A new venture

I have a secret project in the works, and I'm totally consumed with it. It's not going to save lives or make an environmental impact. It's more personal.

I'm working on my photography portfolio in hopes to have an actual business.

I would love to work as a photographer fulltime. My dream in college was to work for National Geographic as a photojournalist. I even applied to the Peace Corps in order to gain some "international" experience.

The Peace Corps rejected me.

Apparently, Liberal Arts majors studying writing and photography weren't in high demand. I even volunteered as an English as a Second Language (ESL) tutor to make myself more desirable.

It didn't work.

So photography remained a hobby, while I pursued writing as a career.

But, now,  writing websites and emails for pharmaceutical companies isn't quite cutting it.

I've always gravitated towards taking photos of people. Often, at parties, I spend more time behind the camera. In fact all my close friends take advantage of my weakness and use me as their vacation and birthday photographer.

So since I've upgraded all my camera equipment, and various people have been encouraging me to actually DO something, I thought I would give it a shot. I've been working on a website, including a name, and have been taking portraits of all my neighbors with children.

I'm also still working out my style.

Here are some of my favorites from my latest sessions. These are more photojournalistic in nature...

I'm definitely not into posed, stiff traditional portraits in which kids put on their fanciest clothes. And  I definitely don't care for artificial lighting. I love being a fly on the way while the kids play. You really get the best expressions then.

Here are some of my favorites of a more portraiture nature...

I'm sure I won't be quitting my full time job anytime soon, but I can certainly dream about it. And, if you live near Philly and want your photos taken, send me an email!

Happy Birthday...to my house

I love old houses. They have a lot of character and little details that many newer houses seem to be missing. And quirky things tend to happen on occasion...

Out of the blue last week, little K asked if we could have a birthday party for the house. Sure, I said it's going to be 100 years old this year. That's definitely worth celebrating. I just need to find out what day it was completed.

Fortunately, this isn't an impossible task since we were left with the original blueprints. But digging them out from wherever I hid them from myself might be.

Except yesterday, this card arrived in the mail addressed "To the House"...

No return address, postmarked from Philadelphia, and no signature...

I ran into my neighbor who's been living across the street for nearly 40 years, told her the story and asked her if she was in touch with the family that lived here previously, also for over 30 years. She said no, but they live somewhere in Bryn Mawr. She said, however, there was a woman who lived here for a while and had come back to see the house. The card probably came from her, since she possibly lives in Philadelphia now.

Another thing I love about old houses? The quirky things that happen in them...

Generations

My grandmother, who just turned 89, has seven children, which currently includes six children in-law, 16 grandchildren and 8 great-grandchildren. My grandfather just passed away recently. They were married for over 60 years.

So for the first time, my grandmother is alone. Even though she has an extended legacy of family, she's alone, in a way. Her partner in life is gone. But my grandmother is tough. In fact, she's the strongest woman I know. She goes and goes and goes and never complains. She doesn't ever impose on anyone. She doesn't ask for or expect anything. She is the least selfish person I know.

Over the holiday break, the girls and I took her to lunch and for a little shopping. During our visit,  there was a moment where I saw myself in her. She was talking about going through my grandfather's clothes and donating his coats to a shelter, some never worn. One of my aunts had heard that she wanted to do this and was horribly upset, which caused my grandmother to feel defensive, and said - as if she needed to - that she misses my grandfather very very much.

And there in that second was a crack in her emotional strength. Her eyes instantly welled up, her face changed, her voice caught in her throat, and yet, she fought it, fought back the tears and emotion. If anyone deserves to break down over losing a loved one, she certainly does. Of course you miss him, I said. No one doubts that. I agree it doesn't make sense to keep all those coats around, especially if he never wore them and had no attachment to them.

It was in that second, I saw myself: to show emotion like that is like showing your weakness. And yet when I see someone else show their emotions I don't think they are weak. I think they are brave. It's one of the hardest things to do, to make yourself so vulnerable.

* * *

I vaguely remember my great-grandparents, so I wanted to make sure my kids remember theirs. My grandmother is a good conversationalist. She asks about school and subjects and friends. And she isn't phased when they'd rather eat candy and play outside.

 

My point is this: if you can, spend time with your grandparents. You'll learn a little bit about yourself and create memories for your little ones as well.

Happy New Year!

