These are the in-between moments.
30 seconds of today
Playing around with different mediums to blog/vlog my life.
Video snippets from this slow and relaxing evening — post-swim, high tide, and making dinner.
I’m really enjoying being so active on the blog journal!
Any ideas on what else I should blog about? Leave me a comment 🙂
virtual x’s and o’s,
Nerelle
Daily dive
Throwback moments on the camera roll
Exactly what the title says. Raking through a few highlight moments on my iPhone from the last couple of months… mostly outdoors before ish hit the fan and we all had no idea life would look this different.
Also – I have an iPhone X and the photos are normally a “nicer” quality, but I intentionally added a lot of grain to these phone photos. It just gives me a better feeling about them, and I’ve really been into grainy photo diaries lately.
Oatmeal power bowl
I just learned how to make this during quarantine, and I don’t know what took me so long to learn because it’s literally like 3 minutes so easy and so flippin delicious! Now I can’t justify ever paying $9.50 for a power bowl ever again.
Galentine notes
Feeling extra loved and inspired after finding these sweet notes my girl gang wrote to me on Galentines
Brown leaves
Is my vibe these days
A new segment called the Quarantine Diaries
Home quarantine photos from yesterday 3.15.
Ian and I have been taking our days in stride, eating outside on the balcony as much as possible, playing card games, and when we can, going swimming.
Making more of an effort to pick up my camera
I miss seeing myself through my own lens…
Going to make more of an effort to document the in between moments this week while on home quarantine. It will be driven by all the little things that make my heart sing, like the steam from the kettle, the light shining through the window, the way the birds chirp in the morning, the smell of the books on the shelves, and the slow movements when I observe myself through the mirror. This was a terrible effort from today, but it was still a reason to pick up my camera again and sit in front of it after snorkeling and stand up paddle boarding in the afternoon sun baking until crispy.
throwback to me and Ian on these steps to nowhere in Puerto Rico.
Taken by Eli K.
Bubbles babe
Hahah found this really cute photo from my iphone camera roll way back in June 2018. I don’t even remember what we were doing but it just makes me giggle.
The smell of Moso`oi
I can smell it just looking at this… IYKYK
Teuila vibes
Lunch with mom and dad
Lunch date with mom and dad today. Aren’t they the cutest? We get on each other’s nerves sometimes, but I love them sooooo much.
Girls day out at the market
Fridays at the Fagatogo market are the best. Gabby and baby Ao picked me up so we could check out the fish market, then got some fa`i and niu for the weekend.
Blue skies are back
melting gray clouds away
Warmth settling on my skin
It’s a brand new day
(Took this photo November 2019, but this is pretty much the vibe I’m getting after the nth cyclone)
What a rocker of a week. Cyclone season 2020 is really putting us through a loop.
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Rummaging through the archives
I’m searching through my archives this weekend for fine art photos that I can use to sell prints of in the near future (!!!). Attending an artists’ social mixer a couple of weeks ago has lit a spark for me to get back to the arts. I’m starting with photos, but I’d like to eventually get into hand crafts and graphic illustrations as well.
Anyhow, here are some photos I re-edited from my trip to Ofu early last year that I stumbled upon while rummaging through the archives.
It’s going to be a wet one
We’re hunkering down at home… Storm-proofing our house, and preparing for 1-2 possible cyclones that will be rolling in over the next few days. I’m taking breaks every now and then to go through my hard drive… trying to collect some of my fave photos because I want to start selling prints!
Here’s a photo from my trip to Ofu last Christmas. The water all over the lens felt so nostalgic for me.
Design Your Future event
A few weeks ago, a friend invited me to join a “Design Your Future” event. At first I had no idea what that meant, I was just like ‘sign me up’. After finding out that it was a social mixer for local creatives to network with the Chamber of Commerce, and that I would have to show my work at a booth, I got nervous. I mean I was excited, but I had that butterflies in my stomach feeling.
