Farm Anatomy

This sweet book has to be my new favorite. I am in love with all the illustrations. It is loaded with wonderful information about farming and just farm life in general. I am just loving browsing through the colorful pages.

Pages dedicated to different fruits and all its different varities.

Gosh I love that pistacio mixer. I don't think that kitchen aid made that color when I got mine. My parents bought me the white one for Christmas when I was fifteen. That was one of the best gifts. I love my mixer. It makes multi tasking in the kitchen way easier.

I love looking at all the chickens... If only I could have a few. Praying that one day I could have a little farm like home. A big garden, chickens, some fruit trees, and maybe a few goats (perfect for the milk and cheese making).

Gah I'm such a dreamer from wanting to live in England for a few years to having a little farm in the US.
Praying I can do it all.

Well Happy Saturday Sweet Friends!
It's Spring Break for me.
I am so excited. I have quite a few projects to do this week.
Hoping to do some baking, painting, crocheting, sewing, knitting, and going on some real long drives. I'm craving a road trip.

xo
-esther

Saturday shoot.

So it happened like this.
I had it ALL planned out, my cousin, Jessi, would spend the night at my place and we would wake up early Saturday morn so that I could take some nice pictures of her in Santa Monica.
We woke up around six yesterday morning and I put some make up on Jess and gathered all that was needed for our little photoshoot.
I made sure I had 2 sd cards in case something was to happen to one of them and double checked to make sure we had absolutely everything else we needed.
We were in the car and on our way by seven thirty.
Perfect. Right on schedule. I thought...
The lighting would be great. It was very important that we leave early because I really only know how to take photos in good light. I knew that if we got there around noon the pictures would come out terrible. The sun cast terribly unattractive shadows when it is directly above your subject.
This had to be avoided.
We got there a little before eight thirty and I wanted to take some photos of Jess at the wonderful farmers market they have.
I pulled my camera out.
It felt a tad lighter.
I looked down and noticed that the battery door was open.
and there was no battery.
Nooooo.....
did it fall out.
Is it in the bottom of my bag?
or did I completely forget it......
yep...
I forgot it.
Oh how I felt bad. I had just made my cousin wake up before the sun had even come up and my aunt and uncle had given me money for gas.
I was so bummed. I felt like I needed to tell someone so I sent a text to my family letting them know what I had done.
I told my cousins (Jessi's sister Jackie came too) we should just make a day out of this and shop and enjoy the beach since we had drove all the way out to Santa Monica.
They both agreed and we started to shop.
At around eleven I got a call from my dad.
He asked me where I was and informed me he was there.
I couldn't believe he drove all the way there to drop off a little battery. He is thee sweetest.
So we were back on photo shoot mode.
We got in the car and spent quite a long time looking for a place to park.
By the time we were on the beach it was noon.
The sun was bright and harsh.
arghhhh!!
I thought to myself how in world am I going to get a good picture in this lighting.
We found a piece of shade behind the lifeguard station and I began snapping away.
That's when I realized something was wrong with my lens.
Really!!! really! Oh come on!!!
It wouldn't focus and seemed a bit fuzzy.
But I tried to make it work. I could use that manual focus. It just takes a lot longer.
So below are the photos I took that day. It really stretched me as someone who would like to pursue photography. The circumstances were going to to be hard to work with. But by far the biggest challenge was attempting to take photos in lighting that was so uncomfortable for me.
Unfortunately because of this I had to heavily edit many of the photos.
So Jessi, my dear, I promise I will take some more photos of you very soon to make up for this crazy day.




Lesson learned make sure all your equipment works before you go out to take pictures.

Night
-es

how many things could possibly go wrong?

I had quite an interesting day attempting to photograph my little cousin today.
So many things went wrong.
here is Jessi's reaction to one little unexpected incident. More on that later.