Welcome 2012 and happy new year to everyone! I spent the evening and morning with friends, which was spontaneously extended into mid-afternoon with leftovers and several shakers of cosmopolitans - a perfect way to start the new year, albeit misleading since I will be starting Weight Watchers this week. My only "resolution".

We managed to get the kids off the Wii and outdoors before the arctic temps hit in two days, of course the day we all head back to work and school. Mother Nature couldn't have timed that worse, as I sit in front of my fire while it's 59 degrees out now!

The morning after New Year's Eve when kids are sleep deprived doesn't make for ideal playdates. Lots of emotions, tempers and tears. Plus, any time you have an odd number of kids, it's gonna get ugly. Never works. I know from experience. Thankfully, in between the tattle-telling, we had some good times...

I hope you all had a wonderful and memorable start to the New Year. Make it a good one!

Where we found our Elf...

I'm here to say, it's never too late to get your Elf.... My 9 year old started asking questions last year about the logistics of Santa. It's in her nature. So I made one last ditch effort and had our Elf delivered anonymously. Finding "Charlie" instantly became part of the morning routine.

I wasn't sure E was buying into it until our friends' son threw Charlie to the ground, and I later found E so upset she was crying, afraid he would lose his magic. While I was sad she was so upset, I was thrilled I had locked in another year of Santa! In fact, she even wrote him a short letter and gave him a gift to take with him on his last night, Christmas Eve.

Here are some of the places we found Charlie in the mornings. My personal favorite is when we found him in the convertible with Barbie!

Happy Holidays!

I am sooooo late getting out my cards - thankfully it's a full week of holiday celebrating. At least that's how I justify it. I think I'm just in denial that it's almost over. Christmas was upon me so fast, and the weather was warm, it took even longer to get mentally into it. Then once I was in the Christmas spirit, it was over! But, I'm still playing Christmas music, I'm keeping the decorations up and the lights going strong.

I have the week off to play with all our new toys, so hopefully I will find some time to blog as well. I've got all kinds of fun things planned.

I hope you are having a wonderful holiday! 

Making Salt Dough Ornaments

I love ornaments. L.O.V.E. them. But I have rules when it comes to my ornaments. They must have some kind of meaning behind them. So this year I thought it would be fun and memorable to make our own ornaments from salt dough.

Little K was pumped!

She is my mess-maker after all, so mixing up a batch of salt dough was perfect for her.

I'm picky about my dough however. I've made batches before that were too salty, and you could see the granules. That would simply not work for this professional-level project. I wanted smooth dough.

This is smoother. Not clay, but it's not granular.

• 4 cups white all-purpose flour
• 1 cup salt
• 1-1/2 cups hot (hottest tap) water

Dissolve the salt a little in the hot water, then mix in the flour.  That makes a nice dough that is very easy to handle.

Roll the dough to about 1/4 inch thick. Transfer cut ornament shapes to a cookie sheet. Poke a hole in the top of the ornament for hanging after they've dried and been painted.

Bake the ornaments at 325 degrees until they are hard.  This will usually take 30-40 minutes, depending on how thick they are. 

Finally, we got a dough we like, and less ninja photos...

 After you've made your dough, flour the surface so the dough doesn't stick.

Grab a ball of dough and start mushing it flat.

When that doesn't work, grab your rolling pin...

If your rolling pin doesn't already have flour on it, you'll need it. Otherwise, the dough sticks.

Just sprinkle a little bit on...

Or a lot...

 

Continue to roll out flat.

Once your dough is about 1/4" thick, grab your cookie cutter...

Press it in...

Might as well fill up the space...

Very carefully remove your cutouts...

Any shape can be cut out, carved out, painted on. We use cookie cutters and playdoh cut outs!

Put the cutouts on a baking sheet and poke a hole for hanging. We used a toothpick.

We cooked ours at 200 degrees for 2 hours but some ornaments were still damp. If you can make these a few days ahead of time, even better.

Once they're dried (enough to paint), paint away. Acrylics work best. Then, once the paint dries, give them a glaze. You can find this in the paint section of your craft store. It seals the paint and gives a nice gloss finish.

We made alot of ornaments....

Okay, so I might have gotten a little caught up in the action. I have to tell you though, painting these ornaments was the most relaxing thing I did all weekend. Seriously.

In any case, my dilemma now is getting rid of the truly grotesque ornaments they made without them realizing it. I mean they each made at least a dozen. Not putting all that on my tree!

We'll see...