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Yesterday was a truly annoying day. And i use the word annoying because it annoys ME when i get so down i'm pretty much immobile. Do you have those days where you are just disconnected from the world? 


It really bothers me. My mind is whirling, I'm having creative ideas left and right. I feel as though something is about to happen. Something GOOD. But i feel ridden by this nervous energy and the need to be working on something. And i don't know what...only that this strange energy combined with a hard day at work put me in my bed at 8:00 and i did not get up again. And in those moods its so hard to remind yourself that anyone is out there. I have not been so unhappy for about ten years.


Thank god for beer and sleep. So ok. I'm done with that. Woke up this morning feeling quiet but much more at ease. And we're going to start today off with something lovely. I'm about to go for a walk. So i'll leave you with these lovely places. 

Thank you Pinterest for starting my morning out right. 

Break day

Happy Monday all! 

I'm going to take a break today. 

Last night i finished a long week of work and i'm pooped. 

 So i'm going to take some time and replenish my stores.

 I'll see you all in a day or two! 

p.s- i did scoot a poot over to the Staunton Music Festival over at the theatre on Saturday.

It really did me some good to just sit back and listen. What are you listening to today? 

August Break-Happy Weekend

Happy Weekend everyone! Stay safe. 

August Break- An Afternoon Walk

Have you been getting outside lately? I find it so uplifting. 

A break from August Break - Jewelry

One of the ladies that i follow on Pinterest has been posting some really cool jewelry lately. And as you know i am newly interested in it....i thought these were wonderful pieces so i'm sharing them.

What do you think?

So cool! 

Neruda Part 2 and a photo

Epithalamium (part 2)

Do you remember, my love, 

our first steps on the island? 

The gray stones knew us,

the rain squalls,

the shouts of the wind in the shadow. 

But the fire was 

our only friend,

next to it we hugged 

the sweet winter love

with four arms. 

The fire saw our naked kiss grow

until it touched hidden stars,

and it saw grief be born and die

like a broken sword against invisible love. 

I love this section of the poem! I love how Neruda asks these questions. I think questions are so powerful. They ask for a response...i find myself imagining an answer before i've even kept reading. 


Today was a good first day back to work. Beautiful day. Still a little weary, but pressing on. In the sage words of my grandfather: Suck it up and deal with it. So i am. :-) 


Friday one of my photos got featured over on my friend's blog Down Home Foodie. Check it out! Its one of my shots from the Farmer's Market. 

Today was a Lazy day

Happy Monday everyone! I didn't do anything today, yet i am still exhausted and not ready to go back to work tomorrow. But i did have another fantastic shoot at the Tangled Trees! I'll post photos soon. 

August Break Day 20: Neruda and a Photo

I hope everyone is having a WONDERFUL weekend. I am so SO ready for my day off i cannot quite express. By the end of the work week i am just so weary. But then again i have still not been feeling top notch or sleeping well. 

But to the point.

I told you yesterday about how awesome this new book of Neruda Poetry has been for me. 

My current favorite is called Epithalamium. I want to share it with you, but it is very long. So as I've been working through it i divided it up by the questions he asks. So I thought i'd give it to in the same way i've been spending time with it. Look for more tomorrow!   

(Part 1)

Do you remember when
in winter
we reached the island?
The sea raised toward us
a crown of cold.
On the walls the climbing vines
murmured letting
dark leaves fall
as we passed.
You too were a little leaf
that trembled on my chest.
Life's wind put you there.
At first I did not see you: I did not know
that you were walking with me,
until your roots
pierced my chest
joined the threads of my blood
spoke through my mouth
flourished with me.
Thus was your inadvertent presence
invisible leaf or branch
and suddenly my heart was filled with fruits and sounds
You occupied the house
that darkly awaited you
and then you lit the lamps.

August Break Day 19: STORYSCAPE and of course a photo.

So. About my exciting day yesterday. 


Thursdays are becoming my Coffee Date Days. My friend Phoebe from Running Snail and Rainbow and I go to get some coffee and sit around talking about work and life and family and fears and frustrations and hopes. Its one of the highlights of my week. I've been rereading The Sound of Paper and Phoebe is working through the Artists Way and its been really fun to swap stories and observations with her about doing WORK. Since i started doing Morning Pages again I have been writing poems and taking photos. It took a little while to get going but its such a fantastic feeling and super exciting to have someone to chat with about the pleasures and challenges. 


If you haven't read Julia Cameron's The Artist's Way or The Sound of Paper they're great. (I'll link to the books at the end of the post if you want to check them out). 


So my morning began beautifully. And most excitingly Phoebe just added her first drawing to her Running Snail Facebook. And its so lovely. If you haven't stopped by her blog you should. She's just getting it started but its already so thoughtfully written and well curated. EXCITING! 


