Beauty. Photographs. And old paint.

Sometimes beauty comes to you on unexpected avenues, and thus was the case yesterday. I was "upcycling" a table lamp with a fresh coat of paint. I was out on the back deck area, I'd just popped open the can of blue paint, was about to stir it up, and - suddenly it hit me - how beautiful it was. And this was a very strange thing for me to think upon re-opening an old can of paint because I usually hate the look - and smell - of paint that hasn't been used in a while. It has this translucent, slightly greenish film over the top; it reminds me of  something you've left in the refrigerator too long and when you finally open up the container, the smell just about knocks you out and you wonder, "What in the world was this?" (I mean, ahem, I've heard of this happening to other people. I of course always keep my fridge in tip-top shape.)

So, anyway, I opened the paint can and did a bit of a double-take, surprised by how beautiful the unmixed paint was. I decided to get out my camera and snap a few pictures before I mixed it up, and I have to say, I'm pretty proud of the photography job I did.

Not bad, eh?

(They're much better at a higher resolution, btw.)

Now, I don't claim to be a photographer, but I enjoy playing at it, and it's nice when every now and then something kinda cool comes out.

And speaking of photography, for all those of you who actually are talented photographers (whether or not you make your living at it), National Geographic is holding a contest right now that I'd encourage you to look into. There are some seriously good prizes. 

You can enter in four different categories - travel portraits, outdoor scenes, sense of place, or spontaneous moments.

I'm not going to enter (most of my travel photography involves cheesy poses in front of famous landmarks, not the artistic, local flavor candids I imagine they're looking for), but if I were to enter, I'd probably submit this photo I took last summer on our family trip to San Francisco. We were with my parents, getting a tour of the Fisherman's Wharf area. The guide was talking, giving us the history of something or other, I think maybe he was telling us about the Ghirardelli Chocolate company at that point, and I looked to my left and happened to notice a cute little girl wearing a bright red coat, walking with her mother by the water. She was pushing a baby doll stroller along, happy as could be, and her mother strolled beside her, attentive enough, but obviously deep in thought. She kept staring pensively out to sea. 

Well, I was so intrigued by the two of them that I momentarily stopped listening to the tour guide and, uncapping the lens from my camera, proceeded to snap a few inconspicuous shots of them with my camera held at my side - a travel photography technique I learned from my friend Courtney. Makes you look less like a tourist.

Anyway, all that to say, I was proud of the way the photos came out. Here's my favorite:

So, if you have any travel photography you're proud of, check out the NatGeo contest (link above). 

On another note, but still relating to photography, my friends Mason and Michelle Murchison have started their own photography business, and I couldn't be more excited about it! I am just blown away by how talented they are, and you couldn't meet funnier, more genuinely wonderful people. I'm really glad they're launching into what I know has been a dream of theirs for a while. And hey, if you live in the Charlotte/Rock Hill area and need upcoming portraits done for any occasion - engagement, wedding, graduation, what have you, check them out! They're seriously amazing. And I'm not just saying that because they're my friends.

CITYSCAPE OF YESTERYEAR

A quick post today.

I apologize for my brevity (and for the quality of these photos - they're awful!), but I realized I hadn't shown you all what Jake has been up to in quite a while, so here's a little peek into one of his many current projects.

I absolutely love these old buildings, and the illustration style in which he's drawing them is awesome. I was oohing and ahhing over the whole thing yesterday while Jake worked on it, and he said he was channeling his inner Tommy Kane, who's another illustrator with a style that Jake and I both think is just so cool. I pretty much fall in love with everything Tommy Kane posts to his blog. In my imagination, Jake and Tommy Kane are going to be friends one day and collaborate on a project. They are both so uber talented.  

So anyway... there's a little taste of what Jake's been up to - along with several other projects that I can't post about yet because they're for clients who want things kept under wraps. But tell me, seriously, do you guys love those old buildings as much as I do? I've been playing around with an idea in my head of creating a series of drink coasters based on these city building images. Maybe one building per coaster in a set of four? Colored or that sort of sepia style? Thoughts? Would anyone want to buy something like that? I'd love your feedback!  