I'll post some of the nicer photos I snapped of her and let you know what made this day so crazy tomorrow. As for now I'm going to bed. Night.
xo
-esther

--she kind of looks happy in the bottom two photos but I can assure you she is not.

the sun is back

What a pretty day it was.
Blue skies
and so sunny.

I came home from school
gave Mimi a bath and played with my camera.


I practiced taking some self portraits with the nice light coming through my front window.

I have so much to learn when it comes to photography. But I'm still continuing to really enjoy it.

Well I have an early morn ahead of me...
night
xo
-esther

do we have to get out of bed?

I snapped these photos of mimi and I with my macbook a couple of weeks ago. She is such a cuddler.

how scary she looks when she kisses.... yikes



Today is cold and gloomy and were still in bed. It's past ten eeks. I'm perfectly content laying here, listening to Neil Young and daydreaming
It's seems like a lovely day to cuddle. There is a storm on its way.
it's perfect, just perfect.

but there is some task that need to be done.
my room needs a good cleaning.
my garden needs some tending.
some bread must be baked.
some hot soup must be made.


then I shall curl up on the couch and crochet.
Oh the joys of a gloomy day.

big ears

fuzzy face makes me happy after a rough day.
I often find myself thanking God for making this tiny funny looking creature.

school continues to breed negativity and frustration in my life.
I know this is something I have the power to control.
And the Lord is helping me to do so.

I tell myself to constantly focus on the positive.
And the positive breeds joy and happiness.
Im continuing to learn life is all about perspective.
It's interesting and very important thing to learn.

So dear friends

REMEMBER
that the way you feel
often times reflects the way you deal with the situations you are in and or put yourself in.

anyways please pray for me and my "perspective:

night
xo
-esther

under the tree

Monday afternoon was lovely I sat in the front yard under my favorite orange trees with my sweet neighbor/friend. The weather was perfection. Warm and a bit windy. My kind of day.

We laid out on a pretty quilt and had oranges and drank orange, strawberry, and mint flavored water. It was wonderfully refreshing. I'm really trying to take advantage of our orange tree since citrus is in season right now. So as you can see I'm using them quite a bit. So far I've used them in cakes, orange juice (obviously), water, to flavor syrups and I've even candied the peel. Oh and of course I enjoying eating them on their own.

As we sat in the front yard we saw a friend from church pass by. He had just gotten out of school and was walking home. I hollered at him and asked him if he wanted some oranges. He and his friend came right over.

We all talked for a good long while and then I sent them on their way. Of course I had to send them each home with a bag of oranges. I feel like Im saying the word "oranges" way too much...

Anyways as we sat and relaxed I played with some film which really interests me. I like that when I'm shooting with film I really think about the picture I'm taking. Those shots mean so much more to me then the ones I mindlessly take with my digital camera.

It was a wonderful way to end my monday.

Night
xo
-esther

Olive Oil Lime Cake

I finally purchased a bundt cake pan. I had been searching through the thrift stores for a good long while. They usually have a ton but I wanted to find the perfect one. So glad I did. What kind of baker doesn't own a bundt pan.

I had never even made a bundt cake before. I love how easy it is to deal with after it bakes. Just pop it out and sprinkle some powdered sugar on it and you got yourself a good looking cake. So easy.

It was delightful.

I see a lot of bundt cake making in my future. I think they are the cutest little cakes.

Happy Monday

night
xo
-esther

Baby Shower

My dear friend Teresa is having a baby! I am over the moon excited. Who doesn't love a precious newborn to love on. To celebrate his soon arrival we had a shower for her Saturday.
The shower was pretty darn cute.



We made these delicious banana cream pie cupcakes. Aren't they cute?

I made baby boy a warm hooded blanket. Hope he gets some use out of it considering our hot weather. Eeeks.

Goodness I can't wait til he is here!

xo
-esther

brother sister time

Oh how these two can make me laugh. Life wouldn't be half as fun without them.

Poor sister is sick and wasn't too happy that I was snapping photos of her.


then there is David. Happy as can be.

Yep, I love them.
I really really love them.
xo
esther