TOMS love III

TOMS botas are perfect for fall and winter weather.

fall is upon us

I hate the cold, so the fact that it froze last night makes my heart a little sad. We have officially said good-bye to summer. :( There are two big trees in my backyard. One has almost no leaves and the other has almost all of its leaves...it's weird, so I thought I would show you.




The only good thing about cooler weather...I get to wear my TOMS botas!!! Yay!! I love them a lot!

house or home?

Occasionally I see something that I would love to have in my someday house. This was a house I saw in Manhattan Beach that I just fell in love with. I love the flowers spilling all over the house. I love the outdoor sitting area. I love the windows. Just the whole house is lovely. I just love the style of this house.

miniature delights :)

My roommate and a dear friend love miniature things. So when I was running out of cookie dough the last time and made a couple of mini cookies, my roommate told me that I should make mini cookies the next time I made them. Well, that was tonight...just look how cute and delicious they look!!!



Every time I make these cookies it takes me back to the first time I made them for some dear friends when we were on the other side of the world. Such wonderful memories.

where i really want to be right now

It was kind of a rough day...so this is where I would really like to be right now if I could drop everything and go anywhere.

Near Auckland, New Zealand

chocolate = delight

I love chocolate. I'm a girl...it's in my blood. I didn't always like chocolate, but now I can't seem to get enough of it. The darker the better. Here is a photographic ode to three of my favorite chocolaty treats. Yum!

Askinosie 70% dark chocolate nibble bar...delish!!And it even has c-h-o-c-o-l-a-t-e stamped into the bar...how fun is that?!?!


These are the best chocolate sandwich cookies ever...I'm not even kidding you. Late July Dark Chocolate sandwich cookies...so good!!

And what post about chocolate would be complete without chocolate chip cookie dough? My homemade spin on a fellow blogger's favorite recipe.

a nod to fall

One of the reasons I really don't care for fall that much is the holiday known as Halloween. I greatly dislike Halloween. I know that many people love this holiday, and I don't mean to offend anyone, but this is my least favorite time of the year. However, one of the bloggers I follow posted a picture of a spider the other day, and it reminded me of this pic I took a couple years ago.



So there's my small nod to fall and Halloween. And now I'm back to desiring Spring to be here ASAP.

wishing for spring

I don't like cold...at all. As soon as October hits, my feet and fingers freeze and they don't thaw out until May. The one thing that gets me through the cold, dreary months of fall and winter is the hope that Spring is on the horizon. That after the deadness of winter, there will once more be flowers, and leaves on the trees and new life. That is what I cling to through the cold months. Flower pictures are part of what helps me through those months. They are so happy and lovely and Spring-like.

fall-ish

It's been feeling fall-ish around here lately. While I don't like fall overly much, I do appreciate the loveliness of the colors, even though I usually follow that up with they are only changing colors because they are dying. Here are some pics I took a couple of falls ago at a little lake north of town.

Doors: Part II

More doors from my travels...

London, England

London, England

Dublin, Ireland

London, England
This is a personal favorite because I walked past it every day when I walked to school in London. I also like that I am reflected in the window.

Oxford, England
I also love this one a lot!!

Manhattan Beach, California

Oxford, England


Oxford, England

Manhattan Beach, California

London, England

Also something else that I love about doors is that they are a completely functional thing. Everyone has to have doors, and yet these doors all seem to go above and beyond their function to be decorative and beautiful in their own individual ways. It's taking something everyday and making it something special.

Doors: Part I

I have a thing about doors. They are just so fascinating. Doors are both a physical passageway into a new place, and they are also an invisible passageway into new phases of life. I love to take pictures of interesting doors that I see wherever I'm at. I have a lot of them, so I'm going to make this more than one blog post.

Oxford, England

Oxford, England

Wakefield, New Zealand

London, England

Manhattan Beach, California

Stay tuned for more doors from all over the world.

TOMS love II

This week has been a week of TOMS. I got to go to hear the founder of TOMS Shoes speak on Wednesday. Afterward he signed my shoe...so awesome!! I learned where the name TOMS comes from. It's short for tomorrow shoes. Tonight Potter's House is hosting a TOMS Style Your Sole event. There will be free sweet tea and coffee, live music, an opportunity to buy new TOMS, and a chance to decorate them while hanging out with friends and fellow TOMS lovers. Delightful! Tonight I will officially own my fourth pair of TOMS, and I'm so excited! If you live in the Springfield area, you should come check it out.

memory

I love that pictures are able to contain so many memories in them. It's one of the things that I love most about taking pictures. Every picture holds it's own story.


This picture reminds me of so many things--thoughts, feelings, pain, joy, goodness, grief, and above all love.

collections

Sarah from on the brightside... is having a photo contest on collections. I thought about it for a long time, because I don't really have any collections...

but then I realized that I actually do. I have a scarf collection (from around the world). I have a shoe collection. I have a mug collection. I have a smile collection (yes, I collect people's smiles in my mind...please don't judge me).

The collection that I decided to photograph, though, is my shell collection. I have shells from all the beaches that I have visited, and I have this glass jar that a friend gave me a while back. So I decided to put the two together, and I now have a jar full of shells that bring back many memories for me.

There are shells in here from the gulf coast of Florida, from the Atlantic coast of Florida, from Manhattan Beach, California, from Auckland, New Zealand, from St. Croix, and a couple of rocks from the shore of Lake Taupo, New Zealand. Every time I go somewhere there is a beach, I pick up a few shells to take back and put in my jar. It's a free souvenir packed with memories...just the kind I like. So here you go...my shell collection.

slow down

I am most at rest in the country. I have distanced myself a lot from my past, so most of my friends don't know that I was a farm girl or don't think of me that way because I'm so far removed from that now. I don't think I want to be a farm girl again, but I wouldn't mind living in the country again.

This past weekend I got to go stay with the grandparents/parents of some of my friends at their home in the country. I have been out to their house before, and I love going out there because it is just so restful and peaceful and the pace is so much slower. They still believe in sitting down and visiting and Sunday afternoon naps. I did take a Sunday afternoon nap, but I also used some of my Sunday afternoon to take some pictures of their place.

tomatoes still on the vine

baby calves are so cute!!!






This was my favorite shot of the day. :)
Where do you feel most at home?