a baby graflex for my uk travels!

tomorrow. i leave tomorrow! lots of mixed feelings of course.

but overall, e.x.c.i.t.e.d. beyond the dreamiest of dreams.

school is going to be fantastic. can't wait to meet up with classmates from last summer,

and then to meet a whole new slew of awesome people.

a friend of ours let me borrow this little twin lens reflex camera. woohoo!

should be a fun little toy to have as i travel (hopefully) on the weekends.

am thinking i need to find a way to obtain one of these tents

to properly experience the england i hope to see.

we'll see if that happens...i wonder how much they are to ship?

am signing off for the next few days...

when i see you next, it will be from the beautiful city of oxford.

(still pinching myself that i'll be going to school here!)

since we all like macarons so much...

a few months ago mercedes, marte marie, and i got together to take some photos

of mercedes' delicious macarons. what a fun afternoon we had together!

which shots are your favorites?

{la boulangere: mercedes; stylists: marte marie, mercedes, and ann marie; photography: ann marie}

business

i just had these new business cards made up. love love love them.

ceej and i designed them and then had some friends print them up all pretty for us.

my fave is the back: an excerpt from keats' ode to a nightingale in my handwriting.

what do you think?

this weekend we made our way up to the mountains to eat the best french macarons i've ever devoured

we made the quick 20-minute drive to the resort town of park city one morning

in search of our dear friend, mercedes, and her french macarons...

which happen to be the best macarons your lips will ever, truly, encounter.

was giddy with her new smores flavor (in all its gooey glory!).

i have to add that the key lime were really hitting the spot yesterday as well.

if you are in the northern utah area you really ought to visit her booth

every sunday at the park city farmers market. i'd get there early (10:00am) if i were you.

my favorite was watching the glee of two diabetic kiddies

flag down their mom as soon as they noticed the "gluten free" sign

in front of mercedes' booth. they piled in as many macarons as possible

into the biggest box and promised to order a batch via mail since

they live all the way back east in pennsylvania.

{come back later today and i'll have a link to her website...since i'm lame and forgot it}

{by the way, mercedes spent an entire year perfecting these, and they really are dreamy}

ode to capitol reef national park {part three} : chimney rock and how we quickly came down from the mountain to avoid potential lightning

chimney rock is a classic easy little hike in the park that offers some amazing views.

on our way out of the park ceej and i decided to quickly run up this little mountain

to see what we could see. after we got to the top and took a few photos

a storm began to quickly come in...that's how these storms work: they come so quickly

that they catch you off guard. the top of a mountain is no place to be in a potentially

electric storm. so we quickly packed up all the cameras and ran back down to the trailhead,

just in time for me to have my traditional chocolate milk before we got in the car and rain

started to fall harder than we've seen in years.

i'm off to spend the day with sisters, brothers, mom, nieces, & nephews at this local theme park.

i haven't been there since i was an awkward and obnoxious 15-year-old.

all morning i've been listening to this band to add a little nostalgia to the day. so awesome.

i'm hoping my stomach still possesses a bit of steal so that i don't get too sick. wish me luck!

next week i'll have more "come alive" posts for you. can't wait!

happy weekend!

i'm getting paranoid about traveling & the summer heat

i am having a hard time believing that i leave for oxford in 8 days. 8 days!

most of my time is spent reading reading reading...trying to prepare for

what i've heard could possibly be the most difficult of my summers at school.

there are two other things i'm a bit anxious about:

(1) what if england decides to have record heat this summer {since the rest of the world

has decided to have crazy weather}??? my body really, really, truly doesn't do well with any kind of heat {we hit 90 degrees yesterday and i panicked!}

{2}what's the best way to carry around my laptop and books? backpack? messenger bag? my fave leather bag?

here's how i'm trying to calm my anxieties:

(1) i've become scissor-happy, cutting old jeans that have become frayed at the hem {and i'm no longer so keen on such an exaggerated boot-cut}. i need as much breathing room as possible {even if england doesn't have record heat, i'm prepared for 90 degrees+ here in salt lake city}

(2) first, i decided i needed to make a laptop sleeve since i scratched this laptop up after only having it for a week...turns out just slipping it into my messenger bag isn't enough protection. and so now i am "testing" out all my different bags. i hate using backpacks because i hate the sweaty back result, but they are the most comfortable. i prefer messenger bags, but they can start to really weigh on my shoulder and back if i have to wear it for a long period. what would you take? backpack or messenger bag?

come alive : marte from le voyage creatif

i'm so over-the-moon-ecstatic to introduce you to my incredibly creative norwegian friend, marte

{i call her marie, since my norwegian accent is, well, terrible}

she has been an incredibly refreshing and inspiring woman to have as a friend.

she makes jewelry that makes me feel both classy and earthy.

