Austin -- A Recap...

Audrey twirling with her new friend Jessica...

Our week-end in Austin yielded the following:

• Two trips to Amy's Ice Cream for Mexican Vanilla with strawberries and pecans crushed in
• An attempt by Audrey to take a fully-clothed evening dip in the pool at the Hotel San Jose amidst a patio chock full of hipsters
• An actual (fully-clothed) dip in the fountains across the street from the farmer's market by Audrey (when that kid sets her mind to something, she finds a way to make it happen...)
• Obtaining a container of the hottest (and most delicious) salsa I've ever eaten and an uber cute t-shirt* for Audrey) at said farmer's market
• Spending lots of quality time with our dear friends Owen and Jodi and their adorable offspring Arden
• A discovery by Millie that crepe paper does in fact taste bad
• Watching a crawfish race from afar (fear of the crawfish prevented actually participating in the race), chasing after loads of roaming peacocks and twirling to a zydeco band at Stacy and Blayne's magical wedding
• Realizing Audrey's budding love of photography (and coming to terms with the fact that my four-year old is a better photographer than me)
• Rekindling my love for coffee made in a press (this will bring my coffee addiction to new and unchartered heights)
• Suffering through three hours in the car on the way back to Dallas with a crying four-year old, completely overcome with sadness because she loves Austin so much that she didn't want to leave...

I feel your pain kid...I really do.


The crawfish race...

Arden as photographed by Audrey

*a note on the t-shirt...I'm happy to report I'm making good progress on buying more mindfully since ending the spending hiatus. The shirt we got Audrey at the Farmer's Market was, for me, the ideal kind of purchase. We bought it from an amazingly nice guy, Will Heron, who illustrates and screen prints all the shirts himself on sturdy American Apparel tees. Plus Audrey adores her shirt...won't take it off...so a win/win all around.

Audrey creating a masterpiece in her new favorite shirt...

Late March Birding

Dottie and I birded the entire length of the Pheasant Branch stream corridor this morning. New spring arrivals included Eastern Phoebe, Golden-crowned Kinglet and a northbound flock of Double-crested Cormorants flying high overhead. I might have missed them if Dottie hadn't pointed them out. We were hoping for Fox Sparrows and Winter Wrens, but found none. After Dottie departed, I found an Eastern Meadowlark and Eastern Bluebirds on the prairie parcel of the conservancy. The cheerful songs of Song Sparrows filled the air.

Canada Goose
Mallard
Double-crested Cormorant
Great Blue Heron
Red-tailed Hawk
Sandhill Crane
Killdeer
Ring-billed Gull
Mourning Dove
Great Horned Owl
Red-bellied Woodpecker
Downy Woodpecker
Hairy Woodpecker
Northern Flicker
Eastern Phoebe
Blue Jay
American Crow
Black-capped Chickadee
Tufted Titmouse
Red-breasted Nuthatch
White-breasted Nuthatch
Brown Creeper
Golden-crowned Kinglet
Eastern Bluebird
American Robin
European Starling
American Tree Sparrow
Song Sparrow
White-throated Sparrow
Dark-eyed Junco
Northern Cardinal
Red-winged Blackbird
Eastern Meadowlark
Common Grackle
House Finch
American Goldfinch
House Sparrow

Eastern Phoebe Digital Sketch © Mike McDowell

We've Selected Our Frocks...

And we're off to Austin for all sorts of wedding fun. Wish us luck with those peacocks...

Happy week-end.

Breakfast of Champions

My fourth cup...Suffice to say, I have a problem.

Friday Morning Paper -- Party Edition

This time last year, I was in the thick of planning for Bryan's birthday party. It was a milestone birthday, and his fixation on woodworking was at an apex, so I went a little overboard... There were handmade invitations involving the creative genius of my friend Achlee, vellum paper and wood veneer, tons of hurricanes fashioned with sheets of even more wood veneer, loads of German food and a ridiculously giant red velvet cake (his favorite.) Plus, we asked all the guests to arrive with a piece of wood found or bought that he could craft something from.

