My Sister's Birthday. A Maine Photographer

Every year since my sister Carmen died I have been blogging on her birthday.  It's kind of like a recap journal for myself of how I'm working through stuff without her. Here is year three, two, and one and the first birthday after her death.
I met with Mom today to go out to lunch together.  I also started doing this a few years ago to help cheer my Mom up on this day.  We had a nice lunch which we were going to follow up with a little shopping, but Mom wasn't feeling well, so I dropped her off and headed home myself...

Which I thought was a good idea...because Ms Chloebutt, AKA Chloe, born on the day my sister died, named after my sister, also hasn't been well for the past 24 hours.  I am assuming it's pregnancy related...after all...she is sick like a dog.  This is how the last two days have gone...SpotBot going 24/7 and after three trips to the bathtub we finally shaved a bit of her back end out of shear exhaustion!  One month ago Chloe attempted to fulfill her destiny as a Mommy...but when she failed to play naturally, science played a role and she was artificially inseminated.  If the procedure worked, and if Ms Chloe is indeed "with puppy" we have a due date of March 6th.  I will have a series of blog posts devoted primarily to Ms Chloe, starting next month.

Two weeks ago I unpacked Carmen's kaleidoscope

collection.  They had been packed since I packed up my old studio in October of 2012.  It was wonderful to get them out where they can now be enjoyed.  In addition, I've decided to revisit making kaleidoscope art with my photography.  I had begun doing this when my boys were very little...not sure why I stopped...but this is one area where I know I can offer clients one of a kind art like no one else does.  (this photo is my wedding bouquet...and yes...a bit of my cleavage too)

I continue to photograph the cats at the Animal Refuge League, every Monday.  I started doing this in the Spring of 2010, inspired by Carmen's absolute love of cats, and I am still doing it today.

 
Every year I miss picking out that perfect birthday gift for my sister.  I used to keep my eyes open all year round to pick out a gift that I knew she would love, and she always did the same for me.  I can remember all the way back to when my sister was in college and she would pick out something perfect for me at a craft fair. I absolutely always looked forward to reciprocating and picking out the perfect gift for her.  I wish I had told her that was one tradition I would never give up...and to this day I continue to search for that perfect gift I know she would love.  This year I'm buying her a bottle tree.  The one in this photo belongs to my friend Cheryl.  I had never seen or heard of them before, but the moment I saw it, I knew my sister Carmen would totally have loved it.  I'm sure you can guess Carmen's bottle tree will not look quite like this one...lucky for me...Carmen loved blue, purple and green!  Carmen's tree will be a work in progress and I promise to post photos in the Spring!