How's The Weather?

Mother Nature can't decide between these two extremes so every half hour they switch. I can't believe I'm about to say this but I'm ready for a summery summer!

Print Giveaway!

Good morning all!

So I recently made a few prints that I think are fun and wanted to do a little bloggy giveaway for those who might like them as well! (free stuff, holla!)

Fathers Day Fill In

(I realize this has come and gone, but I figured it was universally SO CUTE and could be used for next year or for Daddy's birthday even!?)

So all you do is ask your little one these questions and fill them in! It prints at 8x10, and then matted into a frame which looks great. :)


























Temple Nursery/Bedroom Print

For those who have no idea what this is about, us LDS peeps LOVE our pretty temples and this one is the Portland Oregon temple! The words are also the lyrics to a children's song. Also prints at 8x10.

So there you have it! If you'd like one or both, just leave an email address in the comment section and tell me which ones you'd like, and I'll send off the PDF versions to you asaps! ;)

Cheers!

Fathers Day

Fathers Day 2012



Fathers Day 2013

I can't believe how big our little baby got, or how amazing of a Daddy Richard still is.

Today was such a sweet little day. It started with Richard getting breakfast in bed: Scrambled eggs with avocado and turkey, strawberry's, toast and orange juice! (Go me for getting up earlyyyy!)

Then presents: A photo crafty I made with these two pictures above and Richard's long lost favorite movie, "Spirit." (It's awesome okay?!)

Then we all snuggled in bed and read a giant pile of books to Gracie while Daddy drifted off to sleep again. :) (This actually was one of those moments in life where I literally couldn't get any happier then feeling cozy and safe with my little daughter mesmerized by Dr. Seuss and my husband snoring contently well into the late morning...blessings, blessings.)

Then off to church!

Then home to play with Gracie and call all the parents for wishes and happy's.

Then Richard made THE WORLDS BEST GRILLED CHICKEN, and grilled asparagus for dinner. I kid you not, it was out of this world, sublime. We have recorded the recipe for all eternity. ( I seasoned the asparagus so I didn't make him do all the cooking ;)

It was a great Fathers Day and well deserved since Fathers are such important people in this world. Booyah for Dads!

I'm "Blue," If I Was Green I Would Die...

Yes, that was an Eiffel 65 song title post. Clever!

But it applies: I am in fact, "Blue." On the Color Code Personality test, that is. If you haven't heard of this, I don't blame you. I hadn't either until...mmm...a few weeks ago? But I guess it's been around for a long time. Anyways, it's a fantastic way to know what type of person you are and how that relates to the 3 other Color types of people in the world.

Why is this important? It just is! I don't know what it is about ourselves, but we as human beings LOVE to try to learn more about ourselves. We are OBSESSED with ourselves. We love it when OTHER people try to describe ourselves TO ourselves. It's weird! And narcissistic but probably one of those innate things we are just always fascinated with.

Another funny thing about us humans: We deeply want to feel like we belong, like we are accepted and fit in somewhere, but we DON'T want to be just like everyone else. We want to believe that we are special and unique...but at the same time...not TOO different, otherwise we are weird. It's weird. We're weird! But awesome.

Anyways, back to this test. After taking it I was told these are my qualities as a "BLUE" person:

Motive (Intimacy)

Blues are motivated by Intimacy. They seek to genuinely connect with others, and need to be understood and appreciated. Everything they do is quality-based. They are loyal friends, employers, and employees. Whatever or whomever they commit to is their sole (and soul) focus. They love to serve and give of themselves freely in order to nurture others' lives.

About Blue

Blues have distinct preferences and have the most controlling personality. Their personal code of ethics is remarkably strong and they expect others to live honest, committed lives as well. They enjoy sharing meaningful moments in conversation as well as paying close attention to special life events (e.g. birthdays and anniversaries). Blues are dependable, thoughtful, and analytical; but can also be self-righteous, worry-prone, and moody. They are "sainted pit-bulls" who never let go of something or someone once they are committed. When you deal with a BLUE, be sincere and make a genuine effort to understand and appreciate them.

