it’s a jungle in there

Laundry day. Here, it was yesterday.

I’ve been doing laundry about once a week since we’ve been here, which means I have about two bins full of dirty clothes between the two of us. I shouldn’t complain; the laundry room is just down the hall and free to use. All I need to do is provide soap, time and elbow grease.

However, there is a little wrinkle (haha, no pun intended) in my laundry routine. I hang all, and I mean ALL, my workout clothes to dry. The high heat from the dryer breaks down the elastic–I read that somewhere. I did this at home, too, but I always did smaller loads throughout the week, so I never had more than about seven or eight items to hang at any one time.

Well. This laundry-once-a-week-thing transforms my bathroom into what looks like a cramped running goods store. Or a jungle of brightly colored dry-fit wear.

Twenty-five items total hung in my bathroom yesterday.

Sports bras: 8

Shorts: 6

Shirts: 6

Long-sleeve shirts: 2

Yoga shorts: 2

Running capris: 1

ONE of the above items was a “regular” article of clothing; a part-cashmere top I wore to church last weekend. (I have a phobia of drying ANYTHING that might ruin, shrink or otherwise become less nice because of the dryer. I will say, however, now that I’ve lost a few pounds, I’ve been throwing things in the dryer right and left! It’s so freeing…)

On a side note, I didn’t actually wear eight sports bras in one week; I picked up a few more the other day since the last couple times I had to do laundry out of necessity (as in I had nothing left to wear for my workouts)!

I ended up scoring some great deals at Marshalls–two sports bras, a pair of Nike running capri pants for fall and a pair of New Balance yoga shorts for $60! The running capris at Dick’s are typically $60 alone, so I was pretty stoked.

ANYWAY…

…it really was pretty jungle-like in there for awhile! And that didn’t include any of Andrew’s shorts (he’s started running again in the mornings), which I hung up in his bathroom. I guess I should be thankful he hasn’t hung up any of his clothes in his closet (they remain in the Rubbermaid tub and duffle they arrived in) so I have thirty-odd extra hangers at any given time…

happy birthday, carolyn

We celebrated Carolyn’s birthday (which is actually today) on the Fourth due to scheduling conflicts. How could just a handful of people be so busy we couldn’t spare a random Wednesday night? I don’t know, either.

Anyway, we had a birthday dinner for her at Andrew’s parents’ house. The kid-Layers are all going to P. F. Chang’s for another celebratory dinner tonight–bring on the lettuce wraps!

Ben and Andrew’s dad dressed alike. It was cute. And the tablecloth zipped onto the table (around the pole for the umbrella)–how neat!

Note my reddish lips–not sure how I feel about it yet. A post on new makeup colors will be coming soon. (I know you’re all waiting with baited breath.)

You can’t see them very well, but Carolyn’s candles were animal-print striped. She was a fan.

Presents! (You’d think it was Abigail’s birthday with all the pink around…)

Showing off some of her new goodies. Grandma did well with the purse 🙂

After presents, a walk in the woods and a quick game of KanJam, we headed down to the creek in the back of the yard for a fire.

Abigail with her “horsey.”

Andrew’s mom had gotten a couple boxes of sparklers on her last trip to Indiana (selling fireworks is illegal in New York).

We roasted marshmallows for s’mores. I’m not a big marshmallow fan, but roast ’em and mix ’em with chocolate and I’m in!

The girls and Andrew started having fun with the sparklers and the camera. Andrew’s a pretty good amateur photographer, so he was able to adjust the camera settings to get some really great shots.

Next, they thought it would be an awesome picture to get their names written with the sparklers. It took a couple tries to get the timing right…

If only her name were Carol…

The gazillionth try was a winner!

Thankfully, my name is a bit shorter, so it didn’t take too long to get an OK shot.

If you can believe it, this picture took TEN SECONDS to shoot. Seriously, the shutter was open for that long and we had enough time to write our names and actually move in the shot, which you can see above.

Next, Andrew experimented with the fire. Here it is taken in an automatic shot:

Here is another shot taken with a VERY short (1/300th of a second) shutter speed:

VERY different. I’m excited to carve some time out and peruse the photography books I have so I can take great photos like Andrew. (How cheesy does that sound?!)

Remember those marshmallows? I may have overdone it in the s’mores department…

I’m holding my hands out because they are covered in chocolate and marshmallows, and apparently some chocolate missed my mouth…

pancakes, bacon and a new camera technique

In my continuing efforts (a.k.a. obsession) to empty our freezer of the food we brought with us, I decided this weekend would be a great time for pancakes and bacon (the freezer item), and BLT sandwiches, since I had everything on-hand.

We ended up sleeping in on the 4th, obviously much-needed since all three of us made it to 9:30 with just one potty break for the puppy at 6:30, so our breakfast became our lunch.

Of course, just as I was finishing up cooking I realized I should be documenting, so I hurriedly grabbed the camera and started shooting away while flipping the last of the pancakes. While I was multitasking in the kitchenette, Andrew started eating and offered a tip he’d gleaned from my new photography book, Plate to Pixel. (I haven’t really even opened it…it’s on my to-do list for this week, I think.)

Anyway, apparently if you hold a napkin (or other lightweight, lightly colored fabric) over the flash it keeps the subject from looking washed-out. I handed the camera over so I could start eating and he could take some photos.

Here’s the kitchenette, with flash:

Here’s the same shot while holding a napkin over the flash:

It seems to soften it up a bit.

Here’s the rum (yes, RUM) before:

And here it is after:

Much better, although I don’t know if I like how dark/orangey the photo is. It may also just be our lighting here in the hotel.

(If anyone is wondering why in the world I had rum out for pancakes, it’s because the recipe from The Foster’s Market cookbook calls for it. They’re called Panama Pancakes and they are, hands down, the best pancakes you’ll ever eat. Of course, you can sub vanilla extract for the rum if you had to, but the tablespoon it calls for really makes these babies.)

Here’s the rest of the feast:

Some of the bacon got a little crispy since I used my grill pan, but they should be perfect for BLT’s tomorrow night!

SO SO SO glad I brought my skillet. I really only use it to make pancakes, but it’s perfect for the job.

A not-so-great shot of the infamous Foster’s Market cookbook. Susy introduced me to the recipe awhile back and after flipping through it I knew I had to have it. It’s full of fresh food and delicious baked goods. I made the coconut cake for Easter a couple years ago at Andrew’s grandmother’s house and it was amazing.

And me 🙂 About to enjoy the fruits of my labor. (I wore the hat to keep the yucky bacon smell from getting into my freshly washed hair. The whole how-do-I-keep-the-hotel-room-and-myself-from-smelling-like-bacon dilemma had been bothering me for the last couple days and it wasn’t until I was ALREADY IN the shower this morning that I realized I should have made the bacon BEFORE showering…) No problem: I had Andrew prop the door open and I had the hood vent going full-blast while I cooked them up. Only a slight hint of smoke remains…

And, the grand finale…

…a sink full of dirty dishes!