+ tiptoes. +

i really should combine my writing and photography more. really.

+ things that i miss today +

credit: le love image


credit: stunik


phoenix skyline from south mountain

+ i am not dead. yet. +

I can't believe how long it's been since I've blogged. Or done anything online.

I've been working on taking care of my own life before attempting to do anything else. My flickr watchers are getting annoyed, and my friends are wondering where I've been. My etsy shop hasn't been updated in weeks, and I feel as if I've just generally sucked at spitting anything of worth out.

I'm tired of the high highs and low lows. I hate that last night it was the end of the world, and that this morning everything is beyond fabulous. But thank goodness that my God is my rock, and my foundation, my deliverer, my shield and my stronghold. (Ps. 18.2) I may be a highly caffeinated, sleep deprived, prescription-hormone-altered, over-extended and confused female in my early twenties, but I can always sit down and know what I'd still have if I lost everything, even my sanity.

Good things:

- I just purchased a new macbook pro. :)
- I am buying an alienbees b800 this week.
- I just found out OSU is paying me to go back to school this fall. It won't cost me a cent.
- I am signing a lease on an adorable house tonight.
- I have really, really good friends.
- Only 16 more days til my 2 week vacation in Seattle.
- Next month my best friend and I will be living in the same city for the first time in over 3 years.
- I just got free coffee.
- I am a third of the way done with my love + 100 strangers project.
- I am still loved. Still.
- And I am still consumed with love.

Love is complete trust. Love is willing to be vulnerable. Love is no secrets. Love is enjoying someone's presence, and saying nothing. Love is being a wife, a mother, and a grandmother. Love is the reason for our existence.

+ things you should know about. +

"12 moves and four high schools. I don't have to write anything more if you are or were a Brat. You know what I mean. I'm not whining. I'm not contemplating my navel. I hope to pass onto others what it's like growing up with a father who was a career soldier during a war. The war was Vietnam. A long time ago. A war a lot of people want to forget. It will be a part of me until the day I die."

The blogosphere is full of women, and the few men that make an appearance seem to be around just long enough to help us ladies figure out all this html, css, widget, 3-columns-at-once, best-computer-of-the-year nonsense. (No offense, boys.) We also were primarily born in the 70's or 80's. (No offense, old people. We all love vintage!) I was shocked when I stumbled upon a veteran/army brat in his 60's blogging regularly about his life, from day one. I need more of this in my life. Read it.

- - -

Gotta love all of our social networks for our social selves! I've been pretty overwhelmed by them lately, but I think I'm liking the Twenty-Something Bloggers. And yes, it's for we/us (grammar help, anyone?) bloggers in our 20's!

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We all need more financial advice in our life. Follow this guy: @fiscalgeek

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Attention bloggers & anyone with a website! If you haven't made use of Google's free (yes, free!!) Analytics tool yet, you will never forget the girl that told you about it. Go here, now, grab the code, and dump it somewhere on all the websites you've got. Easy, simple, and free - for extensive and detailed tracking of every single person visiting your blog.

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Article for your education & entertainment from Wired.com: How to Behave; New Rules for Highly Evolved Humans.

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"Marx called religion the opiate of the masses while offering the drug of happiness in some future revolution. Faith, far from making us apathetic, enables us to be present to what surrounds us. It also provides a sense of peace, which is always a better platform for action than anger or grievance. Saint Francis didn’t stand on a soapbox in Assisi hectoring the rich about the plight of the poor; he asked those who had bread to give him some and then he delivered it to those who didn’t. And you can be sure that as he did so, he didn’t feel important at all." - Fighting The Urge Towards Declinism

From one of the best articles I've read in awhile. Thank you to my friend Paul Shanks for sharing, and to Gregory Wolfe for writing it.

