A few random oldies

So, with my new lovely computer/child, the process of massive cleanout and transferring of files has begun. With this I'm discovering some old diamonds in the rough...

Love at first sight <3 (supposed to be a heart)

For anyone out there who's kept up with my blog for long enough, you'll remember I professed my love for a certain Canon Rebel camera almost a year ago.

BUT.

I have discovered a much more profound, deeper love in my life. My new little addition to the World of Daisy family arrived in the mail today ....

I don't want to leave the house! I just want to sit and stare at my new little macbook all weekend! (Love does that to you).

Kim

My friend Kim has allergies beyond belief, and so she really doesn't like the outdoors much. (I recall floating the river with her in San Marcos years ago, and she was horrified...) She's always kinda been the girly girl. She was always wearing dresses growing up. She's had an elaborate collection of Mary Kay for as long as I can remember - she lives for colorful eye shadow.

So it's a bit ironic and humorous that I got some really good shots of her this past weekend - out in nature. Ha! It was fun times though, and we tried to pretend we were out in Forks, Washington, with Edward Cullen nearby. (Dorks. Yes.)

I've known Kim since I was a seventh-grader, and I'm amazed to see the beautiful woman she has become. Much love to ya, Kime. (Yes, I call her Kime. Don't ask...)

Side note: She ended the day with 14 mosquito bites....oh the things we do for art!

More of Mary, playin around....

So I am sitting here exhausted, listening to the rain, just got in from the SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE performance (woohoo!!!), knowing I should be sleeping right now - it is sooooo late (by my standards), and I have to wake up in 5 hours. (by my standards, sooo not good...) It has already been a long week and it's just Wednesday....

But! I have some exciting pictures to share, I've been meaning to post more but things have just been nuts-o. Here's another shot of Mary, and more to come soon of Kim!! Enjoy enjoy.

Miss Mary

My lovely, kind, generous friend Mary. She's my biggest fan. Always so encouraging and supportive. Always positive. Always upbeat. Her good energy overflows and builds me up. I don't know how to express my gratitude. Thank you, Mary.

Joey in a tree

She is so compassionate. So thoughtful, so considerate. An amazing young girl. Again and again she poses for me, eager to participate. I love her so.

Estoy lista: I am ready.

Thoughts of change are brewing. I feel good, I feel productive. I feel ready. Processing some deep-seated emotions. Sharing them here with you through my imagery. Listening to the Songbirds. Feeling a wave of purpose. Estoy lista. Done with a lot of other things, moving on. Here I go.

Have a lovely little Saturday, friends, the sun is shining. (and it's my mom's birthday!!)

Fall leaves

We don't have much of a fall season here in Texas.....but we do have a few colorful leaves...

The backyard hasn't been mowed for awhile, so the whole time I was praying to not step in any dog poop....

Calm

I'm feeling very calm right now. Calm and peaceful and guilt-free. It's lovely.

Usually I would be uptight about the fact that I haven't posted anything new and super-exciting for the past several days, but I've just been caught up in other things, things that are just as important.

Today I have no intriguing words to quote from. I've had no photoshoots in the past few days. But still I want to share. I am driven to send out some kind of good energy into the universe....

So I dug around in my archives, and found this lovely photo of my niece Joey. Remember the young girl that jumped and ran around and posed for me a few weeks back? I forgot about this calm moment when she was resting....

And this inspired me to write a list of things I'm thankful for, I haven't done one of those on my blog in a long time.

And of course I love making lists....

A few things I'm thankful for today:

1. leftover pork loin that my sister-in-law Alex cooked the day before yesterday, because yes its still that good

2. Joey's perfectly positioned necklace in this picture - isn't it beautiful?

3. balancing perfectly on my money from a school photo shoot today for work - YES (insert victory dance here)

4. having my orange and blue painting on display in Austin finally !! (its been in storage for a year..)

5. the view on I-20 as you come up a particular hill and around a bend on the way home from Dallas....

6. freshly ironed pants to wear this morning, as much as I dreaded ironing them lastnight.

