my mom's wedding dress

The dress my mother wore on her wedding day in 1984.  

defiant perseverance

This is in the Philippines.

This is Santa's Ghetto in Bethlehem.

This is in my heart. This is stubbornness and a cry for justice and an outpouring of emotion concerning the social and ethical issues plaguing humanity.

beautiful jewelry

so whimsical (such a great word!)

ps. I found this on etsy

first snow fall

Well, the snow came today. I don't enjoy the snow.  But here is a snow-themed cutsie picture to make myself smile and enjoy life a little better.

These are done by Adele Enersen, who has a blog, called Mila's Daydreams.  I love this idea, and wanted to share a collage of some of her others:  

bicycle riding

 Today was a wonderfully warm fall day, and I took full advantage of it by going on a bike ride with my friend.

This is a beautiful moment to remember and enjoy when the cold snowy snow snow comes. *sigh*

friend date

Home-made sandwiches, jugo juice, painting mugs, chilling at her house with tea and etsy, and a sleepover.  All in all, so good for my mental and emotional health. 

120 Ways to Boost Your Brain Power.

I found this site today, 120 Ways to Boost your Brain Power, and I love the options and possibilities it expounds upon...especially the links to more info (for example... the list of 100 is explained, as is the SCAMPER acronym, and the backwards clock (a reader contribution)).  Just wanted to take the time to record it here.

Fanfic comics~The Big Bang Theory

 I love the drawings of these characters.

And I love the concept of this comic. 

It made my day.

journalling different perspectives experimentation

the warm, comfy, welcoming carpet














the distant, cold, vast blue sky














the inanimate lamp, looking on but not engaging.

Beautiful Seesters of mine.

reconnecting with old friends.

This is something that happens every once in a while...and I love it!

And today, as silly as it sounds, I am happy to reconnect with my old friend, my little blog.

Why have I not been keeping this active? It is good for my soul to do. And so I will right this wrong by bringing it into my life again.

Today has not been a terribly beautiful day, but here is something that I started, and am semi-hopeful about:

The Kingdom Experiment: A community practice on intentional living.

This combines two of my life goals--living intentionally (I've used this phrase for years, now), and experimenting all the time with new and different things (as an example, when I started this blog, I called it my holy experiment).

LOST anticipation~ worth it??

The series finale of LOST got a lot of hype!

from webcomics

to Youtube fan vids

To official franchise marketing

To being talked about by media and other popular culture

But did the 2 and a half hour end to this show satisfy??

Some responses indicate so, while others show great disappointment.

    

it hurts

it hurts.

a dull pain, but one that reaches from it's settled position below my belly button. it reaches all the way up to my throat, bubbling just out of spitting up range. like wave after wave of relentless hart monitor beeps, it keeps coming. it droops, too, all the way down to my toes. my thighs are heavy; and more pain keeps oozing down. It seems all consuming. Pretty soon, all I will be is a big glob of hurt.

this is not beautiful. 

The Friendship Algorithm

princesses

Ordinarily, I am not a fan of princesses. Ask any of my friends, and they will tell of my dislike of Disney (hence, my love for the below picture).

However, below are three books about princesses that I love~and that I recently put together. A trilogy of sorts?! :)

One for children, one for a slightly older audience, and a grown-up book.

The Paper Bag Princess

The Ordinary Princess

The Princess Bride

All three are charming. And take a less traditional slant on life, which I truly love. I think that they're beautiful.

Corny and sweet

He had a dream where he was showing someone around all the places he knew from his childhood home town. He said it made him feel melancholic, and nostalgic. But then he found out that his girlfriend was in town~and got his daily dose of vitamin 'me'.

When I was sad a little while ago, I sat behind the coach, pretending to hide from the world like a little kid. And he told me that it's hard to hide a sunbeam from the world, because even in the darkness of the night, its light reflects off the moon.

He sang for me the get-better-when-you're-sick song (from Big Bang Theory): Soft kitty, warm kitty, little ball of fur; soft kitty, warm kitty, purr, purr, purr.

graduation bbq

What a blast this was! Celebrating 7 graduates!

family photos

My brother is a fantastic photographer. I love it when he pulls out his camera.

We recently took some family photos when everyone was together and lookin' dressy.

So fun.

Vacationing with my two good friends

So relaxing

With beautiful scenery

And lovely people.

disengagement with the world

I recently had a great disappointment.

I disengaged. so much.

But now I'm reengaging. I'm so pleased that that is presently the case.

