{summer reading} part iii

funny how i only just started tracking my reading like this in the last three weeks of summer. ;) this week i read steinbeck's of mice and men. don't know how i missed reading that in middle school but in our most recent trip to the bookstore alex made it part of my selection. short book, good read. very touching. i also read jodi picoult's book keeping faith- my 3rd of her books in as many weeks. it was a good read- very unique topic.. a little confusing at times as to who was narrating but still good overall. looking forward to reading a couple other books of hers that i have waiting on my nightstand.

this is another book i recently purchased: a hardcover coffee table book on sale for $10! the photographs for the tutorials are truly beautiful and there is a really wide range of craft ideas. i can't wait to try some of the ideas myself (in my copious spare time, right?). you can view these scans individually/larger here, here, and here.

i ♥ linkity links

unfortunately my camera battery died and i am without my charger, which means a rerun- rearranged into a diptych. i've recently become enamoured with diptychs and have joined a flickr group to see the unique pairings and have started a set of my own. i love the mood of the pairing above + i love that alex and i each shot one of the photos. he took the one at the top from where we were parked on a structure in santa monica. i shot the bottom photograph in one of my all time favorite places- the bookstore (same trip). ;)

newly discovered and smitten:

blogs
♥ sky fox a
♥ two straight lines
♥ buzzing bee
♥ the glass doorknob

shops
♥ zuzupop
♥ fluffy co.
♥ six one six
♥ fern works

photos
♥ daily dose of kitten
♥ fourteen
♥ garden, next to someones doorstep
♥ from maditi

ps- {hot pink + orange} fatbooks will be shipped out tues. sept. 5th.

good morning!

Either Blogger is just completely out of whack or I've become dull. Where are you, friends? I think I may decide to make the intimidating move over to typepad. *gasp* We'll see. So, last night I couldn't sleep so I decide to do my makeup. Haha... the two don't usually go hand in hand but it's been too long since I've worn the fun stuff... or taken a self portrait. The beautiful flowers were photographed at the school we stayed at for artFIBERfest in Washington.

In October I'm going to a gala called the Diamonds + Pearl Ball for a charity organization my employers chair for. After seeing the Emmy's I'm dying for a purple dress but we'll see. The theme is 1940's Hollywood and I'm having a hard time with it! It seems that wasn't the richest time in this country and even Hollywood wasn't terribly glam in my opinion. I did find one cute dress but I'm not sure it'd be dressy enough. If I'm unable to find "the dream" dress then I can always dress it up a bit with accessories and fancy hair. I feel like I should get help with this! Any ideas?

{snap}

I can't stop staring at the photographs in this mosaic- as a collection and individually (click on the image for photo credits and links). I'm obsessed with it really; a larger version made it's way to my computer desktop for nonstop oogling.

This is one of my favorite photographs from our hiking last Saturday. We found this great flat rock to lie down on to rest and from there I shot this photo. Photography has really been on my mind (as you know!) I'd love to invest in a really nice camera one of these days. I've been keeping my eyes open for a photography class but the local community center isn't offering one this fall. I'll probably have to wait until I'm able to go back to school. That's okay. I may be taking a Watercolor class soon and I am absolutely thrilled about that. Then I can go hiking with my camera and visual journal et al.

PS- What is going on with Blogger?? I know Blogger was having some issues yesterday and now I see we are today. Were you able to see my last post Re: {photography}?

{photography}

The incredibly talented Jennifer Causey, aka photobird on flickr recently organized a flickr photo swap. A stupendous idea that I hope happens again and again! Photography is such an incredible source of inspiration for me. I would love a "real" collection of some of the very photographs I find myself favoriting daily. Above are two amazing 5 x 7 photographs I recieved mounted on cardstock greeting cards from Dianna Miller. I wish I had a website link to share with you. She says, "The bright red tricycle inspires me to lounge in a lawn chair + eat watermelon." I love that!! Thank you so much, Dianna!

This week I'd like to let myself be inspired by my everyday surroundings. I am challenging myself to photograph these things and post at least one of them a day for the rest of the week. You are more than welcome to join me in this endeavor!