7. the new season of So You Think You Can Dance....after tonight's show I am PUMPED!

8. avocadoes.

9.. sleepytime tea.

9. speaking of sleepytime.....

Good night. :)

Exciting-ness

I have some exciting news! I have a large mixed media painting now on display at the Texas Rio Grande Legal Aid office in Austin, TX. Woohoo! Big fun. (thanks thanks to Iris and Stephanie and Ana and Ramona for making this possible. lots of love).

This is the piece, you might have seen it on my main website (shrunken down quite a bit, the actual painting is 4 feet wide by 6 feet tall):

And I just had to share ..... here's a little snapshot of the little nephew.... great facial expression :)


Hope you all have a great week!!

outtakes from yesterday

Some more from my little shoot yesterday - oh I love blue skies. Especially after a few weeks of gray ones.

I'm thinking I might re-name my series. Something about frolicking. (thanks to a comment from my friend Ashley). I feel like I'm stealing the ideas of Cyndi Lauper by using Girls Just Wanna Have Fun. Hmmmm....

YAY

So my Red Dress series and Girls Just Wanna Have Fun series are beginning to blur and I can't decide which category this image belongs in ....

although I have the red dress on, it just seems to have the feel of my newer stuff ... hmmm....

Experiments

Is there a lot of stuff you don't understand? she said & I said pretty much the whole thing & she nodded and said that's what she thought, but it was nice to hear it anyway & we sat there in the porch swing, listening to the wind and growing up together.
-Brian Andreas, Story People


Thanks again to Mary for letting me shoot at this spot! I am loving this white brick. I got quite a workout, setting the timer, climbing up to pose, climbing back down, reshooting.....

...la la la a bit of fun in my old prom dress.

and what a great fence, eh?

Lately I've been shooting some square format film as well, hopefully will be posting some of that soon!

Ta Ta For Now

TTFN

(any other girls out there remember this?)

Green Steph singin

Here's another pic of Steph from Dunn Bros. Coffee in Addison (TX) Saturday night....great place, the owner was such a nice guy. (And great music, too, of course....por supuesto!....speaking of Spanish, random thought: I have GOT to get working on my Spanish again, yesterday I couldn't remember the word for teacher! Now that's ridiculous.)

The lovely barista made a heart in my latte.....awww shucks....

Happy Tuesday :)

Some of my familia :)

A few pics I came across that I'd forgotten about, they were mixed in with a random folder.....


Here is my niece Alexis, who is just becoming a teenager and is way too cool for me....haha.....



And her brother, Jaime. Here he's holding a baby picture of himself - this picture/pose was completely his idea. He must take it very seriously that his health was in a lot of danger at birth....


Such great kiddos. I am blessed to have them in my life.

Steph in green jacket

Pics from our photo shoot yesterday .... thanks thanks to Mary for providing the location !!

Stephanie Briggs at Opening Bell

Stephanie is in town !! woo hoo!

Went to see her play acoustic lastnight at Opening Bell Coffee in Dallas - cool little place in the basement of this historic building, we went exploring afterwards to take a few pics ....

Hopefully today we'll get in some more photo play time, right now it's time for pancakes :)

New mantra

Per Aspera Ad Astra

(Translation: Through difficulty to the stars)

A few weeks back, I saw these words painted on a wall in a school where I was working for a day. I found out it was the school's motto, and I jotted it down. I believe it's in Latin? I could be wrong, my memory fails me. I just came across that scrap of paper lastnight, having forgotten about it until now.

The more I reflect on this saying, the more I like it. It's so incredibly simple, and so common sense, but it reminds me that if I just get through difficult times, it will lead me to good things. That through my hard work and determination, I will feel uplifted.

I like that thought. I think it makes a good mantra. I think it will be my new mantra.

Through difficulty to the stars......

Jump Jump Jump

The light outside looked nice. So I ran out there for a few minutes and took some pics ... I feel such relief. It's amazing the pressure that slowly builds, the irritability the grows, the unsettled feeling I get when I don't create for several days.

