Life in Color Photography

Saturday was my mom’s big 50th bash. My step-dad Bill and I spent the whole day working on it. Earlier this month when we got together to plan everything and I rattled off lists of things we were going to get, make, do, etc. he asked if he needed to do anything. I get a little over-zealous with party planning, in case you’ve never noticed. But he did have to help on Saturday, shopping, chopping, and cooking to put together this:

Brent the bar tender. Check the homemade (and slightly supplemented with Newman’s Own -shh) strawberry lemonade, yum!


Party was at my mom’s. Ah I love her backyard, so party friendly!


From the left: my mom’s friend from I think middle school, Kim. She gave her this framed picture of my mom on cheer squad when they were really young, so cute, long pigtails! Then Bill’s mom, Bill (my partner in crime), and Kim’s husband. I didn’t get pictures of all the food we spend forever working on but I did a french type potato salad, a yummy fresh fruit salad, and BBQ burritos (pastrami, peppers, onions, pepperjack cheese, tomatoes in a flour tortilla then grilled in foil). We also had chips and dips along with the bar my brother set up: lemon drops, pops, beers, wine, water and the lemonade. Full disclosure: my mom did end up helping chop veggies a bit. She’s so fast at that kind of thing!

It has been hotter than hot around here so I spent the next day at this pool doing nothing. Oh I did a little knitting I guess, but still day of perfection. And it got to be over a hundred here and I still managed to keep the max temperature at the house below 85. Sounds, hot but that was only for a little bit. With no air conditioning I think that’s pretty good. Hope you’re staying cool and your weekends were as rockin!

And totally random: But do you ever watch NBC nightly news on the weekend? Lester Holt always looks like he’s about the crack up on every story, even terrible ones like war stuff and house fires. Am I alone on this? It sort of cracks me up, I can not take him seriously.

Yesterday I finally made it to Portland again, it had been months I think since I’d driven up. Trying to save gas and all (though Bj doesn’t believe me). I met Tex at the cool nursery she works at. I realized I didn’t get very good overview shots of the nursery, I was too focused on all the pretty plants (oh my poor neglected yard). But here is the one shot I got:

You can see how it’s right in the city, so neat, like a little oasis. We had lunch and then I wondered around snapping pictures of plants I want.


Who knew I liked succulents? Not me, but I do love these.


I love this apple tree. It’s six varieties grafted together. Then it was trained to grow short and wide. I’m thinking this could be very nice growing propped on my fence. After hanging out for a while and checking up on Tex’s wedding plans (and her dress, oh my goodness it’s awesome) we headed to Canby to pick strawberries. Sciarrino and I had walked downtown to the farmer’s market Wednesday and taste tested six different farms. We liked this one (South Barlow Berries) best. And I did take my camera to that market, but did not take pictures, bad Amber. But in my defense I was busy eating a big cup of fresh cut fruit and the best burrito ever!


U-Pick berries on the cutest little farm. They don’t spray nasty stuff here which is nice. It’s a lot of work but the reward?


My bounty:


That bowl might look deceiving but it’s one of those huge mixing bowls (garage sale find). I picked ten pounds. My grand total: $8.50 so cheap!


Happy pickers!


One more picture because they are just so pretty! This farm also does marionberries, raspberries, boysenberries, and more. So we’ll be back!