Libbapalooza 2011

Somebody failed to send me the memo that I turned 31 last Friday and not 21. This year's birthday celebration was epic. It lasted four whole days. Four days of awesome. Thanks especially to Dirk, and also to my neighbors and friends.

Libbapalooza kicked off with a birthday breakfast at the Original Pancake House:


Then I received this surprise at the office from Dirk!


That night, Mary Claire and I went to our favorite Mexican restaurant, Villa Fiesta:




I was hurting a little the next day, and after having a few cups of coffee with Aimee, we decided a little hair of the dog was in order.


Then Dirk and I road-tripped to Nashville to see one of our favorite bands perform at the historic Ryman theater.



We spent some time walking around Broadway and people watching and then decided to stop into a honky tonk for an adult beverage.

We listened to a god-awful band and Dirk hung out with his buddy Billy Ray


We met up with some Birmingham friends for more adult beverages and dinner before heading into the show.

It was a great and memorable night!

The next day, we did some clean up around the house in preparation for the birthday party Dirk had organized for me. It was so much fun!

There were more dogs there than people, and Volk is one of my favorites. He's Iliana and Adrienne's 5-month-old Saint Bernard.


All I really wanted was for everyone to be in a pyramid for me. SOME guests were giving me a hard time, "You're THIRTY ONE now, Libba! Come on!" You know how some people can be too-cool-for-school. Thankfully Flip reminded me that, "When they tell you to grow up, Libba, what they really mean is for you to stop growing." Thanks to those who participated, and also to Dirk for snapping the photo.


A group photo:


He's available, ladies:


Aimee and I love to sword fight. This time we added a sombrero challenge.




Here's the Castro/South family photo!


You'd think that Libbapalooza ended there, but oh, no, you would be wrong.

On Libbapalooza Day 4, Flip, the golden girls, and I traveled to the foothills of Mount Cheaha for a day hike. We did about 8 miles on the Chinnabee Silent Trail. I'm always so refreshed and rejuvenated by spending a day in nature, especially with a friend who never makes me feel like I should be taking crazy pills for some of the random things that come out of my mouth. We talked about our favorite mythical creatures we wished actually existed, our favorite conspiracy theories, quotes, places we'd like to live, etc. Good times. Then Sipsey killed a baby squirrel. It kind of put a damper on things, but we made up a song about it, so you know, turning the frown upside down.




THEN, as if I wasn't exhausted already, Jim and I went to the Fleet Foxes concert at the Alabama Theater. Which was amazing.


And then last night, I counted the minutes until 9:00 when I could crawl into bed and fall asleep.

30-Day Photo Challenge

With all the wedding photo editing I had going on, I was lacking motivation to continue on with my 365 photo project...enter Pinterest. I found a great 30-Day Photo Challenge to inspire me to keep on keeping on. It's been a great way to stay inspired, and also to learn some new tricks. I'm on Day 20 right now, and here are some photos from the highlight reel:

Day 8 - A Bad Habit

I think texting counts.

Day 10 - A Childhood Memory

I wore my dollhouse out as a kid. I created all sorts of different dramas and scenarios that were played out here. I even made family trees for the residents and drew pictures of them, trimmed them in ric-rac and hung them up in the living room as "family portraits." The storyline of my dollhouse play closely resembled that of All My Children circa 1990. This is not my original dollhouse, that one was beyond repair, so Daddy made an exact replica.

Day 9 - Something You Love

Fresh Mint For Mojitos.

I threw some mint seeds in the ground last year and now I ave a ton of mint hanging out in the backyard.

Day 12 - Sunset

I was stressed leading up to this day's challenge, because it POURED all day long. I was thinking of sunset-colored drinks I could photograph, Sunset Streets I could find to photograph, and then, this happened. I love the Universe. Seriously. I have also been working with textures, so that's why it looks a little funky. Just something fun.

Day 14 - Eyes

These eyes have been around for 91 years (tomorrow.)

Day 15 - Silhouette

"Not naive," Conch Shell had corrected him. "He simply has not been taught to fear the things you fear." Inspired by one of my favorite books of all time, "Skinny Legs & All" by Tom Robbins.

Day 16 - Long Exposure

"But what if, either by choice or by reluctant necessity, you end up not participating in this comforting cycle of family and continuity? What if you step out? Where do you sit at the reunion? How do you mark time's passage without the fear that you've just frittered away your time on earth without being relevant? You'll need to find another purpose, another measure by which to judge whether or not you have been a successful human being. I love children, but what if I don't have any? What kind of person does that make me?" from "Eat, Pray, Love" by Elizabeth Gilbert.

Day 18 - Your Shoes

They still fit like a glove.

Day 19 - Something Orange

Piper's Cyndi Lauper-style ears.

Only 10 days left of this fun challenge!

is September really almost over already?!

Wow. I can't believe that this month is almost over. Yikes. How did that happen?! Where have I been?! Oh, I remember, I've been editing the 1600+ photos I took at Adam & Tammy's wedding in Iowa over Labor Day weekend. Yeah. So pretty much every free moment that I haven't been at my day job has been spent pouring over NEF and JPG files. I finished those up yesterday and have had a minute or two to go back and catch up on editing my own photos, and I thought I should probably share some. See, although I'm completely behind on the editing stuff, I'm still TAKING pictures for my 365 project. Granted, they've been rather boring lately, I haven't had much energy to devote to much. I HAVE found the time to learn some new editing tricks, thanks to Melody and some on-line tutorials. See, that's one thing I love so much about my hobby, is that whenever I feel as if my photos are growing stagnant, there's always a new trick I can teach myself to renew my interest.

SO, just for fun, here are a few photos and a video short of some time we've spent on our new favorite Sunday afternoon pasttime:

some farm scenes

blogger party pics

I'll let everyone else tell the funny stories. I just thought I'd share a few photos while I have a minute, before I have thousands of wedding photos to edit in my spare time. I'll just say that a good time was had by all, and it was so much fun to meet these kids that I read so much about.

Note: if you were in attendance and I took pictures of you and your kiddos, don't try to save these, they're unedited and not the highest quality. I'll email you the full size edits when I get back to Birmingham and have photoshop :)