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AH, THE DRIVE-IN MOVIES...

Images found here. 

Yes, today is National Drive-In Movie Day. 

(Yet another fun fact you only know because you follow my blog.)

And something else you may or may not know about me:

I adore drive-in movies.

In fact, the local drive-in movie theater has been one of Jake's and my favorite dating spots. Two summers ago, we were there almost every weekend for our tried and true $4 double feature. We'd back Jake's Rav in backwards into the spot and arrange the trunk with a bunch of pillows and blankets, buy some really salty popcorn from the concession stand and snuggle up together to people-watch until it got dark enough to show the first film. The place was always buzzing with families - kids running around, playing chase. Moms calling after them, spraying them down with bug spray. Lawn chairs and blankets would come out of trunks. Guys would throw footballs around, sneak a pizza box out of the car (no outside food aloud). The air was alive with the sounds of summer. I can't describe how much I love that place. 

So I was thinking, in honor of the day, why not show you guys a movie of my own? 

Alas, I can't put it on a big screen and provide you with all the sights and sounds of summer, but perhaps the fact that I'm in the film will be of some consolation? 

(I play "Ruby".)

This was a low-budget indie film I shot last summer. The director has uploaded it to vimeo for a limited time while he shops it around to festivals, and ever since I slipped in the mention of my acting career when I guest blogged for Lauren Holgate (here, if you missed it), so many of you have asked me about it that I figure, what the heck? Why not just show you one of my films. 

It's really, really silly. 

But maybe that's just perfect for a blue day like Monday.

So go grab a snack, sit back, and without further ado, ladies and gentlemen, enjoy today's 

feature presentation. 

Happy Drive-In Movie Day!

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WHEN LIFE HANDS YOU LIMES

Oh, how I do love Sundays!
Especially ones like today, which was a true "sun" day. I wore a light cotton dress and went to the park and wrote in my journal at a picnic table, with the warmth of the sun on my arms and the birds as a kind of ambient soundtrack.

Glorious, I tell you.

I also made homemade Ginger Limeade today.
It just seemed appropriate, given the summery nature of the afternoon.
And it's really not as difficult as you might think. At least, not when you're stocked up on lime juice like I am. As many of you well know, my little sister recently got hitched - an unexpected bi-product of this was that I came home with a boatload of limes. (I used them as an element in the centerpieces I designed, and they looked beautiful in their little white bowls, next to kermit-green button mums and delicate pink roses. However, at the end of the day, I walked away with enough limes to feed a small country.) 

Which left me with the quandary - What does one do with a boatload of limes?

I started by giving a bunch away.

I used one or two in some homemade guacamole.

But still, every day they would stare at me from their massive bowl on the counter, like a vast army of tiny green, tropical-smelling invaders, and I could almost hear them screaming, "We're going to go bad soon. Use us! Use us!"

I ended up simply squeezing the juice out of 'um and refrigerating it until I could decide what to make. It was kind of a fun process, actually. And the post-squeezed limes turned out to be unexpectedly pretty in their own right, almost like flowers. Like miniature peonies or something.

Well, of course, pretty though they were, the limes got thrown away, but I kept the lime juice and today seemed the perfect day for pulling it out and making some limeade.

I have to admit, this was the first time I've ever attempted to make limeade from scratch, complete with heating water and sugar to make simple syrup and all of that. But boy was it worth it! Like summer in a glass. As you sip it, you can close your eyes and almost feel the salty wind blowing and the sun on your skin and the sound of waves...

Anyway, as you all know, when I discover something I love, I share it with you!

So here ya go, my recipe for what I'm calling "Ginger Limeade":

First, make the limeade concentrate.

To do this, simply combine 1 1/2 cups sugar and 1 1/2 cups water in a medium saucepan (or double it - I actually used 3 cups of each because I had so much lime juice). Heat, stirring occasionally, until the sugar is thoroughly dissolved. Let the syrup cool, then add 1 cup lime juice (or 2, if doubled!) and refrigerate. 

Next, when your concentrate is good and cool, combine it with ginger ale in a 1:2 ratio. So, for example, 1 cup limeade concentrate to 2 cups ginger ale.

