Julie Cortens Photography

The 365 Blog is Back

2018-01-04T15:38:00.001-06:00

Come follow along HERE

2017-11-12T19:33:00.001-06:00

We woke to some beautiful hoar frost on the swale this morning. Then we noticed the deer. A cup of tea and my camera was in order. If only I could have watched all morning.

The NE Swale

2017-08-21T16:55:00.003-06:00

It has been a busy summer and one filled with challenges but this morning I managed a slow and enjoyable walk through the NE Swale. This beautiful natural landscape is now our back yard as of July 28th and finally today I found some time to go wonder through it with my camera and my macro 100ml prime lens. From our deck it is a beautiful piece of land to gaze out at but a walk through the swale and a macro lens shows it is teaming with life and beauty.

Some photos from this morning in no particular order.

I Have Two Teeth!

2017-06-09T18:08:00.005-06:00

Our Little Sweetheart

2017-05-14T22:21:00.004-06:00

I got to spend the afternoon with her.

A Beautiful Day at the Park

2017-05-05T18:25:00.003-06:00

Breakfast with G&G

2017-03-19T19:07:00.000-06:00

Saturday morning fun!

Pretty Amazing Sisters!

2017-03-18T17:36:00.002-06:00

Birthdays!

2017-03-16T14:32:00.003-06:00

Norah and I have birthdays only a day apart so last night we celebrated together. Her 5th, my 60th!!
How did that happen!
I handed the camera to Eva who has taken a great interest in photography!!

Lego and Love

2017-03-12T22:30:00.000-06:00

Sisters!!

Drywall

2017-03-11T19:07:00.003-06:00

JOY!!

2017-03-10T19:06:00.000-06:00

Thankful for our little miracle.

It has been almost 6 months.

They are Growing Up too Fast

2017-03-04T20:38:00.000-06:00

Took my camera with me to Isla's weigh in on Thursday and captured these in the waiting room.
I am just so blessed to be able to see their individual personalities developing. Well, not so much Isla but the big girls are so gentle, kind and loving. And they are so smart! They are so much fun to be around.

We took them for breakfast this morning.

Home

2017-03-03T19:45:00.000-06:00

It is starting to feel like home. The shingles are on, the soffits and gutters done. Upstairs electrical and plumbing rough ins are done and insulation completed. The basement will be poured on Monday.

Miss Isla

2017-02-26T22:35:00.001-06:00

She is starting to talk and we are listening to every word she has to say.

Lock Up

2017-02-24T10:08:00.002-06:00

We are at lock up stage - which means there are windows in and locks on doors so we can't get in unless our builder is with us. :(

But the roofers, the electrician and the plumbers are all working hard. During the week the house is full of people and it is moving along quickly. Final decisions on fixtures, floors, cabinetry, counters, plugs, switches...... are 90% completed!!

Now I focus on window treatments, some furniture, a few last lighting fixture and a few other items.

No heat yet - don't know how these workers work all day in the cold. The basement is temporarily heated so some poor plumber can dig a trench thru frozen ground for all the pipes. We are thankful for this very mild winter though. It could be a lot more difficult.

The view from the front hall - there will be a stairwell to the basement where the orange tarp is.

My view from my kitchen Island....I can't wait to share it with you over a cup of tea.... or glass of wine..... or martini. :) If you visit in summer we will be on the deck!

The Build

2017-02-05T14:58:00.000-06:00

For those of you who want to follow along in the excitement of our new build, I will post photos here. Just of the house mind you. I will spare you photos of all the other aspects of the build - like sorting, giving away and kijijiing a million items in an effort to not move anything but what absolutely has to be moved in six months. (wait!! make that just over 4 months!!)

Kijiji - an interesting phenomena. I have posted two items for free in the past week and both were picked up within 5 hours. I am always happy to see something of no value to me, go to a home where it is valued. I have also posted two items at very good prices and not even a nibble. I have appreciated people actually showing up when they said they would and being very thankful.

Yes, every waking and non working hour seems to be devoted to finding, filling and sorting boxes. They are EVERYWHERE!! I am putting them either in the back of the car to go to the World Serve store (two large trips already) or to church for the winter clothing drive to the Light House or to recycle or to the ultimate keeper pile quickly taking over the garage.

I will spare you photos of meetings with the bank, lawyer, builder, technology people, appliance people... and the list goes on. And me rearranging the furniture a million times in an effort to "stage" the current house for the market.

