Here are a few more bokeh photos from the other day… I’ve been playing around with them on Photoshop. My favourite is the pink one. 🙂

All are available here: Shop In a SNAP.

Speaking of letting go, it seems that it’s time for me to move on from the challenge I created for myself.

At the start of the year, I was feeling stuck with my photography, and so I made up a mindfulness challenged that aligned with my yoga practice and allowed me opportunities to “focus” on my photography.

It started off well.

Midway through, however, I got stuck in a different way.  I was inspired once again with my photography, but sticking with the challenge turned out to be, well, challenging.

For the last couple of months, I have had my list out on my desk, hoping to get back to it.  However, instead of helping me to write, it stalled me completely.

This morning, I am moving on.  I am letting go of the challenge, and returning to my write-when-the-inspiration-arises format of this blog.

After all, it served its purpose.  And some writing is better than no writing at all.

There’s no place like home…

I could have chosen many images to represent home:  our house full of our memories; the soothing beaches we’ve spent hours on searching for treasures; the house I grew up in; the people who make this place feel like home: or any of the scenic spots surrounding this beautiful city.  

Any of these, alone, seems inadequate to represent the feelings of comfort and community that come from having a history in a place, when thinking of the city we live in.

It is equally challenging to place the entire meaning of home in our house; we’ve moved several times and each one felt like home.

Home is more than a place: It is family and ftiends and shared stories and a sense of safety.  It is where our past meets our present.  It is an intangible feeling of being at home, a feeling of belonging.

While waiting for the Canada Day fireworks, we spotted this beautiful rainbow over the water.  The light was mesmerizing.  I decided to use this picture to represent home because it is warmth, beauty, and wonder – just like home.

#createminfulness2017

When I focus on my breath in yoga, I visualize the sea.

Breathe in, waves recede.

Breathe out, waves wash the shoreline.

Its natural rhythm calms me, draws me into the moment, and brings with it all the soothing qualities of the beach.

It is a reminder to slow down and go with the flow, to let go and ride the waves, so to speak.

The ocean is my motivation, my inspiration.

Behind a bookshelf in what was once my sisters’ room, this floral wallpaper is a remnant of our childhood. Faded and discoloured by sunlight and time, it is a memory of a little girls’ room.

Matching paper lined the walls of my room, the flowers a cornflower blue. The paper was chosen and applied by our mother; we each had a bedspread to match, crocheted by our Memere.  These were the rooms we played Barbies in, made friendship bracelets, and spent hours with a phone glued to our ears.  These rooms were where we giggled late into the night during sleepovers, where we told our secrets to our locked diaries.  They were also the rooms my sisters and I would sometimes make a bed on the floor so we could all be in one.

The shelf that revealed the wallpaper is now in my daughter’s room.  This paper will be peeled and sanded away to prepare for a quiet shade of cream that better suits my parents’ house these days.  But for a little while, we are reminded of the sweetness of a moment in time.

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The best place to take pictures on a snow day:  Inside, where the fire’s on and the only layer I need is my pyjamas.

There, I can admire the snowflakes gathering on my skylight and pause now and then from my reading and knitting to appreciate the snowy white scene outside my windows.

Later, it will be cleaning cars and clearing walkways.  It’s harder to appreciate the snow when snow equals hard work.

For now, I’m happy to stay inside and appreciate from a distance.

I could have simply posted a picture of myself for this week, but I wanted something that would represent a part of me.

My morning routine (love mornings) is to wake ahead of everyone else and sit in the quiet (love the quiet) early hours with my coffee (love coffee!) in my favourite seashell mug (beach).

I sit in the same retro-style chair (decorating), wearing my cozy pink (favourite colour) house coat, curled up in a  fuzzy blanket that I made myself (occasionally crafty).

Next to me is my rustic  (love this style) bookshelf stacked with books  (voracious reader), vintage cameras  (photographer) and other mementos.  Beyond theshelf, the sunlight  (love the sun!) begins to stream in through the curtains. 

This is my self.