Happy Easter

The squirrels decimated the chocolate eggs on the lawn... but thankfully there were some plastic eggs and hardboiled eggs that they left behind.  The squirrels had a very good easter this year.  And yes, the girls picked out their own outfits...

Blue. Week 13-52

I try to keep my camera with me at all times because you just never know when inspiration might hit.  I was on my way home from a random work assignment and passed by a storage place.  It had the brightest blue doors, one after the other for about 200 metres.  Then all of a sudden there was a little flash of yellow.  I stopped the car, asked the owner if I could take pictures of the garage-type doors.  He looked at me like I was mad... but he said yes.

Spring (again). Week 12 - 52

This little crocus sprouted up in the garden this week giving me hope... spring really is on its way.

I fell in love with Tammy's daffodil/prop/mirror picture this week so I couldn't resist buying myself some mini daffodils at the store yesterday.  Set against the sunny spring sky they made me smile.  It also made me realise I am turning into my mum (which is no bad thing) as she is obsessed with her daffodils.

And of course we set about dyeing eggs for Easter.  Charlotte had so much fun and I have to admit I kind of enjoyed it myself, especially the tie-dye ones.

Happy Spring everyone!

Spring. Week 12 - 52

It's cold outside.  There are still small piles of snow scattered around but it is the first day of spring and I am going to post a spring picture if it kills me. Seb started planting seeds for the vegetable garden and some of them started sprouting within days.  Looks like it will be a good year for cucumbers and squash.

 

I also just had to throw something colourful in here for spring.  Here are some pretty hyacinths that friends brought over to dinner last week.

Off Center. Week 11 - 52

Feels like my universe has been a little off center this week so this was a good theme to work on.  Right now my face is a little off center thanks to a fight with a brick step (brick won) in the pouring rain.  But I did learn two important lessons this week.  The first is don't run in the rain even if you are running late.  The second is that if you ever find yourself in the ER and the nurse asks "do you want plastics?" that she is referring to a plastic surgeon and your answer should be yes.  Unfortunately the surgeon only worked on the gash and didn't throw in any extra free work.  Shame.  Don't worry, I am fine but I've been milking this for all the attention I can possibly get and my friends have not let me down.  It's almost worth slipping in the rain.  Almost.  This is a little craft that Annabelle made at daycare.  She is ever so proud of it.

Play. Week 10 -52

I found it hard figuring out which theme I wanted to work on this week.  I spent so much time just "playing" with my camera that I didn't focus.  But I looked through some pictures and realized that playing was probably the theme of the week (and month... and year).  This picture was actually taken a couple of weeks ago at the Berkshire museum in Massachusetts.  They had an entire room dedicated to "child directed play" where they literally just filled up a room with cardboard boxes, egg cartons, tape, cling film (saran wrap), and all kinds of other non-toy toys.  It was awesome.  Some of the adults in our group might have had as much fun as the kids.  Here is Charlotte totally proud of the houses she built with her big-kid friends...

Sometimes playing just involves the simplest ideas.  This week both girls had so much fun building a lego tower with the goal of making it taller than themselves.  Yes, it did fall on her head seconds after I took the picture...

Play in our house involves a lots of arts and crafts.  The floor usually looks like this.

And just because I can't dedicate an entire post to just Charlotte... here is Annabelle playing peekaboo/peepo on our swingset outside.

A tree grows in Brooklyn

I enjoyed a girls night out in the city last night.  Then I stayed over at a friends house in Brooklyn.  A sensible person would have relished a morning sleeping late and not having to entertain toddlers.  But a camera obsessed fool, such as myself, decided that a walk around the neighbourhood, in spite of a headache, would obviously be the best possible way to spend a few kid-free hours.  This little tree grows right outside their front steps.  I love the hanging lantern.  

I headed over to the Barclays center and passed by the subway.  In the bright sunshine the train numbers looked so fun and colourful.

The architecture of the Barclays center was actually pretty unique and I loved the reflections in the glass panels of the main entrance

Of course nothing says New York City quite like the iron grates in the sidewalk, old chewing gum stains and a bit of trash... that just happened to have NYC printed on it.

This is a community garden that I passed.  I love the vibrant sign.  The garden itself looked pretty sad but hopefully things will turn around in the spring.

