whatcha readin'? {2016::book 11 - goal 12}

June 20, 2016 Arlene Giddings

i love books like this.
i don't think that's a secret
or a surprise.
i like books that make me want to
do
things...
read up on a subject, grab my camera,
grab a pen and journal, pick up a paintbrush,
try something i have never tried before.

and i love elizabeth gilbert.

i love love love loved eat pray love
and totally, completely, wholeheartedly
expected to NOT like it.

but i did.

and so i was very excited about this book of hers
and it did not disappoint me.

she tells a story about the amazon
and highways being swallowed whole
and a chance encounter
that kinda sorta gave me goosebumps.

i just like the way she writes.
so earnest.
so honest.

and i love that she says this:

“If you are alive, you’re a creative person.””

— Elizabeth Gilbert, Big Magic

because i totally agree with it.
people tell me all the time
"i'm not creative at all, you're so creative"
but i think there are varying degrees and proportions of
creativity in
EVERYONE...
i think some people call it by a different name...
and then they don't recognize it in themselves
but
it's there...
if you cook, if you garden, if you build things,
if you play...if you sing, dance, brainstorm, solve puzzles,
guess at riddles, read, write, plan a vacation,
if you have made a snowman or a sandcastle,
flown a paper airplane, wrote a letter to a friend...
anything can be creative
because there is no one set way to do anything.

you're creating a life for yourself.
that's pretty damn big.
:)

so anyway...yeah...i loved this book!

4 out of 5 ♥♥♥♥'s

NEXT UP: THE HEART GOES LAST - MARGARET ATWOOD
(and yay! it's book 12!! i will hit my goal for this year!!)

father's day weekend 2016

June 19, 2016 Arlene Giddings

i have not been here in a while...
good intentions
but life is starting to get busy again

but this was a good weekend.

i shot my first wedding of my last season of weddings
which i think i keep repeating
to make myself get used to saying that...
my LAST season.
this is it.

which is both liberating and bittersweet sad.

the wedding was beautiful.
and the fact that it was my sweet cousin getting married
just added icing to the sweet sunny day.
they had an outdoor wedding in my aunt & uncle's backyard
and i can't wait to post photos of how
GORGEOUS
that yard turned out.
it literally took my breath away.

and because it was family,
it meant i got to sit with my parents and
another aunt & uncle for the meal
which was so awesome.

and today was father's day...which
meant the building of a new bbq
and a subsequent meal cooked on the new bbq...
a new deck chair complete with it's own cooler
and a harmonica.

it's been a great weekend...
i'm sad to see it come to an end.
<3

today has been...

June 13, 2016 Arlene Giddings

a shoebox
of notes passed on buses
and through brothers on bikes
when we weren't allowed to
see each other
or use the phone...
zellers moonwalk pin 1986....
records on wheels bag
(note the billy idol)
purple feathers
straight from the lobster carnival...

today has been
trying to remember the thing
we used to say
from the max headroom commercial...
something tells me it goes
"but let's not let popular opinion sway us,
let's try coke-coke-coke again"
but i can't find it anywhere
and i wonder if maybe we made it up
and thought it was so funny
we repeated it for years
with no one getting it
but us
(which likely made it all that much funnier).

today is always a little bittersweet...
shared memories that only i remember now.
but i hold on to them tight
in a shoebox
in my heart...
and when i pull them out,
they make me smile now instead of just sad...
so many good stories...
so many things i don't want to forget
and i'm sorry that i keep talking about her
but the truth is...
i don't want to ever stop.
she was here.

she was here.
♥♥♥♥♥

broken bones, baby bumps & sweet reunions...

June 12, 2016 Arlene Giddings

the sunset outside the hospital (moments before my phone died)

it was a weird roller coaster up & down kinda weekend.

i spent my friday off with the house to myself
playing with some watercolors,
doing a little doodling, listening to music...
taking the day slow and quiet,
my favorite kind of day.

then campbell came home
white as a sheet of paper
and hurt...
a 6 hour stay in emergency
to find out that while he did not
get a concussion out of his skateboarding mishap,
he did break his collarbone :(

it's never fun sitting in a hospital waiting room
for that long especially when your phone died
and you didn't have supper
and you are both starving
but,
on the bright side,
i had 6 hours of captive quality time with my boy.
i learned that he is incredibly patient, even when hungry and hurt.

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥-----------♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥------------♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥-----------♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

as if a baby belly is not enough enticement to come take photos, they also bought me a diet coke AND told me they had lilacs in their yard! :)

saturday was an early morning maternity session.
i love when i have the opportunity to work with friends.
i knew the momma-to-be from an ECCE course we
took together years ago
but i also had the privilege of doing their
engagement photos and their wedding photos
so i was very excited when they asked me to do
their baby-belly photos!

sneak peeks to come!

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥-----------♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥------------♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥-----------♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

and early saturday evening was so much fun
as i got to meet up with a gang of friends
who planned an informal reunion get-together
at a beautiful cottage in Seaview.

i graduated TOSH in 1988 and i believe most of this
crew graduated in '86 or '87.
it was kind of a little surreal for me to do these photos
as i remember most of them from high school
but in a sort of intimidating they-were-a-cool-crowd-artsy-
i-wanna-be-like-them-but-i'm-such-a-dorky-shy-geeky-kid kinda way.

and it's funny how easily we can be transported to
those high school feelings even this many years later.
driving out there i was actually nervous, more nervous
than i normally am.

and what's even funnier is when you realize
that people are just people...and you know that
you knew it all along but it's hard to let go of what
you thought you knew about someone
when really...
you didn't know them at all.

i realize now that back then i formed more opinions of what
i thought other people must be like
based on my opinions and beliefs about myself...
my intimidation had more to do with my own
typical teenage-years lack of self confidence and insecurity...
and in my self-absorbed insecure teenage head,
i always thought i was the only one that felt this way
(dorky, weird, odd, alone, unattractive, out of fashion, alone)
but really, chances are, most of us felt this way
but some of us were better at hiding it.

anyway, this has totally gotten off track :)
and what i really wanted to say is
they all made me feel so welcome and comfortable
and it was so much fun listening to them share stories
of their time in high school...the parties, the yearbooks inscriptions,
the old photo albums and the big hair.
I am so happy that they asked me to help document part of
this weekend for them, it was a ton of fun!

sneak peeks to come!

and more lilacs...because...well...they're lilacs!!! :)

#tbt

June 9, 2016 Arlene Giddings

remember that time...
when the smurfs came to visit...