light and love

found this on flickr... made me sigh. sweet blue skies of hope. rare and wonderful.

gentle part of town

This is a gentle part of town
- run down.
Papers blow about the street,
people walk on tired feet,
discount stores, a place to eat,
hardware, garden stuff and such:
shabby. No, there isn't much
to see. And yet,
here's a part I can't forget.
It isn't something
I just feel:
but folks are folks here,
folks are real,
folks are simple,
folks are kind,
if you don't buy much,
they don't mind.
It's just a gentle part of town
- run down.

- By Ruth Bell Graham,
in Sitting by My Laughing Fire, a collection of her poems

(I got that book for free from the BGEA several years ago,
and I am SO glad I did. Her writing is vulnerable and strong,
and the accompanying photographs and images are beautiful.
This photo, however is mine - taken near Independence, TX.)

can't wait

I can't wait to buy some film and enjoy having some photography adventures real soon. I'd taken about a two week break from spending money on it, but I'm feeling the itch again... It's almost pay day. I'm so glad I picked up this new film hobby - it's been really fun and life-giving for me. And I need to continually work on doing purposefully life-giving things.

Photography inspiration

The Shorpy blog posts very old black and white images several times a day, and often they are really fascinating. I'm not always a huge b&w fan, but this photo of the mountains is magnificent.

Colorado circa 1901. "Ouray from Blow-out Canyon." 8x10 inch dry plate glass negative by William Henry Jackson, Detroit Publishing Co. (I also find this photo from that site really poignant and sad - sorry if that's weird. I feel like it's this really feeling picture of life when everything has fallen apart and your very last hope seems gone.)

One Love Photo is stinkin' cool. Why? Well, there's this...

Image via One Love Photo blog

And because, like me, they love film! Ok, and they're uber talented. Seriously. They are legit. They're a husband and wife wedding photography team, and in addition to using high quality digital cameras, they also capture funky/nostalgic/dreamy wedding images by using medium format cameras, and some cheap toy cams, too. You can read more about their style and gear here and see their flickr, where I especially love their film weddings set. (Can I have their job? Please? Maybe one day?)

Last name: ever, First name: cutest

白木屋文化館, originally uploaded by Joseph1204.

Omygoodness this photo is so precious! I've become slightly addicted to browsing flickr for inspiring film photography, and this one really caught my eye today. I looove the deep green, and that chair, and this kid - what a cutie!

(And come on Julie, doen't this make you want to have little bitty kiddos?)

Resolutionary

So, tonight I read a post about making fun New Years resolutions that you can keep on ohbrooke, and I thought that she made a good point. Although I probably won't do the example of buying one pair of shoes a month, I think it is a good idea to make some light-hearted goals right along with the more discipline-minded goals.

You know I've got my list of new goals going - spiritual, relational, physical... everything. Tried to keep it short-ish. I posted them in my room last night - wrote them on a normal sheet of paper, with a favorite verse from Isaiah on top, and then stuck it on the shinyshiny gold back of my last year's jumbo calender from China. Tonight when I got the idea to add fun resolutions, I added a smaller sheet of paper at the bottom, and then starting doodling all around on the gold. I think it will be a fun way to leave myself notes and pictures.


So, my additional, "fun" resolutions are:
- Weekly dance parties. Alone or with friends, watevs, no excuses! :)
- Find good clean fun ways to smile and have fun more often at work.
- Write for myself and for fun more often.

P.S. Made the new banner tonight. The photo reminded me of Nikki's post. I took it with my new Slim camera that my cousin got me for Christmas - yay!

Everyday waiting

Today I developed 7 rolls of film. As I've begun hoarding film cameras and venturing out more with them, I've been thinking about how (obviously) film involves some type of patience that digital does not. Especially w/ these plastic lensed toy cams, you just don't know what you're going to get, and that's part of the beauty. In life, for me patience usually seems overrated, but today I was reminded (in an everyday way) that waiting is a good thing. I took this picture almost two weeks ago during a super fun lunch break, and had only a hope that it might turn out well. Today when I popped my cd of new pictures in and saw this, I was just so... happy. Something there just makes me lift my shoulders up and in, and sigh, and... relax. Rest. Open up.

{On a slightly related note, I decided to get a flickr account. So, you can now see all my plastic lense adventures @ http://www.flickr.com/photos/lelijo/}

Weekend soup

• The Border Film Project. I bought this book today at Half Price, as a gift, and I couldn't help but read through the whole thing right there in the store. It's seriously compelling to see both sides of the story. There's so much voice and nearness in the photos.
  
  
  (This project also only furthered my current lean towards analog photography...)
  
  
  
• One day at work, after paying 30 cents for an afternoon pick-me-up and then re-applying my dark plum lipstick that I recently unearthed from the bottom of my makeupbag, I realized that lipstick on my Diet Coke can makes me think of my mother, and summer.
  
  
• I love it when Garret quotes Oh Brother Where Art Thou. He’s predictable, but it’s endearing: "I don't want Fop! I'm a Dapper Dan Man!"
  
  
• OMG this is hilarious - http://www.collegehumor.com/video:1752195 – STEP BOMP, STEP BOMP BOMP! Why have I never seen I before? I know it's not real, but it's still crazy funny.
  
  
• I made my hair curly this week, and wore my fuzzy brown hat and furry boots, and it reminded me of last Christmas, in China :)
  
  
  This potato mound was the best Christmas Eve Day snack ever.
  
  
  
• I bought another toy cam and it came in today; it was only $12. That means I've bought 4 this fall... I'm taking a break from buying them now. (But I also put 2 on my Christmas list...)
  
