Daddy's Gonna Kill Ralphie!

Derrick's birthday was the 23rd and to celebrate we went to A Christmas Story House! I love this movie and it just so happens that a portion of it was filled in Cleveland not too far from our house. The house it was filmed at has been turned into a museum. We had a total blast at the museum and we even met the mean woman elf from the movie. We met the guy who delivers the leg lamp too. The gift shop was really entertaining. A mom and her daughter were arguing because the daughter really wanted her mom to buy her one of the hats from the movie. The one the kid in the mall wears with the goggles and says, "I really like Santa." Super creepy (the kid in the movie, not the daughter). Their conversation went like this:

Daughter: "Mom, will you buy me this hat?"

Mom: "Why? So you can wear it once and never wear it again?"

Daughter: "I'll wear it more than once!"

Mom: "You're not going to wear it to school."

Daughter: "Yes I will! I'll wear it every day!"

I'm not sure how it ended since we finally made it to the front of the line to buy our tickets for the museum, but I'm thinking the daughter didn't get her hat. Either that or she was really embarrassed on Monday when she went back to school.

Merry Christmas!

Cookie Deocorating

Last night I decorated Christmas Cookies with Derrick, Zoey and Johnathen at Derrick's Mom's house. I forgot how fun it is to mix all of the colors of frosting. I might need to add frosting cakes to my list of hobbies. I tried to make fashionista gingerbread women but it was hard using plastic knives as decorating tools. Derrick taught Zoey how to use sprinkles without dumping them all on one cookie. She seemed to be doing a good job of keeping everything on the table until it was clean-up time and we saw the floor. At least the walls were frosting free!

Icy Photo Adventure

Today Derrick and I braved the cold and went on a photo adventure to Cascade Park in Elyria. It's been so cold that the mist from the waterfall has been freezing layer by layer on all the branches nearby.

Derrick was such a trooper. He absolutely hates the cold and yet he bundled up and guided me through the park.

Here's me playing on the playground. The plastic was so cold I thought I was going to freeze permanently to it.

Since it was so cold we didn't stay for very long. I need to invest in gloves that I can handle my camera while wearing. My cotton mittens don't really cut it.

My Favorite Christmas Ornaments

When I was a kid we had a peacock Christmas tree ornament. It was my favorite ornament and every year my sister and I argued about who was going to get to put it on the tree. We actually kept track of who put the ornament on each year so it was fair. Well, now I have my own Christmas tree and the very first ornament I wanted to buy for myself was a peacock. That way every year would be my turn! The sad thing is, my ornament is only a few years old and it already looks more used than the one my sister and I fought over. Here's a few of my other favorite ornaments from my Christmas tree this year.

I Have A New Lens!

I'm super excited because not only did my parents bring me home for my favorite holiday, but they also gave me my Christmas present early. I know I sound like such a spoiled punk right now. They gave me a Nikon 60mm Macro Lens. Here's some pictures I took right after I opened it. Luckily, California still has flowers in bloom. I'm looking forward to photographing some portraits and snowflakes!

Vacations Are Always Too Short.

I was fortunate enough to be able to go home for Thanksgiving (thank you Mom & Dad). I bought my plane ticket back in August and have been counting down ever since. It's amazing how fast a week goes by. I had such a great time with my family I wasn't even close to being ready to come home. Thank you to everyone who made my vacation great!

Last Visions of Fall

Except for a few trees here and there, the fall leaves are officially gone for the year. Well, the leaves aren't, they're piled along the street in front of people's yards, but the color is. I had this idea in my head for a photograph to spell out words with the fall leaves. The day I went to the park to accomplish my idea it was super windy. Every time I spelled out a word, the wind would blow and I would run all over the place chasing the leaves. The fishermen must of thought I was crazy. With Derrick's help, I was able to photograph one word before the wind blew the whole thing away. I guess I'll be spelling out words in the snow instead.

Halloween in Lakewood, Ohio

Hope everyone had a fun and safe Halloween! Derrick and I went to Maize Valley Winery for their Carnage in the Corn Haunted Corn Maze. It was a total blast! I didn't want to risk dropping my camera so I don't have any pictures to share with you. What I do have however, are pictures from Lakewood's Spooky Pooch Parade. Every dog that entered the parade looked awesome and I had such a hard time narrowing down my pictures to a select few. My favorite costumes were the Matador and Bull. They actually won first place in the costume contest. Enjoy the pictures!

