feeling lucky?

well

the gorgeously inspiring and oh so generous ladies

over at

~kind over matter~

(one of my daily haunts..and all time favorite inspirational blogs..)

are hosting a giveaway of my work!

from now until october 7th

head on over

for your chance to win one of my photographs

..of your choosing..

..from anything at all..

in my photo shop or even from my flickr

i can't wait to see what everyone picks..

..and to see who wins..

it might even by you!

good luck!

xox

*head on over now, so you don't forget!

*and thank you sweet jenn and amanda

you are two extremely amazing ladies!

xo

happy weekend

***

wishing you all a very happy weekend

full of adventure

rest friends food and all the things you love best.

xo

down the rabbit hole

**

she looked into her dreams

where her good friends lived and played and decided

the day had come to join them

and so

**

into the sun we ran

letting fears fall away

**

stopping only to see that this place

in all its gorgeousness

with all its newness

**

had really been ours all along.

sketches and notes from an adventurous day

(with many more to come..)

wishing you a happy weekend full of dreams and adventures of your own.

xo

*these photos are a small part of a collaborative series that my bf sam and i are creating

miles and miles

{jennifer morris}

50 of them to be exact...

and

when the weekend was through

we had explored 40 of the 5o miles

of the crazy flea-market

running along route 90 this weekend.

{jennifer morris}

rolling through farmland

linking villages to farms

and people to people

{jennifer morris}

it was such a great way to slow down

and stop in all the little towns

and take closer looks at houses

and cafes and barns

(i have a serious thing for barns..

i'll show you my ever-growing photo collection one of these days)

{jennifer morris}

people came from all around the northeast..

i met ladies who drove in from rhode island

who started the 50 mile drive (crawl)

on thursday.

{jennifer morris}

i didn't know what to expect

and now i do.

{jennifer morris}

it's a big party for people who love antiques

(and junk too)

who love history

and who just love to dig

and roam.

i was in heaven

{jennifer morris}

we couldn't have stuffed much more into the jeep

and i still spent

less than $100.

{jennifer morris}

what a great weekend.

hope you had a fun one too.

what did you do?

xo

a different path

***

so we left the house

all excited about going berry picking this weekend..

ready to take a million photos

and pick a billion berries

with visions of making tarts and pies

and filling our mouths with piles of them

fresh from the bushes

...strawberries, huckleberries, blackberries and raspberries..

just like i did when i was a kid

(i still remember the very first blackberry i ate right from the vine)

***

only to find that the farm

was already sold out of all of its berries

for the season

(what? how can this be..so early in the season?

well..then again, we're talking about organic berries..

which are sadly, very hard to come by around here)

***

darn. i was so super disappointed

..mad at myself really..

for having put off our little berry adventure again and again

(we'd been talking about picking them ourselves for months and months..)

***

then i remembered something i had read that morning..

a little thought of the day

(yogi teas come with small phrases, words of wisdom

printed on their tea tags..)

which most of the time

really do make me atleast think for a moment

during the day

this one said

'empty yourself and let the universe fill you'

(something more poetic, but along those lines)

and suddenly

i realized just exactly what this meant

and just exactly how it could help the situation

(yogi tea..you are my personal guru..yes you are!)

***

so i threw away my expectations

(mainly my disappointment)

and

we just set out exploring the countryside

with no plans at all

to see what we could find

***

..we discovered all sorts of great things..

a sweet little nature preserve

sortof hidden and tucked away

with a beautiful pond

***

and

all sorts of overgrown paths

(not scary overgrown..)

just sweet and smelling of chamomile

and begging to be explored

***

and

we played like kids

***

and snapped a million photos

***

and found strange little spaces

that sparked a billion creative ideas

***

and

realized we had found a really great spot

to come back to again and again

for more exploring

and for portraits

(i'm dreaming of doing some self-portraits and also using models..)

so

no berries this weekend

(but believe me..i'm thinking of driving out to the catskills..i hear there are still plenty there)

and funny enough

i can whole-heartedly say that it was one of the best i've had

in a very very long time.

hope you had a great weekend too..

happy monday to you!

xo

a yellow day

my dear friend the sun came for a visit yesterday

(a long long awaited visit, i might add)

it blanketed everything

with it's beautiful

*warm*

yellow glow

i decided to celebrate its return

with a bundle of sunflowers

fresh and sweet

from our little farmer's market.

they're just about the happiest flowers on earth

don't you think?

i love the way they capture the sun

and throw it right back at us

laughing with yellow happiness

and although our little visit was short and sweet

(it packed up and left this morning)

the sun left me with just enough sweetness

to last me until our next visit

i'm keeping my fingers crossed that it will be back again soon

and for

a much longer time, next time..

