according.to.kim

Colour and composition

To get a few shots for The Art of Composition this week, Sophia and I went for a photo walk around the warehouse district while Madeline attended her dance class on Sunday afternoon. (Meanwhile, Neil took Georgia to a birthday party.) While this shot isn't very colourful (and I don't think it needs to be), I love it mostly because it captures a little piece of Sophia's personality (at 10, she still cannot resist puddles!) and her new winter boots, which I bought specifically for their waterproof quality. I know my child. And I really enjoyed our walk together. :)

On our walk, I took this picture for the colour combination of light blue and red, which I love. (I have a few red and turquoise images pinned on my Colour Combos board on Pinterest.) Sophia happened to throw some snow in the air just as I took this shot, and it seemed more interesting than another one I had taken without the white spots.

We happened upon Pat's Pets and Sophia insisted we go in to get a birthday present for Dash who was turning two the next day (Nov 14). I took this picture of a clown fish and later completed the assignment to pump up the colour in post processing (bottom photo). I think this simple adjustment improved the photo quite a bit, and the combination of orange, white, and deep blue is striking. If the background had been any other colour, it wouldn't work nearly as well.

The meaning of colour

Caught red-handed! Actually, he was framed -- this time. Dash is constantly taking toys and shoes and chewing on them. (Much to my chagrin.) How lucky to have this noise maker handy for the set up! We had fun with this. Neil chased him around while I took pictures. He must be so confused!

Ah, Thursday evening. It's my favourite time of the week -- especially in the summer when I have every Friday off (thanks to EDOs and vacation days). :) Even better when it's warm and sunny like this evening. We've waited a long time for this!

PI 2/52: Finding a little rhythm

Rhythm: Harmonious sequences or patterns... I spotted these ones on Georgia's mitten on Saturday.

Last weekend was pretty busy, but not overly crazy. I'll start with Thursday evening since Sophia had a ringette game. They played one of the top teams and lost 9-4. Sophia played goal.

I had Friday off work (the last of a good long stretch of Fridays off) and the kids had no school. Neil took Sophia to her piano lesson at 2:15 (moved from Saturday to accommodate ringette practice) and all three girls went to K4J in the evening. I managed to get a few things done that day, including my monthly photo tasks for February pictures. Very good to have that done so early in the month!

On Saturday, I took photos every waking hour, starting at 7:00 a.m. Why? Ella Publishing had issued a page call for a photo-an-hour layout to be submitted by March 17. I've never submitted a layout for anything before, so that wasn't the impetus for me; I just thought, yeah, it would be good to document a whole day again, so I'll do it! (I have "one day in my life" layouts from May 2006 and Nov 2009, and both are very detailed in words but not photos.) I chose Saturday since I knew we had a variety of things going on, and I set my calendar to email me every hour. Even with reminders, this was challenging! I managed to take over 280 photos on Saturday, but there was one hour in which I only took two photos. Happily, they turned out well. I am now working on my layout (digital), bit by bit, hoping to complete it by the 17th. It's good to have a deadline and I may as well send it in!

In the morning, we went to the Farmer's Market in the Cathedral Neighbourhood Centre to pick up eggs for my mom, and then to Sophia's ringette practice. I could have taken Sophia by myself, but the other girls really wanted to go, too, so we all went. Madeline and Georgia were bored the whole time. Why did they want to go? Why didn't we take something for them to do? Mysteries of the unexplained. The older sister of another player kindly let Georgia play games on her iPod Touch for a little while.

After lunch, we all went to my niece's ringette game. (This time, I grabbed two DSis on my way out the door and then learned they were both dead on the way to the game. Gah!) It was the Icebreaker's last regular season game (and B's last game since she'll be away during the play-offs) and it was a great one to watch. The Icebreakers came from behind and were up by one point with just a minute or two left, and then the other team tied the game with 5 seconds left on the clock!

