sweet november: black and white

 Again I have to admit that I kinda sorta ran out of time here. I took this photo a week or so ago when many of the family a-go-go hit up a Haunted Hayride in an apple orchard. The hayride itself was not really all that haunted and was shorter than short (the folks at the orchard could probably use a new copywriter) but it was still fun and sweet and we enjoyed the short wander around the herb garden.  Thanks to fun photo sites that let you alter your pics, I was able to convert this one to a sort-of black and white picture....it's a nice sentiment don't you think. Love does indeed grow here.

sweet november: special

I came to searching for heart-shaped rocks a little late. The beaches in Southern California lean towards sand, not rocks and I wasn't often to be found ocean-side anyway a I grew up without a car and a parent who did not fare well in our sunny sunny light. Now? Now my favorite kind of beach is practically in my back yard and I am in heaven.

sweet november: to do list

This is my to-do list. One of many. I wanted to be all awesome and original with this list but didn't pick the best window to write on for a good background.

Of the items on the list, so far I have done zip, zilch, nada. But that's okay. I now have it in internet print which means I can't take it away and make it unseen because I know someone out there in  internetland has read it and that will keep me somewhat accountable.

sweet november: inspiration

I know most people consider snails a pest but have you ever really watched a snail before? Or even looked at one or two at the same time. I've always had a thing for snails. Back in school, for a child development class I wrote a series of snail books. I doodle them on paper, stop to watch them when I spy them, and adore the recent art and kitsch that they have inspired. This photo was taken last winter at the beach. The snails were trekking across the sand and I noticed how absolutely gorgeous their shells were slick with rain. Each one the same but not. Some had purple in them, others grey, and even a little blue or green speckled about. So simple and so pretty to me. If you look closely you can almost make out my shadow reflected in the shell. Also, the grains of sand? Another bit of gorgeous in its simplicity. Each grain a different color. I pulled these colors out of the photo, from the snail, from the sand...such a pretty collection, different from my usual go-tos of orange and pink. Who would have thunk it?

sweet november: handmade

I made this loteria garland back in May when I probably should have been doing something else. I was so smitten with the idea of it when it hit me that I dropped everything I was doing (like laundry and packing) to make it and then I wanted to make more but couldn't find my stash of loteria cards. I do have two more of these in the works...shorter in length than this one and another bit of loteria-garland fun coming up. Those will be in the shop sometime after...you know...I (all together now) unpack that darn room!

sweet november: close up

Today was spent scrambling about taking photos and searching, searching, searching for lost things. The mister and I are going to L.A. for the weekend and I need to pre-post the next three days of sweet november but since everything is still stupidly packed up...at least everything creative that does not have preschool leanings...I was hard-pressed to come up with creative stuff.

I was also hard-pressed to find my missing things...such as my lens cap...which I had on Tuesday and my favorite moth-eaten cashmere wrap which I also had on Tuesday...and then there is a missing birthday present for a certain someone that I swear I had put on the shelf in the bedroom only to find that it is actually NOT on the shelf. Well drats! At least I did find one thought-to-be missing scarf that I had last seen sometime on our road trip. Phew! So here you go...close-ups of my tiny succulent garden. The only plants I can keep going (knock on wood). If you pop on over to Tara's you'll see she too posted photos of succulents. We're kinda weirdly connected that way...taking photos of the same things, making recipes on the same day with the same ingredients....getting sinus infections at the same time. Yeah...we're cool like that.

Tomorrow will be a half-finished handmade post and well...my inspiration post might be late or lame or a repeat...and while I thought my To-Do list was pretty creative, the photos tell me otherwise. But I'm doing it. A post a day! Happy November friends!