A Calling

I do not have one that I can discern. Should I be worried?

Or does my calling to motherhood count?

I often feel like I'm spinning my wheels. There's no accomplishment in the daily grind, although it's certainly pleasing to see my girls grow.

Am I called to a writer life of some sort? Or general communications? What story am I called to tell? Or can I tell any story as I hustle for work? (Which I really haven't done in so long ... am I rusty?)

Am I too controlling? Want to be in charge or not do anything at all? Or too small? Not wanting to be responsible for anything other than tasks given me?

Pre-mid-life crisis I guess. Not really a crisis of course. Just thinking...

Trader Joe's flowers for Jane's birthday;

Birthday Flowers

Our church does a thing where people can put flowers on the altar in memory or honor of someone. When I realized Jane's birthday would be a Sunday this year I signed up for that week. Later we got the invite for my cousin's wedding on the same weekend, but I kept the slot.

Happy Birthday Flowers

I ordered flowers from the recommended florist because they have a key to the sanctuary and can deliver without someone be there. Ca-ching.

I hope the florist kicks back to the church or.makes an annual donation or something because damn. I spent more on the flowers than all her other gifts combined. And flowers die!

I only gave the instruction to "use pink," and pink they are. I still don't have a receipt because the florist has no website or email ability and didn't want to spend the 49 (?) cents to mail it to me. The florist said she would drop it at my house if she happened to be in the neighborhood. LOL. More top notch customer service. Good grief.

The flowers were gorgeous, and I was able to borrow a key to pick them up on Sunday afternoon so Jane could have them on her birthday. A good thing too since some were already wilting by Monday.

I don't think I will be signing up for another slot, although if I do I would buy Trader Joe's flowers and "deliver" them myself. Seems reminiscent of my Indiahoma-style wedding when we diy'ed the flowers!

Spring Flowers: Scenes from Our Yard

December Snaps

Camellias outside my kitchen window

Holly tree in the neighbors' back yard

Preschooler and her tree (presents were already packed for our trip)

Other Back Yard Scenes

We've been playing outside as much as we can before the heat of the summer sets in. Here are a couple of the flowers that are blooming now. That's the kind of plant I like -- no effort and very pretty. Anyway, we also had a scare when Jane got bit by something -- probably a caterpillar sting. It made a big welt and some swelling on the inside of her right foot. About 5 hours after the sting she cried when I put her down and wouldn't walk on it. I called the pediatrician, who said to ice it, put a paste of baking soda and water, and take Advil. It's still a little sore and pink, but overall she is back to normal. Stressful, especially because it happened while Shawn was out of town. Good grief.

Louisiana Springtime

These few pictures of flowers don't do justice to the beauty I've seen in Baton Rouge these last couple weeks. After several rain storms the flowers have fallen off most of the plants, but a few hang on in gorgeous resolve. I like to point them out while we're driving and say "gorgeous flowers" to hear Jane repeat after me. Sometimes a mimicking toddler is a very nice thing to have around.

Purple Flowers | Purple Weeds

These pretty flowers grew in a random pot in our back yard with other weeds. I don't know what they are called or why they grew, but I like them.

Little purple flowers that are DEFINITELY weeds grow in OK and TX, but I haven't seen them here in Baton Rouge. I remember liking to pick them as a kid and pretend they were wild flowers. (They are not.)

Azaleas in Bloom

Totally weird, two months after all the other azaleas bloomed around town and our bushes in front are covered in blossoms. What the what?

I didn't take pictures at the height of the blossoms, mostly because they aren't visible from outside -- because of a green bush that's in front of the azaleas -- and also because pictures through the window are a little iffy (see zoomed in shot at left for what I mean). They're pretty though.

I need to trim the tops of the bush -- they're sticking up all spiky looking. I'm not a good gardener...

Azaleas

The azaleas are blooming in Baton Rouge, and they have been for at least a month. I think they hit peak blooming last weekend.

One thing I really regret that we did at our house when we first moved in was cut down three big azalea bushes in the back yard. I didn't know what azalea meant, or how beautiful they were, and I was pregnant, emotional and my house was full of guests. I wasn't thinking straight.

We have a small bush in our front yard next to our front window. It doesn't bloom much, although there are probably 10 blossoms now. Nothing like the lush displays I see when driving down Highland or in the Garden District.

You live and learn I guess. Wait at least one full year before doing any major landscaping if you can help it.

Pictures of Azaleas at church -- about a week after peak bloom but still pretty.

Sun Soaked Saturday in Central Park

On Bow Bridge in Central Park. Photo by Chris (or Jennie?). Cropped to remove a random girl on the right.

