More ship love

(Found on Design Is Mine photo found on Anson Smart)

(Saw this on poppytalk and it was created by 1canoe2)

Someday I will stop posting ships, but they are everywhere and I love them.

Thursday Morning Rambling

(Photo taken by me of some sidewalk art on Mission Street in 2008)

Most of my posts lately have just been images and quotes, not a lot of self reflection for the internet to read. This is in part the result of my Mac deciding that it will not turn on and partly because I have been too busy with my life to post about it.

A friend of mine commented the other day that he didn't really get what my blog was about. Here it is: it is about nothing and everything, it is about the beauty I find all over the place and celebrating the healing process, and birdcages and ships and whatever strikes me as interesting in a day, week, or moment.

To be honest with my crazy schedule I miss posting about my Sundays in the park and running around all day on Saturdays. I like thinking about my day each day and asking myself what I am learning and attempting to formulate something meaningful to post here. I also like how into this little thing I am. I mean really how is this any different than my face book or twitter? I have no idea. I think I like that I have more than 140 characters, and people who come to this page do it on purpose. I like that I only have 22 followers (instead of my over 800 friends). I like that I can pretend this is small and no one really reads it, but I also love when I get a comment, so I know that someone does. I find it shocking when my blog comes up in conversation with someone that I never figured would read it. I love it when guys read it, because I feel like it is very much written assuming my audience is female. I like it when I get the focus and time to post about the books I am reading with more than just a few short sentences. I love it when my posts result in responses that make me think even more about what it was that I was already pondering. I also really like just posting pictures.

When I started this thing almost 3 years ago I posted a photo of a heart that I had seen spray painted on Mission Street to represent this little thing. The anatomically correct heart sums this little blogspot up: this is just my heart on the internet, honest and exposed.

If you read me let know. I would like this thing to be a bit more of a conversation.

Santa Cruz

A few weeks (maybe months) ago I went to Santa Cruz for the lovely Julie's Bachlorette adventure. It was a day of random stops on the One, trying to cram more into one day than really possible and getting to know some new ladies.

These pictures make me happy. I hope you enjoy them as well.

I forgot Tuesday Morning Prettiness!

So I might have forgotten to share with you a lovely little flower post yesterday morning. Here is it now, a bit late, but still as beautiful. Just a little reminder to slow down and see the beauty growing around you.

Listen to this.

Recently Reading

So after reading Jesus for President and planning to loan this book to the lovely Dani, I realized I never finished reading this book. Somehow just the beginning of this Saints life was enough to inspire me, nonetheless I want to finish the book. So, I am quickly finishing the book so I can lend it to my friend and I have to say I love her story.

It is so simple and direct. She simply saw poverty and had to join in the work to end it. In the later chapters her focus becomes more and more based on the poverty of loneliness and the absence of love. It is profound and beautiful. Not everyone who is hungry is in need of bread.

Being unwanted, unloved, uncared for, forgotten by everybody, I think that is a much greater hunger, a much greater poverty than the person who has nothing to eat.
Mother Teresa

Coffee date

I stumbled onto this image on bluepoolroad she found it via pinterest. I have seen it before and I think it is simply lovely. I just love the joy this photo captures of how amazingly refreshing it is to just sit and enjoy coffee/tea with wonderful people. I love how dressy it is, as if every occasion is worthy of excessive fanfare and beauty. This past weekend I had High Tea with the lovely Elaine and tonight I am having tea with Lisa. I am ever so grateful for the people in my life that I get to sip drinks with.

Saturday Evening Post

Summer has finally begun in San Francisco! I laid in the park today soaking in the rare sun. I am so excited to finally be hot!! I love heat!

Laying in the sum was both a celebration of San Francisco summer and the re-beginning of a crew of lovely ladies meeting up regularly to be present with each other on our faith journeys (summer was a crazy season for all of us so we have not met in ages, but this morning we began again). It is a crazy thing to do, to be with people no matter where they are at in the journey to know and be known. I am so grateful for my ladies. They have given me courage to make hard choices, challenged me to follow through with difficult tasks, and given me the freedom to be where I am. This morning Lisette made me so happy when she simply declared "I don't care what is normal."

So here is to not being normal. Here is to Summer that starts after the first official day of fall, and community, and ministry not looking like I always thought it would.

Happy Friday: more absinthe photos

So, I adore these two pics but they did not fit in the color scheme of the last post so they get their own. I really love how glass looks on my little G1 phone camera.

