may inspiration

I truly don't know where the month has gone. However, this little bit has been my inspiration all month long and will continue to be. All things truly do seem possible in May. I hope that you feel the same way. Or, at least, that this quote gives you a little hope and inspiration. 

april inspiration

Hello hello April! I'm happy to see you and all that you bring. Rainy days to water the wild flowers, sunny days to warm all the way to the core, chilly nights to stay cuddled up, the celebration of Easter, the possibility of a Spring "break," long stems of blooming branches, fresh apricots, cherries, and artichokes all in season, and of course, like Shakespeare said, the youth that comes with the season. Babies abound and everything is coming alive again! 

first day of spring [2012]...rise from your dreams

march inspiration [2012]

I'm welcoming March with open arms. I love the time of year when the days get longer and longer, warmer and warmer. I look forward to the coming spring that is just around the corner and relishing in all things outdoors. March brings with it rain to wash away the darkness of the winter and give life to all things. 

Woohoo for March and all good things coming our way!

thoughts on love...

I figured that it was only appropriate to share some of my favorite quotes about love...

“If you look for it, I’ve got a sneaky feeling you’ll find that love actually is all around us.”  

Hugh Grant in Love Actually

“Love is the passionate dance between two hearts. It is to believe in the dream, and together make it real.”  

Sylvana Rossetti

“Love is a force that connects us to every strand of the universe, an unconditional state that characterizes human nature, a form of knowledge that is always there for us if only we can open ourselves to it.”  

Emily H. Sell

“The devotion and love of a friend are feelings to prize and protect.”

Unknown

“I don’t want another pretty face, I don’t want just anyone to hold, I don’t want my love to go to waste, I want you and your beautiful soul.”

Beautiful Soul by Jesse McCartney

"To love is good, too: love being difficult. For one human being to love another: that is perhaps the most difficult of all our tasks, the ultimate, the last test and proof, the work for which all other work is but preparation. For this reason young people, who are beginners in everything, cannot yet know love: they have to learn it. With their whole being, with all their forces, gathered close about their lonely, timid, upward-beating heart, they must learn to love. But learning-time is always a long, secluded time, and so loving, for a long while ahead and far on into life, is--solitude, intensified and deepened loneness for him who loves. Love is at first not anything that means merging, giving over, and uniting with another (for what would a union be of something unclarified and unfinished, still subordinate--?), it is a high inducement to the individual to ripen, to become something in himself for another's sake, it is a great exacting claim upon him, something that chooses him out and calls him to vast things." 

from The Prophet by Kahlil Gilbran

"But let there be spaces in your togetherness.

And let the winds of the heavens dance between you.

Love one another, but make not a bond of love:

Let it rather be a moving sea between the shores of your souls.

Fill each other's cup but drink not from one cup.

Give one another of your bread but eat not from the same loaf.

Sing and dance together and be joyous, but let each one of you be alone,

Even as the strings of a lute are alone though they quiver with the same music.

Give your hearts, but not into each other's keeping. For only the hand of Life can contain your hearts. And stand together yet not too near together: For the pillars of the temple stand apart, And the oak tree and the cypress grow not in each other's shadow." 

also from The Prophet by Kahlil Gilbran

"He loves each one of us, as if there were only one of us."

     St. Augustine of Hippo

"To be grateful is to recognize the love of God in everything He

has given us -- and He has given us everything.  Every breath we

draw is a gift of His love."

     Thomas Merton

"You know you are in love when you can't fall asleep because reality is finally better than your dreams."

Dr. Seuss

"Sometimes your nearness thames my breath away; and all the things I want to say can find no voice. Then, in silence I can only hope my eyes will speak my heart."

Robert Sexton

"There is only one happiness in life; to love and be loved."

George Sand

"If a hug represented how much I loved you, I would hold you in my arms forever."

Mandy Hampton

"Love is a temporary madness. It erupts like an earthquake and then subsides. And when it subsides you have to make a decision. You have to work out whether your roots have become so entwined together that it is inconceivable that you should ever part. Because that is what love is. Love is not breathless, it is not excitement, it is not the promulgation of promises of eternal passion. That is just being "in love" which any of us can convince ourselves we are. Love itself is what is left over when being in love has burned awe, and this is both an art and a fortunate accident."

Louis de Bernieres

"True love begins when nothing is expected in return."

Antoine de Saint-Exupery

Now take this inspiration and go love the people in your life!

xo

february inspiration [2012]

[layout for by way of ney]
[cupcakes & balloons via/adorable gift wrap via/heart cutouts via/romance sign via]

mlk jr.

"Faith is taking the first step even when you don't see the whole staircase."

-Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.

january inspiration [2012]

[layout for by way of ney]
[style via/inspiration organization via/flowers via]

resolution 2012

I have always thought that the making of resolutions with the turning of a new year was a bit overrated. I think that the understanding of being able to "turn over a new leaf" and having the opportunity to 'begin again" are hugely important. However, I also think that when you come to a point where you understand that you need to make a big (or little) change in your life, you should do it then, right that moment. Because we are not guaranteed tomorrow, the moment of realization that "something has got to give" should propel you into instant action to make your life what you want it to be. Acknowledging that the definition of making a "resolution" is a firmness of purpose, the quote below is what will guide me to what my purpose is for today. If I am as successful as I am capable of being, then this will also be my purpose all the years that follow...

life simplified

Life this week has been challenging at best. As you know from this post, I just lost my grandfather (my dad's dad), and as you know from this post, we went to his funeral last Saturday (on my birthday). I truthfully didn't mind at all that it happened to be on the same day. The way that I feel about it, life is bigger than birthdays. Birthdays are great reasons to celebrate, don't get me wrong, but I'm not someone who feels that the day of my birthday should be all about me. So that was last weekend...

Then came this Monday, my grandma (mom's mom) who is ninety-one years old, and who's goal was to live to the year 2000 (we're almost 12 years past that people!), had to go to the hospital with some seriously ailments. By Monday night she was fully sedated and on a ventilator. A great friend of our family who has been a nurse for a long time, calls my grandma her mentor, and helped us through the trial that was my mom's dad's death, thought for sure my sweet Marjorie wasn't going to make it. We were at peace with that knowing that she lived an amazing and long life. Now, tonight, she is doing much better. Breathing on her own, no longer sedated, talking again. We don't know how, we just know that she is. Miracles people...seriously.

All of that on top of all the rest of life that must go on. All I could keep thinking was that I needed to work as much as I could and log as many hours as possible at the Pilates studio so that if, or when, she passed I could be there.

The real story here though is about all the things we typically surround ourselves with and all the things that we typically spend our time doing. We do so much, thinking, hoping, and even praying that it will some day make us happy. I realized in these crazy days when all you can do is take care of your basic needs and be there for the people in your life, that those things we've been given are the only "things" that can make us truly happy. I hope that the quote above gives you some perspective, as it has for me, that we really do already have everything we really need. Our families, our friends, the people we choose to have in our lives are priceless. The time we have is not guaranteed but that love and happiness that we can share with each other is. Go love on someone who loves you and needs you.

Don't forget that today is the last day to enter the GIVEAWAY! 

Maybe you can send a real "snail mail" card to your grandma. 

xoxo

paper

"Only on paper has humanity yet achieved glory, beauty, truth, knowledge, virtue and abiding love."

-George Bernard Shaw

Lovelies, this should have been one hint that I love making cards from scrap paper and little tidbits that I find. If there is something special that gives me a chance to make a homemade card, I'll take it. There are reasons that would be obvious to make something special for someone, but an any day "I love you," "I'm thinking about you," "I appreciate you," goes a far way to give someone something to smile about. Below are two cards that I made for birthdays. Be inspired to make something pretty for someone you love.

Follow these steps...

[start with the basic papers]

[add some great flare]

[make it personal with your message]

[tie the theme together on the envelope]

 Repeat as necessary...

[a happy working space is always a good thing.]

[the best part should always be your authentic and sincere message to the recipient]

a good reminder

[illustration by yellena james] 

"The beginning of anxiety is the end of faith; and the beginning of true faith is the end of anxiety."

::George Muller

Yesterday was crazy. Straight crazy. My husband and I broke yet other glass (the cupboards might soon be bare, or the glasses replaced with plastic), I dropped my breakfast on the floor, I drove in the wrong direction for an appointment I was going to, so by the time (11:15pm) that my husband realized that he had left the pants that he needed for today's meeting (in Anaheim) in Santa Monica when we were staying in Hermosa Beach, we just had to laugh and make a midsummer night's drive out of it. Windows down, heater on, music up, wind in the hair. 

Days like this usually happen to me when I feel anxious about something. Right now that is just the question of what the next step of life will hold. Feeling like we're at a standstill and ready to turn the page and explore the next chapter fully. Today, in all the things that went wrong, the lesson was fully realized...SLOW THE HECK DOWN!

It's also days that this that make me appreciate art like this that is serene, peaceful, and pure. They are a good reminder to appreciate the simple and small. 

truth

[photo taken for by way of ney]

a little reminder 

for everyone, 

everywhere, 

that no matter what 

there is always someone, 

somewhere, 

who loves you 

and that life is bigger 

than your day to day worries,

aggravations,

and limitations