The Color of Black and White bio picture
  • Welcome to my blog!

    LIVE: In color. For each moment. Every day. Daily life and all that comes with it. Crazy afternoons and even crazier weekends. Peaceful evenings (after the boys are asleep). Starbucks.

    LAUGH: At everything. With everyone. Especially when life seems overwhelming. Even when doing laundry . . . and trying to get those baseball pants white again. An impossibility.

    LOVE: My 3 boys. My husband. My family. The carpool line . . . when it's still quiet. Friends. Life. Relationships. Black and white. Those little moments - some quite unexpected - that might otherwise be lost.

St. Valentine

Yesterday was Valentine’s Day. Red roses, red hearts, lots of candy and decorated shoe boxes in school. The day has been established as the feast day of St. Valentine, the martyred Catholic saint who is best known as the patron of lovers. Today, the day after Valentine’s Day, isn’t known (or acknowledged) really at all. It’s the day of “back to school”, or “no more candy” or “what happens now?” But, the relationships or connections that led up to Valentine’s Day, or were made on Valentine’s Day, or lasted despite Valentine’s Day (LOL) are still very real and very much a part of everyday life. So, even though I decorated these wooden letters with Valentine’s Day in mind, I chose to post them after the fact because I believe they stand for much more than what can be celebrated on just one day.

These custom cut wooden letters from Say It With Letters are absolutely perfect to decorate your own way – be it Valentine’s Day or not! Very personal and just too cute, the letters can be customized to suit any occasion. I put together a short tutorial on how I decorated my letters for the Say It With Letters blog – be sure to check it out! For now, just a little more eye candy . . .

Twas the Night Before Christmas . . .

When all through the house, not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse. The stockings were hung by the chimney with care, in hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there. So, our stockings are finally hung, and I sort of wish things weren’t stirring at our house, but then again . . . we are renovating after planning for 5 years! Crazy, I know – like, right before Christmas. But, we love our contractor and things are going okay . We may be eating out for Christmas Eve, and I can’t find a thing, but – that’s a small problem to have. And, even after all of that – here’s a beautiful Christmas Tree from Say It With Letters.

 

Photo Journey

Really, it was Scott Kelby’s 4th Annual Photowalk, where over 28,000 photographers participated in 1,100 walks all over the world! You can view some of the photos that were taken during the walk {HERE}. This was the first Walk that I’ve participated in and it was fabulous! Our Walk was through historic downtown Fernandina Beach, Florida, ending at sunset at the Fernandina Harbor Marina. You can view the photos from our walk {HERE}, but I want to share a few of my favorite shots.

Holding on to summer . . .

Enticing us to shop . . .

Preying on our sweet tooth . . .

And giving us lots of eye candy . . .

I’d say it was worth the wait.

Mary C. Nasser - October 13, 2011 - 10:09 pm

Your photography is absolutely breath-taking!
And inspiring!
Your Walk sounds like an awesome experience.

So nice to meet you through BYW.
All the best,
Mary

Laurie Ashbach - October 19, 2011 - 1:32 pm

Nice to meet you Cathleen. I’m also in the BYW class, and love art, design and photography. It will be fun to follow your blog!

Weekend Project Girl - October 28, 2011 - 8:41 pm

These pictures are really good! I especially love the bubble gum!

Simply COZY

As you all might know, I’ve recently been asked to join the design team of a fabulous company, Say It With Letters. Say It With Letters offers custom cut wood letters and shapes in zillions of styles and designs. The newest letter set is – you guessed it – COZY. Just in time for Fall. Although, as you can see from my designs, I’m not yet ready to let go of Summer! You can find the COZY letters in the Say It With Letters Etsy Shop. Be sure to check out all of Deb’s other shapes and letter sets while you’re there.

Just so you know . . . the backgrounds of all the letters were decorated with sheet music, brown paper bags painted and stamped with Claudine Hellmuth Studio acrylic paints (LOVE them), flashcards and designer paper napkins. Lots of Mod Podge was involved! There’s also a little of Tim Holtz’s Ideology tissue tape. The butterflies and bird are from GCD Studios Artsy Urban Collection, designed by Melody Ross. A little ribbon adds a sweet touch. Enjoy!

deb - September 22, 2011 - 2:03 am

These are just stunning, Cathleen! I love the collage look you created and yet kept it so soft. Really beautiful work!

Joyce Gleason - September 22, 2011 - 1:18 pm

What a beautifully unique project you’ve created! You’ve combined the perfect papers and embellishments…and of course I love the quote “everything I need is right here”. Bravo!
Joyce

Family & Friends

Each Labor Day, our family spends the weekend at High Hampton Inn in Cashiers, North Carolina. We’ve been going for as long as I can remember, and staying in the same cabin, too. The Labor Day festivities end with a barbeque cookout on the lawn, complete with a band and mountain cloggers. Here are some photos from this year’s events – we can’t wait ’til next year!

deb - September 18, 2011 - 1:32 am

Looks like my kind of shindig! How fun!

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