After the game, we headed home and cleaned up the living room knowing our friend Steve and his dog, Chloe, were coming over at 4 p.m. for a doggie play date. Plus, all the girls showered or bathed to get ready for their evening dance performance. After supper, I spent some time getting the curly hair pieces attached to Sophia and Madeline's hair. With so much less hair on their heads now, it was quite a challenge! The hair pieces are designed to work with a bun, so I had to attach a fake bun (a doughnut-shaped form) to Madeline's head and then attach the curly hair piece to that. I used about 25 bobby pins in her hair alone, but it worked! The girls got dressed at home and we headed to Holy Trinity.

We arrived at 7:30 p.m. for the 8:00 p.m. dance performance. It was an Irish/St. Patrick's Day-themed fundraiser for the church. Sophia and Bronwyn performed three dances together (their new reel, single jig, and slip jig), and Madeline danced three times with various other students (light jig and beginner reel twice). The show was 30 minutes long which is very long for Irish dance because the dances are so short. Afterward, Sophia stayed overnight at L&B's.

Here's another photo representing rhythm (I distorted the girls' faces for public sharing). Madeline is on the far right.

Sunday afternoon, Madeline had her friend, Mattea, over for a play date. Madeline was thrilled about this as she hadn't had anyone over for a very long time. We all went to Sophia's ringette game mid-afternoon. It was their last regular season game. Mom and Dad came to watch the game on their way home from North Battleford. Laurel and Bronwyn were there, too. The Sticks of Fury won 7-5 and Sophia scored a hat trick (her second this year)! Great game to have extra fans in attendance! Madeline, Mattea, and Georgia didn't watch the game, but they had fun sipping hot chocolate, sharing a slushy drink, and playing with some other ringette siblings. After the game, Mom and Dad picked up their dog, Buffy, who had been at our house since Friday morning.

Many repeating patterns inside the Cooperators Centre.

 

On Monday, Laurel called me after lunch and reminded me that she was taking me to see Sarah McLachlan that evening! I had forgotten completely, so that was a nice surprise. (Note to self: Always email important info to myself!) We ate supper at our house, then Neil took all the girls to Sophia and Bronwyn's dance class, while Laurel and I went to the concert. It was a great evening and concert. Sarah shared the stage with two other singers, Melissa McClelland and Butterfly Boucher, for nearly three hours. Rather than having a separate opening act, the three women sang and played back-up for each other throughout the entire concert. That was cool and they worked very well together. I also enjoyed Sarah's Q&A segments, in which she answered questions written down by audience members before the show and during intermission. My favourite part of the concert was Sarah's encore performance of Angel. (Surfacing is the only album of hers that I'm familiar with, and I listened to it a lot back in the day.)

I don't know why, but I was in a bit of funk over the past week. Nothing major; just feeling a little weary and lackluster. Perhaps it was a touch of the winter blues. While I'm not a fan of the cold weather (hot summer days are my favourite!), it usually doesn't bother me -- I have good warm clothes and I don't have to spend a lot of time outside -- but on Monday morning when I heard the wind chill was -37, I was totally disgusted. I thought, 'are you kidding me?! this winter is never going to end!' And I grumbled as I left the house.

Well, I'm already feeling better. Spring is just around the corner, right? Sophia has her first play-off game tonight, and I'm looking forward to this weekend with only one activity on the calendar (Sophia's piano lesson). Amazing!

Week 1 layout for BSS

This is the layout I made from the first week of Bite-sized Scrapbooking instructions. I don't get the surprise factor on Friday like everyone else, but I had fun making it and love how it turned out. I'm definitely planning to play along every week! In the Flickr gallery this week, I asked members how the first week went and I'm getting wonderful feedback. :)

P.S. Layout design based on Girltime by Paula Gilarde.
(I'm sorry I forgot to mention this originally. I guess that's what happens when I try to post something 10 minutes before I have to catch the bus for work!)

