Hello..... Remember Me?

I’ve been sooooo busy that I haven’t put any time into my blog.  So to catch you up to date, here’s what’s happened over the past, um, few months.

Since my last entry I have taken a weekend trip to Oklahoma City to see my dear friend, Lynne.  She took me to the OKC library book sale, where I snagged so many great books I filled a giant suitcase (thank goodness it has wheels!). 

My favorite find.

Too cute!

I’ve painted a mural in my niece’s new "big girl" room in anticipation of her becoming a big sister. 

iPhone Pic

iPhone Pic

I became an auntie again. 

Herbie III

 I’ve painted a huge mural with my husband, Scott, and was reminded why I love working with him so much.

 

 

 I’ve visited the CTC Auto Ranch with my girlfriends (yes, I hang with the kind of girls who love old rusty cars, too). 

I’ve taken a photography class and have finally moved the dial on my camera from fully automatic to M (woo hoo!).

I learned about panning!

My Favorite Image

I’ve taken engagement photos for a friend.  

My favorite shot.

I’ve seen Arcade Fire in concert and still cannot get their magical music out of my brain (and the crowd was the best crowd I’ve ever seen a concert with). 

Perfect night.

I went to a wonderful Estate Sale in the Arlington Heights section of Fort Worth and found some beautiful children’s books. 

 I’ve started taking Spinning classes at the YMCA and have fallen in love with cycling again.   Reunited with some of my favorite people in the whole world, who started the Carrollton Music Hall of Fame.

 I’ve purchased a new lens (Canon EF 50mm f1.4) and flash (Canon Speedlite 430EX II) and learned how to use them. 

I shot my first wedding, with the generous help of my photography instructor, Clay Crowell.  

Such a beautiful couple!

This will probably be used for an ad for my photography.

They did this instead of lighting the unity candle.  It was so beautiful!

OH, and I was published!

I promise I won't wait so long to post on my blog.  I'm really good about updates on my facebook page (www.facebook.com/annadykemaphotography), though.  Go ahead and "like" me.  All my FB friends get a discount in my shop!

Mabel Dodge Luhan House

Entrance to the grounds of the Mabel Dodge Luhan House

During our trip to New Mexico in January, we drove over the mountains to Taos, as we do every visit.  After visiting our favorite places, Scott took me to a "lodge" that he and our son found last Summer.  We only stayed long enough to shoot a few pictures, but I could tell it was extra special and I KNEW I wanted to return and stay for a while.



The Sitting Room

This wasn't just a lodge, this is the Mabel Dodge Luhan House.  We grabbed some information on the way out and it turns out this house was written about by D.H. Lawrence himself!  Others who were guests of Mabel and her full-blooded Taos Pueblo husband, Tony,  include, Georgia O'Keefe, Ansel Adams, and John Collier, to name a few.



Dining Room

While we were there, we were allowed to wonder around and were even offered tea and cookies.  I was struck by the absolutely beautiful ceilings.  And once we made it back to the kitchen, I was completely in love with the place.



Isn't it charming?  I can't wait to go back.  I'm thinking maybe this summer, when Texas gets SO hot I'm ready to move away.  That usually happens around late August, early September.

Bird Houses



Aren't these fantastic?  They're giant and they're in the courtyard.

Go here to visit their informative website.  And go here to read a post from their blog that features an essay written by a guest (who happens to be a photographer) that captures the feeling of this beautiful place.



Found in the courtyard.

What a beautiful place.....

It's Girly Time

Ali and Lynne.

 It's not very often that I have the chance to get together with my girlfriends. Most of my time is spent at home with our three male dogs, one male cat, my husband and son. The other girl in the house besides me is my 16 year old kitty (Lucy) who sleeps in my closet most of the time. Needless to say, I LOVE spending time with my girlfriends. It brings me back to myself and reminds me how much I LOVE being a girl.

This time we got together for the day and did a little vintage shopping at one of our favorite places, Ahab Bowen Vintage, in Dallas. Having first discovered this place in the 80's, I was sweetly surprised that it is still the same - no, it's better! Reasonably priced, clean, and fun: that's how I would describe their collection of vintage clothing, shoes and accessories. My favorite room is in the back - the men's section. Hats, coats, suits, ties and shoes! I never walk away without a treasure or two.  This time I walked in with some treasures:  Lynne, Ali and Nikki.  Love love LOVE those girls!!

Every girl needs something sparkley.



I want them aaallll!



One fantastic pair after another!



Different discounts for different tag colors = FUN!

 

The perfect hat for Ali.



Hello!

I'm so happy they are still around!

Scat

The neon beckoned us down the long alley and
into an elevator that took us down to heaven.

  This weekend, a dear friend of mine came to visit and we decided to stay up past our bedtimes, but we didn't want to be the oldest people in the room.  Just our luck, we stumbled upon the coolest place I've been to in AGES.  I'd heard about Scat Lounge in downtown Fort Worth, and was curious to see if it lived up to it's image.  After all, it has a tough act to follow.  In high school, my fellow band buddies and I would sneak our way into a tiny jazz club in Dallas called the 6051 Club on Forrest Lane, because it made us feel like grown-ups but mostly because the music was so fantastic.  I don't remember the names of any of the musicians we saw, but there were many.  Scat reminds me of this place.  The clientele is low key, great music is the focus and the drinks are de-lish.  My friend, Lynne, and I spent the night gabbing, and trying to nail a good shot of Joel Cross, the performer that night.  You can see her shots here and here.  I think I learned something that night, dirty martini's and all.  I need to stay up past my bedtime more often.

