Pondering on Paper
…outside in nature.
I love soaking up the ambient sounds of home.
I will forever love this backyard.
* turn on volume for a sense of what it’s like 🙂
Yes I’m still here!
Ahh yellowww… hi there. I know I’ve been M.I.A. for a while, but I’m still here! It’s been a long while since I’ve really sat down to catch up on my blog. I’ve been living offline a lot more these last few weeks since coming back home to the island. Heck, even when I was traveling and before then, I haven’t been pulled to the screen as much to meander in my mind. Instead, I’m doing all my pondering on paper…
OoOoh, a moment of appreciation please for these alliterations…
Meander in my mind…
Ponder on paper…
Yes, yes… very satisfactory indeedy.
Anyway. Just wanted to post a casual HELLO! But not too aggressive like that. So more like, helloooo 🙂
Mmm, much better.
I am hopped up on a delicious coconut smoothie that my Mr. made… he scraped the meat out of a young coconut after we drank the coconut water, then blended it with a little bit of milk, and that was it! No sweeteners needed because the young coconut is already quite sweet.
But I digress.
As I was saying, I’ve been expressing myself and documenting my life on paper every day these days. I haven’t brought out my camera in a little longer than I want to admit. I think because of the lockdown we’re living in too, I’m not taking photos as much since I’m at home all the time and I feel sometimes like it gets a bit repetitive. Also, I’m working from home and I guess my mind and my body demands a balance… to separate my 9-5 work from my personal work. I’m sitting at my desk. The one that my Mr. made me many years ago (under my supervision haha)… and it’s been my sanctuary. I love love love working from home. I love my office/studio… it has so many functions. It’s the other room in my two-bedroom home. It’s my studio space for creative projects, it’s where I look for birds with my binoculars at the window, it’s the ‘atelier’ as Ian likes to call it when I’m sewing cute new ‘fits, it’s an extra bedroom if we have people over (which we won’t for a long while, because the lockdown remember?), and of course, it’s an office space for getting our work done at a proper desk when we decide to be professional and get off the couch and wear clothes to attend meetings… and more!
I have been journaling like maddd the last few months. I’m very happy about it. I feel like I’ve reconnected with the muse version of myself from my youth. I’ve fully accepted that I’m a total nerd, who loves scrapbooking and tape and glue… and stickers! Oh my god, stickers! I will forever fondly remember the days when my prized possession was a sticker binder I carried around everywhere, and for my 12th birthday, everyone knew I was a sticker geek, so everyone gave me sticker sheets for my birthday!! I was very happy about it, but also a little annoyed because at the time there was only one place to get stickers on island so I got a whole lot of the same spongebob sticker sheets, and I love me some spongebob, but the sticker variety was quite limited back then. I felt like I rekindled a bit of my love for stickers when I made my own stickers to sell a couple years ago. I’ve been meaning to make more! I will make more! Just gotta make some time for it, so I’ll add it to my list of goals for the next month. I’ve been pretty good about meeting my monthly goals. Anyway… yeah, I have been in my Travelers Notebook literally everyday, documenting my daily life through scraps of paper and random packaging and magazine tear-outs. I even ordered a heavy duty book-binding stapler so I can start making my own notebooks as thread-binding them is quite a chore and I like to make life easier for myself 🙂
I have a ton of photos in my lightroom catalog that have yet to be edited and sorted. I really don’t love my external hard drive filing system. It works, but I think I need to get some smaller solid state drives so it doesn’t feel so clunky when I’m editing photos and using my chonkers LaCie drives. Here are some iPhone candids my husband took of me the other day so you have photo proof that I’m still here… and pondering on paper. 😉
LA Christmas prep
12.09.2021 — A few days after we arrived in Los Angeles, Ian and I got in the Christmas spirit. My in-laws usually host a big family dinner on Christmas Eve, and me being a lover of festive holiday decorations, we got to work early to put up the Christmas tree and lights all over the house. Ian’s parents have the cutest ornaments they’ve collected over the years, and it was like unboxing a little bit of family history. I also thought it was cute and funny that all three stockings had Ian’s name on it.
Throwback to 2018, while aboard the Sea Casa for a pleasure cruise, thanks to Captain Connor. This landscape view of Tutuila and the ocean glitter still makes me sigh happy sighs.
Lunch at Alcove Cafe
12.26.2021 — The sun finally came out in Los Angeles. We went for a long walk down to Ventura Boulevard and stopped for a late lunch at Alcove Cafe. I ordered the pan roasted salmon salad and it was probably the best salad I’ve had in my mini food tour of Los Angeles so far. Ian’s avocado toast and poached egg was also delicious. For drinks, I had the fresh squeezed grapefruit juice and Ian got a latte.
