Bathroom accessory:

I've had this cross for awhile, but didn't quite have the place to put it. Then I decided the front bathroom would be the best place. Buuuuuuut, it wouldn't stand out on the wall, so I spray painted it white. :)


Sorry, I didn't rotate the photo.


Working on it!


Yay!


The cross made a bit of an interesting design on the paper.


And .... finally on the wall:


I'm happy with it, and even liked it enough to paint another wall article .... I'll show that in a bit.

BL#80 — Go visit Bobby Ann & Vern in their winter nest

As evidenced by all of the posts about Arizona, Erik and I went to see his parents in Arizona! :)

But, the whole spring game thing probably won't happen because some of the baseball teams are moving elsewhere for spring training. Oh well, half of this is good, right?

Bucket List

So, my Bucket List is a holdover from my 101 in 1001 list. And that's what the numbering is all about. (You can read about it HERE).

SO, I'm posting this because I have an item to check off, but want to have a good reference. So here is the list. I don't know if I intend to add to it until I get it complete. But we'll see!

3. Learn how to speak rudimentary Italian

4. Go on a vineyard tour in Italy

5. Learn to juggle

6. Earn as much from Heartland Photography in one year as I did from any previous job

7. Adopt a child internationally

8. Learn how to play (basic) piano

10. Develop a long-term documentary project

11. Attend WPPI in Vegas

12. Put 10% of my income into a retirement plan

13. Put another 10% of my income into investments

14. Play the stock market

15. Buy a share of stock in Apple Inc.

16. Travel in Africa (again)

17. Become a member of a wine club

20. Buy a gold coin

21. Eat veggies grown ONLY from my garden for one summer

22. Practice yoga 2 times/week for six months

24. Be interviewed on NPR

25. Go to Mt. Rushmore

27. Join a fantasy team

29. Fly first class

32. Book 20-24 weddings/year

33. Take a SCUBA diving class

34. Have something ELSE published in Better Homes & Gardens magazine

35. Have a wedding featured in a magazine

37. Visit the center of the continental U.S.

39. Finish one of my "in progress" quilts

40. Keep tax information current on a monthly basis (i.e. don't wait until the end of the year to get organized!)

41. Send birthday cards to everyone on my birthday calendar for one year

44. Replace all possible lights in house with more eco-friendly light bulbs

48. Take a dance class with ERB — DONE, Fall 2010

49. Learn to belly dance

50. Develop and implement a regular backup system for my computer

51. Volunteer as a classroom aid in a local school (to read to children)

52. Document the birth of a child — DONE, Fall 2010

53. Read "How to Win Friends & Influence People"

54. Participate in the Bike Across Kansas

56. See the northern lights

57. Go to Nicodemas, Kansas; learn a little about its history

58. Photograph Castle Rock at sunrise

61. Read pages 1&3 of the newspaper EVERY DAY for a MONTH

62. Take my vitamins every day for a month

64. Have a photo published on Trash The Dress Web site

67. Photograph a wedding in Hawaii

70. Go to groundhog day activities in PA!

73. Photograph a family for Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep — DONE, April 2010

75. Get my 3 a day for an entire month!

76. Enter photos in a competition

78. Get large canvas prints made — DONE!!!! May 18, 2010

80. Go visit Bobby Ann & Vern in their winter nest, catch spring game while in Arizona. — DONE!!!!!!! December 2009

81. Go to the Salt Mines in Hutch — DONE!!!!!!! Aug 2011

84. Re-do the master suite in Erik's house (bedroom/closet/bath)

87. Have an article I write published in an industry magazine (wedding/portrait photography industry)

91. Blog stalk a blog COMPLETELY unrelated to photography for ONE MONTH. — DONE!!!! April/May 2011

96. Get 2008 wedding album designs completed/to the printer/binder before 2009 weddings begin.

- - - - - -

*** EDIT/ADD-ON: I've decided to add items at the bottom of the list, per this blog post. Because I'm adding them onto a 101 list, I'll start numbering them at 102. :)

102. Come up with a year-end thank you/Christmas gift for clients — DONE!!!! December 2010

103. Get signed up for a State of Kansas library card so I can download audio books w/o having to go to the library to get them. — DONE!!!! January 2011

104. Find a new and loving home for Erik's original couch/love seat/recliner — DONE!!!! April 2011

105. Have the hardwood floors in our house refinished/make the ugly tile in the kitchen go away. — DONE!!!! April 2012

106. Get some insulation installed in the crawl space under the master bedroom!!!!!!

107. Write down a "company manual" for the systems and order I do things ...

108. Vacuum the main living areas up and downstairs bi-monthly for 6 months (for those of you out there cringing, this is WAY more often than it's done now, hence a big improvement). — DONE!!!! June 2011

109. Add the lattice planters on the patio.

110. Have an attic fan installed (this will help in the spring/fall so we can use the attic fan and hopefully use less air conditioning!!!).

