My Own: Private Tea Party

There was a Tea Party Planned at Casapinka for tomorrow, but it has been postponed.. So until then, I think I will have my own private tea party, right here, on my sill, and just bask in the warmth of the sun that peeked out of the clouds, it seemed, only for me. Isn't it beautiful?
But I may say, that is quite a bit of tea for one, and I have many more teacups.... Would you like to join me? I have Moroccan, green, and black tea, which would you prefer?

My Own: Looking Up

Sometimes, I stumble, sometimes, I fall, sometimes, I crash, but then sometimes I feel like I what I did was right, but I find out, I was wrong. These are times when I may cry, I may beat myself up, but in the end I realize that the only way to fix what I've done is to look up. Look to HIM to heal my hurts, ease my pain, humble my way of thinking, help me learn from my mistakes, and to move on.

Today, I'm looking up.

My Own: A Flowery Compilation

"Perpetual Blooms"- always beautiful

*More here*

"Mouths of the Dragons"- in a butterfly garden

*More here*

"Succession"- I thought this was an interesting concept of arrangement.

*More here*

"Bouquet of Memories"- each flower brings back memories. They were a gift from my little friends, Mackenzie and Logan.

*More here*

"Pistil"- My oldest sister, Jenny, used to call her kids that and say " Pistils, walkin' in the tulips". I thought for a second that this gazer was going to be a pistil and not open. But I told it to and the next morning it did. The power of believing in the power of your words. "Believe you receive and you shall have the desires of your heart."

*More here*

My Own: Wishful Thinking and Air Bubbles

Another Brilliant Photographer: Larry Broder

My friend, Maryam in Marrakesh, and I have such similar tastes sometimes it frightens me. Through her blog, My Marrakesh, I happened on a new photographer idol. Ok, not idol, but someone to look up to- Larry Broder. When I saw the review Maryam had done on Larry, explaining his experiences in Morocco, I went to his site and started to click around. Not only did I find many wonderful shots of Morocco, but of, Peru, Italy and others. As I studied each shot, I noticed that he shoots photos in quite a similar way to the way I prefer to shoot- naturally.


I admire photographers who have an appreciation for nature, and I admire even more, those who have developed a technique that allow the shots roll out in such a way that make they look so real that they're surreal. All without the aid of computers, so I know he is one good photographer.

In my opinion, what makes a photographer is not his accolades, who he's worked with, or even where he has shot, but the ability to see an opportunity for a beautiful shot through his own eyes and stay true to it with the eye of a camera. That's just what Larry does, he sees something, captures it, and stays true to it's original colors and light showing it's real beauty, so when you look at the photo compared to the place or thing itself, you see no difference. This is what I aspire to be as a photographer.

*All photos provided by Natural Light Photography- Larry Broder

Me: Eighteen

Happy Birthday, to me, hee hee!

Last year I posted some little poetic type thing on my myspace blog and I wanted to do something like that this year, but I'm am feeling poetically drained. My creative juices have been limited to photos lately and my thoughts are leaning towards the same things and I'm beginning to feel like a skipping record. Everything I say seems to sound the same to me, the words I use, the style I write in. I don't know if it does to you, but I'm starting to be annoyed by it.

If/when I feel the poetic juices start to flow again I'll jot what I feel in my notebook/journal and type it up, But for now,

Last night as a seventeen year old-
First pic as an eighteen year old-

For record purposes:
~First person to say Happy Birthday, today, Faith or Charity( I was half a sleep)
~My first kiss as an eighteen year old went to my 4 yr old nephew, Aidan.

I think it's funny to keep track of stupid stuff like this...

~Happy Birthday was sung to me by, not only my whole family, but also by my best friend, Diamond, who called from Nashville and sang over the phone bringing tears to my eyes. And my Moroccan friend, Karim, called and sang it to me in English, French, and Darija. I was almost in tears by the end of the Darija version. I've never heard Happy Birthday in any form of Arabic before, so I was "touched", as Diamond would say.

~I was given some grown up presents - 2 bouquets of flowers and a $100 spa gift certificate. I can not wait for the mani/pedi and I'm not sure what else I'll go for, but it will be fun because my sister, Jennifer, has one from Christmas, so we'll go together.
As for the rest of the presents, I'll have to take pictures and make a list later. Many of them will go VERY nicely with my Moroccan room.

That's all for now, I have to go find a place to put the presents and fabric that is occupying my bed so I can go to sleep.

Here are the links to the John Mayer Photos from last night and to the Birthday Party Photos from tonight.

Brilliant : John Mayer

Yes, John Mayer is Brilliant, hee hee. Well, I just got back from this wonderful event and let me say, it was the stuff. I don't think I'll have a voice tomorrow actually, and I managed to get a few pictures and video(thanks to my 2G memory card, birthday gift, from Ben). I'm pretty tired tho, so I'll not say much right now, other than it was awesome.

These are probably the best pics I have, I'll upload to fotki tomorrow and try to get the videos on to You Tube or something (they're really long).