favorite things...

We live in condo and the kitchen is, well, small. The main living spaces are open floor plan, which gives the illusion of more square footage. The kitchen appliances are well laid out and, between the available counter space and the occasional use of our dining table, I do generally have plenty of room to prep and cook. DH bought this condo about a year before we met and completely furnished and decorated it on his own.

When we merged homes last year and I moved in we had conversations about the addition of some of my belongings and the subtraction of some of his. One of the major points of conversation was over dishes. He thought his $10 special dishes were just fine and saw no reason to oust them in favor of the FiestaWare I had started collecting (and planned on adding to).

Let's face it. On certain issues, there really is no compromise:
Over the past several days, NY has experienced an early taste of summer. Weather in the 90's had all of the local dogwoods prematurely busting into bloom. I snapped this shot on our walk up to the library book sale on Sunday. Aren't they beautiful?
I generally use my camera far less during our long winter months, other than for holidays and other indoor occasions. It felt good to have the strap around my neck again and my shutter clicking away. Good practice for what's to come next month ;-)