Stir to dissolve.

Serve over ice.

Enjoy!

Mmmmm.....

{Thanks, OnceWed!}

I also discovered that you can make Limeade Pie super easily from the concentrate, and who wouldn't want a slice of this? 

To make: 

Ingredients

1 graham cracker pie shell (or make your own)

1 8-oz. container Cool-Whip

6 oz. of limeade concentrate

2 1/2 cups vanilla ice cream

green food coloring (optional)

Directions

Mix together the cool-whip, ice cream, and limeade concentrate. 

Pour into the pie shell.

Freeze for 6 hours.

Yep. It's really that easy.

And then, tah-dah! Deliciousness.

Oh! And I also added a little hint of green food coloring, since the limeade isn't very green. How much you want to add is entirely up to you!

(As a side note, I took a slice of this to my downstairs neighbor and he was thoroughly appreciative. Thanks to all of you who commented/emailed me and encouraged me that doing those types of things isn't totally outdated and weird. I really can't say how wonderful you guys are! Because of you, I got some beautiful words of encouragement, and Dave got a slice of homemade limeade pie. And you get the recipe. Everybody wins!)

Like I said, I love Sundays.

I feel thoroughly refreshed and rejuvenated and alive. 

And I've found the answer to my quandary -

When life hands you limes, make limeade!

Now if only I had this dress and these shoes (in lemon glow), I could coordinate beautifully with all my cooking endeavors today!

Haha, be blessed, friends. The summer cometh...

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TO BE... me

I am an old soul for many reasons. 

At the baseball game Jake and I went to with some friends on Memorial Day, I couldn't have been more delighted that the National Anthem was sung, not by some pop-y Lady Gaga-esque entertainer, but by a barbershop a cappella quartet of graying old men. I love a cappella groups! And I love old things (and old people!), and sometimes I feel very out of place in my generation for being this way. 

I admit it, I'm a strange bird. 

Yesterday, I was early to pick up Charlie from school, so I sat on a bench in the nearby park and watched a squirrel for a full twenty minutes. It occurred to me then, as I was watching the scampering, bushy-tailed creature fully submerge himself in a pile of leaves and go tunneling through them, like a curious toddler beneath a blanket, and then as he playfully popped his head up with a sudden jerk and I laughed out loud - yes, it occurred to me then what a peculiar sort of person I really am. I mean, truly. How many women in their mid-twenties, when presented with an extra few minutes to kill during the day, would choose to spend it on a park bench watching a squirrel?

Not many, I dare say. Not when there's a Starbucks a block over and an iPod in your purse. But whatev., this is the person I am and I kinda like myself for it. 

I like that I still actually bake cookies to welcome new neighbors, though apparently that's unheard of these days. I didn't realize just how odd of a practice this was until recently when I happened to mention it in passing conversation with a friend and she stared at me and then snorted and said, "Really? Who does that?"

Uh, I don't know. I do? Guess that's not normal?

She laughed and said maybe in the 1950's.

So there you have it, friends. I was born in the wrong era. But all joking aside, I really do lament the fact, at least a little, that modern life, with all its undeniably wonderful advancements and opportunities, has also in some ways stripped us of appreciating the simple pleasures. Or often even of noticing them.

The beauty of a handwritten note.

The plumpish squirting of cherry tomatoes in my salad. 

Sitting on the porch as the first rays of light emerge, hazy on the horizon, surrounded by plants that I myself have tended from seed.

A cup of tea in a hot pink thermos with a drop of local honey.

The tinkling sound of the bangles on my wrist. 

Walking barefoot through slightly dewy grass.

Today is National "Go Barefoot" Day.

(Don't ask me how I know these things.)

And I encourage you, at some point before the day is through, to consciously slip off your shoes - and socks, too, if you're wearing them - and feel the ground against the bare souls of your feet. I'm not a hippie. I'm not going to tell you to "connect with the earth", but there's something to be said for taking a moment to be exactly where you are. And just breathing.

That's right.

Breathe.

And appreciate wherever you're at.