I kept asking my best friend and fellow creative, Gabby, about details and how I should prep for the event since she was helping with coordinating the artists and the setup. Basically, we were just asked to show our portfolios and share our business cards. And I got extra nervous because I didn’t have a physical printed portfolio, and only had my really old business cards. I think the last time I had business cards made was in 2016, and I barely had any left, so I quickly designed a new logo for myself (which I’m actually quite pleased with) under “nerelle / creative” to encompass my photography/ web design/ marketing consulting work. Gabby helped me get my business cards printed super last minute, along with poster prints of 4 of my photographs, so that I could show those along with my website. I also brought a polaroid digital frame that Ian’s parents gifted to us last year, two photo books that I had made, a seashell marquee lamp, and a spider plant in a lens cap vase.
Here’s me at my booth:
To my knowledge, this is the first time an event like this has been organized in American Samoa for creatives to network with the business community, so I greatly appreciated the initiative. I shared a table with another fellow local photographer, Sam Solaita, who I just officially met in person recently, and it was so nice to see other creatives that I know already like Gabby, Pua, Ammon, Tulaga, and Matauaina; and to officially meet other creatives I’d never met before like Duffy, Cinta and Esaia. I even sold a couple of my posters! Even though I was nervous initially, I’m so glad I participated.
And a few things that I learned from the event, as a note to myself for future events:
- It is soooo important to show up – literally.
- It’s also important to get out of your comfort zone every once in a while.
- Feign confidence, at the very least.
- Have genuine conversations, people will appreciate it.
- Bring a fan in case it gets hot lol.
- Network with your peers, and promote their work too.
- Just be yourself.
Snaps: Aunu`u
Green and blue scenes around Aunu`u island. Snapped while on a work site visit in August 2019.
Got home this evening and found myself feeling stuck. I’m not entirely sure why, because I’m actually looking forward to an artists’ fair on Friday which I was invited to showcase at… But thanks to a delicious dinner from Ian, a little bit of rain, and simply picking up my camera – I feel better, less stuck.
I should take more photos, maybe that’s all I need.
Playing around with lighting and colors in post. Photos from this moody evening.
office
New Monday, back to the grind. Feeling a bit more “me” in my workspace.
Shakespeare Bridge
Last night, I asked my neighbor’s 7 year old daughter “T” if she remembered my name, and this is what she said:
T: You’re Nerelle…
Me: Aw, yeah! Lots of kids tend to forget my name because it’s not an easy name to remember.
T: I usually get mixed up with all the different adults, but I remember you as the really really happy nice neighbor!
How sweet!!! 😊
29
The man of my dreams just turned 29 ✨
Love to love you, old man baby boy.
Santa Monica, January 2020
Went to Santa Monica with Rick and Polly for our last weekend in California. The waves were mostly closing out, but Ian got in the water anyway for a bit, and then we went to Urth Caffe for a super good brunch.
birthday boy brunch
for our special guy. Thanks to Georgia and Taylor for hosting us!
Last night
A lovely set up with great people at the treehouse for Ian’s birthday celebrations.
pc: Aerie T.
View from our Thursday yoga seshes in Utulei
Old journals
They make me feel so many emotions. Emotions that I didn’t even realize I felt at the time of writing…
River
Ian rescued this super sweet pup that was stuck in a river and she’s so cute, she reminds me of baby Yodi! We temporarily called her River because of this. We almoooost thought about keeping her but we already have Yodi and Scruff, don’t have space, and don’t feel like we can take on a new responsibility this year since we’ll be traveling and won’t be able to give her our full love. So we asked around if anyone wanted a pup. On Friday, she found her fur-ever home with our friends Hanae and JB, and they named her Irie because of how chill she is.
