Off to the Oregon Coast to shoot Leah’s clothing line with my special girls. It’s been one year since we met at Leah’s fab beach house and I can’t wait to fall into a sea of white with some partners in crime today.
Looking forward to sharing next week~
Have a wonderful and SAFE Labor Day weekend, lovelies…
OX.
Beautiful NW water views, amazing purple sunsets, rock collecting, sandcastle building, bald eagle sightings, campfires & picnics and….
Navy Growler fighter jets roaring violently overhead…
Huh?
Such is a vaca on a Whidbey Island naval base. Not just any naval base–one plunked right on the beach at Cliffside. My retired Air Force father-in-law hooks us up with a lovely spot next to the ocean. We look forward to it every year. This year we actually had some warm weather to play in the sand.
Whidbey Top 13 FAVE list~
1) The quest for heart shaped rocks. PH and and I have a game to see who can spot one first. Wouldn’t you know that we hoofed it up the beach about a half mile before we found one…and OF COURSE it was huge and heavy….and OF COURSE, we found another one the same size. I was a happy camper as my lovin’ man trekked his way back with both rocks on his shoulders. He was saying that those lurking Growler pilots must really think that crazy guy loves his wife!
2) Rachey and her annual “bakery on the beach“.
3) An imagination that’s on vacation and comes up with nifty projects to take home…I smell a driftwood theme in my immediate future, lovelies…
4) Fab antique treasure finds in Anacortes, a cute little town with some great restaurants.
5) Watching my children play with wild abandon on the base and feeling perfectly safe to not watch them every second.
6) Sunsets with tree silhouettes that blow your mind.
7) Cliffs and the stunning view they provide.
8 ) Windblown trees and winding paths…so many metaphors come to mind here, I just can’t get them out fast enough.
9) JOY and more JOY. Ken, the campsite host finds these incredible driftwood pieces to make our favorite word. It’s all over the camp and makes you smile when you see it catch the sunlight in the morning or evening. He is a magician and creator of wonderful things.
10) Time alone to do a “walk about” with my camera…no agenda…just being aware of the beauty around me. Peaceful and sweet…
11) Fort Casey State Park and all that the former artillery post and lighthouse has to offer in terms of photo opps…
12) Barns and quaint little gardens in town
13) Uninterrupted time with people I love…
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How does that song go? “I’m gonna sit right down and write myself a letter…”
I did that this week while my mind was on vacation-mode. It was surprising.
Lovelies, sometimes getting away provides something unexpected. First of all, I was calling a sleeping bag a bed for the duration and I couldn’t get my tuckus out of bed to do my Morning Pages. Funny thing…I missed them! I’ve been doing them long enough now that I really think I’m having some breakthroughs as a result. Lots of stuff to share as I go, friends…so many matters of the heart coming up (all good stuff!).
I’m making some changes.
I’m excited about it
and am
sure of my footing.
I hope your summer is wrapping up nicely—I wish for a few more lingering-on-the-porch days for you, sweet MPG’s.
OX.
“It is only when we silent the blaring sounds of our daily existence that we can finally hear the whispers of truth that life reveals to us, as it stands knocking on the doorsteps of our hearts.” (K.T. Jong)
It seems that we might not even be aware of the daily blaring sounds…I know that I can fall deaf to them by way of routine and familiarity. Those whispers (I call them “stirrings“) are so, so soft…barely flickering their light or tapping gently at our hearts as we go about our madness. I was excited to lead this retreat with my inspiring pal, Elida…but I was also open to some revelations for my own creative life.
It seems that through teaching we can touch a part of ourselves without going after it with a overzealous desire to fix everything. I was saying words to my new found friends I needed to take in myself and truly believe them…knowing that I would never give an opinion regarding what action to take if I didn’t wholeheartedly wish it for my own creative life.
So…suffice it to say that the two days we spent were far too short…
the company and conversation was beyond amazing…as was the food (still digesting a ridiculous amount of hummus-among-us)
and I really wasn’t ready to return to reality.
I am really looking forward to some plans Elida and I have for future retreats and day workshops covering similar topics. Through some “fallen-through plans” and a weekend that seemed to have a lot of would-be attendees tied up (thank you, ladies for writing me anyway), our small group was perfect…intimate and sweet—wonderful for a maiden voyage in the magical little hamlet of Manzanita on the Oregon Coast.
Day one began with some major blabbing about poking that creative muse and getting her out to play…tips on what we need as females to carve out time, space and permission (or so we think–haha) to get down to it. Elida and I bantered back and forth about our own journeys and ups and downs and frankly, got pretty candid…and it felt absolutely right because these women were in all stages of life and ready for a change…ready to grow some wings…and sometimes growing wings involves trusting that it actually can be done in big transitional stages in life without everything falling apart.
Then…
it
got
down
to
camera
business
and there was a big ‘ole lesson and some shooting time…In the cottage’s garden and then on to the beach. What an absolute blast!
Who knew a little garden would have so many treasures to focus that 2.8 f-stop on?
Portrait-taking in funky (meaning “icky” and dark) light is my speciality and I had fun teaching the ladies some tips and tricks. I love hearing that “ahhhhhh” when women with cameras “get it”. Music to my ears. I shot each woman with a secret plan to have an image to send them after the retreat and they all got to shoot each other. They are ALL so lovely!
‘Even got a portrait of me blazing down the beach looking for that perfect sunset spot…and posing in my favorite cottage trellis…one day I will own a little beach cottage like the one below.
