Slowing Down

I can feel it, the energy of fall...
it is a much slower energy and i am glad it is finally sinking in. Our fall has been so strange this year, with temperatures hitting almost 30 degrees (c) in late September. Yet all the leaves have been showing off their beautiful colors since late August.

I feel most myself in Autumn, when i can curl up in cozy sweaters and lovely scarves. I can feel my hibernation tendencies start to take over. I become quite a bit of a homebody in the late fall/winter, and I welcome that time. Creativity takes over, and I spend my nights working in my journals, scrap booking images, and filling my creative spirit.

I also know that with the end of Autumn, we get closer and closer to my favorite time of year, Christmas. I start preparing to enjoy that time as well.

So welcome fall, I'm so happy you've finally arrived...

Celebrating Love and Friendship*

today was a first for me.

the first time I shot portraits for a couple. Not just any old portraits though, engagement photos...

I was so nervous, and have been nervous for about a week.

I was talking to one of my close girlfriends about my nerves. I'm one of those people that needs to talk through everything. Once I get my fears out in the open, I can usually talk myself down. But for some reason I couldn't shake these nerves.

What if I screw these up? They're someone's Engagement Photos for crying out loud, maybe I'm not ready for this...

This has been my inner dialogue for the past week, and it was loud and clear this morning as I drove to meet the couple.

I've been friends with L for over 15 years, and I think she knew exactly what I was thinking as soon as she opened her front door. But instead of asking me what was wrong or trying to make me relax, she just said that she was excited to get some fun pictures. As soon as she said the word fun, my heart slowed down. She had no high expectations set, or at least none that she told me about. We were just going to hang out, and I was just taking some pictures of two close friends who happened to be in love and getting married next fall...

We drove out to our location, chatting happily about nothing in particular. D kept reaching over and holding L's hand as he drove. I started to notice how they looked at each other and started to get excited about photographing one of my best friends and the man she loves. Once the camera was in my hands and I snapped the first picture, my love of capturing moments took over and the nerves went away completely.

We had a wonderful day together celebrating love and long lasting friendship. I couldn't have asked for a better couple to take engagement photos of...

Wishing you all a Sunday filled with love

xoxo

-S

How I've Been Spending My Days*

I have a confession to make...

the reason i haven't been writing this blog lately is that i have been surrounded by paper, glue, photos, buttons, glitter, twine and all sorts of other embellishments...

my name is S, and I am a papercrafter...

I've been so busy making glorious crafty messes, that I've neglected this little space. so I thought I would come back and share some of the treasures I found today on my adventure to a scrapbook store in my city.

I'm sure most papercrafters and art-makers have heard of Ali Edwards and her fabulous December Daily Project. If not, check out the links and i can almost guarantee that you will want to make one! I've wanted to make one for the past couple of years, but just haven't gotten everything together, and of course by the time I wanted to begin, there was no Christmas paper that I loved left! So this year, I am proud to say that it is October 1st and I have purchased the paper for my December Daily Project!


I love the colours and the classic Christmas feel to this paper. There were several different papers, with completely different looks that I liked and I had a really hard time choosing between them, but traditional/vintage won in the end :)

I will be honest though, paper for my December Daily Project was not what I went looking for today. I was browsing the web, and came across a new journal that I fell head over heals with. Imagine my delight when I find out, it's not just one journal, but an entire line of products! If you love to journals, take a look at K&Company's SMASH journal . I'm excited to start pasting bits of my life into this neat little book.


Hoping your weekend is filled with all the fun things you like to do, cause with my new paper and journal, i know mine will be ...

xoxo

-S

Goodbye 26*

my 26th year has felt a lot like these flowers.
pretty, unique, waiting to bloom...

this year has been all about learning:

learning what works for me and what doesn't, learning what i need to let go of and what i need to hold on to with all of my might.

I spent the last few hours of 26 with a few girls from work, who over the past year have become a group of my closest girlfriends. As we were sitting at a table at one of my favorite restaurants, laughing and talking, I heard my heart whisper "more of this please"

So here is hoping the next year is filled with laughter, kind gestures and love.

lots and lots of love...

xoxo

Link Love*

I spend a lot of time surfing the internet.

there is something about being a few short clicks away from amazing photos, insightful blog posts and hilarious videos that makes me incredibly happy.

so I've decided to start a collection of my weekly favorites right here...

You Are Not Alone. Not By A Long Shot

It's The Reason You Are Here On Earth

The Word of The Day

On Manifesting and Introvert~ness


Wishing you all a lovely Sunday full of inspiration and discovery xoxo

a new mantra*

have you ever heard a message over and over again, never really paid much attention to it, and then one day you read it or hear it again somewhere: suddenly the message sinks right in to the very core of you and you realize the words you are seeing and/or hearing is the most brilliant message?

that definitely happened for me today. i was reading a daily email i receive from The Daily Love and there it was, my new mantra;

take what resonates with you, and leave the rest

i know i have heard these words time and time again. they were repeated over and over again to my classmates and i in theatre school. "every process will not make sense to you or work for you as an actor. take what resonates with you and leave the rest".

"oh sure..." we thought. "you're spending valuable classroom time to teach us this method/exercise/lesson, but if it doesn't work we can just drop it.... sure..."

we never realized they genuinely meant it...

i never realized that this message would come back to me early one saturday morning, and that i would finally get it. the words and the message would finally be clear. so this new mantra is now posted in places that i will see it every day and focus on what works for me. i don't have to put value in every lesson, every passage i read in books, every quote i read. I will continue to listen to them all, but only take what resonates with me and leave the rest...

a journey

it's constant isn't it? this search for who we are, what we love, what is most essential to our very being...

I feel like i've been searching forever, in lifetimes before this one. I am a person that believes strongly in self discovery. Some may call it selfish, I call it essential. I don't believe we can fulfill our true purpose with out first discovering who we are at the core of our being.

I found a beautiful book a while ago, and then life got crazy. the self discovery got pushed aside and the survival-mode kicked into full gear. Life has calmed down again, and i am back searching and this book is my newest guide

Style Statement: live life by your own design

It's a perfect jem of a book and I am spending my sunday reading it's pages and answering it's questions with a lot of thought and detail. I may share my answers often, or this may be the only post I write on it... but please, go pick it up from your local bookstore or check out the website;

www.carrieanddanielle.com