another dream come true

In an academic world where very few people ever read the work that you agonize and toil over, Marc has always yearned to write something that would appeal to the masses.

With his photography, as well, he has dreamed of creating something with such wide appeal that he could see it on the shelves of Target someday.

In the last couple of years or so, he has been licensing some of his work to an art agency. He heard recently that there was a European company that wanted to make a few of his photos into postcards. He mentioned in passing that it would be thrilling to happen upon his postcards while in Paris.

A couple of days ago, I opened my email to find these:

Here he is, outside of a store that carries his postcards! He bought them just as the store was closing.

Hooray for dream fulfillment!
{Of course, he still wouldn't say no to a deal with Target.}

12 on the 12th | December

1. The morning vitamins I put out for me and the kids.
2. A paper I pulled out of Eva's backpack — I love that she made up how to write her name in cursive (and then wrote an alternate version).
3. Catching up on my Words With Friends games.
4. Relaxing in front of the Christmas tree led to admiring the glittered stars I made out of cereal boxes. (Don't look at the backs!) I scored and bent them to make them 3D, and applied a combo of silver and gold glitter for more of a vintage look. I liked them so much, I made a bunch more for the rest of the tree.
5. An example of the literary ornaments I made from a cheap paperback of Sense and Sensibility from D.I. These make me happy.
6. This pile of books by the couch indicates that Max is home from school.
7. And then he can be found working on his homework for pretty much the rest of the day. He has a huge backlog of TV shows to watch during Christmas vacation!
8. Checking out a new recipe for pizza dough on one of the cooking blogs that I enjoy.
9. Jack, in a rare moment of holding still. Check out all that gray in his fur!
10. Max's tie, cast aside before dinner. (He likes to wear ties on Mondays.)
11. Potato, red onion, and goat cheese pizza. It was delicious.
12. Emily brought her serious boyfriend over for dinner, because "Olivier approval is crucial." Big thumbs up!

12 on the 12th | October

1. Eva playing games on nickjr.com before getting ready for school.
2. I got to pull off the tape from the first section of cupboards. Such a satisfying moment. (So very much more to go on that project.)
3. I decided to cook myself something good for breakfast (scrambled eggs with mushrooms, green onions, and fresh parmesan).
4. A picture at Eva's school that is made of the students' school pictures.
5. Eva's "All About Me" report hanging in the school hallway.
6. It was my first day of teaching art to Eva's class and this is the darling book I read to the kids. I highly recommend it.
7. Some of the kids working on their project (making a picture with only dots).
8. Eva sitting at her desk. She was positively preening to have me there (these are the days that end all too soon).
9. I love these fall sunsets where the mountains are pink.
10. I snapped this picture while Max was driving us to mutual.
11. I tried a new recipe to take to mutual (peanut butter pretzel bars). It didn't work out very well—way too crumbly—but it still tasted good.
12. One of our Laurels showed us a slide show of her trip to Europe.

five for friday

Marc's sister Lisa was in town with her family last month and Eva was dying to have her cousin Dana over for a sleepover. Dana, never having done a sleepover, was a little hesitant, so she invited her big sister Olivia along. They came home with us on a Sunday night and stayed all day Monday, and Eva was devastated when Lisa picked them up. It's too bad they see each other so rarely!

Marc has been photographing still lifes around the house for a photography contest. At one point, he was standing on the kitchen table with his tripod, trying to get a shot. I can tell when he's scoping out potential photo ops. He is submitting some photos he took in Eva's room, vignettes of her toys in play; and she said that if he wins, it will be like she wins, too!

Eva had her friend Riley over to play and they ended up watching a movie about Golden Retrievers on Netflix. They kept clinging to each other during the "scary parts." I told them that if it was too scary, they should do something else, but they protested that that was what made it fun!

I would say that Lucas came home from Scout camp with at least a hundred mosquito bites. He is allergic to them, so they always get pretty bad (this photo doesn't really do it justice). They were clustered on his shoulders, elbows, knees, and neck, despite the fact that he was wearing pants and shirts with sleeves and had applied bug repellent! Also, one of the leaders who went with them didn't get a single bite. What the? (He's been back for almost 3 weeks and they are just now going away.)

