Life in 360 Degrees...

Last night at boy child's soccer game...

This was in front of me.


And THIS was behind me.

It's a beautiful world we live in isn't it?

And these pictures were taken with a ten minute span- we didn't even leave our chairs to take any of the shots...crazy isn't it? My daughter took the bottom photo- she is becoming quite the photographer....that's my girl!

Just reminds me that sometimes we should take the time to look ALL around....life in 360 degrees...

Until Next Time,

My Father's House...

I promised I'd share some pictures from Texas...

These are photos of my Dad and step-Mom's place.
It will be going on the market soon and while we were there for what was probably the last time, I wanted to take some pictures so my kids could remember Granny Karen and Grandpa's place....
I won't share the boring living room shots, but I did wander the property, reminiscing and taking some macro shots (my go-to setting) of my favorite things about the place...


The magnolia tree above was just a seedling when my Dad moved out here. My kids climbed this tree throughout their younger years- it seemed to grow at the same rate they did, making it the perfect climbing tree every time we visited...


Dad made this picket fence. It protected his large garden, full of tomatoes and squash and (when we moved within driving distance for a few years) watermelon for the kids. It's showing the wear of a few year's worth of neglect. After my Father passed, the acreage was almost too much to handle for Karen, even before she got sick. Once showing off a crisp coat of whitewash every spring, it has now weathered to a more natural state.
I think I prefer it this way, to be honest....

I cannot, for the life of me, think of the name of this flowering bush. It's a Texas native plant and it's very popular. Can any of my Texas peeps help me out with this?


Literally 10 feet high and almost as wide, you can go out at almost any time of the day and find at least one beautiful butterfly having a meal. I could only find one on this particular day but there have been times that I have seen a dozen or more buzzing around it.

Did I mention that I got my love for junk from my Dad?

And like my Father, I love rusty things.
Just something about how the orange-y brown patina creeps across the metal...yes, I know it's destructive, but it's also fascinating to me...


South Texas is going through a serious drought, so where at one point the grass would have been green, it's now showing the stress...
Again, at the height of Dad's gardening heydays, there were vines climbing this old iron fence. It was beautiful in a much different way than it is now....


I just cannot resist that super-macro button. I "heart" my Canon camera....


More super macro shots...this is a...well, I don't know what this is.
Some sort of antique farming machine. I love the peeling red paint exposing the rusting metal...

A side view of the mystery machine...Gears and wheels intrigue me also...I tend to take many shots of them...even when I don't have a clue what they actually do...

Another mysterious machine.
I liked all of the different textures here: more rust and weathered wood, cracking and peeling paint in faded blues and reds...

Nothing mysterious here...
Morning Glories, my second favorite flowers, behind red geraniums...
If you look very closely (click the pic to enlarge), you can see a bug, not sure what kind of bug because I didn't even notice him when I took the picture. But he's down in there- you can just make out his wings...

So there you have it- a mini tour of a place that holds many great memories for the "Sunshine" family. We will miss everything about it...particularly the people who made it such a special place to be...

Until next Time,

Dashboard Photography...

Well Hello there!

Another one of those "long time, no post" days...please forgive my absence. I had very good intentions to post before our trip home to Texas, but sometimes good blogging plans get all mucked up by the real world.


On June 18th, my Step-Mom Karen passed away after a lengthy struggle with cancer. Things were looking up and we thought she had gotten through her third round with the nasty disease, but other complications set in. I'm not good with these words and I don't want to bog things down too much, but I will miss her. She literally gave my Dad a second lease on life (and a relationship with his daughter-me) and for that she will always have my love. Not to mention that she loved junk as much as I do (almost more). She and Dad were my antique/flea market/ thrifting buddies....we had fun and I will miss that too...

After we got the news, we were on the road 36 hours later...



With our biennial moving schedule, we have seen allot of this country, most of it through automobile safety glass. I have never actually tried to document our travels, but on this trip I decided to keep my camera out and see what I could come up with, taking pictures at 70 mph, through the glass.

...OK, not ALL were taken through the windshield (these rest stop flowers in Ohio being the best example).....


I snapped a ton of shots, but as you can imagine, not all of them came out...



I think Cincinnati was the prettiest downtown area that we drove through....


Just in case you didn't know, driving from upstate NY to South Texas is a 30 hour drive. The very first time we did it almost two years ago, we did it in two days- big mistake!



Since that first disastrous two day drive, we have started to break it down to three much more manageable ten hour days, driving through Syracuse, Rochester, Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati, Louisville, Nashville, Memphis, Little Rock, Dallas/Ft. Worth, Austin and finally San Antonio.
Louisville is also a lovely town...
....and it was about here that the speed limit went up to 70mph from 65....
Mr. Sunshine was a happy camper!


I think the prettiest drive has got to be the stretch between Louisville and Memphis. Tennessee is just so beautiful this time of year.
I could see myself settling down there...rolling hills and trees as far as the eye can see...


And because this post is approaching book length and picture overload, I made a little picnik collage of the rest of the road trip....


Starting in the upper left corner, these are pics of Memphis, the Arkansas/Tennessee state line, downtown Little Rock, Cincinnati (just because I love the color of those bridge supports so much!), sleeping kids, more rear-view views, a semi I liked, Cincinnati (again!) and the road home...


And I still haven't shared most of my Texas pictures! I'll try to scatter those posts in with the crafty biz over the next few weeks....speaking of crafty biz...I worked on this guy while in Texas. Froggy is the first in a series of Fisher Price Pull Toys that I am working on....he's not quite done but I thought I'd share a sneaky peak...

Now off to that mountain of travel laundry that I have been avoiding...

Until Next Time,