Are you talking to me?

First off -- I just had to add this clip; it inspired the naming of this photo. It's an inside joke pm and I have since it reminds us of our international wedding and all the things that got lost in translation. Fear not: If you speak just English you will understand 90% of this video. If you are Spanish, you hopefully will understand 90% too. :)

Enough of that diversion. Here's the photo, followed by my thoughts.

Time for a show of hands (maybe comments will work? :)): Who likes garden gnomes? Who doesn't? I happen to like them. That is not to say that I would buy one and decorate my outdoor spaces with it, but I do find them humorous. Every time I see one I have to smile. (And then wonder why someone bought it in the first place.) I also like to think that something is tending to or watching over the garden when I am not. For me the garden gnome is kind of like the scarecrow.

Anyway, pm does not like them. He finds them both tacky and creepy. I think it's because he has a thing with bearded men. He doesn't even believe (spoiler alert!) in Santa Claus. In fact, he feels the same way about Santa as he does about garden gnomes: creepy and tacky. Only difference, other than the plush red suite, is that Santa knows when you are sleeping, and knows when you're awake; the garden gnome does not. There has got to be something in that Spanish water.

I've been noticing a lot of garden flair lately. In part, yes, to the fact I have been making a point to notice all the flair. Chicagoans seem to like putting little artsy details in their front yards. Some past photos and examples include past post about our Pentax O-ME53 of the Wooden Totem and Red Star.

Hope this post inspires you to (a) articulate, (b) share your thoughts about garden gnomes and (c) get inspired to see garden flair on your daily walks.

Morning Coffee

What's on my mind today?

Should I swim?

Should I fish?

Should I canoe?

I'll decide later.

Right now I'll just enjoy my morning roast.

Wish I could enjoy my daily coffee like this on the dock everyday. Here's to another day & another cup - dark roast & cream.

La Flor Solita.

The brisk autumn air is upon us. While it doesn't make me happy that little flowers like this one are soon going to go away, I am excited about pulling out the my woolen sweaters, leather boots, scarves and hot cocoa mugs.

I'm a Northern gal, what can I say? My lovely pm reminds me of this quite often. Part of the reason he does so, I think, is because he is a southern guy. [There's a song all about people like him: Los Delinquentes, Despues. They're singing all about la gente abajito del sol :)]

Regardless of being from the north or the south, I love fall. It's something about the changing of the leaves, the air and our clothes that almost forces us to change gears. Some of these changes admittedly may be against my will (aka -- fall cleaning and closed windows), but others bring excitement. Our biggest celebration . . . the cooling of the airs means we can brew again!! We kicked off yesterday with bottling our peach american wheat. This will give a little bottle of sunshine on cold days.

We've got lots of floral and herbal teas in the cabinet. Maybe we mesh some of these flavors and aromas into our next homebrew. Hmmm....

Looking down.

Forehead pressed against hot vinyl.

Sun blazing its summer heat.

Cool views from down below.

We just wanted to be swimming with the fishes.

Instead we watch, we watch, we watch.

Michigan Avenue

In our last post we talked about being inspired by "The Loop." The above photo directly illustrates exactly why downtown Chicago is inspirational and down right awesome.

This is the kind of Holga photo I would take; my style must be rubbing off on pm. Ever since I discovered that you can take multiple exposures on the same frame, I have a hard time not doing so. Part of this lies in the fact that:

• Film isn't cheap and I want to maximize its use
• It's fun to think about how you position and prepare each individual image while ultimately focusing on the end result
• It's always a mystery of what you're going to get
• Not many people shoot double exposures, so it makes my work different

I suppose I'll let pm take all the credit for this one.

Can you imagine this being your daily view from the office? Having a corner office overlooking all the constant madness and swarms of peeps below. Oh wait... this is his view. He's a lucky son-of-a-gun. I can't say I've ever had a view this good, but then again how many of us do? We're definitely get an enlargement made of this one. Maybe some prints of this will make it to our Etsy site too. (We'll let you know when that happens :))

Inspiration #1

I have been feeling like my creative inspiration has been wanning. I wanted to start thinking about things that inspire me and photographing them.

