You Capture: Bathrooms

Posted in You Capture by teamtradermom

Yes you read that right. This week’s You Capture theme is bathrooms. At first thought I was daunted by this one. How the heck are you supposed to take creative pictures of a bathroom and keep out the gross factor? Well here’s what I came up with. Let me now what you think!

Work

Much of the bathroom time in my life is spent in this one at work. As far as bathrooms go, it’s a pretty nice one. Always clean, they have Mary Kay stuff in there and its rather posh as evidenced by the next picture.

(BTW, this was taken with my new iPhone. Wasn’t sure if it would take as good of pics as my Droid did but so far I am pleased! I do like that it’s faster – doesn’t have the 2 second delay like the Droid)

Snakeskin

This is the wallpaper in the bathroom above. Snakeskin. Or at least that’s what I think it is. I remember when they first put it in. We all thought it was garish. But I’ve grown used to it and it’s kind of funky. The texture makes for an unusual picture too.

Home

This is what I find in my bathroom every morning when I step out of the shower. He’s my morning buddy.

Trader Joe’s

I’ve only been to Trader Joe’s once and it was last week. I just happened to use the restroom while there and found these lovely paintings on the walls. I’m assuming they do that for every city they’re in. Pretty cool actually. It made my potty experience that much more pleasant.

Well there you have it. Bathroom. Restroom. Potty. Ladies’ Room. Little Girls Room. Whatever you want to call it, it’s been documented.

Beth is taking a break this week off due to the death of a close friend so you won’t get to see her take on this until next week. I’m sure it’ll be worth the wait!

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9Jun2011

You Capture: Flowers

Posted in You Capture by teamtradermom

It was fun getting back in to the swing of You Capture with this week’s theme. Flowers are blooming everywhere and that’s one of my favorite parts of summer – all the bright colors and gorgeous blooms!

Irises

I never knew how much I loved irises until we bought this house 5 years ago. The previous owners had them planted in the back and every year when they bloom it’s like a gift from above.

Peonies

Isabella and I have been closely watching the peonies. Everyday we’d go outside and check on their progress. They slowly grew and then produced small buds. Then those buds got bigger until one day – pop! – out came a flower! Isabella thought the whole process was fascinating. I was just happy to have that touch of pink in the yard!

Roses

I cannot tell a lie. I took this picture as I was leaving the salon. I got a few funny looks. They had these planted along the side of the building and I thought they looked so pretty. Roses are classics!

Dandelions

Isabella picked these for me. She came running over and handed me this little bouquet of fuzzies and was so proud. I loved them too. I remember picking them as a kid and blowing on the fuzz to watch it fly away. She does the same thing but she preserved this batch, well most of it, for her mama. Such a sweet girl. They are perfect because they’re from her.

For more pretty flower pics, head on over to Beth’s!!

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3Jun2011

A Walk in the Park

Posted in Isabella/Munchkin, Photography, Work and Professional Life by teamtradermom

I didn’t have much time in my schedule today to get out for lunch. However, I had to get out of the office. The sun was shining and I had a 2 hour call looming ahead of me. The only way to get through it was with a Diet Coke and some vitamin D. So I ran out for a quick sandwich (roast beef and cheddar on an asiago bagel with veggie cream cheese. YUMMERS!) and decided to eat it in the park. I ate in my car because it was a bit windy and I didn’t want my napkins and stuff blowing everywhere.

This was the view from my car.

There was a group of ladies there wearing matching blue shirts that said VOLUNTEER on them. They were walking around picking up the trash. I wanted to tell them thank you but I didn’t. I thought it though.

As soon as I finished my sandwich, I headed out for a quick walk. It’s a small park so the walk took me only about 15 min (with many stops to take pictures).

There’s something very haunting to me about empty playground equipment. I actually did a whole series in college on it. One of my favorites.

I came upon a lot of fallen limbs. We’ve had many days of rain and storms and the poor trees can’t take it anymore!

The walk was nice and peaceful. The only people I ran in to were the volunteer litter ladies (hey they should get shirts that say THAT!). The sun was bright and it was warm but I enjoyed the fresh air.

There’s a nice little creek that runs through this park. It was much more full than I’ve ever seen it, thanks in part to all those storms.

There was also a lovely little bridge. It looked like it had recently been rebuilt because it was all bright and pristine. Almost too clean!

Overall the park was great, though there were some signs of wear and tear.

I was hot and sweaty by the end of my walk so the A/C felt amazing! I cranked it up baby! Then it was back to the office for meeting after meeting. I was ready to chill when I got home but Isabella wanted to go to the park so we loaded up the stroller and headed out!

She was looking sharp in her shades!

She had a lot of fun on the teeter totter. When we got home, she asked me for some juice so that she could “stay hydrated.” That’s my Little Genius!

Now I’m off to paint my toenails with the new nail polish I bought today (OPI’s “It’s Totally Fort Worth It”) while watching Sex and the City 2. I know, I know. I’ve heard bad things too but hey, they’re my girls so I have to watch it. So what if I’m a couple years behind….I also plan to polish off a banana split made with Bunny Tracks ice cream. Huzzah!

Have a great weekend!