And suddenly it's gone.

Whew.

Hope you enjoy, my friends !

Dove

Check out this video, it's a part of Dove's campaign for real beauty. Inspiring work. I love it.

At the same time, it is pretty gut-wrenching.

Interesting how it goes along with my previous post, the obsession with being perfect.


I've had little time to create images this week, should have something posted tomorrow!!
I'm working on the not-being-perfect thing, so I'm trying not to stress out about it. Thanks for understanding. :)

Perfect no more

October 3rd in Simple Abundance is entitled "Little Miss Perfect". I'm guessing that a lot of women out there can really relate to these thoughts....

Like workaholism, aspiring to be Little Miss Perfect is an addiction of low self-worth. When we were young, nothing we did was ever good enough, so we just kept on doing until doing was all we could do. When doing more and more didn't make a difference, we thought if we did our work perfectly, we'd hit the mark. When we did, suddenly voices other than our own sang our praises. It sounded like the Heavenly hosts, Champagne or chocolate couldn't begin to compare with the ecstasy of genuine compliments. So we committed to doing everything perfectly, setting in motion a cycle of self-destruction that frequently felt as comfortable as a straitjacket ....

A point worth pondering: Upon completing the Universe, the Great Creator pronounced it "very good." Not "perfect."

-Sarah Ban Breathnach

I continue to be this way with so many things that aren't important to me. I bend over backwards for commitments that have little significance to my purpose or my growth. I always want to be the best at everything I try. This has caused frustration and confusion, with myself and with others. When you are giving everything you have for something you aren't passionate about, it just throws things out of whack. Not only are you filling shoes that don't fit, you are taking those shoes away from someone who really wants them. And you are sending out the wrong message to those you are trying to be perfect for. It's ridiculous.

This leads into the passage for October 7, another concept I am new to trying out: saying 'no' to these obligations rather than taking them on (and taking them on perfectly....barf! I'm sick of it!):

Whenever we deny our need to say 'no,' our self-respect diminishes. It is not only our right at certain times to say 'no'; it is our deepest responsibility. For it is a gift to ourselves when we say 'no' to those old habits that dissipate our energy, 'no' to what robs us of our inner joy, 'no' to what distracts us from our purpose. And it is a gift to others to say 'no' when their expectations do not ring true for us, for in so doing we free them to discover more fully the truth of their own path. Saying 'no' can be liberating when it expresses our commitment to take a stand for what we believe we truly need.

-quoted from In Search of Balance: Discovering Harmony in a Changing World

So, let's practice saying 'no'. I've already got a few thoughts in my head, a few commitments that I know in my heart are not right for me. I'm going to say 'no' to at least one thing this week. What can you say 'no' to? Can you let go of being Little Miss Perfect?

I want to, and I'm going to give it my all.

ah-ha! Some forgotten pics.

Here are a few images I took last week - from Itasca. I arrived a bit early, so snapped a few pics of the beautiful sky in the morning. Sometimes I think I belong in the countryside, the vast open spaces are so inviting and tranquil.

A thought I want to share as well, again from my book Simple Abundance: A Daybook of Comfort and Joy. (I am needing these thoughts right now, I find myself getting caught up in some negative thinking this weekend and being down on myself...)

Nothing in the world can take the place of Persistence.
Talent will not; nothing is more commonplace than unsuccessful men with talent.
Genuis will not; unrewarded genuis is almost a proverb.
Education alone will not; the world is full of educated derelicts.
Persistence and Determination alone are omnipotent.

-Calvin Coolidge

just some playin around ...

Fun fun with one of my nieces today !

I have realized that I want to go a bit more artsy with my portrait sessions. I want to create images of people that are pieces of artwork, not just personal portraits. I think this could be a lot of fun !!

Hopefully there are some other nutty artsy types out there who will go for it ...

:) :)

Such a beautiful girl.

Thumbtacks on carpet

The carpet kinda looks like snow to me ...