On Moving and Dreaming

i love this picture of molly, our cat.

those are wild parrots, right outside our apartment.

I know, it's a little difficult to see the little guys, but my entire upper body was hanging out our apartment window to get this shot. They were pretty far away. :( Thankfully, Michael took off the screen from our window so that I didn't have it in my shot. On a side note: why is it whenever I'm hanging out of a window with a valuable piece of equipment in my hands, my arms turn to jello. It's like, suddenly the camera is a thousand pounds and I no longer have any muscle strength. 

Even though I'm excited to move, the wide variety of birds we see at our apartment, is something I will definitely miss. I mean, wild parrots? I never expected that when we moved here. I also never expected to hear owls at night! Every night we hear some sort of owl screech right by our apartment building. I've never actually seen one, but it never fails to scream out when we're lying in bed. In the winter instead of screeching we hear it hooting. :)

It was such an unexpected treat to hear owls outside our windows, when we first moved in. I remember the first night I heard the owl screech, I FREAKED out. I ran and woke Michael up to tell him I thought I heard someone screaming outside. Even though I'd heard owls before, the last thing I expected was to hear an owl in our part of LA! I'll definitely miss that when we move closer to the beach (in case you haven't heard, I'm not the beach's biggest fan). 

watching michael fish.

But, it'll be an adventure, and I'm all for adventure. I have loved moving since I was a kid. Every time my parents discussed a possible move I was always all for it. That may have to do with the fact that I never really had close friends growing up (my brother did, which is why he was always against moving). In fact, right before I met Michael I was planning on saving my money to just get up and move out of California. I wasn't sure where I'd go, but I just wanted to move on. 

Now, that I'm married and supposedly "settled", ALL I want to do is travel. I know moving around is hard. I don't have any delusions about it being easy and romantic all the time, but I love the adventure. And when I have my best friend around 24/7, I'm eager to experience new places and things with him. It doesn't matter where our physical "home" is, as long as he's there, that's my home. It's like that song, "home is wherever I'm with you."

Heck, if I could I would live in a cute little trailer. I'd fix it up so that it was cozy and comfortable. Then we'd drive it across the country, stopping wherever we wanted. We'd meet new and interesting people, see beautiful things, eat amazing food, see God's amazing work, and push through the hard times together. One day that'll happen. Even if it's when we're a little wrinkly and we have kids with kids of their own. :)

via

What are your dreams??

Weekends and How I Sorta Like the Beach

This weekend was a lot of fun. Michael was out of town last weekend at a men's retreat, so we decided to spend time having fun together. We spend most weeknights at home watching our favorite TV shows and eating home cooked meals. So on Michael's days off, we make it a point to get out and go somewhere.

On Saturday we spent time cleaning up our bedroom, getting rid of things that  we don't need anymore. I'm a total believer in not keeping things around that aren't being used, you don't love, or don't have sentimental value. I just can't stand clutter!

Clutter literally keeps me up at night. If I go to bed aware of a drawer or shelf that has a bunch of unused items sitting in/on it, I'll obsess over it! I've been like that since I was a kid. I remember my parents putting me to bed, and being aware of an area of my room that was messy. I would quietly sneak out of bed, turn the lights on and start cleaning up my room. It wasn't until I was done that I could finally fall asleep! I'm weird, I know. :P

After cleaning up our bedroom and dropping a carload of stuff off at the Salvation Army, we went to hang out with my mom. She had been painting her living room the whole morning and wanted us to come over and have a look. She had originally picked out a grayish shade of blue for the walls, but when she went to buy the paint, the salesman convinced her it would make her living room look too dark. He offered her a brighter shade of blue. When she got home and painted the first wall, she was shocked. It was almost like an electric blue! Here's a picture of me, pretending to be at the beach in front of the painted wall:

i also clipped some succulents from my mom's garden and brought some home. so cute, huh??

It's just so bright for a living room!

Afterward, Michael and I went on a date to get some dessert at a cafe. I had a little cinnamon roll and a latte. Michael had a piece of cheese cake the size of his head and a latte.

He cracks me up so much. He claims to not love chocolate very much, but if you go out to a bakery or anywhere that serves dessert, he goes wild for anything super chocolatey. It's so funny to see his eyes get huge when he spots a double chocolate lava cupcake or something. I don't' even like chocolate very much, but that guy LOOOVEES it!

michael couldn't believe the size of the cake, either!

I love going on dates with him. We laugh just about the whole time. He'll make funny faces and I'll just laugh and tell him he's embarrassing me, and he just gets louder and crazier. I know that once we start having kids date nights will be a rare treat, so I really try to soak up the time we have now. It's so important that we connect and have a chance to remember why we fell in love, all over again.

