hi, world.

it's been ages [literally, maybe a month?] since i've even logged into my blogger account.
i kinda miss reading and seeing and getting inspired by and learning about other lives and beautiful things out there.

i'm so tired and don't want to go anywhere tonight.
but we cannot do or get what we want all the time.
sigh.
true, no?
i just need another cup of coffee.
i just wanted to say hi. :)

this is me, this morning.
i got henna done last night by a friend. aka, the legit tattoo artist boyfriend of a sweet friend. lol.

i shall never get a real tattoo because i am afraid of needles.
but henna is good enough for me.
art. heck yeah.

also...this past week, i've sold 5 different canvases, via my etsy. :) pretty exciting.

food, life, waiting, painting.

just speechless.

the hands i love. :)

life's been pretty good.
the weather's been whacky for this state. :P never has it been so warm and humid for so long. it's not normal for us....sheesh.
but we're learning to live with it, praying the drought will pass, and learning to be thankful in all things, for something.
i hardly ever blog anymore.
if you haven't noticed.
sometimes it's hard to have words when you're in a [obviously quiet] season of waiting and trusting.
it's hard work, but i'm ready to work hard for/with what lies ahead.

 oh! this.

i have been getting a random custom request once in a while, and just the other day i made and sold another one. :)
i love doing custom ones. people ask for all sorts of quotes. it's awesome. :)

hah...last night i made blueberry muffins for the second time in two weeks, because blueberries have been on sale and therefore not a pain in the butt to buy.
the batter was so freaking yummy. that's all i'll say..... ;) do you ever eat the batter of anything you make/bake?

so, it's been a while . . .

and i finally decided to come in here and write a few words, post a couple pictures.
it's a relaxing monday afternoon, and the younger sisters are watching prada to nada.
life's been interesting and good and everything.
thursday to tuesday, over memorial day weekend, rach and i went down to spend those days with justin and his family.

an excerpt from thursday.

friday afternoon, aunt pj making baby cate laugh; eating tacos with the old married lady who's been my best friend since we were about 10. :)

saturday, playing piano...

and heading off to take engagement pictures with pj [amazing talented best friend that she is; so blessed to know all of them!] and all the siblings.
and...of course just now, google and everybody would decide to gang up on me and tell me that my gigs of storage for pictures to blog is all used up. oh my.
dangit. perfect timing, internet corporations..... sigh:P
well, if you've friended me on facebook or vice versa, you've probably already seen the album. so....it's all good. until i decide to start blogging again and need to do something about my storage issue. sheesh:P


the week since we got back has been a whirlwind of church on wednesday night;

swing dancing till late on thursday night; 
coffee and an antique store and lunch and conversation with heath and steph, anna and i on friday;

watched the film the hunt for red october that night with dad and a few siblings;

tired little munchkins still in their jammies. :)

saturday morning, babysat eliyah, zechariah, and danny boy on saturday with lyd's help;
took a nap that afternoon and it failed;
church sunday, and another nap that afternoon that failed;

also . . . in the latest news . . .
i slept in this morning and have been randomly researching wedding cake ideas and stuff like that.
oh, and this article [by a practical wedding] on advice for the wedding planning phase is grand.
no, no date set yet. calm down. ;) still a few things we're waiting on to fall into place....
God is so good, though, and we can see Him bringing things together as we trust Him with it all.

have a grand monday afternoon [watch out; there was a little bit of sarcasm in that.], and i shall see you around!
hah....

p.s. for all you bloggers who post tons of pictures, what do you for storage issues in google/blogger/etc??

a few random things from today.

dark chocolate covered caramel squares.

breakfast blend coffee. brewed fresh. in the afternoon.

francesca battistelli.

stack of library books.

pictures to import and go through.

a surprise visit from justin and his younger sister, jacklyn. 

the best new year's weekend ever.
hands down.
:)

a letter.

dear certain natural hair dye brand,
why don't you have a dark/ash blond that actually dyes right?
certain people in my life would prefer i go for more natural stuff...but this is not working. for me. at all. i've tried.
ya know, something that looks like my real color . . . ?
i don't want bright blonde and i didn't want to go back to brunette....
i give up.
run-of-the-mill, unnatural-as-heck, hair dye, here i come. :P
sincerely, a frustrated user.

hillsong united concert. and rambles on time.

you don't mind if you get a bit of picture overload, do you?
nah. didn't think so.
just to make a note of it, 99.9% of these were taken by my rachel, with her nikon that she recently got, and loves.
i just thought i'd throw that in there, because she'd want it that way. ;)
and for the fact that my camera's battery died probably half an hour into the actual concert.
ah well.
only 30 pictures taken? psh, i'll live.
there were, on our row of friends alone, 5 cameras working.
casey, steph, rachel, michaela, and i.
so yeah. no lack there. ;)

heather, casey, me, anna, steph, michaela's hand and camera, and rach taking the picture.
behind us, mrs. e. and our mom; ben and caleb.
enjoy the pictures:)

 the whole thing was just . . . amazing.

the worship: wondrous.

there was one song, every person voicing melodies of ohhhh. 

the ceiling so far above us. 

so many people gathered.

so much going on.

people singing.

all for love.

the air was just . . . filled . . . with adoration. worship. surrender.

moments like that drew your heart out.

the deeper places.

and, in some cases, makes you cry.

how many things, how many times, how many people, how many moments doing what

what pulls at you? 

