itty-bitty photoshoot

or maybe I should have called this Ways I distract myself from packing.

since my first efforts with tabletop shooting crashed & burned I gave it another go yesterday with the Cyrus
treats. & here is my best shot (I totally feel like Tyra on America's Next Top Model saying that, too.)
all on manual settings--holla! still dark but the glass is half full now.

the behind-the-scenes of this one was mostly Hoodles trying to step on & sniff the "set" while Steve just sing-songed to Hoodes, "Isn't mommy silly?" Crouched on the floor with my bum in the air, squinting through the viewfinder...what's silly 'bout that?

& thank you, love, for letting me eat your share of the yummies. They were soooo mmmmm, especially the salted caramels and melty thing that tasted like a pat of butter mixed with a scoop of sugar. I had them scarfed down before you had a chance to realize the mistake you'd just made. But somebody has got to compensate for your lack of sweet tooth around here.

A last hurrah

Before we're about to leave a place, Steve and I have a totally irresponsible, no-holds-barred tradition of getting all dolled up and going to a last-hurrah dinner at some extravagant place. In San Francisco we went to Chez Panisse on this occasion. In Phoenix, Binkley's. In Anchorage, Marx Brothers'--

I should stop, I'm drooling.

Tonight was Cyrus. I sat there and watched my husband, who never ceases to amaze me, eat the following scrumptions which in the past he's claimed to dislike:

poached salmon
chanterelles
black truffles

and I continued to watch, grinning, as he took bits of bread and sopped up the ragout--facendo la scarpetta--because he loved it so.

We got treats, too, (salted caramels, brownies, sables) for the ride home, which I'm carefully coveting until...tomorrow? Maybe. What fun.

image by !Just In Time!

Steve's 'diorama' picnic, in honor of ferragosto*

introducing the newest picnicking tool in our arsenal, inspired from black eiffel via design*sponge.

One of Steve's favorite places is the backdrop.


And some treats from our Thursday in the city:

On the bread is nduja from Boccalone, spreadable spicy salami. I have just discovered it and my life may never be the same.
Bacon-caramel popcorn from Cane Rosso at the ferry building.
I would have added the toffee chip cookies from Anthony's but those have been gobbled up and washed down with milk. yum.
I will miss our foodie adventures 'round these parts.

*happy ferragosto...the day when every single Italian flocks to either the beach or the mountain, picnics in tow.

p.s. sorry for the blursome pics...Nicole said to get the hizz off auto mode in so many words and I'm trying to learn manual settings.

learning/trying

For a good laugh: here are Nicole's shots from the tabletop photography course at Art Weekend. Here's my best shot from the class:

My shadows in contrast to her clean white background makes me cringe.
I am aware that I was in well over my head. But I'm trying.

& one more, behind the scenes:

highs and lows today

high:

Kidnapping husband tonight to drive him over to the fairgrounds. Napa's fair started tonight! And while he's still not feeling up for doing stuff like that (loud noise/movement), it was romantic just sitting in the car with the windows rolled down, listening to the distant sounds and watching the ferris wheel make its comforting rotations.

low:

Deliberately not answering my cell because the caller id showed it as 'unavailable' - when I checked my voicemail it was Marmousch calling from Italy. And it's not like I can just call her right back; she doesn't have skype access right now. I was so mad at myself.


photo by Batikart

a homemade card (and a stab at drawing)

to preface, I want to say I am NOT an artist. I knew this even when I was waaaay little, when on Tuesdays we'd have to march into Mrs. Yarick's art class and I'd have to trudge through another project where mine was one of the craptastic ones, certainly not one of the "examples" that she'd hold up halfway through class to lavish praises upon. Little 6-year-old me would sit there like what the freak?! how am I supposed to do that?

but Steve's birthday was all about the homemade lovins so that included the card. I was inspired by this incredible video which makes me cry every. time. I watch it. And if I'm in the right mood, it makes me do the sobbing-and-shaking kind of crying. I love love LOVE this video. I want to marry and have lots of babies with this video. then I saw what incredible Rubyellen from My Cakies did here and was doubly inspired.

making pop-up cards are fun.

ha! you're going to watch this video, see my card, and think it was very very very loosely inspired by the video. But again, I'm no artist.

here goes nothing.




A few things--

it's Steve because the left leg is hyperextended and the right one is slightly bent.
he does that.
and check out the tat on his right tricep. and he's all about the baseball caps.

it's me because I'm freaking short. It's okay tho, dynamite comes in the tiniest of packages. but I'm not bowlegged. Not that there would be anything wrong with it if I were :) legs are hard to draw, yo.

those are the tiniest of brads on our elbows so you can 'make' the two of us hold hands.




p.s. I'm thinking an entire pop-up children's book is in the works for future weiblets.

p.p.s. most importantly, the birthday boy loved it. his reaction was perfect.

His birthday weekend

bubbles to start it all off at Robert Hunter

one last pilgrimage to Pride





pb & j cupcakes, paired with bella's late harvest zin

reconnecting with old friends who were there all along

Whole Foods party platters that are grossly overpriced-- but their tandoori chicken with peanut sauce has still got it

surprise garlands

silly string gone awry

playing with a pup

wanting a pup

nectarine sorbet

orange and yellow dahlias sitting on our counter in different bud vases and mason jars

as Steve puts it, a diorama picnic. then he thanks me for giving me the opportunity to say diorama for the first time since first grade.

driving with our rear hatch wide open

38 candles on the peanut butter cake

debating whether or not to tell the sweet and ancient winery owner that his fly was down

midnight moon cheese

my summer playlist on repeat -- lots from The Gap Band, Grease, Chicago, and MJ

too many iced coffees (must stop)

hoodles discovering his love of anchovies

some of Steve's favorite wines

a homemade card

38 reasons why I love you, in written format

my new bikini: yellow stripes on top, brown ones on the bottom

honoring Steve's request - 'just us'

but still having his friends and family there in a special way (more on that later)

another of Steve's requests: a steak dinner

boot camp

a blanket-fort-turned-spaceship

hawaiian shaved ice dripping everywhere between two nerds on a bench

I love this man. I can't remember a time in my life when early August wasn't this special.