Jan 29: Your name in lights

Madeline made this large envelope to enclose her made-at-school Christmas gift to us. She was still in her phase of writing our names rather than mom and dad. I "lve" how she spelled love, too. :) (Sugarplum Paperie Painted Edges CU Overlays)

Sophia had ringette practice at 8:00 a.m. this morning and I was thankful that Neil took her (especially since she forgot her helmet at home and he had to drive back to get it!). I took Sophia to her piano lesson after that. Otherwise, it was a day of BSS work (fun!) and house work. Mom and dad brought Buffy (Dash's sister) to our house for the whole afternoon while they attended bison meetings. Neil also took Dash and the girls to our friends' house for a playdate with Chloe (dog) and Maren.

We're going to have to go out to get birthday gifts this evening, as both Madeline and Georgia have parties to attend tomorrow. I really wish I had dealt with the gifts earlier!

Happy Birthday Dash & Buffy!

Dash and Buffy turned one year old yesterday, and Mom took this awesome picture of them at her house. (She kept Dash while we went to Edmonton for the weekend. Thanks Mom!) These dogs have been a wonderful addition to our lives for the past 10 months. Look how much they've changed!

Photos taken on December 13, 2009 and January 30, 2010.

Oct 20: Connections

Connections between a dog and his master, and between obedience and reward. Neil has been spending a lot of time this month working with Dash, training him to heel, sit, stay, lay down, shake left, shake right, bow, crawl, and (most importantly) not bark at people.

Things I haven't mentioned

• All three girls enjoyed going to K4J Vacation Bible School last week. Surprisingly (as it's unusual for her), Georgia was upset after Neil left the first morning. Sophia immediately stepped in and stayed with Georgia the entire morning, rather than going with her own age group. What a good big sister! Georgia was just fine for the next four days of VBS.
• Quick recap of the girls' summer activities: swimming lessons for the first two weeks (mornings), Summer Sports School for the next two weeks (afternoons), three weeks off, VBS for one week (mornings), and then a week and a half off. Plus, Sophia had bagpipe lessons for one week in July. This seemed like a nice, not-too- full summer schedule, and the girls were happy.
• The girls and I enjoyed our scrapbooking class, Kidding Around, at BPS. We did many of the activities -- going for ice cream, blowing bubbles, drawing with sidewalk chalk, making a pillow fort, making lemonade from scratch -- but didn't have much time for scrapbooking. I didn't make any pages, but the girls made four or five each (which was pretty labour-intensive for me as I was busy spelling out words, cutting papers, printing things out, cleaning stamps, and so on). After posting her bubble layout in the online gallery, Madeline won a prize draw! In the mail, all the way from California, she received a package containing some bubble liquid, bubble stickers, a package of Kool-Aid, and a BPS button. Madeline was very excited about her prize and she happily shared it with her sisters.
• I have signed up for a couple more BPS classes beginning in early September: Use Your Stash with May Flaum and Book of Stories with Karen Grunberg. Both of these teachers get rave reviews from past students and I'm really looking forward to learning from them! I try not to take more than one class at a time, but these are very different classes and both are in line with current goals -- to use my stash (i.e., not buy new supplies except staples I run out of) and to have a ready supply of stories and journaling ideas. Both should serve me well into the future.
• We purchased all of the girls' school supplies a couple weeks ago. They also got new backpacks (Sophia & Madeline), lunch kits, and shoes. Sophia and Madeline were so obsessed with their supplies the first couple days, they were driving me nuts! They had them in and out of their backpacks several times, and they bugged me to label their supplies until I couldn't stand it anymore. I wasn't planning to do it until the following weekend (alone!), but I gave up and labeled everything under their watchful eyes.
• We are now putting Dash into his crate before we set the table for supper and we don't let him out until the table is completely cleared and wiped. He is a pretty good dog -- except when it comes to the dining room table! If there was even a speck of food on the table, someone would have to be guarding it diligently every second, and that proved to be a challenge we weren't up to. Plus, he was just too annoying during a meal, always trying to get to the food. It's so much better now that he's in the crate. He barks for the first few minutes and then stops. I'm sure that eventually he won't bark at all (it's only been a week or so).
• Starting in September, Neil is going to provide child care a few days each month for one of Georgia's preschool classmates. This little boy and Georgia were the closest of pals at preschool last year, and I'm sure they'll have fun together when he comes to our house this fall. I think it'll be great. He is a sweet boy and his parents are very nice, too.
• I just started reading The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin. I've enjoyed reading her blog for about a year and a half now, and I'm certain I'll enjoy the book, too. Perhaps I'll begin my own Happiness Project! I'm not unhappy, but I'm sure I could be happier. If I do make any resolutions, I'll share my progress here.
• Last Saturday, we went to the Mercury Cafe and Grill on 13th Avenue for supper. We had received gift certificates as a thank you for dog-sitting in July. It was a fun outing. We all enjoyed this little 50s-diner-style restaurant, and the burgers were great! The girls were completely delighted with their cream soda floats which were served in those big metal cups used for making milk shakes. I took pictures. :)
• I've been wrestling with what extra-curricular activities the girls will take this year. Sophia and Madeline are interested in many things and I think if it were up to them, they'd be in far more activities than any of us could handle. I have made the decision that they cannot do more than three each, not counting K4J which is only once a month, and not counting free school-based sports such as Cross Country (Sophia is now old enough and wants to do this). This is the same number of activities as last year, but some will be more time consuming. And Georgia still won't be in any evening or weekend activities except K4J -- thank goodness! Last year, we had nothing on weekends and I LOVED it. I was really hoping to continue having free weekends, but I think I'm going to have to give up on that. I will update on the specific activities once we decide.

