by now

by now

i hope you've found me

~

that you know i haven't disappeared

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that i'm still writing about this crazy thing we all call life and filling my posts with photos and metaphors to make you feel like we're sitting at my kitchen table drinking hot tea and looking at our endless possibilities.

~

~

please come visit me. i've missed you so much!

my cape and everything

 i flew away with my cape and everything 

and

now i'm over here.

~~

{and of course i see it. do you?}

a new everything…edited

i finally moved and i hope you're not disappointed. the new blog is more similar to this one than i had imagined, but it feels right. i'll explain more in the upcoming days as to why the change, what i chose to change and what i'm keeping the same.

i hope you come visit me, over here.

just a little bit buried

we've been spending most of our days packing and taking things apart to be packed. oh the joys of moving. i should write a book.

our sweet girl is home from australia and everything seems to be right with the world once again. she didn't come home with an accent or a kangaroo, but instead the ability to cook. the girl who used to turn her nose up at green food, now loves avocados and don't even get me started on her love affair with hard boiled eggs. in her pre-australian life, she used to run screaming at the mere mention of "we're having fish for dinner" and the other night she ate salmon with us. WAIT a minute. who is this girl and what did they do with our daughter? snort.

we had a huge moving sale followed by an amazing garage sale and almost all of our things are gone. by the truck load they were bought and hauled away and i''m liking the emptiness of it more than i ever thought i could. it took me awhile to realize that all of those things i thought were so important to make a house feel like a home, were just things. of course we have some items that we would never part with, {that we hold an emotional attachment to} but everything else…well, bye bye.

but with that said, based on the number of boxes in my office/art studio and speaking of emotional attachments…i think we're married.

i'm still planning on moving over to my new {yes it's done} website {that i talked about in a previous post} but i just don't have the heart to start posting on it until i can give it the love and attention it deserves. by the way, for anyone out there who needs help with blog tweaking, i found a great guy who is amazing. when a few things came up that i wanted to change and i couldn't figure out on my own {after googling css and html codes for hours} how to do it,  he came to my rescue. brent works via email and paypal so it doesn't matter where you live. seriously people, if you've ever thought "i would totally pay someone to help me with                   on my blog/website," he's your guy.

we watched "the way way back" again the other night and friends, this is a must see movie. honestly, i no longer recommend movies easily due to the verbal backlash that can arise if it's hated, but this one…well, call me crazy daring since i'm obviously taking my chances even mentioning it here. snort.

i'm now off to watch my hubby and daughter put together a {462 pieces and 12 page instruction booklet} TV stand for her apartment. is it too early for margaritas?

happy weekend!!!

where we go from here

we're moving.

in my last post i talked about wanting a new space, which in my head when i typed those words meant just a new blogging space, but why stop there.

our house is sold and the fun has ensued. bubble wrap, boxes, black sharpies, packaging tape and decisions fill our rooms. donation trucks have come and gone. sold has been written on our once loved items.

notes are everywhere reminding us what we have to do. who has to be called. what has to be changed.

this is our fifteenth move in thirty years, so obviously we can do this. but this time it's different. we aren't moving as a family, since the kids are on their own and we aren't moving into a house. instead we'll be renting for a year, as everything happened so quickly.

then what? my insurance agent asked me. "i don't know" i told her. "exciting isn't it?"

so the next few weeks will be busy. busier than busy. but our daughter will be home thursday and that will be the wonderful creamy icing on our {holy cow so many changes} cake.

hippity hoppity

easter's on its way

~~

the countdown has begun. our daughter comes home from australia may 1st. she's been working in ballina {south of brisbane} since this past august and to say that we are excited to see her is the understatement of the year. so in fourteen days, which is 20,160 minutes, she'll be home. squeal. we plan on celebrating her birthday, which was in february and then we'll just sit around and stare at her and occasionally touch her just to make sure she's real. we're fun like that.

i'm feeling the need for a change. a blog change. i know that right there with those 3 words, i just lost some of you and that's okay. i understand. i feel the same way when i read someone's blog and they are all "whoa is me. things don't feel right or the same anymore."

but hey…people change.

