this side of north dakota

Moving!

2010-02-12T16:24:00.000-08:00

Hello All - I am in the process of moving my blog to wordpress so if you want to see what I am up to check it out here: http://thissideofnorthdakota.wordpress.com/

Epiphany - Better Late Than Never!

2010-01-20T21:24:00.000-08:00

We celebrated Epiphany a couple of weeks ago in our usual French manner - not really caring much about the religious significance of the holiday - just enjoying eating something yummy! I made the traditional Galette des Rois and we put a bean in it this year since we couldn't find, and didn't really feel like looking for, the little baby figurine we usually use. I ended up getting the piece with the fève and was crowned Queen for the evening with the lovely crown that Amélie had constructed that afternoon. Epiphany is definitely one of my favorites. Easy, simple, fun and delicious cake!

Stay tuned for photos from our California trip. They are way overdue and I apologize for that.

A beautiful sunny November day

2009-11-25T15:05:00.000-08:00

Amélie got out of school early today and we spent the afternoon on our porch in the magnificent sunlight. We read, almost napped (me, not Amélie), took photos of each other and traded glasses. Below is Amélie's photo of me.

Happy gobble gobble day eve!

Happy Halloween Eve!

2009-10-30T16:50:00.000-07:00

We started out the day as Ms. Amelia Earhart for Historical Halloween at school. Amélie did an amazing job reading her report!

And ended the afternoon as a 49er cheerleader! I really do have such a versatile daughter. She can pull anything off and always looks adorable.

Fall is finally here (for a moment at least)

2009-10-16T06:17:00.000-07:00

Amélie's b-day thank you card

2009-10-15T18:04:00.000-07:00

Here is the thank you card we will be sending out shortly for all of Amélie's wonderful birthday gifts.

new business card for web design business

2009-10-13T20:01:00.000-07:00

Business card I designed for Angela and myself for our web design/building and social network marketing business that we are trying to get started. Website will be coming soon!

New Photo Card plus Amélie turns 7 next week!

2009-09-30T15:35:00.000-07:00

Here is a new card design I came up with last night. I think that it could be cute as a birth announcement or even some sort of invitation or just a nice general update card to send family and friends. I could always put a smaller or vertical photo in to one side and then put writing on the other side. I put Amélie in there in honor of my baby turning 7 in one week. I can not believe that she is so big. I am sure I will be posting photos after the festivities. Hope you enjoy this new creation and pass it on to anyone who might be interested.

Barbershop Boy

2009-09-23T14:56:00.000-07:00

Totally random post but I owe Angela a good little chuckle.

When I lived in Waltham, Mass I worked in a hair salon in Cambridge. Every day I took one bus to the square just below my stop and then transferred to go up to Harvard Square where my salon was. Right at the spot where I had to wait for my bus there was a barber shop that was always full of black men getting perfect fades. I would stand across the street and stare into the window watching in awe as the barbers cut hair. In my salon we were not even allowed to use clippers and always had to do scissors over comb for a short haircut, so I thoroughly admired their handiwork. There was one barber who was very attractive and he and I developed a through-the-window daily flirtation. Every time I stood waiting for my bus he would look out the window and give me a smile and sometimes even a little nod and eyebrow raise. I started really looking forward to my ride to and from work everyday! This went on for weeks. We never spoke to each other, we never even saw each other except through the glass of the barber shop window. Finally, one evening, one of the other guys from the shop came out and gave me a piece of paper with my barbershop boy's phone number on it. I can't even remember his name now but I did call him and could barely understand him since it turns out he is from Haiti. We made plans to meet in Harvard Square one day during both of our lunch breaks. I was very excited and nervous. I had had this almost imaginary relationship with this guy for weeks now, maybe even a month and wasn't sure if I was really up for making it a reality. When we finally did meet, I discovered that he had about 3 or 4 children with various "baby mamas", could barely speak English and was really not that interesting or cool. It was so upsetting and disappointing to see what he was really like. My version of him turned out to be exponentially better than who he truly was. The moral of this story is: avoid meeting "boys" (meaning those we know only as blank boy - safeway boy, bus boy, abercrombie boy, barbershop boy, etc) at all cost. It will never live up to your fantasy so why take that step and ruin a dream you could hold onto your entire life?

Some old doodles

2009-09-17T16:12:00.001-07:00

There is no connection between the Seabreeze Cafe doodles and the cochon doodles, except maybe breakfast makes me think of yummy pork products...bacon...yum...but really they were done at totally different times. Just what I do for fun sometimes. Found these just now while rummaging through old card designs.

Resurrecting some oldies

2009-09-11T17:06:00.000-07:00

I have been going through some of my old files transferring them over to my newer computer and have all of these card designs from the past that I still really like. I am thinking of trying to do some more illustration and design work and maybe even sell some cards again. It is a shame for all of these to just sit unused and unloved! If any of you know of anyone who might want to purchase some cards, pass them my way. I will keep posting older designs as I come across them and as always love to do custom work as well. This top design that I call Black Dahlias is one of my favorites and was put to use for my own personal thank you cards for a long time. Also thinking I need a new business name - any thoughts on that anyone????

Baby shower invites that can be filled in by hand or I could fill all of the info in before printing. Really the background could be almost any color too.

La coccinelle: This design has mostly been used on onesies that I have made but could also make a cute card.

Amélie and Eric

2009-09-08T20:37:00.001-07:00

A little fun at home this evening with Amélie, Eric and the camera.

Burls

2009-09-07T18:03:00.000-07:00

So long Burly. We were all very lucky to have known and loved you.

