Today (now that it is past midnight) is my Aunt Annette’s birthday. I share with my aunt (among other things) a passion for creating, a love of dabbling in new disciplines, and an endless pursuit of excellent skincare. She has been a big and positive influence in my life, and I hope she knows it. In her honor, because she is a dog person, I share with you and her the above photos of an adorable doggie whom I recently captured surveying the backyard at a bridal shower.

Dear Aunt Annette: a card is on its way to you but will be belated by the time it reaches you. So let me, here and now, wish you a very Happy Birthday indeed!

Love,
- Your Niece

I’ve had the same bedspread since I was 14. That is going to change this summer, for obvious reasons, but for now I am still camouflaged by my bed when I sit on it in jeans.

Which makes me think of… (it doesn’t really, but I’m trying to somehow tie this post together) Anna Karenina. I finished it just in time for the discussion we had on Wednesday, and I do not think that anything I have read has affected me as strongly since The Deathly Hallows. (If you are tempted to laugh at that, please re-read the entire Harry Potter series and then get back to me. But that is a different discussion altogether.) The novel is incredibly rich, and I highly recommend it; please do not be scared of its 940 pages. Even if you take a year to read it, which I almost did, I think you will find it worthwhile.

One of the most rewarding aspects of the book is Tolstoy’s incredible grasp of the way people work. I found myself in every character he wrote, because no matter how evil and selfish some of the choices that the characters made were, Tolstoy refused to “villainize” any character–he showed their thought processes in such a way that it honestly left me wondering whether I would not make the same choice in their situation. This is the danger of all our evil; it is so easy to convince ourselves that it is good.

Song for today:

View the second photo larger on black.

-  Anonymous

Here’s me, five years old, already displaying an entrepreneurial and somewhat idealistic spirit (not to mention a love of purple):

Here’s me and Gil, in one of my favorite photos from our lovely engagement session this February:

(Photo copyright Brandon Schmidt of Foto Vitae.)

Sixteen years apart—same girl, same table. What a visible reminder of the change that happens in such a short period of time.

(For the record: thanks in large part, I assume, to that giant purple hat, my “picture” business was actually quite successful. Most people who stopped paid me more than ten cents, and I’m pretty sure the mailman left me with a dollar and the picture he had paid for. I distinctly remember the satisfaction with which I subsequently purchased those roller blades I wanted so badly. Ten points for five-year-old Erin!)

… take pictures of the books you should be looking through…

… find yourself captivated by every person you see, every blog you surf to, and how the light plays off of everything around you (including your feet by your window)…

… and you chase wispy ideas around and around until they either hide forever in your nooks and crannies or manage to find their way onto the page.

And, in the meantime, you apply yourself to every possible project that is not the one you must turn in. (Poems? Written. Websites? Designed. Wedding details? Attended to. Room? Organized—and then unorganized again. Emails? Responded to—mostly.)

Sound familiar? Please tell me I am not the only one who operates this way.

And now… back to the attempt. Wish me luck, and determination.

This is the smallest and certainly most insignificant example, but it is the only one of which I have a photo.

I found these adorable teacups and saucers (and a creamer, which you can barely see in the background) for 25 cents each at St. Vinny’s today after stopping there on a whim; I also found a couple pairs of pants which fit marvelously (a precious occurence). Thank God for little miracles.