Tiny books, lots of happy

Right after New Year's I saw a little write-up about a company called Printstagram that made tiny books from your instagram photos. It was $10 so I thought why not? It took just a few clicks to choose which photos I wanted to upload and then I forgot all about it until they arrived today (from Taiwan?) and they're just about the cutest things you ever did see. They actually came in not one but three little volumes representing our 2011 year in instagram photos. They are even magnetic so they've taken up happy residence on our fridge. So fun! Now my mind is buzzing with possibilities...valentines, birthdays, little books of favorite things, future stocking stuffers...

$3.33 for each little book of photos. What's your favorite low-cost, high-happiness thing lately?

Yes, please

At first I dragged my feet. Maddy had a photo assignment and wanted to go into Boston to do some shots.  It kind of seemed like a hassle to me but G and Sam had a church meeting and she really wanted to go, so I thought eh, why not?

I should think why not? more often. Well, that and why not's more enthusiastic sister, yes, please.

Because if I had gone with my Saturday afternoon homebody instincts, I would have missed out on this:

Swan boats retired for the summer.

Maddy in sunbeams.

Witnessing weddings.

Glorious trees.

High wire walkers practicing. (!)

Take that, dragging feet. 

Outtakery

Just a few outtakes from this year's Christmas photo shoot...

Instead of my usual DIY self-timer method, I decided to splurge on having our photographer friend come and take them--especially since Lauren will be heading to college next year and we might not do it again for a while. 

What was especially wonderful? It was just a really fun afternoon spent laughing and playing--a nice family memory in itself. 

 ^We didn't want to drag the piano outside so we used piano music in a typewriter instead

And this one cracks me up every. single. time:  . . .

Chalkboards via Brooke at Playing Grown Up (but if you live near me, I'm happy to let you use mine) They have helpful little knobs on the back.

Photos by Nicole Barker

Ready for her close up

Hello, senior year! If it's late August, it must be senior portrait season (our school requires them to be submitted the first 2 weeks of September). We're loving the sneak peeks of L's photo session from last week:

We lucked out with a new friend who moved here recently who's a fantastic photographer to boot. Thanks, Nicole! Every gal should have the experience of being treated like such a rock star. 

(If you're in the area, check her out! She's really wonderful.)

somebody stop me!

Hi, my name is Annie and I am a blog addict. It seems I just can't stop adding new ones.

After admiring so many others' I gave in and started a catalog of my favorite home-related photos, ideas, recipes, and quotes. It's really just a digital place for me to put all those things that I used to tear out of magazines + put into files + then forget. The tumblr platform doesn't even accept comments but feel free to visit if you'd like to see the clips.  Or not.  It's called Gather.  And it's all about hygge and you know how I like my hygge.

You're probably wondering "what's next? a blog documenting Annie's breathing patterns? a catalog of her grocery receipts? her ideas for sculpting with dryer lint?" and to that I say, Maybe.  I don't rule these things out.  (I really am considering one more: a child development-dedicated site. What? I can stop anytime I want.  Really.)

* * * *

Meanwhile, I'm heading off to meet a lovely friend for lunch. {Actually Chrissi was my sister's friend growing up (and Matt's, too)} We caught up with each other again when we lived near each other in DC a few years ago and now she and her family are in Connecticut at Yale for a year.  She's an amazing photographer (see below); if you live in the area & are looking for someone to take some great photos, send her a note.  And her husband's a psychiatrist in the military so--who knows?--maybe they'll be headed close to you next.

Winter light

After school today, the kids were watching t.v.

(their Friday afternoon tradition)

& going through their valentines

(read: eating their candy).

Flopping and fighting.

Pretty blah.

Then the afternoon sun

started glowing in our backyard, 

the ground newly exposed from the melting snow.

My heart did flipflops

and I grabbed the camera and dragged them outside. 

This boy always needs a haircut.

It grows over night.

When he saw this picture, 

even he admitted it's time to visit the barber again.

{And look! My brown-eyed genes showed up here!}

Ah, that winter light. 

It does my heart good.

So do these faces.

It feels like the scene at the end of the Selfish Giant

when winter blankets the earth

but there's a burst of hope in the corner of the garden.

Things are looking up in winter land.

Dear future Annie,

This is a letter of hope to the February-May Annie of any given year, something to cling to in the bitter dreary months when it feels like spring should come but it waits until June...those months when I question "why?why?WHY do we live in New England again?"...when I start looking through job listings in hopes of finding a great corporate law position for Greg in San Diego.  Or Washington DC. Or pretty much anywhere in the lower 44 states.

Hang in there, future (and, no doubt, depressed) Annie.  This is why you live here. Remember? (Well, this and the fact that it's where G has a job and we have set up our lives.)