NEXT! Maia got her studio space. You may recall that i was posting up a storm about her Kickstarter Project. She just got some studio space up in Tribeca! You can read about that here. 


AND FURTHER MORE! As i said earlier, I've been writing a lot. (For a while i was trying to keep it on the DL but i feel good about sharing since it'll keep me honest and working. Feel free to pester me about what I'm working on). I have also been reading voraciously. I was working through Clash of Kings but that has fallen by the wayside in the advent of POETRY. I had been pining after some Rilke and of course doing my duty by Mary Oliver when I started reading Pablo Neruda's Love Poems. I posted about the acquisition of that book some time ago, but have just really started reading it. It has REALLY gotten the juices flowing. 


Top off August 18th with a positive work day and i'd say yesterday was a pretty darn great day. 


For your consideration:  Artist's Way and The Sound of Paper


 

My Creative Space

So its actually Friday and not Creative Space day at all...

but i am somehow a little behind in my week.

This week has been a week of editing photos and writing mostly. Its been really exciting to just buckle down and do it to it. Getting out of the house has been a huge help. 

As you can see by the second photo i got out and stalked some Zinnias.

I find when i walk around (or in this case drive around) I'm always looking for things that catch my eye. I think 'photo' or sometimes not even that much. Its like an 'oh.'  

I was driving home from the Kroger and stopped at a stoplight when i looked to my left and bam. Beds of beautiful Zinnias right down the road from my house. I filed it away in about 2 days wandered down, hopping through traffic at a crazy intersection to go take some photos of Zinnias someone planted in a median. NOT the safest thing in the world. BUT totally worth it. 

August Break Day 18: Zinnia

What a day! So much has happened and so much has been accomplished. I started a lengthy post about everything but i'm petering out tonight. 

So I'll leave you with a Zinnia. And i promise LOTS Of stories tomorrow!

August Break Day 17: Bookscapes

What a great day today has been! I have been feeling so stressed and ill of late that its been a huge challenge to get up and get moving. TODAY i decided what i really needed was not to lay in bed a little longer but to get up and get outside. And I wasn't going to take a Camera or my Zune. I was going to go outside and enjoy myself. 

       And i wandered around this pretty little historic town and for the first time in the 6 years i've stayed here i found the perfect neighborhood. I can't wait to go back and take photos. I can't wait to write about it! I have not been so inspired by a place in a long time. 

       When i am old and a professor I want to live in houses like those with ivy growing on my gateposts and on my old stands of trees. 

Yesterday a friend of mine asked me to take some photos of her bookshelves as she's trying to put together a website for her students. (She's an English Teacher) 

Its actually my first time doing something because i was asked. This may seem like a small hurdle...but i was curious how it would be for me taking photos of things i had not been compelled myself to photograph. 

These are some of the ones i liked best. I loved the textures on some of the old books. 

August Break Day 16: Yellow

What a dumbdumb i am. I put this together yesterday and totally forgot to post it! 

Down the road from my house is a verdant strip of median that is just BURSTING with Zinnias and Sunflowers and Elephant ears and these little flowers. Suffice it to say i may or may not have dipped and dodged through traffic to take some photos. 

Do you know what they are? I've been wondering.  

August Break Day 15: Housescapes

I could not be happier for an off day today! 

All  I truly want to do is read some books and laze around until tonight. 

We'll see if i can actually manage such a relaxing thing. Somehow i doubt it. :-)

Some friends of mine are getting married so i'm attending their wedding. Exciting! 

August Break Day 13: Landscapes and Cloudscapes

Happy Saturday all. Beginning to feel better

August Break Day 12

Tomorrow is Farmer's Market Day.

 It feels to me as if i live for Saturdays.

 I can't wait to buy some more flowers to spend time with. 

Here are some more of the Dahlia's i bought last week. They did not last very long.

 But they were so pretty!

Still feeling very much under the weather. 

But the love-day seemed to help today. 

I feel a little less strangled by my to do list. Now if only my body would stop feeling as if has been beaten by a stick i'll be set. 

Thoughtful Friday - This day shall be a love-day, Tamora

Name the quote from the title!

The week is coming to a close (two more days til my weekend) but i am feeling a little stressed. I've been getting a lot done this week, but i still have a lot of reading and work to do. But today i have decided shall be a play day. I'm watching Mansfield Park (I have had Jane Austen on the brain) And i'm going to do some pleasure reading.

     

Here are some thoughtfuls for your weekend guys! I hope its a great one and thanks for stopping by this week. I've loved hearing from you.

Thoughtfuls from my Pinterest