One Hot Day in December

It was on December 21st that my husband, son and I decided to head over to Fort Worth, finish up a little Christmas shopping and hang out at the Botanic Gardens.  We ended up a the Japanese Gardens on that day.  I had to take my shoes off because the temp had reached an really strange 80 degrees Fahrenheit.  After I wondered around barefoot for a while with my film camera, shooting up the last of my Kodachrome film, I found this guy!

We were laughing at him because he looked like he was eyeing the giant Koi in the pond, like he was going to have one of those mega fish for lunch!  Then, suddenly... he speared a smaller fish.  And we got to see the entire thing unfold before our eyes!

Taken just before he speared his lunch.

Had I not been so surprised, I might have gotten all his beautiful wings in the shot.

Down the hatch!

I'll never laugh at a Great Blue Heron again!  I wonder if he's ever gotten one of those Koi....

New Year: Clean Slate

Happy New Year!  Have you made any resolutions?  Not me!  Not a single one.  But I did make a firm decision to start this year off with a clean slate.  Inspired by the video of Lotta Jansdotter's Open Studio Tour with Etsy, my first plan was to simply clean off my bulletin boards.  But then when I took a good look at my mess of a studio, I decided a bigger re-do was in order.  I spent half a day planning and choosing furniture and accessories at Ikea with a $500 budget and several days after that putting the stuff together and figuring out what to do with all my clutter.  My arm almost fell off from screwing everything together and my recycling/trash heap was pretty darn big, but I think it was worth it.

Here are some Before and After pics.



The piece of Victorian architecture was a gift from my husband for my first mother's day.  The two glassed in shelves are from Ikea (Billy bookshelves with Kiaby doors), so's the lamp (Tral).  The work desk is actually two desks from Pier One that I pushed together (I need a big space to work on).  The cat is Frank!



That big fat black chair was not very comfortable, so I replaced it with a very comfy red one (Ikea Klemens).  I got the desk (Micke), printer cart (also Miche), desk lamp (Mil), file holder (Spontan) and three magnetic bulletin boards (also Spontan) from Ikea.  The hubcap clock was a gift from my husband for Christmas this year.  It's from a 1960's era AMC Rambler (and from Etsy seller 8MileCreekDesigns).  Cool, huh?!  Oh, and there's Frank again, in the window.



Most of the clutter went into the shelves.  I covered the bottom six panes of glass with some mulberry paper so I could hide the ugly stuff down there.



The before picture makes me look like a hoarder, doesn't it?!  Most of that stuff is sewing supplies, which I inherited from my husband's grandmother who just recently passed away.  I've stored most of that under the work desk, to be pulled out when I finally learn how to sew.  And that bulletin board - what a mess!  I decided to just stick to one place to put up things I want to see every day - inspiration.  Some of that stuff had been up there on that bulletin board for at least 3 years.



Look at all that junk everywhere!  Boy, did I ever need me some drawers.  And now my computer is up off the floor, too.  This Ikea desk had a little space to hide all the cables from my printer and computer.  There is a very messy cable party going on that nobody can see now.  Yay!



Now there are only a few "dust catchers" out.  All my little horses and cars went behind glass.  But I had to display the beautiful 1950's Singer sewing machine that I inherited from my husband's grandmother.  He still raves about the ninja costumes she made for him on that machine when he was a little boy.  She took very good care of her first and only Singer.  It's still in perfect working order.

 What about you?  What are you doing to mark the beginning of a new year?

I'm Dreaming of a Round Christmas.... Tree

Every Christmas I am plagued with the grand idea of replicating the Christmas trees of my early childhood. Every dang Christmas, I dig up old photos, turn house upside down for a very un-informative drawing, trying to figure out how my mother managed to create the coolest Christmas tree - ever.  I even asked her how to make it once.




Isn't it cool?  That's my dad handing out
 presents and me next to him.  Those other
kids are cousins, and the woman on the left
is my mom.
1965

  This is what she told me years ago:  You just go to the hardware store and get some chicken wire and some pliers, then go to the tree seller and ask for the limbs they cut off the trees that they'll be throwing away.  After that, go home and form the chicken wire into the shape of a ball.  Then you attach the limbs to the ball-shaped chicken wire with some other florist wire, one by one, until *poof*, you got yourself a round Christmas tree!  Of course, it must be hung on the ceiling, strung with lights and decorated with glass balls and a long pretty ribbon that hangs gracefully off the bottom.  And when you're feeling really fancy, you go have it flocked!





Viola!
1968

  



Keeps the kiddos away from the glass ornaments!
That's me (one the left) and my sister.
1968

  Every year, I get the ambitious notion that I will just whip up one of these doozies and hang it in all it's strange glory in our big front window for all our neighbors to admire.  And every year, I get busy and put it off until I don't have the time, this year being no exception.  Next year, though.  Maybe I'll blog about it, too!