My fella and I were out exploring the countryside yesterday and we had some pleasant finds:
We discovered this old abandoned house out among some corn fields. It appears to have been empty for years, except for the standing, rusty bicycle. 
I’d love a bicycle like this!
I’m guessing the pan was used as a door bell – pick up a stick and bang on it a few times?
Ahh, the simplicity of country living!
I was at a friend’s house the other day and she served up some delicious, home-made chocolate sauce atop vanilla ice cream. The following recipe is quite similar to the sauce she served, however she added a little almond flavoring in addition to the vanilla and it was oh, so yummy!
Thanks so much for your responses to yesterday’s post everyone! Your comments were very helpful – the votes were pretty much in favor of photos #2 and #3. Many of you pointed out that you preferred the picture where there was more contrast between the girl and the background, making her stand out more. Although the contrast was good in photo #3, photo #2 received a few more votes because some preferred her skin tones there. Lisa pointed out that the bright highlights of her shirt in one photo were distracting from her face -very helpful! These observations of yours have been great for me; I feel I have some things to focus on and I’m anxious to get back into Photoshop and get to work!
In the mean time, let me announce the winner of yesterday’s random contest!
To determine the winner we used the old “draw the name from the hat” procedure:
First we wrote the names on squares of paper.
Then we placed them in the hat.
Little Miss M, the subject of yesterday’s post, stuck in her hand and pulled out the name.
And the winner is….. Walnut Shade Mom!
Little Miss M is currently a participant in thumb sucker’s rehab., can you tell?
Congratulations Walnut Shade Mom! I will be emailing you shortly to find out which barn picture you have selected (you can check them out on my barn page) and what size you’d like it to be.
Thank you to all who stopped by, and special thanks to those who participated in my little contest! Little Miss M and I wish you a most delightful day!
Yah…I’m pathetic. I’m holding on to every last drop of our recent vacation to Hawaii. Several people told me before we left on our trip that the happiest day of our pathetic existence would be when we stepped off the plane into Hawaii and the saddest day would be when we were stepping back on the plane to go home. At the time, I just took that to mean that we’d probably have a good time. Now I know.
My favorite is Ka Uluwehi O Ke Kai
Loving White Sandy Beach Of Hawaii
I’m thinking I’ve been vacation/sunshine deprived. 😉
The day before we left on vacation I had a photo session with an adorable one-week-old baby girl. You may remember her mom’s maternity session here.
Baby Paige was awake and alert the whole hour that I was there – unusual for a baby so new! Here are some pictures of the little cutie.
Saying goodbye to this:
and hello to this:
was definitely hard to do, but not nearly as hard as saying goodbye to fun times with friends like these:
I don’t have the words to explain how, but the photographer who snapped the above photo has this amazing ability of bringing out the smiles of his subjects. We weren’t the only ones enjoying his technique, I think the fella in the background was pretty amused as well! I wonder if he gives lessons?
We miss them very much.
Thanks girl, for your generous hospitality. We couldn’t have felt more comfortable, nor had more fun!
If you visit Hawaii, you really must get yourself spruced up one evening and head out to experience yourself a Luau – Kalua Pig, hula dancing, and all kinds of lively, Hawaiian traditions.
Body paint
Spear throwing
Canoe rides
Cute kids
Here they are lifting the kalua pig from the imu, an underground pit of lava rocks where they’ve roasted the unfortunate, yet delicious fellow all day.
Down at the beach, we found some more hula dancing while the fishermen cast their nets (in back, on the left) to pull in the Butter Fish… delicious smothered in macadamian nut sauce.
Wahines (Hawaiian ladies) wear beautiful tropical flowers in their hair, around their necks, and as bracelets on their wrists and ankles. If a wahine is taken she wears the flowers on her left side, and if she is single on her right. However, if you see a lovely lady with flowers on both sides…watch out! Flowers on her left and right sides means that she is taken, but looking for better!
Here we are all decked out in flowers and tribal paint.
Aloha!
We spent a fun filled day at Kailua Beach – voted one of Hawaii’s best, absolutely beautiful, and great for swimming and wind surfing. There’s nothing like vacationing in Hawaii with friends who know their way around the Island – to say that we’re in great hands would be putting it mildly. They certainly do know how to show a good time. Just look at them here, showing each other a good time!
There was plenty to do at Kailua Beach…Some of us built sand castles.
Others rode in the waves on boogie boards.
The sea kayaks were an absolute blast!
And after all that hard play in the hot sun, we’d earned ourselves some refreshing shaved ice. My, oh my…I’ve never had anything like Island Snow, there was vanilla ice cream mixed into my shaved ice which was flavored Kahlua coffee, coconut, and pina colada!
Diamond Head is the name of a volcanic tuff cone on the Hawaiian Island of O’ahu, Hawaiians call it Lēʻahi. Its English name was given by British sailors in the 19th century, who mistook calcite crystals embedded in the rock for diamonds. This is what it looks like from the parking lot: 
and this is what it looked like three days later, from seat 38A on a 767 jet, through the tear in my eye…I wasn’t ready to leave!
We climbed up paths,
through tunnels,
and up spiral staircases:
to spots that gave us views like this:
Here we see the cities of Waikiki and Honolulu:
Let me just tell you…coming down those 271 steps was much easier than going up!
Candid Reflections 