I took other pictures of some flowers and random letters for my ABC projects. I stupidly didn't take a single picture of our guests, although I probably shouldn't post other people on my blog anyway.

They did take a photo of us in the ocean life room at the museum that I'll have to get from them to post -- their camera is a newer version of mine with a more powerful flash. My camera just turned out a lighted Shawn in a dark background instead of showing the big blue whale.


Pink flowers near my library (took this photo last week during some rain -- love the water droplets)


Purple flowers on top of Bow Bridge


Hearts and arrows flowers (or something) near the Central Park Zoo (Penguins of Madagascar!)

Purple Flowers Beneath Our Apartment

These flowers are in the window box of the little restaurant/cafe thing underneath our apartment - on the way toward Shawn's office. Purple is everywhere! Loverly.

End for today. ~M.

bought myself some flowers

The party of freshmen continues. Today there has been a live band, a block (or more) shut down to traffic and some sort of food fest, only for kids in purple NYU shirts proclaiming their newness. But anyway. It's made for a non-concentration day at work, although I'm doing my best and the AC does drown out some of the street noise.

For some time now I've been looking for Gerber daisies that are purple - a dark, deep plummy purple. I have a feeling I saw them on a Katie Brown show, back when she was on Lifetime. She made some sort of wall of vases using test tubes or tiny beakers of some sort. Anyway, she put Gerber daisies in the vases and I fell in love. Maybe I'm remembering wrong, but I see purple versions in FAKE flowers often. So I thought surely I could find some in real flowers.

This weekend I passed a bodega that had something that was pretty much what I'd been looking for - but I was down to $4 cash and they were $5. So I walked along. Later this week I saw this bouquet/bunch of flowers in another bodega and had some cash on me, so I got them, again $5 including tax, etc.

They're not quite as purple as I would hope. They look more purple in the darkness/shadow. But the pictures I took w/o the flash aren't so clear. And with the purple (faux) hydrangea in the back from my bridal shower decorations by Beth, they really don't look so purple and are coming across more as blue even in person. But I'll continue my quest for solid purple Gerber daisies (these are only poms).

Other items in the shot: the silver salt & pepper shakers from Shawn's mom, the cast iron trivet from my friend Kim and the bamboo Lazy Susan from my sister. The vase is one Shawn bought at Thanksgiving when I said we needed flowers to make the meal - and how purple is that water? It's the most purple thing about the bouquet! And I've even changed it, but the dye keeps leaking out. Sparkle and fade.

One more good buy - this cute as a button coin purse from Pearl River:



How perfect? And the g in swing is slightly off register/out of line. It's made from a plastic almost tarp-like material, so definitely durable in the bottomless pit that is my handbag.

Ta for now. ~m.

More Lovely Flowers

Lovely flowers.

So the purple project is more than just posting random pictures of flowers (although I will admit that's fun for me).

I'm going to document the purple around me - and I've got to start with all my purple possessions, of which there are MANY! Everything from my keys to my dryer lint (which I don't intend to photograph) has some purple connotation. This is a project I'm under taking for me - to be more aware of my surroundings and document the loveliness that is this royal hue.

~Mari.

The Purple Project

mari loves purple, and now my blog is showing it!

yes, we all know this. purple is my color, and i'm constantly on the lookout for purple things.

i'm noticing now that many fall clothing and accessory collections are including purple punches, which i adore!

there are several purple blogs out there and there are also many shopping blogs. there's also the purple store, which collects purple things you can buy.

i'm going to start collecting images of purple items for sale that i love as well as purple things i see in my day-to-day life (purple is everywhere, i promise). i've also started a purple things album on flickr. i hope to expand this project, but for now this is a start...

~mari.

Purple Flowers

I'm lucky enough to live in the city - as in En-Why-Cee. And my husband works for NYU, a university whose main color is ... you guessed it ... purple. So there are a lot of purple flags, purple-clad students, etc. running around our apartment building.

I have also found that purple flowers are a main ingredient to the campus branding and even bleeds over into the city-maintained Washington Square Park. So while these photos aren't purple things you can buy, you can enjoy them... for the low, low price of a trip to NYC. Or find purple flowers in your own neighborhood.

flowers, a crocheted teddy bear

A teddy bear I crocheted with some yarn given to me by Christopher, Shawn's second cousin. Some flowers I bought myself (I had a dinner guest - my cousin Lisa!) in a vase that was a Christmas gift from Beemer. And you can see the ring on the flowers, just for fun.

~M.