Here’s a glimpse into the little details of a Mermaid life.

Pretty frost and morning sun

I love how even the shadow looks curved

I thought these looked like little fairy lights

I thought this looked like nature’s valentine’s day

Husband playing pool

I love how the simplest things can take on a cool look in an iPhone photo – this is ShakeitPhoto, one of my very favorite apps.

Two cool pups at Dos Perros

One of my very favorite iPhone photos. Snow at our pool, with a guard owl

I look like I have little doll feet!

A neat car that I’ve often seen near my office. I finally got a picture of it

The cherry blossom trees are starting to bloom, this photo makes me very happy

Let me tell you, I am loving this little lens! I love the effects you get, and the feel of the photos. I can’t wait to try it on a portrait session. I still need to play around with it more. It makes you learn your camera better, and you have to play around to get the effect you are looking for, but it is totally worth it. So much fun.

Here are some of my first few lensbaby Muse pictures. And no, you can’t play with mine, get your own!

Have you heard about Mondo Beyondo? It’s all about dreaming big, really big, letting yourself say the big, wild, crazy dreams that are in your soul, the ones the gremlins shout the loudest at, the ones that scare the beejesus out of you because they are what you really want to pursue.

I  made a mondo beyondo list a while ago (pictured above), but I didn’t do anything with it. Because, well, it’s scary to announce your biggest, wildest dreams. But it’s not very Mondo or Beyondo if you don’t share them. If you don’t really release them out into the world. So, I finally feel ready to shout to the world, Hey world, these are my dreams. This is what I want in my life. I am going to make it happen, I’m ready! It seems like the right time to release these out into the universe. Especially since I have chosen Joy as my word of the year, and told the Universe in no uncertain terms on Dec. 31 that I intended to focus on creativity, fun and photography this year.

Here is my Mondo Beyondo list.

It reads:

I, Kelly Ann Shaw, do solemnly vow to make this come true.

Dear Universe,

I welcome your assistance and signs.

A photo show of my work in a gallery.

A successful photography business, both my portraits and my art photos

Time to really travel in Italy, Greece, Ireland, Spain

Publish a photo book of people I meet with their stories(this one surprised me a bit)

Have an awesome, life long love adventure with Brian

Publish several of my book stories

Not needing to work an office desk job because my photography and writing pays the bills

Support Brian emotionally as he grows his dreams

Run and finish a marathon

Get and stay in awesome shape

Spend time living on an island with B

Have a story published in a magazine with photos that I took

Pay off all our debt

Make enough to help my parents financially

The little details around the collage include:

Dream, hope, believe, Dream Big, reach for the stars, bloom, way to go, There are many wonderful things that will never be done if you do not do them.

Come on Universe, let’s get busy!

Hello, Joy!

Many bloggers have been choosing a word of the year for a few years, a word that they want to focus on for the upcoming year. Maybe it is something they want to invite more into their lives, or a reminder of goals. But whatever the reason for choosing the word, it is a very powerful way of stating intentions to the Universe. And the Universe has a way of responding.

There was some big joy in my life in 2009. I bought a house – a big, beautiful house, with enough space for me to have an art studio, and a library. I got married to the love of my life in a perfect, magic mermaid beach wedding. We honeymooned in Belize, relaxing, swimming, diving, and spending time together after an incredibly hectic start of the year. I cut off my mermaid curls and went back to really short hair, and totally love it. I started Flying Mermaid Photography and fell more and more in love with photography.We spent Thanksgiving in Seattle with my awesome brother-in-law, and had an amazing time.

Lots of big joy.

But, the last half of the year has been very challenging with my health. The struggles, the frustrations, the pain, the tears, the emergency room visit, the urgent care visit…they have defined the last half of this year. I have felt trapped and attacked by my body. I have lost some of my joy.

No more, I say.

For the first time, I decided to participate in choosing a word of the year. And for 2010, it is Joy.

I am welcoming and inviting joy into my life. And I know that sometimes, I will have to look for it. But I’m hoping that by choosing this as my word, it will remind me to always stop and find out where Joy might be, even when it seems like Joy is nowhere to be found. It’s there somewhere.

Like the photo of the Joy wreath at the top of this post.

I was out of my steroid skin cream. My skin was broken out. We were going to go out and buy our Christmas tree. I had been given a new prescription for a different skin cream, one I had used in Portland, and I remembered it didn’t work very well. But I put it on, figuring it would help at least a little. Right after I put the cream on, we left to go Christmas tree shopping. And once we were at Home Depot, my skin started to explode. I was insanely itchy. I started to get really hot. I was having a severe allergic reaction to the cream I had put on. But I found this wreath when we were there, maybe an hour or so after I had announced that I was choosing Joy for my word of the year for 2010. A Joy wreath to hang on my front door, and invite joy into my home. I took it as a sign from the Universe that joy can be there even in the worst pain. It might be small, but it is still there.

