Bloom

Bloom! Brave this unpredictable world and grace us with your beauty. The first steps into the unknown are often the scariest, but they will take you to the best places.

I had an idea of what I wanted to write this evening, but I lost it. I have been too caught up in watching art journaling videos on YouTube, and making art supply wish lists all over the internet! This is my year to create more, but there will be more on that in another post.

I simply wanted to check in here, and leave my mark on the page. I keep thinking of this saying I wrote on Instagram when I posted the above picture. I feel as if my spirit was whispering this in my ear that day, and it has been sitting with me for a while now.

It's a new year

Three days in to 2012 already, where has the time gone? Here is a secret for you: every time I type 2012 my fingers want to type 2010! I have hit the delete key many times already to fix that little slip and it's only the third day of the new year. It seems that my right ring finger and the delete key are going to be best friends this year!

I wanted to step back into this space, take a look around, and shake up the layer of dust that has accumulated. So, here I am! I am not making any promises of how often I will be here, but I'm hoping that it is fairly regularly since there are quite a few things that I am doing this year and I would like to use my space here to document them.

The first week in January is usually the week that I do my reflecting on the previous year and start planning for the year ahead. I will be sharing here what I have learned from 2011 and what I hope for in 2012.

Sunday Photos~fall leaves

I seem to have a fondness for fall. Looking through my photos in my iPhone, I have an over abundance of pictures of...fall leaves.

Fall photo edits

I'm going to be shaking things up a bit here in the next week two. Getting my groove on, starting some creative fires. It's going to be a wonderfully magnificent time!

In the meantime, I've been playing around with editing some photos I've taken, and I wanted to share them! What do you think?

Sunday Photos~Rainy Fall leaves

These were actually for last week, but I never posted them. It rained for a good three days straight and I wasn't complaining one bit. I got to wear my leopard print rain boots and splash in puddles on my walks to work.

It's interesting that I never realized how often I look down at the ground when I'm walking in the rain. Maybe I'm trying not to step in puddles. I did start to notice all of the leaves on the ground and how most of them were red or yellow. I also found the biggest leaf ever*, almost as big as my right foot!

*it wasn't really the biggest leaf ever, just saying.

Writing Wednesday

I have found more things to keep me posting! Yay! Who knew that there were so many websites that provided you with writing prompts? Not this girl! Oh, the joy, the the wonder, the possibilities. In honor of this fantastic discovery, I shall now proclaim every Wednesday as Writing Wednesday..be prepared to be awed by my awesomely horrible writing skills!*

Create a poem using Emily Dickinson`s "Bring me the sunset in a cup" as a starting point.

Bring me the sunset in a cup
Dainty and lined in gold
Songbirds darting to-and-fro
As if returning to their nest at the end of their day

The oranges and reds
Are swirling in my cup
Mixing with the blues and whites of the clouds
Sprinkled stardust adds a little bit of spice

Crisp, tangy scents arise
Mixed with sweet nostalgia for the day
A warm and soothing taste reminds me of a breeze
A hint of what night brings

Prompt 103 from creativewritingprompts.com

*Don't judge me! I do that enough on my own. Also, this is the first poem I've written in oh, i don't know...forever!

Three cat Tuesday

This is just a simple, yet random post to make sure I keep this "posting thing" going. Everybody loves cats, right? So here are the three cats I interact with on a regular basis.

First up, you all know and love Arian. He makes a regular (well, as regular as you can get with sporadic posts)* appearance around these parts, and he wanted to say hey. Also, he didn't want to lose the mayorship title!**

Next we've got Mynx, or as I affectionately call her-Mynx-girl Scaredy pants. During the day she runs from pretty much anything, but when it comes to me going to bed she's a lovable attention addict. She secretly plots throughout the day the many ways she can keep me from going to sleep/waking me up with her need for snuggles!

Last, but not least there is the adorable gray neighborhood cat. I'm not sure if he or she has a name (heck, I don't even know if he or she is a he or a she!). We don't meet up often, but when we do it's as if we are long lost best friends. Total purr-central and enough body-rubs to last a week!

Hope you had a happy Tuesday, and if not I hope these three cuties help you out a bit!

P.S.-if there are any faithful (or semi-faithful) readers of my blog out there, I'm thinking about either changing the name of my blog, switching up content, or starting a brand new blog. I'll talk more about this idea later, just wanted to put a heads-up out there!

*-just a little bit of sarcasm attached
**-just a teensy reference to my Foursquare addiction

Return of Sunday Photos!

I've had an iPhone since February, which means I've taken an ungodly amount of pictures since then. There is no reason why Sunday Photos shouldn't happen every week! This is my Hipstamatic edition-my top favorite pictures I have taken using the Hipstamatic App! *the favorites that are currently on my phone!*

Fall Wreath--I made this!

I made this wreath after seeing a blog post about it at JJ Crochet (I don't know how to insert a link to her website through the Blogger App on my phone *insert sad face*). I am not the craftiest person I know, and I always seem to get so inspired to try something new or learn a new hobby and then my excitement fizzles until all that is left is a bunch of art supplies sitting in a corner un-used for months at a time. When I came across this very easy DIY tutorial, I was so excited because this is something I could do in a few hours and feel accomplished!

I used a 14' round foam wreath, a pretty burgundy wine colored yarn, two sets of purple flowers, one set of orange flowers and one sprig of cranberry ball thingys. I had so much fun shopping for the flowers that I couldn't decide on colors and was in the floral aisle of Michaels for almost 30 minutes!

The pictures below are of the materials and the finished beauty. Our hallway is so dark that I couldn't get a good picture, but I know she is going to brighten my day every time I see her! I enjoyed the process so much, that I'm thinking about making wreaths for every holiday and season & I just might make them for my friends as a little "thank you for being an awesome friend" or a simple "just because I care" gift!

Arian

I'm testing out the Blogger App on my phone to see how easy it will be to post on here. My main concern is how it handles multiple pictures. Arian is always a willing subject when it comes to my taking pictures, so I'm sure he wouldn't mind showing up in this test post!