found them!

i am thrilled to report that i have officially found my crafting books. they were in a box tucked away under other boxes behind other boxes in the loft. thank goodness. the thought crossed my mind that they might not have made the journey to australia with the rest of our stuff. i am so relieved that they did indeed make it. now i am of to scour these beauties for projects that don't require a sewing machine. i have yet to get one over here. my american machine is taunting me. she is just sitting there on the sewing table whispering, "use me, uuuuuuuussssse me." she's a total broad. always has been. very temperamental. still, it will be sorta sad when i finally replace her. wait, no it won't.

...on photography

soon after i started studying photography in college i started looking at the world in a different way. everywhere i looked i saw a potential photo. i liked to problem solve difficult lighting situations. simple scenes next to a window with that notoriously elusive seattle sun peeking in ever so slightly made me drool. a coffee cup with a few bubbles still sitting on top, a half eaten strawberry, used and abused kitchen tools were all just waiting for me to capture on film. i scoured the internet, books and magazines for inspiration. i loved listening to music on my ipod while i developed and printed my 4x5 inch black and white negatives. those were the days. those were the days before i got my digital camera. before i stopped shooting film.
shooting digital has made me a better photographer. it sped up the learning curve. seeing my mistakes and successes right away has been incredibly valuable. it allowed me to be much more experimental than i ever would have been with film. however it made me sloppy. it made me stop appreciating each and every frame.
yesterday i found a big box of expired film. about forty rolls. leftovers from my school days. so i chose a few different speeds of chromes and negs, color and black and white and checked to see if my camera's battery still had some juice. no such luck. one trip to the hardware store and thirty five dollars later i was ready to go. but i couldn't bring myself to shoot. it was like it was too important. i was revisiting and old friend. a friend that i respect so very much. i didn't want to offend her. plus, my almost two year old son has never had a photo taken of him on film. not one. a few polaroids here and there but no film. that is ridiculous. i wanted the very first photo of him on film to be fantastic. a framer. and i wanted the very first frame of film that i had shot in years to be a photo of him.
all of that changed this morning when the clouds parted and i poured myself a cup of coffee right next to the window. i had no control of myself. i had to hurry to take a photo before the bubbles popped. no chance to squeeze in a session with munch. later on we will go to the park and munchy will have his very first film photo. i am glad it happened like that. i was placing way too much importance on that first frame.
*it is just a photo, jessica*
hopefully i can crank through this roll of 36, get it developed today, scan my favorites tomorrow and post them tomorrow evening. woo hoo. they could be totally blown out, faded, underexposed, out of focus, etc. i have no idea but i am hoping for some happy accidents.

...ing.

eating :: sanitarium veggie hotdogs. some serious good. munchy can eat a whole hotdog in record time. then he moves on to green beans, avocado, tomatoes, corn, etc. we don't have a problem finding food for our little man to eat.
saying :: ta. ta=thank you in australian. munchy is officially speaking aussie. he says ta. but not when he is supposed to. it all started when we started going to playgroup. he always hands random things to the other mamas and they say "ta" and go about their business. well, he has now adopted "ta" as the word he says when he gives anything to anyone. it is really sweet. he is so polite.
reading :: frankie magazine. kicks mega ass, people.
listening to :: gotye. it makes me sick to my stomach that i am not going to be able to see his show when he visits perth. sick.
feeling :: great. healthy. happy. lucky. very creative and itching to dive back into the right side of my brain.
counting :: everything. (all of the "ah"s=breathing in) ti.ah.ti.ah.ti.ah.ti.ah.dahdah! max doesn't quite know the difference between the words "one" and "seven" but he does know that his papa and i count everything. we count stairs, green beans, cars. his version is way cuter than ours.
watching :: we can be heroes. ridiculously funny. if you are an aussie, if you know an aussie, if you have ever lived in australia or if you ever want to go to australia please do your best to get your hands on this show. it is the little britain of australia.
and growing :: it seems that both of my children are going through growths spurts at the moment. eating, sleeping, eating, sleeping, eating, sleeping. unfortunately they don't coordinate and sleep at the same time. darn.

such a dork

you know you aren't twenty-four and childless when your partner looks at you out of the blue in all sincerity and says, "i am really happy with the washer and dryer we bought." and then after thinking about it you agree and thank your partner for buying said washer and dryer. and that's it. no jokes about how dorky that is. no sarcastic imitations. nothing.
who are these people? surely scott and i have not had an exchange like that. not a chance, right? wrong. seems to be happening daily. we are so busy caring and providing for two very special little people that we have started becoming boring. very boring. last night we went to bed at nine. happily. then today we had our daily "how did you sleep last night" discussion and actually agreed that it wasn't so bad that i couldn't get back to sleep after the 4:30am feed because i had already slept for seven and a half hours at that point. what? it is never ok to wake up at 4:30am. no matter what time you went to bed. it is ok to go to sleep at 4:30am, but not wake up. geesh.
you will notice that my posts have been sporadic lately. more accurately i'd say they have been nonexistent. west is a very easy baby* and max is turning into a very fun little kid. even so, it is just so difficult to find time to do anything other than take care of them. showering has become optional. housework takes too much time (a clean house is way overrated anyway). crafting and creating anything has become a thing of the past. in fact, i actually referred to my boxes and boxes of craft supplies and fabric as 'relics of a past life' in a letter today. sad. what i do have time to do is snuggle, squeeze and kiss my healthy, happy children. if i devoted time to post to this here bloggy blog or read other ones i would be taking time away from the snuggling, squeezing and kissing that they need. the only reason i am able to write this right now is they are both sleeping. (i already regret typing that. i think i typed it too loudly. one of them is bound to wake up now. great.) my boys have been "tagteam" napping. max sometimes doesn't nap at all. one day, hopefully soon, i will figure out how to manage our day a bit more efficiently. if i could start wrangling them into bed for their naps at the same time a few times a week i might be able to make something. if that happens i will be sure to talk about it here. until then i will just have to be satisfied with uploading images and writing a bit in the caption field on flickr. flickr has become my mini-blog, sorta.
but now i have a sink full of dishes, two loads of laundry that need folding, many more loads waiting for their turn in our fabulous washer and dryer and a floor absolutely covered in trains, cars, animals, books, dust bunnies, otis' toys, pillows, etc. don't feel bad for me though. i can't wait for one of my boys to wake up. what a dork, huh?


* fingers crossed. it isn't too late for him to become a teufelchen