sweet child of mine

When Adrianne posted about this fun contest going on at Sew Mama Sew! it couldn't help myself, but play along. Like lots of other people, upon hearing the theme for this week's contest the first thing that came to mind was the Guns N' Roses song. The goal of the contest? Pick 12 fat quarters that fit the theme. Pretty simple right?

First things first, I pulled up the lyrics because while I might be able to sing along I'm not one to quibble over getting every word completely right. But hey! If I'm gonna build a fat quarter bundle of fabrics that fit the theme I better make sure I fully "understand" the theme. And after immersing myself in the words of the song, the color that was repeated over and over was BLUE.

I remembered the Anna Maria print with the big roses - and it just so happened to have blue {with orange!}. So I was sold on that print. From there I selected fabrics I thought might go, threw them all into the pinterest board they had asked each person to create, and then tossed out the ones that didn't really play nice with the others. At first I was having trouble getting to the required 12 fabrics, but then I was having trouble narrowing it down to just 12. Oh the fun world of playing with fabric {even if it's just virtual play}!

Interested in playing along? I'm pretty sure you've still got a few more hours to get your fabric bundle picked out and entered for this week's theme. What are you waiting for?

Oh... want to see the rest of the 12 fabrics I selected? Just go here to check it out: Sew,Mama,Sew! #FatQuaterIdol Sweet Child of Mine.

{ina coolbrith} big stoppa' party

Thursday evening, at the end of the Sharks' game {play-offs game 1}, the sky began to light up with brilliant flashes and thunder rattled our windows. But the night before that the storm was only nearing the peak. The clouds were big and puffy against a cornflower blue sky. Showers throughout the day held off towards sunset. Rapid winds swept the clouds in fast forward across the sky. Perfect conditions, one might say, for the Big Stopper.

And what's the Big Stopper?? Mini photo lesson coming at ya... Photography is all about light. As you adjust the amount of light that enters the camera - this is done in "stops". Stop down one stop and you've just cut the amount of light coming in by 1/2. The Big Stopper is a almost completely black piece of glass that, when placed in front of your lens, will 1/2 the light coming into the camera 10 times! That's a tenth of a percent of the light - craziness! But that allows you to do some cool things like stretch out the shutter speed like Lukas did in the photo above. Perfect for late afternoon, windswept cloudy days.

seasonal eatin'

Another month rolled around and brought a few new items to the "In Season" this month list. Yippee for more tasty fruits! This month, I didn't go as all out with the hand lettering as last month. But it still looks cheery taped to the fridge and is a nice reminder while meal planning. With all those yummy options it's not hard to be eating seasonally. Just tonight we had cauliflower fresh from the first farmer's market of the season {at my work}. Grilled asparagus last night were awesome too.

Enjoy a couple shots from my mid day excursion to the farmer's market a short walk from my office. A fun way to capture a moment from the day.