More peony love.

White peonies.

My mom has 5 peony bushes and every year I try to go over and take photos when they are in bloom. Today I only had my phone with me so I didn't take very many, but I also got to cut some of the dark pink ones to bring home so instant pictures will follow. I can't resist the call of the peonies + instant film!

And well, hello! I miss blogging and I miss YOU. But I am so busy right now, it is making me a bit crazy. It's good, really, but I am finding a hard time to even take a break to do the things that I need to do for myself. Like sit out on the patio and breathe for a few minutes or write in my journal so that my anxiety doesn't get too out of hand.

That said, I am going to go out there right now and relax for a bit before doing some more work this evening.

xo

Seven years.

Tree.

The latest words to shoot by is particularly awesome. And yes, I have a thing for trees.

The above shots were all taken down in Las Cruces. We just spent the weekend there so we could attend my eldest niece's college graduation. It's was great fun and a bit chaotic. Seeing all of my nieces (and nephews) is one of my favorite things ever. They are the best.

These flowering trees were all over the place and quite lovely...no idea what they are though. Anyone?

Oh, and we also celebrated our 7th wedding anniversary while we were there. Instant photos of us to come, but you knew that, right?

Happy happy!

Why hello there.

Some of my favorite shots taken with PX 680 Beta film. I cannot tell you how excited I am about the release of PX 680 First Flush from The Impossible Project on Thursday.

I cannot wait. This film is AWESOME.

Moody.

I am sorry to report that my insomnia has gotten really bad again lately and I am having quite a hard time. The lack of sleep interferes with my life way too much and it is so frustrating to me. It's one thing not to get good sleep every once in awhile, but after 4 years of this bullshit, I am at a complete loss. And nothing I take seems to help. Herbal remedies, melatonin, sleeping pills, calcium magnesium at bedtime and all the other various tips and tricks that seem to work for other folks. Nothing works for me.

The funny thing is that last week I had 3 nights that I actually slept through the night. Three nights! That hasn't happened in years. But hand in hand with that has come many more terrible nights.

Argh.

Sorry to complain, but after a week of restless nights, I am at an all time low this morning.

I hope to get some sleep soon and be back here more consistently with lots of happy things to share.

xo

Love.

The first blossoms on the apple tree and my first shot with The Impossible Project's new film, PX 680 (Beta Version).

I can't wait to shoot more of this film because I am in love with it!

Tulip.

The last of the tulip shots. And my favorite.

Happy Friday!

Down.

My interpretation of the latest Words To Shoot By. The little photo shoot I had with myself was a bit of a fiasco, but in the end, I am quite pleased with the results. My perfectionist self would have loved to correct the composition of the top and bottom photos, but being that I only have one more pack of The Impossible Project's PZ600 film, I didn't want to "waste" it on more shots of myself. And composition aside, I absolutely love the tones of this film. Finally it worked for me!

And for the record, I am quite happy at the moment. While March has been a difficult month for me, there have been some turning points and I am feeling good. This really was an actual photo shoot idea versus the reality of mood. (In case you were worried.)

I am hoping to once again have time for this little blog, but due to the various rough patches of March, I am feeling quite behind on my work and the garden. So I probably should spend less time online. (Says she who checks FB and Twitter obsessively.)

A happy week to you all. I hope to have some rock show Polas for you later in the week!

My new camel friend.

My parents-in-law recently returned from a trip to Israel and Jordan. This is one of the gifts that they sent to us. I love it!

Also, I am absolutely dying to try out this film.

One day I will write again.

I promise.

In the meantime...

Chupadero, New Mexico

A little sweetness.

I'm in a bit of "a mood" this morning so I thought a sweet pola of Rocky might turn things around. He always makes me smile.

Today I have lots of work to do, but later we are going out to dinner with friends. Looking forward to it. It's Restaurant Week in Santa Fe so there are some great deals out there. We're going to Dinner for Two, a little place in our neighborhood that we've never tried before. So it's going to be dinner for four at Dinner for Two!

Orchid.

Where did this week go? Hope to have time to catch up with you soon!

Have a wonderful weekend. xo

Tulips on Saturday.

I know I always overdo the flower photos, but I am really pleased with the way these tulip shots turned out. The light is just so perfect to me. I hope you enjoy them as well!

Happy Monday!

Odds and ends.

Procured Arcade Fire tickets without a hitch. They are still available if you are in the area and want to go. Only in Santa Fe is it possible for a venue that seats around 1800 to not sell out an Arcade Fire show. I am sure it will sell out eventually, but good grief it's no wonder that larger musical venues never last very long here. It's kind of depressing actually.

I ran 3 miles on Thursday and it felt so good to be out there again. It went well although I can tell that that Achilles tendon is still not totally normal. I had planned to start running every day again, but I decided I shouldn't push it so skipped the following day and found myself feeling a little pain again. Lovely. This morning I had no pain so I went on a 3 mile walk. That went well and I'd like to run tomorrow, but I am thinking I should take another walk and then try running on Monday.

Oh how I miss running!

