Spring At The Falls

This is a place that my honey & I love, especially since it's where we had our very first date

over 23 years ago, but I haven't been to it since last Spring,

not since before I badly dislocated my knee.

It was a bit of a workout still for my injured knee but the trees, rushing water, melting snow

were so good for the soul, I was able to push myself past the physical pain

and enjoy the day with my guy & my niece.

Though I am usually quite selfish with sharing my beloved Sony Alpha, ha ha...

seeing what fun my niece is having with it, especially on macro,

I find myself offering it to her on our outings because who knows, maybe she's a budding photographer and well it's pretty fun to see her face and excitement when we go through

the photos later in the day and she realizes that she got some great shots.

I am honestly pretty chuffed with the photos my Samsung Note 2 takes, such as all of these.

Going Way Back & Catching Up

A year long self-inflicted project of mine has included loads of time at the computer

organizing, selecting, sizing & editing photographs.

I had fallen behind in printing things & getting them into our family albums.

I've been plugging away at it from present time all the way back to 2007!

I am on the final year and I am almost done...

 

 

This weekend I'll do the final printing batch so I'll be all caught up once again.

Thousands of photos printed, chronologically in order, lovingly labeled...

It's been quite the project and feels SO good to be at the end!

 

Next???

finishing a travel journal I started in 2004 for our East Coast adventures! 

Breathing Place

If your lucky
you have a few places where you can go to too 'breathe easier'...

Special places you can run to to relieve stresses, even if but momentarily.
A place where your views can alter & shift if you care to tend to them...
Or a place where you mind & heart can take a break & breathe in some silence along with your lungs.

I have several such spots...
In the house snuggling with bunnies or outside watching them play is a top spot for me.

At the waterside watching sunsets ranks top priority often.
On golden country roads with my honey, with the top off our Jeep is definitely a favourite as well.

And, in the sparkling quiet of a magical forest is another favourite of mine.
(I took these photos at one of my breathing places recently).

As a child, I grew up running wild about the trees and water.

There was a large forest behind my childhood house and it was my 2nd home.

As long as we checked in with our parents occasionally and were back in time for dinner,
we roamed and played in that forest as comfortably as in our own bedrooms.

My big brother, my pals and I were always fooling and running around amongst the
trees & ponds like bare-footed carefree bandits.
It was full of bears, raccoons, partridges, beavers, foxes, etc but we were never scared.
Now as an adult, I am still always happy to run about my old stomping grounds...
though admittedly now some trepidation can't help but join me
since we do have cougars roaming around now!

Now these place don't just hold magical memories of childhood,
they are beautiful breathing places...
places to center ones self & remember what is really important in life.

Where do you tend to breathe deeply, where do your stresses slip away???

XO Mandy

p.s. I think I might be taking a tiny little blog break...so I'll be seeing you all again in early August.

Murals In Huntsville

Today it's super gloomy & rainy...yuck...So it seems the perfect day to share some colour, so I thought I'd show you all some photos from late summer that I forgot to post...

We go to a sweet little town called Huntsville every summer, it's about 2 hours from us.... 

The main street is so sweet & perfect to spend a couple hours on any hot sunny summer day...

The signage is old fashioned & gentle...(one of my pet peeves with today's society is our annoyingly loud & brash liking for super big, over done & repeat signage...& don't even get me started on fluorescent lettering!)....Huntsville seems to know how to do signage tastefully...like their pharmacy sign...love it!... 

I love just walking & exploring this place because besides being next to a lake, it has some of the best cottage-style stores, an all year xmas shop, one of the cutest little bookshops on the planet & fantastic little cafes, they also have these amazing murals scattered & hidden throughout the whole town...

...I did a post on Huntsville last summer...these are some new murals ones I found ...

...I wish I could paint like that...aren't they beautiful?  As far as I know they are all by the same artist & I bashfully admit I didnt' bother to collect that name...but there you go...some amazing murals full of movement, life & colour...now we just have to ignore the gloom & wetness outside the studio windows..

