“When it snows, you have two choices, shovel or make snow angels” ~ unknown.
look which we picked!
My own Snow Angel
..in a flurry…
The Sort of Hope Who Has A Snow Angel
Tag Archives: beautiful
The Sort of Hope Who is Happy to Have a Beautiful, Indulgent Daughter
Distasios’ don’t sit still well.
I’m not sure what most other families do while they wait out “states of emergencies” called for the impending arrival of a hurricane, but in this family, we ‘play’ photographer/ model. Between Natalia and I, we can make pretty much anything into a “photo shoot”. We’ve done glitter, water colors, hats(that was a long time ago) heck, we even grabbed a few friends and made a “circus” once!
I suppose it’s a good thing that I don’t have a truly functioning portrait lens or my kids would be perpetually annoyed with me instead of being only occasionally annoyed with my requests. In addition to occupying each other, doing things like this sometimes help to keep my mind off of how yucky weather like this makes me feel. Storm systems can wreak havoc on someone with a condition like mine. Hurricane Sandy has certainly been no exception.
This is the result of what we got finished so far tonight.
School is closed for the next 2 days.
God only knows what that will find us doing.
Stay tuned
The Awarded Sort of Hope
Thomas Wigington, http://astrangertoheavenandearth.com/, has nominated me for the Beautiful Blogger Award. I am honored for the nomination and I accept. Thank you, Mr Wigington poet, essayist, fellow blogger for this generous nomination. Please take a moment to check out his site!
The rules for this award are:
- Thank the person who nominated you
- Post the award image to your page
- Tell seven things about yourself
- Nominate up to 15 other bloggers and let them know
Imagine my surprise at seeing this nomination in my email! Heck, I’ve only been blogging for less than 2 months. Wow, has it been 2 months already? Time really flies when you’re doing laundry. I am very grateful to Mr Wigington for reading my blog, (clarification, I’m grateful to *anyone* who reads my blog!) let alone nominating me for this lovely Beautiful Blogger award.
The ‘Share Seven Things about Yourself” reminds me of the “16 things about you” that went around back in the beginning of my days on Facebook. It always gives me pause. I can’t help but wonder what 7 things about me other people would actually find interesting, “normal”, ‘you can write about them publicly’ things. I mean, everyone has quirky interesting things, right? But PG13 ?
1)When I was a little girl, I wanted to be President. Not first lady, I didn’t want to assist anyone. I wanted to run the world. And if I couldn’t run it, I wanted to save it. My mother has always told me that from the time I was about 3, I thought I could save the world. Over the course of my life I have tried to save so very many things. Causes, people, expired relationships, animals, old clothing, struggling businesses… you name it. I’ll try to save it. There has to be some sort of disorder name for this. And I don’t mean in the hoarder sort of way , I mean in the “rescue it” sort of way. I spent a rather grueling heat wave week once trying to get a kitten to trust me enough to come out of some arbovitae trees and allow me to care for it. I moved a few feet/ inches closer to her every day, every hour. I even slept outside next to those trees, fearing that some mean creature of the night would eat it. I succeeded in my efforts and was ultimately left with a kitten that I couldn’t take in , as my son is allergic. Called all the local shelters and no one would take her as there was apparently some heat wave rush of feral cats, so I convinced my parents to drive the kitten to Maine to live with my brother. Yes, I am that bad.
2)Much to the dismay of my family, I celebrate everything. EVERYTHING. Got an A on a test? Let’s celebrate! Great season? Celebrate. Successful treatment for me? Let’s celebrate. I believe that birthdays should be celebrated for at the very least a week. Minimum. I decorate our entire house for the Birthday-ee’s occasion. Balloons, signs, streamers, the person gets to pick a menu for a week with all of their favorites. With so much bad in the world, why not find as much joy as you can in the simple things, right? Last night we celebrated the end of Natalia’s first HS Cheer season and Nick’s Showcase Season.. and some other stuff I’m not at liberty to talk about yet. Kids in general should be celebrated. They are such a privilege and a joy.