Suffice to say, this year is going to be a smidge more mellow, perhaps a little dinner at home with a few friends (and of course the red velvet cake.) But mellow doesn't mean it won't be festive...I'm thinking this garland draped over the table and these clever invites by the ladies at Royal Buffet (spotted via Bloesem) would fit the mood just right.

I'd be smitten with these pieces based solely on the fact that they're one-of-a-kind and made of recycled photography books and papers (not to mention the invites sport awfully clever lines, such as, "Last year, when you did not attend, I wept for days. ")

But then throw in Royal Buffet's profile on etsy, and I'm in for sure:

"We are Mollie Greene and Annie Koelle and we created Royal Buffet so that we
could make fantastic things to share with others. We are wives, mothers,
artists, and enjoyers of life."

You can also find Mollie and Annie on their lovely blogs.

Protecting the Boreal Forest

White-throated Sparrow

"Acting as a giant bird nursery ground, Canada's vast boreal forest forms a vital component in a chain of sites which run all the way down to South America. The essential breeding habitats of the boreal are being endangered by industrial development. This is being highlighted by the 'Save Our Boreal Birds' campaign, which is encouraging people to sign an online petition, urging the Canadian Government leaders to protect the forest. While the majority of the Canadian boreal is presently considered ecologically intact – and around 8% is currently protected – nearly a third of the land has been allocated for ecologically detrimental activities such as oil and gas exploration, mining and logging."

Link: Full Article from BirdLife International

Link: Sign the Petition to Protect Boreal Birds

I signed it.

White-throated Sparrow © Mike McDowell

Stephen Wiltshire: The Human Camera

Stephen Wiltshire has been called the "Human Camera." In this short excerpt from the film Beautiful Minds: A Voyage into the Brain, Wiltshire takes a helicopter journey over Rome and then draws a panoramic view of what he saw, entirely from memory.

Isolated Island House in Norway

This is a perfect place for everyone who loves privacy.

This beautiful house is completely cut off from the mainland. Nothing unusual so far, it’s not like there haven’t been any houses built on islands before, but this house practically spreads across the whole island, you go out the door and you find yourself swimming. I wonder how this house close to Oslofjord Islands was built. It’s nice if you can’t stand neighbors though!

Dimensions of the Cat Situation

Keep in mind when reading this post from Rob Fergus (reposted to Laura Erickson's blog) that the #1 cause of bird population declines is still habitat loss and fragmentation. As annual songbird numbers continue to fall, we're eventually going to face some tough decisions – decisions we should already be addressing on a broad scale. The question might ultimately come down to this: Do we want these particular songbirds or not? Do we want the Cerulean Warbler to grace our woodlands? Be it pesticides, window collisions or cars, communication towers, etc., there are far too many human-made causes that are severely impacting and killing off our native songbirds by the multi-millions each year. If we want these particular bird species around for future generations to enjoy, we'll have to take a hard look at ourselves, our lifestyles, our technologies and come to an understanding of what our legacy will be as it concerns the world's birds.

"Bucky" at Pheasant Branch © 2008 Mike McDowell

600 birds by Ben Lizdas

Kate helps Ben with grammar questions for his blog.

Just what the universe needs...yet another birder blog! Introducing 600 birds, the new birding blog of Ben Lizdas, sales manager of Eagle Optics. Ben is actually a pretty respectable digiscoper, but he needs to get out in the field more often. He does, however, do quite a bit of traveling to various birding festivals around the country, so you're likely to find photographs of birds not typically found in Wisconsin on his blog.

Image © 2008 Mike McDowell

Learning in Front of an Audience

Ok...I took this au naturale (i.e. sans flash and with all the lamps and overhead lights turned off.) It's blurry, but I think that fuzzy light looks pretty.

Any tips?

Inspiring

Image via Kalman's The Principles of Uncertainty blog on NY Times.

