It’s Nikita’s 13th birthday today, and considering we did one of her most *unfavorite* things today (vacuumed), I decided I should at least put a little tribute up for her on the blog. I’ll also give her a couple treats since she could care less about the blog. Anyways, here are a couple more photos from her kitty youth:

She still gives us this look today:

We called this her “rabbit pose” (she doesn’t really do this anymore):

This is one of my favorite portraits of her from her early years living in boonies:

Happy birthday Nikita!

If the photos look a little fuzzy, they’re supposed to be that way! I took them with my plastic Diana lens with my SLR camera–my new favorite camera set-up. I’ve been posting a lot of photos recently at my photography website (www.anastasiafuller.com) taken with this lens. I’m really loving it, and loving experimenting with it.

So far, the photos have been from my archives, but many I’ve never shown anyone before, and throughout the year, I plan on posting new ones as well. Hope you check them out!

Our stop in Brooklyn was super brief (less than 24 hours), but we got to hang out with our friends Jonah and Nancy, which was really great.

We were totally wiped out from the extra travel (and lack of sleep required to plan it), but we had no trouble enjoying slices of pizza our morning there, before catching the flight back to Seattle—as illustrated in this photo:

Also, Yes, we did see the Eiffel Tower (it’s even got its own photo set):

The beginning of our photo set from Versailles.

Part of the Paris, week 2 photo set.

Paris, Week 1 and Paris, long photos (hold your nose on this one).

We bought a six-day museum pass, which gives you access to a lot lot of museums, so we’re trying to squeeze in as much as possible before it expires on Monday. We’ve been trying to go on somewhat off-hours (in the evenings) to miss the crowds.

Bonne nuit! (Tired, as are my feet.)

We just posted photos of some highlights from our last two days in Iceland (October 2 & 3). We drove on the Ring Road from the Gauksmyri horse farm (about 30 minutes south of Blondous), to Reykjavik. We lucked out and had a beautiful (but cold) sunny day in Reykjavik for our last day there.

View photos

View photos.

We’re heading out now for a 2-3 hour drive to Reykjavik in the blustery weather (light rain/snow). We’re looking forward to being in a city again!

So just today I came across the fact that you can now order M&M’s with your face on them (or anyone’s face, really). They’re suggesting your kid’s face, to use as birthday favors, etc. But you could also think up some more sinister ways to use these too, yes? It’s still a little weird to think about eating a handful of M&Ms with your kid’s face on them.

* If you click on the “cake” tag in left column of this site, you can find some posts with photos of cakes I’ve done for nieces / nephews that are more in the style I like to do.

We spent an entire day at Rangitoto Island, and hiked to the top of the dormant volcano. Much of the island is volcanic rock, and there are beaches and woods, as well as hiking paths and these bach settlements. I did a little more research on Rangitoto, and found out that there are currently three bach settlements on the island, and most of the places were built in the 20s and 30s. A lot of the original houses have been destroyed, and there is now a Trust  which is working to preserve the remaining buildings as historic places. Here’s what the Rangitoto Island Historic Conservation Trust has to say:

The bach communities … consist of private holiday dwellings and boatsheds as well as communal facilities such as paths, swimming pool, community hall and tennis courts. Built by families, using the scarce resources of the Depression era, the buildings demonstrate the ‘kiwi’ do-it-yourself, jack-of-all-trades attitudes of the times.

As a result of a prohibition order on further buildings in 1937, the remnants of the communities reflect this specific time in Auckland’s development and as a result they are part of local history involving typical New Zealanders in a unique environment.

Because other bach communities, which were prevalent throughout the country, have virtually disappeared, the Rangitoto bach settlements are irreplaceable artifacts of New Zealand’s architectural, and social history and therefore are important beyond their locality.

We didn’t see any remnants of swimming pools or tennis courts, but we saw a bunch of the existing houses; some are still used by the families who built them. These photos show a snapshot of the architecture, art, and some of the decay, of the buildings.

I was just taking photos off my digital camera today and found these photos I took back on January 11 of the snow in our neighborhood. Hard to believe now as we’re having sunny, fairly warm (for winter) days.

For Thanksgiving this year, Jen and I made 7 pies/desserts for two different Thanksgiving dinners! Whew. (Missing from this picture is one more pumpkin.)

I just came across a website that I made (yes, my first one) back in 2000 after our Italy trip. It’s fun to look back, and also see how much I’ve improved in both making websites and photography!

View Italy Website