The Adventures Begin Again

Popping in with an update as I return to regular blogging! It's been over a year since my last post, and since then I've completed a stint in downtown Chicago as a proofreader at a private label design firm, then downsized and packed up my belongings and moved 600 miles south to a temporary location in the Ozarks! 

Big plans ahead: most of my "stuff" is in storage and I'm getting organized for a snowbird-style adventure in Arizona. I'm in the midst of planning a road trip through southern Utah. Stay tuned, as I'll photograph and blog my way westward. 

In the meantime, check out my updated Etsy shop, which features some of my favorite photographs combined with quotes: Find Your Mantra

8x8 Gallery // Project 365: Week 15

I've committed to a photo-a-day project this year. Three hundred sixty five photos. Every single day. No latergrams (what we call photos taken more than a day earlier in the Instagram world). The project was inspired by Myk Little, one of several photographer friends I've made via the Instagram community in Chicago. Here's week 15. There's lots of yellow this week! 

99/365: Calm

100/365: Unconditional

101/365: Colorful Saturday @ the Holi Festival in Naperville

102/365: This afternoon's run was, shall we say, "character-building" -- but the good news is the daffodils are starting to bloom! 

103/365: #blueskyblooms

104/365: Eternal sunshine

105/365: And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom. :Anais Nin

Thoughtful Thursday

Photo taken at Lost Dutchman State Park in Apache Junction, Arizona, January 2015. 

Manifesto

A good reminder if you're stuck in a rut: 

Thoughtful Thursday

A

Thoughtful Thursday

Photo taken at Christkindlmarket Chicago, December 2014. 

The quote is widely attributed to Eleanor Roosevelt; however when I researched it to verify its authenticity, I found out it's derived from a Chinese proverb. It is attributed to Roosevelt so often because Adlai Stevenson said, in a tribute to the late First Lady in 1962, "She would rather light a candle than curse the darkness, and her glow has warmed the world."

Thoughtful Thursday

Photo taken July 2014 at Wilson Creek beach in northern California.

Thoughtful Thursday

Continuing (inadvertently!) this week's black & white theme. Photo @ Wilson's Creek in northern California, July 2014.

Thoughtful Thursday

Thoughtful Thursday

Photo taken @ Crater Lake National Park | July 2014

Thoughtful Thursday

Thoughtful Thursday

Thoughtful Thursday

Photo taken 9.19.2014 at the Morton Arboretum

Thoughtful Thursday

Thoughtful Thursday

Photo taken at Wilson's Creek Beach, California.  7/2014.

Thoughtful Thursday

Thoughtful Thursday

Jedediah Smith State Park

"The redwoods, once seen, leave a mark or create a vision that stays with you always. No one has ever successfully painted or photographed a redwood tree. The feeling they produce is not transferable. From them comes silence and awe. It's not only their unbelievable stature, nor the color which seems to shift and vary under your eyes, no, they are not like Amy trees we know, they are ambassadors from another time."

:John Steinbeck, Travels with Charley: In Search of America

Thoughtful Thursday

Thoughtful Thursday

Photo taken at Crater Lake National Park, July 18, 2014. 

"Live, travel, adventure, bless, and don't be sorry." Jack Kerouac was right when he wrote that. Keep it simple, folks. Live without regrets. 

Thoughtful Thursday

Photo taken on the Avenue of the Giants in the Redwood National Park and Humboldt Redwoods State Park. (No, mom, I didn't stand in the middle of the road to take this, I promise! It's a through-the-windshield shot that turned out pretty good.)

This quote is attributed to both Aesop and Aristotle. Amelia Earhart also put her own twist on it: "Adventure is worthwhile in itself." I had both quotes written down in the ongoing list I keep in my notebook and couldn't decide which one to go with. In the end, history won out. Sorry, Amelia!