The world is a hard place to live. But there are so many beautiful moments, yet.

annoying

*knock knock knock* "Penny?"

*knock knock knock* "Penny?"

*knock knock knock* "Penny?"

bahahaha!

The first of two birthday poems

January Sunday~1986

O what a fun day: Patti with Rick’s

Singular mission-the child born-

Joy mixed with pain, our hearts to be torn

Someday, when this daughter we love through and through

will be hurt and will cry for she’ll have sorrows too.

Thank you, dearest wife for you labour of love

given with strength from the Spirit Dove.

I love you now and will love you always,

My closest friend for all our days.

natalie dee comics

market collective

Calgary market collective has some of the coolest artistic peoples. I love the creativity and all the unique little things to find and enjoy. Here are some cutsies to check out...

Turn of Phrase:


Amy Victoria Wakefield:

The local library:

Tara Put:

Giulia Fatica:

Wagon Wheel lyrics

[I heard an amazing cover of this song recently, and now I love it.]

Heading down south to the land of the pines
I'm thumbing my way in the North Caroline
Staring up the road pray to God I see headlights
I made it down the coast in seventeen hours,
Picking me a bouquet of dogwood flowers
And I'm a hopin' for Raleigh,
So I can see my baby tonight

So rock me momma like a wagon wheel,
Rock me momma any way you feel
Hey... momma rock me
Rock me momma like the wind and the rain,
Rock me momma like a south bound train
Hey... momma rock me

Running from the cold up in New England.
I was born to be a fiddler in an old time string band
My baby plays a guitar I pick a banjo now,
Oh north country winters keep a getting me
And I lost my money playing poker so I had to up and leave
But I ain't turning back and living that old life no more

So rock me momma like a wagon wheel,
Rock me momma any way you feel
Hey... momma rock me
Rock me momma like the wind and the rain,
Rock me momma like a south bound train
Hey... momma rock me

Walkin' to the south out of Roanoke,
I caught a trucker out of Philly had a nice long toke.
But he's a heading west to the Cumberland gap,
From Johnson City, Tennessee.
Now I gotta get a move on before the sun,
I hear my baby calling my name and I know that she's the only one.
And If I die in Raleigh at least I will die free.

So rock me momma like a wagon wheel,
Rock me momma any way you feel
Hey... momma rock me
Rock me momma like the wind and the rain,
Rock me momma like a south bound train
Hey... momma rock me

celebrating mum

We went for brunch today to celebrate my mum's birthday.

Brunch-what a very funny word. I like to say it over and over: brunch, brunch, brunch.

"I have lovely bunch of coconuts."

bunch is like brunch.

The bunch of us went for brunch.

The bunch of us bought brunch.

The birthday bunch bought brunch for the best mum.

What's a synonym I can use for mom that starts with b?? hmmm...

birth-giver? kinda a stretch...

Our bunch bought brunch for the birthday of the best birth-giver.

Our bunch bought brunch for the birthday bash of the best birth-bearer.

Even more convoluted, but I am enjoying the tongue twister style of it.

Our bunch brought the best birth-bearer to brunch for her birthday bash.

But then the 'bought' is taken out.

Our bunch brought the best birth-bearer to brunch, which we bought for her birthday bash.

Our bunch bought brunch for the best birth-bearer, who we brought to her bodacious birthday bash.

Bringing blessings, our bulbous bunch bought brunch for the best birth-bearer's bodacious birthday bash.

Bringing bodies bearing blessings, our bulbous bunch bought brunch for the best birth-bearer's bodacious birthday bash... I should stop.

mum's the word.

rrrrrrrooollll up the rrrriiimmm to wwwwiiin!

I had my first Timmies of this year's roll up the rim, and I'm 0/1.

vanity card

belated birthday gift

I received a travel mug with a variation of this artwork by Catherine Aguilar, and the phrase "See beauty in all things." How very fitting for me. I love it.

from: the art boutique by pine ridge art.

lent

this season is exhausting.

Dai Water Splashing Festival

This is so pretty. What a fun custom.

More info found here.

rock-paper-scissors-lizard-spock

Scissors cuts paper

Paper covers rock

Rock crushes lizard

Lizard poisons Spock

Spock smashes scissors

Scissors decapitates lizard

Lizard eats paper

Paper disproves Spock

Spock vaporizes rock

And as it always has, rock crushes Scissors

LOVE THIS!

[originally from here, but I first heard of it from The Big Bang Theory]