Jan 18, 2016 | Global
There was a lot of us time as we got ready for his leaving and for the leaving of our first home. There were just small quite moments that only need you to soak in them.
Then he was gone and I was traveling. Asheville to Skyline Drive back to Asheville then finally to Chicago.
There were girls days at the Biltmore Estate and Girls nights at the Nutcracker.
There were photo shoots and plenty of family time as we grasped for memories before I set out on our move.
These were the moments in between.
Jan 9, 2016 | Art, Global, Healing, Love, Main, Misc, Photography, Post, Travel
Chicago was the first place I ever paid to travel too alone. After a messy break up I bought a ticket and went.
She was the city of many firsts. The first place I got drunk in. The first place I roamed aimlessly photographing for no reason other than the need to do it. The first place I tested my boundaries. I bought a kimono and cow boy boots and felt alive. Somehow in those streets I found a piece of me that I didn’t know was there. Bravery…
Many years later I am here with my love beginning a chapter in our lives I thought I would never be taking. But I am, oh so glad we are!
This place always buzzes with an energy I cannot explain, but I know others feel it too. There is something inexplicably beautiful about Chicago. I feel a rush of creative bliss flow out of me each time I set foot on her soil. It seems only right to begin our lives as a Navy couple here. With her snow covered grounds and her towering buildings, we embarked on the biggest decision of our lives. Ok maybe marriage was the biggest decision, but this is a very, VERY close second!
I flew in on Christmas Eve due to the most delightful plane ticket gifted to me by a cousin. She and her husband wanted my love and I to be able to spend Christmas day together! Which was the sort of magical day that words do not really capsulate, so I won’t begin to try. The next few days flew by in bursted blurs. Some moments being wildly fun and others inching by as we grew close to graduation… I sat waiting eagerly. Sight seeing, taxidermy and the most amazing food punctuated my days. Until, of course I was with him again. Because being with him usually trumps everything else. 10 days in this wintery city flew by faster than I thought possible. It already feels like the distant past.
“I was in love with the place
In my mind, in my mind
I made a lot of mistakes
In my mind, in my mind
You came to take us
All things go, all things go
To recreate us
All things grow, all things grow
We had our mindset
All things know, all things know
You had to find it
All things go, all things go
If I was crying
In the van with my friend
It was for freedom
From myself and from the land”
– Sufjan Stevens
Jan 8, 2016 | Art, Global, Healing, Love, Main, Misc, Photography, Post
This list was half way written back in August when I usually post them.
As life would have a few huge changes in store coming for us in the last few months it sat idle in my notebook. Here is the revised version for our new journey…
26 things to do before turning 27! xoxo
1) Remember all those reader digest books we found in an abandoned house? Well I am going to make journals out of them!
2) Print photos from our Honey Moon at Artifact Uprising!
3) Life hack our house especially the kitchen! Seriously so many ideas to make living much easier and organized! Which translates into a much more peaceful me.
4) Write Love Letters to people whom need them. You should too, click HERE to find out why and how!
5) Collage/write my heart… It’s time. I can feel the need to create about living in India and Nepal.
6) Stream line bills. Why? Because life is easier that way.
7) Learn how to make a Cyanotype which is a photographic printing process that produces a cyan-blue print! Uh, YES please!
8) Keep getting in shape. Right before turning 26 I decided it was high time to make working out a regular part of my life.
(Not an optional one.) I am dedicated to expanding what that looks like this year!
9) Drink champagne for the first time.
10) Make art with Orly Avineri.
11) Create a desk/workspace in our new home, where I can edit without being hunched over or burning my legs.
12) To that note I also want to freshin up our bedroom, wether that means a head board or new bed spread. It has been the least focused on room in the house.
13) Use milage for an airline ticket. Where too?
14) Get my very own sleeping bag, hiking backpack and boots! For real, I am an adult now, I need to invest in proper gear.