{hiking}

Yesterday Alex and I took the Palm Springs Aerial Tramway to the top of the mountain for some day hiking. Neither of us had been up there before and it felt like such a getaway. The temperature drops 30 degrees by the time the aerial tram hits the top and between that and the natural scenery, it's hard to believe we were in the desert heat just 11 minutes before. We walked the short tourist trail before eating lunch in one of their restaraunts. Then we got a day wilderness permit to hike the more strenuous trails. By this time it was nearing dark so we only went about a mile out before resting to enjoy our surroundings, and turning back. Next time we know to go earlier in the day and head straight for the wilderness park where there are less people (children). I can't wait to go back.

[To see the photographs better/larger just click on each one.]

{summer reading} part ii

This week I read The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold and The Pact by Jodi Picoult. Both books were excellent stories of love, life, and death. They were about family. I didn't intend to read two books so similar in theme and didn't even realize they were until I started writing this post. The Lovely Bones was recommended to me by an employee of Barnes & Nobel. She asked me if I'd heard of it and was surprise that I hadn't. She told me that I looked like the type of person who would enjoy it. Not sure what she meant, and entirely curious about what a stranger thought I might enjoy, strictly on 'looks' alone, I bought it. I was not disappointed. It was disturbing + haunting, the way some great books are. It was also incredibly touching. The Pact stood out to me on the table of Bestsellers because I had read another of Jodi Picoult's books just last week. Although I had enjoyed Vanishing Acts, I liked The Pact even more. I felt so connected to the characters in the book that at times I felt their pain too much and had to remind myself that I was reading! I am looking forward to reading more of her books in the near future.

Seeing My Tim

♥ If you can't tell by the picture, Aimee and I had a great weekend! She ended up coming over and spending the night Friday. We got up and went for a 2.5 mile walk at 6 am (gotta beat the heat) and then jazzercise at 9:15. It was so fun taking the class together- wish we lived closer so we could make it a habit! Saturday afternoon we left for the hotel and as soon as we got there we started getting ready for the concert. We took a bunch of photos but many of them are bluuuurrrry (more than this one!). At 6 we took a cab over to a restaraunt across the street from the staples center- liberty grill. The wait was horrible and I think the hostess was just moving around people on the list as she pleased. The food was eh- okay. Oh, but we did save Tim McGraw's life. ;) Aimee looked up and noticed a man sitting on the roof of the holiday inn!! it freaked me right out and I called to tell the manager on duty. I did not want to a) witness a guy kill himself or b) witness a guy try to shoot my Tim. :) The concert was AWESOME! I didn't realize our seats were going to be so close... the stage is an + with a circle in the middle and we were in the third row of one of the runways- one they visited often and exited from! Tim + Faith were great performers and the concert was wonderful! I had said this would be my last Tim concert for a while since I've now seen 3 in a row.... but I lied because now I need to join his fan club so I can find out about the concert 12 hours ahead and buy front row tickets! hehe. :) Anyway, we had fun and wore blisters into our feet from dancing in our heels. We walked the four blocks back to the hotel barefoot (ew, can you say gross?). Before coming home the next day we hit the gym and Aimee kicked my butt on the Eliptical.. I'd never been on that thing. Ouch. Well, it was a super fun getaway and I can't wait until my next one... which is coming up in 2 days..woot!

{beautifully inspired}

[click on image for photograph credits]

♥ i lost another 2.5 lbs. this last week bringing my total to 13! :) yay! this week i've started training for the heart 5k. i've almost reached my donation goal of $250! thank you to everyone whose helping to find a cure! tuesday i walked 1.5 mi. in 30 minutes and today i walked 2.1 miles in 36! it's my goal to do the 5k (3.1 mi.) in 45 minutes.
♥ the {hot pink + orange} fatbooks are coming along beautifully! i hope to get a good portion completed tomorrow. this book was a little more extensive than the others for me because i created back covers and am embellishing the coils. i'll keep you posted on my progress!
♥ saturday after jazzercise i'm driving to pick up my sister, aimee on the way to los angeles. for our birthdays (hers- march 10; mine- march 17) my husband gave us tickets to see soul2soul II (tim mcgraw + faith hill). we're going to be getting reading and staying the night at the wilshire grand hotel. i'm so thrilled to be having this 'date' with her!!
♥ i haven't had any spare time for creative endeavors which is really a shame. meanwhile i'm trying to keep inspired by all the loveliness on flickr... hence the lovely mosaic above. enjoy!

boo

i think the bloglines subscribers i had before this week, need to delete me and add me again. something happened. *sniff* sorry for the trouble!

dear bloglines subscribers

can you read this? i think i'm having some issues here...