Sunday we spent the day at the beach. Unfortunately, it was no picnic. We were invited to go surf fishing with an old friend of Michael's that he's known since high school. I was all for meeting one of his old friends and spending time in the sun, but when we got down to the beach it was MISERABLE.

I've never been the type of person who dreams of living in a house right the beach (I guess I'm not your stereotypical California girl). I'm the type of person who dreams of living on a farm in the mountains. But, I'm really trying to like it since we might be moving closer to the beach to be closer to Michael's job. Most days, the beach is great! I love sitting in the sand when it's a hot sunny day, and dipping my feet in the water, and watching all the little crabs and starfish in the tide pools. What I DON'T like about the beach, are those days when the wind doesn't STOP blowing! Grrrr!! I can't stand it!

Sand getting in my eyes, hair, ears, mouth... Blech! Not to mention, whenever there's a breeze anywhere near my ears, they start to hurt so much! Someone recently told me it has to do with the liquid in our ears. Whatever it is, my ears start hurting so much when I'm chilly or there's a chilly breeze. So sitting on the beach while a cold wind was blowing nonstop, was definitely not my cup of tea. I ended up only fishing for about 10 mins, before I decided to lay in the sand and tan my legs while everyone else fished.

I look like I'm having a blast, don't I?

In the end, spending time with Michael's friends was worth it, and I'm glad we got to go. Hope you all had a great weekend! What did you do?

Let's Be Real

It's about to get real up in here (I don't think I've actually ever said that phrase out loud in real life)...

this is my "let's be real" face. :P photo by the Mr.

Since I started this blog I've been thinking and debating what I should "make it about". I mean, what do I want to write about? My cooking? My photography? Newlywed life? Government spending? (Ok, so that last one is something I'd NEVER like to write about.)

I mean, I love photography. It's my passion and my main "job" right now. My main focus (besides God and my marriage, duh! ;) ) is growing my photography business. I don't have regular clients at the moment, so right now it's me trying to learn more and more every day and just getting work so that I can grow my talents and my business.

But I also have a passion for cooking, and learning how to be a wife, and loving God in a real and honest way. Those things are all part of my life and who I am. Not to mention all the struggles and daily joys that just come from living life!

So, that's it.

That's what my blog will be about. ME. Rhiannon. Yes, that sounds a little narcissistic, but isn't anyone who writes about themselves just a teeny narcissistic? It's cool, though. We're all in this together. Not to mention, I find it very encouraging and comforting when I read blogs by other women, young wives, Christians, anyone who has suffered and triumphed, really. I'm a big believer in sharing our stories, and speaking the truth, out of love. THAT'S what I want to do here. And I hope I can encourage and give hope to others in the process.

So, I hope you stick around. I've got some good stuff coming up and I would hate for you to miss it!

Happy Mother's Day!!

happy mother's day to all the moms--new and old--and all the mom's at heart. you don't need to have given birth to be a mother at heart. :) 

happy mother's day to my own mom, i love you!

Some Instagram Photos

I doubt there are many people left who haven't heard of Instagr.am. It's a smart phone app that makes editing photos super easy, and then lets you share them with friends (think twitter, but with pictures and a caption). It used to only be available on the iPhone, but recently they added Adroid users. So, if you haven't yet, and you like photography, think about checking it out (it's free)!! If you don't have a smartphone but still want to look at Instagram photos on your computer, you can find me here (if you already have the app I'm thelavenderfield).

It's really amazing how this app has transformed photography. I wish I could find the article I read the other day (I can't remember where I saw it, now), but I read about a man who had never owned a DSLR camera in his life (the type of camera most professional photographers use), yet he had thousands of followers on Instagram and his photos are professional quality. He had simply gained a following and recognition through Instagram. Not to mention, there are a number of exceptional photo editing apps available for download, to improve your photos before you even post them on Instagram (here's their blog, so that you can check out other people's photos). 

Here are a few of my favorite photos from my own feed, for you guys to enjoy... :)

Have a great weekend, everybody! See you next week with a new recipe and an update on what's been going on around here. 

Lovely Grace

Here are the rest of the photos from Grace's senior session. These are such fun photos and Grace has such a fun and sweet personality, taking pictures of her was a blast!

This lovely lady has already been accepted to a great college, and I'm sure she's got some great things ahead of her. 

I've got another post lined up that I'm hoping to either have up tomorrow or by Saturday morning. I've got some more photos for you, and an update on what Michael and I have been up to, lately. 

Come back soon!

Utah in the Spring

We had absolutely gorgeous weather while at the cabin, as you can see in my last post.

I just want to keep this post short and simple, and let the photos do all the talking. :)

I have a bunch more posts lined up featuring a lot more of my photography (along with the rest of Grace's senior session)!!

Also, check out my Where to Find Me page to talk about booking your session with me!

Thanks!