chimesblog

Yesterday was a fun day, filled with lots of exciting things.

First, we took Mark’s NEW CAR for a long drive to Eastern Iowa.

[brand new mazda 3 hatch in graphite]

He got a new car last week after his poor Rav4 blew a tire. It was on it’s last leg and he was pretty much ready to get a new car, so he went for it. And he is REALLY happy about it.

[it's a manual, of course]

Its got bluetooth, which is really cool because not only can he have handsfree phone convos, but we can hook up my iPod without physically plugging it into anything. This makes ME happy because my iPod Touch is having issues with the headphone jack, and the less i plug things into it, the better off it seems.

Our first stop was in Cedar Rapids to get my hair colored. I’m growing it back out (for now) and it’s starting to look entirely too much like my mom’s hair at this length with my natural color  … so time for an unnatural color.

It’s supposed to be the dark brown color that I had a couple years back, but we added a bit of red to it … and my hair sucked up ALL the red.  So it’s a dark red/brown.  I LOVE being a redhead, so I’m cool with it.

Next, we stopped at my Grandpa’s house in Anamosa. He sent us on our merry way with a BUNCH of tomatoes. I wish I took a photo of his bounty of tomatoes. It covered an entire dining room table. He said he was giving all his visitors a bag of tomatoes because he’s not going to eat them all.

Not sure what we’re going to do with the tomatoes … salsa? marinara? Either way, they are getting eaten!

We headed further north and went to the Shot Tower Inn in Dubuque and met my friend Seth (aka @nerdboner) for some late lunch/early dinner.  Got some amazing taco and BLT pizza (super naughty! But way delicious).  He had just gotten back from Wizard World in Chicago and apparently had picked me up some pretty sweet swag.  He totally underestimated my idea of “sweet swag”.

[all the doctors and the tardis — print by kurt wood]

[limited edition #1 of 25 print of Buffy by kurt wood]

… and the icing on the cake?  The heavy metal pixie <======== that’s me.

[check it out on kurt's blog with all the other superhero sketchies]

AND he got me the hardcover collection of the Metalocalypse comic … which will be my nightly read this week.

After a few hours of pure nerd bonding between Seth and Mark (Seth now swears they were separated at birth), we headed back to my hometown of Monticello to pick up Mr. Barnabus Stinson, II and bring him to his new (and hopefully final for a while) home.

And Mr. Barney acclimated quickly and is now enjoying spending every minute with his best friend Mark.

 
We were pretty exhausted after a long day of driving and our adventures in Eastern Iowa. All in all, a pretty good day!

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I by NO means am a photographer, so please don’t take that away from this post.

My friend Kasey‘s little sister is getting married and she asked me to take her wedding and engagement photos. I was really hesitant to say yes — especially for the wedding photos — because I do NOT do photography.  You read my blog.  You’ve seen my photos.  Not my thing.

But I took some photos of her a few years back for her high school graduation invites, and she really liked them, so I’m guessing that’s why she asked.  So I told her I’d do the engagement photos as a trial run to see if I’m comfortable doing it.  Their wedding is outdoors, and I’m comfortable doing outdoor photos. So let’s just hope it’s as nice of a day as it was when I took these photos.

Anyway, I took the engagement photos last weekend. Fortunately she has good taste and has been perusing some really good wedding blogs for inspiration.  Her and the fiance found a public area with a barn, some awesome field and a cool bridge.  They came perfectly dressed for the setting and with some neat props.

Here are some of the better ones. I’ve not edited any of them yet (other than changing size for the blog).

Oh, and I am extremely proud to say that I shot this all in manual mode — so I do remember how to take photos after all.  Just not good enough to do it (or have any desire to do it) professionally.

*the tree did NOT want to play nice. I’m just now noticing another branch that’s in the way that I didn’t manage to move out of the way … sigh.

*the last one is the “grip and grin” photo that I made them take so that way there was one for the paper and one for their parents to frame since we really didn’t do any with them looking at the camera.

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Me vogue-ing. Summer between 8th and 9th grade.

This was right before my friend Nikki’s and my infamous brilliant bike tour from one po-dunk Eastern Iowa town to another. The 10-mile trek took us longer than anticipated because we took a wrong turn and ended up going 16 miles instead. I also rode most of the way with one contact and our fuel for the day was Mountain Dew. Needless to say we didn’t cycle home that day. We hitched a ride with my grandpa back home.

And, in case it’s not apparent in the photo, I was wearing my swimsuit because we wanted to be able to take off our shirts and somehow in our 8th grade mentality a sports bra was not as appropriate as a swimsuit. Oh, and puh-lease look at those bitchin’ lime green nike shoes. Those were ALL the rage that year for track.

Well … isn’t that special?

(things most likely to have been heard on that bike trip!)

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Last weekend I trekked back to my hometown to go to a friend’s baby shower.  I made her some adorable gifts (which I have and will be blogging about).  I was really on the fence about going because I didn’t think my finances would allow me to make another trip this month, but a freelance client ponied up a bit of cash up front so I could pay for gas. It’s pretty awesome having some great clients like that!

I didn’t take any pix of the shower … I felt weird because it was mostly family and people I didn’t know very well.  So, just in case you’re wondering, this isn’t a blog post about babies.

I decided that since I made the trip, I better hang out with my parents for a bit and make a stop or two on the way back to make it totally worth my gas money.  I wanted to get back by Sunday for sure so I could do some more crafting for Market Day, since it’s on the 26th.

My dad was mowing the lawn, so I didn’t get to spend much time with him. But he did find a little bitty froggie that my mom and I put in my niece’s bug box for her to see when she got home later.

My parents also managed to pawn off a box of VHS tapes and my SNES on me.  I recently inherited a TV with a built-in VCR, so I was interested in getting some VHS tapes. My parents were interested in cleaning out the closet of what used to be my room.

(My Girl and Miss Congeniality may or may not be mine …)

After a bit, I decided to head out and go to Iowa City to see a friend of mine from high school. I always love the drive from home to Iowa City … so pretty!

My friend works at a tattoo shop and was getting off at 8 PM. Just in time to get some drinks! I wanted to go to some of his bars, because last time I went to Iowa City I went to clubby bars, and I’m not a fan of those. Give me a dive bar. Please.

Of course, he delivered. We went to this awesome place called Deadwoods that was just my style.  I had to take pix of it to show the beau that Iowa City had some bars that he would like. (He’s a Cyclone through and through … he won’t have anything to do with Iowa City). We also went to this amazing place called The Oasis, which my friend happens to work at as well.

My friend Matthew at Deadwoods, with some Leinies. YUM!

After eating my delicious food from Oasis, I headed out for the long drive back to Ames. It was dark and I was ready to be home.

Finally, after a stop at a gas station and driving through a couple of thunderstorms, I made it home. Well, at least what we consider home sometimes: Welch Ave. Station in Ames. Mark and our friends were waiting for me (not sure if they were waiting for me … but they were excited that I showed up nonetheless).

Mark even (reluctantly) took a picture with me.

All in all, a pretty exciting day. Definitely a departure from my normal Saturday of staying home and crafting and working out.

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