Madera via Hipstamatic

I got a new package of "lenses" and "film" via Hipstamatic - woohoo! 

And to test? 

 Off to Madera Canyon! 

There were a CRAZY amount of VERY WEIRD bugs there, including giant, fuzzy caterpillars (which I tried to show in comparison to my finger), giant agave beetles, and HUGE black locusts - the Biblical kind - with red underwings.  So strange. And apparently so hard to photograph with the iPhone camera.
Also, I apologize for the long string of photos...I really need to learn how to do a photo montage with them all in the same frame!

Neighborhood changes

My parents helped do a little landscaping when they were here, and it's been so nice enjoying the new plants around! One of them is this tiny cactus my mother insisted on buying. Surprisingly, it bloomed this past week! Look how CUTE it is :)

 

Did the colors catch your eye?  Especially the background one?  Yeeeeeppppp, that's my neighbor's freshly painted house.  The same color as yours right?  It's that subtle, Mexican pink. 

You guys will never get confused which house is mine again. 

But I utterly love it! I'm hoping this means my house will get to be some color like this:

Everyday life

Here are a few snippets from life this past week...and I got a new grey dress, which made it fun being a girl today :)

Erin, Julie, and adorable Everest

a teacher's favorite thing to find on her desk

 One of my former students at work with a gorgeous sunset

 the sunset from Summit before my star party

my parents are visiting! it's been very fun, and they've been EXTREMELY helpful fixing up thing that I never have the energy to do 

Nesting

My friend Hannah was saying after spending time away for the holidays that she and her husband Steve were very into redoing their bathroom, to which she termed "nesting".  Now I normally had thought of that word in terms of preparing a baby room, but I realized I've been doing the same thing!  We have both been redoing our bathrooms, and here are some of the elements going into mine...completion photo to come soon :)

Along with this nesting idea, I've been cooking and baking like crazy! It's been so fun! Homemade marinara with meatballs, pumpkin whoopie pies, and meringues! which I found on this lovely blog.  I LOVE meringue when it's soft and chewy, so if you like it like me, just don't make the meringues too thick or they don't back all the way through.

Snow!

I was afraid there wasn't going to be any snow during my time in Indiana, but woke up yesterday morning to this...AWESOME!

Crater lab

One of the pluses of having 75 pounds of used flour from a lab on impact craters

It's really christmas?

I'm having a difficult time feeling in the Christmas spirit since school is still happening for me...so here's my small effort to capture Xmas here at the Trinkley house...

Lunar eclipse PART 1

The last lunar eclipse (where the Moon goes through Earth's shadow in space) til 2014 was yesterday morning here in Tucson. If you're lucky enough to live in Hawaii, Alaska, or Asia, you saw the whole thing at night! Well, here we caught the Moon going into totality as it was setting, so when the Moon was fully eclipsed, the Sun had risen enough to where it looked as if the Moon became invisible because there was so too much light in the sky. To test my phone's abilities, I took some shots with it...not bad, eh?

From the Telefono

Recently my lovely mother let me use her upgrade to get the iPhone. It has been quite fun and most useful. One of the best parts is been taking pictures.

So here's some pictures I've taken over the last couple weeks...