Need an excuse to mow the lawn less?

Last year, we sort of fell behind with the whole lawn mowing thing. Big time.

Yet some of me wonders if it's us or if it's our neighbors who like to mow their lawn. A LOT. LOT. LOT. Seriously, for every time we mow our lawn, it seems they've mown theirs twice. Which makes their grass look even shorter and ours look rather shaggy.

I'd really love to send a memo to the block and say "hey, lighten up a bit so we are all equal" but I know that won't happen.


I was annoyed until last fall when I was at a lecture about native Kansas plants/flowers. In the presentation, the guy mentioned that mowing your lawn less has less of an impact on the environment.

A light bulb went off in my head.

We weren't the bad neighbors. We were the hippies who care about the environment and make a conscious choice to mow less, thus being kinder to the planet.

Ok, so the motivation isn't exactly true, but it made me feel GOOD about our "whenever we get to it" approach to lawn mowing.

I'd love to provide you with hard core numbers on this, but really, who do you believe when you google something?

I did, however, find this really cool calculator to help calculate the impact of lawn mowing. I am not 100% sure of the size of our lawn, but I'd really like to find out, because I'm supremely curious about the numbers.

So, in conclusion ..... MOW YOUR LAWN LESS, and do it shame-free. Because, after all, you're helping to lessen your carbon footprint!

Now if I could only find a tactful way to share this enlightened approach with my lawn-mowing-obsessed neighbors....

Movie — Babies

When we're off, Erik and I are admittedly couch potatoes. We like to decompress and just vege (sp?) out.

Last year, I remember seeing some chatter about the movie "Babies" and thought it sounded like an interesting flick (see trailer below):



We watched it Sunday night, and while it was not exactly what I expected, it was pretty cute.

It wasn't what I "expected" because other documentary type movies I've seen have had commentaries or voice over. Some narrator weaving things together. With this, there wasn't any of that. Nope. Nada. Zip. Just the babies, some music and ambient noise. Which wasn't bad, just not what I expected.

There were some times where I really wish they would have explained what was going on. For example:

Karen: "I wonder what's going on. Is this a family ritual? A birthday party?"
Erik: "I wonder if that kid is chewing on a Wheat Thin or Triscuit?" (I'm not making this line up)

Anyhow, it was pretty cute. Babies are universal.

There was one scene where the baby in Africa was falling asleep sitting up and kept waking himself up because he was falling over in an attempt to fall asleep. Pretty cute.

One note, though: obviously this is about babies and there are a bunch of rural scenes, so there's plenty of nudity (but not distasteful or anything) ... just so you know before you bust this out with small kids or anything.

Hangin' w/ Theodore

Look who came to hang with us last weekend.

Of course, he was sickly, sick, sick, sick, and thus slept 4.5 hours. Play time was limited. :(

#115 — Install under-cabinet lighting in the kitchen.

I'm adding this to my bucket list.

Our kitchen has 2 fixtures, but with a tall husband, he often towers over me while I work, blocking the light. A common phrase is "Erik, you're blocking my light, MOVE." To which he huffs out of the kitchen. Sorry, lover, I don't want to cut my fingers!

So when my dad called to tell me they were upgrading their lighting and had a bunch of fixtures, I of course took him up on it. And in a very Huck Finn manner (it was Huck Finn who got others to paint the fence for him, or was it Tom Sawyer?), said "you're going to come up and install them, right?" ... to which he said. yes. :) :) :)

BEFORE:



DURING:

To the very left is where the fridge usually lives.


We had to move it to install this switch.

MAKING PROGRESS:

AFTER:

AFTER:



One of the lights needs a little jiggling. But overall, a GARGANTUAN improvement. :)

Crossover — Baby Henry!

Shout out to my girl, Erin, and her sweet baby boy. You can see the post HERE on the Heartland Blog.

#91 — Blog stalk a blog COMPLETELY unrelated to photography for ONE MONTH

The bucket list returns!

Up today: 91. Blog stalk a blog COMPLETELY unrelated to photography for ONE MONTH.

This might seem like a bit of a strange one, but in my world, it's really easy to develop tunnel vision. To think who I am, what I do ... that it's the only thing that matters, which I know isn't true. Besides, when all I look at is photo blogs, it's easy to turn to the comparison game. Such-and-so is doing better/more/cooler things than I am, so I suck. I don't like that game and in an effort to avoid it, finding non-photo related blogs has been a good thing. :)

In all honesty, I think when I started, I thought I'd read something political or maybe a cooking blog or something ... but here's what I've been into lately (and I am not sure it's been an entire month, but I read both of these regularly - 3x weekly - so I'm counting this).

1. Jen has a Pen

I "found" Jen through my own blog. She is a blog follower, and so I clicked through to her blog (I've "met" a few friends this way). After a post or two, I was completely hooked! She is a witty writer (think: Helen Fielding) who has a lot to say. I especially connect with her "I want a baby and don't have one, but can't bring myself to snatch one from a passing carriage." She's far more open with life and health issues than I am comfortable being (HELLO! My mother in law + my sister's mother in law read this ...)

THIS is one of my most favorite posts. Absolutely had me laughing until I was in tears.

2. Style By Emily Henderson

I watched all last season as Emily plowed through Design Star on HGTV. I cheered her on and was jazzed when she won.

Recently, I discovered she has a blog. Let me tell you why I'm insanely excited about this. BECAUSE when I see something I like on TV, you don't always know WHERE it came from. I want to know where it's from and how many Franklins it will cost. Emily's Blog provides just such info ... WITH LINKS! Oh when I found this site, I thought I had died and gone to heaven. Forever.

I really connected with yesterday's post ... I love that even though she's a TV personality, Em shares when things get fugly.

