Light Writer

Light painting, it's not as easy as it looks.

I love all the bouncy-jouncy movement in these. This is how if feels sometimes in parenthood.

no matter how still you try to sit, the life keeps swirling and twirling, beautifully, around you.

Dipping-in

I have a new found addiction to creating diptychs....

happy ending...

If you want a happy ending, that depends, of course, on where you stop your story.

~Orson Welles

Stripped

This week's prompt for Digging Deeper has been "Stripped"...  

There are lots of directions this could go, but don't get all excited about what I am going share here..

The clothes stay on, but the color is gone. 

Keeping it simple, clean and full of high contrast. 

The other way I played with the idea of the week was to start stripping away those negative things the mind tells me-

Putting on the positive affirmations and tossing those other thoughts to the side.

 and that I AM enough.

over the rainbow

"And the dreams that you dare to dream, 

Really do come true."

more, more, more

14. I can hock a loogie further than my husband- this makes him either completely frustrated/grossed out or incredibly proud, I can never quite tell... maybe a strange mix of both?

 

15. I can pick things up with my toes.

 16. I want chickens, but birds sort of freak me out.

17. In high school, I wound up with the nickname "Bueller" (as in Ferris). I think I only once skipped school one time, so I have no clue where the name came from, but it stuck.

18. I can drive a stick-shift

 

19. I love a good mosh-pit

20. I can make my tongue into a taco and flip it over, but only in one direction.

 

Liar, Liar....

Nine are true and one is a lie.... your guess.

1. I make the meanest chocolate chip cookie in town with one exception- Ani (Pancakemama) makes a fierce Triple C.

2. I have a serious love affair going with the Justins- as in Timberlake and Bieber. (guilty pleasure anyone?)

3. I could out rebound girls who were half a foot taller than me in high school basketball. I can't tell you how pissed off it makes a tall girl to get out jumped by a shortie.

4. I pushed for 5 hours (like push-pushed) when I gave birth to my son. holding him and his cone head was worth every drop of effort.

5. I am pigeon toed and knocked kneed.

6. As a kid, I helped my friend's family heard cattle from one ranch to another riding horse back and then helped with the branding.

7.Rocky Mountain Oysters are actually really good, especially roasted over the branding fire.

8. I had my tongue and nose pierced in my early 20s. I miss my nose ring  and think I might re-pierce it for my 35th.

9. I can do 10 pull ups in a row.

10. My favorite yoga pose is Pincha Mayurasana (feathered peacock).

10 things, or maybe a baker's dozen...

Ten things about me, in no particular order.

1. I spent most of my childhood in a town with less than 600 people. There was an average of ten kids in my class- one was my step brother.  The town sits on the edge of a desert/playa. Once a year, at the end of summer the desert holds more than 50,000 people on it's cracked surface (maybe you have heard of Burning Man?) When they all show up for the festival, the "City" of Burning Man is the 3rd most populated place in Nevada.

2. When I was three, I fractured my skull- my mom thought she killed me when the bike that we were riding went over. I still have the scar on my forehead and the memories of the day- which also means I made it out alive... (don't worry mom, I think I am pretty normal- considering)

3. I am my mom's only and my dad's 5th (the baby).

4. I am a gypsy at heart, but also need routine and rhythm to my day.

5. As a kid, I wanted to be an artist or a dolphin/whale trainer when I grew up. Ironically, I totally freak when I swim in the ocean. Put me in a lake and I am in my happy place.

6. My first car was a red Volvo. It was a TANK. I totaled it on the way to school, it was a sad, sad day. My step bro used to drive it around town in reverse while my girlfriend and I would stand up and out of the moon roof, just for giggles. (Don't worry mom, we all survived that one, too)

7. I never thought I would have a desk job or work/understand computers like I do now. Funny what life throws at you.

8. I spent a month in Spain when I was 22. I wish I would have studied the language a little more and drank a little less- but damn they have good wine there.

9. I am best friends with my bestie from childhood. She is my giggle twin. And our kids are the next generation of gigglers.

10. I wish I didn't have that furrow between my brow, it is more from me thinking all the time then frowning. But it makes me look angry- maybe I will get botox....(or not).

11. I believe in ghosts and ET

12. I went to "modeling school" in high school, but at 5'3" they said I needed to get leg extensions if I wanted to get serious about it. I think I was in it for the photography and the fashion more than the modeling- actually I know so.
13. as a result of #12, I am a sucker for Project Runway and America's Next Top Model... guilty, guilty pleasures.

Day Dreaming....

one more for the sound track in my head....