Design Improvements to the Blog!

Hi Everyone! I just wanted to let you know I'm in the process of improving the design of my blog so if you see anything that looks off it will be fixed shortly :)

Sea Glass Convention!

This past Sunday Derrick and I drove to Erie, Pennsylvania for the 2009 National Sea Glass Convention. It was a fun and educational experience. I had no idea how serious people take Sea Glass. There were "Sea Glass Experts" that would identify the glass that people brought to the show with them. Kinda like Antique Road Show for Sea Glass. There were also venders who sold jewelry they had made. There was a lot of pretty stuff. My favorite vender was Suncoast Sea Glass from Florida. Her jewelry was elegant and not clunky like most of the jewelry I saw. We actually talked to her about designing an engagement ring.

After we left the convention we went to Presque State Park. It was beautiful! We explored the park for about an hour before we headed back home. It looks like a really fun place to visit in the summer.

Bigfoot in Ohio!

Noreen, who is basically Derrick's Aunt, is our fellow Ohio Adventurer. She always finds out about awesome events going on around Cleveland and then invites us to go. Her latest find was a presentation sponsored by the Lorain County Metroparks:

"Join us for an interesting night with Big Foot investigator and enthusiast, Marc DeWerth. Participants hear stories and investigate evidence that might suggest that the legend is real and then take a short easy hike!"

Well, how can you say no to that? I don't remember the last time I laughed so hard! I felt like the, "I'm too cool for school" kids who used to sit in the back row of class. The speaker was awesome! He was so entertaining to listen to and his passion for Bigfoot really came through in his energy. The highlight of the evening was the night hike after the presentation. We walked into the woods and he made us turn our flashlights off. So there we were, a group of about 20 adults and children, standing in the woods, in the darkness. If we weren't already freaked out enough, the guy said he was going to show us how he calls for Bigfoot. Then he screamed! LOL! I almost peed my pants. The kids started crying, the adults were freaked out and Noreen, Derrick and I were in the back dying of laughter.

When we made it back to the parking lot the fog looked really cool so Noreen posed against the fence for me. One of those times I wished I had remembered my tripod. I had to use the fence instead. Still pretty cool though.

For more information on Bigfoot, contact the Ohio Bigfoot Organization at 1-877-BFT-Ohio. Yes, that's a real phone number.

The Bridge Project

Words can't explain how amazing The Bridge Project was. We entered the Veterans Memorial Bridge by going into an old building and walking downstairs. When we reached the bottom of the stairs I felt like we were walking into some secret VIP club. There were colored lights, a fog machine, a DJ, films projected onto the walls and a million other details. Artists lined the length of the bridge and at the East end of the bridge there was a live band. If under the Veterans Memorial Bridge was turned into a public space, I would visit every weekend.

While Derrick and I were walking back to the West end of the bridge it started to rain. We sat on a bench made of recycled material and watched it pour. How many people can say they sat inside a bridge and watched it rain over a major city? It was one of those moments that takes your breath away.

Going on Safari in my Backyard!

The other night, Derrick and I came home from the grocery store and took the dogs out to go potty. While we were in the backyard I noticed the biggest slug I had ever seen! I ran back upstairs to get my camera and let the dogs back in the house (I was afraid they'd eat the slug) and then came back down to photograph this crazy slug, knowing my family would never believe me without a picture. It just so happens Derrick works in Pest Control, so while I was photographing the slug, he was doing research to find out what it was. This, my friends, is a Leopard Slug. Apparently it's common in the backyards of Ohio. We put a $5 bill down next to it so you could see it's size but when we set it down he got scared and scrunched up a bit.


While we were in the backyard one of our dogs, Mya, was upstairs eating 1/3 of our Amish butter we had just bought. That's a whole other story.

Tis Pumpkin Season!

Fall is here and that means Pumpkin Season! I have decided to dedicate my blog for the next couple months to all things pumpkin. This means pumpkin patches, pumpkin bread, pumpkin lattes and anything else you can possibly think of that involves pumpkin. Consider me the Forest Gump of Pumpkin. I even like the word "pumpkin." Anyway, if you have a pumpkin recipe you would like me to try out and share or know of a great pumpkin patch let me know!

