Goodbye to Clementine and Hello to Spring

My love affair has ended, it was intense and emotional, but I had to say Goodbye to Clementine.  Clementine (the 1966 Chevy Truck I found in my FIL's pasture) has been sold for restoration. The county in which I live is going to start adding the value of unregistered cars/trucks to property taxes so my FIL decided to let her go, as well a "Buck" the 1976 Chevy Truck he had.   While I am happy she will find new life, I am sad my muse is leaving.  I did go over and say Goodbye and take some final shots of her before she went on to her new life.    I got my first commissioned piece from her, a Chevy Lover from Idaho commissioned a 24x36 Black and White portrait of her.  It was beautiful, and he was so happy with it.  I must admit I was very nervous about it, but it came out wonderful and is now hanging in his office.  I am currently on the hunt for a new muse, still love the old "rustic" cars and trucks, but also find myself looking at old barns and buildings that have been vacated.  I may do a project of the older, vacated architecture in the county I live in.  I love old wood barns, not many people build those anymore, they favor tin.  Which I guess is economical but I love the look of a wood barn.

Now that Spring is attempting to come to NC.  I got to photograph some people as well, Maggie a very cute, happy little girl needed some pictures done. I have been waiting patiently for a little girl to come along so I could do something I have always wanted to do, a tea party!  I love tea sets, well dishes in general.  My BFF, calls me a Dish Whore, because I just love China.  If I get anymore sets of China I am going to need a support group. Seriously, I am not even joking.

They came out so good, and her Mom loved them and so did I.  Maggie had a great time, and was so good with my tea set.  I must admit I was nervous about letting her use it.  I explained how important this set was to me, because my mother gave it to me and she was so very careful with it.  

My son also needed some updated pictures and I love to do them in Spring or in Fall.  Last week for some reason, I decided to take a different way home, not sure why, change of scenery I guess and I found this:

I knew then this was where I wanted to do it.  I have no idea what it is, don't ask, all I know is it is pretty. Thankfully, my SIL knows the owner's DIL of said fields and asked permission for me (sometimes it pays to marry into a large family!).  It is quite fragile so I promised not trample down the middle and stay as close to the edge and they were beautiful.  

J was so good, he loved the seed pods.  He was good about staying on the path as well. 

We have a Easter Egg hunt this afternoon so I better wrap this up.  Until next time and I hope you have wonderful Spring!

Busy, Busy, Busy Part II

Has it really been since December?  Time surely has gotten away from me.  Life does have a way of getting that way doesn't it?  Our holidays were wonderful, J enjoyed his Santa visit, and had an awesome day with family.  

Somebody was good this year!

We also gained a family member this year, Sofia, a kitten.  She was born at a dairy farm near a friend's house, the owner of the farm just decided he had enough and left.  JUST LEFT, leaving all the cows, dogs and cats to fend for themselves, no food, no water, nothing.  Didn't tell anyone either.  So as the cows began to bawl and jump the fence in search of food and water and the cats and dogs begin to scavenge, people took notice.  The cows were in bad shape, animal control came and took care of them, I shutter to think of what happened to them.  The dogs were taken in by neighbors and the cats found their own place to live.  7 of them ended up at our friends house.  Sofia was named by J in honor of Sofia the first on Disney and has acclimated from barn cat to house cat wonderfully.  

We lost a family member as well, our 15 year old Beagle and my hubby's BFF, Cooper, passed away in February.  One of smartest dogs I have ever met.  My relationship with Cooper was complicated, I didn't really like him when he was younger, but once I realized he was smarter than me, we got along famously and I loved him and still miss him terribly.  Hubby is devastated by his loss.  Cooper was a awesome Nanny as well, whenever J would be playing in the yard, Cooper would sit and watch, and bark if he started to wander or do something he wasn't supposed to.  He was also awesome with the puppies, since they were his I guess I should say he was an awesome father.  He would watch them and bark if they were doing something stupid, let them chew on him, let them eat out of his bowl with minimal grumbling, and he would even groom them.  He was actually a better Mama than Ella!  There is much truth to the saying "Blessed is the person who has earned the love of an old dog."

We had snow this year, a lot of it.  I do not like snow, really, I moved from upstate NY, where we got a bunch of snow to NC mainly because they had fairly mild winters, not this year! J and the puppies enjoyed it though, so I really can't complain.

His first sledding experience, he loved it!

