Sunday, May 31

Last day for the swap sign up!






I am so excited so many of you have decided to join in the swap and for a lot of you it is your first. Can i just let you know that
when i joined my first swap this time last year, I made a friend for life Sara! every since then i have joined in swaps met wonderful people and it is wonderfully fun to gather, prepare, mail, and secretly visit their blog and be right there when they open it( blog universe kinda there)!

I thought it would be great for all of us as we head into the summer that we have something that we could look at, listen to as well as another little surprise blogger choice. maybe for you to it will be the beginning of something more than that! So for all of you that commented here for the swap, please send me your email, mailing and blog addresses and i will email you tomorrow with all the information and your swappee!

p.s. I thought it might be nice to include your favorite quote and do not forget to name your music cd!!!

I am truly excited and extremely blessed in so many ways to be part of this-!! just like the seeds i have started on my porch, swapping is a seed that can flourish into something wonderful!

Friday, May 29

back from there, home




can we say we are home when it felt like home is where we just came from? i loved living in a tent. i thought i would have longer. K and i talk about how we will do it for good one day, well at least for a longer time, time enough to have a post office box, long enough to perfect it, long enough to know we have lived in a tent. i have only been home for a few days and just like that i find myself in the routines i was hoping to leave behind. k and i discuss our life in a tent every-night, each one of us not able to admit how much we miss it. I can say it out-loud to him of course but why, he has given us a home and we never want to crave what we do not have. we aspire too it, we clear a path in our thoughts to get us there- but we choose never to express or feel that life would be better somewhere else. life is now, happening here so we must embrace it.






* Pia featured some of life in at tent here, thank you pia!

Thursday, May 28

vintage thursday's! strolling on the blvd






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Spring flowers, mix with summer ones, blooms all around the town make me happy!

*if you feel like a swap please look at post below!

Wednesday, May 27

your summer plans and a swap







i am thinking about you, wondering what parts of summer your looking forward too. i am wondering if you pulled your favorite summer clothes from deep within the closet? i was wondering if you will be going somewhere that you never have gone before. i also thought how i wanted to do a swap. a handmade music cd. a postcard or two, and something that makes you happy. would like to join? if so leave a comment and on monday i will close the swap and email you your swapper. I am thinking we should try to put it in the mail around the 15th of june! i will give you more information when i email your partners information! I received music from fellow bloggers last year and playing it made happy- thought the same might make you happy!

* OOPS forgot to tell you to email me too!!! I will send you everything you need to know monday! oh and i love keeping things simple so come on join in!

Tuesday, May 26

a photograph ( i mean a painting)

*i have removed the full image, but hpoe you can enjoy these.






last week i came back to providence for a few days to shoot for a friend. she was to create an oil self portrait for her studies. Of course the initial how was this going to work, what will she look like? was discussed. she was worried of her body and i was worried that my lens would fail what i believed to be a beautiful body of any women especially one of sixty two years of age.

we took many, it is not as easy as you might think? if a body is tense, nervous it shows, supple limbs become hard, but after two or three session( yes a few) she relaxed, champagne helped. the fact that she knew she had something to be proud of we were able to take the some good ones for her to use. then in the middle of the last session it happened, a gift to me from her and my camera. "the picture" the one that made it all worth it. although it was not her favorite by far, it was without a doubt mine. did my camera understand what i was after? did it know one day someone was to make an oil painting of it? when i look at this photograph that is all i see, a painting. I have broken up the photograph because i have studied it. i am a bit proud of this one something about it reminds me of so much; the books i have read, the richness in life, perhaps i am reminded of my childhood as i observed my mother paint..

p.s.. blogger please do not censor me it is a photograph i mean a painting:)

Sunday, May 24

mountains and the freedom they gave us






we are in the mountains such a contrast to our tent on the beach. It is so green here in the white mountains. are tent is right on the river where the water is so clear that as the souls of your feet touch bottom a few perfectly round smooth pebbles play with our toes, you can't help but comment on how clear the water is. all though cloudy today, tomorrow promises to be a beautiful day. the dogs, k and i plan on a good hike, swimming in the river and a late night canoe ride. as i spend time here i realize of the sacrifices that have been taken on our behalf.

