Snap Happy

This post could also be called: “My Life as A Self Conscious, Amateur Photographer in A World Where Everyone and Their Mom Thinks They Are A Photographer”  [A clunky “working title” for my memoirs, obviously]

I’ve had the opportunity to pull out the ol’ dslr quite a few times in the last couple weeks. Not that I ever needed an excuse to have a camera on me, considering I currently live in the oh-so picturesque Alaska, but it’s amazing how easy it is to somewhat lazily settle for just an iPhone photo. I love setting aside the phone and intentially pulling out my camera to practice! I get a little sheepish and self conscious about photography, always using the excuse, “Well, i just need better equipment, and then maybe I’ll give it a try,” but I figure everybody (including amazing pro photogs) has to start somewhere. I am at the point where I take about 2,000 photos, and only about three or four of them really turn out how I would like them, but hey! Art is therapeutic, no matter how proficient you are at a particular medium. Photography is a hobby for now, but I’ll be darned if it’s not a fun hobby and challenging craft to hone. Lucky for me, there have been a few beautiful people willing to let me use their pretty faces for practice.

I have the privilege to hang out with these two little blondies on a regular basis, but here are a few snaps from one chilly afternoon in particular. (Photographing a three-year old and his crawling kid brother is not for the faint of heart! Constant movement. Constant “I don’t want my picture!” …Constant cuteness…)

I also had the pleasure of being the proverbial fly on the wall in this sweet little family’s home, quite recently after they welcomed Baby Kinley! There’s nothing more likely to give a person a bit of “baby fever” than photographing a tiny human under one month old in age. Talk about precious.

I used my newborn-centric comedic skills to coax out this shy smile 🙂

Bits & Pieces

Alaska in autumn, according to my camera 🙂

I’ve been struck by the incredible urge to celebrate all things “autumn.” Today marks the first day of the best month of the year. October, oh birthday month— bringer of all things colorful, crisp & chilly, sweaters, and cinnamon spice etc.— how I love thee. I also love ANY excuse to wear/decorate with the color mustard yellow! I wish I had something more thought provoking to share, but instead I leave you with a few snaps of our cozy little domicile. I’ve been feeling mighty crafty as I prepare to nestle in for the coming winter. (<– yikes!) I am particularly fond of my old tea cup shelf turned spice rack. Hoorah for a bit of spraypaint and determination. Happy October!

The little cherub I nanny, getting his fill of pumpkins 🙂

Mountains & Marriage, Etc.

My, it has been awhile; so long since I last blogged that unbeknownst to me, WordPress has changed its editing site interface! Well, shoot. Let’s catch up.

This past weekend marked a major milestone for Mr. Husband and myself: one year of wedded “bliss.” I place bliss in quotation marks because let’s face it…the first year of marriage is hard. Don’t get me wrong; I would not have changed a thing about the last 365 days (including the person with whom I spent most of them). It simply needs to be said that we faced our share of bumps and hurdles along the way, and when you are jumping those hurdles with a spouse you are still getting to know–who might have different philosophies on hurdle-jumping than yourself– hilarity, misadventure, arguments may ensue. What amazes me is that somehow we have come out stronger because of them. We’re still friends. We still like each other–love each other.

Even just now my eyes got wide as I reflected on some of the things we packed into our first year: Three moves to three different states; hotel living for months at a time; no car, navigating the bus system in unfamiliar cities; buying a car (bussing did not last long); driving across the entire Southwest; living on a single income; putting 3,000+ miles’ distance between us and most of our friends and family; navigating the highs & lows of military living…

The list could go on…and it probably will as we continue into year two. They may have been small hurdles in comparison to others’ health concerns and financial crisis, but we jumped them together all the same, however awkwardly. I’ve heard it said that the first year of marriage is usually the most difficult. I’m not sure if that’s true since I don’t have any other years to compare with as of yet, but I feel that we have accomplished something nevertheless!