 J started soccer this year, he is only 4 but wanted him to be around some kids his own age and let him run off some energy.  He has no idea what is going on, but seems to enjoy it.  The first practice, he lasted about 30 minutes and then asked to go bowling!  We have stuck it out and he is catching on.  He is the only 4 year old on the team, the rest are 5-6 and in school.  He is as big as all of them though or bigger in some cases.  This is challenging because the kids expect him to act just like them, because he is the same size as them.  You have explain that he is in reality much younger than them and not nearly as mature.  The first game I was so nervous, for him, but he handled it like a pro.  He even got out there a bit.  It takes time for them to learn and he is doing well. His coach is awesome, so good with him and the kids are great too.  I am enjoying it too, I never played soccer and know nothing about so it is a learning experience for me as well. 

I guess that concludes the catch up!  Hope to keep up with this better.  Until next time.

A little Thankfullness on Thanksgiving

Me and my mom, I was just a few weeks old.

This week is Thanksgiving and while it is a festive time of the year, it is also a bit sad for me.  A year ago, my Mom passed away.  She fought the fight for a very long time and did a very good job but in the end the Carcinosarcoma won.  While I was sad she was gone, I was also at peace with her passing, because I knew she was ready.  She never did anything that she didn't want to and she lived life on her own terms so I knew when she passed away, it was on her terms as well.  Thanksgiving was at her house last year and ALL of us were there, for the first time in many, many years all of her children and grandchildren were in one room for a holiday and I think she was happy with that.  The next week, she passed away quietly in her bed, in her house where she wanted to be.  

I am thankful for the time I had with both of my parents, they helped shape me into who I am today.  I am, who I am in part because of both of them.  The relationship we had was just that, our relationship, it was unique to both of us and different from anyone else's.  Good, bad or indifferent, it was ours.

I think I got several things from my mom, she was an avid gardener, she liked flowers much more than people I think, you could often find her in her garden, dirt all over her, with a coffee cup in her hand (it didn't matter if it was 25 or 100 degrees, she drank coffee!).  I am also an avid gardener, can often be found in my yard with dirt all over me, though no coffee, I only drink that in the morning.  I also think she passed on a love of photography to me as well, she took tons of pictures, my whole life.  We each have tons of photos she took of us as kids and adults.  She bought me my first camera in fact, when I was 11, and I took bunches of photos.  That was in the day when you sent your film off to be developed and had to wait for it to come back, I remember how excited I was when they came in the mail!  I even have those photos, they are in a album in my attic.   She worked as a printer for years so she was very good at color selection, placement, lighting and composition of subjects.  It amazed me she could look at a color and tell you what different color combination made that particular color.  She learned in the day before computers, she did it all by hand and by sight and that to me is amazing.   

Both of my parents passing made me realize how important it is to take a breath and take the time to preserve the memories in some way or another, because that is all I have left of them, is pictures and memories. In my life, my camera and/or phone sits on the counter, ready to capture the funny face or special moment that makes me get a lump in my throat.  Like Jordan, being a doctor at the "hobstable" (hospital) when his Daddy has a cold, taking his temperature, and listening to his heart beat and helping him feel all better.  This is also why I make my family do a formal family portrait every year.  My biggest regret is not having one last photo of my siblings and I, our spouses, our children and our mother together.  So every year in the fall, I make my family take one, because Jordan will only be this age once.  Whenever my siblings and I are all together, I make them take one as well, because it is rare when we are all in the same place at once so I torture them too!  It's important to me and even though they grumble, I think one day they will be happy we did it, if not, our kids will at least get a good laugh out of it.

So while this time of the year is happy, it is also bittersweet, but again I am thankful for the time I had with her and I know she is at peace.  I am also thankful for the things she taught me, and for how she helped shape me into to who I am.

Happy Thanksgiving Mom, I miss you!

Mom at Christmas, saying "Cheese"

My mother's family.  They have very few photos of all of them
together,  so this is very special to all of them.

Clementine and What Kevin Taught Me

So I had this plan to continue writing about my love affair with Clementine, but then I met Kevin.  I did do another project with Clementine and they did come out wonderful.  I was so proud of these.  My friend, Jennifer wanted her kids pics with Clementine, so we loaded up, hers, mine and my niece and off we went.  The kids are all 3rd generation of my husband's family so I got some of all of them together.  I would of love to have all of the cousins in there, but that wasn't possible so I made do with who I had.  The kids were great, as usual, I can't say enough about how good they are. They had fun, we laughed, we did silly faces, we did funny poses, they photo bombed each other, they ogled Clementine and climbed all over her and basically we just had fun.  Ms. Maggie, has turned into quite the model, she throws her hand on her hip and cocks that head and turns it on.  I really enjoyed it.