My parents are cooler than your parents

We went to a few record stores over the weekend. The bargain bin was good to me. 5 records for $6. Not bad. Time with parents who have good taste in music is pretty cool too.

Bacon, Eggs and Mustaches

This girl is four months old today
Not really old enough to grow a mustache (let's hope she never is) but she even makes that look cute. New Years Day we wore mustaches to breakfast at the delicious Gallery in Sisters, OR. I knew it was a crazy idea, but crazy in a funny way I thought. Our waitress failed to see the humor... I hope it's not lost on you.

Weekend Snapshot

Happy Monday! I hope your weekend was as great as ours. 

*Finally got my haircut

*Spent Halloween with my family eating Angie's homemade chili, cornbread, caramel apples and of course- candy.

My sleepy skeleton

*The Ducks beat USC
*Sunday was Gemma's blessing day at Church

lately she's been all smiles!

*and I made my fav- pumpkin chocolate chip cookies

image borrowed from here

Just The Girls

Last week when my mom was in town we had a 'girls day out'. Didgya know that House of Vintage got a photobooth? Photobooths are my favorite. I'm gonna have my very own one day... mark my words. You can come over and play in it, it will be great fun. Anyways, the point of this super duper crazy late post is to inform you that future 'girls days out' (how should I pluralize that?) will include Little One. That's right, girl parts. I can't tell you how much more fun life is now that I know. Not that it wouldn't be if I was having a boy, but knowing changes everything. Now when I think about the future of our little family I can picture more of the details. Pigtails, My Little Pony's and dance recitals. What fun. 

Weekend Update

This weekend I:

*got to play with my friend from Salt Lake who came for a visit

*ate Skinnidip twice

*bought a book about Walker Evans that has me so inspired... I'm in love with photography all over again

*stayed busy enough to avoid packing many of the moving boxes that are lying around

*got the keys to our new condo and saw it at night for the first time

*saw this movie as part of my nephew's 3rd Birthday celebration (my favorite part was the baby ducks jumping from the tree... so brave!)

Before the movie started, I got to see this trailer again and I can't even tell you how much I'm looking forward to this movie. Just thinking about it makes me want furry pajamas with ears and a tail. And a crown. And then to howl at the sun while wearing them.

Smile Like You Mean It

I totally mean it. 

I miss my blog and I have so much to report on- my holidays, my new loft, and my awesome Saturday last week. That will all have to wait, I am currently in Denver with the Fam. Last night I had the best concert-going experience of my life.  My older Brother and I went to see The Killers. UH-MAZING. I have seen them before but this was my new favorite. They gave me a whole new appreciation for the song "This is Your Life", enveloped us in bubbles during "I Can't Stay", played an insanely cool version of "Sam's Town", followed by my fav- "Read My Mind" and topped it all off by making it snow paper confetti. Sounds like a cheesy gimmick but dancing in paper snow while your favorite song is being played live? I mean seriously. Brandon Flowers is an incredible performer. He is so passionate about the music, it makes you feel like you're part of the art making if not just witnessing it being made. I didn't want it to end. And Dana (my bro) is the most funnest concert buddy ever. Seriously. If you need somebody to go to a concert with- call him, he's rad. Below are the photo stylings of his iPhone. Not bad, huh?

Congratulations!!!

I guess now you can't say you never win anything...

Nuestra Familia.

Congratulations to my sister's friend Ale!!!

Email me with your address and I'll send that calendar right over. (red rover, red rover)

carriestoddartphoto@gmail.com

Thanks to all who played! SO NICE to have your support!!!

In other news... Before my mom left town this past weekend she, my sis and I made our way over to House of Vintage. Here are some of my prizes:

would you believe $5?

ps- I know it's backwards, that's the nature of ttv photography. :)

These are vintage gym lockers. I am so excited to have found these babies because our new loft (we're moving in three weeks) has an entire wall of built in bookshelves. Super cool (there's a rolling ladder and everything) but super hard to fill. These will be a great because they can store my less-cute belongings and fill up some of that shelf space. Yay!

Same fan as above, I just kinda liked this picture.

Also, all morning I've been listening to this:

Sadly, he's not here but my daddy's Christmas album has definitely been on repeat. The sound of acoustic guitar takes me right home.

Another Year Has Come and Gone

A BIG "thank you" to all you who wished me a happy birthday last Friday. It was one of the better birthdays I've had, thanks to my sweet husband. I'll report on that later in this post but first, a late birthday shout-out to my rad older sister. She's four years and one week older than me. I was due on her birthday but must have wanted my own party because I waited 7 days for my big entrance. She named me and we've been best friends ever since (most days when we were young, and all days now that we're grown). Anyways she's the prettier, funnier and all-around cooler sister and I can't remember a day I didn't look up to her.

last year

I gave her this print called "Everything is OK When You are Near" from Studio Mela

And I made her this card

For my birthday, Jer took the day off and we went to breakfast with friends (yum, apple pancakes) and spent the day at the beach:

Do you like the above photo? It just might be for sale in my shop by the end of the week...stay tuned!

In the evening, Jer planned a rockin' bowling party with friends:

Did I mention the loot I raked-in? Lisa made me this incredible necklace, the likes of which may or may not be available for purchase soon...

Angie knocked book number 4 off my list and Jeremy shocked the pants off me by gifting me with the long-time longed-for MacBook. I can now look forward to working away the winter gloom in the cheerfully-painted, people-filled coffee shop downstairs instead of being chained to my desktop. Being 27 will be grand after all.

Reminiscing #2: Family Time

At the beginning of August I got to spend 9 days with my fam. The first leg of the trip was in Dallas- just me, Mom, and Angie. Some highlights:

*Asking our waiter if he'd "ever tried the Wiener Schnitzel?" (I never claimed to be mature)

*Shopping with stellar shopping companions

*Discovering these shoes:
*Getting my fill of Chik-Fil-A... WHY do they not exist in the NW? We have a serious shortage of waffle fries in our part of the country!


The next leg was in OK at Angie's place where I got to play with her beautiful kiddos:




Finally, Mom and I went back to Denver where Jer flew in and we hung out with my Dad and Bro. We went to a Rockies Game, watched the Olympics, experienced freakishly cold/wet weather, and went to the Denver Art Museum. My favorite part was the Clyfford Still exhibit, soon to become the Clyfford Still Museum. So inspiring. I also loved all the interactive parts of the museum including this wall where anyone could post their definition of 'Art'. It made me want to have a wall in my house where the people who visit can post their thoughts and ideas. How do you define art?
Oh yeah, and I loved this quote so much I talked the security guard into letting me leave it on my camera (he busted me for taking pictures of the temporary exhibit and made me delete the rest). The quote makes me feel like my snapshot style of photography is indeed valuable.

Autumn around the corner...

Wow! I cannot believe that we're a week away from Labor Day! A few things I'm looking forward to this coming Fall/Winter:

*Another season of The Office
*Football games

*My new boots
*Snowboarding with the husband

*Ang, my marvelous sister, and her cute family are moving to Corvallis. That's only 1.5 hours from me!!!

BUT, I'm not ready to let go of summer quite yet. It's been a busy one and I've neglected to blog about much of it. So, my next several posts will consist of some reminiscing. Stay tuned!