Flattop Summit| Anchorage, AK

This past Sunday we hiked/climbed Flattop here in Anchorage with some friends. Flattop is about 3,500 ft high, but you start at at a trailhead that is about a 1,300 feet hike/climb to the summit. (So don’t be TOO impressed with us)

Call me cheesy and unoriginal, but I can’t help but liken the first year of marriage to climbing Flattop: exciting, challenging, exhausting, rewarding. There are spots that are more difficult & steep and areas where things level off, affording you a bit of a breather. The last leg to the summit of Flattop is pretty much all rock scrambling with not much of a clear cut path (much like real life), but when you reach the top, the views are INCREDIBLE, and all the huffing and puffing  effort is worth it!

Just as I was excited to reach the peak of Flattop, I am thrilled to see what the NEXT year of marriage brings. Oddly enough, the scariest part of climbing Flattop was the initial few steps of the descent…which felt somewhat like blindly stepping off a ledge! Continuing into year two of marriage is a similar sensation…unknown and exhilerating–less taxing than going up the mountain, but just as tricky and full of potentially slippery rocks and uneven terrain. I guess that’s why they call life an adventure, right? I ran out of steam on the mountain–marriage metaphor. It was a lot deeper and more profound in my mind. 😉

Before I leave you, here are a few pictures of what else I’ve been doing (when we’re not climbing mountains!)

I nanny these two baby bears part-time 🙂 They keep me pretty busy.

We experienced the Alaska State Fair for the first time…and while the fair itself is smaller than the MN State Fair (my home state), the gigantic pumpkins did not disappoint.

I launched my Etsy shop this week! Check me out at: http://www.etsy.com/shop/ArtfulHopeful

Seth’s Birthday Weekend

Because I’m a lazy blogger I’m going to lump the entire week into one post, rather than splitting events into individual, easier to read, and nicely packaged posts. So sit back or get out of here now; you’re in for a long haul.

Let me start by saying a hearty “THANK YOU” to everyone who read and/or shared some kind words about my last entry. I am happy to say that my awkward, two-week job experience is now water under the bridge. Moving onward and upward!

This last week ended up being just what I needed in spite of a shaky start. While it’s true that I am no longer employed, I was able to catch up on sleep and mostly beat the monster that is Jet Lag, get back into the swing of things here in Alaska, and reaquaint myself with my dear husband–from whom I had spent a whole ten days apart! (I honestly can’t figure out the grammar in that last sentence; please bear with me if that was incredibly messy.)

Speaking of my husband, allow me to artfully segue into the main event of this entry. Seth turned a whopping twenty-six years old yesterday, and naturally we celebrated all weekend into Monday. The party kicked off on Friday when we received part of Seth’s “birthday present” in the mail: a set of Wüsthof Classic knives. (I will be honest in saying that this was equally a present to myself as well.) I’m not going to get into the whole song and dance here but suffice it to say that they’re nice and shiny and sharp. Two of Seth’s fingers will attest to the latter.

We left the knives at home, grabbed a backpack and our water bottles and took a drive north to Lake Eklutna and the surrounding scenery for a little Friday night hike. I will let a few pictures do most of the talking.

From Lake Eklutna, we took the Twin Peaks trail, which had been recommended to us for its incredible bird’s eye view of the lake and surrounding mountains. We (mostly I) may not have been prepared for just how “difficult” of a hike the trail would prove to be. We took a look at the map, saw the trail’s difficulty rating, a mear 2.5 mileage to the top, and said, “no sweat!” Keep in mind I had just been on a two week vacation to MN during which I did not run or exercise in the slightest. I mostly just ate a lot…so clearly I was ready to jump right in to an approx. 6 mile total, 1,500 ft. elevation gain hike! (sarcasm)

Seemingly flat–but I tell you, around every corner there was a (then insurmountable) incline… !

About midway up to the trail’s end, I was huffing and puffing, had two blisters coming on strong, and Seth had run out of water…so you do the math on how we were feeling. Luckily, the following vistas somehow magically spurred us on to the end, despite a lot of complaining and whining from yours truly.