I tried making naan. I really love naan, and since I was making Indian food one night, it seemed like the time to give it a go. I don't know that I'll do that again. It was quite a tedious process, involving a pizza stone and a spray bottle, cooking them one at a time, etc. and it still wasn't right. It seemed more like regular pita bread to me. Not worth it. Bummer.

the joy of love

Check out this free class! So cool. Looks like a great way to focus on love in February and hone your photography skills, all at the same time.

(I should have posted about it this morning, but it's been a crazy day. A day in which the element in my oven started sparking and burning and I unplugged the oven without realizing that it is dangerous in a potentially fatal way unless you turn off the circuit first and then discovered how disgustingly dirty it is behind the oven and so had a spontaneous and completely necessary oven cleaning, inside, out, behind, and under the range. And I had to bake my bread that had already risen in my neighbor's oven. And take Lucas on a two-hour, fruitless shoe-shopping expedition.)

Anyway. It's not too late to start!

12 on the 12th | December

1. There is lots of snow on the mountains, but none down here in the valley. And it has been in the 40s!
2. Sunday finery – I had morning meetings, and we had tithing settlement at 10:00.
3. Little Christmas trees make me happy, and Marc and I share an affinity for the off-white ones.
4. a bowl of clementines on the table
5. Lucas was sick in bed all day with a fever. (It's sad how many of my 12ths included sickness!)
6. The last cookie from a new recipe I tried. If you are a fan of salty & sweet, you have to try these! The pretzels are a genius addition.
7. I wanted to get a picture of Eva in her new fancy outfit, but she changed so fast after church that I missed my opportunity. (She was happy to pose in her casual clothes.)
8. Max playing Christmas carols from A Classical Christmas, a cool book that sets carols in classical pieces. (I realized that a lot of my 12ths have piano photos, as well.)
9. the scripture advent calendar from The Friend (thanks, Jess!)
10. the remains of the newspapers after I culled the coupons
11. #12 of the stocking advent, a highly anticipated part of the day.
12. I finished my book club book! sniff.

It was thoroughly enjoyable participating in 12 on the 12th all year. As I looked back over my collages for the year, I noticed some trends: sickness, piano, nature, recipes, books. Well, 4 out of 5 are some of my favorite things...

cool interview

Another blogger did an interview of Marc and his photography. She selected some beautiful photos to highlight, and I even learned a couple of things I didn't know!

Check it out here.

He's a pretty creative guy.

Creative Friday, and then not

A week and a half ago, we celebrated the return of Creative Friday, complete with day clothes and makeup! It felt so very good to be well again and game for our usual get-together.

Jill was kind enough to bring lunch from Taco Amigo, though, as I was still off my cooking/hostessing game. (I love bean tostadas! Why do I never make these?)

The number of hot sauces they gave Jill with her order – despite her polite refusal of any such sauces – totally cracked me up.

The boys were very obliging by playing outside and downstairs, but Eva was lonely and therefore our companion for quite some time. (Again with the hanging out in her swimsuit!) She made Jill a drawing of 7 dinosaurs to give to Whitney.

I cut some roses to bring inside. It's the one time of year when I actually have flowers in my yard for cutting and it brings me great pleasure. And as Jill said, it's aromatherapy.

These photo trimmings represent a lot of work and just make me happy. The only way they could be improved upon would be if the tiny slices were curling tendrils...

I got an action shot of Jill working her Mod Podge magic with a mini composition book. She claims she has no skills, but I beg to differ.

I enjoy these pages of notes where Jill keeps a record of her correspondence sent. That's a whole lot of cards and letters!

She made up all of these photo cards with pictures from our impromptu rainy day photo shoot. They were kind of killing me with their greatness.

Still, I managed to assemble 18 packs of cards to send as blogger birthday gifts, so I was feeling pretty great about that as well.

Right before she left, Jill showed me the pathetic state of her left heel! It's so cracked and calloused she had to cover it with duct tape. What the? The strange thing is that her right heel is normal. I feel obliged to discover a miracle cure for that heel. (I'll let you know if I come up with anything.)

Sadly, last Friday Jill was sick, so we only had one week of good health all around. (She sounded really awful and I feared she was going to come down with something involving long-term incapacitation like what I just got over, but I should have known better. That doesn't happen to her!)

I picked up her kids so they could play here and she could rest in peace.

The boys played basketball, board games, Guitar Hero, and generally entertained themselves, as usual. Whitney played with Eva in her room, and then they all went outside to play capture the flag. It ended up being a gift to me that Landon and Whitney were here entertaining my kids!

