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?

coffee love

One of my favorite things ever is coffee. I love the smell. I love the taste. I love the community that is associated with coffeeshops. (Just a side note...coffeeshops isn't actually a word. It's supposed to be coffee shops, but I think it should be one word, so I insist on writing it that way.) This is my photographic ode to my love for coffee.

YUM!!

cider days = fall

Every fall there is a street festival called Cider Days. The past couple of years, I have gone because my lovely friend, Lee Ellen Starks, has been performing there. Just a little shoutout for her...she is AMAZING!!! You should check out her blog and youtube and myspace...it will change your life...trust me!

So something about me is that I love to take pictures of people when they don't realize that I'm taking a picture of them. I feel like when that happens you get a real picture of someone. Like they can't hide behind a mask that they put on for the camera. It's quite fun, but can be a little tricky with a big camera.
Anyway, here are some of the pictures I took at Cider Days when I was there.

This is such an awesome face!!! LOVE IT!!

My lovely roommate, sipping some cider and enjoying a cupcake from Amycakes

I love the fact that he has an England football [soccer] jersey on.


Lee Ellen singing away.

Another awesome face!!

These little girls were climbing the tree in their pretty dresses...it made me smile to myself cause my sister and I used to do that.