I don't like war, i don't like fighting. this war has been costly, what is it exactly we're they buying? but still innocent people are dying, civilians. soldiers who have been mislead by a former president and his possy and soldiers that have been mislead by there leaders such as the taliban, hadaam hussein, and all this who put their personal beliefs, want, needs, before the well being of their people. there is also the wars that have been fought when all else has failed, when negotiations could no longer take place and the well being of there people, country could only be protect by war of some sorts, then a a man or woman become a soldier. they say by to their father, mother, sister, pregnant wife, husband, child, friends. they say goodbye to their new polished car, their garden, their favorite mexican restaurant, their church. they say goodbye to late night tv, movies with a friend fishing in the afternoon and the safety of their own beds. they do this all for us- yes i know some men and woman just like a good fight, how cool it is to drive a tank, be in the army, navy, marines some have been soldiers in their head since their childhood but all of them turn to face something we could not imagine and the reality we can't not comprehend as we climb mountains, eat ice cream, ask for another slice of watermelon and throw the frisbee.

i would like to say thank you, thank you i am grown up enough now to realize that all my beliefs can not change your reality.
and shame on those who mislead you and think they are playing toy soldiers for we know you are not, you are just a boy and a girl who on a sunny day, wish you could watch your dog swim in the river while enjoying a picnic with friends.
* i also would like to say an extra thank you for those soldiers who entered there mission that have no one, who maybe did it exactly for that reason.

* i am in no way a supporter of war, but i believe that when innocent people can't not protect themselves and their family against terror, genocide the world should step in, i also think it is time to create a stronger UN of sorts one that would not have bullies like bush erase all that they were created to protect. i also wish we could get into darfur and other such horrific situations asap.

I also would like the world leaders to know that we could have stopped world hunger forever with the price of this war and not just that we could have build schools, treatment centers and added thousand of new researchers for the cure of major diseases..

Saturday, May 23

chapter one and the lesson( tent)












Warning this is a long, probably personal post so please dont feel the need to read it( i am writing to let it go) but please do enjoy the photographs of our last day camping at the beach! we are now in the white mountains in nh. i will share photos with you very soon.

swirling in my head has been my thoughts about what these last few weeks have been like and the "why" that follows it. the lessons i have learned, the joys, the fears and my favorite why i believe all was meant to be.

less then a month ago i believed i would be heading to california. california being the reward of a challenge i had put for myself that turned out to be something others( in the industry) wanted to support. I had envisioned, studied, prepared and not to have the it completely air tight( you need to let ideas, plans have room to move) i left others to chance. one day randomly as i often did i went to craigslist "house swap" where i thought to myself how great it would be to find a home in montana or colorado for me to have as a center base, when i cam across a swap in california. although california had never been part of the stops i had planned on making, the fact that it was at the gates to joshua tree national park had me intrigued so i responded. A few weeks later ann and her daughter came to visit, nervous of either outcome- it was done they loved it and soon we would be swapping. the home i was going to was a dream adobe, guest house, pool and all the privacy one could dream about. the icing on the cake was that i had just met very genuine people and that feeling of it was meant to be showed it's head and we were all giddy!

Now came getting the house ready, i saw so much wrong with it, yes the house i love through my lens is not how i feel about it at all at times. chandeliers on the floor, paint not just right, bathroom leaving much to be desires. I did work hard to make it as perfect as i could. like when preparing to sell house you end up making some of the changes that you wished you would have made before, the fun part of a swap is you come back home to these things. Then the news came that my adventured would be delayed with no promised time except heading to the desert any later would be impossible. my plans had taken a one eighty.

I wanted my guessed to come regardless, it was not their fault and i must admit to being excited that they were here to see there family expand a baby was to be born, due date may 9th( is that right). i wanted it to be smooth for them more than anything. So we checked out our options, do we stay with friends, do i vist my family and leave kevin to stay at his..after much deliberation we taught "We will live in a tent for how ever long" i was excited!

the day my guessed arrived we had already headed to newburyport. we wanted them to make themselves at home asap without us being there. they called and were pleased and ann said" it felt as if we came home" tears ran down my face as i heard the message..because i was so anxious that i might have overlooked something. as i wrote on the post about living in a tent we arrived to our destination and the sun was setting and just then " it was meant to be" popped into view once again.
Then we received a call that something had gone wrong with the house but was completely fixable, so we thought. It dragged too long their patience was to kind and i thought it will all work out! but a lesson i had learned - when my body and mind begins to shut down i see everything with rose colored glasses and i find myself reassuring everyone, or more so i start to reassure myself that everything will be okay, and that the solution is just around the corner and believed it myself.

