the gratitude project

my uber fun and fantastic friend, dana, is hosting a photography challenge! my other amazing and admired friend, tara, took up the challenge and the project was born. the task, to capture 5 images that express gratitude. the challenge was due today!

i was so excited to take part, but decided last night that i would sit this one out as my weekend adventures did not allow me time to breathe, let alone capture anything. but this morning, i decided that i am ABUNDANTLY GRATEFUL and this is exactly why i needed to take some time, no matter how short, to capture some tiny bits of my happy thanks. i had ten minutes in my kitchen and on my front step!

most simply . . .

i am grateful for my will. he makes me burst with pride and reminds me that the world is a good and gracious place. my little gentleman.



i am so very grateful for my baby boy. my sweet jack makes me laugh until i cry every day. he teaches me patience and curiousity and flat out love.



i am grateful that i can see and experience simple beauty in my everyday world. my senses are gifts that i try not to take for granted. some days, i feel like i am a guest at a big ole sensory buffet and i can't get enough! dee-licious.



and i am so very grateful for my home. in the place and time and circumstances in which i live. holy cow, am i ever grateful.


thank-you dana! loved it. needed it. will do it again!

p.s. yes, that is my newly painted red front door. but there has been a mishap
(oh no!) and i have since found out that the paint-store lady inadvertantly gave me the wrong base. i have to sand it down and paint it again!!!! but she kindly replaced the paint, so . . . . please excuse the streaky mess! but nice color, hey?

a tune and a tot.

It's Tuesday . . . and apparently the only day that I can barely get it together enough to post.

Anyway!! This makes me happy all over. Thanks, Shauna-Rae:



So does this:

More from that little guy later. Night!

my front door and a ditty

it's still tuesday and here i am! soooo . . . here is my door:

it's pretty much white. with dark grey trim and a silver kickplate. and surrounded by stucco. it has a wreath. i love wreaths, love circles. you can find them all over my home (and in my logo). and they are all moving clockwise in my mind.

i never really realized (until i just wrote it) that i see shapes moving directionally. huh, there you go! i do.

my front door is blah and bland and needs help. i want it to be warm and welcoming and friendly. i want it to welcome me into it's arms and say "hey jennygirl, come on in, you are home." and then shut ever so lightly behind me to reveal the joys of my house that are held within. hahahahaha. but seriously, i do.

moving on . . . here is a tuesday tune! i had a request for a more upbeat song (yeah, you amy), so i'm offering up a couple, actually. the first is an awesome remake of one of my favorite songs EVER (woo-hoo journey). this song premiered last week in an episode of fox's glee. i was ready to love the show - and i'm not quite sure if i did - but i LOVED the song. it hit #1 on itunes.



the second track just makes me happy. this is greg laswell singing how the day sounds:



i found that sampling through a blog i follow called untitled records. head over there and meet rachel. her taste in music is superb. just saying.

crazy lady.

was there a crazy lady trespassing on your front lawn today taking pictures of your door?

do you live here?

or here?


oh, it was just me. i dashed around this morning and took pictures (excuse the snapshots, i was seriously running up, snap snap, running back) of doors that i like.

i'm starting a series of home reno projects in an attempt to bond with my house. we have alot of work to do, she and i. we're working on our owner-home relationship and we have a long way to go.

long-story short, i have never loved my house. i am madly, deeply, crazy in love with the people who live in my house, but not with the house. don't get me wrong, it is a much more than an adequate home. we are very fortunate to be able to call these walls our own. truly.

i was ready to love this house when we moved in, it just didn't happen.

among some amazing memories, the walls of this house saw some very sad days before we owned it (the prior owners are dear friends of ours and experienced profound loss in this home). and the summer that we moved in was one of the most difficult times we have ever experienced as a little family.

i think it is a little bit of their story, and a lot of ours, that has prevented me from settling into our HOME. we have been here almost four years. and i feel sure that we have found ourselves in this home for a reason. i just haven't been ready to consider it fully until now.

but, i'm ready. we're ready! yay! so here we go . . . we're starting with the front entrance. and you get to come along for the ride . . . i'll post a 'before' pic of our own sad door tomorrow . . .