We made it to the end of the trailhead sweaty, tired, yet accomplished. Fortunately for us, the way down was considerably easier once we got past the more steep areas. Of course it started raining as we made our descent. In fact, we drove out of the park and back to our apartment in a rare example of an Alaskan thunderstorm. The day may have ended with a bit of hydroplaning and carsickness, but never fear…birthday celebration continued on through the weekend. There just aren’t any pictures documenting Saturday and Sunday, because let’s face it: photos of us sitting around, eating donuts and watching hours of Netflix are not that visually stimulating. 😉

When Monday rolled around (the day of Seth’s actual birthay), I spent the morning decorating for our two-person birthday party later that afternoon. The decorating was probably just as much for me as it was for Seth. What can I say? I love making things pretty. Seth of course had to work…the danger of having a birthday on a Monday.

Because I am terrible at planning things—particularly surprises, my big contribution to the day was Seth’s favorite chocolate cake…which thankfully raised and set properly! Pins and needles there.

new beer glasses for the birthday boy!

We spent the evening opening presents, making homemade marinara and pizza (a colossal fail, unfortunately), sipping bellinis, watching the film Le Samurai, and listening to a few new records.  Minus the pizza, it was the perfect night. 🙂 Happy birthday, Seth!

Life’s Lemons

Hello. I have been away.

I got hired for a job, worked two weeks in a chaotic environment because the office manager was out and no one was there to train me, jetted off to MN for a previously planned vacation to see family and friends, only to get off a flight at 2:30 a.m., wake up three hours later, go back to this new job, and find out that I was “not a good fit.” Zero feedback. There is nothing more disheartening than hearing in so many words that you are apparently not qualified to answer phones and smile at people…or not worth a company’s time to train in properly.

I am not really sure how to even talk about this, because I have never been let go before; but obviously this is all very embarrassing and frustrating, which are often two adjectives I find myself writing about in this blog. And somehow this is easier than phoning up everyone I know and saying, “Hey, remember that  job I just excitedly told you about? Well, I spoke too soon…”

Sometimes life gives you lemons. Sometimes you find yourself recently fired, running on 3 hours of sleep—a result from the long night of travel before—without a ride because your husband (God bless him) has the car that day, wandering around a Bed, Bath, & Beyond trying to kill time and not weep unconsolably everytime a salesperson asks you, “are you doing all right over here?”

No, I am not. Do my bloodshot eyes give it away? But because I am Minnesotan and we bottle things up to be polite: “Yes, I’m fine,” as I pretend to be interested in looking at napkin holders.

Well, the point of this sad tale is that I am trying to make the proverbial lemonade out of this situation. When normally I would pass cliches like this by, these self-motivational wall signs caught my eye at B. B. & B.

I met a guy who was also Alaska-bound at the airport the other day who asked me what I did for a living, and I told him where I worked (or thought I still worked), but mentioned that I was an artist by night and therein lied my true interest. He perked up at “artist” and asked me if I would do more art if I didn’t have the day job and why didn’t I just try to make a go of my art career rather than working a 9-5 I wasn’t passionate about? Food for thought.

Perhaps this is all serendipity. I will keep you posted on the “lemonade” that hopefully results.

 

Neither Here Nor There

Sometimes I don’t really do anything interesting with my week but still like to share photos. The following will be an example of such a time. I need to find beauty in the mundane, because occasionally I have to make my own excitement when life seems tedious and “the same.” That last sentance was not meant to rhyme, but we’ll go with it.

I’m in this weird phase where I either really want to have a baby or buy a puppy, but since we’re too poor to have a kid/really don’t want to give up every spare minute of our lives just yet, and our landlord does not allow pets, my husband bought me a houseplant. Next best thing, right?! I’m calling it a trial run as far as “nurturing” goes. So far I have proceeded to over water it, but despite my fears that I may have already killed it by the first day, it seems to be thriving…or at least still green. Thankfully, I’m told that jade is a relatively easy plant to care for, but the experts don’t know just how green my thumb is NOT. I thought about giving the plant a name, but I just don’t get it when people name inanimate objects. I never have. More power to you if you like to refer to your toaster as “Larry.”