From tumblr to wordpress
I started blogging on Tumblr. I created a personal blog to post my photography and random public journals, and I later started a secondary tumblr that was more a mood board of sorts where I reblogged other peoples’ content for inspiration. Now that I’ve shifted over to a new blogging platform, it’s been interesting to notice the differences in blogging styles across these platforms because I think that bloggers on tumblr and wordpress are motivated differently. In my college days, tumblr was very much a social blogging platform driven by perception, so people (myself included) were drawn to the numbers of likes and reblogs we got. I guess you could say it gave me a sense of validation. I felt like people were on tumblr as a means to express themselves, but actually to express a version of themselves that would get the most likes, reblogs, and follows. Now that I’m using wordpress, my motivation for blogging has changed to be more lifestyle and design focused. And that’s the reason why I chose to use wordpress.org (which is same same but different than wordpress.com). I chose wordpress.org because I wanted to gain more control over my site design. It’s way more customizable than the tumblr blog templates that I probably spent over a hundred hours trying to customize. So I got on wordpress.org so I could own my site domain and be more expressive through design. Of course it has its pitfalls… like, it takes way more time for me to post on wordpress than on tumblr. On tumblr I could easily just upload a photo, write some words, and let the platform do the work. I didn’t even have to write anything actually. I could just post a photo on its own. But on wordpress, there’s so much more forethought that goes into it. I have to upload a bunch of photos, figure out where they go, write some words that are relevant, and make the whole thing look cohesive for a single post. All of this to say that I’ve had a long journey with blogging, and I want to continue doing it authentically…
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Merry Christmas ya filthy animals!
My home on the reef
My home on the reef.
I had come home from work and the tide was high and the sun was low in the horizon.
It was one of those days where the weather is just right, and the water is inviting you in.
Shiny
Coconut Point sunset
DaFins
*sighs* marine debris *smh*
dip dive
staghorn coral village
underwater home
porites
clarity
perspective
wish upon a starfish
it was a blur
do you see it?
moray eeeeeeel
ready for his closeup
always love these views
a diverse environment
Life Lately: Balance and making time to blog for myself
It’s the time of year that I’m finding myself to be most busy with work, so I’ve been taking every chance I get outside of work to chill out, relax, and not hole myself up hunched over my laptop. I also haven’t quite mastered writing on my smartphone, so photos from my camera roll posted to the ‘Moments’ will have to do. I was looking through some old posts over the weekend, and I’ve really missed blogging.
And so here I am…
My life lately updates:
- My best friend, Gabby, and Ano and Traci, moved in to the house right across from mine! When we were younger, Gabby and I always planned to live together in California after college, so we could basically become artists and make a bunch of money. Hahah I don’t know what happened to us, but we’re loving it back home!
- I’ve been taking a lot of photos, so I’ll be posting a bunch of sessions soon.
- I started a 31-day daily yoga challenge with Traci and Gabby. I fell off the 5am daily yoga train after my trip to Tahiti this summer, so doing this challenge with friends has been a great way to keep me motivated to actually stick to my practice. It’ll be hard to keep up since it’s the holidays and I’m traveling for a few weeks, but I’m committed, and I’ll do my best to do at least 10 minutes a day.
- Speaking of which, yes, I’m traveling for the holidays! First, I’m going up to Phoenix to spend Christmas with my whole family finally. It’s been several years since we’ve all spent the holidays together, my parents and siblings and their extended families. I’m especially excited to spend it with my niece and nephew, who are growing way too quickly! Then, going to LA to spend New Years with my fiance’s family. I always love hanging out with his parents, they’re the best.
- I honestly can’t think of what else right this second because I just realized it’s 11:45pm and of courseeee I would attempt to update my blog when it’s way past my bedtime. I think I’ll just post this now and think about it later!
Manuia le po.
a good time in Bali yearsss ago, i miss it.
oops bc i look nekid.
here is where i wanna be
a little rainbow for my belly
Happy belated birthday to my sister, she is a role model and my best friend since birth! Love you so much Winnie!
Palolo in American Samoa 2019
Palolo experience in American Samoa
Stayed up til 3am waiting for palolo at Fatumafuti over the weekend.
Everyone was camped out on the beach, or in their cars, and on the sea wall.
I couldn’t even count all the boats that were out. It was like a floating village!
Some people got lucky out on the boats but we left the shore with empty nets
still waiting for the big one…
here are some scenes from that night.
It’s interesting that there have been reports of big uprisings of palolo in Samoa, Fiji, Vanuatu, but we had a seemingly smaller season this month. I think Manu’a had better luck than here on Tutuila.
This is all third hand information since all I know is that where we were at Fatumafuti, and along the coast, we didn’t get any palolo.
I asked around and nobody seems to know for sure if they come from the reef flats or the reef slope in deeper areas. I’m wondering if the weather plays a role in it too. This year had the calmest weather for palolo season… usually it’s all windy and the swells are bigger. Maybe not having as much movement in the water keeps the palolo from coming to shore. Who knows, I’m just conjecturing over here 🙂
In a creative funk and how I cope
As a creative, I find myself in a funk more often than I want to admit.