What if I posted drink photos every Friday? Would you think I was a lush?

Artist Crush Show

As I have mentioned before I have an artist crush on my friend Jaclyn and tonight I am attending her art opening. I am so excited to see her amazing work live and in person for two reasons. 1) I was warned before I went to Africa that the continent would steal my heart and refuse to give it back. This warning has proven true and every image of Africa reminds me of the beauty and pain that stole my heart. 2) Knowing her and knowing her passion I am sure that her work will be profound and inspirational. I love it enough online, I am sure it will destroy me in person (and I mean that in a good way.)

Anyway, you should see her work at the Jewish Community Center. It is where I will be tonight.

The Little Green Fairy

A few weeks ago I got to taste the Absinthe I made with the lovely Laura Kirk. My new roommate and fabulous friend Lydia joined us. Her adorable daughter played with us and desperately wanted to participate so her tiny hands are holding the water in the images below. Laura made us a wonderful French dinner to go with out drinks and Daniel was good company as always.

These are the photos that came from the evening; it was fabulous.




By the way I have yet to have even a buzz off of my Absinthe drinking. I am pretty sure it was all the other drugs people were using back in the day that made them see little green fairies,

Love Hurts

It is not enough for us to say: "I love God, but I do not love my neighbor." Saint John says that you are a liar if you love God and you don't love your neighbor. How can you love God whom you do not see, if you do not love your neighbor whom you see, whom you touch, with whom you live? And so this is very important for us to realize, that love, to be true, has to hurt. ~Mother Teresa, Nobel Prize acceptance speech, 1979

More ship love (and the intense world that exists in my head)

(Live Your Own Life Gocco Print, I purchased mine at the Renegade Craft Fair, you can get yours on Etsy.)

I really and truly am on the verge of a ship tattoo (and by verge I mean it will be at least a year until I have to dollars to do it), until than I will settle for enjoying every little glimpse I get of this fabulous little symbol of adventure and freedom.

Lately, I have been thinking about how ships require entire crews to function. If just one person attempted to sail a large ship it would capsize with one gust of wind. (At least that is my guess, as I am not a very nautical person.) Thinking about this makes me grateful for the people beside me as I live my life.

This thought process had caused me to question the message written on the sails of the ship in the print above. I think on some levels it is really great life advice for me. Despite coming across as confident and capable I spend a great deal of time in my head worrying about how others will/have interpreted my words or actions. It makes me a little crazy. To be more honest than can possibly be safe on a blog, my level of inner dialog that critiques everything I do is so intense that I have now had two wonderful therapist tell me they are sure that it has to be very hard to live in my head. To be even more honest: It is. The standards I set for myself are intensely high and am constantly concerned about how others are affected by my actions.

However, despite it being seemly clear that I should simply live my own life, my life does not exist outside of relationship with others. My choices, words, actions, and even thoughts impact other people: people who have loved me, walked beside me, cared for me and even hurt me; all of them are significant in the journey I am on. They all deserve to be taken into consideration as I make my choices.

So I have the little print above hanging on my wall these days reminding me of the tension between my independence and my interdependence in this crazy journey I am on. It is a bit challenging but I like it.

Something pretty for your Tuesday morning

(Flowers on a bus, taken by me on the 24 bus line.)

National Call-in Day on the Child Protection Compact Act from International Justice Mission on Vimeo.

We want to avoid suffering, death, sin, ashes. But we live in a world crushed and broken and torn, a world God [Godself] visited to redeem. We receive [God's] poured-out life, and being allowed the high privilege of suffering with [God], may then pour ourselves out for others. ~Elisabeth Elliot~

Dear Internet, You are stressing me out!

("U.S. Army Photo", number 163-12-62. Left: Patsy Simmers, holding ENIAC board Next: Mrs. Gail Taylor, holding EDVAC board Next: Mrs. Milly Beck, holding ORDVAC board Right: Mrs. Norma Stec, holding BRLESC-I board found here)

Last night all 4 amazing women in my home were working on getting our internet to work. We have not had consistent internet in 2 weeks and it is really messing up my rhythm. So this is my apology for less than stellar posts despite the fact I am living a pretty stellar life.

In fact the stress of attempting to post daily while not really having internet is starting to get old, so you might not hear from me this weekend. I will go back to old fashioned pen and paper for my journaling these next few days. I think it will be good for my soul. (as will sushi, karaoke, and my other weekend adventures)

So enjoy your weekend. I will be enjoying mine.

