Home Ec with Freckled Nest

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Have I waxed on about my love for Twitter lately? Have I mentioned how I have over 1,000 tweets starred as my favorites? (I'm slowly realizing I may be the only one who uses Twitter favorites as a bookmarking system, but hey whatever works). Here is a perfect example: I faved a tweet from Jan at Poppytalk last night and if it wasn't for her, I would not have known about this online class starting next month: Home Ec.


This class has got to be the greatest idea ever: 26 totally useful projects that each teach you a new sewing skill. Projects like pretty cloth napkins, curtains, zippered pouches, buntings, grocery/book bags, and on and on. Topics like how to troubleshoot problems, hem and take things in, how to take care of your machine and how to find your way around a fabric store.


images © Freckled Nest

I don't know about you, but I didn't take Home Ec in high school and I've often regretted that choice. I wish I had taken Home Ec *and* Wood Shop to be honest. I think high school guidance counselors should tell gals how darn handy it would be to learn a little carpentry because custom furniture is the bomb.


Anyway, this rad e-course is only $60 and you can register at the Freckled Nest blog in the top left column with the "Buy Now" button. (That may or may not be a hint to my friends and family for an early birthday gift?!) School's in session on August 10th.

Thanks Jan for your always awesome tweets!

Pink Roses

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I was backing up my iPhone this morning (long overdue, my husband threatened to take away my charger until I backed up!) and found this set of photos of pink roses from a rainy spring day. I don't think I ever shared them here and they took me straight into a daydream -- not a bad way to start a Monday!





Aren't they gorgeous! Being around boys all the livelong day makes me reach for the pink at times. Plus roses always remind me of my grandma (her name was Rose, Rosina was her given name which I learned way later in life). I miss her!

How was your weekend? We rearranged two rooms of furniture and I am loving it. I carved out a new little space for an office for me! I will share some photos once I have finished setting it up.

I Am Enough

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Have you read this series of posts on Tracey Clark's site called I am enough? I found it last night. It is some powerful stuff. I wanted to share it with you all in case you hadn't seen it.



This entry by Jen Lemen really moved me: "I am enough even when I don't understand." I am big on the understanding of things and in the meantime, I kind of hold back on the self-love. I clearly have a bit of work to do right there and it's not very easy to admit it.

These are three very powerful words if you truly own them in your heart: I am enough. I was re-reading my Blog It Forward post last night and the comments everyone left for me. Just so you all know, the comments are a gift that keep on giving. Thank you for keeping me company in this space, especially when I am a little vulnerable. Reading the comments again helped me realize that little old Jess is enough. I don't have to be anyone else but me!

I'm All Over the Place

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Hi friends! Today you can find me doing a little Client Show & Tell over at the When I Grow Up Coach blog. Please click over to hear the full story about my SIL's beautiful succulents.

Lulu's Succulents

I have a couple of other things to tell you. First, I was beyond giddy to discover that one of my photographs, Tutu's Tree, was featured on decor8's Etsy Take Five Tuesday this week! Second, I wanted to share a tweet I saw just this morning about frozen berry and coffee ice cubes. 

This divine image is © Bonnie Forkner

Seeing how the temps skyrocketed here yesterday all of a sudden, I'm in need of fresh, frozen ideas and we just stocked up on berries at the farmers market last night! And I always have coffee. :) What is your favorite way to cool down?

Alphabet Walk Blog Hop: O

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Today I'm participating in the Alphabet Walk Blog Hop hosted by Piper at One Sydney Road. Basically you signed up for a certain letter, "grab your walking shoes and camera"and take pictures of things that represent the letter you chose.


I chose the letter O and the whole time I was shooting for this project, I had this classic  Sesame Street song playing in my head. "How would you like to buy an O? Round and neat, a nearly perfect circle, tidy & complete."

The most predominant word that comes to my mind for the letter O is the color orange. I used to really hate orange but we made up years ago. The other thing that came to mind is a car wash one town south of me that I drive by all the time.

a local restaurant sets up for lunch

another clean, classic flower arrangement at Vanilla Moon

my sweet friend gave me these sweet orange slices last night

the O car wash


I hope you enjoyed my view of the letter O!

A Weekend Report

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Good morning! I had an interesting weekend so I thought I'd tell you a little bit about it. Friday night, I went up to San Francisco to Rare Device for the Pin It Forward party hosted by Victoria of sfgirlbybay and Pinterest.


I got all dressed up in a swirly black dress and high heels. I had a little boo-boo on my shin so I borrowed one of the Noodle's pirate band-aids at the last second. My husband couldn't get over that so he took a picture for me.

feeling a little bit punk rock

This weekend we also went to a summer pool party for one of the Noodle's bestest friends. It was classic and there was an underwater scavenger hunt which I thought was one of the coolest ideas ever. Yesterday the boys and Nana went kayaking in 

Elkhorn Slough while I stayed behind at Nana's house to prepare for my group career coaching with Michelle.

