Beelieve

Happy Flare Friday!

Peace!

4 of 52

4/52

 strength

 some days are harder than others to take a self portrait and look at it, then some days i just see something i like

 i am a small person, only 5' 4" and have no clue what i weigh. i have old pictures in pretty dresses and used to gasp at my "man arms". why am i not soft like a women should be? i avoid showing so many pictures and try to chose ones i look softer in. well let me tell you, wonderful people in my life have said nice things about my strength...i met a man a few years back, an artist, a intuitive sort and before he even knew who i was he shook my hand and said...you are an artist aren't you? wow...i looked at him confused. he said to me i feel your strength...there is a lot to be said about the first hand shake...he continued to tell me things about what goes on inside will be apparent on the outside and he does not meet many who grip with the strength i have. that day i felt a lot better about my "man arms"

 ....but they are also my "mom arms" they have carried 6 years of life and can still scoop up a 45 pound child effortlessly...and that is what a women looks like!

 if you know me in person, you have also felt those arms wrap around you...strong arms are all the better to reach out and hug with...they are an extension of my heart!

Bench Monday~country fresh

Most forecasts around here today were hazy hot and humid but there is always seems to be the perfect breeze for drying sheets!

And the smell.........Heaven!

check out the dragonfly sneaking in the picture!

always...no exception

100 strangers project...practice!

 

So inspired by this post  and all the photographers I have discovered actually participating in the100 strangers project...i just had to let my friend m. heart know that I too am "painfully shy" face to face with a stranger.  It is a bit different when it comes to a new patient at work. They are no longer a stranger when I am there to try and make their day a bit better, and they are each the most important person of the day.  Take me out of my environment and it is a different story.

I am really interested in the 100 strangers project.  When I was taking pictures of all the birds I was hanging out with my friend here :)...at an antique shop across the street.  The owner was so nice, he came out to chat and told me about 30 people took pictures of the Blues Brothers that day.  We chatted a bit and I really wanted to ask him if I could take his picture for this challenge...but  major cold feet!!!  He knew I was waiting for my daughter while at a class and offered for me to come in the shop out of the sun to hang out with them.  That, I thought, was so kind.  I was sitting on a cast iron bench...it was around 90 degrees and full sun.  He had to know that I just branded my butt sitting on that scorching bench...but it was directly across the street form the birds...and worth the pain :) 

Next time, I will be more brave...the shop owner would have been a perfect first stranger...but just taking the time to chat was what this project is really all about in my opinion.

I will make bring myself to do this project and would love to hear about anyone who has made it past that first click with a stranger!

Off to the cage in a bit...will miss you all today!!

Happy Flare Friday!

some photos for you that i love

 

 

 

long you live

and high you'll fly

and smiles you'll give

and tears you'll cry

and all you touch

and all you see

is all your life will ever be

~Pink Floyd

Crafty Crow feature

Earlier this week our little sandbox drawer was featured on The Crafty Crow, you may look at the original post here  where I was quickly showing some works in progress in the Spring.  

It is now summer and what better to do than camp!  I took a quick picture yesterday because this is way too sweet not to share.  Pajama Girl did this all on her own but requested a little help for the items she wanted.  She loves looking through her Jane Bull craft books, we have been doing more than I have time to post.  It has been so rainy here and camping on the porch was a great treat...even if it was just a tiny bit of camping!

   

There is so much detail, all set up by her.  She had such a vision for this and I adore it!  She even climbed up into the kitchen cabinets to get the red and green sprinkles for the picnic treats.  There are red fish cut from foam and fishing poles, little tents made with twigs.  The tiny metal case is the grill and it rests on top of 2 corks for a stand.  If there was only one toy in the world she needed it would be this sandbox.

Thank you so much to The Crafty Crow for the feature, and to all the imagination you continually spark!

3 of 52

 

 stability

 I have been going through all million of the shots I took in July of anything and everything...debated about a few different ones for week 3. It is still very tough sometimes to get in front of the camera...with a 20 sec timer you can start giggling about things that make you laugh.

 it has been a tough month for me, probably more emotional than most...but I don't hold onto it for long. I could go a year, maybe 2 without shedding a tear. Even to me it sounds cold as i type it...but so not true at all. I have a real hard time crying and a real hard time letting people see me cry or know about it...maybe that is why I have laughed harder this month than most. One of my biggest things is I believe to a degree in attracting what energy you give, I believe that if I stay with a sad thought....more will follow. I have to dump it out one way or another, and it is usually through art. Photography is such gratifying art when it comes to this. I would be painting for 1000 years the pictures I would need to paint for the thoughts that dance in my mind.

 ohhh you are so going to get this thrown at you again...but Picasso is my main man for quotes and

"Art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life"

Bench Monday~leaving my hat on for one more week!

but the wallpaper is history!