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the big orange house
Summerside, PE
902-439-4562

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i have good intentions...really...i do...

September 7, 2017 Arlene Giddings

i love to read.
when i was a kid
i would read ANYTHING and literally EVERYTHING
i could get my hands on.

my summers were spent
upside down on the armchair
in our living room
eating apples and reading a book...
laying out in my pink panther
bathing suit on the roof of our porch,
slathered in baby oil listening to billy idol,
yelling at my brothers
and reading a book...
in a little grove of trees
in the field behind our house
eating wild strawberries
while hiding from my brothers
and reading a book...

my parents bought a set of encyclopedias
that came with a set of 10 books for kids...
i read them all.
repeatedly.
even the ones i hated.
i read my mother's borrowed copy of
vc andrews my sweet audrina
when i was about 10...probably too young to be reading about rape...
always careful to put the book back
exactly
where it was so i wouldn't get caught...
i read and re-read the same books hundreds of times...
and one summer
i even went through the good news bible
they gave us one year in the religion classes i detested
being forced to go to
looking for the parables.

i used to make my brothers walk 45 minutes
both ways
so i could go to the bookmobile.
they still say what a great babysitter i was.
:)

i loved books. 
and i always had every intention of returning them...on time...
but
i just never could.

it started with the miscouche school library & progressed
to the TOSH high school library...where the librarian
once saw me come in and shouted
(shouted! in a LIBRARY no less!  shouted!)
"YOU!  OUT!"
and sadly, it progressed to the bookmobile,
the town library...the library in the city 45 minutes away...
so i gave up on borrowing books.
i just wasn't good at it.

but that was before e-books!  and apps! 
and being able to return a book with just the push of a button on my phone!
AND (wonder of all wonders)
they gave me a new library card and a fresh blank slate.
and have you seen this library?
oh my 10 year old heart nearly cried
when i saw the new library
(i didn't stop and look around the night they gave me my card though...
i was scared someone would realize who i was and
shout YOU!  OUT! again)

but look at this place...

and this space age thing...
LETS YOU CHECK OUT BOOKS
without
HAVING TO TALK TO ANYONE.
and...sometimes...that works for me...
nothing against the lovely librarians
(especially after they gave me a shiny new library card)
but sometimes...i'm just not good with
"people-ing"
heh.

oh.  and just for the record,
i have already returned physical books
ON TIME
(well...they were only on time because
i was able to extend the borrowing period
by pushing a button on my phone
but that's a minor detail)

look how proud i am
(OR look at what a geek/loser i am
taking a selfie of myself
returning my books...you decide...
just don't tell me which one you went with).

In 2017, grateful, she's so weird Tags summerside, summerside library, avid reader, she's weird, books, all the books, library card
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48 years...

August 30, 2017 Arlene Giddings

48 years ago today
my parents
walked down the aisle
and
everything that followed
has forever
shaped my life.

when i was kid
i thought
i wanted
to live in new york
to go to all the parties and concerts and be a rock star (or an astronaut)...
to drive a purple fiaro
and follow billy idol
around the world...

i know now
that what i really
always wanted
is a marriage
just like my parents.

they fit together.

she tones down his crazy
finger snapping whistling antsy kind of ways
in a way no one else can.
and he makes her laugh
at least 5 times a day...
usually without even trying to.

they taught me so many things...
without ever saying
"here are the things that you need to learn about love...pay attention"

  • don't ever, ever call each other names in anger.  no matter what. ever.
  • listen to each other's stories...yeah...maybe you don't know what the other person is talking about when they explaining a timing belt or venting about cranky customers but still...listen.
  • things always look better in the morning.
  • money is not the important thing. 
  • if someone judges you on your clothes or your car or your house, you don't want to be friends with them anyway. 
  • laugh.  in my family, teasing and sarcasm mean hey...we like you.  telling embarrassing funny stories about you...repeatedly...well...we obviously LOVE you.  it's how we show affection.
  • be proud of who you are.  be interesting.  be kind.  be resourceful.  be creative.  be original.  be you.

happy 48 years, mom and dad....
you make it look easy.
♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥
 

In 2017, grateful, we are family Tags mom and dad, married life, life goals, these two, cutest couple ever
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the worst thing about a great weekend

February 19, 2017 Arlene Giddings

is that you hate to see it come to an end.

yesterday i played around with
the watercolor paints a little bit more
and then we went to visit family and
i got to hold the sweetest teeniest tiniest baby!
i wish i had thought to take a photo
but i was just so absorbed in that sweet-brand-new-baby-smell...
:)

DISCLAIMER:  i am certain that this was not my idea and feel like it was inspired by a photo i had seen on Pinterest, however, I couldn't find it.  If i can find it, i will link to it here...

today has been all about sleeping in
and catching up on tutorials online,
a little of this, a little of that...
trying to make myself do laundry...
but damn it, i just don't wanna.

