I’m back from my inadvertent break, and geez – I am so ready to bump that last photo off the top of the page. (Not the best picture… and I spend a lot of time in that spot, so I’m happy to look on something else for a change.)

Luckily, I got home on Friday to some fabulous mail – my “favorite sewing, recipe, & paper project club” (Amy’s mailorder) and my Aranzi Aronzo Post Club vol. 22. This postcard cracks me up. I really love the little Aranzi Aronzo characters, but I’ve never really understood this yellow guy with the long nose/beak. I find it really odd that he appears to be eating a bunch of roses with similar little faces on them. I don’t know how they come up with this stuff, but it brightens up my mailbox nonetheless.

Today, my boyfriend and I went on a 2-part mini-adventure to the Gardens of the World and the mall.

I find Gardens of the World pretty entertaining, because it is really trying to be a much bigger experience than it really is. I’m a huge fan of gardens. I’ve never been a big nature person (two words: hello bugs). Frolicking around a well manicured garden is as close to the great outdoors as I usually get. Some gardens are so well-ordered and maintained that wandering amongst the foliage feels magical, almost meditative. Gardens of the World is not like that. It’s a fairly small space (4.5 acres) that contains a pavilion/bandstand, several man-made waterfalls/fountains, a replica of a California mission, and a Japanese pagoda with a blue roof. My favorite part is the ornate gate at the front. Such a tease! Don’t get me wrong – it’s lovely for an outdoor picnic or a little stroll. But it’s not the place to feel like you’re entering a new world – or even a different neighborhood for that matter. It’s free, entertaining, and more peaceful than say, wandering around the mall – so we dropped by for a few minutes. Turned out that was just long enough to get crossed up in what looked like a wedding (but was actually an extremely lavish Quinceanera). We ended up getting stuck in the California mission building as a stampede of teenagers in formal wear paraded inside. Um, awkward.

Posted by The Little Happy Ones at 10:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I was feeling very jealous of some of the pictures I had seen around the net of gorgeous spring blossoms. Yeah, that was until I walked outside and realized the tree directly outside my front door was covered in flowers. Way to be alert there.

Well, in case there is concern that all I’m going to do is put up pictures of my front yard, I promise this is not the case. Anyone who has visited me would realize how funny this would be given the very small patch of grass out front. I would run out of pictures very fast. In the meantime, it’s a nice little exercise in appreciation

Since starting Little Happy Ones, I’ve begun using my lunch hour to take pictures since it is dark by the time I get home from work. There’s something really nice about going back to work after I have had the opportunity to discover something pretty or nice or special to photograph. Or sometimes it’s just something that was there unnoticed all along just waiting for me to pay attention to it.

Posted by The Little Happy Ones at 07:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)