That is pretty amazing. Especially the "sainted pit-bull" part, as Richard can attest! Although I would have to disagree with the "self-righteous" bit since I know my heart through and through and could never possess that characteristic, though I've been thought to be it from time to time. But I think it all gets lost in translation since the "BLUE" in me expects others to care as much as I do about certain things. (oh stacy)

But it's all so interesting, yes?!

The human condition is SO fascinating to me. I could sit for days and days and learn about each and every person I know, as if they were a book to devour. I should have been a councilor but as the counciling director warned me once, "I'm afraid you might take on all of your work within yourself and that is never good."

So I stuck to the silly artsy side of Stacy and went with graphic design for fear of turning into some dark and crazed version of myself. Good call.

Have you found your Color yet?!

Life in Pictures

I'm trying to play catch-up so I'm just going to fly through our "life chronicles" here!:

Gracie devours books now! / The big willow tree out front had to go to Heaven and we were sad. / We went to California and hit up the magical Disneyland! (I photo dumped everything onto Facebook, these are just my few favorites.) / So far June has rocked our socks off.

A Story About A Story

You may have noticed that I've been posting on Facebook quite a lot about a little blog called, "Ashley Ann Photography."

Here's why:

One day a few months ago I was extremely bored and wandering around the blogosphere without purpose or direction. I have no idea how it happened exactly, but I was soon reading and devouring everything on Ashley's site.

First, her pictures are amazing and the daily peek into her life is refreshing and full of light and happiness. But secondly, her adoption story hit me like a ton of bricks. Which is weird considering I'm not really a girl who has thought much about adoption. Well, I adopted my kitty, but other than that - my life has been mostly about getting through my own milestones rather than affecting the lives of others around the world. 

Not that I'm not charity minded. My church and myself included donate a lot of time and resources to helping others, and I love doing it. I guess I just never caught the "passion bug" about it all though, you know? But I did when I read Ashley's story. 

I think it must have been fate. Or a subject matter match made in Heaven with my soul. Whatever it was, I wept like a baby for two days after reading her adoption story. Which again, is weird! I see charity and fundraisers all the time for a lot of different causes and while I think they are wonderful, they've never really had me weeping for two days! 

Anyways, the point being: if you have a minute to read her story, I promise life will seem a little brighter. Especially when you see what happened when readers of her blog became inspired through her story to do THIS. Again, I pretty much cried all of today when I read this and went to Love Without Boundaries and donated and signed up for everything I could. Which I'd just like to state for a third time, is quite unusual for me. But I keep bringing this up because maybe there are a lot of people out there like me who haven't quite felt that "awakening of the soul" for a cause yet and might be inspired through this experience. Or Ashley's. 

Either way, it's all pretty amazing. And while Richard was hugging the weepy's out of me I croaked, "There is good in the world, isn't there?" And he said, "Yes. There's lots of it."

I guess now I'd just like to be a bigger part of it. :)

What We're Up To...

Just watching and dancing to this on repeat. I wish Sara would have asked me to be a random street dancer for this video. I would have done her proud.

My Thoughts on "Wisdom"

(I've been doing a lot of self-reflection lately, which tends to inspire millions of strange new thoughts that cram into my head until I write them down and analyze how strange I really am. This is one of those times.)

It feels like the older I get the more I realize that Wisdom isn't so much about being obtained as it is just - letting go. It's simple, really. Not nearly as complicated as my youth had/has conjured it up to be. And even now, as I write this at the ripe bold age of 26 I'm painfully aware of just how inexperienced and unwise I truly am.

It's this messy, wretched thing called mortality that both hinders and prepares us for Wisdom. It hinders because we rarely fall into the pit of weakness, temptation and stupidity just once. But it prepares us because steel, (being my metaphor since it's the strongest and coolest metal) is only forged and molded by the constant companion of fire.

All this noted, life sucks sometimes. I know I have found my imperfections unbearable more often than not. I agonize over every stupid sentence. I ramble and comment when silence would say more. I am proud, young, vain, lonely and assuming. (Though do I get Wisdom Brownie Points for even admitting this?!...and there's the vanity.)