Dash and Chloe

We pup-sat for friends from Friday to Saturday afternoon. Chloe is a Golden Retriever, six weeks younger than Dash. These two have had almost-weekly play dates for the past several months and they play extremely well together. Chloe is a great dog and we enjoyed having her here this weekend! Plus, Dash is nicely tuckered out this evening.

July 19: Jump shot

(1) Dash is a great jumper! I chose this for today's prompt just to be a bit different. I didn't see many pets in the gallery.

(2) Willing subjects for the jump shot (Auntie Laurel in the middle). Someday, I'll get all of my girls to jump for me!

(3) Mr. Dash at eight months old.

(4) It was Laurel and Shauna's birthday today and we celebrated with two cakes at L&B's house!

(5) A butterfly on Sophia's hand, taken by Neil this morning.

July 12: Simple solitude

(1) Back alley. To find anything resembling solitude today, I took a quick walk around the block by myself.

(2) Sophia started two things today: bagpipe lessons (90 min x 5 days) and Summer Sports School (afternoons for two weeks). Sounds like she really enjoyed both! The other girls started Summer Sports School as well.

(3) 'Little Blue' hot pepper plant.

(4) Dash, with a chew stick he's not supposed to have outside. I can't believe how good the new grass at the far end of our back yard looks!

(5) Lilac bloom. There's only a couple on the whole bush.

July 11: Treat yourself

(1) Fruit salad is a wonderful indulgence for me. I eat a lot of fruit but rarely make a salad of it. (Georgia actually exclaimed, "Was I even born when you made one?!") I had bookmarked this recipe just a couple days ago, so when prompted to treat myself, I decided to make it today: Epicure's Luscious Fruit Salad. All of the girls were eager to have some, hence the half-empty serving bowl in the photo. The four of us ate almost all of it after supper. So good!

(2-3) Buddy and Dash. It was really hard to get a good photo of these two! I enlisted Neil's help for the second photo. I had wanted to get a picture of all three dogs sitting before Buffy left yesterday, but that didn't pan out. Buddy went home this afternoon. It sure is quiet around here without a pack of dogs jingling and scuffling around!

