photos

best sandwich EVER

a day in the life, photos, recipes, words

BLT. No tomato for me, I use cheese instead. A BLC? Maybe.

What really makes this more than just  good is… the pesto sauce.  Spread on the bread next to the bacon, and… there are no words to describe how good this is.

I guess there might be some. Like best sandwich EVER.

[homemade whole wheat bread, bacon, sharp cheddar, spinach, and homemade (from homegrown basil!) pesto sauce.]

This lovely plate is Clara’s, thrifted recently.

I’ll go make myself another one.

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fourth of july weekend :: monday

a day in the life, photos, photoshoots, stories, words

This was actually the Fourth of July. And, we didn’t do a lot. Most of our celebrating was done earlier that weekend.

I played around with that new lens, the 24mm macro, taking pictures of our mailbox-garden zinnias.

This (below) is currently my favorite photo. I think.

I worked in the morning, so I took these pictures in the afternoon. The sidewalk was super hot. I didn’t go put shoes on, so my feet were burning off.

That evening we went to see more fireworks, the Castle Hills ones. This time we were much farther away, but some other friends ended up being there too.

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fourth of july weekend:: sunday

a day in the life, photographic journeys, photos, stories, thoughts, words

Our Sunday festivities started with going to church (and wearing patriotic colors.) In the afternoon, Clara and I went to a pool party with some friends (where I did not take many pictures.) But we had lots of fun and ate lots of good food. The watermelon I brought was demolished in a matter of minutes. (That is only a slight exaggeration.)

THIS IS ROOTBEER.  Please believe me.

Then, when I was sort of supposed to be taking a nap, I was out in the backyard trying out a lens and taking a multitude of pictures of Ginger. 24mm for a nice wide angle, eh? Sadly because this is a legacy (from film-camera) lens, it is limited in the focusing range. Like only a foot away. But for the things it can do, it is wonderful.

Then, we went to see the Farmers Branch fireworks. Very fun. We were so close, we would lay down on our backs and they would fill the sky above us. Loved it.

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fourth of july weekend :: saturday

a day in the life, photos, stories, thoughts, words

Today we celebrated Fourth of July by having friends over for a cookout. Shish-kabobs are soooooo good. So are grilled peaches.

Fresh-cut, homegrown zinnias from the mailbox garden in the front yard. In sarsaparilla bottles.

I made some patriotic pretzels, just putting glaze on yogurt pretzels that I had. We had no red food coloring, though… so I used beet juice. You couldn’t taste it though; they were pretty delicious.

I also made a garland out of paint samples from Lowes. And some garage-sale-found white Christmas lights, and a homemade heart bokeh filter.

And a bunch of these crazy people were playing Ninja. Super intense and super fun to watch. Also, I’m getting a little better from being so bad at it.

And, my super cute sister!

And one of my other super cute sisters and her not-so-bad-looking boyfriend.

Even more plans for tomorrow! Happy Fourth of July, everyone.

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happy fathers day!

a day in the life, photos, stories, thoughts, words

A few favorite pictures of me and Daddy. I’ll have to see if I can find any when I’m not tiny. But Dad is still as good-looking as ever : )

Learning to pray! I treasure this photo.

and storytime!

and my Grandpa Big Mike on my Mom’s side

and Grandpa Chris on Dad’s side

oh and Mommy too

our whole family (minus Clara, who was not alive?)

and Dad and three of us girls this winter.

I  am blessed to have such a great Dad.

Happy Father’s Day, Daddy-o!     Love, Ellie-Bird

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hair adventures : pin curls

a day in the life, photos, words

pin curls.

i tried these last night, after taking out my heidi braid. i ran out of bobby pins about halfway through, and then ran around the house looking for more.  they are pretty easy (a little difficult with layered hair) but much more comfortable to sleep in than foam rollers. and i didn’t take a before picture of this, even though it wasn’t that bad looking, because it was late at night and because clara stole the tripod.

so here is an after picture. looove how this looks. thanks, amy, for taking a picture of me.

also, love how it mostly curls the end and not up top so much. it makes wearing it down so much easier. that probably will vary for your hair length.

tutorial here: strawberry koi vintage pin curls

heidi braids + my outfit today

photos, photoshoots, stories

second time trying these actually, but the first time for it to work. i need to figure out the best way to do the bobby pins, and make it less messy, but i really like this.

photo tutorial here: orchid grey heidi braids

video tutorial here: strawberry koi vintage heidi braids

i found this shirt in my melisssa’s drawer. she found it at a clothing exchange.

clara took our tripod with her to beach camp, so for these i just set my camera on a shelf or dresser.

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snow should be white.

photos, thoughts, words

recently i read somewhere online about adjusting a photo’s levels to make the whites, well, white.

this photo i took back at the beginning of the snowpocalypse.

isn’t it sadly gray? really really sadly gray.

but this… this is what snow should look like.

and i’m not one of those bloggers with tons of photoshop tutorials and handy-dandy screen shots of what i did, so i’ll try to explain it. (and i use gimp, anyway.) but in levels, when the whites in your photo are gray, you drag the white arrow (on the far right) over to where the histogram starts. if that makes sense. (a friend of mine mentioned you can do the same thing with the black to even out the look. i haven’t tried this yet – just starting to use gimp more.)

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film:: at the beach

a day in the life, photos, words

^ i took lots of pictures of melissa

^ my super awesome (and super cute) parents

^ it was only very very windy. that was actually why i mostly used my film camera, because the blowing sand was reeeaaalllly bad for my digital SLR. (after just a few minutes i was noticing grittiness on my lens.)

^ jellyfish

^ melly building the sandcastle. more precisely, the fab tunnel she dug.

^ our sandcastle. self filling moat! so awesome.

the end!

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