Brooklyn is full of contrasts... on one side of the street was this chain link fence with barbed wire and old plastic bags....

and across the street was the entrance to pretty brownstones.

A morning well spent!

Weather. Week 9 - 52

Today I drove from the north shore of Long Island to the south Shore.  It doesn't take long (maybe 20 minutes).  As I was heading south I could see a thick band of bright sunny light coming from the ocean and above it there was a thick dark black cloud.  When I finally arrived at my destination I grabbed my camera because the lighting was awesome.  I love the dark dark clouds ahead combined with the light coming from behind me.  Moments after I took these pictures the heavens opened.  And minutes later it was over and the skies cleared up.  Weather...

Games. Week 8 -52

I needed a break from snow related pictures. We went away for a long weekend with our lovely friends and we played games.  Game after game after game.  Of course even though I got a great flash (canon speedlite 430 EX)  for Christmas I still haven't found the time? patience? or brainpower? to actually figure out how it works. Can anyone help me with that???  So I took all of these with no flash and a very high ISO.  So they are seriously grainy.  Below is a picture of Seb playing "Celebrity" trying to describe a famous person to his team.

 Still playing celebrity but you might see the remnants of a previous game on everyone's foreheads (3 spot Harry)

The next night we played Telestrations.  It involves drawing pictures and guessing what your neighbour might have drawn.

Someone drew Wonder Woman but she got no points because her neighbour thought it was the tooth fairy.

Of course as the night progressed the games got sillier and sillier.  How about this one? You had to pick up an empty bag of goldfish with your mouth... but no body part (other than your feet) could touch the floor.  Each round gets progressively harder as you chop off another inch from the bag.  

Through all the silliness this darling little dog rested quietly.

Of course these may not be my greatest pictures, but I think I have the greatest friends.  Lucky me.

Shadows. Week 7 - 52

The snow made for great shadows so that inspired the theme for the week!  Here is my Shadows in the snow - self portrait!

 Of course I had a couple of other favourites... love this one of Charlotte struggling to walk through the snow!

I always get confused about my camera settings when shooting in the snow so I challenged myself to take lots of pictures of white on white in the bright sunshine.

This is the view from our back deck of the sun rising in the morning.  So pretty.

 And I am obsessed with birds walking on the lake.  My new favourite subject!  I just don't get why they don't fly to Florida.

Finding Nemo

We got somewhere between 24 and 29 inches depending on your news source.  Either way, it was a bucket load of snow.  Awesome for sledding down our front hill.  Not so awesome for leaving the house.. at all... for 48 hours counting.  Still, I will take Blizzard Nemo over Hurricane Sandy any day of the week.  I couldn't stop clicking obviously.  This is our back deck!

I love twigs/branches covered in snow...

Of course the best part was the fun we had.

Seb pulled the girls around in the sled

Charlotte thought about how best to climb Mt. Everest

Noone got to play in the house though...

The wrong kind of snow

Some days I just like having fun playing with the camera.   The idea of having this little London bus driving through the snow on our lawn just tickled my fancy.  It also happens to be a reject from a "red and white" theme I was working on this week.

Straight lines Week 6 - 52

Any guesses what this is?  I love doing photo projects because it makes you see things you would normally never notice.  This is just our outdoor table and the snow had partially melted.

My commute from work

I drive an hour to work.  I have long stopped thinking about it as a painful commute.  It's actually very pretty.  I pass farm stands, wineries, rivers, every type of church you can imagine.  I also found a short cut down a windy road that crosses a little bridge.  If the sun is shining when I drive home I always look out to the left as I go over the bridge because it is spectacular.  The sun hits the tips of the reeds so that they all look like little glints of gold. Yesterday I finally pulled over and took a picture.  It doesn't do it justice but at least now I have it captured.

Winter. Week 5 -52

 It is bitterly cold in New York right now.  Figured it was a good time to take care of the winter theme.

At the bottom of our street is a lake, a dam and the long island sound.  The lake often freezes but this is the first time I have seen the sound freeze.  I could barely feel my fingers as I clicked away.

 This poor little guy was walking across the lake wondering where the water went.  You have wings you silly fool - FLY SOUTH!!!

This is the lake side, with the sun beaming down and the heron sculpture.

 The morning light on our snowy log pile.

A bush covered in snow but it could almost pass for a pine forest!