it's halloween weekend, and i'll be honest~ i'm not a big 

fan of this holiday. 

oh the candy for kids part and cute decor i'm all for,

but the scary-all black-rip-bloody faces part?

nooooooo, let's just not okay?

i took some pictures around the house to show you the little

bit of decorating i did for fall/halloween.

this first pic is just some of the few remaining flowers from

the garden. now that the glorious season of having my own flowers

to pick and bring in is almost over, i snip every single blossom

and bring it in to enjoy "close up".

velvet pumpkins and a little .99 mousie from ikea

the fireplace mantel got a new look for fall.

my youngest makes a lot of cool stuff from old pallet wood. 

i snatched this rectangular board that i think he'll make into a 

flag, and leaned it on the mantle.

 if you were me, would you paint this knotty pine? lars loves the knotty pine-

such an outdoorsy guy kind of look, but it's soooo 80's-

i'm starting to think about what it would look like painted...a whitewash maybe?

i filled this little yard sale allspice container with fresh anise stars and they

smell sooo good in the kitchen~ the cobwebs on the screen? i left 'em for a spooky look.

when i heard it was going to freeze, i brought a few plants in from the deck.

if you're a geranium and you're still blooming in october, yes, YES 

you may come inside and hang out for the winter!

i can't remember what this plant is called, but it's a trailing one and after just one

night in the dining room i noticed it had decided to just start wrapping itself

around the closest chair.

: )

i won't be here for the trick or treaters this year so i didn't even have to decide

which kind of mini candy bars to buy. i am a big fan of those little

 two bite delights though...

 heath's are high on my list, followed by the old 100 grand bar.

you?

have a great weekend, and if someone my age, who looks kind of like me 

comes to your door dressed up...just go with it k?

xo

"trick or treat"!!! 

last week on my way home from an early evening photo shoot

 i took a detour to take photos just for me.

as someone who sees the world through the lens of a camera,

there is nothing better than beautiful fading light.

sunset? 

umm hmm

yes i will screech to a stop and back up my jeep

quickly rolling down my window to snap

a good picture.

i should have one of those farmers

'slow moving vehicle" signs on the back of the

jeep to warn anyone who's behind me.

see the house nestled in down the hill?

i love a big old barn. i grew up on a dairy farm with two barns

and i'll forever love their giant beauty. i like to think of all

the animals they've kept warm on cold winter nights.

my grandfather hauled a lot of heavy milk cans full of

milk straight from the cows, to a tank at the base of our farms

windmill. all of his grandkids loved to hop on the two wheeled

wooden cart he had full of cans and catch a ride.

(like it wasn't heavy enough already).

: )

i need to go "home" soon and drive by our old farm place.

i'm not sure if grandpa's windmill still stands or not.

i took the rest of these photos today in my yard and behind our house.

this is my view across the street. my sweet neighbor bridgette likes

old junk like i like old junk. she came home all excited from "junkin"

a few weeks ago and she'd scored this little old wheelbarrow and the 

red wagon. she's already borrowed me the wagon for a photo session!

this is a long lens shot, of the home i look at out our living room window.

there is a walking path that runs along our back yard and it's

just gorgeous right now~ maple trees lined up like

toy soldiers.

the berries on our flowering crab will feed lots of birdies

oh nature, thank you for your never ending beauty~

this is probably the last week of spectacular fall leaves on the trees around

here. the hubs reported that up at the lodge they're all on the ground already.

soak it up friends, get outside if you possibly can this weekend.

i always think every fall is prettier than the last, but seriously~

this one has been the best!

i get to hang out with a senior in the darling town of

excelsior this afternoon and take his senior pictures.

my mission is to find some wow backgrounds to

showcase fall~

xo, beth

what will you leave?

i hope you will watch this sweet, sweet video.

i love it for so many reasons~ this dear old man joe,

is 95. he talks here about his love for family and

the legacy he wishes to leave them with.

http://www.artifactuprising.com/on-legacy

did you watch it?

when he cried, i cried.

i talked to a friend this morning who just lost a dear friend.

her friend was only 53 and died in her sleep. 

my friend was sad because the last photos she had of them together

are gone. they were on her phone and her phone died.

she wishes she would have printed them.

please take the time to print photos that mean something to you.

as you know, photos mean a lot to me.

storing them on devices means little because there is no

guarantee that any of them will be retrievable (is that a word?)

or available in the future.

write things on paper. tuck them away.

print photos and write on the back who the people are.

and if you love paper like i love paper,

check out this company~ artifact uprising.

i love (and i mean LoVe) their books and photos.

they print on recycled paper.

i know you're busy, but take photos and print photos...

write things on paper that your loved ones can hold in

their hands when you're gone.

leave a legacy,

&

have a really great day,

xo

b.

celebrating 4 years as a blogger!

4 years ago on oct. 10th i excitedly wrote and hit "publish" on

my first blog post. 

this space has been so fun for me.

 as you know by now, my camera and i are

attached at the hip and i thought it would

be a fun way to share some of the

hundreds of photos i take every month.

i don't talk about anything earth shattering here or have any

interest in promoting products like so many bloggers do, 

i just like to give you a peek into my life.

i'm amazed and grateful at the number of times someone (like you) has 

come to brown sparrow studio to read my thoughts.

(close to 79 thousand times),

w o w

4 years ago I was still working for annie marie photography and loving

my days in the photography world. annie taught me much, mostly about

taking life a little less seriously! haha  (she's very laid back and i am pretty type A.)

when she found her soul mate and got married she decided to

close up shop and take her biz on the road to free up some of

her time and it was the catalyst for me to start taking my

photography more seriously and make it a business too.

now i'm one year into what has turned into such a blessing for me~

a real photography business of my own!

summer and fall are my busiest seasons so my blogging has had

to take a back seat, but i'm still here friends and last weekend i had a

girls weekend on the north shore.

oh how i love a day or two walking the beaches of lake superior!

if you've never hunted for beach glass then maybe you don't understand

our obsession with it, but it makes me so happy i can't even explain it.

it's a lot like being a sheller. someone who scours the oceans beaches for

that perfect sand dollar or shell, only my friends and i like

to dig in the sand and try to find the pretty little pieces of polished

glass that lie hidden . it's kind of a competition between us~ in a good way.

we stayed at the fabulous canal park lodge.

it's right down on the canal by the lake, shopping and great restaurants.

we shopped at fitgers and down in canal park till late afternoon and then headed to the hotel.

sat. night the lake was as angry as I've ever seen her. (i felt like i may be swept away at any

moment as the wind and waves crashed up and caught us off guard time and time again.)

below is what i found that night... wet to the waist and exhilarated we called it a night

and went to bed so we could head back out first thing in the morning.

this was just to make me laugh... serious searching going on.

the view out the window sun. morning was spectacular and i wasted no time throwing on

my slightly wet clothes and getting back out there.

i know, right???

this is leslie's treasures. girlfriend found the biggest, best pieces of robin's egg blue glass.

this is my loot...plus i always bring home a pail of interesting rocks. just can't help myself~

maggie got the award for the most pretties. : )

this girl cracks me up. there is an inside joke about this face that

brings the two of us a lot of joy.

: )

well, that's a wrap about our weekend.

it's back to work for me & what promises to be a 

perfect fall weekend in minnesota.

they're even talking about 80 degrees on sunday!

hugs to you my faithful readers,

beth