To kickoff my pumpkin adventure I ate Pumpkin Pancakes at The Original Pancake House. They were very good and I would definitely get them again. What's awesome is there's an Original Pancake House in California so my family and friends out there can try them too! After eating breakfast, Derrick and I drove down to Amish Country for the day. On the way down we stopped in Wayne County at the Walsh Family Farm. They have an awesome pumpkin patch with rides for kids, mazes and giant pumpkins. It made me wonder if I was looking at The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown was waiting for. lol. I've been told other farms have Giant Pumpkins so let me know if you think you've found the biggest pumpkin of the year. If you happen to have a camera with you, take a picture and email it to me at vargievarg@yahoo.com and I'll put it on the blog. Don't forget to include your name, who's in the picture and where you found the pumpkin!

Fall Preview!

Today my friend Ariana gave me a tour of where she grew up out in the country. We stopped at Mill Hollow Metropark to skip rocks and while we were walking down to the river, there were tons of colorful leaves on the ground. On the way back to the car we collected a few and I arranged them on the hood of her car. I actually remembered to bring my camera with me so I was able to take a picture of my moment of foliage arrangement excellence. I love how the light reflected off of her car.

Veterans Memorial Bridge Tour

Yesterday, Derrick and I had the awesome opportunity to take a free tour of the Veterans Memorial aka Detroit-Superior Bridge in Cleveland. The tours are hosted twice a year and by some miracle we both had the day off! This definitely ranked up with the top experiences I've had so far in Ohio. There were lots of informative volunteers that were able to answer questions and I was really impressed with the details of their set-up. When you first walked into the old subway portion of the bridge there were tables set up with old pictures and information about upcoming events. There was music from the 40s playing from a stereo and two different old films about the trolley system projected onto screens set-up inside the subway. I felt like we walked into a time warp. I was a little freaked out at first walking across the bridge because you could see through the grate down to the Cuyahoga River. There were wood panels along the middle to walk on but of course Derrick and I had to freak ourselves out by walking on the grate. Plus, that was the only way to look over the edge of the bridge at the awesome view! Yet another, "This would never be allowed in California Moment."

After we made it to the other side of the bridge we walked around the flats and enjoyed the beautiful weather. Seeing all of the bridges and cool architecture while soaking up the sun made me fall in love with Cleveland even more. There's an upcoming event at the bridge on September 25th that you can get information about at www.clevelandbridgeproject.com.

Madison Library

Last month Lakewood had an Art Fest and the Lakewood Photographic Society (which I'm a member of) had a booth. After the festival our photos were put on display at the Madison Branch of the Lakewood Library. I wanted to check out the library all month to see my photo on display and I finally made it last week. Here it is in all it's glory! Thank you again to Alyssa for being a beautiful model!

It's Harvest Time!

The end of Summer is wonderful. There are all kinds of fresh, local produce available. My favorite place to go is Pickering Hills Farm in Avon on Detroit Rd. They not only carry their own produce but also local goods from other families. You can buy 5 pound boxes of blueberries for $20. Plus, when you buy your groceries there they give you two free ears of corn. lol. I ate a whole peck of peaches all by myself over the course of 1 week.

Take the time this week to try out a local farm. If you don't know where to look try www.localharvest.org. They're an awesome resource and you can even buy products from farms online! I ordered my sister's birthday present from Blossoms Wild Herb & Lavender farm and would recommend them to anyone looking for high quality lavender products.

Corn Festival!

A couple of weeks ago Derrick and I went to the Corn Festival in North Ridgeville with Derrick's mom, step dad and Zoey. It was a lot of fun watching Zoey learn how to roll down grassy hills. I had this great strawberry shortcake with ice cream and hard shell chocolate sauce.

The coolest part of the festival was when I met one of the local photographers and his wife. I love his photography and I read her blog. You can view their website at www.rowephotography.com.

Derrick and I also did one of those inflatable jousting games where you put on helmets and try to knock each other off of moving pedestals. Derrick totally kicked my butt! The only time I knocked him down was when I cheated and pushed him with my hands. He thought it was hilarious.

The Creative Princess Bag

Here's some quick pictures of my latest creation. I was in the mood to sew the other night and really wanted to use up some scrap pink fabric so I sewed this cute bag for Zoey. I got the idea from a bag I saw in a sewing store in Lakewood that I thought was really cute. I've had the pink star fabric since college. The girls at work think I should make the bag in different colors and sell them at craft shows. What do you think?