  
• At various points this week, I really missed these face masks like we wore last Christmas. I still have mine, so if you see some girl running around CS with a face warmer on...
  
  
  it could be me, or Kay, or Kristin - we all learned to rock them :)
  
  

Tonight, I am grateful. Grateful for a warm house, encouragement from strangers, the Lord pulling me towards new things even when I'm scared, good books, and sweet people. Even in the midst of unsure-ness, Father is faithful to sustain us and provide.

the day part of today

The day part of today was pretty darn good.

I Went to bed at midnight last night - got good sleep!

I tried to be more thoughtful and introspective throughout the day, instead of just coasting. I'm beginning to hate coasting. Tried to think on Hebrews 2:1-4, and Deut. 6:5 and Josh 1:8-9.

Lunch break:

funny fun time with Megh & Jules / Skidaddled to the nearby park with the fisheye and Igor (new name for my crotchety new/old Russian camera). / No kids were on the playground! I could climb around and take pictures w/o feeling like a weirdo – yay! / Sat at the top of the playground for a bit and gazed at the clouds. / Shiiiinnnyyyyy, fast-moving, wintery, amazing clouds! / Hilarious roomie email thread involving being “neck-id” (naked). / Getting stuff done at work!

So, Father really energized me with random and fun things, and I was really thankful for that. But then tonight I feel melancholy and introverted. hmph.

P.S. A new banner for December is coming soon.

Modge podge

November has flown by. I can't believe Thanksgiving is only a week and a half away! Awesome! Right? I think so. This entry is going to be a bit of a modge podge. Haven't had real clear thoughts lately, so I'm just going to go for it. Thought I was going to go to bed early tonight, but I think writing will be good. Thanks for reading :)

Tonight I listened to more than one JJ Heller song in a row for the first time, and it has been reallyreally life giving. "Love me" is powerful.


This post from Piper was good. I don't know if I've fully internalized these concepts:

....God's free and sovereign heart-changing work is our only hope. Therefore we must pray for a new heart. We must pray for the "want to":

Incline my heart to Your testimonies. (Psalm 119:36)

He has promised to do it:

I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes. (Ezekiel 36:27)

I definitely struggle with trying to manufacture my own "want to," putting my confidence in it, and then eventually failing because my strength is insufficient. Sometimes, my own human motivation to do the right thing will work for a good while, and maybe I don't even realize I'm relying on it, but I've learned that it can't truly sustain godly actions. Because, the world and my flesh will thump away at whatever construction paper morals I had been relying on, and one day I will look up and my "want to" is gone without a trace. Grasping through that shame and helplessness towards the neglected power of the Holy Spirit's gracious changing of my soul has been very challenging for me lately.


I really really like this blog. I read the Bright Side Project (and try to win sometimes), and one day I read on there that they had a new weekend editor - Lindsey from A Great Full Day. So, I hopped on over there and was quite pleasantly surprised by the fresh, friendly mix of spiritual Truth, style, and exuberance in her blog. I'm also enjoying this blog that I randomly found. (Both of these ladies' posts often remind me that I too am a font nerd, and really enjoy working with typefaces.)


Along the lines of creativity and typefaces, I've been sitting on a lot of ideas about different prints that I'd like to create. I'd been sketching a lot, but finally spent some time with Illustrator this past weekend. Garret had to go up to work for a little bit on Saturday to transfer some 8mm film, so I tagged along to keep him company. I brought my laptop and it was fun to hangout, help him with his work, work on some of my own projects, and watch strangers' vacation movies from the 60s, lol. So, this is the first thing I came up with.

And here's a zoom of it so you can tell what's going on. A little cheesy maybe, but I got the idea in my head, and was just excited that I could remember how to make my own pattern in Illustrator and apply it.

I've been toying with lots of different ideas of things to design for the wedding, and I'm looking forward to making more of them come to fruition. More is coming soon :)

Bits of days

So, at work I'm responsible for keeping up with mailing lists for our newsletters and such. When we mail stuff out, we get some back - undeliverable, return to sender, etc. Today, we got this one back:

That little sticker made me sad.

So, I was curious. I tried to find the person's obituary, but all I found via Google was an entry on someone's blog about the person's whole career. It felt a little weird that I could find that much information, but it was really interesting. (Needless to say, I never really figured out why they were subscribed to our magazine, couldn't connect those dots. Who knows!)


This is a moon plant that my sister gave me back in March or April. It's supposed to bloom only at night, hence the name, but I've only checked on it during the day/evening, and the bloom has been about half opened. This was the first time it had ever bloomed, and I was SO excited. I'd been watching it grow for months, and then last Tuesday or so I was walking in the side door of our house and noticed that this big green bud was growing - woah! After all that waiting, beautiful growth! It reminded me of how God faithfully brings unexpected blessings to us.

This is my lomography fisheye camera. I like it a whole lot! I learned about toy cameras for the first time when tahni got a holga, and then I got curious and eventually I decided to buy this one. It's SO fun! The photos are really unpredictable, but that's what makes it an adventure! (I'll post some of my favorites so far - like the above banner image - from it sometime soon. I am far from good at using mine, but I think it will be really fun to learn! Slightly unrelated - I found this image today and was inspired - it is titled so strikingly well.) So... the more toy cameras I find online, the more I add to my mental Christmas list - like this Russian one, this adorable lil guy, and this digital (!!) one.

Yesterday after work the sun was shining and I had some free time so I ran across town to a field that I had been reminded of on Monday. I snapped some shots with my lil digital camera and my lomo, but since I haven't developed the film yet and who knows how it will turn out, here are a couple of the non-lomo shots...


I love College Station sunsets. They always seem to be brought to your attention at just the right time...