Posted in beauty, Durham, Engagement photos, fun, love, photography, photos on June 12, 2009| 2 Comments »
Some photos from my recent engagement session with my good friend Eva and her fiance Tim. I will be shooting their wedding in October, and I am so honored and excited! Pictures were all taken at this great little park practically across from our downtown Durham, NC office.
It was actually their idea to do a gum-kissing shot but I love how it came out.
You can see the full session over at flyingmermaid.zenfolio.com under Engagements.
Posted in beach, happiness, love, magic, me, photography, photos, wedding, Wedding photography on June 4, 2009| 6 Comments »
Mr. and Mrs. Flying Mermaid!!
The day was perfect and magical and filled with lots of laughter and dancing on the beach. I couldn’t be happier.
Posted in attitude, fun, happiness, love, thoughts on May 11, 2009| 1 Comment »
B’s wedding ring came in yesterday. It fits perfectly, and looks incredible on his hand. Very him. I love seeing it on him.
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We bought a dining room table today, so now all of the rooms will be complete, furniture-wise. It will be delivered next weekend, and it is perfect for us. Not formal, a great place to gather and have dinner with friends or family, play games, talk and laugh.
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Getting to talk to my wonderful friend RM today, on her first mother’s day 🙂
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Standing out in the backyard, rubbing my puppy’s belly, while she rolled around in the grass and sunshine.
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Read Coraline by Neil Gaiman. Very creepy, but a really fun read, great lead character, and completely engaging.
I’ve been feeling very blah and frustrated and rather disgruntled today, so it was good to do this, stop and reflect on the moments of joy and light and fun this weekend.
Posted in family, love, photos on May 11, 2009| 1 Comment »
My soon-to-be husband (less than two weeks!) and my WonderPup. I love how they both have the same expression on their face.
More photos? Really? Do I gotta?
Posted in art, creative, fun, inspiration, journal, love, photos on March 2, 2009| 1 Comment »
My wreck journal, under the glass surface of my coffee table
Mission: Write one word over and over. I chose love.
Some details — love is the key. Love is the gift. Love outside the box. LOVE!!
Love sticks out its tongue. Love front and backwards
Posted in books, creative, fun, happiness, love on February 25, 2009| 2 Comments »
I am currently reading Gods Behaving Badly, courtesy of a great review from Library Girl Reads (Thanks Angela!) A fun, entertaining read, and makes me remember how much I was fascinated by Greek mythology.
I am also halfway through The Riddle, the second book in the Pellinor series. I put it down to read Gods Behaving Badly, but I can’t wait to get back to this. A really great fantasy series, with a strong female lead, who is trying to find out who she is, and trying to do the right thing, while doubting that she is really the one who can save her people.
B got me Wreck this Journal (check out the customer images, they are awesome!) for Valentine’s Day, and can I say how much fun this journal is?? I am admittedly a journal whore. I love new journals. I stand in bookstores and look at all the new journals with lust and longing. And I can very much suffer from the journal perfection — it is so lovely and beautiful when I get it, I don’t want to Wreck it by using it! I feel intimidated by its newness, by all the blank pages. But this journal will have none of that, thank you very much. I have dipped my pen in coffee and ended up drawing the coffee genie, who was still sleepy and not granting wishes yet, I traced my hand and drew in my lovely engagement ring that I still love to look at all the time, I burned off a corner of a page, drew an ice cream cone by dipping my pen cap in my coconut milk vanilla ice cream (lovely after a dinner of potatoes and roasted veggies). I ignored the directions entirely on a page that said to leave it blank on purpose. I drew a scene or two from our upcoming honeymoon, specifically a sea turtle that I want to meet and a lovely hammock that I want to lay in. I colored outside the lines, and wrote a message that color doesn’t have to be contained. It is wonderful fun. I highly recommend it.