I was so delightfully unneeded that I decided to have my own Creative Friday anyway. It wasn't the same without Jill, of course, but I did manage to be quite productive without all the usual kid interruptions and sent out 10 belated birthday packages! Oh happy day.

Creative Friday

Last Friday, that is. Jill and Landon came, and Max was on Trek, so we only had 3 kids that day.

Somehow Jill managed to get a photo of Lucas smiling, no small feat! He absolutely loves summer Fridays and is basically counting the minutes until Landon arrives. I'm so glad these two are such good friends and have been... pretty much forever.

Unfortunately, they wanted to play Guitar Hero World Tour. Which means, of course, frantically strumming a plastic bar and beating on plastic drums. I'm not saying that the real instruments would be better, but maybe.

This was Jill's reaction when they suddenly quit after only 10 minutes of playing! Mercy.

Eva was occupied for quite awhile with painting the dinosaurs Aunt Michelle gave her. (I could kiss you, Michelle.)

Jill also managed to get a good picture of Jack! She was really on a roll.

She made very pleasing Paris cards. Will we ever tire of our Paris photos? I think not.

Eva made us some tea while wearing these gloves and a ring made out of pipe cleaners, which totally cracked me up.

Her art supplies. What is it about all these colors that makes them so irresistible? (It almost makes me wonder why I loved b&w photography for so long...)

We had another rainstorm. Staying inside and listening to rain is one of my favorite pleasures in life.

Jill was going to her car and called me over to see the photo-worthy roses, covered in raindrops. Of course we had to have an impromptu photo session (the rain had stopped). I was dreading seeing Jill's pictures, as I always experience a bit of photo jealousy when we take pictures of the same things. I did see them, and my dread was justified. She has a gift!

Landon was incredibly patient, and even borrowed Jill's camera to take a few photos himself!

Water is just plain cool.

I love this upside-down rose.

Jill was kind enough to spare me the self-portrait, as I still hadn't summoned the energy to do my hair and put on makeup. That's what friends are for.

Paris colors II

I'm still coughing like crazy and I'm weak, but not too weak to click my mouse, so I thought I'd show you the rest of my Paris color collage cards:

I keep changing them, substituting photos and moving them around. I think I'm going to go crazy, so I'm just forcing myself to stop.

I'm curious to know if you have a favorite!

12 on the 12th | May

1. tulips covered in morning rain (I could do a whole grid just on the rain photos I took!)
2. the remains of someone's breakfast chocolate milk
3. spraying Lysol all over since Max is on day 6 of fever and cough
4. I watched Chuck while exercising instead of my usual reading and I burned 50 more calories...
5. registered Eva for afternoon kindergarten!
6. preschool drop-off
7. finally, finally got a much-needed pedicure!
8. I cleaned off my dresser on the 11th, but I'm counting every day it stays clean a victory.
9. Anagram Magic, Lucas's new favorite computer game – now there's a game I can encourage!
10. some rare Utah moss we found growing at Eva's preschool teacher's house
11. reading to Eva before bed
12. loading the dishwasher before I retired early, exhausted

12 on the 12th | April

1. I love doing monochromatic puzzles first thing in the morning...
2. Dropping Lucas off at school.
3. It doesn't look like April yet. Spring in Utah is highly unpredictable.
4. Reading Calpurnia Tate while doing my exercise bike. Loving it.
5. Sending good mail.
6. Peanut butter chocolate cake in the fridge.
7. A fancy cat that Eva drew for one of her cousins.
8. It was warm enough yesterday to go barefoot. (Today it's hailing.)
9. My grape hyacinths are finally in bloom! Such a happy sight.
10. Grocery shopping.
11. Strawberry/pecan/feta salad for dinner.
12. Knitting while watching Chuck and 24. A very good end to the day.

exciting news!

Marc has been working on his ABC Paris project for many years. He got the idea for it the first time we were living in Paris, in 1996-7, and started work with a film camera. On all of his subsequent visits to Paris, he has continued the search and has been shooting letters all over the city. Recently, he decided that it was finally complete, and that he was ready to launch this collection of photos.

He was featured on Design Sponge last week! So cool.

He also had a giveaway on Black Eiffel (although I think it has ended).

You can see the whole collection here.

I'm so happy that he's getting recognition for all his hard work!

cool opportunity

Utah locals, you've got to check this out.