3)In my life I have seen people very close to me overcome some of life’s greatest challenges. My big sister, my parents’, my best friend, my husband’s best friend, scores of RSD pals, each of whom have been dealt some of the worst of what life has to offer and have somehow held out with amazing grace , heads held high and have gone on to inspire myself and countless others. These people are heroes ( heroines) to me. Not the NFL/NBA or actors & actress who get paid millions of dollars to do what they do. I’m talking real life people living life struggles and living large living hard. I wish we glorified that more for our children. *Values*
4)Nicholas Michael and Natalia Marie are by far the greatest accomplishments of my life. Yet they continue to be works in progress. I pray every day I get to continue to see them grow up. I am so thankful that I have made it this far. So thankful that they have turned out as good as they have. Having a parent with a chronic condition is sooo difficult for children. They could’ve gone to the complete opposite end of the scale. Somehow, I got lucky and they didn’t. They are over achievers, honor students, good friends, amazing athletes, and more importantly good people and wonderful children. Yet sadly, growing up far too quickly.
5) Our universe baffles me. Though I , too, was an honor student, space baffles me. I am over 40 and I still cannot understand how we can see stars that are no longer there. Do not try to explain it to me, I will never ‘get it’.
6) In case you’ve missed it, I’m a redhead. I’ve always been a redhead. If it hasn’t been one shade of red, it’s been another. Of course, I have a little more help now. My daughter was born with the most gorgeous shade of red hair and I was completely jealous. I have recently decided that it is no longer worth trying to make my red hair look natural , so it is currently the brightest most vibrant shade we can make it. Why not, right? I’ve threatened to go brunette, but my family says that they’d never be able to find me anywhere. One time at a gymnastic competition, my daughter shouted to me ” What’s that mom ? I can’t hear you over your hair!”~ well, you get the idea… 
7) Six degrees of separation was something I never heard of until Facebook. Yet Six degrees of separation affects my life almost daily. Almost always in a good way, thankfully. It is also mainly responsible for my blogging experience. I am blogging because of a man I will call Joe. I didn’t know Joe, but my husband did. Joe is another kind of American hero, Mr Joe is a teacher. He encouraged me to try my hand ( or keyboard) at blogging. Stubborn gal that I am, it took me a year, but I eventually listened. I tried to thank Mr Joe but he was too humble to be thanked. I just want him to know how much I appreciate him.
And I appreciate you, too. You being anyone who takes the time to read what I write, or look at the photos I post. ~ There! I didn’t even get into my addiction to scarves, my weird food habits, the fact that I am left handed but do almost everything with both, my bizarre little ‘envy’, my shoe collection, my penchant for taking pictures of anything and everything, my daily need for cappuccinos, or all those other bizarre Hope facts! However, I really am thankful Mr Wigington!
I hate when I prematurely blog..
In my original entry, I forgot to write that the reason I have selected these folks is because their work moves me. They have all taken me to places I have never been. Probably will never get to see. Be it through their writing or their art or their photography. They are all artists. They enrich my life and make getting out of bed every morning just a little bit less painful each in their own unique way.
I had trouble linking one of my favorites on my first go round. I’m going to try again.
My nominees for the Beautiful Blogger Award are:
http://grishmanphotography.com/
http://peterknightphotography.wordpress.com/
http://www.cathykuhlmanphotography.blogspot.com/
http://krahnpix.wordpress.com/about/ ~
http/milnersblog.wordpress.com/
The fashion psychic sort of Hope
Oh fashion you fickle friend..
I did a photo shoot for a very talented friend of mine back in August. I had no idea what I was going to wear, so I finally decided to wear a blouse that I had gotten – yes- from the Goodwill for a hefty .50 cents. Goodwill shopping is so rewarding to me. It might be like my version of big game hunting without all the danger and paraphernalia and need of passports and immunizations(well, maybe immunizations). I could spend (gloved)hours sifting through the racks of things that people cast away and found no longer worthy. It started as part of my photography hobby. Needed some props and odd clothes for photo shoots. Now it’s like a different sort of challenge in my otherwise boring life. I found a pair of Kate Spayd shoes at a Goodwill once- for $4.95. A gorgeous pair Donald J.Pliner boots – NEW never worn! Those black gems have become my new fall favorites for under $5. So sexy. I saw that polka dotted blouse laying on the pile and for some reason, even though I have not one printed nor polka dotted thing in my closet, it called to me and we left for home together.
