please

winter just won't give up. do you know those t-shirts that kids {and adults} wear that read, "plays nice with others"…well, mother nature does NOT own one of those. i think there must be an anger management class somewhere that has her name written all over it. just saying.

the photo above is something i created for the full circle class i'm taking with misty mawn. there are three hundred and nine beautiful women in the classroom with me, from all over the world and let me just say, we are having an amazing time.

yesterday we worked on superimposing photos, which i've been doing for a long time now {especially when making my banners/headers} but there is amazing app for iphones called superimpose that she introduced us to and can i just say, holy cow.

i'm a sucker for any photo related apps i can put on my phone and let's just say this one has knocked a few other ones to the bottom of the pile.

i hope wherever you are, you're warm and safe, especially if you were part of the absolutely horrible situations that happened in atlanta and alabama yesterday.

come on mother nature…redeem yourself. quickly. please!

a bit dumbstruck

i'm guessing this is how i must have looked the first time i stood and watched the ocean...a bit dumbstruck. i don't remember that first time, but i wish i did. i'll have to ask my mom, but i think it must have been our family's road trip to florida when i was thirteen, maybe fourteen and we stopped at daytona beach. i wonder if she remembers the look on my face. i have to believe it was one of awe. even today, after being lucky enough to see many, many coasts, i'm still in a state of awe when the ocean comes up to me and says hello.

yes, that's his hat…and coat. snort.

thanks to all my jumpers. 

i adore you for being so much fun.

gouda gouda goatcheese

it was cold today, but i'm not complaining. i got to buy fresh strawberries at the farmer's market, play with chalk while drawing in my sketchbook, slurp roasted red pepper with gouda soup for lunch, take a nap, watch cardinals flock to our backyard, get inspired while on pinterest and tumblr, talk to friends on facebook and kiss my hubby.

it was a great day.

{maybe it's the cheesehead in me, but i can't get enough of smoked gouda or goat cheese. my theory: don't waste your time on flavorless cheese…treat those tastebuds of yours}

a love post

i love

this photo of myself.

i'm in my happy place with a handful of seashells, 

feeling blessed and being grateful.

i love 

jumpers.

i love 

that you can see my hubby walking in the background.

i love 

happy faces.

i love 

when someone finds me online and i can make them smile.

{hi seaside marilyn}

i love 

finding men who will jump when the woman in the their life says, 

"oh come on, let's just try it."

i love 

when you live in a place where men just start playing music in the park. just because.

~

a rambling post

"indeed, i have long since come to know that nature feeds a woman's soul. it rarely gives direct answers, but it always nourishes, soothes and waters the spirit, so that eventually growth occurs."

thomas merton

• i'm still loving editing my photos with a vsco look. i may tire of it at some point and go back to wanting or needing the look of truly crisp photos, but for now the vintage, darker film look is  simply making me happy.
• the blacklist has returned and monday night's episode was amazing.
• american idol started last night and i have always loved harry, but now i love him even more.
• the gap is having some amazing sales…just saying.
• i wore my tiny heeled boots the other day and even being tiny heeled my feet were all like "what is this?" i think my uggs and tennis shoes have spoiled my feet.
• we make a lot of smoothies for breakfast. our favorite addition is kale and now we're adding sweet potatoes to them, too. yum.
• some of you know i wear the "up" band to track my steps and sleeping. the other day, i walked more than 7 miles. i know, you're impressed. snort.

my happy place

toto, we're not in kansas anymore

actually, we've never even been to kansas.

i mean it's not that there's anything wrong with kansas and i'm guessing the people who live there are simply wonderful, but we've just not ever had the opportunity to visit there. wait, does it sound like i'm back pedaling? i hope not. i'm sure it's a lovely state.

anyhow, we are in florida and yesterday was stormy and dark. when the rain cleared, we went for a walk in the leftovers. it was the perfect combination of mist and fog and warmth and i loved it.

