Morning's Light

Glimpses of beauty and simplicity around the world.

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  • merry monday!

    if you convince yourself monday is a GREAT day…perhaps it will be great! 

    the weekend was full of family + friend time.  friday night, took my nephew to dinner (five guys burgers and fries) and then to an arcade for the night.  we played laser tag. I lost… 58 to 8!  (no photos…too busy running around playing games).

    saturday – left town for an aunt’s 70th birthday party and went through a drive-thru to get a bottle of water.  absentmindedly heard the woman in the car ahead of me order four value meals: three of them being chicken nugget meals.  I glanced down at her bumper sticker and saw that it said "got organic?".  (click photo for larger view). Not sure how organic chicken mcnuggets are.

    Organic_fast_food

    I then went to the party for my aunt.  Took a photo of the cake – and the camera angle has the cake reading "Happy 10th!" which delighted my aunt!

    Happy_10th

    a little cousin – ciara

    Ciara

    flowers for the birthday girl

    Aunt_birthday_flowers

    a photo of my aunt and uncle that I’d never seen.  awwww

    Phyllis_photo_frame_2

    my cousin angie

    Angie

    angie and I snuck away from the party for awhile to tour her new-to-them, older house that she and her newlywed husband have turned into a modern country home. angie favors the industrial chic look that I love too..the mix of old + new, worn + shiny.

    love this kettle!

    Angie_house_kettle

    she got this dresser for ten dollars at a rummage sale!

    Angie_house_dining_room_dresser

    the jars are another rummage sale find.

    Angie_house_jars

    raced back into town for a farewell event for a family at church. then had a mini-photoshoot with joe and hannah in front of a sign for the latest sermon series from our pastor… "rock, paper, scissors".

    Jk_hk_at_church

    [in the service yesterday, we all had to stand up, play rock/paper/scissors with the people around us (best two out of three) for two competitions..and the winners remained standing.  I ended up a "winner" so twice during the service, the winners were called up to the stage to be part of the message illustrations. he said we didn’t have to be interviewed, so we all breathed a sigh of relief. 

    what the pastor did NOT tell us was that we were to turn around, lean down and place our hands on the stage, and have our backsides to the rest of the congregation while we pushed on the edge of the stage!  Forty of us – kids and adults – had our backsides to the people watching us.  the women on either side of me and I were joking about being on camera like this.  the pastor was illustrating that you can’t knock over a [cardboard] rock house if you push on the solid foundation the house is built on. the second time on stage, we had to shake the wagon the "bricks" were on so that it fell off. that was a better trip to the stage.]

    pretty full weekend. how was yours?

  • 1998 vs 2008

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    1998 vs 2008, originally uploaded by Chez Larsson.

    benita of chez larsson (on flickr) has amazing organization skills. she’s prettied up her home so much….which is why I love this photo set she posted showing her home 10 years ago and today. sooo worth checking out.

  • click! click! click!


    click! click! click!, originally uploaded by featherbed.

    "I spend too much time on computers" is the caption for this drawing by featherbed.

    I can relate. I’m just now having fun with some of the online-friend-programs….the kind where you add friends, then friends of friends…. and update your status to "Just ate a taco and will now be going for a long walk followed by reading the latest issue of a magazine."

    signs that life may be now be centered around technology…

    1. You ask people that you hit it off with if they’re on Your Favorite Friend Program.
    2. You add said friends to your friend list within an hour of arriving home.
    3. In that hour, you have checked for status updates and messages and postings from friends – to see what you missed in the four hours you were away from home (at a real party, nonetheless, where you interacted with friends and acquaintances in person).
    4. You see unusual situations while out and grab your camera, to record it for your blog because people will not believe what just happened!
    5. You prefer to play online checkers vs. finding a friend in person to play in real time.
    6. You notice that six month old babies tend to pose for photos then automatically reach for the camera to see the photo on the screen.
    7. You notice that after you put your camera away, the six month old continues to stare at you in some kind of a pose..waiting for the next photo to be taken.
    8. IMing becomes a great way to stay in touch with friends while getting work done around the house…..yet you find yourself not paying as much attention to an in-person conversation, because you forget the person can SEE you and HEAR you…and you can’t take four minutes to respond to their question.
    9. Forget thinking things over while in line.  Instead you can hold deep conversations via texting like: "hey" (hey), "how r u?" (gd. u?) "ok. what’s up?" (nt much. u?).  Conversations that enrich your life and make you feel warm all over…..or just get you to the front of the line you’re in while having stayed in contact with your best friend/acquaintance/brother’s girlfriends stylist’s niece you met once at the grocery store.
    10. It’s crucial to get the status on Your Favorite Friend Program exactly right….  "frustrated" or "happy" or "content" or "can’t stand this snow anymore, when will it ever stop???!"

  • bonnets + joes

    bonnets + more bonnets

    My mom asks during Easter dinner, "So do people still buy hats for Easter?  I didn’t see many today!"   

    *silence* 

    *crickets chirping for real*   

    Sister-in-law pipes up, "Ummm..that’s not really the fashion anymore" (kindly refraining from saying "…since 1982.")    (hey mom! how are ya?) 