The homework this week was to work with the classic book Do What You Are. Now I've taken the lengthy type test way back in 1999 or so in college and I was an INFJ. But I really wonder if I was answering the questions for how I wish I was vs. how I actually am back when I was 19. I am very, very, very clearly an ISFJ now. I am sharing this because for awhile now I have been feeling very out of touch with my intuition about many things in my life. I have been judging myself pretty hard because my intuition is not strong.

Well last night, I did some further reading in the book (beyond what I needed to do for my coaching homework) and it turns out that for ISFJs, intuition is the weakest part of the personality! Blow me down people! So this is eye-opening to say the least! Now I can stop judging myself and start helping myself strengthen that part. This has so many implications, most obviously as I continue my path towards work but in all areas of life including parenthood. Another very interesting thing about ISFJs is that they get overwhelmed with the big picture and I think this is very evident with my photography even. It is no wonder that I am not a landscape photographer!

The last thing from this weekend to share is this wonderful, amazing film Jeff and I watched last night.


It was completely charming and funny and beautiful. Great soundtrack too!

Now I must go because I am hosting the Noodle's first sleepover today with the party princess from the weekend pool party. We had a playdate planned for today for weeks but I woke up and turned it into a sleepover and the Noodle doesn't know about it yet! He ended up sleeping over at Nana's last night and he's not home yet. I think you will hear his gleeful screams as soon as I tell him.

Did you have a good weekend?

Summer Memory

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Recently, I fell in love with this image from Kristi of a life through the lens.



Is it not a quintessential image for this time of year? Ah, to be young and carefree with a big, fat piece of cold, ripe watermelon dripping down your dress onto the grass! You can see more of Kristi's amazing photography in her shop and Flickr and visit her on her beautiful blog.

By the way, thank you for all the lovely words about my last post. :) I hope you're all enjoying the season -- have any fun summery images to share with me?

Caught On Camera

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Yesterday, Nikon Guy released his set of Mexico photos to the wedding guests and to my delight, it included one of Canon Girl. Can you all see how happy I am when I'm out shooting? This is a pure Jess moment and I'm so grateful Sean captured it.


Part of the fun is that it was a reciprocal photo session:


Thanks Nikon Guy for capturing one of the best images of me in a long time!

In other news, I'm happy to announce my new partnership with pingg! Check out their blog post about it. I've used pingg myself for a couple of events in the past and the quality of designs cannot be matched. Gorgeous art and I'm honored to have been invited to join their team of designers.

Blue Skies

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I know it's late in the day but I wanted to wish you all a wonderful weekend. Here we celebrate Independence Day and have a long weekend. We'll be spending it with the extended family and the Noodle will be with his cousins which is going to be nice for him.


Lots of things wrapping up this week, including Summer Colours Week with Poppytalk and Flying Lessons with Kelly Rae. This is the first color week I haven't really participated in which was really hard for me actually. I'm not one to turn down a creative photo challenge!

This weekend I'm going to try to do a little bit of organizing around the house -- wish me luck! See you back here next week.

Dear Blog, I Miss You

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Dear Blog,

I miss you.


I miss posting every day. I miss taking photographs to share with all my friends on you. I miss reading sweet comments and writing back. I miss making new friends. I'm having a hard time adjusting to our new schedule. I'm having a hard summer all the way around, and you normally cheer me up when I'm blue and now I can't have you as much.


Your sad author,


P.S.

My Dear Blog, I'm so thrown off my routine, I forgot to put in the picture I chose to show you how much I love and miss you. I've edited you now to include it. See? Three hearts. Because I heart you that much.

Summer Colours Week with Poppytalk

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Just when I was getting into the rhythm of an abbreviated summer blogging schedule, Poppytalk announces a Summer Colours Week! What's a photographing, blogging gal to do?!


Peonies print available here


I'm not sure if I'll participate each day but I couldn't resist today because I had a peonies image that I took recently and hadn't shared yet. Today is pink, Tuesday is yellow, Wednesday is green, Thursday is red & white (for Canada Day) and Friday is blue. Please comment if you participate as I'd love to see your photographs!

Here is the Flickr Pool for Summer Colours Week. Enjoy!

Summer

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We are having odd weather here -- very cool, breezy and last night it even rained a bit. It is a rare feeling for me, but I want to feel like it's summer out there. To me, summer means carefree living, freedom, refreshing beverages, fêtes, fun and silliness. It means having the space to dream and play.


As we head into the first official summer weekend, tell me -- what does summer mean to you?



P.S. You can also find me in the Green Phone Booth today.