Namdroling

2009-09-07T17:05:00.001-07:00

Just a few of the photos I took yesterday at the Empowerment at Namdroling (the Buddhist center in Bozeman). I do not know much about what it all means but His Holiness (one of the super important guys from Tibet) was there to give the Empowerment and I was allowed to take some photos of him and was blessed by him.

This picture of me was taken by one of the monks who wanted to see how my camera worked.

It was very special because the monks who travel with the important dude (His Holiness) play these amazing instruments, horns and some sort of reeded instruments and cymbals.

And right now my mom is on her way through Yellowstone National Park to Mount Rushmore in a 40ft motor home with all of these monks!

Teefany's postcard

2009-09-03T18:17:00.001-07:00

Front and back of the postcard that I designed for my wonderful friend Tiffany's optometry business in Morro Bay. I believe that her boyfriend, Jörn, took the photos. I just designed it and took care of getting it printed for her. I have not seen the final printed version yet but hear that it turned out great.
I am now working with Jörn on designing a website to showcase his pottery. I will post a link once that is up and running.

One fabulous year

2009-08-03T21:54:00.001-07:00

In celebration of really quite a wonderful first year together Eric and I spent the night in Big Timber. We pulled the Happy Camper to a lovely campsite right along the Boulder river where we set up camp for the night.

We ate at The Grand Restaurant in downtown Big Timber. It was a fun change from all of the places in Livingston but the food was not particularly noteworthy. Maybe next time we will just stick to burgers at the bar. But I did need a place to wear my new dress to!

My favorite photo of my handsome boyfriend!

The next morning we ate homemade cinnamon rolls and drank our coffee down by the river. It was a perfect start to the day.

We took Eric Adam's raft down the river to do some fishing. At one point we pulled over so that Eric could fish a little and he caught one within seconds!

I caught a total of 6 fish thanks to Eric's never-ending patience and excellent teaching. I became really good at getting my line tangled by the end of the day and still not any better at casting (even with all of Eric's efforts). But I had a great time and am in love with the Boulder. It is such a beautiful river and really fun to fish and to float down.

This is Eric's attempt at a self-portrait in my sunglass reflection.

Summer is finally here

2009-07-12T12:21:00.000-07:00

Summer has arrived and with it the need for a sassy summer bob hairdo for Miss Amélie aka monkey girl. Here is a little collage I put together of some fun photos we took in the backyard the other day right after cutting her hair.

The monkey girl hanging from the jungle gym and telling me it is time to stop taking pictures!

Self-portrait of me and my girl.

Our weekend with Burly and the Happy Camper

2009-05-26T20:30:00.000-07:00

Eric and I went on a little impromptu trip this weekend since it was a three dayer. Burly was still hanging out with us waiting for his daddy to get home from Canada so we decided to take him along too. And of course we had to try out the Happy Camper. It rained most of the weekend and it was great. The scenery was beautiful, the camper was dry and warm, the food was tasty and the company was the best. Plus, to top it off, the Patagonia outlet in Dillon was having a 40% off sale the entire weekend. We managed to loop around and hit it three times (Saturday, Sunday and Monday). And then, on the drive home we stopped at the Lewis and Clark Caverns and totally coincidentally ran into my mom and Susan on their way home! It was so nice to have a little change of scenery and just relax for a couple of days.

Burly took the wheel for awhile when Eric got tired of driving.

The Taco Bus in Dillon. Pretty good Mexican food and worth it just for the experience.

The Happy Camper was a happy camper in the lovely little spot we found for it at the edge of Clark Canyon Reservoir.

We spent a long time watching the lake for risers. There were a lot of them but never close enough to the shore for Eric to want to fish.

What a wonderfully relaxing weekend!

Pâques

2009-04-13T18:46:00.000-07:00

Just me and Amélie for Easter this year and actually we celebrated the day after - so today. We spent a long time dyeing eggs and then had our hunt. After the hunt came the best part, making and eating deviled eggs. Eric was wondering what the significance of me always eating deviled eggs on Easter was. I had never really thought about it. Mostly that is just my favorite thing to do with hard boiled eggs. Why are they called deviled anyway? And don't most people eat them on Easter? It has been much more difficult to get excited about the rituals of holidays that I used to love now that it is just two of us (me and boo-boo) for so many of the holidays. But I am trying and hopefully it won't always just be us two.

My Girl

2009-03-30T20:57:00.001-07:00

There must be something in the water here...

2009-03-02T20:32:00.000-08:00

because I am posting photos of fly fishing! What is wrong with me?

Yesterday Eric 's friend Eric (E2) was doing some video taping (actually having someone else videotape) of himself fly fishing. We went to check it out and Eric thought that he might do some fishing too but decided against it. I just couldn't resist snapping a few shots. It was hard to get a decent shot because the guy videoing was in the way of the best views.

It was a beautiful day though! Sunny and warm with a little snow still left on the ground.

This is my favorite shot of E2's reflection in Eric's sunglasses.

Happy First of March (tomorrow)

2009-02-28T15:20:00.000-08:00

On the job

2009-02-28T13:57:00.000-08:00

I took some photos for a woman in the office right next to our's yesterday afternoon and Amélie came along as my assistant. Here are a few photos of my lovely Miss Amélie, Assistant Extraordinaire.

Eric's Business Card

2009-02-28T13:12:00.000-08:00

Here is Eric's new business card that I designed for him. We haven't had them printed up yet but this is what they will look like.

This is the front:

And here is the back:

Spiders On Drugs

2009-01-15T19:05:00.001-08:00

Very useful and educational information!