    Mom: "I did ask some young girls at church today if they got new Easter bonnets, and they just gave me funny looks like, ‘What are bonnets?’"

    trader joes

    Anne and her daughter Hannah asked me to go to a local mall with them – one I hadn’t been to.  I was excited because there’s a Trader Joes there and was met with a blank stare and, "What’s impressive about Trader Joes?"

    Okay – so she’s been to a Trader Joes but others have not and tend to inquire about Trader Joes?  It is only the bestest grocery store in the whole wide world, that’s what! 

    Unfortunately,that doesn’t describe the store, so my second try tends to be…  "Um..it’s a small store that has organic items and other items that are quite affordable.  Hmm, how ’bout I just show you?!"

    Seriously. I never have a good answer.  Most likely you either don’t care for the store or you love the store, as in I-want-to-marry-it-love it.

    Anyone have a good description for the store for those of us who are normally around big supermarkets and have to drive almost an hour to get to a Whole Foods or a Trader Joes?

  • {maira kalman}

    I just finished reading this interview with Maira Kalman.  I love her thoughts, her work, her ideas.  She breaks down her inspiration to be books (Sebald, Nabakov, Austen), music (Handel, Bach, Mozart, Monk) travel (India, Russia, Israel) and then odd moments/humor/"anything that is funny inspires me".  Reading about how she takes long walks, breathes deeply and stares at people boing about their lives inspires here – inspired me as well.   It’s worth it too to see her illustrations  – which I haven’t received permission yet to use here.

  • posters + pizza

    wednesday night

    because it is spring break for area schools, there was no regularly scheduled youth group, but student volunteers showed up to put concert posters up in neighboring cities (you can see the "iron fist" poster to the left of the Youth Guy).  We fed them pizza, they goofed around, and then the band rehearsed.  As I was talking to a friend about Idol, someone overheard me and shouted out the name of the person who left. (I won’t tell you because maybe you haven’t heard yet!)

    Bryan_chris_pizza_2

    Youth Guy "helping" Chris with his pizza.

    Chris_pizza_2

    Shawnee_amanda_2_2

    Sam

    Anne

    anne – the amazing event coordinator!!

    Band_rehearsal_1_2

    The drummer for the youth band is AMAZING and the whole group sounded great.  I cannot wait until Sunday to hear them!

  • black forest beauty

    nesting  profiled karin kramer today.  Karin lives in the northern black forest….

    Kichen2

    Bedroom_2

    There are more photos and an interview at the nesting blog.  I love the coziness of the home and the use of my new favorite color….orange!

  • people like you…….

    So this year I’m getting contacts.  The outspoken eye doctor questions me about my schedule for wearing contacts and then announces, "You know, they make contacts for people like you." 

    Really?  Just for me???

    Last week, I took my broken-into-two-pieces mobile phone in to get replaced, and after the employee looked at the remnants of my phone, looked at my account in the computer, she announced, "You know, they make phones for people like you."

    Really?  WHAT KIND OF A PERSON AM I??   Someone who wears contacts for more than 10 hours a day and uses phones that fall apart quickly?! 

    Problem is, the word got out.  And now if I make an innocent remark about a friend’s daughter’s cute pink socks, I hear, "You know….they make SOCKS for people like you!" or I run into a door and hear, "You know….they make DOORWAYS for people like you!"  Apparently it has such a universal application that I may never hear the end of it. Oh, and by the way, they make BLOGS for people like you.

  • easter weekend

    Hudson_easter

    My nephew Devin snapped this photo of Hudson, his little cousin, at Easter dinner yesterday.

    The day was unusual (multiple church services + lots of family time + weird snow). 

    Two church services (I went to the "upstairs church" service in the main sanctuary then attended the youth service) + lunch with family + dinner with friends while we watched "Reign Over Me" (an excellent movie with Adam Sandler in a serious role, Don Cheadle and Liv Tyler).  We took a quick Starbucks break and headed out to find a rain-like snow coming down.  The roads weren’t slippery but the snow was coming at the car and it seemed we were driving into stars in space! At least the quest for chai lattes was successful.

    Since I’m feeling just great this week, my goal is to get two closets cleared out.  Here’s the photo that is inspiring the urge to organize:

    Basket_bathroom

    I had a basket full of magazines…and every glance at that basket stressed me out just a little. So the magazines were replaced by a few books, with the result being a look I’m going for in the entire apartment:  a few functional and well loved items surrounded by empty space in the container or on the shelf. 

    How was your Easter weekend?

  • spring snow

    Kitchen

    I can’t figure out why I like this kitchen so mouch.  I think it’s the closet or room near the island that has the pretty artwork on the two-tone wall.

    in other news, it’s the first day of spring and we’re expecting up to 18 inches of snow by midnight.  Happy Spring, everyone!  This has been an unusual week. I’ve been home for most of it, apart from working a few of the days.  My big events this week have been a dinner with a friend and then church today at noon. Now I’m bundled up at home with a book, a movie, and some breyer’s neopolitan ice cream.  I’m good to go. 

    How are you spending your Friday night?