(don't get me wrong, i love rain

but

it is summer afterall)

wishing you a happy weekend

full of warmth and sunshine

(and if you do see it, please tell it to come back my way for a while)

xo

filling a space..

***

back in college..

(a few years back..)

my focus was sculpture.

if you know my jewelry work now,

you might be surprised to find out that my sculptures

were on a very (very) large scale.

...huge welded free-standing pieces, taller than me...

that eventually grew into installations that filled rooms and outdoor spaces.

i was young (ish) and dumb (ish)

and took very few photos of my work.

(just enough to get into grad school..)

and so of course i don't have many to show now.

(but i'll dig some up to show you in the future...promise...)

when i saw this video on my sweet friend mrs. french's inspiring blog last week,

my heart swelled and felt a rush of happy familiarity

(and the urge to create installations again..)

the music is beautiful

lisa hannigan has a great voice

the musicians are so sweet to watch

(check out the red ukulele! i am so going to learn someday..)

and of course,

seeing them all work together is so wonderful.

(that's another neat thing i miss...working with other people)

the room they create is gorgeous too..

oh,

just watch and you'll see..

have a gorgeous monday

full of inspiration!

xox

ps. i'll see you friday instead of wednesday because i'll be in nyc for a few days

taking photos, visiting museums, stuffing my face with great food

and best of all,

visiting my sweet friend christina.

xo

tea for two..or three..

{edamame at tao of tea}

there are about 567,894 reasons why i love portland, oregon.

(maybe more, actually..)

and

on a recent trip to lovely pdx,

(for my birthday, yay!)

i took my mom and sister to one of my very very favorite places for tea.

(it's also one of my top reasons for wanting to move to portland..)

it's the original location of

the tao of tea

***

we popped in out of the rain

for a quick cup of tea..

and found that we really didn't want to leave.

it's the sort of place that you just want to linger

and soak up the zen japanese atmosphere

it's so calming and

the beautiful menu is so tempting..

so we stayed

***

for 3 pots of tea

and edamame

***

and these delicate little wraps with spinach leaves

peanuts, toasted chopped coconut with almonds (amazing combination),

tiny bits of fresh lime, fresh ginger and onion.

***

and we were happy.

(and i was especially happy to share this with my beautiful sister and mom.

..thanks for a wonderful birthday guys!)

xox

if you're in the portland area, i highly recommend visiting the original belmont location

or better yet, wait until i'm there and we'll go together.

in the meantime,

have a great weekend full of things you love.

xo

time is flying by..i want to ride along

***

oh, happy happy friday everyone!

today was such a busy day.

i felt like i was flying around town, racing from here to there.

you know those days

when you have to consciously slow yourself down

to really breathe and enjoy the sunshine.

i had a beautiful story planned for you guys

and then life happened,

my projects today took twice as long as i had hoped,

things really changed..

(in happy and surprising ways, actually!)

so i decided to save the story for you

for next week.

for now, i'd like to share this image with you (above)

it's one i took this week

as part of a little film project i've started.

nothing big, but a new little creative exercise.

it grew out of a realization that's been dawning on me lately.

it's about coming to terms with

living in this small small town.

(after living in austin, houston and especially, los angeles)

you realize that at the end of the day,

you have to make your own fun.

(when did i forget this??!)

so i traipsed into the cemetery next to my house

(it's our little 'park' with huge beautiful trees)

and tried capturing the wind on film.

there were people nearby who i know must've thought

i was a lunatic.

hanging dresses in trees in a cemetery..i can only imagine how it looked!

hilarious now that i think about it.

but,

i was really having fun

and the trees are the only green in town at this moment..

and

the wind was just catching the fabric so gorgeously..

and i had promised myself to stay focused on the creativity

and not worry what people think.

so there it began.

and now it's a work in progress

and i look forward to showing you more as it develops.

in the meantime,

have a really inspiring and lovely weekend.

what are you going to do???

i'd really love to hear.

xo

dream a little dream..

{colie parks}

somedays, especially breezy days like today

things feel soft and mellow and slow and sweet

{missy pips}

we don't have to say much

the sunlight seems to speak

{colie parks}

it speaks in the prettiest tones

and i love what it says

{clumsy bird}

it sings

{colie parks}

it hums

{danske}

and whistles

{jennifer morris}

and whispers

{jennifer morris}

and it smiles.

*a little collection of dreamy polaroids i gathered for you

on this beautiful breezy wednesday..

xo