Anyway, the point of all this is to say that I am fulfilling some sort of bioligical urge to be a mother by taking care of a plant. Is that weird? So far all I have really done with it is occasionally call it pretty and otherwise neglect it. I hope that’s not reflective of my future parenting.

Currently, I am sipping iced coffee and eating a donut from Anchorage’s own Golden Donuts—a 24-hr, drive thru donut shop within one mile of our apartment. I mean, come on…no matter what else is going on in my life, I consider myself extremely blessed because A) a 24-hr, drive thru donut shop exists and B) it is within walking distance from my home. Hello. I woke up at 6:30 a.m. this morning in order to go get donuts with Seth before he took the car to work, so I feel like my priorities are definitely in order. I could have gone for a run, but as I said…priorities.

Adding to my coffee/donut bliss this morning is the ambient sound coming from our other new addition to the family: the Audio Technica AT-LP 120.

I have wanted a turn table/record player of my own for awhile now—possibly ever since my childhood, during which I spent many hours passionately dancing “ballet” with my sisters to my dad’s old, classical records.

Well, the dream has now been realized; whether it stemmed from childhood nostalgia or the need to jump on the ” everybody’s doing it” bandwagon, I’m not sure. Seth got everything all hooked up to our speakers last night, and now we just sit and listen to Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue” and say pretentious things to each other: “why did we even bother listening to music before owning our record player?” and “MP3’s…what a joke. Remember CD’s?!”

the small start to a one day glorious vinyl collection

We are really thrilled, and want to invite everyone we know over to talk about things like sound quality and MP3 conversion software…or whatever. I’m an audiophile in training. 😉

Other than oo-ing and ah-ing over the new record player, I have been continuing to spruce up our living space. I am pleased as punch to finally have the matching loveseat to our couch. It really cozies up the room, I think!

 

Sorry the coffee table’s a mess; it’s a bit of a catch-all these days!

favourite little corner right now 🙂

What’s everyone else up to this weekend? We’re doing a bit of socializing and then attacking this stack of library movie rentals.

Cheers til next time,

Onrush of Scenery

“I felt my lungs inflate with the onrush of scenery—air, mountains, trees, people. I thought, ‘This is what it is to be happy.’” ― Sylvia Plath, The Bell Jar

Yesterday we laced up our hiking boots and headed to the Upper O’Malley Trailhead in Chugach State Park for our first hike here in Anchorage (aside from the nature walk we went on through Kincaid Park…haha). It was muddy to the point of almost losing a shoe due to misplaced steps, but the views were worth it! I’ll just let the pictures speak for themselves, but I’m coming to the conclusion that I like Alaska quite a bit. Also, the fact that we basically live next door to REI could become a financial problem.

bear spray at the ready after spotting several bear paw prints along the trail… thankfully, no encounters 🙂

Mom’s Day

With Mother’s Day approaching, I’ve got a few things on my mind: parenting, kids, mom, the ridiculous shipping costs here in Alaska, dinner, money, donuts, coffee—just to name a few. Not all of those things have anything specifically to do with Mother’s Day, but I thought I would be candid with my thoughts.

I’ve been watching the show Parenthood somewhat religiously, and by that I mean that’s all I have done this last week because, you know, Netflix, introvertism, and unemployment are natural companions it seems. I mean, who works on job applications when hours of television can be streamed constantly with no break?  …

Annnnyyywaaayy. If you’re familiar with the show you know that it is basically a series of ups and downs between a list of characters and their character children. Pretty basic sit-com/dramedy situation, and yet even as a somewhat cynical twenty-something with no kids, each episode somehow manages to tug at my heart strings and make me laugh-cry. It’s possible that the reason the show resonates so much with me is that I have finally grown up to the point where I really appreciate my parents. If my teenager self could see me now.