Love, contented October Annie

^the center of town

^the church where Sam's preschool met

^Maddy's favorite lunch spot

^the town library, where Lauren loves to meet friends

^a fun Halloween decorated house

^one of my favorite trees, down the street from our house

LOVE this house (notice the Red Sox scoreboard above the porch? How great is that?)

^cemetery in the center of town

beautiful stone carving on the gravestone

^This is the house I drool over.

Our realtor said a crazy old lady lives there.

With goats. Inside. And piles of newspaper.

It recently got painted. Maybe they'll be selling?

(but, alas, I won't be buying...

you can get it and invite me over)

Speaking of which,

my friends and family,

shouldn't you be here, too?

You can always make plans for next year...

we love guests!

Everyday life--weekend (and last) edition

Promise. 

Last installation of everyday photos from my week-in-our-life photo project. 

Brrrr. It was cold around here.  The good news, the silver lining? 

Fireplace fire time.  Mmmm...cozy.

Clockwise from top left:  1.we hosted all the youth from church (I'm the new Young Women's president) to come watch General Conference on our makeshift "big screen" (=white sheet and a borrowed projector) for the traditional "pizza conference" Saturday morning session.  2. the chess board came out for a duel to the deathmatch between the two boys of the family.  3.  Maddy in her football-game-watching get-up on Friday night.  Note the earrings crafted from black-and-white striped paper clips.  4. I love me a good fire  5.  sausage, eggs, and the New York Times on Sunday morning  6. Greg and son, battling it out chess-style (Sam won)

Everyday life: Tuesday/Wednesday edition

I'm enjoying the chance to look around and capture everyday moments this week.  Even if it's boring for everyone else, it will be nice to have it recorded for posterity :).  Clockwise from top left: Sam reading~ Louie enjoying his daily peanut butter treat~Young Women campfire last night~ toast and cocoa breakfast on a cold rainy morning~waiting for Sam outside of his piano lessons (with my ipod and library books)~stop sign I drive past every day~our neighborhood library~driving home from Cambridge~dinner prep: Lauren and Maddy setting table~and (center) the usual backpack and shoes drop-off spot (though this is just Sam's contribution so, imagine if you will, this times 3).

This week has kind of been a rollercoaster.  For you, too?  Even though I keep telling him not to, G keeps checking our 401K balance sheet and phones me from work with the grim updates. It makes me sad. And frustrated. Then my interview went great and they offered me the teaching job. So I will be teaching a human development class at Boston University next semester.  Wahoo!  Then I got an email the next morning that, due to the economy, BU has instituted a hiring freeze.  Boo. I'm waiting to see if that affects my plans. Que sera, sera, right? At the same time, we are really excited about a Christmas trip we are planning in lieu of giving each other presents.  I love looking forward to a trip.  We have already bought our tickets but the economy rollercoaster takes a little of shine off of the travel anticipation. Then, at the end of the day when everyone's home and we're all together and just reading on the couch or having dinner, I feel better.  We're healthy, we're relatively happy, we try hard. 

See what I mean? Roller coaster. 

So every time I go through the intersection right by our house, I see the stop sign in the picture above and smile.  Usually I'm not a big fan of graffiti but this one cheers me up.  What kind of graffitti-er paints encouraging messages?  An out-of-work Hallmark card writer?  A rogue life coach gone off the deep end? Don't stop believing (or b-levn), guys! 

Happy Monday

What a weekend.  Lots of rain.  I started out with high hopes but immediately realized they were going to have to be put on hold when I started having blacked out vision:  my sure sign of a looming migraine.  Sure enough, I spent the next 7 hours in a dark room with my head between pillows but amazingly it resolved pretty quickly and by early evening I was back in family life again.  Thanks to G, who was so solicitous and tender and took over everything that day instead of our usual divide and conquer weekend technique. 

We ended the weekend with a family viewing of Monty Python and the Holy Grail.  We were checking to see if the kids knew what the Holy Grail was and when we reminded them, they said eagerly "See! It IS a Sunday movie!"    Good old Roger the Shrubber and Brave Sir Robin and your-father-smelt-of-elderberries.  And so another generation enters the Monty Python hilarity club.

I usually dread Mondays a bit but today I'm feeling recharged and ready for a new week: two days of classes, the kids home tomorrow for Rosh Hashanah, an interview at a big university here to teach a human development graduate course next semester (panic. breathe. panic. play big. just try. what am I doing? just push past your comfort zone), Young Women activities on Wednesday and Saturday, more stripping of wallpaper (I say the word wallpaper like Seinfeld said Newman. It's my nemesis),  and just good old life.  

For a little fun sprinkled in the week, I've decided to take Ali's challenge of photo-documenting it with shots of real life.  There's a week in the life flickr group here.  You can join in {do!} or just take a peek. {These photos above were taken this morning in the parking lot at Tufts before class.  Oh, my poor bitten fingernails.  They're the first thing I see when I look at these photos.}