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March 12, 2013March 12, 2013

Better Late Than…

I’ll be honest. One of my favorite sayings is, “better late than pregnant.” But since I just found out that one of my blogging buddies in Thailand — Jade at Tasting Grace — is pregnant, and I am SUPER excited for her and her cute hubby, I just couldn’t bring myself to use that as a title for this post. She and her cute little husband are going to be the best parents.

As I was looking through pics last night, I realized just how bad I have been about posting here lately. I mean, some of these pics are from February. And we’re already very close to mid-March.

But I still thought they were worth sharing.

Another Valentine's Day display. — Another Valentine’s Day display.

I absolutely LOVE looking at the various store windows on Old Town Warrenton’s Main Street.

My buddy Janet at The Empty Nest has the most-beautiful Spring window.

I didn’t take that picture, but didn’t think she’d mind me sharing it with you.

Speaking of The Empty Nest, this is one of the adorable little items offered for sale there.

I just love that store.

This sign was in the window at Shelf Life, another gem on Main Street.

A simple message that everyone should subscribe to.

You all know how much I love this store, right?

Oh, and here are a couple of cool house and porch captures.

I really love blue houses. And I am such a sucker for red.

A blue house with TWO red doors. How can I not love that?

Funny story… while out shooting snow pics on Wednesday morning, I met a guy named Carlos (I think that was his name, anyway) who said he lived at 25 N. 6th. I didn’t realize that was this blue house. Otherwise I would have told him just how much I love his charming abode. His name might have been Ron. Or Bob. I’m awful with names.

Here’s another N. 6th Street neighbor’s place.

Is this the cutest porch or what?

And this image was captured at The Berkley Gallery.

Even buildings is slight disrepair hold some charm. The lines of this place always capture my eye.

Speaking of lines… I really like this last shot, too.

Next, I’ll have to share some of the great captures from my girlfriend getaway.

I really am trying hard to get caught up. On posting AND reading.

To all my blogging buddies who are probably feeling a bit abandoned, I have NOT forgotten you.

February 1, 2013

Eye Catchers

I haven’t done a “look how cute my town is” post lately. Not because it’s gone downhill or anything, just because I haven’t.

This isn’t one of those posts either. It’s just one where I share a few captures of scenes that always catch my eye. Especially when the sky is blue and there are cool clouds for a back-drop.

I don’t know what it is about this red building. But it catches my eye every time I see it. Of course, I’m a sucker for red.

Would it be tacky to wear red to my son’s wedding? I’m already starting to have mild panic attacks when I think of shopping for a dress. UGH. I hate shopping for clothes. I hate wearing dresses. Oh, and I’ll have to buy shoes, too. Double ugh.

rhodes_bldg — Home of Amy’s at Rhodes Gift Shop

The old Rhodes Drug Store building houses Amy’s at Rhodes. It is owned by Amy Leach who purchased the shop from its original owners in 2009. As her web site explains:

…Amy has expanded the shop’s eclectic mix of home decor items, handcrafted pottery, equestrian plaques, vintage postcards and prints, and greeting cards for all occasions. You will also find a wide array of Virginia-made specialty food items, including Virginia hams, peanut butter, loose shell peanuts, a wide variety of relishes, sauces and soup mixes, plus an expanded selection of gift and home decor items from local artisans. Amy’s at Rhodes is also a certified Orvis (fly-fishing supplies) dealer.

Last, but not least, is my favorite mural building.

It really is called The Mural Building.

One of these days I’ll remember to grab the camera early in the day to capture the red building with no vehicles parked alongside.

Wanna see some REALLY good pictures? Check out the work of local photographer Edward Payne. Who I have yet to meet.

Perhaps I’ll run into him early one morning shooting that red building, too?

January 19, 2013

Happy As Kids on Christmas Eve

It’s the dogs I’m speaking of. We’re at the WV Place for the first time in what feels like forever. And they are so excited to be here.

How excited? Like kids on Christmas Eve waiting for Santa.

Really.

As soon as we got here, they ran and ran and ran around the yard, sniffing out critters. Meg went down the hill to visit her friends, Buddy and Jean.

And then, all night long, they took turns pacing. I left them out around 3:00 AM, thinking they had to pee.