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2Jun2011

You Capture: Games

Posted in You Capture by teamtradermom

It’s been a month since I’ve done a You Capture post. My life has been super busy and one of the first things to go was taking pictures. I hate that I dropped it so easily but it was either that or the house or Isabella or date nights or work or Josh Groban. You can see why photos was the obvious choice. At any rate, I am back this week and hopefully on a more consistent basis. It was kind of nice to take a break. It was starting to feel too much like work and not as much fun. But now I’m ready to go again!

Here is a pile of Isabella’s favorite puzzles. They’re bright and colorful and she can do them in her sleep.

I love the fact that she’s wearing her new sun hat with her ice cream pajamas while holding a Santa Claus riding a bike (with a woobie in her mouth). Does it get better than that?

We’re trying to teach her that an important part of playing is cleaning up. She’s usually pretty good about it. Especially if we make it a game!

That’s it! Glad to be back to You Capture and look forward to next week’s assignment. For more photos, go check out all the links at Ishouldbefoldinglaundry.com!

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6May2011

Crazy Busy

Posted in House and Home, You Capture by teamtradermom

Did ya miss me?

I feel like I’ve been ignoring the blog. Life has been crazy and well, something’s gotta give. Between work, getting the house ready, family, outside activities and being sick, I’ve got no time left for thinking up witty blogs.

So here’s what’s been going on:

1. Operation Dream Home is moving at lightening speed! We’re nearing the home stretch of the first leg of the race and in a full out sprint. The realtors came over on Wednesday and think the house is ready so we’re filling out the paperwork tomorrow and it should be on the market by Monday! So excited and nervous at the same time. What if no one wants to buy and it’s on the market forever? Conversely, what if it sells really quickly and we don’t have a new house yet? We’ve started looking but I don’t think we’ve found “the one” yet. I keep telling myself it will all work out, and it will.

So every weekend in April has been filled with activity like this:

Painting or packing or cleaning or repairing or whatever. I’m ready for that phase to be over. Here’s what we have left from our big list:

~~Get a storage unit rented~~
Clean every room from top to bottom with a fine-tooth comb, including de-cluttering and organizing
- ~~Master Bedroom~~ and bath
- ~~Isabella’s room~~
- ~~Samson’s room~~
- Main Bathroom
- ~~Kitchen~~
- ~~Dining Room~~
- ~~Living Room~~
- Entryway (3/4 way done)
- Basement (3/4 of the way done)
- Utility Room
- Garage
~~Pack up all knick knacks and “personal” family type items (photos, etc)~~
Re-arrange furniture in a few of the rooms
- Samson’s Room
- ~~Dining room~~
- ~~Living Room~~
- Basement
~~Replace a sink or 2 and possibly a bathroom countertop~~
~~Clean up the yard~~ ~~and plant flowers, lay down mulch, etc~~
~~Put away all of Isabella’s toys and only keep out those that can fit in to a rubbermaid container~~
Paint or restain all baseboards and woodwork (about 1/2 of the way done)
~~Meet with a mortgage lender to see how much we can afford and how much of a loan we’ll get approved for~~
~~Repaint Master Bedroom and bath~~
~~Start looking for~~ and buy a new house

2. Our household was hit with a plague and we’ve all been sick for a week now. Well, Isabella for a week. It started for her last Thursday. CJ got hit on Saturday and me on Monday. All week I’ve been feeling “blah” and have negative amounts of energy. Yet, there’s too much going on to allow me to lie around so I’m pushing myself to the max.

3. April and May are crazy busy months. Between birthdays, Easter, Mother’s Day, Memorial Day and graduations, we’ve been on the go every weekend. I’m ready for a break! We also had a wedding and a funeral within a week of each other – for the same guy. Depressing isn’t it?

4. The royal wedding occurred and I pretty much missed it all! I feel so out of touch!

5. A little old lady tried to hijack my car.

6. I totally missed this week’s You Capture because the day just flew by me. It was afternoon on Wednesday when I realized I’d missed it. *sigh* I had some cute ones this week too! So, I’m going to post them here for you all to see! The theme was “outside”. I shot all these one beautiful sunny afternoon, when Isabella, Samson and I were out playing (CJ was probably out front painting).

Splashing in the birdbath (don’t you just love her little sunglasses?)

Playing with the wheelbarrow

Our adventurer peeking through the trees

Two buddies, taking a break

7. I did manage to spend some time last night getting my craft on. I had 2 projects to complete: 1) make a mother’s day gift for my mom and 2) make a fake plant arrangement for our living room.

See, if we leave real plants anywhere within toddler reach, she gets in them. But the realtors wanted us to have some greenery in one corner of the living room, so I had to go with silk. I was surprised how expensive it is to buy already made fake plants. Something like this would have cost $40. Instead, I made it myself for about $20. I think it turned out great!

And here’s the mom’s gift I made. It’s a mosaic stepping stone for the new rock garden my parents are putting in. I was going to have Isabella put her handprint in the middle but she threw a big fit so instead I wrote “Grandma’s” and drew a little flower to represent her garden.

I think she’ll love it!

And with that, it’s time for me to end this break, clock back in and go upstairs to do some cleaning. The checkout lady at Target told me to use oven cleaner on shower doors to get the soap scum off so I’m giving it a try. I will let you know how it turns out…

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