Have a great day everyone...see you Wednesday. 

XO M & 4 bunnies who are sick of the rain.

A New Necklace...

We've been having some rough weeks here in our little rabbit warren...but more on that another day for today I am trying to be positive and as cheery as possible....So, onto another topic....Most of you following me on this blog know I am pretty bonkers over rabbit related things. Now I am not a gal who spends alot on clothes, haircuts, make up or shoes etc...but I do indulge myself with certain things like cute socks, cute dishes, yummy delectables (I have a weakness for spicy chocolate), books and naturally of course, rabbity jewelery:D...so today I just had to show you the latest addition to my collection...this beautiful Russian hand-painted pendant from Etsy seller Lavender Rabbit. I had to take a shot before I unwrapped everything...it was defiantly a lovely package to receive...

This is the necklace, I love it...it has a lovely old world charm about it and came with matching earrings...

...AND Lavender Rabbit (a fellow rabbit lover) completely surprised and delighted me by sending me this great pair of earrings, they were totally unexpected and I love them, thanks Lavender Rabbit...I am so glad we like each others shops:D

I am proud to support handmade, fellow artists and great ecommerce sites like Etsy...speaking of which, I plan a big shop update soon, I am going to try doing batch updates instead of singular...but theres still lots of good stuff in there right now so check it out.

Have a great day, thanks again Lavender Rabbit:D p.s. She has a blog here, check it out.

p.p.s. Today I just can't get enough of this awesome Gomez song.....check it out, maybe you'll end up blasting it over and over again too:D

Can Cute Rabbity Faces Coerce You....

I've noticed a drop in comments on this beloved blog of mine the last few days and I know it's just because every one's busy but still, I've been complaining about it to Ella and Roo saying 'Dammit and I thought I was finally on the right track here guys, what going on?...." and Ella and Roo seem to think that I've just not been putting enough pictures of them up...they said 'Sure mom...it's your artwork that might bring them to visit BUT it's us that makes them stay...' ha ha...so upon their suggestion, I took some shots of the Queen and King of our rabbity manor...

....And pass along a big "Hello" from Ella-Luna and Roo today:D

Some Art On Main Business...

A couple weeks ago some of the collective members from Art On Main gave their time, energy, supplies and knowledge to teach local dignitaries abit about their crafts. The results were some wonderful art pieces made by the AOMer teachers and the dignitaries together, which now will be auctioned off at the store...if your local and an art lover come on out in support....50% goes to us, AOM and the other half to the dignitaries favourite charity.

Also on December 4th, at the same time as the auction is another event I am getting work ready for...this one is a member show, sale and fundraiser in the store's gallery space (where I recently had my solo exhibition). Each member will be showing 2-4 pieces at a time and all pieces will be $100, no more, no less (well except tax of course!). We all hope it goes well and for anyone local reading this post again...please do come out to support the great talent at AOM and in your little Northern town.

Also, I have been meaning to post these photos for awhile....but better late than never right! This past summer, a group of fellow AOMer's got together, for a fundraiser for our beautiful little store/gallery and held a children's t-shirt printmaking session at our local festival. It was a great ideal, deemed a success and lots of fun. I know some of you out there are indeed teachers of your own art classes as well so I thought I'd share these photos and pass the ideal along to you all as well.

That's all for today....See you's tomorrow hopefully...we'll see how my little noggin's holding out!

...Good Things...

...some old new found buttons can make a girl so happy...

... a beautiful and sweet card from a friend, to make one smile...

....a good book recently finished (or rather devoured!) and enjoyed...

...a sweet little bun who doesn't ask for much just love and lots and lots of food...

...and some beautiful new magazine/book racks for the living room which the above sweet bun is nice enough not to chew...

...Indeed, all good things currently making this little blogger/artist happy, happy, happy...