Where does the time go?!

Life has been zooming by lately.  I'm not sure if it just a result of getting older or having more responsibility, but I am continually looking at a clock or the date and thinking "How is it already _______(lunchtime/5 O'clock/the end of August/etc)?!".

Looking back, nothing too eventful has been happening, but life has been good.  I'm loving watching Cora grow and learn.  I'm also enjoying the challenge of learning how to balance all of the new stuff in my life.  There is a lot of what feels like failure when trying to balance things, but it makes the successes and good days sweeter.

F is for Flamingo

On another note, I've been able to make time to work on a couple artsy things.  I'm hoping to finish up opening an Etsy shop in the next month or two.  Also, I decided I wanted to make an animal ABC book for Cora.  It is going to take a while, so I'm aiming for it to be a Christmas present... or maybe a birthday present.

... and I've been working on just playing with different paints and doodling during the evening or lunch breaks just to relax and unwind.  I will share some more art pictures once I get pictures of them.

Lumenocity

As soon as I heard about Lumenocity, I knew it was something I had to go to.  What is better than a free symphony concert and a light show?!

I packed a picnic and we headed down there two and a half hours earlier than the show started to get a spot.  It was already pretty crowded by the time we got there (we went the second night) so we settled for a less crowded area with an obstructed view.  We could see the top half of the building and that was good enough for us.

I enjoyed getting to spend some time outside in the sun and just laying around lazily with Cora and Ben.  Cora was pretty relaxed and was playful during the wait for the concert.

Cora kept looking at all of the people behind us and smiling.  After a couple minutes, I looked back and found a girl about our age making faces at her.

The show was really good!  Unfortunately, I didn't really get any pictures, but I included one of our view.  I really liked the parts of the show where they manipulated the building making it look like it is melting or twisting around.  I also really enjoyed the abstract parts of it.  There were a couple parts I didn't really enjoy, but I appreciated the artistic vision and the work that was put into it.  There were a couple of parts that I didn't get the full effect because of our obstructed view, but I still enjoyed the music.  I'm hoping this becomes a yearly event in Cincinnati.

check out some photos and videos of the event here.

Birth Announcement

We had a little photo shoot with Cora for her birth announcement at about two weeks.  For the background, I used our regular bedsheets.  I turned the photos all black and white using iPhoto (I no longer have photoshop on my computer due to compatibility issues with new operating system and the old Photoshop).  Here are some of our favorite pictures:

I simply added some text to one of the photos to make the following announcement:

I waited until Walgreens was running some photo deals and printed up a whole bunch to send out.  I loved making my own because I could make exactly what I wanted instead of having to settle for some of the layouts I found on different sites.  I also enjoyed doing the little photo shoot with Cora.