While "K" and i where loving living this way more than we anticipated( do not get me wrong we love. love hiking and camping) but this as stated in a previous post was a little different- but no sacrifice.( this is how i feel and although i am sure kevin feels similar, he would have to write it himself to reassure certain individuals that could not imagine finding happiness in such a situation). So even though we were enjoying it. I felt the failure seep through. How did i not for see this? how i had tried so very hard to make it perfect and now that too was not to be. now the grey set in and for those who were depending on me to make it smooth.

then the anonymous comments- i had not seen it and received a few phone calls and many e-mails asking if i had seen it. when finally did, i wanted to shrug it off, listen to all the lesson i had learned about; what i know is to be true and someone else's perceptions of the truth. but i failed there to- the anonymous managed to seep through. Now of course some of what that non- anonymous was saying was true- if you are still reading this you would have come across a half a dozen-no wait this is a long post two dozen:) typos and incredible bad grammar. yet it-was the tone of how it was said "......is horrible" the person wanted to hurt me, not criticize ( there is a difference to me), then there was the whole"... be a contributing part of society?" i can't argue this point, i just can't. then came "toughen up" well ironically i had found that i had started to use my blogging as a journal of sorts that sometimes i too felt like i was whinny-yet that was for me to feel and not for some anonymous (wait non-anonymous) person to say..i used to keep everything to myself and somehow i started to release it, feeling as if some others could benefit but also that i did not hold on to it for decades as i once did. then it it hit k,my family and i that this person was not anonymous but someone close enough to know some but not all. i responded with a comment in the only way i know how, turn it into a lesson. i was okay with it. like i said there was some truth in it. Yet i also believed that the person could not believe that my experiences were true and that we actually run with the punches and enjoy them too.

then in the evening late, late in the evening i received a call saying that the anonymous was back with a vengeance. i refused to read it, in fact i stayed away from my computer till noon the next day( which is usually impossible for me) but somehow i was trying to prepare for it-wow was i wrong i was not prepared at all- no i was sucker punched( do you guys like my cliches- stole them:) he( soon we will know who ( maybe them) that person is, since blogger and tech friend have decided to look into it) really went to town(oops another one:) at first it hit me hard, then for some reason i let it go within a few hours, yet an underlining feeling was that this was someone close to my husband and i. but there is where the anonymous person let a few things slip as well as the fact that it was hard to find some truth in what (he ) wrote. although i have owned a tea shop for many years, right now it is dormant. i had never went to a tea convention, ever. i have went to many others in my life time mostly landscaping- i had never went to a tea one because most of them where in vegas( which to me was not conducive to tea) and a lot of money. then the person said filling my fans with fake interpretation of my life- well the only thing i know how to do is to show the beauty of the things around it, no matter what my circumstances are -there is always beauty- always a "this is meant to be moment". that is how k and i live- we make the best of it. but the non- anonymous wonders why i do not share the grey- read my blog description( go ). and like all grey days the blue sky often follows. then came mother theresa comment- something i am not sure if i understood- i do not have a halo on my head, never will but i also have learned that i am a good person( those words are hard for me to write) for i struggle with them everyday- yet i have met a lot of horrible people who make no effort and are full-time selfish people- that is not me and yes i saying it outloud!

now your comment about me being a "fake" i ask a fake what exactly? i think it is the opposite that bothers you, the fact that i see it- life is what we are living now- that there is four seasons in everyday and i embrace it! and finally the comment that killed me( admitting that you upset me this much bothers me)"lets ask "k" how he feels..." i think the person is angry. first because instead of writing kevin i write "k". i like the sound of it, most bloggers refer to their spouses by an initial as if we a re protecting the identity:) this part leads me to believe you are close to him and care for his well being or maybe you think you do- but perhaps if you were there when he first read it- you-would see that i could have after a bit shrugged the comment off until i saw how much it upset him, just like i and (real) friends around he got it- that this was coming from someone who was passing themselves as a friend.. k and i talked it over on a long walk with the dogs and decided we would drop it but what happened was we both started to suspect everyone- that is happens you suspect even-the ones you care for the most and because we love our friends and family we decided that it would be best to find out whom this person(s) is, not because the words affect us anymore they don't, but what we do care about is that there is an underline hurt that has us afraid of trusting the people we have been so close too and because we love them all we must rule them out.

wow this was long!!!!!!!!!!!