Since declaring Joy my word of the year, I have started seeing Joy pop up everywhere.

And every time it does, I pause, even just for a second, to say to myself, yes, Joy is here.

I even painted a little joy painting for myself – the bottom reads, joy was small but faced life unafraid.

Welcome Joy, I look forward to finding you and celebrating you, big and small, in 2010.

They are having a giveaway of some really yummy sounding things!

Click here for your chance to enter some raw, gluten-free, vegan yumminess!

This, and the rest are from Get Dressed, a consignment/vintage/costume store in Raleigh. It’s an interesting, quirky store but didn’t have a lot of clothes I was interested in.

Chain mail was always so fashionable, I’m glad it is making a comeback.

A chain mail lingerie angel. It’s going to be the next big thing at Victoria’s Secret. Although, I hope this girl doesn’t go out in battle like this, she still has some vulnerable areas exposed to potential sword attacks.

Ok, fair warning, the picture below is truly frightening. Ready?

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!! Most. Evil.Doll. EVER. Ahhhhhhhhhhh!

Husband in a velvet pimp hat, getting ready to lay the smack down.

The Material Girl

My new favorite way to shoot is with ShakeitPhoto – this is all Darrah’s fault, entirely. She mentioned on Twitter how she had this fun Polaroid app, where you actually shake the picture to make it develop faster (Shake it like a Polaroid picture!) and it has the old school feel to it. Naturally, I had to go and download it so I could play too. It makes everything look cool and neat.

Downtown Durham, as I leave my office building

Cool light fixtures in the elevator lobby

Delicious sugarplums made by the amazing and lovely Jess

See? Even elevator buttons look cool when shot as a Polaroid

Just little snippets of life that seem to be typically Seattle

Because you should be able to get coffee no matter what kind of store you are in

All around Capitol Hill, there are little dance patterns, showing you the footsteps for some of the traditional dances. Because even waiting on the sidewalk can be an opportunity to learn something and try something creative and new.

You just would not see this in Durham.

Even the neighborhood library is artistic and interesting looking

Using rocks to create art and beauty. Everything can be turned into art out there. Love it.

Why wear a normal hat when you can wear one like this?

So in love with this little girl. Bright coat. Fun scarf, big tall rain boots. Yes!

I so completely love this shot, and loved the coffee shop it was in. They were playing super happy music, and the cafe workers were all singing along as if it was the most important thing they had to do that day. My kind of place.

Same coffee shop, a tree with blue glass bottles. I love how it looks like a painting, a little out of focus but still fun

Brother Aaron’s light and red wall. Just loved the colors, shapes, the kind of abstract feel.

One of my favorite statues, I think. Sure, I could get all  deep about the rich man who owns the world, and how he doesn’t even notice the men beneath him holding him up…but really…I like him because he’s cute. That’s as deep as I get sometimes

Big, proud moving girl statue = LOVE

It’s like a big giant ice cream light fixture. Maybe for the giant girl above.

I am a total glass ho. Love love love glass. This window display is happiness.

I wonder what he thinks about? He looks like he is contemplating something

I love shooting signs. I find them fascinating, and you can get a good flavor for an area based on the signs you find.

I am going to break my Seattle adventure into a few different blog posts, starting with signs that caught my eye.

Yes they are, so much so that I want to do it as my job.

Seattle is a big foodie city. And even better, it is a city where it is relatively easy to feed a gluten-free, dairy-free, more vegetarian than not girl.

Shot with the 35mm lens, no flash. I love the lighting. But yeah, I also love the sign that says Rub Me.

Ha! I just liked this, although I admit I don’t know…are regular utensils designed for right-hand use? Most of what I have doesn’t seem to specific to one hand or the other.

Down below Pike’s Place.

Congratulations? This would never have been something I would have thought to aspire to.

What can I say? I thought it was funny and witty. And the other side reads Happy Spanksgiving. Ha!

Absolutely. What’s the point if you don’t?

If I were in Seattle, this would be my coffee shop. It looks like a coffee shop for spies. I would go in every time with my finger gun and walking all spy-like to the music from Mission Impossible. It might even be required to do that.

Other than “very carefully,” you have to admit you are curious.

I always do, Mr. Sign. I always do.