+ i will have this read at my wedding. +

Because you will be safe in marriage, you can risk; because you have been promised a future, you can take extraordinary chances. Because you know you are loved, you can step beyond your fears; because you have been chosen, you can transcend your insecurities. You can make mistakes, knowing the other will be there to catch you. And because mistakes and risks are the very essence of change, of expansion, in marriage you will expand to your fullest capacity. Within the shelter of marriage, you will continue to grow and develop, so you can discover your individual paths and offer your gifts back to each other and the world. Marriage, then, makes you free-to see, to be seen, to love.

thank you to kyla

+ august planning. & etc. +

myself.

i rarely blog on the weekends as i am much too ADHD to sit down and construct anything from start to finish, unless it's food. so, this will probably be updated throughout the day, and only truly completed on monday when i'm glued to my office chair at work correcting all the mistakes i've made over the weekend.

at some point today though, i will be doing my august planning, like i did last month.

home decor.

this before & after kitchen from thekitchendesigner.org absolutely amazed me:

fashion trend.

so, from browsing lookbook and stockholmstreetstyle a bit i've noticed a very odd thing. oversized tops are in again (thank god), but that isn't what's odd. a handful of these girls are wearing their daddy's shirts. hm. interesting.





more found here, here, here, and here. go look. really.

other blogs.

please go read belle chantelle's post, "turmoil" if you haven't already clicked thru to the blog of the week and read it on your own. her second post, along the same line, is here. you would be well off to read it, as well.

photography.

i am in the middle of getting a DAM method down for my photography. what a nightmare. i brought it upon myself though. i should have established a better method for keeping myself organized before i completely filled my entire harddrive with images. :\ here are two photos i found and flickr'd.


[self portrait]


[brother]

oh...i have to go do something...i will be back!

+ love and monsters. +

oh. my. goodness.

i am now in love with jason edward davis.

hmm...i will be in portland in a few weeks; he'd better watch out...

this boy is headed back to school and clearing out his studio. how he is letting these adorable postcards and paintings go for so little, i do not know! please go browse his shop, spent $5 or $10 (or more) to get some adorable things, and follow him on twitter.

+ update on my life. +

1. i'm attempting to be vegan again until the end of august. so far, i feel twenty times better, although im getting tired of these four foods already.



still, i'm excited. half due to the fact that i will feel better, and half because i am looking forward to learning some new dishes. unfortunately, sugar is primarily out of the question, as well as things heavy in carbs (pastas, breads) which always makes things much more challenging. :] suggestions welcome!


2. i'm struggling to keep my absurd range of interests in check. august will be my month to sort through and organize my photography, art, home decor, clothing, and writing - and to get it all dumped out of my brain into something tangible. much more to be said on that, but at a later time.

3. this is big for me. i flickr'd it, and here it is:

Growing up as a kid, it was a common joke in our family to call me out for being "in La La Land." It hurt a lot, most of the time, and has been something I've held on to for years.

Today, i'm letting it go.

The truth is, more often than not I DO live in my own little world, and over the last few weeks I have realized this is a blessing, not the curse that I was ashamed of. "La La Land" is the source of most of my creativity, my worthwhile thoughts, everything I write, and quite honestly it is the heart of me. It is the part of me that stubbornly insists on loving and living like a child. I love it, my God loves it, and the few that truly know me well love it. So, here's to being honest, and to living in our own little, better worlds.

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one more thing. you should read this article by jennifer lubell, "death to chivalry, hello to hostility." i am reminded to wait for Better.

Some of us are becoming the men we wanted to marry. Gloria Steinem

+ simple things. +

today,
i want to be content
with only
the simple things.

this may be the theme for my planning and my photography for the month of august.

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i am also going to start sharing free textures for everyone's use.

here we go!

+ on love +

everyone, everyone, should go look at le love and add it to their blogroll.

- - -

"i remember my heart beating 50 miles an hour and wondering how i could sit there in his arms and feel so comfortable, like my heart wasn't completely broken inside of me and my life hadn't fallen around me months before.

(...)

though, that didnt stop us, we spent at least three hours every day texting eachother after that, and not the cute best friend things we use to say but cute i miss you i love yous your amazing sort of things that we loved.

(...)

we are in love, i am sure of it, he's told me he's in love with me every day since the first time he said it. he told me he'd remind me every day for the rest of our lives.

(...)

i promise i'll never hurt him.

(...)

i'm 17 and in love."

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[ read the whole story here. ]