Some new music, I recently downloaded Dusty in Memphis from iTunes. Lovely, lovely, lovely. I only really knew Son of a Preacher man, but I am so swoony about her voice and songs now. This album is great to listen to while you are making dinner.
For long, happy mermaid soaks in my tub, I am loving the Jasmine Vanilla and Black Currant Vanilla aromatherapy body washes from Bath and Body Works Sensuality line. Pour some in, light a candle, breathe in and just enjoy the delightful smells.
What are you listening to, reading, loving?
Posted in art, crafty, creative, inspiration, love, magic, photography, photos on January 4, 2009| 1 Comment »
My desk is my favorite spot in the house, because I am surrounded by color and magic and art and things that I love. Thought I would share my magic spot with you 🙂
Overview of my desk area
One corner of my desk. I have visited Paris several times, and don’t love the city like many do, but I love art of Paris, especially if it also looks like old postcards!
A Wall-E sticker and Ariel button, given to me by Mik. They are two of my favorite Disney characters. And two rocks that B gave me, from a walk he took while we were still living apart and worried that the distance would make me doubt our future.
A shell I found at Topsail Island, and small bottles. I adore small cute things, and I love blue glass, and glass bottles.
If you squeeze this fish, his eyes bug out and it always cracks me up.
I am a July baby, my mom got her for my birthday one year, I love the art
The Blue Fairy Queen, sitting on a bubble
An Irish Fairy I got for Christmas, she’s holding a four-leaf clover
A rose made of a palmetto frond, that B bought for me in Wilmington, and more glass bottles.
Emma, my first cat
A warrior fairy queen. She declined to be photographed clearly.
Elephants given to me by Mik, the one on the right is Horton. I love Ellies, and they are also for Elu, my Invisible Elephant who has her own story that I am writing.
The WonderPup, against a snowy background, the first and only time in her life she has seen snow, and another bottle.
Fridge, the baby polar bear B bought for me when I said I wanted a baby polar bear. I meant a really live baby polar bear, but I love Fridge (and yeah, um, I don’t really dust)
Some of my art, and some inspirational wall hangings
Another fairy queen and a mermaid
I met her at a craft fair, and immediately fell in love with her confidence and grace
The fairy who dances from my light
A picture of my parents and more bottles
Another little fairy.
Various journals of mine
Glue and glitter and some inspirational words cut from a magazine, waiting for my next creative project
Thanks for touring my space with me!
Posted in change, family, gratitude, love, memories, New Year's, nostalgia, observations, reflection on January 2, 2009| 3 Comments »
2008 started out innocently enough, but I was questioning the relationship I was in at the time and feeling as though it wasn’t the relationship I was to spend the rest of my life in.
Then I got the call at work. My mom had had another grand mal seizure and was in the hospital, maybe a day or two before I was scheduled to fly up for a slightly post-Christmas Christmas with my family. I felt as far away and helpless as I did when I got a similar call in Portland. But this time, it appeared even worse, as my mom was even in greater pain this time and we learned she had fractured more vertebrae in her spine. All of a sudden, our Christmas plans flew out the window and I scrambled at work to make arrangements. All I knew was that I had to be home to help my mom, and I didn’t know how long I would be out of the office. My boss and everyone at work were great and helpful. When I arrived in Massachusetts, seeing my mom in the hospital bed, in pain, was heart-wrenching and frightening. Daughter had to become Mother and I had to take care of my mom, as she couldn’t do much on her own when she came home from the hospital and my dad couldn’t take that much time off of work. I will always be grateful to my boss for making it possible for me to be there, through some creative figuring of my vacation and sick time.
But despite the fear and my new role as temporary caretaker, the time up north also presented me with a gift. While I was up there, I had a chance to go to New Hampshire on a day my dad had taken off work to take my mom to see her neurologist. The trip to NH was to see B, for the first time in almost a decade. He had e-mailed me back in November and our friendship immediately began again with that first e-mail. I drove up north to see him on Jan. 8, nervous and excited and even more. When I first saw him, when he first picked me up in a mighty bear hug and swung me around, I knew. My heart knew.
