Around Here

 

Around here, my cutting garden continues to be a source of utter delight. Not only does it provide beautiful flowers for my kitchen table, it has become a source of food for the neighborhood butterflies. Attracting butterflies was one of my goals when I first started planning this garden so I was am overjoyed to find that the Painted Ladies are now gracing my humble little garden lately.  And speaking of garden joy…

Around here, I am positively giddy to have hummingbirds! Finally! I’ve been trying to attract these delightful little creatures for a few years now – I’d have a brief sighting here or there, but nothing regular. My hope was that my colorful garden flowers would help and finally I think I’ve got some regular visitors. About a week ago I spotted a hummer buzzing around my zinnias, right near where I had hung my feeder, but he would just fly up to it then fly off. So I went out to check on it and it was covered in ants. When I asked my mom about it, she said they don’t like ants and they don’t like wasps. She suggested that I bring my feeder it, clean it really good, and re-hang it. So I did all of that and within a few hours my little friend was happily drinking from the feeder!

Around here, I spend a ridiculous amount of time at my kitchen window watching the hummingbird feeder. Tripp likes to remind me that ‘a watched feeder never hums.’ Or something like that.

Around here, I have been SUPER productive this weekend. <<insert sarcasm here

Around here, we are eating watermelon and cantaloupe like there is no tomorrow.

Around here, I have been busy putting the finishing touches on a new Lightroom class for Big Picture Classes. This class will dig deeper into Lightroom’s Develop module and include some of my favorite editing techniques. It should come out in September sometime and I am really excited to share it with you!

Warning!! Shameless self-promotion alert!! You can enjoy a FREE, two-week trial to Big Picture Classes with unlimited access to their entire library of classes which includes my two classes – Fundamentals of Exposures for Beginners and Lightroom for Memory Keepers. 

Around here, I am feeling extremely grateful for all of my creative pursuits and for the happiness they bring to my life.

Around here, I have been listening to Podcasts at work. It’s a pretty eclectic mix, but they all share creativity as a common thread. A couple of insights of particular interest to me were 1) the importance of hospitality and the physical act of gathering loved ones together…whether that is a planned dinner party or pizza on paper plates and 2) letting others in on the actual process of creating whatever it is you love to create…sort of what goes on behind the scenes or the work in progress. These are both topics that I hope to explore more in both my online and analog life.

Around here, I am enjoying my favorite part of summer. I am feeling really happy and alive and connected and content. For this I give a lot of credit to my evening walks – for the mental and physical space in my day. And butterflies and hummingbirds…

Around here, this is the time of year when I typically take a little break from my blog. It’s a time to savor all of the late summer goodness. It’s also become a time for me to unplug and recharge (it’s funny to me how that works).

Around here, I hope you know how incredibly grateful I am to you, for allowing me to come into your life and share these little bits of mine. Wishing you all a beautiful August!

Love, Kelly