Crossover — Kristi + Cody

No witty words today. Just CLICK HERE to see our wedding from last weekend.

I *heart* slippers!

Since I spend quite a bit of time working/editing around home, I clock in a LOT of quality time in my slippers.

I have strong opinions and preferences about these little gems. I like them to be a ballet slipper sort of thing. And A rubber bottom is key. And the fabric .... has to be nice and soft. I'm particular. I also had a pair I LOVED from Restoration Hardware. Picked them up about 2 years ago. And loved all over them. Then, when it came time to replace them ... the dreaded words "we don't carry those anymore." I cried. Truly.

And so the search was on. I needed a replacement. It reached critical mass when a hole formed in the toe of one of the slippers. yet I still could not part with them. Not without a replacement. Even Erik, bless his heart, tried to get me new slippers for Christmas, but they weren't quite right (way too wide for my feet!). So the search continued.

Fast forward to TODAY. I'm in Kohl's looking for some athletic shorts (side note: WHY are SO MANY women's shorts PINK? Seriously, I'm not 5 years old people. Why pink???).

Walking absently toward the register, I see a big display of slippers .... and light shone from heaven on them.


These aren't the EXACT slippers I got, but they're close. "Dearfoams" slippers. Oh how I love thee! So much that I bought 2 pair (honestly, had there been one more in my size, I might have purchased 3 pairs!). Now I have slippers for now and for when these wear out. CHA-CHING!!! SCORE! :)

Now, I know it's practically SUMMER, so slippers seems silly. But let me tell you. My photo editing station is in the basement and it is COLD in our basement year-round. So slippers are truly an essential part of my attire. And the rubber soles keep my socks from wearing out on the bottom.

Garden, 2011

Ok, no photos with this post b/c there's no action in the garden.

A few pearls of wisdom:

1) Lavender. I think it's nice and I want to grow some. I picked up a packet of seeds and was just outside planting them. And on the back of the packet? It says "flowers will appear second year" ... pft. So much for instant gratification in the garden. I guess this means I'll have lovely greenery, but no lavender smell/color. Grr.

2) The gas company had to dig up our garden in the fall for our neighbor's gas line. Grr. And they dug the hell out of my strawberry patch. My 3-year established strawberry patch that I figured out how to cage. GRRRRRR. I was just in the backyard, praying for a recovery miracle and only have like 5-6 sprigs of strawberry leaves and a big bare area. I am guessing I'll have to get a few more plants, which means plucking flowers the entire first year so they can establish roots and grow big + healthy. GGGGRRRRRRR.

Painting secret

I'm going to let you in on a little secret today.

It all started yesterday when I was talking w/ my sis. She was talking about doing some home painting, and I was telling her how I read about the different paint finishes, how they work better in different places, etc. It was news to her, and it was news to me when I read it .... so I figure I'll share the link with my blog world. :)

THIS LINK talks about the different finishes of paint. It gives suggestions for the best finish in living rooms v. bathrooms. Good info.

I learned the hard way when I painted our master bedroom. I had my little sample can and said "this one" .... and when it was all painted, well, you could see every imperfection on the wall, and it honestly looked a bit like the circus had come to town with the glossy finish. So I went, got another gallon of a matte finish and painted over it ... with good results. But to help YOU avoid this, I thought I'd share the link.

Here's another sneaky little secret: At Lowes' in Salina, all of their little paint sample cans COME in the gloss finish. So if you go and say "this one" they'll give it to you in gloss ... not asking if you would prefer eggshell. Egades!

The front bedroom of our house and closet are painted with the gloss, but it's not too crazy, I think because the colors are more subdued. So .... lesson learned: if you're going big + bold on your wall color, be sure to avoid gloss at all costs. :)

"Here I am, Lord ..."

Mike and I had a rockin' wedding this weekend out of town. That in itself is fairly normal, but I wouldn't usually make a trip to Dodge before a wedding "just because." But with Grandpa John's funeral, of COURSE we went to Dodge. And I'm glad we did.

The trip, however, meant being home for less than 24 hours before packing the car and leaving again. Whew!

I left Great Bend this morning close to 7 a.m. And with my crazy allergies, I've been up hacking the last 2 nights.

So this morning, I'm sitting in Mass, just hoping I don't fall asleep sitting up, thinking "Here I am, Lord" ... I couldn't even make it to the next part of the phrase "I come to do your will." Nope. I was just there. Present. "Here I am."

Everyone I know with kids tells me "You get used to not sleeping" but I think they're just saying it. I have a hard time believing my body could do with less than 9 hours of sleep (NO I'm not joking, folks!).

Sort of a rambly post, but my point is this: on Mother's Day ... I tip my hat to all of you mommies, especially my friends with babies and little kids. To those who might not be sleeping through the night. Or more than 3 hours at a time. I marvel at you. I honor you. I am in awe of you.

Happy Mother's Day.

Crossover — Jessica + Ryan

KAREN???? Where have you been????

Well, troopers, it happens to be the beginning of our busy wedding season. So you may or may not see regular posts around here. I will, however, try to share some wedding photos. :)


I really love hanging out w/ the brides before the wedding. Nice, relaxed portrait.


Often, it's difficult to tear a couple away from their wedding reception. The Maid of Honor, however, did and photos at sunset are always stunning!

HERE is the preview post on the Heartland Blog.

On a side note, we just returned from Dodge for Erik's last living grandparent's funeral. To say life is busy right now would be ann understatement of large proportions. I have less than 24 hours at home before turning around for this weekend's wedding on the road. Luckily Erik will be here to keep the animals company. Dog went into spaz out mode after being boarded for 2 days!