We're back!

We just got back from Rockport and we had a wonderful time! I've got some beautiful pictures of the water and the Fulton Mansion to share with you. But right now I just want to share a bit of the opening night of the Rockport Film Festival. As you know, the movie we were most excited about seeing was CHOPS. This is the story of a Jacksonville (yes Sheila, Jacksonville Florida!) high school jazz band auditioning and being accepted to the Essentially Ellington Jazz Festival in New York City.



Rockport Center for the Arts. This was the location of the opening night reception and outdoor screening of CHOPS. If you ever have the chance to visit Rockport, make sure that this is one of your stops. It's a beautifully restored old home that was donated to the Art Center. There is always something exciting going on here!

Live music at the reception. They were wonderful!

There was a wonderful exhibit called "Shorelines" going on during the film festival. Some really beautiful and interesting pieces were on display.

Thanks to Alicia Ross, we finally got a picture of all three of us together! Usually whoever is taking the picture is missing.

I was able to embed the trailer from the movie CHOPS. If you get the opportunity to see this movie, please do! It's an amazing film that shows the amount of work and soul that these kids put into their music. I'm going to order the DVD this week, because this is a film I want to watch over and over again!

Chops Trailer from B-Side Entertainment on Vimeo.

I will be sharing some more pictures later this week for Outdoor Wednesday and Weekend Reflections. Hope everyone has a wonderful week!

UPDATE: Just found out that CHOPS is available on Netflix!

And we're off!

I'll be taking a short blogging break as we head off to Rockport. We will be spending 4 wonderful days in this beautiful little bayside town. This year we are attending the Rockport Film Festival, relaxing in our favorite rental condo and taking lots of pictures for Outdoor Wednesday and Weekend Reflections! And I'll be shopping for fun things for my 100th post and pay it forward give a ways! If you would like more information about the film festival, click here. There are several films that we are excited about seeing, but CHOPS is the one that we are most enthusiastic about at the moment. CHOPS is the story of a Jacksonville high school jazz ensemble working toward attending the Essentially Ellington Festival in New York City. If you've read this blog for long, you know how passionate I am about arts education in our schools. What you may not know is that our daughter Cait was involved in our local high school's first jazz band and played lead saxophone. So this movie should be right up our alley. To learn more about this inspiring documentary film, click here.

Even though we have a busy weekend planned, I still intend on making sure I'm able to do this

And this....

And lots of this.....

Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend. I'll be back next week, hopefully with lots of great pictures and some goodies for my give a way!

Fall reflections

Time once again for Weekend Reflections, a fun new meme I found at Newtown Area Photo.
Simple rules from James:

1)Post a reflection photograph

2)After I post my Weekend Reflections photo, add your name, country and link to MckLinky

3)Be sure that your link goes directly to your Weekend Reflections post.

4)Comment on other Weekend Reflections participant’s blogs.




After our historic 3 year drought, we have had an abundance of blessed rain for the past month or so. Our rivers and lakes are starting to recover, and they just lifted water restrictions for our area. DH and I decided to take advantage of the sunrise and running river to take some shots last weekend. This is the South San Gabriel River as it runs through our City Park. Just a few months ago, this was basically a dry river bed with no flowing water at all.

Close up of the "falls". Click to enlarge to get the full effect of this photo.

Hope you enjoyed our little trip to the park. Make sure to visit James and see some amazing photographs.