my first blog began on december 27th, 2005. then moredoors {be yourself} began a life on january 11th, 2008 and WOW...i have had an amazing run of over 9 years {stressing "nine years" people} in the blogging world. and now the itch. the itch of wanting a new place, a new space, new surroundings and a new feel, all while wrestling with the fact that this feeling doesn't come from someone who grabs "change"excitedly by the hand and skips across the street with a big smile on her face.

so, no whoa is me, where am i going with my life, what am i going to do now scenario….nope, i'm just talking out loud, getting things out of my head, sorting through thoughts and trying to figure out what sounds like the most fun. 

life's too short not to do what's the most fun…or the most exciting. right?

i hope you all have a wonderful bunny day. may the chocolate fairy be kind to you.

in time

my older sister, her hubby and their daughter were here visiting this past week. they live in maine and we were all thrilled to have them home. they made me eat try this. it made my eyes water and my throat burn and even with water, it hurt me. my sister went back for seconds. i trespass into old, abandoned buildings and once had to answer to a sheriff who caught me and i think that's daring. she ate more than one piece of that bar. i think she wins.

the green that spring brings is not here yet.

oh sure, if you look closely under all things still packed tightly to the ground from the weight of winter, you might find it, but generally speaking…ahhh not really. this is an old photo. obviously i was feeling a bit orangey tonight.

as i type this, i'm sitting in my office/art studio surrounded by things that feel like home. granted, a really messy {shit is all over the floor and i can't see the top of my work table} home, but still, it's comforting to me. let's just call it spring cleaning…since technically i was cleaning all day and according to the calendar,  it is spring.

question...how many pens/markers does a girl need? come on, it's not a trick question. how many? well, because i was actually able to part with like over one hundred some today, the answer is 46.

i should be sleeping, or at least in bed thinking about sleep, but the rain has other plans for me. i'm not complaining. i love the sound of rain and all things rain related {except the constant humming of the sump pump} and i haven't typed or written in forever, so this is where i'm supposed to be. unfortunately though, my brain feels about as useful as a wadded up kleenex, so i'm going to read a bit. hopefully the words i skim will find a place to land and lull me to sleep.

a little place to call my own

we're all busy. in fact too many people seem to glorify "busy-ness" and that's sad. "any who" {and my apologies if i stepped on any toes...the truth hurts sometimes} i love this post. it made me stop and think and well frankly, it made me use both of my hands and my morning was so much more enjoyable. my computer and phone didn't even miss me.

i'm still on my iPhone 4s. should i get the 5? i'm due for a upgrade. unfortunately i don't love change.

whose using LR 5? i'm still on LR 3. tell me how wonderful LR5 is and make me switch. i dare you.

oh, and i want this. to write in. to play in. to dream in. to create in and to sleep in after all my senses have been awakened and i'm too exhausted to move.

{photo found on tumblr}

just like this

i just looked out my window and saw these blossoms. the sun is so warm today i'm sweating and my skin is no longer pasty white. i slept 10 hours last night and didn't wake up once and our chef served us beignets and mimosas for breakfast. the maid really out did herself yesterday and our floors are clean enough to eat off of. in fact, that where's we ate our {perfectly toasted and completely covered in powered sugar} beignets. our bird feeder this morning was filled with cardinals and finches and when the feeder was full, they all stood patiently in line and took turns. it's almost time for lunch. i think our chef said it would be something light, like a seared ahi tuna salad with a fresh warm baguette and oil for dipping, followed by amaretto gelato served in waffle bowls. yup. that's what my day looks like so far.

april fools.
snort.

anyone

can you make a "new month's" resolution? if so, april is going to be my bitch month to make "be yourself" feel all pretty and alive again. it's got a bit of the bloggy blahs.

or maybe it will be may.

anyone else watching parenthood? the blacklist? the voice? resurrection?

anyone else feel like they're spending too much time on facebook? or pinterest?

anyone else want to burn all of their winter clothes?

i stopped in DSW the other day and summer sandals practically threw themselves at me when i opened the door and guess what? i hated everything i saw. everything.

target on the other hand. what is it about that place that makes me feel all lightheaded and fuzzy when i'm in there? in a good kind of way.

i've been searching for a new iphone case and did you know that society 6 can literally pull in through your computer screen and hold you hostage for like 4 hours? seriously, they can.

