Creole Wisdom

fifty

Hello! So I just did 50 photo shoots in 2 weeks and I believe I've set a new record for myself. What do my personal photos look like when I'm shooting so much for work?

Like this...

or this...

if I'm waiting for food I might do this...

then it was sunny and I did this..

that's the reality!

tardy to the party

I am beyond late, I'm tardy in fact, to the Tom's phenomenon. I've wanted a pair of Tom's for yearrrsss. I have no idea what I was waiting for. They are everything I like in a shoe.

And, check out their amazing packaging:

I kept my boxes for two days before recycling. I just love the photos on them!

What took me so long?

InstaFriday

Good morning! I am excited to share with you my instagram photos from the week. I'm linking up with Life Rearranged. My handle is creolewisdom.

This week, and last week and next week... I'll tell you what. I am really excited to finally tally up all the photo shoots I've done in such a short amount of time. Wild and crazy for certain. I'm glad I survived until Friday even though I am working tomorrow as well.

Naturally road construction made getting to my shoots on time a challenge to say the least. It is so frustrating to see entire areas and lanes blocked off and not a soul actually working on those sections hmmm/Monday was sunny and I wore these ruffled flats

Tuesday I had a shoot at an ice cream parlour. Then they gave me this cone with my favorite flavor. I eat the whole thing in a few minutes like a child and had to wipe my face a few times/This stray chair would be so cute for a little girl, too bad I have no need for it!

Weeks ago I planned my turn of dinner party. How I pulled this off it still a mystery to me. I was mid prepping here/More on these party straws later. I love them!

happy place

I am a proud graduate of the University of Minnesota. I loved my three years there. A few weeks back my boss needed me to take some photos of a museum on campus and of course it did my heart good to walk around a bit.

Driven to Discover... what an excellent tag line. Oh, and fellow alumni, if you ever want to walk around campus and just have a moment for yourself, go during spring break. It was nearly empty!

I took many, many classes in Ford Hall. That is what happens when you are a communications major :) I also spent a good chunk of time in between classes at Coffman, usually meandering in the bookstore or ordering signature hot chocolates from Starbuck's (yes, I am bitter that they are discontinued.)

There are many things I miss about the U and many things I don't miss, but sometimes it's the places that I spent time in and loved that no longer exist that I really miss.

Specific places I miss:

Clearly room 7 in AOPi

Coffman's bookstore

NE Lund's

My U Common's apartment on sunny mornings

The coffee shop in the Dinkydome

Cumming's book store

Emma's chateau apt with the purple wall

...

 

ladies who lunch

About once a month Kristy, Jana and I (plus Whitney and hopefully Shannon soon!) get together for lunch. We call it ladies who lunch in honor of the women who used to frequent an old salon Kristy worked at. We are hardly 'ladies who lunch', but perhaps it's a good thing to aspire to.

I brought guacamole bruschetta... it turned out divine! It's very simple: you essentially just combine tomatoes, avocados, onion and salt and pepper to taste then spread on garlic roasted french bread.

We smartly decided to add a walk in after all the noshing that occurred. I love this photo of Jana and yes, I was pushing my god son's stroller.

I always look forward to our lunches and despite this past week being crazy I'm glad I could make it! What dear, good friends I have. I am so blessed!

Faith

Friends

Food

Fun

It is what it's all about people!

resonating with me today

I recently started a Bible Study, which I love. One of the topics we discussed this week was bitterness.

I think it's one of life's miracles and also a little funny how quickly I forget difficult times. I think that's just the way it goes. We can be in the thick of a trial that seems momentous and then we're delivered by God and it's as if that hard time wasn't there or it wasn't nearly as difficult as it was.

For that I am grateful. I love that our God works in mysterious and miraculous ways!

Remember the hard times, they remind us that we got through them! Still, have hope that they won't last forever and don't forget (and I say that because I need the reminder, too) that God's mercy for His children never falls short.

Happy Sunday friends!

InstaFriday (late edition)

Good morning! I am excited to share with you my instagram photos from the week. I'm linking up with Life Rearranged. My handle is creolewisdom.

What can I say? This week was crazy and the forecast calls for more of the same for next week... I'm a little late, but still wanted to link up:

The perfect checker board floor at my Aunt's church (in the kitchen.)/One of my grandma's old prayer cards. I love this simple, profound message.