Inexperience is not all my fault, though for a long time I thought it was. I thought, "Shame on me for not reading every book, or traveling every corner of the world, or partaking of every temptation. I must be missing out and therefore not qualified for Wisdom."

But that's stupid. Some of the smartest, most worldly people are not Wise. Which is why at 26 I've come to find that Wisdom is the letting go of all of these things and being forgiving enough of ones self to say, "I'm just a baby in this eternal existence." 26 years is a nano second of time compared to all that was, is and will be. And I feel at peace with that awareness of ignorance. I mean, really. We only use 10% of our brains anyways, and some barely that.

So I'll cut myself some slack for my eternal youth and imperfection. I guess what I'm trying to say is, I think it wise to remember I'm not as wise as I thought. And that's okay. Then again, let's wait another nano second and see how I feel at 86.

One Year and Two Months (That's How My Brain Registers It Anyways...)

Gracie...

+ still sticks that tongue out!

+ is super tall.

+ has thick blonde hair that is starting to curl in the back!

+ has no stranger danger and will gladly be passed around at any party.

+ loves technology, i.e. cell phones, laptops, remote controls, etc.

+ loves to stick her gut out and play with her belly button.

+ loves to brush her teeth to the tune of "jingle bells" but we switch all the words to "brush brush brush..."

+ loves fruit snacks!

+ loves her Dada.

+ calls me "Dada" for fun.

+ loves the outdoors and will hike/romp just about anywhere.

+ still loves Tangled.

+ loves other kids, but will usually poke them in the eye.

+ loves anything new, i.e. new places, new toys, new people.

+ loves to get into mischief and then once the "Gracie, no no please..." comes out she grins and runs full speed at me with a bear hug.

+ gives me about 127 hugs a day. *melt*

+ will give kisses all day long if asked. *double melt*

+ is sweet and loving with everyone she meets.

+ has many admirers and adopted aunts and uncles galore.

+ is such a lovely human being. We love every second with her.

These past few days she has looked like a little 4 year old in all her pictures, she is so big now! It's starting to make me say cliche' things like, "Where did my baby go?!" I'm sure I will say that a lot in the months to come. :)

22

Grace and I made this video yesterday when she had the grumpies. Sometimes, 1 minute dance parties are a must. :) (The song is 22 by Taylor Swift, or TaySwifty if you will.)

1 Minute Dance Party from Stacy Dean on Vimeo.

Photography Challenge Day 30: Self-Portrait

I hereby post this last photography challenge picture! I'd like to state for the record that I HATE taking self-portraits. It's almost impossible to self direct a shot and not look like a dork. So after too many crap pictures I said, "Screw it. I'm jumping into the air and calling it a day."

But I kind of like the way it turned out. It reads more "me" than anything else I got.

Anyways, that's the end. I feel the need for some kind of a wrap up to the challenge, so here's one:

30 days ago I took my first self-portrait and I can honestly say that I've learned a lot about photography and life since then. It was an eventful month. But I'm pretty proud of all the hustling and bustling I had to do to keep to this commitment and in the process I think I got a few nice shots.

But I'm kind of excited to give the camera a rest now... :)

Photography Challenge Day 29: Black and White

Three minutes to spare until midnight. Clutch.

Photography Challenge Day 28: Celebration

I'm just going to post a bunch (not all) of my pictures from the last few days since this whole weekend trip to Seattle was a celebration of sorts!

+ Mariners vs. Angels Baseball Game with Friends (iPhone shots courtesy of Parker Mangum: Thank you!)







I got squished out and replaced by photo-bombers! Also of note, the Mariners won - holla.

+ Goodbye Party for Richard's Parent's Who Are Moving to Arizona!















This weekend was an awesome celebration of friends and family, so thanks everyone. Catch you on the flippity flip. :)

Photography Challenge Day 27: Flowers

I missed yesterday's challenge, oh well. But here are some lovely flowers :)

Photography Challenge Day 25: Strangers

I didn't know how to do this without looking like a total creeper, so I just took my shot and ran! All in the name of "challenge."