hello february!

February 4, 2017 Arlene Giddings

i have not been here on the blog for awhile.
i know i said i was going to be
but january was a mix of finishing up weddings
and tearing my kitchen apart to reorganize
AND getting completely lost in
snuggling on the couch with that guy i love
fuzzy pjs with blankets & diet coke & popcorn
watching true detective and the 100...
soooo good.
and so gawd damn addictive....
(both the shows and the snuggling)
heeheehee

so, to celebrate finishing and delivering the LAST of my weddings
for 2016:) :) :) :)
i decided to completely reorganize my little "corner".
SIDENOTE: one of the things i love about S. is that he does not care
at all
when i take over a quarter of the living room
to house my pencil crayons, markers and smurf collection.

SIDENOTE #2: i know have at least 80 smurfs...almost 99!
but, i have like 5 smurfettes so really, they don't all count.

i had totally forgotten about my ceramic mushroom
until i was cleaning out the kitchen cupboards...
the woman that owned our house had a ceramic studio
in the barn and had a ton of ceramics stored there...
when i saw the smurf mushroom house in the barn,
i took that as a direct sign that S was right,
we had to buy this house...it was meant for us.
she let me keep the mushroom...
but not the kiln...which i would have loved to have kept! :)

and yes...i know the smurf on the mushroom is wearing red
but shouldn't really be wearing red unlesssssss
he is a young papa smurf before the beard...
so...that's the theory we are going with.

i absolutely love how this looks now...
i didn't have enough space on the desk before
& i needed to find a place where i could put my camera
that would be both
accessible to me without too much work
but
NOT accessible to the cats/feline destruction team...
now that the weddings are over,
i want to try to get back to
actually using my cameras again
without being scared
something may happen to them
with a wedding coming up...
and now i can use them without fear!

so now instead of brides and
wedding bouquets, i hope you are ready to be
bombarded with photos of smurfs and pugs,
my feet, the felines,
and a multitude of sunrises/sunsets...
:)

here's a cute pug to start the bombardment off right....

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!

18 years in the blink of an eye...

September 12, 2016 Arlene Giddings

18 years ago
we said i do in a church
that neither one of us attended...
during the
mandatory
marriage planning course
we each had such a fit of the giggles
that neither of us
could speak
or look at each other
and i laughed until i cried...
afterwards,
neither of us
could explain
why.

i wore a dress and veil
that your mom made for me
and you cut your own hair
like...
the day right before the wedding.

no special jewelry, no hair appointments
we signed the marriage license
with a 49 cent bic pen.

my parents drove me to the church
in their little blue chevette
and just before i was going to leave the room
we were waiting in
to walk down the aisle
my best friend said
stop! there's something on the back of your dress!
in a mad panic
we rushed into a washroom
where she dabbed at the stain
and i tried to think of desperate-yet-ridiculous ideas
like "could we just pin it together"
or "maybe no one will see it" -
(it being a stain on the back of my dress
obviously forgetting that i would be standing with my back
to everyone for the entire service)...
she got the stain out
by the time they had played my "walk down the aisle" song
twice
and i hadn't walked yet....
your dad shouted out
maybe she's not coming!
but then i made it to the aisle...
my adrenaline was so high at that point
that i think i pretty drug my father
beside me
as i rushed down that
aisle to get to you.

i knew the first night that i met you
that you were the one.

the thing i love most about you
is that no matter
what i say i am going to do,
you support me.
even when i wanted to paint an under the sea picture
on our ENTIRE picture window...
you are always the one
egging me on
telling me i can do it,
i should do it,
i should try it...
and you know me better than anyone...
sometimes, i think you know me better
than i know myself.

happy anniversary sweetpea...
we celebrated with purple flowers and
KFC and later
maybe a movie & microwave popcorn...
sharing a blanket
curled up on the couch
and i wouldn't
have it
any other way.
♥ ♥ ♥

friday i'm in love

June 24, 2016 Arlene Giddings

♥ with this photo...it makes me think of fairy tales and paths that lead to dragon caves and trails of breadcrumbs left by orphans looking for witches who wear silver sparkly shoes and sing songs about pirate ships that glow in the night but disappear during the day.

♥ that i have signed up to do this read-along-course again with this girl whose blog i have adored for years...& i love the look of her brand new site!

♥ this little doll's big and bright imagination..."shark girl has the power of sharks"

♥ dan mangan has a new EP!

♥ this website...i am enamored.

♥ and this letter to the female hat wearing dog in the PD Eastman book...gold. pure gold.

♥ and this...well this....broke my heart.

♥ sunny warm fridays off with stirling manning the bbq while i play on the computer in a house that has been freshly scrubbed and laundered...my absolute favorite.

♥ finding this old wedding photo of stirling and i...this just makes me incredibly happy :) :) :)

father's day weekend 2016

June 19, 2016 Arlene Giddings

i have not been here in a while...
good intentions
but life is starting to get busy again

but this was a good weekend.

i shot my first wedding of my last season of weddings
which i think i keep repeating
to make myself get used to saying that...
my LAST season.
this is it.

which is both liberating and bittersweet sad.

the wedding was beautiful.
and the fact that it was my sweet cousin getting married
just added icing to the sweet sunny day.
they had an outdoor wedding in my aunt & uncle's backyard
and i can't wait to post photos of how
GORGEOUS
that yard turned out.
it literally took my breath away.

and because it was family,
it meant i got to sit with my parents and
another aunt & uncle for the meal
which was so awesome.

and today was father's day...which
meant the building of a new bbq
and a subsequent meal cooked on the new bbq...
a new deck chair complete with it's own cooler
and a harmonica.

it's been a great weekend...
i'm sad to see it come to an end.
<3