As a gift, my “fairy Godmother” hooked me up with a few monthly subscriptions to some favorite fashion magazines. When I opened the ones for this month, I could hardly believe my eyes. I was seeing spots. Spots everywhere. My polka dotted blouse was in every magazine! My treasured find is a dead ringer for the Kate Spade Maricel Shirt (for only $228).
Sadly, My blouse is about 2 sizes too big. It’s from 1940-50. Like a fool, I cut the tag out when I got it home, because of my whole texture issue. It’s polyester from back when polyester first started so it washes and drys and rolls into a ball and comes out looking like it was professionally laundered. It feels just like silk. It is also visually a bit different than the Kate Spade. But for a difference of $227.50, I think I did just fine. And if I save it for my daughter’s daughter,or even her daughter… in about 60 years, she, too can save herself a bit of cash and wear it again some day.
Fashion works like that. 
http://www.soul-imagery.com — My friend, Kevin Brett’s brilliant work. ( my pic is on there, under portraits)
The Spontaneous Sort of Hope
Today it rained. Not just rain. Think monsoon. And gale force winds +rain. (just so you know, there is also a sort of Hope who likes a good hyperbole now and again, usually more now than just again.)
I spent most of the day in the kitchen. Weather tends to make the physical me grumpy so I seek refuge and distraction whereever and however I can.
I was restless. All activities were cancelled.
My daughter sat at the kitchen table for awhile and worked on posters to put on the golf teams’ lockers. It was a job assigned to her by her cheerleading coach. Each cheerleader got a different sport. She got Golf. We giggled for a little bit when we tried to figure out that if she *had* to actually cheer for golf- what would a golf cheer actually sound like ?
( I’ll let you mull that over in your head, I’m too much of a lady to type this out. We don’t know each other well enough for that , yet.)
After finishing that homework, I was still restless. The rain continued. I asked Natalia if she would mind posing in the rain for me. I’ve been wanting to try some more editing styles.
She is always, well, usually, super indulgent. I’m a lucky photographer, I’ve got gorgeous kids.
I’m fairly certain that once again, we’ve made magic.
I know I have some work to do on some of my editing styles but I sure had fun practicing.
AND I always have fun with my best gal. This took us less than 5 minutes to prepare for but I’ve been editing for about 2 hours. ( it’s that great technology of mine again!)
I hope you enjoy them as much as we enjoyed doing this.
— my favorite rain song http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kq-r4ZUpels
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- Lots of work to do on this. Selective color. Then more edit. I see where I need work. I’ll get there.
The Sort of Hope Who Takes Her Own Picture- {self portraiting}
Self portrait-ing was something I began when I started an interest in photography. I usually lacked willing specimens and found I was often the only living thing available. Cell phones, Web Cams, still working on getting it right with my real camera.It never mattered , just wanted a photographic history of who I was for mostly my own sake but also so my family would have a record of me “just in case”. It then became a little project for me as my disease progressed.
It is my hope that you can also view these as I intended. Just photos. Potential art. Face value. I welcome your feedback. Good or bad.
These are some of my favorites. Favorite quotes. Favorite moods. Favorite edits.
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“I can no longer think of anything but you. In spite of myself, my imagination carries me to you. I grasp you, I kiss you, I caress you. A thousand of the most amorous caresses take possession of me. ” ~ Honore de Balzac letter to Evelina Hanska June 1836
“Those sweet lips. My, oh my, I could kiss those lips all night long.” ~ Jess C Scott- The Intern
“Thou art to me a delicious torment ” ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson
[T]hen I did the simplest thing in the world. I leaned down… and kissed him. And the world cracked open. ~Agnes de Mille
“Licence my roving hands, and let them go
Before, behind, between, above, below” ~ John Donne
“Don’t wish it were easier. Wish you were better.” ― Jim Rohn
“The eyes are one of the most powerful tools a woman can have. With one look, she can relay the most intimate message. After the connection is made, words cease to exist. ”
― Jennifer Saliz
allsortsofhope 