Here's to Inspiration #1: "The Loop"

Traveling to the loop on its own is inspiration. It's never see the same thing. The surrounds are always changing. People of all shapes, colors and sizes all wearing different patterns, styles and hues. Buildings of varying styles and eras, changing with the daylight and nightlife. Nature changing with the seasons, temperatures and locale in the city.

Once in the loop, it is easy to find inspiration because there is so much going on. My challenge to myself: Once downtown stop and take a moment to reflect on all of this "busyness." It's easy to get wrapped up on where you have to go and the "plan" rather than taking some time to relax and soak it all in.

What are some of your inspirations?

The placement problem.

Big city. Small world.

I am thinking today about all the people I have crossed throughout my life's journey. I've now lived in 5 states (6 if you count my short college summer stint in Colorado) and 1 foreign delight (Spain). Throughout each of these states, I've lived in multiple cities (roughly 8 on a quick count). Just imagine all the people I have crossed paths with throughout each of these locations. At some point or another, I've probably been in the same place at the same time with at least one person that you know. crazy.

For as big as this world is, it isn't. I seem to run into familiar faces a lot. The challenge I have with running into so many familiar faces is to try to recollect from where I recognize their face. Is it from school (if so, which one?), work, clubs, friends of friends...etc.

I have a great recollection of faces. My recollection of names and attaching these faces to a point in time, unfortunately, isn't as sharp as I would like for it be. Herein lies my problem: not being able to "place" on a timeline why a face is familiar. I am calling it my placement problem.

Just last week I ran into someone on the EL on my way to work. I instantly knew I knew this person. I racked my brain--and I still am even though I know the chances I see her again are slim to none--and could not place her. I also realized quickly she did not recognize me, so I stopped staring, smiling and trying to talk.

I want for my brain to function like a camera. You take the picture and it can instantly be saved, labeled, shared, stored or erased. I wish I could have a similar system with people I meet. Until then I will have a continued placement problem.

back to the swing of things.

Why is that long weekends always go by the fastest? We were just starting to get comfortable and along comes Tuesday. Someone needs to invent a remote control for life already. Well, not really. It would sure be nice sometimes though.

This was the weekend of family & friends, projects and crossing things off the to-do list.

Projects.
Pm kept busy for most of Saturday refinishing a bench of ours. He dusted it off, sanded it down and varnished it. It looks pretty awesome, and photos will be posted once the entire project is complete. This may first require us learning how to upholster furniture. More to come on that.

Projects & Family.
Sunday we shot some engagement photos. We have yet to do some post-processing and waiting for the film to be developed, but I am hoping we'll get some goodies. We'll be back for a repeat visit with these two. It helps when it's family and they are up to putting in a few more rounds of good smiles.

Friends.

Meanwhile, while the above trunk project was happening, I caught up with some dear old pals. Nothing like being reunited with friends from yesteryears and being able to laugh about then, now and what's to come. My one pal has a way cute house. Makes me want one of my own. Patience, am, patience...

To Do List.

Restock the shelves... with beer. It has been a long, hot summer of not brewing. If you've been following the blog you know that it's because our apartment hasn't been the coolest place to hang out this summer. Heat and beer brewing don't really go hand in hand, so we decided to wait. Until... this weekend. We are brewing a Peach American Wheat. Should be ready to enjoy in a month or so. We just have to add the fresh (and now frozen) peaches. I'm thinking an IPA is next. Maybe in a couple of weeks?

And there we have it. A fun-filled weekend. It was just long enough to get refueled and re-energized, and not quite long enough to completely catch up on everything. That includes sleep. I shall do that now.

reflecting.

Today is a day of reflections. We are 3/4 the way through 2010, it's my dear sister's birthday, and we are days away from a 3 away weekend. Seems like a culmination of many things, but as the saying goes ... when it rains it pours. And, it did indeed pour this morning.

I've been thinking today about my resolutions for the year. I cannot say that I haven't done many of them, but then again I haven't done them all. Lucky for me I still have 3 months to make up for lost time. I plan to do just that.

Goal #1: Make cards and send out more snail mail. Want to get it? Let me know.

Goal #2: Read more. I spend nearly 2 hours of my day commuting. Therefore, I have time to cozy up on the train and read some good. Have some good leads? Let me know.

Goal #3: Get crafty: Take photos, make stuff and give stuff.

Goal #4: Purge. Reduce the unnecessary and do some spring cleaning this fall.

How are you doing on your resolutions?