My mom and I were visiting at my Aunt Ann's home in PA until early this week. I just love how she and my Uncle have decorated their space and filled it with family photos/Mom's and my colorful, feminine Vera Bradley carry on luggage :)

I got some happy mail, these straws which I'm saving for a fun event later this month!/My darling, almost walking God son. Oh I love him!

I started a new book on Thursday, one a good friend lent to me, oh seven years ago. I hope it's good/Parking "meters," they are just a part of my life no matter what. I can't seem to escape them!

And that was my week in a nutshell, in instagram. Tell me you're going to join me in this, right? I think it's so fun.

grandma's photos: the work

The sorting of grandma's photos took so much time and it was a ton of work. Of course I caught a cold about halfway through and I won't lie to you and tell you that weren't up at the crack up dawn and going to bed very late. Lots of work and lots of fun, but mostly tons of work.

Thursday: we began sorting by family member and groups. We decided to include a few extra categories like: newspapers, family tree and house/farm. My grandma loved to save newspaper clippings and she was quite involved in civic life and often was featured in the local paper, too. For a stay-at-home-mom of nine she reached so many people and has a profound effect on her community! We began going through the large bins my Aunt Mary had and just sorted away.

Friday: we again sorted and sorted. We sustained on laughter and several Starbuck's runs. After we that we took apart frames and sorted those photos.

Saturday: once we sorted and divided the photos everyone tackled a few piles of those images and sorted chronologically. Then we threw out duplicates, paper copies and items that weren't of importance. For the sections belonging to my mom and her siblings they went through and divided items to be scanned versus items to give back to that aunt or uncle.

Sunday: when it came to photos that were very, very old my mom, Aunt Mary and I worked closely to identify people and try to divide them into generations. My mom and I have a few photos we're going to take to a historian to help us identify what they were wearing (weird clothing.) It was incredible to identify people by their faces and also see how appearances and traits are passed down by generation.

Monday: my mom and I had the items the family wants scanned shipped home. We're going to shop around for scanning prices and eventually, hopefully sooner than later, every sibling will have a disc of organized family photos. I will take the originals and archive them safely in albums.

This taught me so many things: God loves us and has a plan for his children. Jesus Christ lives and saves. We can have eternal life (throughout this time myself and a few of my aunts felt very close to relatives who had passed away.) I am grateful to have these treasures and hope I can grow closer to my family members as I keep working on this project.

grandma's photos: the treasures

When my grandma passed away in 2010, she left a giant collection of family photos. Two years later mom and I found ourselves on a plane. I'll get to how we conquered this huge project, but I have to share these instagrams I took of a few of my favorites.

my great grandma in the white dress with some of her relatives/my great-great grandfather who has a really good looking man but also an alcoholic (isn't that always how it goes?!)

These are my aunts, uncles and mom (she's the little one front and center with the short bangs)/My Aunt Ann and Uncle George when they were about three and four

My grandma loved to draw and was quite talented. She drew this piece in 1936 when she was fourtneen years old and forty years before I was born/My grandpa's senior year book photo. He wanted to be an accountant but ended up working for GE

This is my great-great Aunt Catherine. Don't you just love her pretty pearls?/The tiny little girl on the bottom right of this photo is my great-grandma, Anna.

My mom's baby hospital photo. Isn't she so sweet? Look at those squinty eyes and the round head! /My great uncle Lewis and great aunt Inez got together shortly around WWII. Uncle Lewis is still around and doing well! 

Another great portrait of my mom and her siblings. Mom is the cute blond on the far right. Check out those black mary janes! /Another darling baby photo of my grandpa. Love those little hands!

I am so grateful to grandpa for saving these photos and treasures. I loved looking through her and grandpa's high school yearbooks, learning how much they paid in tithing to their church, reading notes on maps and helping my mom identify relatives in photos. This entire process made me love my family and ancestors even more.

a drive through western new york

My mom's side of the family is from Pennsylvania and a few of our relatives live in lovely western New York state. I love that it's New York but very far from Manhattan in physical distance and everything else.

The blue sky, budding trees and green rolling hills are just beautiful. I especially loved the pretty white farm houses and bold, red barns.

This countryside is where my mother's family settled after immigrating from Germany. It is where the roots were laid so that I could be born, generations later. I love how family is tied very much with place and land (is it obvious I'm writing this at 1:16 am?)

Then the camera and I had some quality, vanity time together. It's springtime and therefor freckles have arrived.

Whoopsies, look like someone smudged their eyeliner that morning. I love my canary yellow headband.

It was a gorgeous drive through western New York. So different from Minnesota and almost as beautiful!