Giveaway Winner!

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And the winner*....

the balloon bouquet I got for the Green Thunderbolts soccer team party on Saturday

...is commenter No. 10 -- Katie from Art Wall! Congratulations Katie, I'll be in touch by email. :)

Thank you to all of you for the sweet thoughts, words, love and encouragement. I feel lacking in ways to express how my heart races when I get an email notification of a new comment, how I hang on every word of said comments, how I appreciate that you take the time out of your day to visit and write to me, how you all validate my creativity and passion for blogging and photography. In this time of extra gratitude, I am grateful for all of you and what you bring to my life. 

Grazie Mille!

xo,
Jess

P.S. I'm scheduling this post so it will be there bright & early for those of you not on the West Coast.

* The winner was chosen by Random.org

Introducing my 2011 Calendar

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Here it is! I'm proud to debut my 2011 Calendar here on Sweet Eventide! (It made its real-life debut at the craft fair last night).


And the special surprise is that every single image was taken with my iPhone! Neat! I love my iPhone camera because I always have it with me. Here are some images of the pages:





Monday morning I will announce the giveaway winner and next week, I'll tell you all about the craft fair. Have a great weekend -- it's raining here and we have no plans besides celebrating the end of soccer. I plan to rest and recover from a totally insane week!

Sneak Peek: 2011 Calendar

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Hi everyone, I had my table at the craft fair last night and I'm in s-l-o-w motion today. I have a post about halfway done that will debut my 2011 calendar so I hope you'll come back this evening to see it. There is a special surprise about my calendar this year.


And of course on Monday I will reveal the big winner of my One Thousand Posts giveway. You can still enter! I'll see you back here in a couple of hours. :)

Scene Around Home: Parcheesi

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Thank you all for the congratulations on my big blogging milestone! It is so fun celebrating with you this week. I wish you were here in person, I am working hard on a Sweet Eventide photography table for a craft fair tomorrow night at the Noodle's school! I would love to celebrate in person too.

I snapped this pic on Friday afternoon to capture this wonderful moment in time when I was playing Parcheesi with the Noodle. It reminded me of my series Scene Around Home. I thought it was the perfect shot to revive that series.


Probably in four years, I will want to re-file this under Sentimental Snapshot. ;)

Don't forget to leave a comment on this post by Friday to be entered in the giveaway!

One Thousand Posts!!!

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Dearest Readers of Sweet Eventide,

Last Friday, I realized that with my ode to Farm Fresh to You, I had hit my 1,000th post! All weekend, I've been trying to figure out how I want to celebrate this milestone. It occurred nearly 4 years and 6 months to the day from my first blog post: Just Start.



I may not always be consistent with a posting schedule, and I may not always be cheerful, but writing for the community of readers I have grown in this space is one of the greatest sunshines in my life. Truly! 

To thank you for your loyalty, I will have a little giveaway of my work! Your choice from my Print Shop or my Postcard Shop. There will be a few little surprises in your package also -- handpicked Jess favorites. To enter, leave a comment and please share with us why you return to Sweet Eventide, a favorite post or a favorite photograph that I've taken. That's it! No tweeting or FBing required, unless you're in the mood. :)

Okay, this giveaway is open until Friday, November 19, 2010 at 11:59 p.m. PST.

xoxo,
Jess

Psst! my 2011 calendar will land in my Etsy shop on Friday!

Farm Fresh to You

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A couple of weeks ago, I signed up for a CSA finally, something I've wanted to do for a number of years now. I joined Farm Fresh to You on the recommendation of a friend. I signed up for every other week and today we received our second box. It is a thrill to open it, read the note from the farmer and see what wonderful fruits and veggies were picked this week on the farm.


This week, there was a purple pepper! I'm in awe. I've never seen one before. There was also kiwi, persimmons, apples galore, leafy greens and more. I do not miss examining every single sign in the produce section of my markets trying to determine which items are local. Nope, not one little bit. I can enjoy everything in my box guilt-free! 

There was an amazing sunrise over the farm, my farmer wrote it about it the newsletter included in my box -- wonderful reds and oranges filled the sky. It's chilly in the mornings now, he has to wear a light jacket when he goes out to check on the crops. I love hearing about life on the farm where my food is grown.

Lego Creationary

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We had a wonderful rainy day yesterday. We read and played games like Monopoly. Monopoly is so competitive though and it's a bit brutal when you go bankrupt. So when I ran a couple of errands, I decided to pick up Lego Creationary. It is like Pictionary with Legos instead of drawing.

a "robot" that I built during the game

There are four playing modes, three are competitive and one is cooperative (a team races against the clock to get the most guesses). We ended up not keeping track of our score at all, it was just really fun to build and guess each other's creations. It is really challenging. I think it's a great family game! (This is not an ad, just a happy mama who had a nice time with her family).

