.as August comes to a close

This month it seemed like everyone was saying that August and summer were over, when the month was truly only half way over. I guess nobody ever wants August to end. And I feel the same way. The nights are getting chilly and I’m starting to regret not spending every second of summer outdoors. I feel weird this year since I’m not preparing myself for another year of seminary. It’s a good feeling, although I did love seminary.

I'll give you a quick overview of the past few weeks.

1. Air was back to work almost as soon as we pulled into our driveway from vacation, and he hasn't really had a break since then. He's constantly busy these days... and a little stressed. Hopefully things settle down a little at work for him soon.

2. I've been going to some parties. A Norwex party (fun stuff, even if it is cleaning supplies (see below)), and a girl's night/birthday party for my friend Jen! (I love a good girl’s night!)

*what I bought. photo via the web.

3. We've both been diving into our callings a bit more. Air is the Ward Mission Leader now and I'm in Young Women.

4. We helped Tam and Jadey move into their new home in Beaumont! We went out to celebrate with them down on Whyte Ave for an evening. And had an incredibly fun time.

5. And now some bad news…

I got in a car accident on my way home from work on Saturday. I was turning left, and therefore was at fault and received a ticket for it (as if I needed to pay more). We may have to say goodbye to our baby, Cammy Camry. You have no idea how terrible I have felt about this since then. I pretty much hate myself for making such a huge mistake. It really shouldn't have happened.

I don’t wanna talk about it any more. see pics

6. And to finish off my post with something positive!
Most recently, Tara got engaged to Tom on Sunday! ...but we all knew that was coming *wink* (who am I kidding? I never wink in real life. haha)

*photo from our family picnic last week.

Welcome September!

.camera stuff

A few people have asked me recently about the camera we use. I was going to send emails to tell you guys, but I just figured I'd do a post so that everyone could know! It really is no secret.
(Also, I'm pretty sure I've already mentioned the cameras we have on here before?)

Anyway,


Camera #1 Most of our pictures are taken with the Canon Rebel T2i and most of them on the blog are edited (obviously) in Photoshop CS5.

List of our lenses:

~Canon EFS 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS

~Canon EFS 55-250mm f/4-5.6 IS

~Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II (this is our *favorite* one)

We only have three lenses right now but are most definitely saving our pennies for our dream lens. The 24-70mm... some day, guys.

Oh and we have a Sunpak flash, a battery grip, a 32GB class 6 SDHC card, extra batteries, and UV filters. We also recently bought a cool polarized filter. We used it a lot during our trip to Glacier.

Camera #2 isn't a DSLR. So I can carry it around in my purse. It's a Nikon Coolpix S640. It's pretty rad because it has a 5x wide angle zoom lens and 12.2megapixels. Which is really good resolution. It also takes great video.
Sadly, it's been a little slow at focusing since we got it, so I can't say we love it all that much. But when it works, it works great!

And anything else we take with Air's Blackberry or my iphone and edit with the instagram app ...like everyone else with a blog. Also, some pictures I steal from my Dad.

So that's cool.

Any questions? I'd love to hear!

.design + ambs = eternal love

I don't know if you knew this; but I am in love with art and design. I always have been.
It’s one of the few things I feel very passionately about. To me, everything in life is art, and everything in the world has some element of beauty. I view the world this way and I think it has always made life happy. It really works for me. I am obsessive over color combinations, patterns, textures and contrast. Mostly color combinations.
This is why my job is so perfect for me. Its like a party for me at work talking to people about color combinations and textures in mats and frames... people don't usually care as much as me, but since its my job and its their picture being framed they suddenly are interested. And I love it.

Air is like this too, he and I both notice the small beauty in things around us and usually we try to photograph things that are beautiful to us. If you’re ever around Air and I, you probably hear us constantly pointing things out to each other. Like, "Look at that cloud, hun! It's awesome!"
At Parade of Homes it was just a whole lot of this going on between us. "Hun! Look at that pillow!” *snaps picture*... Its great.

And I love you guys too so I want to share some of the pictures we took of decor that made me swoon.

my favorite thing in this room is definitely the rug

this room looks like it has a mirror wall… but if you look closely, its actually another room. so crazy.

beautiful bright living room. the bookshelf behind those chairs was incredible! see below

this baby’s room had every page from a story book framed on the wall. such a cool idea! oh and antique toys!

some nice wall art, and below is my FAVORITE wallpaper from the entire parade. I die.

convex mirrors are fun. and below there is a fun idea with scrabble pieces on a magnet board

this house was full of reds and greens. it just screamed bold elegance and reminded me of decor in the carribean

have you ever seen such a great twall print on a chair in your life?? I love it in yellow!

this was Air’s favorite house in the entire parade. there was so much space. he’s still talking about it!

************

And now for something completely different!

The “Up” house! This house was (obviously) made to look exactly like the house in the movie. Inside and out.

there’s the paradise falls collection jar on the old television set and below you see they had those awesome retro appliances like they have on Rachael Ray

this bookshelf was a secret passage to a room full of balloons! below you see all of Carl’s old ties hung up and a beautiful antique lamp

in the basement they had a movie theater playing Up and a toy story bedroom!!

So that was fun huh!! OK, but now I want to tell you that not all of the houses in the parade were decorated so beautifully. In fact, some were so awful that we couldn’t resist taking pictures of their hideousness:

So glad we got to go around to all of the homes with my parents and with Ty and Missy! They were great companions and seemed to enjoy it as much as us! It was such a wonderful week! I love my family!