Weather Report

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There has been very stormy weather here at my house in the past week, and unfortunately the forecast continues to show unstable weather patterns, mostly cloudy with some intermittent bursts of sunshine.

climbing ivy in Puerto Morelos


All kidding aside, I must admit it is a major shock to be home from vacation. The Noodle is out of school and I didn't line up anything for our summer past Mexico, so it's just me and him for endless hours each day. I've got some bug again, I'm enrolled in a totally amazing but rather overwhelming e-course as well as my ongoing career crisis. I'm trying to tackle that one with the help of the awesome Michelle Ward via some group coaching sessions all summer. 

I have other commitments that I made that I'm struggling to fulfill, plus we don't know if we can keep our rental house for another school year or only part of it which dramatically affects our decisions about where to live, so my husband and I have that huge decision to tackle as well as all these other things. I know all of this stress won't last forever but I am feeling super overwhelmed.

Thanks for listening friends...


Ceiba Del Mar + An Announcement

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Hello and happy Monday morning! Grab your cup of coffee or tea, and get a little hit of pretty! Here are a few more photographs from our wonderful trip to Ceiba Del Mar and after the pretty pictures, there will be a summertime announcement.






And here is a photo that I did not take but I will treasure forever: me and Amy -- my sweet, cherished, loyal, oldest friend on earth -- whose wedding brought a wonderful group of people to paradise.


Thanks Chrissy for capturing the moment and I hope you don't mind my processing! :)

Now for the summertime announcement!

I'm going to have a different blogging schedule. I usually try to blog five days a week, Monday through Friday, and this schedule brings me much joy and happiness. Due to a variety of reasons, I'm going to adjust my blogging schedule to three times a week and you will find fresh posts from me on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays all summer long. I hope you'll understand and not forget about my Sweet Eventide. In the fall, I plan to go back to blogging five days a week again.

Are you making any changes for the summer?



Coco Loco

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Hello friends! We are back home, a bit weary from the 22-hour travel day returning from Mexico (long layover plus weather delays) but we had a truly amazing vacation. I have 654 photos to sift through, process and organize so it's going to take a bit of time.  Words cannot really express how wonderful it was to spend so much time with old friends, and I made some awesome new friends too. Amy and Sean's wedding was beautiful! They definitely chose a little bit of paradise to start their marriage.

My Coco Loco


We made great friends with the bartenders (Alfredo and Lorena) at the swim-up bar in the resort's pool.  Pina coladas were my drink of choice for most of the trip and when I told Alfredo that I was a bit crazy for coconut, he offered to make me a Coco Loco. It took him 30 minutes to make it! He took a fresh coconut, shook out the juice and then mixed it with Malibu rum, coconut milk and I don't remember what else, then poured it back inside the coconut.

It was TOTALLY AWESOME.

I want to say MUCHAS GRACIAS to my guest bloggers Erin, Jacqueline, Katie, Jamie and Elaine! I really appreciate you all for keeping Sweet Eventide company while I was away!

As for me, I will keep working on my images and of course, I'll share them with you as much as possible. Some are being saved for certain people's wedding present (they know they are receiving an Apple photo book from me so I can say that here).


P.S. My favorite Spanish phrase that I learned in Mexico was "Mucho gusto!" It is just about the most fun thing to say out loud. :)

Guest Post: Elaine

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Hey hi! I'm Elaine and I'm subbing for Jess today on her last day of vacation. Jess mentioned inspiration when she asked me to fill in for her and you know, the timing couldn't be better.

Lately I can't stop playing this game of trying to figure out how to elevate my daily schlep. Anything that strikes my fancy, I love using as a source of inspiration. When an idea hits me over the head, figuring out how to make it work is ridiculously entertaining. It takes the edge off all follow-up emails and excel spreadsheets. You know what I mean.

Case in point: recently I can't get enough of this image of Angelica Houston from the new book featuring '60s and '70s hairdresser Ara Gallant's amazing work. I spent a few good minutes staring at it when i first saw it.

I'm in love with everything going on here. Simultaneously it's spare and lush, hard and soft, shiny and powdered, subtle and arresting, deep and flat...it's like, whoa.

To wait for holiday would be a cop-out and I'm not willing to be patient for that long. Besides, ideas are free and after newly born, they have limited shelf life. So this is how I'd go about to trying it: grey embellished tank top, dark rinse denim, distressed lace-up boots and a single bracelet. Busting out the curling iron would soften the edge of the jeans and boots. I'd finish up with sheer-textured color on the mouth and eyes. SO...FUN.

Although this picture is from the '70s disco era and I like it a little bit '90s punky, it easily translates to ladylike J. Crew, Anthropologie and Banana Republic, don't you think? One picture, a million ways to run with it. I'll be thinking about it for a few more days, I'm sure.