April showers, plans, link love

This evening starts yet another "weekend" for me. I have a meeting tomorrow regarding an opportunity that I am interested in pursuing - we'll see how that all pans out, but other than that no solid plans. This is good. A Chill relax few days will do the body and soul good.
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http://www.aolnews.com/philanthropy This <-----? makes me happy.
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http://www.mhouserphotography.com/index2.php#/home/ - so does this :)
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April showers bring May flowers -- well it's not April but this morning it rained so hard on my way into work I almost stopped the car on the side of the road because I couldn't see the car in front of me. It was so bad! By like 2pm it ws the most lovely day though, Florida weather... the sybill of meteorolgist's nightmares. April is right around the corner - my high school reunion is happening - most of my class is either on their way to Lima, Peru right now or will be next week or so. A new shift bid at work, so who knows what hours I'll be working, Easter, National Tartan Day (the 6th if you're wondering) Seeing David Gray
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PP-f8TDb2n4 and some various and sundry projects I am working on, should make for an interesting month.
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http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/ This <---- is my downfall. I have such a love/hate relationship with this site, it's not even funny. SOOOO INSPIRING! I want to go out to the Home Depot and Lowe's and Target and furniture boutiques RIGHT NOW!Seeing how I share a house with my sister at this point, and we have different design styles on some things, it's even worse for me to go to the site, but once I'm there, it sucks me in and I can literally look up at the clock and have lost a good hour. ARRRGGGHHH.
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My mother leaves for Md on the 1st of April to visit my father and her family for Easter (my dad in doing some work in VA sub contracting out till May) we were supposed to go see "How to Tame your Dragon" at the movies tomorrow, but my meeting is making us postpone till she gets back on the following Tuesday, I love that my mother loves silly kids movies as much as I do. She calls them "dancing mice" movies as in "no violence and blood etc", I call it good fun. I'm so glad we get to hang out like that.
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Anyhoo kittens it's getting late - to all a good night and I'll see you tomorrow after the big meeting :) Have a brilliant brilliant!

One more step, one more step...

Today was spent taking photographs of everything that caught my eye, that spoke to me on some level, and although I really fell in love with a few of the resulting images, this one, even though the quality is nowhere near a shot I would normaly publish spoke to me louder than any other. Why? Because this is how I feel as of late. Perseverence to get up that hill, climb those proverbial stairs that will lead me to the destination I have planned. It's a long arduous journey and my little legs don't know if they can make it but, but my stubborness and my "I told you I could.." attitude is getting me one step closer to the top everyday. There are some good things coming down the pike, I just wish it was going a little faster.
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The Spring GBC took hold of me again and it has translated into me calling a new landscaping service to get the lawn back to some sort of lovely. L is growing veg of all sorts - tomatos, cucumbers, dill, basil, different types of lettuce, oregano, dill, catnip and yellow peppers, so ideally, I'd like to get a raised bed for her to put the growing plants in. I also have to somehow get the non used wasp nests that are on the front entry down without wiging myself out (I don't DO bugs), and convince my sister that the front walkway plants are butt ugly and SURELY we can find other color plants to take their place. Besides that, even the chicklet got in on the action the other day, as there are now 3 bags of clothes that can be taken over to the donation center (and my chicklet doesn't buy crap clothes - so some thrifty shopper is going to be a lucky duck). Much to do, but at least I have a good start on it.
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Slowly but surely, I am finding it easier to do without somethings I thought I would miss terribly, and it's saving me cents and sense as I am not worrying over those things as much. I know that in order for me to get to where I want with the business, with the house, with my emergency savings, with the travel plans, sacrifices have to be made. It's difficult in that where I am workwise is not where I'd like to be (or am used to, by far) salary wise. I'd like to think that if a better paying day job came up that I could continue to live with the same salary as before and put the surplus into those categories, but it seems there's always something more important. I wonder how many of us have that happen? I would think quite a few. I know VERY few independently wealthy people. How about you?
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Have a productive brilliant brilliant.

Country and who's queen?