When I left Massachusetts to return to North Carolina, I was nervous to leave my mom, even though she had made significant improvements just in the two weeks I was home with her, and I knew that I had to end things with Tim. It was hard, but very amicable, Tim wanted me happy, and he knew things with us weren’t working. We are still close friends.
Ending one relationship, I walked into another, one that felt like coming home, but B was still living in New Hampshire. We spent a lot of the first half of the year on planes and airports, and I cried more in those months than I had probably in the year or two previous. Every time we left each other again, my heart ripped out of my chest, and missing him was my constant companion.
Not long after I came back to NC, Mik moved down from Massachusetts, and she and Loki moved in here with me and MyraWonderPup. I had never really had a roommate — I lived with two of my past boyfriends, and I had a roommate briefly before I moved in with Tim, so we both had some learning and adjustments to make.
B finally moved down here, home with me, in August. Since then, I have started rock climbing with him, and found a new love and passion.
Through it all, I’ve fallen more in love with photography, got back into painting, began to explore more with cooking, and started dancing with the stories in my head again.
2009 looks like it will be a busy, adventurous first half of the year — buying a house, moving, planning for our May wedding, honeymoon in Belize. But I really want to find and take more time for me this year, to pursue and focus on the things that get my heart stirring and send my spirits flying – photography, writing, playing with color, climbing, being outdoors, and of course…loving B, and adventuring side by side from now on.
Welcome, 2009.
Posted in love on December 28, 2008| 5 Comments »
The ring was custom made for me in Dublin, Ireland (perfect for an Irish girl!). It had to be custom made because I have such teeny tiny fingers, my ring size is a full size smaller than the smallest they have on stock.
These pictures don’t show it well, but it has the Celtic trinity knot (mind, body, spirit) on the sides of the band. I love it and keep holding out my hand to admire it. 🙂
Posted in attitude, inspiration, love, luck, magic, Sunday Scribblings, thoughts on December 26, 2008| 15 Comments »
The prompt over at Sunday Scribblings this week is “I Believe” and I just had to play along. I love writing out things that I believe.
I believe in sea goddesses and mermaids who play with dolphins
I believe in the healing power of the sea.
I believe in magic, and I believe magic is all around us, if you just open yourself to it.
I believe in the power of positive visualizations.
I believe in the power of karma.
I believe in love. I believe love is its own kind of magic, the most powerful kind. And I believe in love that can last through time and space and ages. I believe God, whatever he/she/it is, is pure love, magnified.
I believe in following your dreams. Especially if they scare you.
I believe you have to work hard for what you want in this life, but if you work hard and follow your dreams, and live true to your heart, you will find what you are looking for, and you will find more than you ever expected to find.
I believe adults need to listen to the wisdom of children, and not discount it because they are children.
I believe the Universe will help you manifest what you want in your life, if you really believe in what you put out there.
I believe that we are here to shine, in our own unique way. I believe it is the true purpose of living — to learn how to let your light shine, and not block it or hide it or put it away.
I believe I am here to write beautiful stories, capture beautiful slices of life through photography, and I believe I am here to help others play.
I believe in fairies.
I believe that despite all the craziness in the world, I believe more and more people are beginning to shine their lights and this gives me hope.
I believe you need to have a sense of wonder about the world — about clouds, about trees, about natural miracles, about everything you see and even more that you don’t.
I believe you need to take risks, and push yourself in new directions, in all areas of your life.
I believe in dancing in the rain and walking barefoot on the beach whenever possible.
I believe in the healing power of art and of putting colors onto paper.
I believe I have many adventures waiting for me. I believe I will meet some of you on these adventures!
I believe in making people smile.
I believe animals can teach people a lot about love.
I believe in making wishes.
I believe in potential. Mine. Yours.
I believe in letting people know you love them, as often as possible.
Flying Mermaid 