OMG Family BBQ

Ok, so obviously this is not one of the pictures of the family BBQ we had at Fred and Sheila's this weekend, but.... it was taken during that BBQ! I took lots of nice family pictures of our afternoon, but this one just spoke to me. The others are nice and all, but they were just documentation of the day whereas this swimmer is just damn interesting.

Vermin (the car, not rodentia)

Awwww.... isn't he cute? These are shots of "Vermin," my dad's 1935 Oldsmobile Street Rod. He just got it this past year and it's his new baby. I was only recently able to finally meet the new toy and go for a ride. I must say, it's a pretty nice car. I of course, didn't get good pictures of the car as a whole, but did get some neat close ups. If you want to see the whole car, go to: www.teds-olds.com

My dad has been collecting since I was in high school and at this point in life he even lets me drive a few of them (well, the ones that aren't standard anyway). He usually sticks to 1960's Oldsmobiles but "Vermin" obviously does not fit into that mold. It's a fun car and basically looks like a mob vehicle to me. Dad even has a fedora that my mom got him to wear at shows and carries a violin case in the back just in case there's trouble. It's a pretty good package deal if you ask me.
Dad with his baby.
A Neat shot I took on the ride down 495 on the way home. You have no idea how hard it is to hold a completely zoomed in camera steady at 75 mph.

Sun lit clouds on the way home

I always seem to find some cool looking thing to take a picture of on the way home. The only problem is finding a place to stop. Luckily, today I found my shot before I even started the car. I was leaving late and the clouds surrounded the sun just enough to make taking a picture work out.

What is C-3PO doing in a pool?

Why this picture do you ask? It was too funny to not take, that's why! The Jedi, Master Frost, celebrated his birthday in grand style complete with space mojitos made by the protocol droid himself. It is amazing what a little tang can do to an already perfected concoction. R2-D2 even made an appearence during the toast. Overall, a wonderful event with great food and pool parttying for all!

White Roses

It is amazing what beauty you can find in your office parking lot when you take the time to actually look.

A birthday book with a purpose

Ok, so..... sorry for the lack of posting. Things have been very busy lately. Actually the funny thing is that I have a lot of things to post, I just haven't had the time to get them up on the blog, lol! So, I'll start with this birthday book I made at a class at Ink About It (my absolute favorite crafting store). Each person who took the class put this beauty together in about 3 hours. Now I don't usually do classes like this one becuase they are so involved. The last one Mom and I did was a Christmas album and I think we ended up being more stressed once the class was over then when we got there! It's not hard per-se, just long, involved and intricate. This project, while more in depth than my usual quick and easy card classes, was really fun. Plus I now have an album I can use to house all my birthday pictures from this year. I figure I should probably commemorate the 30th one if nothing else.... I took a few pictures of the inside pages as well. I just love how the book has all the tiers of the cake and "frosting" as Mary the instructor said. Plus, I got to play with rub-ons, which are a throw back to those annoying things I did as a kid. They have definately improved since then.... every word in the book was a rub on so I was a little worried about messing them up. Happily, they all came out great and went on easy with the little rub-on tool I bought a while ago. Great, now I have to buy a bunch of rub-ons... just what I need, more craft stuff!

Water on Fire? Brilliant!!!!!

After going to Sakura, Colette finally succeeded in getting me to WaterFire a (basically) free display of bonfires and music along the main waterways in Providence, RI. The show started with a multitude of silent boats coming into the apex of the two rivers to light their torches. They then progressed down the lines of floating piles of wood to start the fires. During the lighting and while the fires are still lit, they play tribal new age-y music that fits in well with the heat and smell of burning wood wafting through the air.

A nice view of the Providence waterfront while we were waiting for the lighting ceremony to begin. It's amazing how low light and water can make a city look so neat.

Let there be fire!

Colette and I both thought it would be neat to go on one of the gondolas that offer rides during the lighting. Of course there would have to be a boat-by-marshmallow roast on our part for that to truly be successful. I mean, why boat by a floating pyre if you can't get some dessert out of the deal. Mmmmm... smoars....

Typical me and my ability to turn everything into a photo shoot.