A friend of mine, http://notesfromthefrugaltrenches.com/ lives in England, and although I've no desire to go back and live there, (been there, done that, have the ex-husband and chicklet from there, moving on...) I do miss the countryside. We lived near Marble Arch in London proper and when we did make a trek out country way, I was amazed at how much I secretly loved it and wondered if someday in my oldness I would ever want to live in the country. The views are spectacular, the people, for the most part, warm and friendly, and the slow steadiness of it all was and I must say is still now, quite appealing. I am a suburbs girl at heart, I know, not too much in the city but close enough to get my nightlife on. Country living will have to wait a little while longer, meanwhile, I live vicariously through her photographs of the gorgeousness that is Devon, England
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The chicklet and I had lunch with a few of her friends on Saturday before Founders Ball (a formal dance at her Uni). It was good fun, her friends were lovely to meet finally and I still miss her bunches. Good things she's coming home for the weekend in two weeks. She's sent off letters to some med schools to find out if the track she is on at uni is filled with the prereqs for admission when the time comes. Who knew, my chicklet, a D.O. ( http://www.osteopathic.org/index.cfm?pageID=ado_whatis )
I'm kind of dead proud really.
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My friend http://www.remodelingthislife.com/ had a link love post up the other day, I was brave today and added a link to here -- I don't do much in the way of promoting the blog, because a)I think I should probably have more photos in it and b)it's just me, it can't be all that exciting... but I took a leap of faith and I appreciate that she offered the opportunity. You should go visit her, she does always remind me that indeed, simple is beautiful
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Tris Cabin from Ideal Standard
There isn't much more decadence that I need if I had one of these. I have been having neck/shoulder pain for the last three years now, I have nerve problems and have found that a sauna treatment every once in a while does amazing wonders. Some people need meds, me, 30 minutes spent in a sauna, and I can take on anything. Yet another thing to put on my list for "when I am queen...I shall have/do/make happen..."
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Alas, I am not queen yet, and therefore, my day tomorrow looks like this:
1) Breakky with my most super fun, super smart friend, my sister Laura,
2) Take Buzz (the car) to get an oil change
3) Go to Walmart and pick up printer ink and a few other things
4) Grab my mother, go to Target and pick up a few things and drool over the Liberty of London new stuff that Target is only carrying
5) Pay bills
6) Work on logo and get pricing for cards, labels etc.
7) Purge paperwork and magazines still laying about
8) Kitchen floor - hard core scrub/mop
Yes, indeed not queenly at all I'd say, but a productive day nonetheless. To end it, I am rewarding myself with the some episodes of "Carnivale" (Love Nick Stahl, I do), Thank God for Netflix :) Have a brilliant brilliant.

Kicking at darkness, lcl photography, proust and you

I woke yesterday morning at 9:00 which is what the alarm was set for. I then proceeded to continue lying in bed until 12:30 or so when my mother, God Bless her, called to tell me that she and my sister were going downtown to get the Boondock Saints 1 tickets (showing only 1 night in theatres - if you're here in Orlando - at PI AMC24) and going to Ghiardelli for ice cream, would I like to join them? I declined and then my mother said "so much for a productive day" and at that moment I knew what Alexandra Stoddard meant when a client tisked at her saying "can't be productive by sitting, time is money" for sitting in a front room gazing about after having been in a rainstorm to get to said client's house. Surely, my sojourn into blissful rest was indeed work, work to get my self back to my self, my mother wouldn't know that after last evening going through things and choosing what to get rid of and looking at photos of a time long gone was emotionally draining. Coventry Patmore says "Don't deny in the darkness what you have seen in the light" Last night there was no denying and thus exhaustion set in quite quickly. There's no way she would have known this, I haven't shared it with her. So I declined and sent them on their way. I had to pull focus this morning, that coupled with the fact that I have a cold and have sinus issues that are killing me, I laid in bed for ANOTHER 25minutes before greeting this lovely day.
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I lost 10 lbs. Not because I am sick, but because I have been trying harder even though I have been eating what I wanted. Only a kabajillion (or so it seems) to go. Orig. it was so I would be healthier for the reunion in April, as Peru calls for walking, a lot of walking actually. Work schedules and current obligations would not allow for such a trip, but that shouldn't have stopped me, it did, but I jumped on the horse again and am trying. I'll let you know what happens as it happens. Lucky you lot.
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I have decided that not only am I going to continue photographing everyone I know and love, I am doing a coffee table book of a brilliant shot of them and a page of a Proust Questionnaire. It's a staple in vanity Fair, but that's for celebrities, why not do one of the everyman/woman/child? In that vein - I give you my own, you'll get to see the picture much later..