(4) The girls and I have started our summer scrapbooks for Kidding Around. This is Georgia's title page that we worked on last evening. At the end of the summer, we'll attach her Paper Pal (made a couple weeks ago). I'm sure "Mini Georgia" will make an appearance on this blog at some point! Sophia and Madeline were in Avonlea for two days, so they created their title pages this evening.

(5) We got a Cuisinart Ice Cream Maker with Sobey's points a couple weeks ago. Neil and the girls made Oreo ice cream today, and it was heavenly! (Those are Sophia's lovely nails, fresh from a manicure at Grandma & Grandpa's. A rare sight!)

July 10: Making memories

I need to go to bed. Got up at 6:00 a.m. Did eight hours of yard work. I'm exhausted! But I still wanted to post these before hitting the hay.

(1) Roughrider and Fancy Nancy fans. Quintessentially him and her. I love this one (and the ones with their faces) because these two spend so much time together and they enjoy these things together. He reads Fancy Nancy to her almost every night, and she watches Rider games with him. They were about to watch a game on TV this evening. (PSE Action applied: PW Lovely).

(2) Dash was tuckered out this afternoon. Buddy has been here since Sunday and Buffy (Dash's sister) since Tuesday. Buffy left today and Buddy will leave tomorrow. The three of them sure had a lot of fun together!

(3) Freshly weeded garden beds. The paths are still full of weeds, but Neil sprayed them today. I usually weed the paths by hand, but I just couldn't do it this time. There's too much fine grass in addition to the weeds. It's been six years since we put the paths in and we need to add a couple inches of crusher dust now.

(4) These grilled peppers were scrumptious! Thanks Neil!

(5) Small, medium, and large. :)

July 5: Tall drink of...

(1) Mojitos are a favourite summer drink of mine, so Neil made one for me when I got home from work -- for today's prompt. I don't normally drink right after work, at home, on a Monday!

(2) Meet Buddy! He's a very nice dog and we're taking care of him for one week.

(3) The lettuce is coming up nicely. And I really need to get out there and do some serious weeding.

(4) I'm not sure what this is. We've had these in pink, but never white, in our garden before, and there's a whole bunch of white this year! ETA: Pretty sure it's a Sweet William (Dianthus barbatus).

(5) The lovely 'Golden Alexander' Loosestrife (Lysimachia) we bought last fall. It's in a pot because we had to move it and didn't have a spot ready for it.

Last week & weekend

Tuesday evening (June 15)

• We planted our entire garden (finally!) and bought little fences to keep Dash from dashing through the garden. Good timing! We've had a LOT of rain since then.

Thursday evening

• We all attended the school picnic, carnival, and Parisian pie shop (my favourite part!). Everything was inside due to the weather.

Friday

• I took a vacation day from work (as planned), but I could have called in sick...
• My cold symptoms were still very annoying (a week after it started).
• My neck was hurting bad; I could barely turn my head side to side or up and down. Went to my chiropractor.
• We were very annoyed with the internet (very slow; pages hanging up constantly); I spent an hour on the phone with our ISP. Then I spent a whole bunch more time running a spyware detector on all accounts on all three computers. It found nothing but tracking cookies which we deleted. Problem unresolved.
• I got some housework done.
• Neil made fantastic burgers for supper with a corn & green pepper salsa.
• We went to DQ to cash in the girls' carnival prizes - dilly bars - yum!

Saturday

• I finished up my monthly photo tasks for May.
• Sophia went to her friend Meghan's birthday party at Queen City Gymnastics.
• I cleared our paper collection basket (long overdue), while listening to the Paperclipping Roundtable, a free weekly podcast about scrapbooking (PRT website; PRT iTunes page). I've listened to every show and love it!
• I went to Costco and Michael's by myself (so rare!), and chatted with Mom at Michael's (she learned I was going there from Neil).