Now that I’m married and experiencing this weird pressure to start a family and be a supermom and pin handmade baby outfits and throw unecessarily over the top birthday parties for a child who will not remember them or appreicate how much money or DIY crafting went into the planning, I find myself really tipping my hat to the people who raised me—particularly, my mom. Parenting just seems…hard. It is a really daunting thought, being responsible for a tiny human being who depends on you completely. I can barely manage to make myself coffee in the morning, and it’s a pretty great day when I manage to eat a balanced breakfast or even three square meals. So it’s more than apparent that I am nowhere ready for a kid, but I do find myself thinking about how my mom managed all these years. I liked to think of myself as the perfect child, but I will admit I maybe was not entirely as shining and without reproach as I made myself out to be.

There were more than a few times growing up when I called my mom a crazy person because at the time I did not realize just how difficult it might be to not kill or totally screw up a child when you’re just trying your best and don’t have everything figured out yourself yet.

So here’s to you, Mom. You don’t believe in the internet, so you might never see this, but I just wanted to say that I appreciate you. You did a pretty good job raising me; I’ve been told that I’ve turned out okay, and a lot of that is probably to your credit. Happy Mother’s Day early.

 

 

[photo taken by Ann Oettel Photography]

| Let Us Go Back | 9.1.13

All this talk of anniversaries has me nostalgic and realizing I never posted more of my wedding photos on this blog. (If you follow me on facebook, then these are old news.)

Without further adieu, I will now barrage you with snapshots of our September wedding. Hopefully these successfully paint the scene of how lovely our day was! It really is hard to only share so few–our photographer Ann of Ann Oettel Photography did such a wonderful job!

Details

Floral behind the scenes

Donuts from A Baker’s Wife Pastry Shop in South Minneapolis…red, white, and blue for Seth’s military career

my late grandmother’s beautiful heirloom, diamond pin | something old & borrowed

Wisconsin’s finest!

 

Faces

cheesin’

sister with her new brother!

my beautiful momma

the photographer walked in on my jubilant father…thankfully, this was the scene she captured.

Uncle Mick!

If this does not scream vogue…

 

 

 

Bride & Groom

Ceremony

 

Celebration

 

 

Cheers til next time!

| One Year Later|

[also: “That Time We Went ‘Hiking'”]

This weekend was quietly monumentous for us.

“just married”

On April 25th of last year, Seth and I had a brief, legal ceremony that officially launched us into “married” status…according to the U.S. governement. Without a lot of fanfare, we met Seth’s youth pastor at an office building kind of in the middle of nowhere suburbia, and he signed a document pronouncing us man and wife…and then I think we went out for BBQ or something dumb like that….

Before anyone gets offended that they weren’t told about this little bit of sneakiness, the whole thing was done as a practicality which would expedite the paperwork process involved with Seth adding me as a spouse and getting us military housing after our official “wedding”  & celebration that following September. So for a few months I was secretly married…and that was really fun and weird, and I think I ended up telling a lot of people because apparently I am terrible at keeping secrets.

Me grinning like an idiot; Seth saying, “I do.”

Anyway, the point of this story is that this last Friday was our “legal-versary”—officially, legally one year of marriage! I celebrated by not showering, sitting around in sweatpants, and doing basically nothing to commemorate the day. Seth celebrated by surprising me with a card, gift, and an arrangement of flowers that he picked out himself from a local florist.

10,000 husband points to Seth….and admittedly a demerit to his wife…she might be the worst.

In fact, the whole point of this post is for me to take a second to publicly praise/probably embarrass my husband…because I just think he’s tops, and I don’t care who knows it. We’ve had a bizarre first year of marriage filled with months a part, military obligations, and moves to three different states within a span of six months….but even amdist a lot of that chaos, he still manages to remember important dates, surprise me with flowers, and overlook my many flaws.

Happy “one year of officially being able to mark ‘married’ on our tax form,” Babe! Love you the most.

In keeping with flower pictures but switching gears slightly, here is a slew of pictures of trees from our nature walk with friends through Kincaid Park yesterday. I am very excited to go hiking again when things are a bit more green and alive.  Hope you all had as lovely of a weekend as we did.

“elephant graveyard”

a mess of moss and dead sticks

A cloudy day is not best when trying to capture how pretty Cook Inlet is…but if you squint a bit you can imagine how how majestic that far mountain might look with full sun and a zoom lens.