What is your current state of mind? Content
When or Where were you most happiest? When - Singing onstage in Peru, playing Eva Peron, Where? Behind a camera lens
Which living person do you admire? There are many, my mother, my sister, but outside of that? Sam Jones, Regan Cameron and Lou Lasprugato
What is your greatest fear? My child dying before me or anything bad happening to her.
What is your motto? "No coward soul is mine in this world's storm troubled sphere" - Bronte
What is the trait you most deplore in yourself? I am almost always blinded by loyalty.
What is the trait you most deplore in others? Apathy, Disloyalty
What is your greatest extravagance? Anything my daughter wants. I'm awful at saying no to her.
Where would you like to live? Somewhere with public transport near a city center but not directly in it. Failing that? Glasgow
What is your fave quality in a woman? A sense of self and the courage to be that person
What is your fave quality in a man? Humour and Passion and knowing what it means to BE a man and not a boy.
What do you consider the most overrated virtue? - Patience, as I haven't any.
Which living person do you most despise? There are 2 broken people that if they'd been run over by a bus, I wouldn't miss them.
What talent would you most like to have? Sam Jones'
What do you consider your greatest achievement? My daughter, without a second thought.
What do you regard the lowest depth of misery? Apathy, letting down those I care for
What is your fave occupation? Photographer
What do you most value in your friends? Their time
Who are your fave writers? Alexandra Stoddard and Frank McCourt
What are your fave names? Chelsea, Liam, Evelyn and Michael
How would you like to die? In my sleep, preferably after the New Year so I would have been able to have a last Christmas with my family. Failing that, whilst photographing someone/something, because at least I'd be doing what I love.
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I leave you with the fact that if I know you, have ever photographed you, chances are good you'll be answering these questions soon. Off to see Boondock Saints on the big screen

The girl, the photos, the GBC

My daughter came down the ramp at OIA airport last Monday and I thought I was looking at a different child. She lives an hour away from me at University, I see her once, maybe twice every 6 weeks or so, sometimes it's more, sometimes less, but this time, it just seemed different. She was coming back from Spring Break in MD, (I know weird right? Upper East Coast kids clamor to get down here to FL, this one? She wants snow.. so off she goes to see Bff's in MD) and wasn't any taller, didn't gain or lose any dramatic weight, hadn't colored her hair. It was just different. There was something about her that just made her shine and make me look at her differently. When I get a handle on what it is, I'll let you know, but I'm still stumped. She's 18, and although there are times when she still needs me, she's pretty much doing things on her own, and maybe that's what this feeling is, I don't know. She's at Disney World today with "the boy", so I love that there's still that little kid spirit in her every once in a while.
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As much as I hated to, I did a massive clean up of blogs that I read, some who hadn't posted in a year, some who make it difficult to load with all the ads and what not on the page, some that don't pertain to my life any longer. I also did it on my facebook and my myspace, it just feels like a clean start to a new month, seeing how the next week is the BIG GREAT BIG CULL at my house(I've taken off all week- 3 vacation, the rest I had off anyway) where I will be chucking out things with a vengeance, it just seemed fitting to do it virtually as well.
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The job is the job. I am feeling the effects of it not being a 9-5 M-F gig more often than not, but needs must.
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I have a 2 day photography conference I am going to in Miami in May, looking forward to that, as I will be going up the day before to just relax, but I really am looking forward to it, even if I walk away annoyed by the whistles and bells, I will also walk away with inspiration to the max. I have every urge to say Hey, remember that girl up there? and this will only help that.
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Promise this week will be better blogging, just trying to catch up with all the reading and emails is exhausting.
have a brilliant brilliant.