oh, and this is my favorite song…this week.

you said i could

thank you to everyone who said that sharing more of my photos from our winter in florida was okay. what a warm and fuzzy feeling.

on our last day in seaside, we took a long and thoughtful walk through the woods and town soaking in everything around us, knowing it would be a year before we'd do it all again. the photo above, while i don't condone carving your initials or anything else into someone else's property, made me smile. i found it on a small public portico at the end of a pier over a lake and what i want to believe is that while all of "his"friends were busy carving their initials into the wood, a child who wanted nothing more than to fit in and who was raised to know better, decided that carving a cross probably wouldn't get him into trouble.

in case you're wondering, yes…vsco editing is still what i'm doing with most of my photos because holy cow, i love the feeling they provoke in me. i'm a vintage girl through and through, who loves the lines of mid century modern anything mixed in and somehow, that's what vsco feels like to me.

there was a photo shoot going on when we were walking through town and i couldn't get over the gorgeousness of these three children. i took a few photos from the front, but obviously without permission i wouldn't share those here and to be honest with you, this photo that i quickly shot from behind, was the best one of the bunch. look at the handholding between the two littlest ones. wow…is that adorable or what??

on our very last night, we ran down to the beach for one last sunset. the temperature dropped dramatically and way too quickly, so there i sat in my hubby's lap trying to stay warm. i still had my flip flops on, so my toes were freezing and even with my hood up over my head, it was cold...but the sunset was blindingly brilliant.

to be safe, i didn't look through the view finder on my camera, as i'm always worried about burning my cornea or some other horrific "eye to the sun magnified by a camera lens related" issue when the sun is that bright and just clicked away.

i guess if i compared all of my sunset photos to each other, they'd look similar to each other, but this one i'll remember the most. the cold wind whipping against me, my hubby's warm arms around me and a sky that said, "this is for you, so you don't ever forget me."

i wasn't completely finished

i still have so many photos {that were taken over the past two months} that i've yet to share and honestly, i'm not quite sure what to do with them. tucking them away for a bit is what my gut is telling me to do and since i really try to listen to her…well, hello external hard drive while i make room for yet another "new file" filled with florida photos.

believe me, i know it gets exhausting and boring looking at someone else's vacation photos. been there, done that.

anyhow, the photo above is just one of the many rock balancing piles we made on a sunny afternoon after watching this guy do the same thing. granted, we weren't in a river with amazing videography showcasing our building process and there wasn't any music playing in the background, but we still had a blast. 

don't judge. it's the little things that truly make us happy. like today for instance. we had fried egg sandwiches at the daisy cafe for lunch. 

color us happy.

do you see it? do you see the heart?

and then there's this photo. the one that pretty much takes my breath away. the one that quietly says everything about me, everything about us and that "we were here."

don't fence me in

"don't fence me in. don't make me conform"

in other words, LET ME BE ME…be yourself.

remember, this is my year to EMERGE and after spending two months in florida, i'm back. back, as in physically being back in wisconsin and back, as in emotionally being back and ready to take on the world. well, maybe not the world, but i will be wearing my imaginary cape that will let people know, "i'm happy to be me."

now granted, i'm sure there will be days when my cape will flap haphazardly in the wind and will perhaps be tied a bit too tight around my neck and i'll have to do some occasional adjustments, just like a sail on a boat, but i'm pretty sure it's going to keep me moving perfectly...in the right direction.

love and warmth and sand and the sound of the wind through the willows on the lake and pina coladas and old friends and smiles and long walks and strangers and shells and feathers and fog and new friends and key lime pie and sea birds and bike rides and sunsets are just a few of the gifts that i've been  soaking up and in these past two months.

so to say i'm refreshed and relaxed and rejuvenated would be an understatement. instead, parts of me have been so blessedly reorganized that sometimes my reflection in the mirror catches me off guard and  i stop and stare. then i softly smile and say "oh, hey there you."

march

well, it' march and i want to know…

did it arrive to see you with a soft and gentle touch like a lamb

nuzzling your neck and making you feel all warm and fuzzy 

or it did it rip you apart like a lion?

emerging in the woods

a few weeks ago i had the privilege to review a "new to me" company called printcopia and let me tell you, they are fantastic. their website is extremely user friendly and the only difficult thing for me was choosing a photo to use. i ended up picking a photo i "made" and am currently using as part of my blog banner and to say it's beautiful is an understatement. you see, the photo pictured here is actually a blend of three of my photos that i created and the fact that it was printed on canvas perfectly, pretty much blew me away. on top of it, the quality and weight of the frame that the canvas is wrapped on is the best i have ever seen. without question, i will be using them again and again and again and i thought it only fair to let you all in on the fun. if you want to do your own {free canvas} review, send me a note and i'll get you all set up.