I have discovered that I am not a very good walker. I like to walk places. I like to live in neighborhoods that I can easily get to all the necessities on foot. Sometimes I like to walk around and take photographs. But walking just to walk and get some exercise? It just doesn't do it for me. Today I had to give myself a purpose so I wrote a quick postcard to one of my postcard friends and then walked to the post office. I've also been listening to music which is something I never do when I run. (I know, I am probably weird because I don't run with music, but I like to hear what's going on around me.)

I feel like I haven't been getting much knitting/crocheting/felting done. I've been working, but I've had a lot of little errands to run every day and that kind of screws with my focus. Plus I've had a lot of paperwork to do and photographs to edit and I don't know, I need to find a routine that works a little more smoothly.

Yesterday I finally got my application sent out for the Girls Inc. Arts and Crafts Show that happens here in Santa Fe in August. I'm pretty happy with myself for getting it done. I won't find out until May if I am in or not, but nevertheless, because my work is so time consuming, I have to start working on stock now just in case. Because if I do get in, I need plenty of items to fill a booth for two whole days! Plus I need to keep up on stock for the local shop and my Etsy shop.

I had to take a photo of myself making my work for the application.



Not too exciting, I know, but this is the reality of what I do. It is my work space. And I couldn't figure out how to get a shot of myself doing the felting part since that mostly involves standing in front of the washing machine.

I had hoped to have a little more variety (and balance) in my life this year, but with all that I hope to make for the August show, I am going to have to spend most of my time working. Which also involves watching too much television because that's what I do while I work. Fortunately one of my friends just recommended a whole list of shows to me that are available on Netflix so I won't just be watching reruns of Law and Order.

Hope you all are having lovely weekends! xo

Arcade Fire.

Arcade Fire has been one of my all time favorite bands ever since the fall of 2004 when Funeralcame out. I can't even remember who or what prompted me to pick up that album, but I did, and I swear I listened to it for about a year straight.

I like Neon Bible too and The Suburbs is a stellar album, but that Funeral album, it gets me every time.

We lived Brooklyn back then and I was lucky enough to get to see them on that tour. It was one of the best concerts I have ever seen.



I was sick that day, but we went out anyway and I was absolutely mesmerized the entire night.

Since moving to Santa Fe, I can probably count the shows that I have seen on one hand. (Not counting the random music we see out when we're at Second Street or whatever.) My all time favorite bands never come through here. Most of them don't even hit Albuquerque.

Arcade Fire? They'd never come to Santa Fe.

So imagine my surprise when I made my usual morning visit to the local paper and found the lead article to be about Arcade Fire. Coming to Santa Fe. Little old Santa Fe. And within walking distance of our house.

I just about started crying I was so excited. And I'm tearing up again now just thinking about it.

Arcade Fire. In Santa Fe. I might actually get to see a band that I love!

So of course I spent the next hour fretting about whether or not I'll actually get tickets for the show. This is Santa Fe so it should be fine. Things don't sell out here in five minutes like they do in bigger cities. (And people like Lou Barlow play 4 blocks away from our house and NO ONE EVEN KNOWS.) But still, Arcade Fire just won a Grammy for christssake, I am sure there are plenty of people who would like to see them. And it was on the front page of the local paper.

Please cross your fingers for me that I get tickets in the morning. I cannot miss this show. Plus they are playing with The National, a band that I quite like.

Now I need PJ Harvey to play a show here. Then my life will be complete.

Pink tulips in the kitchen.

Raclette anyone?

Last Saturday evening we were invited to a raclette dinner. I have to admit that I had never heard of raclette before and had to look it up.

According to Wikipedia, is both a type of cheese and a Swiss dish based on the cheese.

It's kind of like fondue, but instead of having a pot of cheese, the cheese is melted on a special grill by each individual. So each person can set the pace of their own meal. The grill that our friend has looks something like this one.

I think it can be served with a variety of foods. Our hostess had it a certain way in France and so that's how she serves it. Basically there are steamed potatoes, gherkin pickles, pearl onions and ham served on the table. Each guest serves their own portions of potatoes, pickles and onions and chops them all together on the plate. The ham can be heated on top of the grill and all the while that this is going on, each guest has already put their hunk of cheese on a server thing and stuck it under the top grill to melt. When the cheese is melted, it is scraped on top of the other foods.

It's pretty fun and quite delicious. Everyone just keeps melting cheese and adding more potatoes or this or that and it just goes on as needed. The grill gets crazy hot and so we're told it is best done during the winter. Heats up the house too much during hotter times.

We were asked to bring wine so after some internet research, we showed up with a bottle of Savoie wine and a bottle of Beaujolais. Apparently Savoie is one of the more traditional wines to have with it and our hostess was absolutely thrilled that we brought some. It was good, but I actually preferred the red with the dish. Of course I prefer reds in general so that could be part of it.

And for dessert, strawberry sorbet. Raclette is pretty intense so it is typically not served with a heavy dessert.

All in all, a very fun evening and I'm always happy to experience a new food adventure.

(And yes, I should have photos to go with all this food, but I don't. Low lighting and well, sometimes I just want to eat!)

****