111. Grow lavender somewhere, just because I think it smells nice — DONE!!!! May 2011

112. Have a garage sale in 2010!!!! — DONE!!!! April 2011

113. Take a spring/summer trip to the Drive-In. Have an old fashioned good time. :) — DONE!!!! June 24, 2011

114. Cook a new recipe (2x a month) involving a new grain (bulgur, amaranth or something as such).

115. Install under-cabinet lighting in the kitchen. — DONE!!!! May 2011

116. Install a ceiling fan in our living room.

117. Have photos published on a wedding inspiration blog — DONE!!!! September 2011

118. Paint the trim on our house

119. Decide on a color; paint the middle bedroom. — DONE!!!! November 2011

120. Have couple's dinner once/quarter with a good friend(s)

121. See Garrison Keillor perform (again).

122. Go to Minnesota; see Garrison Keillor perform on his home stage before his retirement in 2013.

123. Install a gate on patio to contain the dog. — DONE!!!! December 2011

Arizona XII

Ok, last Arizona post ... this will be long, though. Another neat place we went was Tubac. It's a little artists colony and I really could spend days going through all of the shops!

First, for those of you who have been here around Christmas know we don't have a tree. Only a nativity set. We have a cat, I think she'd climb a tree. I'm lazy, I don't want to mess with a tree and a cat who likes to climb it. SO, this seems to be a great alternative:

But I've seen ones with knobs on the branches, to allow you to hang ornaments. If I ever see one like this with knobs, I'm totally going to rally for making it our Christmas tree!


Fabulous!


A vertical, a little closer.


I was SO taken with this wall! I really love it!


Seriously, what's NOT to love???!?!?!?


It's a bit difficult to see this, but it's a vertical metal planter thingie ... I'm not sure it has a place in our backyard, but I think it's uber cool!


SPEAKING of uber cool, I found a rain barrel! See how big it is! And see how pricey it is! Anyone living in Salina, there's a thing Tuesday night and you can get a rain barrel for $10. A TOTAL steal!


There were these cheerful metal flowers that were painted brightly all over the place! How fun!


Another one.


I dug this little courtyard.


An arrangement in a shop that I liked.


Yeah. No words. Just. Yeah.


There were these crosses that had all sorts of little figurines made into a larger artistic cross. I really liked these!


Another one; they also made frames and other things, but these were the most interesting looking pieces.


I liked seeing more of the room via the mirror.


Another beautiful little cross.


I'm kinda crazy about this overall wall. Really like it. It sort of reminds me of something from the new "Romeo and Juliet" movie .. er, the "new" one made about 15 years ago. :)


Just liked how the background is framed. Nothing too special, just some nice framing. :)

Arizona XI

I like to think I'm a fairly agreeable traveler. When I went to Africa to see Jeanel, I only had one request: that I ride a camel. That was it. The rest, where we went, what we did ... I was flexible. I like to think I'm a pretty easy guest. I guess people who have hosted me will have to speak to that. ;)

So, when we went to Arizona, and southern Arizona at that, my one request was to go to Mexico. It was my first time. :)

So, off we went to Nogales, Mexico.



I'd heard a lot about Erik's cheap sunglasses from Mexico. He sports some new ones. I ended up with an Armani knockoff. :)


HIs parents are friendly with this metal worker ... and this guy's stuff is SO stunning!


I actually became obsessed with looking for a light for the green bedroom. I saw tin ones, didn't like them. Ones with clear glass, and ones with frosted glass. I kinda dig the frosted glass, a medium size. But many of them, the metal work was sort of silvery, but peeling off, nothing I wanted to take home with me. But this is the direction I'm looking!


Last photo today: a chimnea! I'm really wanting one of these for our back patio. :) The one above is basically what I'm looking for. I dig the terra cotta look. But don't insist upon the aloe plant on top. ;) But this fella needed a stand.

I'm really not in too big of a hurry about the chimnea. I totally scored some awesome wicker furniture in a dumpster dive earlier this year, and need to re-paint it, and then assess our patio furniture situation. Then we'll see how/where a chimnea might go best.

Arizona X

This post is my post of detail shots. About half way through our trip, I became obsessed with taking photos of textures and the like. So here they are:








ALL of these photos were taken with my little point and shoot camera .... with the macro function. It's not the tool, it's the person using it! :)

Arizona IX

Meet a havalina. They're smelly wild pigs that live near my in-laws in 'Zona. (Think the warthog from The Lion King).


But they're kinda cute, right? ;)


We actually had a sighting on the golf course! We weren't too far, but Erik dragged me away. Thinks the havalinas are dangerous or something. ;) I wasn't too far away, but I don't think they're overly smelly.

Arizona VIII

It's strange to be somewhere and have all sorts of Christmas spirit but no snow.


I actually think it's pretty.


Quite festive!


And ... Santa evidently doesn't need snow ... a cactus or two will do.

Arizona VII

So, we've done all of this talking about some Arizona stuff and should mention one of the main reasons Erik and I went to Arizona: Bobby Ann and Vern's 50th Wedding Anniversary! :)


Don't we clean up nicely for their dinner?


Oh this cake ... it was spectacular! I think there was some apricots and white cake. Um ... yeeeeeeah. Yummie.


Poor Vern, not the most flattering photo, but excited about their gift certificates from their friends.

Arizona VI

Remember THIS post about San Xavier. Well, since I was *ahem* a bit under the weather, my mother in law was wonderful enough to bring me back again. And it was sunny. :)


But I'm really glad I was able to go back when it was sunny. Thanks, Bobby Ann!


I'd be interested to see this in black and white, but have been looking at about a million photos and just don't have the energy. So we'll see.


I wish the detail were closer to the ground so I could view more of it.


Cross on the hill. Nice.


A view from the inside.


Did I show a black and white version of this last time? I am digging this color. And the view. :)