The beach at sunset…oh, how I love the West coast…the sun coming up over the ocean on East coast mornings always seemed so wrong to me…I love the reds and pinks at sunset and this evening did not disappoint.
Tell me if I’m wrong, Elida family members…but I’ve seen this look before, haven’t I? Very funny! I absolutely love this woman and was so privileged to teach with her…she is an artistic talent beyond measure and has the most generous of hearts, willing to share all that she knows to change women’s lives….big smooches, E!
What is it about the feet thing? My studio manager, Mary, always teases me about my foot festish…I really don’t have one (SWEAR!), but it always comes back to the darn toes in the sand…
Okay…can you tell which toenail is missing? Mr. Pinky had an “incident” with the ottoman and the ottoman won. Painting the random bench warmer toenail underneath with red is always a joy…lucky it wasn’t the big one!
Beach portraits are special around here because the beach is two hours away. I relish any up-to-the-sun-setting shooting time I can get and to have five willing subjects at my disposal was lovely, lovely.
Bar-none..my fave image of the weekend…Elida was saying something funny (naturally) and we were all feeling something greater than ourselves…and that awesome beach…and the wind…and the good shots…happy camper, says I.
Thank you for such a wonderful time, friends…I am excited to hear about the new adventures you’re committing to…don’t be afraid to ask for what you want.
(next post, you see some collage action with Miss E…the girls rocked it)
OX.
Ma mere’ and I grabbed the kidlets and headed for the sun in southern Oregon.
Ashland, home of the renowned Oregon Shakespeare Festival, was our destination (upper 80’s and a hotel with a pool–woohoo!), starting out with a little luncheepoo next to the river and visit to the festival store on campus for some candids.
I loved Ashland, but I must admit that my heart belongs to Jacksonville, a small gold rush town just 20 or so minutes from Ashland, that would just knock your socks off, it’s so darn cute. I mean “I could move here and begin a new life” cute.
Some snaps I took with Rach’s camera (Big Kahuna sleeping in my utility room from over-use last week and dropped my point-n-shoot, darn it).
Historic downtown—all original buildings–amazing….
You know me an my little chapel fetish…I made everyone wait in the car while I snapped these two—I wanted to go inside, but…sigh..they were locked. I bet there are COOL SMALL PEWS in there!
Jacksonville is home to a lot of B&B’s with so much charm…gotta stay there sometime for sure.
Of course, screeched the car to a halt when I saw this sign…some very, very old items with a very old woman inside…I had fun seeing her wares, but kept the wallet intact.
A funny, pixelated Katie-has-an-alien-on-her-head shot of us at brunch at the Jacksonville Inn B&B five star restaurant—best meal we had by far.
Got a really cute anthro-inspired shirt (will show this week) from an adorable store called La Boheme (it’s my new fave wear-it-too-much wardrobe addition).
Hope your weekend was smashing!!!
OX.
Red dresses to frolick in surrounded by wheat.
Small churches that could fit in my backyard…
John Dowd , an artist who had a painting featured in a design glossy—I was drawn to it like a moth to the flame…Edward Hopper is one of my faves, and this guy has a similar style.
I’m completely obsessed with the Ian Falconer’s talent, creator of the “Olivia” books—just wanna jump right into some of those drawings!
Felixdoolittle.com and their mini fab letterpress cards…I’d like mine with a vintage camera, please…
An Eco-friendly felt camera case (seriously! How cute is THIS?)
From ClaraJuribe on Etsy.
Fresh salsa of any kind with wheat thins (yes, strange, but chips go right to the derrier—I just really need a vehicle for shoving ridiculous amounts of this nectar of the God’s into my piehole.)
The dream of parking my rainy-day-tuckus in a bistro chair on this little street in South Beach, Miami~
…..ooorrrr….the dream of knocking on the door of this South Beach home and declaring my guest-ish-ness for the week/month/summer (kids in tow, of course).
I’m intrigued by (not necessarily “loving”) how fads become fads…like these little doo-dads (that look like they cost 2 cents to make) that haven’t made it our way yet from the East Coast (thank you, Sainta Maria, for the link on this)~
Silly Bandz (?) Anyone got kids who can explain to me what this is all about?
Could be a little reminder of this devine style we had going on circa 1983—hoo-boy! Not one we want to repeat.
BIG windows to let the light in a well-designed room…
Via Elle Decor.
A new show (to fill the void until Nine by Design comes back on—even my girls are obsessed! Where do you think the birch tree madness came from?!) is called “Selling New York” on HGTV is pretty darn entertaining…especially since we used to stay in my aunt and uncle’s swanky apt. in the city and we know what things cost…total FantasyLand.
…and yet another Bravo show, “Work of Art: The Next Great Artist” looks intriguing—I’m recording it, anyway. There’s a quirky photographer from Seattle–that’s reason enough for me to sit in front of the boob-tube and fast forward through the commercials.
This is what we do in the Northwest…get all of our TV-watching lined up with thoughts of rainy afternoons spent with the kidlets looking longingly out the window…
okay, so I’m kidding–but I’m frankly getting a little nevous about our summer weather—the Farmer’s Almanac is not rootin’ for us this year.
What yummy/fun/fab design finds do you lovelies have these days?!
Share! Share! 
OX.
P. S. *For all you beach-cottage-lovin’ gals, this post on Urban Farmgirl will knock your socks off.*
