florida photos: indian pass

this set of photos is from my instagram feed (i'm dorissander there).  we moved from the big city to small town usa the summer after first grade.  we actually lived across the street from the ocean for a couple years.  it seemed so normal at the time, but now i realize it was amazing.  we go back there most trips as we all love to eat at the raw bar.  i walked there from my house as a kid when it was just an old country store and post office.  it was a good mile or so away and i was only seven.  there were a lot more freedoms then.  these photos represent the florida of my youth.  empty, beautiful, wild.  revisiting my childhood paths was so much more nostalgic with my own child.  seeing him play where i once played.  these are treasured times.

calvinball update . . .

totally gratuitous blogging ahead.  i'm going to go ahead and admit here that the ocd has kicked in a bit with the ole blog.  i was gung ho and blogged 31 times in january.  in february, even with the flu, i somehow unintentionally blogged 28 times.  now if you know you're monthly math and anything about ocd tendencies then you probably realize that i've got 6 blog posts to go (counting this one) and 3 days to get them done in (counting today that's dwindling fast).  so here's a calvinball update!  and a reminder that if you haven't entered the ribbon giveaway, there's still time!  calvinball doesn't end till midnight on the 31st!  and i declare a calvinball bonus for dying easter eggs!  :)

quickie calvinball update:

calvinscraps - 31
calvinblogs - 25
calvinbonus - 19

total - 75

florida photos: riley's birthday outtakes

still establishing the pecking order, "NO deanna!  i don't need you to push me!"

"aunt doris!  aunt doris!  will you push me?"  as soon as you smile for my camera i will.

how godzilla might feel in the twilight zone.

somebody needs to cut that kid's nails.

now that one in the middle is obviously a princess carriage unless you're confused and think it's a four-eyed chick or catch an upside down glance and assume it's a bearded bug.

wardrobe malfunction.

this poor man's gonna spend a lot of time waiting for his women and their fashions.

where's riley?

reenactment requested by aunt doris.

box barricade as it was too windy for birthday candles.

the birthday diva provides another reenactment for aunt doris.

somebody had to pull a tooth and announce that fact right in the middle of the birthday song.

that smile, that smile, that cover girl smile.

does it get any better than this?

sugar rush.

and cake is apparently optional.

truly, one of the greatest gifts we can give our children is the ability to laugh at themselves.  :)

good blog reads

this is us.  enjoying a bit of seemingly illusive spring sunbeam.  fingers crossed they will be a more common occurance now.  weather.com only has 2 small blips on the ten day radar and hopefully those will warm up before we get there.  i'm over cold weather. 

here are a few posts i've collected for you this month.  i especially want to gush over the first batch, but have decided to let them speak for themselves in all their loveliness.  i'm limiting myself to one word introductions.


beautiful words + beautiful photos:

newborn photographer - tara whitney - sweetness

vintage photographer - hula seventy - poignant

amazing writer - black ink paperie - thoughtful


crafty shares:

free motion sewing - ihanna - fun

doodling on letters - rebecca sower - artsy


new blog finds:

photos plus words - scraps of us - ecclectic

plant lover - little green shed - green


a free online course on blogging inspiration:

rapier wit - julie kirk - sharp

get it scrapped!: last puddle

so far, we only miss two things about our old place.  we miss the fresh krispy kreme donuts at our friendly neighborhood gas station and i know we will miss the lake sized puddle that used to form after a good spring rain.  we've already gone on a pilgrimage or two for our beloved donuts and should spring choose to actually grace us with her presence, we might just have to head over to our old stomping ground to splash through that puddle once again.

this layout was created for an article on using the colors found in nature to deepen your scrapbook page stories.  my assignment was green and i had absolutely no trouble with that.  i love to scrapbook with green.  i also love to use vintage products.  there are quite a few on this page, including the sweet pea label, the lawn service letterhead, the tiny white flowers, and the price tag.  all fit nicely into the theme of the page and, serendipitously, one or two of the vintage kits from whence they came are still available at jbs mercantile.

haiku 326

tiny dotted dot
happiness dancing on red
spring is a party

florida photos: crawdads

somehow i have become the designated "adult" to take these boys on their adventures.  they've figured out that they can talk aunt doris into pretty much anything.  this trip the ditches were wetter than i've seen them since i was a kid, so we decided to go crawdadding.  i think it may have even been my idea.

i told them they wouldn't get any in this first ditch they wanted to try.  it was a cement lined one under an overpass.  crawdads need to be able to dig into the mud to make their burrows don't ya know.  all they found here were a few minnow . . .

and quite a bit of sludge.

we hit the mother lode here.  troy yelled, "it's a crane!  it's a crane!  stop aunt doris!  it's a crane!"  cranes like crawdads more than anything it seems.

here's g pulling in the crawdad seine.

investigating their catch.

it's still amazing to me how many of these little guys were condensed in this one small ditch.  florida is teeming with life after a good rainy spell.

g was a little hesitant at first till he got the hang of grabbing them.

avery, of course, was already an old pro . . .

he was especially enamored with the little ones and wanted me to get this pic.

and then there's troy who always likes to put on a show . . .

"come on big guys.  go ahead and pinch me."

at the end of the haul troy told me, "they're only this big." and i told him, "and you're only this dirty."

bet you can guess who's hands those are.

aunt linda, the one who can do anything (see post below) boiled these up for g for breakfast on the last day.

this is one happy boy.  he was so excited to capture and eat something straight off the land like that.  i think it reminded him of the little house series.  he kept asking me if laura ingalls wilder ate them.