My reward for that was having to go out in the 20 degree darkness and drag them back in.

Still, the pacing continued.

I guess it was around 6:30 when I finally relented and got out of bed. Of course, they’re happiest when I go out with them. So off I trod.

It was cold! Still in the 20s. Everything was frosty.

The good news is, I got a few pics to share.

The ice crystals, which you can clearly see in that last shot — look like wood shavings — intrigue me.

Despite our long absence, not much has changed.

It’s nice to be back, even if only for a brief visit.

I hope y’all are enjoying your Saturday!

October 18, 2012

A Froggy Fall

I decided to take a break from vacation posts today and share a few pictures.

When I saw Reflectofrog holding this leaf yesterday, I couldn’t resist capturing a shot.

And then I noticed my Dahlia still had a lingering bloom or two. Upon closer examination, I saw this one.

I think that flower looks like a butterfly. What do you think?

Oh, and I couldn’t go outside without my girls. K and Belle decided to sit in the warm sun while they waited. Meg was right at my feet. I captured this cute shot of the younguns.

I hope you have a fabulous Thursday!

January 7, 2012

LookBack – ToadMama’s Top 11 of 2011

For me, 2011 will forever be remembered as a crazy year. Really. So much happened. Talk about your ups and downs. Most of it was good. Some was not-so-good. Any way you slice it, though, it was busy. As a result, I didn’t take very many pictures.

The hundreds of pictures from my two-week vacation don’t count. I’m talking about the sort of pictures where I just walk around with my camera and shoot. Well, there’s usually more to it than that. If I was just shooting, I’d have a bunch of crap. Photography takes thought. And time. Often both.

I’m going to do better in 2012. I’ve missed my little photo outings.

Before I jump in to 2012, I figured I should recap 2011 by posting my top 11 images. It was supposed to be my top 10, but I think 11 sounds better since we’re talking about 2011. Besides, even in a year where I didn’t shoot that many pictures, do you have any idea how hard it is narrowing the field down to my favorite 11?

No? It’s hard, trust me. But I did it. Forget ranking them favorite to least favorite, it was hard enough just trying to figure out which 11 to share.

Here they are, in no particular order.

This last shot (below) doesn’t count as one of my top 11 because I didn’t take it. But it’s a picture of me that I actually like. So I wanted to include it here, too.

ToadMama in Sunflowers on Antelope Island

To come up with this top 11, first I had to gather all of my favorite images to sort through. It was a small pile. Only 146. If you’d like to see all of them in a slide show, CLICK HERE.

Wonder what my top 10 for 2010 were? Follow that link if you want to see them.

January 3, 2012January 5, 2012

Happiness is…

… the year’s first snowstorm!

That frog on the right is me doing a happy dance. Cool, eh?

I didn’t make it. I just Googled “happy dance” and this goofy frog came up. Sorry if it’s distracting or nerve-wracking for you. I like to add a little bit of silliness sometimes.

Speaking of happy… Happy New Year! Can you believe it’s 2012? I hope your holidays were as nice as mine.

As for that snowstorm… for some reason, I was up before 6:00 this morning. The sun doesn’t even rise until about 7:30. So here I was sitting in the semi-dark, ingesting some coffee, trying to wake up when Hubby said, “Did you know there’s an 80% chance of snow today?”

I didn’t know. We don’t watch much TV so we don’t see weather forecasts on a regular basis unless we seek them out.

A little while later, as the sun started to rise, something caught my eye outside (the window is just beyond my monitor). I peeked out the window and was delighted to see that the world was covered in white.

Snow!

A very thin layer, but snow nonetheless. And as the sun was rising, it made for a pretty cool-looking sky. So I hurried up and threw on some clothes, grabbed the camera, and headed outside — did I mention that it was in the 20s? — to experience my first snow in Warrenton.

It was cold, but awesome. I just love this town!

I did say there wasn’t much snow, right?

Instead of posting a bunch of big images, I added a gallery of small images (aka thumbnails) below. You can use the thumbnails provided to view images one by one. If you’d like to see the large version of an image, click on the thumbnail. Use your BACK button to return to the post.

UPDATE: At Hubby’s request, I added a link to a Flickr SLIDESHOW.

GALLERY OF SMALL IMAGES