This doesn’t always happen, but every now and then, there’s this gross state of limbo where I feel like I’m not enough, that my work isn’t representative, that it serves no purpose, that I have no audience… I question myself and doubt my creativity.
Just to be clear though, I am mindful that this creeping emotion is only when I’m in a really deep funk about what I’m doing as a creative, and this does not affect other parts of my life, which are otherwise pretty rad.
Most other times that I’m feeling down on my creative ventures, it usually induces more of a numb state of emotion. A funk where I’m just there but not really present… Picture me sitting in bed looking like a sad potato, scrolling mindlessly and sighing inwardly. It sucks.
I wish I could always be motivated and productive with the act of creating, but it can be hard to keep myself on the up and up. It’s not realistic. Anything can put us in a funk, because (and many artists would probably agree), it’s the artist’s curse.
When I find myself in any type of draining dramatic valley, I have a few different ways of coping.
I’ll clean my home. This is when I’m feeling particularly productive despite my state of emotions. I have a really simple cleaning routine that puts me in autopilot mode, cleaning out the junk in my life and effectively clearing the junk out of my mind.
I’ll watch lifestyle videos on YouTube. This sounds like a weird way of coping, but here’s how it helps me. I’m not always inwardly motivated. Sometimes just watching others live their life helps bring perspective to my life, and seeing others thriving gives me motivation to look at my journey from the sidelines for a minute before jumping back into my lane. Does anyone else do this?
I’ll make something anyways. I know I know… even when I feel so unmotivated and that gross state of limbo funk feels debilitating, I’ll make something anyways! And it will probably be crappy, like 99% of the time. But that’s ok. It’s a speed bump in the road, but at least I’m still moving forward.
I’ll go outside. Take a couple of breaths and move my body literally outside of my comfort zone (aka my bed). Being outside is healing. And it’s personally my inspiration for a lot of my work. So I’m taking myself out of my funk and immersing myself in every day inspiration.
I’ll wallow in it. This one is something that I think most people do without realizing it, but wallowing in the very thing that makes me feel glum can sometimes feel like the only way to get out of my funk. I’m not sure how effective this actually is as a coping mechanism, but hey, you gotta do what you gotta do. It takes time.
These are just some of the ways I can think of that have helped me when I’m in a loop.
I’ve been in and out of a creative funk for the last few weeks. And on one of the days, I used my “make something anyways” method. I quickly made this kinda crappy, but not too crappy graphic to use as my desktop wallpaper. It has all my favorite colors, and a little note to self: you got this.
This post serves as a little reminder that we all cope in different ways, and since it was recently Mental Health Awareness Day (October 10th, 2019), I thought it would be good practice to jot down my thoughts and share my experience. Maybe you’ve felt the same way too?
Anyway, if you read this all the way to the end, wow so cool of you, and thanks for reading! And if you want, you can get this free desktop wallpaper too! Just right click on the image, open image in new tab, then on the new tab, click on the image to make sure it’s at it’s full size, right click on the image, then select “Save image as…”
Thanks for reading, and remember – you got this!
Backyard bonfire
October 13, 2019.
Bonfire, ava, and food.
Hangin’ with our community of neighbors and our pups last Sunday in the backyard.
Good vibes all around.
TEDx Pago Pago
Shout out to the best ice cream shop on the island, Samu’s Ice Cream! Thanks for sponsoring us 🙂
Rad photos by Alafaga.
Sunset picnic at the park in Raiatea
Our first night in Raiatea. We had just flown in, got a car rental, checked in to our homestay, got groceries at the market, then stopped at this nearby park and ate our grocery store dinner on the rocks watching the sailboats and canoes go by, in front of little motus and a darkening sky.
Moving us and our food to the sailboat
The day we packed all our bags and provisionings for move in day to the sailboat. I kept laughing over how we packed the compact car completely full of stuff, including ourselves!
Just ordered our wedding invitations! So excited to get them in the mail, write out our little notes to everyone, and mail them out!
Bless Monday holidays. Exploring my home like a tourist because all the shops and the museum are actually open on my day off!