It is an adventure to say the least. And despite the many, many things on our to do list, busyness with both our jobs and life in general, we are enjoying the ride. Saturday morning is date morning and that means a visit to the house to survey the progress, a few photos and then off to breakfast together to go over the "to do" list one more time. This is about when our builder gets an email from us. He is beyond patient!!!

The basement is almost ready - 75 % packed up, cleaned, cleared and staged. Eva and Norah were over for an afternoon of Valentines crafts with Grandma yesterday. Norah headed down the basement to play as we waited for craft #1 to dry and I heard her explain in a loud voice. "WHAT happened down here??!!"

Grandma: "I cleaned up"

This weeks photos!
We have the beginnings of our new home.

Summer Fun!!

2016-07-09T22:05:00.001-06:00

To the pool with Mom today.... and grandma and grandpa - but we didn't get wet until the skies opened up and that rain came a pouring down.

Science Fun

2016-05-20T19:22:00.002-06:00

We froze various colourful items in ice over the past week using a very large thick vase. Today we started the excavation with a little warm water, some salt (very cool effect) and finally a hammer!
Lots of team work and lots of fun!!

Miss Norah

2016-02-09T21:12:00.000-06:00

She is growing up.

I have noticed that despite no comments I actually do have traffic on this blog site. Or so the stat counter tells me. Thank you!
So I will be a little more diligent about posting. It will be mostly photos because I do NOT have a way with words but I do have a way with my camera.
And, you know, a picture is worth a thousand words. This may be true but since I am in the business of creating and saving memories, some of these memories are worth far more then a thousand words. In 30 years when I am gone, they may just be priceless to someone.

Portrait Session

2016-02-08T21:17:00.003-06:00

They arrive and I set up the living room using window light and a reflector. Eva "sits' for me for about 10 minutes while Norah plays the piano. Then Norah 'sits' for me for about two. Maybe not quite. But we capture some beautiful moments in Grandma's living room.

Strawberry Milk!!

2016-02-07T09:14:00.000-06:00

New discoveries at Grandma's house!!

Olaf!

2016-02-06T20:28:00.002-06:00

What a perfect day for building a snowman!

Uncle Harold had all the parts to make the perfect Olaf to!
And then the snowball fight started...

Christmas Crafting

2015-12-12T13:05:00.000-06:00

Sleepover! And that means some activities with Grandma. This time it was two major crafts and some cookies to decorate. One of the crafts is a surprise so you can't see it yet. It is a Christmas gift for Mom and dad - all wrapped and ready to go under the tree.

It started with lunch because I knew once we got to the cookie decorating

it was all down hill from there.

Finger lickin' good fun.

Concentration.

Eva had a method - ice all the cookies and then add the sprinkles.

Only the icing kind of started to dry..... so more sprinkles!

Then more icing, Then more sprinkles.

butter and icing sugar held together with a little flour.

mmmmmm

more mmmmm

We spent over 3 hours working on these two crafts.

That's an orange garbage bag on Grandma's table because as Eva says "Grandma you're the smartest"

Yes I am Eva, yes I am!

Eva stuck with it - Norah took breaks to provide background music on the piano.

" I am playing Christmas songs Grandma! "

Took until after bath time for all that modge podge to dry

but we are pretty impressed with our Christmas candles.

And even more impressed with Mommy & Daddy's Christmas present!

The Parker Palm Springs

2015-11-19T11:07:00.000-06:00

Wow!!
I love this place.
I love the humor here - you have to go to their web site and see a few of their videos. They capture the feel of this place - FUN!! Classy FUN!!
I want to stay here - next time we visit.

And the Food at Normas was seriously delicious!! The service outstanding!! The surroundings - well I had to make myself put down the camera and eat. We picked a perfect morning to eat on the patio.
Such friendly people!

So here are a few photos. Just a few, I wish we had another hour to explore and I would love to have seen INSIDE Gene Autry's home but, well someone was staying there. Even resisted peeking in the windows.

Welcome to the Parker Palm

Norma's Restaurant

a little salt n pepper

I love me some salmon with my Eggs Benedict

Gene Autry's home

The Lobby

MORE fabulous chairs!!

This lamp is about 4 maybe 5 feet tall

On the way out David said "That was better then Ripleys 'Believe it or Not' "

I couldn't agree more!!