(and now we move on to week three of, "Comfort Zone")

These lips can't wait to taste your skin, baby, no, no
And these eyes, yeah, can't wait to see your grin,
ooh ooh baby
Just let my love Just let my love adorn you
Please baby, yeah  

You gotta know You gotta know
You know that I adore you
Yeah baby 
Baby these fists will always protect ya, lady
And this mind, oh, will never neglect you,
yeah, baby, oh, baby
And if they trying to break us down
don't let that affect us,
no, baby
You just gotta let my love
Let my love
Let my love adorn you
Ah, le-le-le-let it just adorn you 
You got to know
You gotta know
Know that I adore you
Just that babe  I,
oh oh Let my love adorn you baby
Don't you ever
Don't you let nobody tell you different baby
I'll always adore you
You gotta know now
You got to know know know
Now yeah 
Ooh, yeah
The same way that the stars adorn the skies yeah (every night baby)
Oh, look up suga' (every night baby)
Now, hey, hey, hey
The same way that my whole world's in your eyes (in your eyes baby)
Ooh, and this time now (and this time baby) 
Just let Let my love adorn you baby,
hey Le-le-le-let it dress you down
You gotta know, baby
Oh, you gotta know
Know that I adorn you
Oh, love ain't never looked so good on ya
Ooh, put it on baby Let my love adorn you. 
~~~

Miguel, Adorn

find me

If I could trace the lines that ran

Between your smile and your sleight of hand

I would guess that you put something up my sleeve

Now every time I see your face the bells ring in a far-off place

We can find each other this way I believe

From the hills and up behind, my town

is naked from the horizon down

The curvature is pressed against the raise

We walked up in the fields alone

And the silence fell just like a stone

That got lost in the wild blue and the gravel grey

Come and find me now

Though I'm here in this far off place

My air is not this time and space

I draw you close with every breath

you don't know it's right until it's wrong

You don't know it's yours until it's gone

I didn't know that it was home ‘til you up and left
 

Come and find me now

I keep you in a flower vase

With your fatalism and your crooked face

With the daisies and the violet brocades

And I keep me in a vacant lot

In the ivy and forget-me-nots

Hoping you will come and untangle me one of these days
Come and find me now

lyrics and song by Josh Ritter, Come and Find Me

bananas

I am fully loving Digging Deeper.
Last week's prompt, "All of you" and this week's prompt, "Your Soundtrack" collided today.

 
"A few times I've been around that track
So it's not just gonna happen like that
'Cause I ain't no hollaback girl
I ain't no hollaback girl"

Feeling it people, 

f.e.e.l.i.n.g it.
~~~~


GWEN STEFANI - SHIT (BANANAS)

digging deeper, now

This week I embark on the journey of Digging Deeper. A six week course in the art and exploration of self portraits. The on line class is hosted and taught by two of my favorite photographers, Meredith Winn and Kristen Zecchinelli.
You will probably start seeing a lot more of me here in the next month, more on flickr and IG and maybe on FB too, depending on how much I want to share of my process. 

Why am I choosing to do this?? 

 It's the, "I want to see better for myself who I am". 

The, "I want my kids to have photos of me with them and without them in the frame".

And so I begin (again).... I am on a mission and a path of learning. We begin with the theme, "All of You". Here I am, all of 5 foot 3 inches of me standing in the mid autumn, mid day sun. Soaking in a moment of fresh air to clear my mind and find my center
 The near


And the far

playa me

I grew up on the edge of this desert, learned to drive on it's crackled surface and felt the salty dust in my eyes more times than I can count. I have gotten stuck, up to the truck's axles, in the sticky mud that sneaks up on you. I have watched the heat and light play tricks on the mountains from a school bus window between Empire and Gerlach after school each day.

This playa is in me deep. Even if it has been almost 20 years since I called this place home, it is part of who I am and who I was.

I have a lot of thoughts stirring around after the weekend visit to this place I called home for many years of my childhood. How did such a rural space, such a dramatic landscape, shape the me of today. I need time to process them a bit more. But I wanted to get something down in writing, for fear that it will slip away, like the dust trail from a distant car did in the sky that afternoon did.

 

I'll be sharing more photos and more about why we were out there later this week.
It was a wonderful weekend, lots of giggles and play time.

Let It Pour

It rained, and thundered and smelled amazing out in the high desert yesterday afternoon.
I think we all needed the cleansing effects of a spring shower.
If playing in the rain drops doesn't put a smile on your face, I am not sure what will.

After we went back inside, we watched the rain fall from the second story window sill. O looked at me and whispered,"That was amazing." I nearly started crying. Yes, yes it was....it IS.

short and a bit of purple

I love having a dash of funky color in my hair. purple. my fave.

It was time, I held my breathe as she put the rubber bands in and then snipped 8 inches of the back. I am still a little amazed that my hair was actually that long.

I am kicking myself for not going into the bathroom to do a pre-cut shot. What the heck was I thinking? Oh well.

I love how it turned out. Sassy and fresh. Still getting used to it all not being there and Fifi is totally tripped out because my pony tail was what she held onto as she fell asleep at night.  

Being a woman...

You have to be strong.

You also get to be soft and sexy.

(self portraits were shot as part of the NOW YOU workshop)