When I was actually blogging on the regular, photos were a massive part of that activity. This was a place to let the photos tell the story as much as the words. I don't know how much I still have in me to take and prep photos for this purpose.... I'm not even being as post-y on Instagram and Facebook recently... (Maybe that's something I need to dig into and think about. The "why"....)

But today is Friday, and even if you haven't seen a post-a-day, I HAVE sat down to type a little every day, and today felt like maybe we could do more photos than words, kind of an easing into the weekend.

So in keeping with the overall slowdown of my blogging and posting, etc., I've also dropped down to a place where I almost NEVER take "everyday" photos with my real camera. The very capable and VERY convenient iPhone 12ProMax does the bulk of the work these days. And that's okay. Except that those photos aren't on my desktop computer, so it's not as easy as you'd think to just grab the week's photos and drop them in a blog post. It takes PLANNING. And waiting for things to upload, download, etc. 

But even if I was still taking lots of Big Camera photos and uploading them to this computer, there's still the endless dilemma of getting them over to Lightroom to cull them and edit them before they're ready for sharing. 

 It's honestly kid of a lose-lose, at least in this passive blogging mindset I'm in right now. I need to think this whole thing through and decide what I want out of this blogging act. For the moment, I just wanted to get my rusty fingers typing again. But maybe I'll eventually want to get my rusty photo-posting to warm back up too. I dunno.

What you are getting, therefore, is a very cute set of photos from spring, the last time I consciously took out my big camera to take photos of each of my kids individually and all together.  I actually already have plans to do a new set of these this weekend, a Fall Edition, so it might be fun to see these now, and then compare them to the new ones I will get in the next few days. But for now.... here's what I have for you:

 

LARKIN, age 5.5

 

 

 

QUINN, age 9

 

LUCY, age 11

 

NOAH (and Fiona), age 14.5

 The Whole Gang

 

That's it. I got some typing in, I gave y'all some photos.... It's officially the weekend as far as this blog is concerned. Byeeeee!!

Q&A: If Money and Time Were No Object, Where is One Place On Earth You Would Love to Visit?

 Q:  If money and time were no object, where is one place on earth you would love to visit? Why are you intrigued by that place?

My first answer to this is always Italy. I blame "Return to Me" for this yearning in me, to immerse myself in an Italian city, to spend a good long time there, time enough to get to know the good bakeries and shops, time enough to have a sizable set of Italian phrases I might use without trying too hard. 

If you don't remember "Return to Me", the heroine of the film was born with a heart condition that made most of her life a sickly, homebound one. She was an artist who would make her art right there in her own backyard, but who yearned to one day get to Italy to study the masters and to grow her talent in the old world. Eventually, after a heart transplant, she makes it there, and the cinematography is exquisite-- shots of the most idyllic cobbled streets, nuns on bikes, abundant pots and window boxes of flowers. Sunshine. Old stone. Tile floors. Balconies. HEAVEN. 

So yes-- if money and time were no object, I would take my family and spend a year in Rome. I would find an apartment with a balcony or two, and we would spend the year exploring, learning, practicing art and music (no need to be GOOD at either... just to show up to do both.)... and trying new foods and learning new words. We could take small trips around the country to visit Pompeii, Florence, Lake Como, Pisa, and of course Venice. I would take a million photos. Maybe even offer my services as a family photographer while there... so other tourists (and locals if they deigned) could have amazing images of their families in these beautiful streets. 

I've already been to Italy. Joe and I saved up to go back in 2006, when we were still basically newlyweds, and it was a glorious trip. But having been there once doesn't dull the edge of my desire to be there again. If I could go anywhere on Earth, the answer would still be Italy. 

What about you, five readers of this blog post? I want to hear your answer!

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

Meet Me In St. Louieeeeeee....

 If you've seen the old Judy Garland movie Meet Me In St. Louis, you surely remember their glorious house. How could you not??

When Joe and I moved to the Mason Lodge as newlyweds, smack in the middle of the Central West End neighborhood of St. Louis, we used to drive around and try to find the perfect street that could stand in for the street in Meet Me in St. Louis. Our own street, Westminster Place, was close--- it had such grand old houses, many built right around the 1904 World's Fair era the movie was set in. But the yards were shorter, the houses more closely set together... it wasn't quite right. And for all the other similar neighborhoods we'd explore in the five years we lived there, we never found quite the right looking street... Never THE house. 

Just tonight, a friend linked a fun photo article from Harper's Bazaar that shows several of the most memorable houses in cinema history, and the bit about the Meet Me in St. Louis house actually gave the street address of the original turn-of-the-century home that the movie was based on. So for fun, I Google-mapped it. 

Seriously--- check this out:

Top left is Kensington Ave., where the REAL Meet Me in St. Louis house used to be. Bottom middle is our old Mason Lodge. All those years, we were living less than a half mile from that street we always looked for, and we never knew it. 

I love this. 

Now, we would've never seen THE HOUSE--- it was demolished in 1996 or so. And the REAL house really isn't as incredibly grand as the movie house. The movie house was part of a set in Hollywood that stuck around and was used in other movies later--- and it was definitely more fancy than this actual one:

 

But still--- it feels like one of the little fun mysteries in my life has come full circle and I love that the answer was right under our noses all along. 

For more fun information about the Meet Me In St. Louis house, both real and cinematic, this blog has a really good post with a lot of detail. Warning--- it might make you need to re-watch the movie again, ASAP. Which isn't really a bad thing. 

 www.celebrityhomeforsale.blogspot.com

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