Is it a Photo? Is it a Painting?

Cadenza, originally uploaded by t i m o (a.k.a. Tim Lowly).

So my friend Tim Lowly, husband of our church's wonderful pastor Sherrie Lowly and instigator for the Tim Lowly Ensemble which Ted drums for, also happens to be a talented and well-respected painter. He is a teacher/artist-in-residence at North Park University, where he also directs the gallery. I have been a fan of Tim's paintings for as long as I've known him. His images often resonate with the deepest places of my heart, and someday I'm going to scrape together enough money to buy me one of his works.

Lately, however, he's been making more and more art in Photoshop with photos he's taken. The stuff is pretty amazing. He posted the "photo" above of Cadence on his Flickr stream, and I absolutely love it. I'm not a big fan of drastic Photoshop alterations (I can't even get simple textures down), but the stuff that Tim does just makes my jaw drop. I highly recommend mosing on over there and having a looksy. He also posts his paintings and drawings, which are also amazing.

Best Shot(s) Monday--Embrace the Blur

A week ago, I wrote a post on Shutter Sisters about How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love The Blur. My best shot for this week fits quite nicely with that post. I snapped this photo while chasing Cadence down our hallway. There's something about this photo that I just love (and I don't say that about too many of my photos). Sometimes, the most perfect way to capture my little whirlwind-of-a-child is like this--a total blur.

In other news, it was Ted's 31st birthday on Saturday (which coincidentally was the 6th anniversary of this here blog). We celebrated w/ a few friends and family members at an Ethiopian place called Ethiopian Diamond. It's been a long time since I've had Ethiopian, and I forgot just how delicious it is. Chicago, esp. the North side has a large Ethiopian population, so there are a number of restaurants to choose from. I think we picked a pretty good one and hope to go back.

After dinner, we headed back to our place for more libations, including shots of a really really good bottle of scotch that I bought Ted for Valentine's Day. As you can see from this photo of Erik, the scotch had its intended effect.

So is anybody else's kid suffering from sleep deficit due to the time change? I have to say, that's the last time we have a late-night gathering on the eve of a spring-forward time change. We had to be up for church the next morning, and Cadence ended up getting only 8 hours of sleep Saturday night. Ouch.

Go see more folk's Best Shot's on Tracey' Mother May I.

Best Shot(s) Monday--Reunited

One of the downsides of being sick for Cadence has been missing out on seeing her friends. She was so happy to be able to go to church yesterday where she was reunited with her buddy Rudden.

Here was the "conversation" I observed between them as they held hands walking to the nursery together:

Cadence: I love you, Rudden.
Rudden (singing): So we sailed up to the sun
Cadence (with her hand on his arm for emphasis): I love you, Rudden.
Rudden (singing): Till we found the sea of green
Cadence (unwavering): I love you.
Rudden (happy-go-lucky): And we lived beneath the waves
Me (interceding on Cadence's behalf): Rudden, Cadence is saying she loves you.
Rudden (carefree as ever): In our yellow submarine.

Ah, to be 3-and-a-half and have a hand to hold...

And here they are passing notes during Communion. These two are inseparable. Makes going home a physical challenge for both families. Hopefully, we're done with being sick so that these two can spend more time together, especially with the weather warming up (knocking on wood...) soon.

Go see more folk's Best Shot's on Tracey' Mother May I.

Valentine's Day Tea Party

Cadence and I went to a Valentine's Day Tea Party at her buddy Ada Grey's (and my friends Jenn and John's) place. These folks know how to throw a party, and I knew we'd have a great time. As you can see from this photo, we were not disappointed.

My photos can't do justice to the yumminess that was spread out before us. You'll just have to trust me on that one.

I can't say that we actually got around to sitting and eating our goodies and sipping tea. Nevertheless, we all had fun. And Ada got to wear these nifty shoes!

Happy 2008! And Welcome!

Welcome to the new domain, y'all! This is my first official post on shutterbugmama.com! Hope you guys are as bright-eyed and bushy tailed as Cadence on this first day of 2008.

We had the most boring New Year's Eve possible in our home. Ted and I both had headaches (his was beer-induced, mine was a migraine) all day. Poor Cadence had to fend for herself. I had wanted to take her downtown on the train (it's what she wanted), but my headache didn't go away until around midnight (just in time for 2008!). We stayed in and watched The Straight Story, which is a sweet movie and all, but about the most boring movie you can watch on New Year's Eve. Yeah. We're a dull bunch around here.

That's alright, though. We had enough excitement on Sunday night when we hosted a chili party for (mainly) our Berry Church friends. It was so exciting I didn't take any photos pretty much the whole night, unfortunately. Actually, I kind of feel stupid taking photos at parties, probably because I hate having my own photo taken, but my friend Amy tells me that most folks like seeing photos of themselves afterwards, so now I regret not taking more photos.

Anyhoo, we had around 40 people show up, and Ted made JUST enough chili. It was a lot of fun, and of course the homebrew flowed like we were in the Promised Land. Cadence had a blast, as her friends Fischer, Ada, Rudden and Baby Jack were there, and I was happy because their PARENTS were there. I wish I had taken photos. Did I say that already? Oh well. Next time.

There's a fresh layer of snow on the ground calling our names to be turned into angels, so I gots to go now. Have a wonderful 2008, everyone!