{which has made its way to stores in LA, south africa, and online here}

she tromps around her primitive cabin wearing wellies and cooking up classic norwegian cuisine.

she makes cheese. yes, you heard me. she makes cheese!

and if that doesn't make you swoon, this just might:

she travels the world over and over again. lately she's been posting about her travels

to malta, ireland, and {my very favorite place} the utah desert.

it just gets better: she owns and manages a travel concierge.

that's right. she's been everywhere. and she can tell you where you can find

the perfect little bookshop or the best place to taste the local cheese and the prettiest

little b&b you've ever set eyes on next time you travel, well, just about anywhere.

this talk about marte is making me desperate to make a visit out to norway just to stop in for a cup of tea with her.

so onward to marte's "come alive" list:

To come alive is a process I think truly kick-starts the day we realize we’re not fully alive, that we have more potential than we could ever hope for, and our desire to let our voice be heard begins to overcome us with great desire.

During life I’ve definitely felt both being whole, fearless and happy, and the feeling of fear. Fear of expressing my personality and talents, even doubting that I have any and hoping I could slip out the door with the cat without anyone noticing.

I believe every single woman has more beautiful gems hidden within them than we dare believe, and that the time to sing out loud, to give, share and blossom has oftentimes been postponed too long. The day to come alive is today;)

Here’s my little list of things that helps me come alive:

My beloved mother is a master at creating and spotting small happinesses, as she calls them, the perhaps cliché things that we can easily miss or forget to take time to notice or do.

Eating dessert first, walking without an umbrella in the rain, giving hugs unexpected and often to the people you love, eating chocolate on a mere Wednesday, walking barefoot on green soft grass, watching the sun rise or set, taking one day at the time and singing in the shower.

Be gentle on yourself!

Too often we women tend to be so hard on ourselves, me included. But talking down on ourselves will prohibit us from feeling joy for what we’ve actually created, accomplished or participated in.

One day I told my beloved mother on the phone that my boyfriend’s mother had asked him what I’d done with my life, as I’ve definitely not followed a traditional path to becoming an adult.

My mother and I talked a little bit on the phone about it, and one week later a handwritten letter came in the mail that opened with these words:

‘If anyone asks what you’ve done with your life here’s a list of all the wonderful things you’ve accomplished…’

Needless to say I shed a tear or two ;)

Learn from the past, plan the future but live the present. These are wise words that I’m sure we’ve all seen on a cheesy poster in some dull dentist waiting room.

My older brother wrote them down on a piece of paper, gave it to me and told me this would help me find happiness in life.

I took those words to heart at an age of 17, however, it took me another 14 years before I managed to start living by them more deliberately.

Learning from the past obviously means dodging some mistakes that could be lurking in our path, and planning the future will help ease our worrisome hearts and direct our steps.

But the biggest part of this quote to me is learning to live in the present. To really stop the clock, hop off the train, lower our gaze to see the ground we’re waking on and to avoid having our nose in the future. To smell the present is the only valid currency, it’s the only certain moment we have to come alive. This is the moment we’re given to blossom and to take deliberate deep breaths of life!

Share!

I know I need to learn to share more of my time, love and talents with other people. It’s amazing how much joy and love we can feel when we take the time to do something for others. After all we’re on this big world together and if we reach out to each other, not only do we become more alive, but we help others be able to come alive and blossom too.

One of the biggest changes in my life that has made me come more alive than ever, happened when I let go of what I thought I ought to do and started doing what I was passionate about. It has been a long process, learning, living and finding out what I love and who I am.

Quite recently I quit something I thought I had to do and wrote down on a piece of paper three things I was passionate about. In my case the note read: Food, travel and design.

Then I set off to pursue my passions and letting go of all the voices in my head that in a million creative ways told me how I wasn’t good enough and how it wouldn’t work etc. In ways I can’t really explain windows and doors started to unexpectedly open.

Hitting rock bottom can sadly be one of the best ways for us to awaken and help us come alive again.

The list could continue for a long time with things that have helped me come more alive, but I’ll end with this: Love.

Dare to love, completely, open and with no fear.

I can’t think of anything more important than love. As we learn to become more open, believe more in our talents and abilities it becomes easier to love others, because coming alive, to me, can in no way happen if I step on others or don't include others.

I believe the more I love, the more I dare to love however hard, painful or easy it may be, it helps me understand others, forgive and forget and hopefully in doing so, I'll learn to do the same for myself.

At the end of the day learning to love makes hearts come alive, and without a heart of love we cannot find true happiness and thus not truly be alive.

thank you so much, marte marie, for sharing with us such words that will inspire us to come alive for the months and years ahead! don't you just wish we could all spend a weekend with marte at her norwegian cabin? if we're lucky, maybe she'll invite all of us in...and i think she just might one of these days.

{all photos from marte herself...she just also happens to be a genius photographer}