thursday quote

"if i had a flower for every time i thought of you, i could walk in my garden forever."

-alfred lord tennyson

gratitude journal

i found this little journal i purchased a few years ago.  it was all white and beautiful and empty on the inside so i decided to start a new gratitude journal...5 good things each and every day before bed.
happy thursday!

monday quote

"raise your words not your voice.  it is rain that grows flowers, not thunder"

--rumi

thursday quote

“I don’t suppose I really know you very well - but I know you smell like the delicious damp grass that grows near old walls and that your hands are beautiful opening out of your sleeves and that the back of your head is a mossy sheltered cave when there is trouble in the wind and that my cheek just fits the depression in your shoulder.”

—	Zelda Fitzgerald, in a letter to F. Scott Fitzgerald

monday quote

“You’re going to discover that conversations are best at 4am. The heavier the eyelids, the sincerer the words. Those are the talks you’ll remember. It’s okay not to know the answer and silence is not awkward. It’s shared, so share it more often than not.”

—	Jeff Stuckel

these streets

thursday quote

"strength does not come from physical capacity, it comes from an indomitable will."

-gandhi

being a regular

when i'm older i want to live in a town with locally owned businesses and friendly staff.  i want to walk through the grocery store and be on a first name basis with the produce man or the deli counter lady.  i want to drop by my favorite breakfast place and have a "usual".  the server would have my order placed as she poured my cup of coffee and i chatted with the owner catching up.  i would go to the gym at the same time each morning and workout.  "hi jim, hi bob...how's the family?  how about this weather?" 
i love where i live now and i could see myself living here in the future.  it's so cozy and like my secret little escape.  the main drag of downtown will always have my heart and i seek solace in the parkway tree-lined streets and corner benches.  the old homes turned coffee shop, boutique or restaurant are swoon worthy.
this town electrifies the summer love pulsing through my veins.  each alley, street and sidewalk makes me reminisce.  i feel giddy and loved.  this town is a warm embrace and i never want to let it go.  when i do leave, i know i can always come back and it will be waiting with open arms.  the summer air sends chills down my spine.  chills of excitement for the surprises tucked away in the days to unfold.  each day an unexpected gift of goodness.  the gifts of sweet summertime.

monday quote

“You know when sometimes you meet someone so beautiful and then you actually talk to them and five minutes later they’re as dull as a brick? Then there’s other people, when you meet them you think, “Not bad. They’re okay.” And then you get to know them and… and their face just sort of becomes them. Like their personality’s written all over it. And they just turn into something so beautiful.”

—	Amelia Pond

summer

from my journal in 2010

there is something so sweet and magical about the summertime.  it's like a kiss on the cheek: unexpected, soft and lingering.  defining moments of our youth.

penguin pops in the shop

finishing up unfinished projects from a few years ago.  this was supposed to be a quilting arts magazine calendar contest submission, but i just ran out of time.  NOW it can be a nice addition to a kid's room or if you're just super cool and like penguins and an adult i guess you could purchase it too.  lots of sparkles on this lil guy!  check it out in the shop!

thursday quote

"We laughed and laughed, together and separately, out loud and silently, we were determined to ignore whatever needed to be ignored, to build a new world from nothing if nothing in our world could be salvaged, it was one of the best days of my life, a day during which I lived my life and didn’t think about my life at all."

Jonathan Safran Foer

a beautiful sunrise

the sun sets only to rise again.  driving in silence my thoughts consume me.  i think upon the year that has passed...how i've grown...the people that i have surrounded myself with.
the year before i was cold and empty.  i was lost from this place, from creative thought and feeling, from blogging and journalling, from tears of joy and hugs of safety and security.  i didn't feel.  i wasn't compelled by deep thought.  it was all on the surface and emotionally draining.  it left me cold and unfamiliar.
then the fall came and i found myself lifted up by fresh faces.  warm, caring, kind people.  no hidden agendas just raw feelings and honesty rooted within me and i lifted myself up.  i cut out the people that brought me down and made room for people that challenged me and made me think.  people that truly cared about me and showed interest in what i had to offer.  i found the old me.  the one that got swept up by freshman year life and social agendas.
i missed high school me.  the quiet, anti-social, under the radar me.  i missed alone time and time spent filling pages in my journal with thought, life and angst.  i was so blessed with these fresh faces in my time of need.  they steered me in the right direction so that i could rise again and feel whole and happy.  it had been missing for awhile and i just hadn't seen it yet.
looking back at this year i see all the good that unfolded.  i found healthy relationships with people that made me better, people that brought out the best in me.  i'm filled with content and peace of mind.  everything is set just right.  i am lucky to be so incredibly blessed.

time for sweet summer magic.  it's on the horizon and i can almost taste it.

monday quote

"I wish I could find words to explain what this kind of cold is like- the cold that has somehow gotten in underneath your skin and is getting colder and colder inside you."

Marya Hornbacher

5.4.12

thursday quote

"Make a radical change in your lifestyle & begin to boldly do things which you may previously never have thought of doing, or been too hesitant to attempt. So many people live within unhappy circumstances & yet will not take the initiative to change their situation because they are conditioned to a life of security, conformity, & conservation, all of which may appear to give one peace of mind, but in reality nothing is more damaging to the adventurous spirit within a man than a secure future. The very basic core of a man’s living spirit is his passion for adventure. The joy of life comes from our encounters with new experiences, & hence there is no greater joy than to have an endlessly changing horizon, for each day to have a new & different sun. If you want to get more out of life, you must lose your inclination for monotonous security & adopt a helter-skelter style of life that will at first appear to you to be crazy. But once you become accustomed to such a life you will see its full meaning & its incredible beauty."

Jon Krakauer, Into the Wild

GPOYW

for those of you out of the loop:  GPOYW= gratuitous picture of yourself wednesday

finally tried the fishtail braid today...just in time for summer.

happy wednesday yo!

applicable

"The plain fact is that the world does not need more successful people, but it does desperately need more peacemakers, healers, restorers, storytellers, and lovers of every kind. It needs people who live well in their places. It needs people of moral courage willing to join the fight to make the world habitable and humane. And these qualities have little to do with success as our culture has defined it." 

- David Orr (poet and NY Times writer)

dear may

another school year has passed and i'm looking forward to the familiarity and routine of home for the summer.  please push me to my limits physically and mentally.  challenge me daily.
may is time spent with family.  take me on long walks with my dogs, turn pages of novels and create with my heart.  inspire me.

xx
kayla