Now i will quickly finish this off by saying that except for the anonymous part. we are so glad that we have been tenting. I have learned that i did not need so much stuff and love the simplicity of having less. i discovered that this was a great way to practice what i will one day soon be doing across the country and finally that everyday can be the best day ever!
and that is why i say this was meant to be!!

oh and ps. the baby is tsill in her belly- that is another lesson they come out when the are ready !

Friday, May 22

here she goes!

I have been very blessed with many awards and tags, yet the ones who have tagged me before received only a thank you comment from me- for i was to nervous, embarrassed to list a few things. Now curious myself of how i would answer i have decided to respond to the lovely author of kissing cage.Yikes here it goes!!!



What is your current obsession?
sunsets, russian literature, mochas (till the end of time)

What is your weirdest obsession?
king henry the eighth, tudors. virginia woolf's life

What are you wearing today?
espadrilles, jean, white shirt and a linen sun hat.

What's for dinner?
i am thinking rice and black beans


What would you eat for your last meal?
french baguette, blue cheese, grapes, figs and cucumbers...my mums hummus and if she could make something for my last meal anything made by aran

What's the last thing you bought?
fruits and vegetables

What are you listening to right now?
many many birds... louis armstrong

What is your favorite ice-cream flavour?
Avocado gelato and any ice cream that is chocolaty and gooey

What do you think of the person who tagged you?
she has an incredible eye for beauty and with her posts she creates romantic works of art

If you could have a house totally paid for, fully furnished anywhere in the world, where would you like it to be?
somewhere kind with an ocean, mountains, lakes, rivers, rolling hills, weeping willows, fruit trees and stone walls..if anyone  knows where this is please let me know?


If you could go anywhere in the world for the next hour, where would you go?
anywhere that was sitting on the other side of my mum


Which language do you want to learn?
latin, spanish and maybe i should say english:)

What's your favorite quote?
A leaf fluttered in through the window this morning, as if supported by the rays of the sun, a bird settled on the fire escape, joy in the task of coffee, joy accompanied me as I walked. 
anais nin

Who do you want to meet right now?
myself in 30 years( for insight)

What is your favorite colour?
white and everything else

What is your favorite piece of clothing in your own wardrobe?
my mums tablecloth eyelet dress


What is your dream job?
reading books to children who might never have heard one.

What's your favourite magazine?
national geography

If you had £100 now, what would you spend it on?
two more nights of camping

Favorite designer?
well i could list many for i am in love with many, but i will go with something simple and classic ralph lauren

Do you admire any one's style?
my mum

Describe your personal style?
classic, tomboy feminine and clever

What are you going to do after this?
tare down the tent, pack up the car and head to the white mountains for some hiking

What are your favourite movies?
camille claudel, the lives of others, amelie....

What's your favourite fruit?
it's like asking a mum to pick her favorite child- okay mangoes:)

What inspires you?
goodness in people and the my mum



What music do you like this week?
puccini

The rules :
1. Respond and rework; answer the question on your blog, replace one question that you dislike with a question of your invention, add more one question of your own.
2. Tag eight other people.

I'm tagging the following people:



joetta
deb
jennifer
corine
sheila
josephine
sofia
aran
mandarine

and whom ever would like to join and i mean it, i really do!

* the photographs are of tiny little flowers found growing on the ground, to tiny for most to spot them, barely can be seen. i have put them in glass half empty but lovely all the same:)

Thursday, May 21

the morning after














have you ever studied the sunset. i have seen many from mountain tops, highways and bedroom windows, yet never like i have here. the sky darkens before the sun melts into the the floor of the earth ,then a calmer soft sky starts to paint the ceiling and walls of my surroundings i wonder how many colors and brushes does this painter have. the sky reminds me of the color of peoples skin, especially their faces . i am sitting at a cafe now wanting more of last night. for the first time my camera has cheated me and i could not see everything. i want more but this time i will sit on the sand. hold his hand we will not chase the sun but instead let it find us...

*thank you paul for helping wi th the size