A Year in Review: 2010

For me, 2010 flew by in a flurry of photographs.

In fact, if this past year had come with instructions, it would have read:

Click, click. Edit. Repeat.

I loved 2010. Some dreams were fulfilled. Even more were discovered. Yes, there were tears, struggles, and uncertainty... But there was also love, triumph, and discovery. And, perhaps most importantly, the contrast that 2010 provided has altered the trajectory of my life so completely that, if you had told me at the beginning of the year about all the changes it would inspire, I probably would have laughed.

Well, I guess the joke's on me. :)

Here are more than a few of my favorites from this past year. Each and every photo fills me with a memory - like how, after Shelley's shoot, Chris and I stopped for breakfast at Chinook's where we had the most delicious scones we'd ever tasted. Then there was the night we got home from Emily's session - sweaty and dehydrated from the 90 degree temps - only to find that our mammoth old school television set had finally (finally!) died and we were therefore "forced" to buy Chris' dream TV.

Or, perhaps the most monumental, was the drive home from Danie's shoot, when I was struck with a sudden and intense desire to go back to college. (I start classes January 3rd!)

But all memories aside, each and every one of these pictures makes me smile. They are all my dreams come true. I hope you enjoy them as much as I do.

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"We will open the book. Its pages are blank. We are going to put words on them ourselves. The book is called Opportunity and its first chapter is New Year's Day."
-- Edith Lovejoy Pierce

An Afternoon of Bliss

** Lake Wenatchee

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"There is a pleasure in the pathless woods,
There is a rapture on the lonely shore,
There is society, where none intrudes,
By the deep sea, and music in its roar:
I love not man the less, but Nature more."
-- George Gordon, Lord Byron, Childe Harold's Pilgrimage

A Quick Dose of Vitamin D

Why do we take photographs?

To remember.

That one special day. The liquid sun. The smell of freshly cut grass. Bubbles floating like crystal spheres on a light summer breeze...

Smiles. Laughter.

Pictures document our extraordinary days, memorize our normal ones, and record everything in between.

A photograph immortalizes... You.

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"A good snapshot stops a moment from running away."
-- Eudora Welty

A Caterpillar with Cabin Fever

It's been an eh kind of day. The weather is cool and gray and totally typical of Seattle this time of year. And normally I love these soft, cozy days. The sort of lazy days when you feel justified doing absolutely nothing. When curling up on the couch, huddling under a blanket, and reading a book all day long makes you feel just as productive as if, say, you cleaned your entire house, baked a full-course dinner, organized your closests, and ran a marathon.

But not today.

I feel sort of slow. Slow moving. Slow thinking. Slow... Everything.

I've got a major case of cabin fever.

This is the first day in all the years that we've lived out here where the weather has gotten me down. Yet I don't think the clouds are entirely to blame. I feel like I'm shedding my skin. Going through a crazy metamorphisis and morphing into somone different.

It's like the need to grow, to expand, is overwhelming. While my mind is nervously and carefully edging toward the future, my soul is on a rampage - screaming and urging me to just shed my inhibitions, throw caution to the wind, and take the damn leap already!

Maybe I'm stir-crazy because I know so many changes are afoot. (And patience has never been my best virtue.) School starts soon. A new year is just around the corner. Lifestyle changes are underway. Some doors are opening. Others are closing.

And me?? I feel like a caterpillar who's been stuck in its cocoon for too long.

I'm so much different at the end of this year than I was at the end of last year. And, I know, in two more weeks I'll be even more different still...

*Sigh*

Anyway... One thing that did make me smile today was this picture of Nikkie. (To see more of her session, click here.) I've been going through old files and attempting to organize / clean out our computer, and ran across this. For some reason, I overlooked it last September while editing her photos. But now, I'm glad that I found it. Isn't it great when random things pop up to lighten your otherwise dark mood? Almost like it's a gift from.... above? ;)

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"A sensible man will remember that the eyes may be confused in two ways - by a change from light to darkness or from darkness to light; and he will recognize that the same thing happens to the soul."
-- Plato

My Life Lately: Music

The Black Keys.

Simply put, their music makes the tiny hairs on my arms stand up.

I'm smitten.

Enjoy!

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"Music cleanses the understanding; inspires it, and lifts it into a realm which it would not reach if it were left to itself."
-- Henry Ward Beecher

Morning Crush

A morning spent lounging in bed and doing absolutely nothing that you have to do is good for the soul.

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"The moment when you first wake up in the morning is the most wonderful of the twenty-four hours. No matter how weary or dreary you may feel, you possess the certainty that, during the day that lies before you, absolutely anything may happen. And the fact that it practically always doesn't, matters not a jot. The possibility is always there."
-- Monica Baldwin

Coffee & Dreams

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"All men dream but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake in the day to find that it was vanity; but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act their dream with open eyes to make it possible."
-- T.E. Lawrence

What's Wrong With This Picture??

Chris is a love. He hates furniture covered in dog hair (well, don't we all?), but can't bear to have Dehlia lay on the hard, cold floor. So he sets up little areas like this - her bed on a blanket on the couch. Nice, huh? Sweet, thoughtful, and completely touching. It's one of the reasons I love him so much.

But...

Notice where Dehlia is laying?

Again, I ask you... What's wrong with this picture??

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"In order to really enjoy a dog, one doesn't merely try to train him to be semi human. The point of it is to open oneself to the possibility of becoming partly a dog."
-- Edward Hoagland

Chocolate Star Cookies

Christmas is such a yummy time of year...

Okay. So I doubt they'd make Martha Stewart proud. And Chris has informed me that they look a little too, um, "feminine". But I don't care. Tonight I conquered the kitchen. And that, my friends, is a feat in and of itself. :)

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"Our hearts grow tender with childhood memories and love of kindred, and we are better throughout the year for having, in spirit, become a child again at Christmas-time."
-- Laura Ingalls Wilder