{knott's berry farm}

we (me, alex, my mom, and sister, aimee) took my charge (i'm a nanny)- "C" - to knott's berry farm yesterday. it was so much fun and i wish we were going again today. lol :)

{summer reading}

Have you been reading this summer? I've actually read quite a bit this summer but nothing like I have lately. I've read three books in the past week alone! No Lifegaurd On Duty: The Accidental Life of the World's First Supermodel, by Janice Dickinson; Vanishing Acts by Jodi Picoult; The Dogs of Babel by Carolyn Parkhurst. All three were truly good books in completely different ways. I probably couldn't have picked more different books (in genre) if I tried! :) I have three new books on my nightstand waiting to be read but I'm not sure which will be next just yet. What have you been reading? Anything you'd recommend?

{heart 5k walk/run} etc.

♥ I am helping the American Heart Association fight the nation's leading causes of death by participating in the Heart 5k Walk/Run on September 10th. Step out against heart disease and stroke by supporting my efforts. Please make a donation so I can reach my walker dollar goal. Thank you for your support!

♥ Please read the Portals homepage for a status report regarding the zine. (Very important information!)

♥ {hot pink + orange} fatbooks to be bound this week. The pages are AMAZING and it's a really fun book!

♥ WW and exercising is going great. The 6 am walks have actually been going very well. I feel so much more energized in my day. The friend I made is really a perfect match for me- we have so much in common! I think it will be great to push eachother with working out but also so that I can socialize. Jazzercise was so good today! I have a goal to get through an entire class without having to pause or workout something that's hurting- and I am well on my way. It's a lot of fun and many of the same people go so it's been nice meeting them too. As of Thursday I've lost 10.5 lbs. so I am thrilled about that. Alex is doing well also and has lost about 7 lbs.

♥ I've been working about 60+ hour weeks with another one coming up so between everything that's what I've been up to. We're enjoying somewhat cooler (less hot, really) days, walking, swimming, trips to the lake, library, mall. Tomorrow we're off to the August family birthday party and Monday we're taking C to Knott's Berry Farm! I hope you're all doing well and you have a wonderful weekend. :) xo!

{so random these days}

{beautiful desert browns}

♥ a week ago i wasn't feeling particularly inspired by all the blah browns but today is an entirely different story. today i looked closer and i listened. here are a few of the beautiful browns i found at work, including C with her new polka dot chalk. look at that tan chiquita banana! the girl is a real fish, i tell ya. :) i've been taking the kids for a short morning jaunt around the property and we're swimming in the late afternoons.

♥ there is a website called exercise friends which allows you to create a profile for yourself, including your location and what activities you enjoy. i thought this could be a good way for me to actually meet someone, make a friend, and workout. i found someone that also just relocated to la quinta with her new husband and is my very age. we live a mile apart and near the community center so we're planning to meet there at 6 am (*gulp*) on the weekdays for a 30 min. walk before work. she's also going to try out jazzercise with me on saturdays. i hope everything works out and we like each other. i haven't really had the time or opportunity to make friends (in 'real life') for too looooooong a time.

{shhhtuff}

♥ the {hot pink + orange} fatbook is well underway and these are four of the fabulous pages i've recieved so far! this is going to be a beautiful + fun book for sure! from top left: gwynn thoma- twain harte, ca; kim boehm- galena, oh; edina tien- vancouver, wa; lucy lee- pebble beach, ca

♥ there are just a small handfull of issue two of portals zines left so if you want one, please order soon! SOLD OUT! thank you, thank you!!

♥ all remaining orders will be shipped out on saturday!

♥ new call for art- anything BEADS! please send submissions by sept. 15 for consideration!

♥ the weather here has been much cooler this week- still reaching 100 but not nearly as bad as 121..and not humid either, thank goodness! i've been going to jazzercise and working out on my own. this week i've lost 5 lbs. bringing my total to 7! :) yay me!

♥ any recommendations for songs to workout to?