Beautiful Losers

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I borrowed this incredible, amazing film, Beautiful Losers from a friend this week. I know it's from a couple of years ago and maybe you've all seen it already. But I am off from work today so made myself a cup of coffee and settled in bed to watch it.



It has been a wonderful way to spend my day. I am still processing it all but I have a major new fascination with Mike Mills, one of the artists featured in the film. Most of what he said in the film was very moving and profound to me, like in the chapter called Success in Art and Commerce, he said, "I am wary of my involvement in my artwork."

I have experienced that my whole adult life from every single essay I wrote to earn my English degree and now in my photography. I never put it into words like that but when I heard him say that, it was phenomenal and instant for me -- a suddenly authentic realization about me, and my own artistic self.

I could (and might!) do an entire blog post about Mike Mills but for now, here is a clip from the dvd featuring Mike. It's one of the extras. I just love it.


If you have seen it, or plan to see it now, I would definitely LOVE to hear your thoughts on the film. Like I said, I'm still processing. I can't even get started about Margaret Kilgallen right now. Too raw.

Update: Alex shared her September 2009 post about Margaret with me via Twitter. It is worth your time. I left a comment on her post explaining a little bit about why it's hard for me to talk about Margaret.

100 Photos: No. 19 -- Halloween Edition

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Hooray for November!

Halloween is done for another year. What a hectic and fun weekend! We had a family of five over for dinner Friday night after a day full of festivities at school. Saturday we had soccer and Nana over for a day-long visit including cooking Indian food for dinner. Sunday was the big day and we finally got our pumpkins and carved them. All the grandparents came for dinner and trick or treating & visiting with friends. Can you say EXHAUSTED?

But this Polaroid (in focus!) makes it all worth it for me. Meet my darling little as Peter Sellers' Inspector Clouseau:


Okay, by this post title it is clear I am not going to make it to 100 Photos by the end of the year. The original blog is gone now too. The Flickr pool is still going though!

Did you enjoy Halloween? Are you tired today like me?

A Birth Announcement

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Name: Bunny Wunny
Born: October 17, 2010 at 12:46 a.m. 
Location: Pajaro Dunes, CA

Bunny Wunny is busy in second grade this week helping the Noodle with a special project so I can't report on her height and weight. Will update when she returns home from school. 

She took just about five hours of labor and she is truly and simply a bundle of joy. :)




Halloween-Themed Party Shoot

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Hi sweet friends! It rained this weekend for real for the first time. I loved it. It was also our first weekend without non-stop plans in far too long. I needed that. I spent some time putting the Noodle's Halloween costume together (he'll be Inspector Clouseau, Peter Sellers style) and I finished up processing photos I took at a birthday party earlier this month. I thought it would be fun to share some of my personal favorite shots from the party, it's too hard to resist with Halloween coming up!


Be sure to check in each day for a new photo. 

How was your weekend? Is it getting blustery where you live?

Beach Polaroids

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I found my Polaroid courage at the beach last weekend. I got some of the new Impossible Project Color Shade film for my birthday last month but didn't open it until this weekend.




Guess what? I only took the last image! Are you surprised? All of the Polaroids I took came out blurry. The Noodle took the first two images in this post! I am so impressed. He only took two Polaroids and they both came out great! 

I am such a proud mama. I think I will order these on Plywerk for him. I want to honor the beauty that he captured. Maybe he can teach me a thing or two. 

Pajaro Dunes

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I have been away for the past few days with the family at our annual beach weekend. It was lovely. It was cold and rainy. It was unplugged. To be honest, I am not really ready to face the world tomorrow.

Do you remember Bun Bun? She finally gave birth to her baby (remotely) this weekend. I'll do a full reveal when I free up enough space to download my DSLR photos. For now, there's a sneak peek of her sweet baby in this little iPhone collage.


Bunny Wunny didn't want to leave the coast either. The ocean air and sounds are so soothing, especially for newborns. ;) I can't get back to House 60 fast enough.

Autumn Colours Week Highlights

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The thing that came up? It's called a part-time job. It happened fast my friends. As in apply on last Thursday, interview on Friday and start on Monday! I'm in overwhelm mode, but eventually? I think it will be all good.

Let's get to the pretty!



It was hard, so hard, to choose a few to highlight! See the rest of my favorite autumn images here.

Photo credits, top to bottom, left to right:


3. cob, 4. yellow



5. Every man has his secret sorrows which the world knows not; and often times we call a man cold when he is only sad., 6. red,

7. Lady in Red, 8. Pinecones on Red,

9. [autumn light], 10. family of five