May those who sow in tears reap with shouts of joy. Those who go out weeping, bearing the seeds for sowing, shall come home with shouts of joy, carrying their sheaves.

- Psalm 126:4-6

Something pretty for your Tuesday morning

So this week's something pretty is a bit more exotic and a bit less dainty. I went to the California Academy of Sciences NightLife last week as a kick off to my birthday with some really lovely people (Dan and Julie, I adore you!). NightLife is one of my absolute favorite things in the city and the beauty of this little rain forest get away tucked inside my crazy city sparks childlike wonder to my heart! (Sipping wine while enjoying it, makes it even more fabulous!)

Random Wisdom: Marilyn Monroe

So my heart might have hit little bump in the healing process in recent days. There is something about celebrating with people that reminds you how far away you are from others and it can be a bit killer. I miss home; I miss my sisters; and I miss my best friends. Nonetheless, it seems that every time I become more aware of my brokenness I am pushed more towards my healing. The joy of the past few days has out weighed the longing by far and I am grateful. The joy of being truly loved by so many wonderful friends sparks hope for further redemption.

In addition to my gratitude for so many wonderful people in my life I am also grateful for words of wisdom popping up from unexpected places. I stumbled onto a blog of a new friend Caitlin. As I glanced through her posts I found this quote:

"I believe that everything happens for a reason. People change so that you can learn to let go, things go wrong so that you appreciate them when they're right, you believe lies so you eventually learn to trust no one but yourself, and sometimes good things fall apart so better things can fall together."
— Marilyn Monroe

It had been left for her on a postcard in front of her house (who ever did that for her wins points in my world for being a fabulous person.) Anyway, as I read it my eyes watered a bit for the reality of all that I have lost and all that I have found. Like I said the joys of my life are out weighing the hurt, but the hurt has made caused them to stand out in stark contrast.

So here's to letting go, appreciating what is right, trusting myself, and falling together.

oh and one last thing before I go:

"I'm selfish, impatient and a little insecure. I make mistakes, I am out of control and at times hard to handle. But if you can't handle me at my worst, then you sure as hell don't deserve me at my best."
— Marilyn Monroe

Monthly Cocktail Hour Tonight!

A small group of fabulous people and I have started having monthly gatherings to raise some humble dollars for organizations that we think are deserving of the love. Tonight is one of these fabulous gatherings. We will be hosting our gathering in honor of Preemptive Love Coalition. Check them out.


BTW: I have had a lovely birthday weekend and I am looking forward to my big bash next weekend, but more on that later.

It's My Birthday

(Oh Joy Eats featured this art by Paul Ferney the other day and I just love it! The collection is a collaboration with art directed by Jordan Ferney and it is called Let them eat cake. It is simply beautiful.)

So today I am turning 28. Per my usual love of all things celebratory I will be extending my celebrations on all month. I am excited! Yay for new years and new beginnings and growing up!

Story of a Girl

This song came on my pandora this morning and I had to post it. Why? Because 10 years ago I loved this song. One of my favorite memories of high school was the FCA sleep over where 50 plus people were all in one house acting crazy and for some reason singing this song. We stayed up all night and almost watched the sunrise sitting on a suburban front lawn in Bedford, TX. (Funny enough I fell asleep for just the 5 minutes required for the sun to break the horizon.)

Anyway, my 10 year reunion is coming up and I can't make it cause I live half a country away, nonetheless, I do have some fun and wonderful memories, and these memories include some fabulous top 40 hits. (I only pretend to be indi, so sorry to disappoint.)

In many parts of the world the people are searching for a solution which would link the two basic values: peace and justice. The two are like bread and salt for mankind. ~Lech Walesa, from his Nobel Lecture~

Re:

If you know me at all you know that I have a huge crush on workshop and I think Kelly is fabulous! So last week when I got the newsletter that she was having an art opening at Matching Half Cafe during the Divisadero Art Walk I had to head over. She uses vintage photos, real plants, found wood, and just all kinds of wonderful detail to make this amazing pieces of art! I love them (and these photos don't do them justice at all). Seeing art like this is so inspiring. I love seeing all things old be made new again. It brings joy to my soul.

Here is a glimpse of her fabulous art!

Something pretty for your Tuesday morning

(This is a super old picture of flowers I took at the Civic Center Farmers Market forever ago.)

I get to live here!

This weekend was another weekend of being so grateful that I live here. The sun is FINALLY out! San Francisco summer has begun. I am over joyed and I feel the need to share a brief play-by-play of the funness of my weekend, because it was just that wonderful.