15) So I can hike and camp more. A goal we both equally desire.
16) Visit Asheville before leaving the east coast! Go to Double D’s and Biltmore Estate.
17) Read 12 books. Focusing on Travel and or Memoirs.
18) Tin type Portraits done.
19) Learn how to re-wire a lamp. Seriously this has been on my to do list forever.
20) Go dancing with my husband.
21) Learn to make proper cocktails. You know for all those parties we throw.
22) Get a morning routine. Mine consisted of rolling out of bed, throwing on clothes and grabbing a coffee. 1o minutes flat and I was out the door. I would like a healthier version from now on. Eat protein upon waking, drink more water, take my vitamin d, moisturize my face before getting dressed and grabbing that coffee.
23) Take Nathaniel scuba diving.
24) Meet a National Geographic photographer. Shoot with them.
25) Make a list of things to do and love while living in Jacksonville. Oh and do them…
26) Apply for collage!!!!!!!
Dec 8, 2015 | Global
Documenting place is one way I move through this world.
It is kind of a visual way of saying I see this beauty, I honor it and I am grateful for it.
This trip marked the beginning of him being gone. There was so much I could have been thinking about.
So much I could have been missing. But mostly I tried very, very hard to be right “there”.
It was a beautiful week in the mountains. A place I have always felt peace in.
It was the perfect healing atmosphere to keep my heart warm while it struggled with him being away.
The fog covered meadows… the hiking… the deer… the family time. It was sublime.
Dec 7, 2015 | Global
Look at HIM! Look at Us..!
These were taken just a few days before he shipped out. A special sort of vulnerable, I never really understood until now.
Being a military wife is a whole different sort of ball game. No amount of prepping, planning, prepares you.
Some parts are easier than I thought until the curve balls come. They always come I hear.
The only thing I can count of other than him of course is change. Change always is accountable!
What I wouldn’t give to be in his arms again today. Just like in these photos.
Thank you Brandy Brooks for documenting the end of one chapter and the beginning of another for us!
*All photographs were taken by my best friend, my sister Brandy Brooks of Bright Spot Photo!
She does it all by the way. Families, weddings, newborns, you name it.
Check out her Facebook page for booking inquiries and for some more personal images of cute kids and life, check out her instagram!!!!! *
Oct 22, 2015 | Global
(photo by: Ashe Arends)
This has been a long time coming.
With hushed lips I have held this secret… this change in my heart and soul.
We are two weeks away from his leaving to boot camp. Our lives will forever change on that day.
Whole new experiences as humans, as husband and wife will open up then.
As our house is in the midst of this transition, all boxed up and bare walls.
I can’t help but think about all the steps that have lead us here.
Every year bringing such incredible transitions as I grown from a shaky searching girl into a woman who knows.
Who stands on her own two feet. A woman who makes tough choices. Beautiful choices.
Who says YES to her life in a thousand ways every year.
I can’t help but think about where I have come from.
5 years ago this time of year, I lived in Germany. That time over sea’s laid the foundation for becoming the woman I am now. All the questions, all the stirrings, all the dreams I dreamt up, built a pathway for me to walk upon.
3 years ago this time, I was in England/Paris with some woman who have forever changed my life. It was here I learned how to go deep within and truly begin the work of accepting all that I am. Vulnerability became the banner I walked with. No more hiding.
2 years ago this time, I was at an art retreat in California working along side some of my heroes, beginning to see that my dreams were becoming my reality. I realized as I got on the plane that I wanted to be with him. I wanted to be his forever.
1 year ago we were planning our wedding. Only weeks away from getting married under gothic trees by the sea.
This year he is leaving to put on his uniform and serve his country. I am packing and awaiting his departure, awaiting the day we will begin this new chapter. We will be by the sea on the opposite side of the country. New place, new home, new jobs, new community. A complete start over.
It’s happening. A year in the making, the time has finally come.
-The Finchams are on the move.-