Sunday

• For Father's Day, Sophia gave Neil a laminated picture of the Roughriders logo that she drew herself. She wrote a sweet sentiment on the back, too.
• Neil and the girls met friends for a puppy play date.
• I helped the girls create covers for their summer scrapbooks (Kidding Around at BPS). They turned out very well! We started working on their Paper Pals and title pages, too.
• Neil listened to the Rider game while watching some World Cup soccer.
• I took the girls to Dollarama to get yarn to make hair for their Paper Pals.
• Neil made a feast (steak with a Spanish pepper sauce & onions, potatoes & sweet potatoes (in foil), corn on the cob, and grilled tomatoes) for supper.
• We ate outside on the patio.
• I called my dad later in the evening.
• Way, WAY too many things were broken (by various family members) or chewed up (by Dash) this weekend.

Wrapping up May

LOAD accomplishments

I really enjoyed participating in LOAD again. I did not complete a layout every single day this time, but I matched February and made 28! When I see them, it totally blows me away how many things I managed to record in one month. :) Plus, the theme of this load was "Find Your Style" and I really learned a lot about what I like and don't like and what I will and won't do on my scrapbook pages. For example, I rarely tilt things. It's not that I don't like seeing tilted items on other people's pages; I just can't seem to do it myself (or I will likely have to get out the Un-do and straighten it out!). But once in awhile, I can make an exception and it works for me:

This LOAD, I made 16 one-page layouts and 12 two-page spreads, and used 122 photos (92 from already-printed 4x6s). I tackled a bunch of older photos this time; many from 2004. I will definitely do LOAD again. The next one is in October!

Bison meat

This spring, we sold five halves of bison (the sixth half for ourselves), and on Saturday, we finished up all the work for that endeavor. Neil went to Weyburn to pick up the meat and then delivered it to everyone in Regina. So glad to have this done before our crazy Mosaic week!

Sleepovers

Two weekends ago, all three of the girls went for a sleepover at Laurel and Bronwyn's house. This past weekend, Sophia and Bronwyn went to Avonlea and stayed over one night. It sounds like they had lots of fun. On the way out, they made a schedule of activities for themselves. Yesterday, Neil took Georgia and Dash out to Avonlea for a couple days so he'd be free to haul things and help set up the Irish pavilion for Mosaic. We're told Dash has been very attached to Georgia and he was going berserk in his crate last night, so he slept with Georgia rather than in his crate. I guess it's not surprising since Australian Shepherds are very protective of their family.

Children's program

On the weekend, we finalized our craft plans for the children's program at the Irish pavilion (2-4 pm Saturday, June 5). Our original idea fell through a bit when we learned the beads we had ordered online would not work (very inexpensive, so no big deal), so we just needed to come up with a plan B. It came together very quickly on Sunday, so we're all set!

The weather

This May has been awfully cold and rainy (or I am just thinking of the past week?). I can't believe I haven't done ANY yard work yet, and there's much to do. The back yard is a mess! (Neil has cut the front lawn a couple times, though.) On the bright side, I had plenty of stuff to do inside the house and I did get quite a bit done. Usually, I'm able to get out and do a really good clean up by now, but it has been too wet. The ground next to our garage has been flooded for several days now. Also, there was a risk of frost on the 30th and 31st, so we brought our bedding plants inside. I'm glad we haven't put them in the garden yet.

Extra dance practices

Sophia had a couple extra practices on Sundays and I had a couple on Saturdays. I have not seen the dances that Sophia (&B) or Madeline will be performing and I can't wait to see them! I was very happy to have extra practices because I would not have been ready without them. Our 8-person dance is fast and fairly complicated (in my mind anyway), so we must know the sequence without a second thought. I have been going over and over and over this in my head and on paper (I write it down a couple times a day). Each of these steps are 8 or 16 bars (about three minutes total):

1. Advance retire, half house (x2)
2. Bus stop
3. Swing in place - swing hold
4. Pass through
5. Swing in place - polka hold
6. Ladies chain
7. Zombie chain
8. Slide
9. Rings - R, L, L, R
10. Grand chain
11. Psycho skip across
12. Swing in place - ceili hold
13. Half house & finish

Sounds like fun, huh? I dance at 9:30 on Thursday and 8:00 on Friday. Madeline dances at 5:05 and 6:30 on Thursday, and 4:15 and 7:45 on Saturday. Sophia dances at 5:05 and 6:30 on Friday, and 6:30 on Saturday. Also, Madeline is excited to get her brand new dance dress this week.