Scott Pilgrim vs. The World at 4-Star Theater (independent local SF theater, joy!), late night sushi, a day in my own room doing nearly nothing! teaching children, City Church sermon on seeking the prosperity of the city (Thank you Jeremiah 29 for being evidence that God desires the peace of urban spaces), Shakespeare in the park, Absinthe tasting (the batch Laura and I infused), late night bonfires on the beach, getting kicked off the beach by the cops, amazing food, amazing people, lots of good coffee, palm trees, a red bridge (I really do love our little Golden Gate Bridge), just so much joy.

I think I could sleep for a week and still be behind on my rest, but as for now, I am grateful.

Christian prayer is always a response to a presence already felt. The awareness of a desire to pray again is already prayer. As the desert fathers so often said, "If you want to pray, you are already praying." ~Edward J. Farrell, Gathering the Fragments~

The Saturday Evening Post

Today has been fabulously relaxing. I met with a lovely lady to discuss her art and possibly featuring her here, and I stopped into the SF Zine Fest. It was fun to see the random stuff people create, it was also free and gave me an excuse to walk through Golden Gate Park.

Well, this is about to prove to be a terribly boring post as it is almost over and I haven't really said much. I mostly wanted to share the above photo with you. Gotta love the 1926 style.

Happy Weekend: I want to redo my bed...

(I found this at sfgirlbay and it is originally from the animal print shop. If only I had less stuff and could have such a simply relaxing room.)

(Image found here and I forgot what blog I saw it on first. Sorry. But, oh how I love the flowers!!)

(This fabulously mix-matched chaos is most like my room and I love it. Check it out at design is mine and living etc.)

This weekend should result in some of the relaxing I have been begging for (two weekends in a row!! I am thrilled!!) As part of the relaxing I am hoping to organize and redecorate some of the chaos that is my room. Someday I will be getting some new bedding but for now I am just getting inspired to clean my room!


And if all of this wasn't inspiration enough, check out this Design*Sponge Post!

more bed photos to love can be found in the mix of images on this photographers site.

Worship

I saw this tweet this morning and had to share. I believe in the value of truth and the importance of doubt. I love the way he speaks of worship and art together. I have so much I want to say in response to this but really the video is so well done it speaks for itself.

I watched the video here before re-posting it.

(p.s. you have to love the vintage images)

Rickshaw bags

(Fabulously simple signage, very San Francisco. I am not sure why we make it so hard to find all the good places.)

(Store interior: love the vintage couch!)

(So, Rickshaw has a rickshaw, obviously.)

(And what the store is all about: the amazing bags.)

(Bags, bags everywhere!)

(Best part: The bags are custom! You get to pick your fabric! These are a bit more expensive because they are small batch printed organic cotton. Beautiful.)

So late last week I was walking around down in the Dog Patch (a neighborhood I never spend time in, but should, Mr. and Mrs. Miscellaneous is evidence of that fact, as is Rickshaw, the place I am blogging about.) Anyway, I popped into Rickshaw to order my new custom Zero Messenger Bag. I had a LivingSocial deal for it and was so excited to pick out my three fabrics.

It was a fabulously fun experience. The walk in retail shop is super small and super fabulous. The customer service was amazing and provided by the marketing guy, yes the company is that small (small is good). He was super nice and patient with me as I am very indecisive about colors and fabrics and textures and all of the details that go into customizing a bag. The owner offered me a tour when I asked him if I could take a few photos for my blog - it was a factory tour and I really might have to take him up on it when I go back (my bus was driving up just as he was making the offer and I really had to run.) Seriously, you have to love super nice approachable people.

Anyway, I have to talk about how I love them for a few reasons.

1. I am finally a real urban girl with a messenger bag! (or at least I will be in 8 days when my custom bag is ready).
2. The bags are zero waist. That is impressive.
3. I love India so I have to love Rickshaws (even if they are originally from Japan.)
4. They are hand made.
5. The company has partnered with Ashbury Images to print some of their bags and they love bikes from Pedal Revolution. Plus, as we talked they mentioned partnering with At the Cross Roads. In short they are investing in the community of San Francisco.
6. They make the bags in San Francisco! (Do you know how expensive it is to produce things here? It is crazy, but so vital to our local economy.)

Anyway, I just wanted to rave about Rickshaw. If you need a bag you should check them out. They ship everywhere so you don't have to an SF person to enjoy their awesomeness. I plan to post some pics of my bag when I get it later this week.