walking before midnight

Last week while scrolling through the sea of facebook updates, I found one that made me wish that I was a tad closer demographically to my good friend Jessica. She wanted to know if anyone would like to join her for an early morning walk on the beach. Of course, I sat there on my barstool in front of my own computer screen waving my hand in the air: "me!! me, I want (need!) to go for a walk on the beach! pick me!!!!" No walk on the beach for this desert girl but it did spark an idea: a virtual blog-hop walk! 

because sometimes you just need to escape, to be outside surrounded by nothing more than the warm desert light of summer and towering cactus plants. Ironically, I find myself craving the outdoor scenery more so in the summer months here, likely due to needing to spend so much time indoors because of the heat. There is an art however to venturing outside in the desert during summer months though that makes the 100+ temps bearable - I've learned to move slowly through the desert and in doing so I'm rewarded with the time to take in and observe the smallest of details in the landscape around me. Taking a walk outdoors in the evening also means that there are far less people to share the surrounding areas with, you're often left with sprawling landscapes all to yourself, void of any other person but filled with wildlife that comes alive as the sun starts its slow journey towards the horizon. It may not be the ocean but the contrast between this harsh environment and the details in the cactus, the colors of the blooming summer flowers and vastness of the terrain is what makes Phoenix so beautiful during this time of year.

Come take a walk with me!

 

Hope you all have a lovely weekend! 

xo ~ Tara

afternoon set-up

Yesterday, instead of the day being filled with candy and flowers, I was surrounded with lots of vintage/home decor stuff as I set up an outdoor photo shoot. I have about a week of work left, and this coming week will be all about moving/sorting/and selling. I'm planning an outdoor estate sale for next weekend. (Easy to do when the temps are nearing 90 already!) 

I didn't realize this until just this week but you can advertise estate/yard sales on Craigslist and Facebook as well as Garage Sale Gal. We would need some photos though to advertise along with a description of what we were selling. (anything and everything!) So I came up with this idea to create a little country-road-side market photo shoot with some of the things that would be included in the actual yard sale next week. I spent my evenings sketching out the set-up idea as well as scribbling down notes as to what I wanted to include in my photos. 

I love staging photos. I really like creating photos where there is almost too much stuff in the photo and your eye has to wander to really take everything in. Photos that are 'visually interesting.' Two hours later I had the scene set and the lighting was just right for an afternoon photo shoot! 

Not only will there be an enormous amount of scrapbooking stuff at this yard sale I'm also working on creating a virtual scrapbook yard sale.... like a studio-spring cleaning sale. I just need to work out the details of where to put everything (etsy vs. blog)  and get all of the photos ready! 

and looked who came out to help me yesterday. My little buddy Chase, he found a fruit picker in the yard last week and now every time he tags along he'll pick all of his own fruit. I have 2 baskets of evidence right now on my kitchen counter. :) 

Hope everyone had a wonderful Valentines Day and a very Happy Saturday to you all! 

xo ~ tara

The best of Oregon

I've had such a hard time getting these photos posted and not in any technical sense (although, I would have loved being able to blame it on a technical glitch) sadly enough, I just haven't been interested in editing any more of them. It gets to the point where I literally feel as though I'm going to blow a gasket if I have to edit one more photo. Editing photos is just not my forte. 

But, the kids and I had a great time in Oregon! I had invited these friends to come up and meet us at the house for a long weekend. Got to say, vacationing with friends is alot of fun! Everything is more fun with friends, getting to explore the beaches at low tide, wandering through antique shops, painting drift wood, even making dinner - all better with friends by your side! 

Jessica did a much better job at taking & posting photos of our time together, you can see them here, here and here. (I bet she has more photos posted somewhere, I'll have to ask where they're hiding). Oh and I should also mention that my kids completely forget about me in favor of Jessica and Jeff when we are all together, which explains my lack of photos of them and how they pop up often in Jessica's photos. 

(all photos taken in & around Florence, OR)

I'm getting ready for another quick post on Thursday! Sweet November will be back, revamped and hopefully a tad more interactive than our previous editions. See you Thursday!