{ps…the color is perfect, but the woods and my vsco editing changed it a bit}

her name is dixie 

and no, she's not coming home with me, 

but she sure knew how to make me smile.

mardi gras

this little spot on the water 

is the perfect place 

to rest, pray, wish, dream, nap, write, draw, paint, kiss, pretend, believe and talk. 

~

utopia, perhaps?

a dose of random

you have to admit it…he's a cutie.

plus, he totally posed for me.

i've never had anyone "photo bomb" one of my jumping photos, but it happened and i love it.

{see  the guys in the back?}

of course to be fair, here's their ocean shot.

and 

now who's jumping? the photo bombers of course.

is anyone watching jimmy fallon? seth meyers? did anyone see the premiere of "about a boy?" i have to tell you, i loved that first episode and can only hope the rest of the weeks are as good as that one was. final opinions of the olympics?

if you have 3 minutes to spare, this video totally cracked me up.

i need new tennis shoes desperately and usually wear nike or reebok. any suggestions for tennis shoes you love, that you can wear all day and still feel great in?

you're the wind beneath my wings

call me crazy, but i love to feed the seagulls. we show up with snacks and in turn, the ravenous beauties cluster around our heads and scare my hubby, which makes me laugh. a lot.

it's a win win for me :)

i actually had to darken these photos up a bit in order to share them. the sun was literally coming through their wings, making it look like i had photoshopped all of their craziness into the photos. so with lightroom, i used the "vsco" look and brought the coloring way down…which you know i love, so again…a win win for me.

sheesh…now i sound like charlie sheen….winning.

happy campers…i mean jumpers

happy campers

happy jumpers

{whatever}

just happy

~

valentines day and every day

i don't know who wrote the quote above,

but i want to thank them.

true colors

after my last post, i thought maybe i'd write a few posts all color related and call this one "white," but there are some adorable girls waiting for their jumping photo, and since they jumped for me, it's only fair of me to get their photo to them as quickly as i can.

i have so many sand piper photos {or whatever the tiny, full of caffeine, skittish beach birds are called} but i have never captured them flying, so finally getting them in the air is crossed off my bucket list. {kidding…that was never on my bucket list. snort} anyhow, it's amazing how their wing span makes them look at least twice as large as they actually are…something i had never noticed before.

and now, 

my favorite quote of the day.

"Don't sacrifice your peace trying to point out someone's true colors. 

Lack of character always reveals itself in the end."

mandy hale

green

i don't feel at all like i should be short on words, but i am. maybe it's because today is sunday and sunday is a day of rest? yes, let's just go with that. i'm resting. snort.

anyhow, i hope your weekend is turning out to be an amazing one, no matter what you're doing... even if you're doing nothing...and if you are doing nothing, i hope you're doing it with someone who means everything to you.

26

our sweet baby girl is twenty six today and instead of celebrating with her, we're missing her like crazy. BUT in a "way to go and grab life by the horns" good way. she's been in australia since august and in may we'll be welcoming her back home with our arms wide open.

she actually celebrated her birthday yesterday, since she's a day of head of us, so the "wishes, glitter throwing and party hat wearing" fun has lasted for forty eight hours.

to say that we're proud of her would be such an understatement. she is living, loving, learning and fully embracing her independence in another country and all we know for sure is that after a life experience like this, she can do anything. well actually, she's always shown us that she can do whatever she puts her mind to, but now she can fly. her wings have grown above and beyond anything we ever imagined for her and believe me, we have really big imaginations.

so here's to you sweet girl. we love you more than you'll ever really know…which exceeds {by leaps and bounds} how much we miss you and man, we miss you soooooooo much!!!