Rebecca Mudrick - Overexposed

Whew!

After 2468 miles of driving over 5 days, we made it!  We rolled into town late yesterday afternoon just in time for a yummy home-cooked dinner.  Thanks Mom!

And after an early morning yoga session, a haircut, and a date with SuperSonic to clean out my car I feel like a new woman ... almost.  I still can't bare the thought of sitting down to edit some of the hundreds of images I took on our adventure (yes, I did photograph the six-legged cow!) ... but maybe after a long run tonight and another full night of sleep I'll be able to work some photoshop magic.  Right now we're all about just doing whatever feels good ... which doesn't seem to involve sitting in one place for more then a few minutes, lol.

Time to go jump on the trampoline with the monkeys.  I've gotta see if I can still do a backflip!  ;)

In Kansas Today ...

We saw a six-legged cow.  Seriously.  And standing next to the six-legged cow was a five-legged cow.

Ahhhh ... road trips.  Gotta love 'em.

Hello from the Road

Just checking in from our hotel room in downtown St. Louis - 1100 miles and 2 days into this crazy adventure. 

The monkeys have been amazing and the sisters have had a wonderful time too.  We've enjoyed both scheduled and spontaneous adventures that I can't wait to share.  I was hoping to blog all along the way, but the evenings are short and sleep is scarce - I'll have to recap after we reach our final destination.

Anyway, I guess I just wanted to wave Hello and say so far so good.  Everyone keep your fingers crossed the monkeys (and the weather) hold out another 3 days ...

xoxo,

Reb

Roadtrip 2008

Gas is so cheap these days (insert groan here) that we thought we'd road trip to Utah this summer.  Okay, let's be honest here - I thought it'd be great to road trip to Utah this summer and I roped my evil sister into driving out with me and roped Dan into driving back with me.  I don't know why I think dragging the monkeys on a cross country car trip is going to be fun but I'm pretty darn excited.  In fact, we made the trip sound so exciting that my sister Anne decided to spend all day today flying to Chapel Hill so she can spend 5 days in the car with us driving her back home.  Three sisters and three brothers - or as Joshua says, "Three Sisters vs. Three Brothers."  We've evened the playing field and I'm feeling very empowered.  Watch out monkeys - I am woman, hear me roar!

My evil sister and I have meticulously planned every aspect of the trip ... from the route to the in-car entertainment to the daily menu.  We're going to all sorts of cool, quirky places and I can't wait for the adventures that lie ahead.  The thing I'm most looking forward to?  Our trip to Graceland.  Did you know Elvis died and a few hours later I was born?  I could be Elvis reincarnated ...

As of 7am tomorrow morning, we'll be off.  2339 miles. Watch out middle America - here we come!

OPAM: June 2008

Tara Whitney posted on her blog a few months back about doing One Project a Month (OPAM) and she invited all her loyal readers (that, um, would be me) to join in on the fun.  Well, it's about time I jumped on the bandwagon since heavens knows I have so many projects in my head I just haven't gotten around to yet.

My first OPAM project was to wall paper the nook in my living room and one wall in my teeny tiny entry way.  My evil sister and I decided to start with the nook, since it would be harder to spot our mistakes.  And guess what?  It was relatively easy and I LOVE the results - it really brightens up that spot.  Special thanks to my amazing friend Cher for the inspiration.  Now I just need to find the perfect console to sit against that wall and the living room will be finished.  Yay!

The before image (and ew - I hate the compression on the images, sorry!):

And the after images:


The entry way hasn't happened yet (and won't until August, darn it) because we don't have quite enough paper.  I'll have to order another roll from Anthropologie and find a new partner in crime to help me hang it.

My next OPAM?  Who knows ... there are too many to choose from.  I desperately need to tackle the basement, but I'm not sure I'm ready for a project of that scale yet.  We'll see how brave I am come August ...

Hungry

From our weekend getaway on Bald Head Island ...  Doesn't it look like Dan's devouring me?

And one more not quite so passionate (hee hee) picture.  I love pictures that I'm in but not really in ... like this one of the gorgeous wetlands (and the lighthouse commissioned by Thomas Jefferson) with our shadows.

Bald Head was pristine and gorgeous - I'm so glad we imposed on my evil sister and got away sans monkeys.  Dan and I both needed a few days of life in the slow lane and it was niiiiiice.  We need to go back already ...

No Longer Empty

Just over one year ago we packed up our small Boston apartment, shipped off our belongings, said tear-filled goodbyes to dear friends, loaded up the monkeys and moved our lives to a small college town in the South.  Remember this post?  Was it really only one year ago?  I feel so far removed from city life that it seems ages and ages ago ... and I still miss it terribly.  But not all of it. 

While I still feel very much at "home" when I visit Boston (perhaps more so then I feel here) there are people and things we love about our new life.  The kids are thriving, we've met wonderful people and we love our light-filled, peaceful home.  The mild winters - oh the winters! - are divine ... as is the constant sunshine hidden ever-so-occasionally by a robust summer's night thunder storm.

My moving post was titled Empty, and I certainly felt that way for months.  But after a year of getting settled, I'm happy to say my heart is filling up again with all the good things about our new life in a small college town.  It feels good to have this year behind me ...

Sleepy

So I know I mentioned that if I posted before the new Overexposed was up and running it meant I was procrastinating ... but I swear I'm not, lol!  I just have no idea when the new blog is going to be up and am tired of waiting, so we're just going to carry on as usual.  ;)

I was going through old pictures today compiling images of Noah for a little book I'm making for him and came across this picture:

I've long wanted to do a project where I photograph my monkeys sleeping, but haven't quite gotten around to it.  Looking at Noah's angelic sleeping face in this shot though is making me re-think my priorities.  Maybe it's time to make room for that photo project after all.

I have loads and loads to blog about in the coming weeks including some fun news I've been dying to share.  Stay tuned!

xoxo,

Reb

1:1

*disclaimer: if it looks like all we do is sit around and bake sweets ... it's because my little sister is the devil and we pretty much do bake and eat sweets all day.  Anyway, I just had to put that out there.  I'm not feeling guilty about it or anything.  ;)

--

Okay, so let's talk ratios.  Cake to frosting.  What's your ideal scenario?  Mine, is a 1:1 ratio.  As far as I'm concerned, cake ... or brownies ... or sugar cookies ... or anything else that can be frosted, is pretty much just a vehicle for frosting so I like to lay it on real thick.  These mint brownies are a good example:

Okay ... so now that I'm looking at it - this is about 1/3 brownie, and 2/3 frosting, lol.  In fact, it was a little much for my baby sis (wimp!) who dissected each brownie and removed the mint layer.   I, however, was in heaven.  And apparently so was Michael. :)

p.s. if I don't post for a bit it's because I'm working on the new Overexposed.  That said, If I do post it's because I'm procrastinating working on the new Overexposed, lol.  Anyway, no one stress if I'm absent for a bit ... it only means good things are ahead for this blog. Yay!

Little Papi: The Extended Gallery

In keeping with the new tradition mentioned here, I thought I'd share more images from little "N's" gallery, otherwise known as Little Papi.  Oooh, he was a sweetheart.  It's been fun looking through his gallery again today and thinking back to how wonderful it was working with him.  If only all my little clients were so easy ...