His love.

and what you were created for?

the things He made in you, resonating, growing, stretching into fuller potential every other moment.

creating you to be who you were meant to be.

what you were meant to do.

it happens both in the obvious moments, the grand ones, the small, utterly quiet ones.

some of you know what i'm talking about.

others, well, you're just beginning to think you understand what i'm trying to get at.

when will His kingdom come?

in those moments that song filled, it felt as if it had come.

then and there.

i know it was just one element, one place it stretched through the layer of time and earthly boundaries.

 casey: having fun.

and now, because i'm randomly going to do this, here's a slideshow of.....every picture. plus a few i hijacked from casey's facebook album of the night. :) the group ones at the end, if you really wanted to know.

oh, and one last one from casey's album:

i have theories about this guy.
he wears the glasses and shaggy hair to cover his attractiveness. but nevermind that. and the fact that aussies have wonderful accents. and it's just so beautiful when they also love Jesus, too.

this song . . . with all that's going on right now, makes me hold my breath. stare at beauty. stare at life. old and new. disintegrating; coming together. this song tugs at my heart. makes me long for home. that's the straight up truth. so you'll be seeing it posted again and again. just to warn you.
♥

 on the way home, around 11:30pm.

mhmmm. tired.
after we took these pictures with rach's cam, i put my head on ben's shoulder and we both tried to doze on the trip home.

sarah's key.
in other news, anna just finished this book and told me to read it. dad's next:)
they're making it into a movie. it's coming out in a few months.
and i guess . . . it's heartbreaking.
i'm not one to check out spoilers. but anna does, after she reads the book.

3:33pm

i want to say thank you so much to those of you who read and commented on the post yesterday.
it's a deep, long, and strange valley. one that seems to be, even in this past week, closer to the end than the beginning. on a day like this, overcast and cool, raindrops here and there . . .

i have a feeling i'm not the only one thinking it. mom's taking a walk with gram in the reclining wheelchair, asleep. with the youngsters --lyddie and danny-- on a bike and wagon behind.
a lovely little walk.
time is a funny thing.

because blogger sucked yesterday...

i posted on my wordpress.
i love blogger so much, but dangit they screw up sometimes.
not that we don't all make mistakes sometimes, but when you're a huge thing that people depend on, you cannot let those people down.
you hear me?
you just can't.

so here's my post. for the record.

~~~

thursday, may 12, 2011 4:34pm
blogger isn’t working right now, other than read-only style.
urgh.

my breakfast. with coffee. with one of the best nonfiction books ever.

so here I am, typing away in my handy little Word ’07.
eating a large piece of coffee cake with milk dribbled over the richness that, sadly, is missing nuts.

i can’t even access my dashboard, so . . . i’ll just read these few posts I’ve pulled up by chatting at the sky and read those.
with cold berry-plum green tea beside me.

it sounds like a holy thing to appreciate and soak up life and have a heart full of gratitude . . . doesn’t it?
especially on this gorgeous afternoon:

sun coming through the trees.
a fresh wind giving relief from the humidity.

sustenance before the spur-of-the-moment bikeride and photo op with rach:)

[chips, tomatoes with green chiles, refried beans, guacamole: sustenance before the bike-ride and photoshoot]

i’m wearing one of those summer dresses i’m in the middle of up-cycling. sun in the west, rain clouds in the east.

as for the posts i’m reading, there’s this one:  wake up and dream.
gosh… how inspiring. and to think that maybe…just maybe…once in a while…i could inspire someone someday? just a little bit?
it’s a stunning thought.
this one: is there a difference between a dream and a calling?
and this one too: in which i convince you that you are an artist.
and, oddly enough, I just browsed through an airline site looking at prices, places, and dates…
oh. love. I’d love to travel someday. even only in the U.S. for the foreseeable future.
though I do want to go to England…. :)
9:27pm
i had one of the grandest opportunities earlier.
to shoot.
at sunset.
with a sister.
hear me sigh. :)
it was beautiful. and my lens? oh dear. i love it.

tonight is an adele night. rolling in the deep, to be exact.

before and after i realized my circle-setting thingamajig was on "s" instead of "a". it's like life before and after, ya know?

and…it’s also an amazed by brendan hollis night.
also, it’s an elenowen night.

i’m amazed. just…amazed? in every sense of the word? how many times does a person get to witness the tiny details that make up the beauty of a sunset, and everything around it? how many times?!
[i crouched and twisted myself down to get this ^^ shot; rachel looked at me strange.]

i’m just soaking up these tunes. you know those days?

there was this meadow full of violets. it was a small meadow. not vast by any stretch of the imagination, and situated between hedges blocking a house and a school on either side.

have i ever mentioned my love for climbing trees? hmm. yes. i love to. once in a while. it’s one of those simple joys. ;)

and yet, to say the truth, reason and love keep little company together nowadays.
[william shakespeare]

my lil sister:) aka, rach.
 
^^ and all the pretty pictures that rach took, when i handed her my camera because she was standing in the midst of violets with camera-jealousy all over her darling face.

ah, i love sisters:)

i have more to share, pictures of a different nature, but i’ll save it for another post.

:)