually the same amount of time.

Taking this another step, I decided back in late october when my bedroom window finally had to be shut due to unbearable sleeping conditions, I would open my window again as soon as april came. And i did!

I decided that my "summer" experience would from now on begin in april because if i wait til the end of may or beginning of june, i'm missing out on too much of it.

Thankfully, the weather has complied with my determinations... or is my determination altering the weather?

Anyways, here's a picture for the day... andy's in the background picking up bugs with "chopsticks" :)

Wordless Wednesday with a Twist - part 3

Since I had a hard time figuring out how to put this one together, it has ended up being a mix up of pictures and being categorized as "my favorite colors" :)

And just as a little forewarning... when i'm asked what my favorite color is, I tell them "rainbow." I'm dead serious, I love so many things about all colors, I couldn't possibly choose one. I tend to gravitate towards the brighter colors, but I try to keep the color pallette of my mind wide open!

So I went on an adventure to find things that were aesthitically pleasing to my eye, and hopefully they are to yours as well!

ode to spring

Oh Spring, please forgive me for having forgotten you.
I have not forgotten your beautiful days and warm sunshine
But I have forgotten your first day!

Alas, the twentieth of March indeed came and went...
And I did not pay you any mind.

I should have known, and I should have cared...
But I was too busy moaning about winter,
And nery could the eye see any budding of small flowers.

Forgive me dear Spring, I embrace thee in thoust entirety.
I know you have fashioned a plan that will melt away the snow,
Thus melting away the cold from mine own heart.

Spring buds will soon shine forth and the sun will cast its rays on earth...
Thank you for coming anyways, dear Spring,
Even though I forgot you.

the surest sign of spring...

... is when the Easter bunny comes hopping down the lane and the little colored eggies all start getting hidden!

Japanese Cherry Blossoms in DC

I said that I was going to follow up with the whole cherry blossom deal. On Friday, after the go karts I realized that the blossoms and the trees were just budding. The Cherry Blossom Festival is a spring celebration in Washington DC to remember the date (March 27, 1912) that the Mayor of Tokyo gave the cherry trees to America as a symbol of the growing friendship he hoped to continue between Japan and America.

I asked Rob when the Cherry Blossom Festival was and he said that it was next weekend. I'll tell ya what, every year I have wanted to go to that festival and I always happen to be here the week before or the week after. The week after, it's pretty much nastiness all over, because the petals all fall off and then they're all walked over and they just don't look nice. But since this was the week before I was ecstatic! I told him that I wanted to go to DC right then and asked if he wanted to come. I would have gone by myself if he hadn't wanted to go, but he knows the city really well and can drive better in that kind of traffic.


We found parking on the opposite side of the Jefferson Memorial which is where the majority of the Japanese Cherry's are, and after walking around to the Memorial, we drove over to where the Lincoln and Vietnam Memorials are.


The blossoms were just perfect. I mean seriously, they are perfect.


I am just so thankful that I got the opportunity to go this year. I have seriously wanted to get pictures of these for at least 3 years!

Lemon Pound Cake with Strawberry Compote

Welcome Spring! I decided today that spring is here and winter is over. I like to decide these things sometimes, and then i just move along as though it were true. For me, it is! Anyways, I wore capris today and my summer flats... let it begin!


Baking this cake really put me in the mood for spring. The lemon flavor and getting to see so many strawberries while there is still snow on the ground was a breath of spring air! And I actually have been debating whether or not i should post recipes for everything I make... but this one just is TOO GOOD NOT TO SHARE. Seriously. Ask Melissa if you don't believe me.


So here it is, in it's entirety. I must tell you though, don't bake this cake if you don't have a good amount of time on your hands. It took me the better part of yesterday and then i still had to make the whipped cream today. I had a lot of fun though, the kids helped me and then Melissa helped me with the picture taking adventure today. I'll tell ya what, for me, taking the pictures is 75% of the fun of doing this!



First off, I need to give credit where credit is due. I found this recipe on another blog and only modified it slightly.

Ingredients:

Lemon Pound Cake
2 3/4 cups all purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
3 sticks salted butter at room temperature
1 3/4 AND 1/2 cups sugar
6 large eggs
1 cup milk
1 1/2 TB lemon zest
1 tsp pure lemon extract
1/2 cup fresh lemon juice (i cheated, i only used half fresh, cause i didn't have enough! but it tasted just fine anyways :)

Strawberry Compote
3 pints fresh strawberries, washed, patted dry and sliced
1 cup sugar
2 Tbsp lemon juice

Whipped Cream
16 oz heavy whipping cream
1/2 cup confectioners sugar


Preparation:

Cake
- Preheat oven to 300F
- Butter and flour a 12 cup Bundt pan
- Combine the flour, baking powder and salt
- Cream the butter and 1 3/4 cups sugar until pale and fluffy
- Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition
- Reduce the speed and add the flour mixture, alternating with the milk
- Stir in the lemon zest and lemon extract
- Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for 1 1/2 hours, or until a knife inserted in the middle comes out clean
- Let cool in the pan for 15 minutes
- Poke holes all over the cake using a wooden skewer
- Meanwhile, bring the lemon juice and remaining sugar to a boil over medium high heat in a small saucepan, stirring until the sugar is dissolved
- Invert the cake onto a rack, position over a baking sheet and slowly pour the syrup over the cake, it will seap through the holes and into the cake
- Let cool to room temp


Strawberry Compote
- In a non-reactive saucepan, over medium heat, combine 2 pints of the strawberries, sugar and lemon juice
- Bring the liquid to a boil, reduce the heat to medium and simmer until the fruit is soft, about 8 to 10 minutes
- Remove from the heat and cool
- In a food processor, fitted with a metal blade, puree the strawberries until smooth
- Turn into a mixing bowl, and when ready to serve add the remaining sliced strawberries
- Mix well