Okay, I'm off to my last real dance practice for the season (all three of us have a quick rehearsal on stage tomorrow evening), and I won't be be back here (on the blog) until after Mosaic. Have a great week and weekend everyone!

Georgia strikes again

First, look how grown up our little Dashy is looking these days!

Second, did you notice anything unusual about his appearance? Such as, pink hair?!

Yup, he's been sporting a new hair colour for the past few days. This would be Georgia's handy work. Which doesn't surprise us one bit...

I made this layout during February LOAD. "No surface is safe!"

April 23: Project minded

Picture Spring: Today's prompt was to celebrate a project I've started. This photo represents my latest photo-keeping project. I'm putting together simple photo albums for my girls that will include 18 pics from each year of their childhood, plus two 4x6 journaling spots/year. I bought these brown albums at Winners years ago with this project in mind and I'm just getting started on it now. At the same time, I'm working on some other stuff with my 2004 photos, so that's the year I started with for the annual snapshot albums. Here you can see Madeline at one and Sophia at three. The plastic containers are for pulling random photos into LOM categories: Us, People, Places, and Things, and one for pics I plan to scrapbook soon.

Here are a few more from today. First, Dash wishing he could go downstairs with Neil. He can't squeeze under the gate anymore! Just a few minutes later, we welcomed a new house guest -- a one-year old puggle named Scooby. We are dog-sitting him for four days. Dash and Scooby were in constant motion for quite awhile and it was very hard to get a decent photo of both of them! This was by far my best shot until they zonked out on the couch at supper time. :) Next, oven-roasted asparagus for Neil and me (other veggies for the kids). Yum! Lastly, cool sky from our back door at 8 p.m.

April 17: Punchy patterns

Picture Spring: The idea today was to find fabric with patterns and textures that lift your spirits or evoke spring. I had to look no further than the pretty camera-strap cover that my sister-in-law, Shauna, made for me. I enjoy seeing it every day!

Here are a few more photos from today. Neil took the first two when he, Sophia, and Madeline took Dash for a play date with Chloe. In the first, Dash is looking up through the steering wheel at Neil. The second one is just funny. Puppies play hard! The next two are other fabrics in spring-y colours that I thought of and decided to photograph since I had time today. First, dresses from two years ago. Although they would still fit, the girls haven't worn them for at least a year (and I doubt that either Sophia or Madeline wore theirs last year). Part of me would really like to see all three wear them once more. Just because. Second, a quilt that Neil's mom made for Sophia a few years ago. I just adore the colour combination in this quilt. The last photo is Dash on the slide in our backyard. This afteroon, Sophia was training him to go up the ladder on his own and then slide down. She was doing a fine job. He slid down several times on his feet and seemed to like it!

April 16: Out of the shadows

Picture Spring: Today's prompt was to look for shadows. I lucked out -- the sun was out today after a few cloudy days, and I had the day off work so I was able to scout for shadows several times throughout the day. I took many pictures of various shadows, but in the end, this was my favourite -- what could say "spring" and "out of the shadows" better than this?! Originally, I noticed the lacy shadows of our lilac bush mixed with the net that surrounds the trampoline and I took several photos of just that, but then I thought it would be fun to add Georgia's shadow. She was happy to oblige!

Here are a couple more from today. I took the first one on my morning walk with Dash. Just behind these trees is a community garden, not far from our house, where I'm hoping we'll be able to share a plot with Aunt Glenys and Lee. She has applied for a larger plot, so we'll see if she gets one or not. The second is Dash and Buffy watching Neil and Georgia leave. Buffy stayed at our house for a few hours today.