Provo photographer Justin Hackworth is doing another 30 Strangers project. He will be taking portraits of one mother/daughter pair every day during the month of April. Subjects will receive an 8x10 print from the session.

I wish I wish I could put my name in the lottery, but your daughter needs to be at least 6 years old. This is one cool opportunity that I hope to be able to participate in sometime in the future. Check it out!

p.s. March 5th is the last day to put your name in the pool.

12 on the 12th | February

1. running the dishwasher
2. antibiotics for Lucas & Eva
3. putting on makeup
4. Eva's breakfast
5. lunch with Marc at Diego's taco shop
6. organizing my baking lazy susan
7. laundry
8. grocery shopping
9. McDonald's ice cream cone (taken at a stop light)
10. Landon sleepover (playing Wii with Lucas)
11. Max practicing
12. Valentine tea towels

12 on the 12th | January

I'm excited to finally be doing this project! Last year whenever I would see Amy M. posting about her 12 photos on the 12th of the month I would always wish I were doing it, but would consistently forget. I guess 2010 is my year. Thanks, Amy, for reminding us and for providing the template to simplify the process!




1. making lunches
2. Eva's breakfast
3. trip to the Orem library
4. my drink of choice (not necessarily cherry, though)
5. Eva eating 2 licks of a candy cane. She's always finished after that.
6. working on a photo project with my Paris pictures
7. making chocolate chip cookies
8. thank you card from Jill
9. doing puzzles with Eva
10. cutting carrots for dinner
11. Max doing geography homework
12. reading my new book in bed, a delicious way to end the day!

I wish I had taken a picture of all of us watching the season premiere of American Idol. The end.

London -- Wednesday

On Wednesday, we decided to check out the restaurant our guide book recommended for the best fish & chips in London.

As we sat outside and waited for our food, we all got our cameras out. It is really quite funny when Marc, Max, Lucas and I all are taking pictures at the same time!

The traditional malt vinegar, etc. fish & chips accompaniments.

The chef posing for a shot!

While we were all entertaining ourselves with photography, Eva was playing games on an iPod. Our iPods really came in handy during this trip!

Marc ordered cod, Max and I had haddock, and the kids had fries (I mean chips). It was delicious!

We went from there to St. Paul's Cathedral, and were all disappointed that photography was not allowed, as it was truly stunning. Marc thought it put Notre Dame to shame. I don't know that I would go that far, but it was amazingly beautiful.

From there we walked to the Tate Modern Museum, a lovely walk. Of course we had to stop for photos along the way.

Now imagine me in the photo, and you can see the spectacle we made of ourselves!

London Bridge. I waited a couple of minutes so I could capture a double-decker bus in front of it!

Photography was prohibited in most of the exhibits, but there was a hands-on area for kids that was a big hit (we had to go there twice).

I love this idea!

Lucas's conceptual art.

We were disappointed that the Pop Life exhibit we had seen advertised didn't open until the next day! As it was, the younger kids were worn out long before Marc and Max, so we didn't get to see the whole museum.

I found this display in the gift shop so pleasing.

Woohoo, another color to add to my collection of chair photos!

I had read about a restaurant called Wagamama in our guide book, so we decided to check it out for dinner. It's all Japanese ramen, yakisoba, and rice dishes. The waiter was hilarious -- he was determined to find something that Lucas would eat, even though we told him it was hopeless -- he said he hadn't been defeated by a kid yet (it's a very family-friendly place). He gave it a brave effort, but finally had to concede defeat, bringing Lucas plain white rice.

This was a special of the day, a curried chicken rice dish and it was fabulous! In all, we went to Wagamama three times, Max was thrilled. I was really excited to find out that they have a cookbook. I found it on Amazon and it is not even expensive, so I will definitely be getting it.

After dinner, Marc took Eva and Lucas back to the hotel, and Max and I went to go see Wicked! I was so so excited, as I have been wanting to see that show for a long time, and seeing it in London was even better.

On our way, we passed this pirate ship that you can rent out for birthday parties! Can you imagine?

This was Max's first time going to a big show, and he was excited as well. While we waited for it to start, we shared a fine bar of dark chocolate and observed the group of high school students sitting in front of us. What a field trip!

Here's our bad, blurry self-portrait in the theater. It had to be documented.

We. loved. it. The performances were outstanding, the sets, music, everything. Wow.

Wednesday was a great day!