oh yeah, i LERVE the teracotta door but our house lends itself to black . . . i need to find ways to say welcome and warmth with black. huh. help me out.

tuesday tunes!

okay, it's technically wednesday. but i've yet to put a close to my tuesday, so i'm a startin' something new . . . . a weekly FEATURE!

i had a great conversation this weekend (resulting from a series of funny girlfriend emails) about the little snippets of music i've posted here. seems that some are in need of advice of where to spend their itunes currency?!! say no more!!! oh, i'm so so happy to oblige.

i'm not professing to have the most cutting edge, hip, or even good taste in music, but i do cop to a having a complete love of music. period. music of most genres. except really really BAD rap. post 1993. but i digress . . .

i find new music for my ears here, there and everywhere. i found this while watching mamma yamma this morning on Kids CBC. oh, yes, you moms out there know mamma. justin nozuka was crooning an accoustic version of golden train:



there is an official video of this song but it features justin with bad hair. and bad pants. i liked this live version better.

he's american but was raised in canada by a single mom. in a family of seven children. he had a big hit earlier this year that many would recognize . . . it's called after tonight.

mamma yamma has had lots of great 'canadian' talent on her little spot - ron sexsmith, barenaked ladies, and sarah harmer to list a few. there is even a mamma yamma compilation CD!

music finds me all different places . . . how about you?

p.s. more photography related posts to come soon. wink.

random . . .

just a random late-night post. . .

i have had a recent bout of insomnia (for those who know me, this is UNHEARD OF). i have seriously started watching more television in the hopes that i will drift off to sleep. it is not working.

it has only served to remind me why i have diligently and purposefully cut my tv hours to a minimum. i become mindlessly and hopelessly addicted to any half-rate late-night show in about thirty seconds. especially if it is bad reality tv. tonight's fare: dog the bounty hunter, america's next top model, and as many HGTV real estate episodes that i can get.

did y'all know that sarah has not only a house, but sarah has a COTTAGE? i did not know. how could i not know about sarah's cottage?

aside from mind-numbing television, i also spend time listening to new music online. i quite often browse new stuff while i'm editing images. but tonight i dare not edit after too many nights of lacking more sleep than i usually lack (?!) but i found sanders bohlke. i like sanders bohlke.

and then i found this fan-made montage of grey's 'cristina and owen' set to my favortie bohkle song (so far):



let me be clear that i do NOT, i repeat, i do NOT consider grey's anatomy to be late night tv drivel. grey's and i have a standing thursday night date that does not get messed with.

and i think cristina and owen are tragic beauty together. hopeless romance. and who could not love sandra oh. oh, oh.

good night.

post script: 1:08 a.m. i have just discovered "tommy twitter" at Sarah Richardson Design. i will never sleep again.

sigh . . .

oh, that sigh is for lots of reasons. here is a great one:


it's friday afternoon again (where or where did my week go?) and my vows to be a blogaholic this week didn't ring true.

truth is, i love to blog. i look forward to it and compose lots of little bloggy entries in my head daily. i want to share this, i think that. it just never seems to make it to screen.

i would have NEVER pegged myself as someone who enjoyed sharing ANYTHING about myself out there in cyber-space . . . but the blogsphere seems much more community-oriented than i ever thought it would be, and those who know me, know i like me a great community.

and i love to write. and chat. and connect. and this seems to combine all of the above. i have had many people tell me that they pop by see what i have to say, even moreso than to see what pictures i have posted.

and as much as this causes me to say WHAT? (and then to have a privately thrilled little moment where i think . . . really, you like what i SAY), i understand it as a blog-fan. i read many many blogs out there on a plethora of topics. art, photography, design, music, parenting, media, finance, i've got it covered.

i am a blog addict/stalker.

i usually connect to bloggers because of what they SAY and what they DO on a level that is larger than the blogosphere. and they are mostly visually and accoustically pleasing too, thank you very much.

so why am i telling you all of this? for a couple of reasons - number one, to publicly out my desire to blog more in the hopes that it will motivate me to actually do it . . . and, two, to let you know that i have a new blog in the works that makes me very happy.

and happy is as happy does, or so they say . . kind of. :)