OH!  and adding my new smurf members to the family!
a sweet friend showed up on the doorstep of the
big old orange house yesterday
with more smurfs...including a papa smurf that
I DID NOT HAVE!
and red from the fraggles...driving a radish, i think!
soooo excited!!!
thank you Elise!!!!

In 2017, grateful, it's a smurfy world, she's so weird, whatcha doin', we are family Tags smurfs, papa smurf, fraggles, red, watercolors, messing around, weekends, go away monday
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it's the most wonderful time of the year...

December 25, 2016 Arlene Giddings

today could not have been
a better day...
picked up my girl in moncton yesterday
and took her home...
Christmas Eve with carols and
melted popsicles in a glass of sprite
(which is sooooo good by the way)...
family and friends and lots of laughter.

the yearly tradition of
singing "total eclipse of the heart"
at the top of our lungs
in the car.

my mother in law's eagle brand squares.

acknowledging that our kids are getting older
and christmas traditions
will shift a little
but that's ok...we just have to
adapt and overcome...
so this morning we ate breakfast
BEFORE presents
and it was fun to torture them and make them
wait just a little bit longer
to dive into stockings and santa presents...
and yeah...maybe it's not every year
that we have to trek out to the shop
to see where santa left
our girl a living room couch & chair
and a kitchen table and chairs...
and where he left our boy
a transmission
(that's what he wanted...really...weirdest christmas ever)...
but it was so totally worth it.

an hour long nap on the couch.

christmas presents and dinner at my mom and dad's...
an exciting game of minion "pie in the face"...
dart guns and wrestling matches,
tickle fights and so much laughing...
hugs and teasing and telling stories...

coming home to a beautiful wreck of a living room...
tired and full and so content.
pajamas,
after eights,
cold can of diet coke,
my new slippers,
a fuzzy blanket and a movie
for us both to fall asleep to...

today could not have been a better day.

merry merry merry christmas... ♥ ♥ ♥
now bring on 2017!
 

In #geeklife2016, grateful, happy2016, my boy, my girl, the one i love most, we are family Tags family, Christmas, giddings, i love christmas, christmas 2016
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endings & beginnings...

October 23, 2016 Arlene Giddings

yesterday, i shot my very last wedding
for a very long time.

it was a bittersweet day for me.

i remember the first wedding i shot...
i charged 60.00 for it because
i was terrified that i
was going to suck.

i drove to the church probably 6 times
before the big day at different times, in different weather
so that i could gauge the light...
as if i could prepare for that.
i knew nothing about shooting a wedding,
i barely knew anything about weddings.

back then, i didn't even have a camera bag.
i had a backpack...and i kept my one extra lens in a winter hat
inside the backpack for protection.
no external flash.
no extra batteries.
just a wing and prayer and a gut full of passion
and fear....a lot of fear.

that was in 2009.
i have shot roughly 100 weddings since then.
i have cried during the father of the bride speeches
(and most recently a mother of the bride almost brought
me to a sobbing cry as she talked about her little girl
always saying she was going to leave home sometime but never did...
until the day, of course,
that she actually did...
and my girl's move was still very fresh),
i have shot in churches and gardens, on beaches and decks,
in apple orchards, on golf courses, in hot sunshine and in rain...
i have said the phrases -
"just one more...well...i lie when i say just one more...it's always at least 3 more"
"get nice & close, like you like each other"
"one, two, three - JUMP...that was a good practice run...now lets do it again"
"perfect!  that is perfect!"
countless countless COUNTLESS times...

i love when i feel like a relationship has been built between us,
when i don't just feel like the photographer paid to do a job
at the end of the day, but as a friend.
and i especially love the weddings that connect to a past wedding...
the family with 3 sisters that i was lucky enough to
shoot weddings for...and best friends of theirs...
so many times a couple that i shot for will be in the wedding party
of a new wedding...and seeing them there automatically feels less scary.

because yes, even after 100 weddings
it was still as scary as hell.

it is huge responsibility that i take very seriously...
to capture that once in a lifetime day for a couple.
that's worth a stomach full of butterflies &
checking & double checking that batteries are charged
and the bag is packed and ready to go.

but now...i know that i need a break.
i am sad to let go of this part of my life
but i am also very excited to see what comes next.

a huge thanks again to everyone
that has taken a chance on me
over the years...i can't tell you
what that has meant to me.
i do have a wedding booked for 2020
so it's not goodbye forever...
just a "so long for now".
♥ ♥ ♥

(& you'll still see me posting on the FB page for the next couple of months
as i catch up on my editing!!)
 

In #geeklife2016, grateful, i take pictures, words, 2016 Tags weddings, taking a break, letting go, who am i if i'm not shooting weddings?
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