There's a genius interview with artist, designer, author, illustrator, photographer, etc... Maira Kalman over on Inspiration Boards. (via A Cup of Jo)

My favorite snippet from the interview...

Are there places or things you avoid because they sap your creativity?
I avoid malls. They are deadly.

Right on Maria!

Charlie's Toy

I got a good tip from Amanda while reading Click. The Good News' blog about her adorable dog Zoe's toy. It's called a Kong and I bought one for Charlie. I had to get the largest size because, well, let's face it...he's a slightly large dog. I keep forgetting :)

Charlie absolutely loves it, so here's Charlie and his toy:

He's reaching for it!!! He's so lazy he won't get up to get his toy.

And he's got it!My dog loves to pose for the camera.He's just waiting for someone to try and take it. He's probably watching TV in this one...he loves watching TV. His favorite movie is Eight Below where he'll put his little (ok, big) nose right up to the TV when the dogs bark.

And this is his favorite spot to take naps. He loves barking at anyone he hears in the hallway outside our door. He's our little (ok, big) guard dog.

The end!

Harley vs Semi Truck & I live to talk about it

On March 30th 2005, I was in a horrible motorcycle accident where I was run over by a semi truck (yes, you read it right…run over). I came close to being with my "Father". During the first few months there were many complications. Even to this day, doctors tell me that I am a “very unique and complicated" case. I spent almost 2 years in bed trying to save my leg but January of this year the doctors took it. I’m actually better off and get around on crutches.

San Antonio

After seeing the Alamo, my husband and I strolled the downtown streets of San Antonio. For some reason I loved this old movie theater:
And this cow (Longhorn?) just made me crack up...I am definitely in Texas.

I almost convinced my husband to go to the Ranger Museum. We didn't but I at least got a shot of the entrance...look at all those horns!!!

So then we headed down towards the famous River Walk or Paseo del Rio:

This was my first views of the River....gorgeous!

They even have little boat tours along the river. I thought they should do romantic gondola rides and my husband just laughed.

The thing I had been dreaming about FOREVER was to sit somewhere along the River Walk, sip a margarita, and just relax and enjoy ourselves. So when we saw this place, we figured PERFECT!!!

The Mexican Manhattan Restaurant as seen from the River Walk.

Sigh...and the much craved margaritas:

While we were enjoying our drinks a VERY inquisitive and hungry squirrel started walking around the porch. We seriously thought he was going to climb up a lady's jacket and steal her lunch. Finally a friendly waiter gave the squirrel a whole soft tortilla and the little guy was content to sit and munch on a nearby tree branch:

Then we pretty much just strolled along the River Walk. It would have been nice to see it when all the trees where un-bare but it was nice that we didn't have to deal with too many tourists....and it was the perfect temperature!

Of course, if you know us, we had to stop and get a Guinness at Waxy's Irish Pub. MMmmm..

My night pictures did not turn out well so I'll spare you that. But we stayed the night in a hotel off the River Walk and had a great view of the city.

The next day we bopped around some more. I love these cool bridges:

And being on the river, there are TONS of fountains....some you even have to walk over.

And of course, here's the quintessential view of the River Walk. At night it's all lit up with lights which is very pretty. I love the Texas themed ones....check out the Texas canopies in the back. I swear they love their stars and you can find them everywhere!This is a little stage where they put on shows and I thought it was cute. We didn't stick around for the show because we were heading out of San Antonio later that afternoon. And it looked a bit cheesy ;)But, if you walk up the stairs, like my husband's about to do, you'll find a bunch of cute little arts/crafts/clothing/etc stores. I got a cute little shirt and some candle stuff.

After a few hours of shopping, we were a bit hungry and decided to get some food. We saw this great Texan themed restaurant and sat on the balcony. I played a bit with my camera settings, as you can tell:

The color accent thing on my camera is pretty cool. Here's it picking up only red:

And here's only blue (I like the red better):

And here's normal:

Hope you enjoyed San Antonio!