i'm not sure what it is about fog lately, but it's kind of grabbed me. in a good way. actually it's more like a "wow, where you have been all of my life and why i haven't been paying more attention to you" kind of way. don't you agree that there's just something so mystical about fog, or maybe ethereal...or serene. whatever it is, i just know i love it.

this last photo, in all its glorious blurriness, is my favorite. i'm assuming i was focused on a water droplet {as there was that much moisture in the air} and somehow achieved photographing exactly how the combination of mist and fog and warmth felt on my skin. i love it when life gives you a gift.

i can see you

my hubby said, "look up."

i have to admit that with post christmas tunes still in my head, "a partridge in a pear tree" did come to mind. i wonder if anyone ever thought about "a opossum in an apple tree?" probably not. snort

he didn't move, but his eyes followed me everywhere.

come on, even if you think they look like rats on steroids, you have to admit his little hands and feet are adorable, right. no?

after hiking away from him we thought for sure he'd go back to wherever opossums spend their winters, but he was still there and had turned his head to look at me. i think in the photo above he looks a bit mean and i did hear a tiny hiss come out of him just as my hubby was saying, "uh, i think that's close enough." 

for a tiny moment i had visions from a scene in silence of the lambs. you know, the one where hannibal escapes from his "cage" when the security officers bring him his meal and he basically eats the face off the guard. i mean really, does anyone know if a opossum in an apple tree, feeling perhaps a bit threatened by a woman with her camera would or would not leap out and land on so called photographer's head? wow, i am so brave...or stupid. take your pick. snort. 

anyhow, all i know is that his appearance and our little visit with him, made our hike that much more fun and beautiful. i mean a deer would have been great, wild turkeys are always fun, but so skittish and hard to photograph or an eagle would have been cool, but i'm not picky when it comes to wildlife. i love them all.

you better dance

wouldn't it be great being a weatherman right now? in the next few days they have the easiest job ever. "IT'S COLD OUTSIDE. STAY INSIDE." there. job done.

on new year's eve i heard this song and now i can't get it out of my head and since i have a small {i have no idea why} crush on pit bull, i thought it only fair of me to share it. "you better move, you better  dance"…please tell me it's stuck in your head now, too.

another song i just love and sure, call me crazy as i think one direction is like awesome sauce and they make me feel like i'm 16 again when i had a major not so secret crush on shaun cassidy…snort…is this song.

so today…let's dance. let's dance tomorrow, too. we'll need to just to keep warm.

home

my photo

a stranger's words

and

now mine to share

~

i've been waiting for you

hi twenty fourteen. thanks for showing up. i've been waiting for you.

you see, your predecessor and i didn't really get along very well and while i know that's a whole lot of pressure on you since you just arrived, i thought it only fair of me to be upfront with you right away. i pretty much love when things get off to a good, honest and immediate start. blame it on my ability to be a bit impatient.

i want you to know i have my word for you. my photos here, some of my favorite from years ago, probably already gave it away, but in case you hadn't quite gotten there...probably busy looking at your new surroundings...it's EMERGE.

do you like it?

there are so many definitions that emerge wears, but the one that jumped off the computer screen and onto my body with enough force to take my breath away for a minute was "to come into view."

you see, this past year i felt invisible. somedays i felt that i was hiding from myself and sometimes i just felt like i wasn't being seen. unfortunately, there were too many days when i felt afraid, small, unbalanced, and misunderstood. enough so, that i shrunk away from my normally brave, confident, resilient and steady self. i found out that if you allow someone or something to take away your power, that sadly, this is the result. it wasn't fun. in fact, at times, it was horrible.

so this year, thanks to emerge...grow, appear, surface, come forth, become known, rise, become apparent, come to light, become visible, develop, unfold and arrive will be the words that pull me out of the dark cocoon that kept me hidden last year and back into the bright world where i had always been. where i had always lived. where i belong.

hello new year

hello world

~