I have so much floating around in my head that I just can’t focus on one thing.

Have a good weekend, friends.

Maybe it’s not our day; but it’s going to be our year.

I tweeted this article the other day about how to deal with copycats and idea thieves. Number 3 really struck a chord with me. “Go where the air is thinner. As you advance your body of work into deeper levels of depth and connection, the copycats simply won’t be able to coherently follow you; and, even when they can, they won’t because it’s too hard. Combine depth of work with your own unique voice and it’ll be impossible for people to successfully copy you.”

I can’t do anything about that uncreative person that has chosen me to copy. I can however, do something about my own work. I have to just keep creating and doing it that much better than they ever could. That’s one of the great things about the 365 Project that I’m doing. I realized that I’m making an effort to MAKE a picture, not just take one.

Yesterday’s picture was something completely different for me. Slightly “racy”, something I thought up and created. (Thankfully I have a husband who is willing to play along for me.) I was actually on the phone with my mom when she saw it for the first time. That was the highlight of my day. “Oh my gosh. Kimberly! Oh my goodness!” I love my little momma.

Sometimes a picture comes together just how I see it in my head. Other times it’s trial and error. The key is to take my ideas and run with them. Not be scared to post pictures that are different for me (like yesterday’s shot). I’ve got to keep moving up where I can’t be reached by people “nipping at my heels”.

I sewed 24 little felt hearts on Sunday. An arbitrary number I just chose simply by how many I hearts I cut out. I stuffed them with cotton and filled each with love. I made them so I could tuck them in places that Josh and Jasper would find. Little love reminders… If you ask Jasper what’s inside each, he whispers “love”.

I randomly decided to make a little coffee cup cozy while I had all of my felt out. It was so much fun I’m going to make a few more. Felt is probably one of my favorite materials to work with. It’s cheap, forgiving of mistakes, colorful, easy to work with… I go in spurts of felt crafts. I once made a felt mitten which turned into 15. Don’t be surprised to see a few more cozies pop up in my Flickr stream.

You can find me here on Pinterest.

Shortly after taking down my Christmas decorations I put up my Valentine’s Day decor. The house just looked so bare. And even though my mom thought I was “jumping the gun” a little, I couldn’t help it.

The mantel isn’t too much different than last year. I added the red fabric garland and the wrapped letter K.

I made some crayon hearts for our window. Just sharpen crayons on wax paper and then iron to melt.

These adorable little owls were a gift from a sweet blog reader. I got it at Christmas so I hung it on my tree. After Christmas I figured I would just keep them up somewhere. The little heart makes it Valentine’s Day related. After that holiday I’ll just have to find a special place to keep them out.

I decided to be completely unoriginal and make one of the yarn wreaths all over Pinterest. I bought insulation tubing from Menard’s for a couple bucks which is a lot cheaper than the styrofoam wreaths. It seriously took me like two hours to wrap the tube because I’m such a perfectionist. (Note to self: Use thicker yarn next time which will be more forgiving and take less time.) Then I followed this tutorial for the flowers. The flowers were fun to make. I could have kept going with those. Maybe I’ll make a spring wreath like that for after Valentine’s Day.

*This was written Tuesday evening but I held off posting it until this morning so I could blackout my site in protest of SOPA/PIPA. If you haven’t already, please consider taking action against this censorship.

As I type this my house is quiet. It’s 11pm. Jasper is asleep and Josh is at work. I just finished watching tonight’s episode of Parenthood. It’s one of those evenings that I feel reflective and just a tad bit sad for no reason.

I hate that as an adult I still have that “left out” feeling. I seriously never dreamt that it would still continue into adulthood. People that technically are “supposed” to include me don’t. It’s not really a big deal except for when I’m reminded continually on Facebook. I’m sure they don’t think that my feelings would be hurt when I’m not tagged in a status even though I should be. Or how there are always pictures of their kids together and mine isn’t there… It’s just hard.

I get sad when bloggers get divorced or split with their significant other. It’s usually one of those “I didn’t see that one coming” thing because obviously I don’t see their entire life. Even though I don’t know them in real life I’m always really sad about it.

Making friends as an adult is not an easy thing. Have you noticed that? I’ve been a little skittish because of a recent bad experience. Suddenly a friend decided not to like me anymore which is weird because we’re not eight. Mostly I beat myself up about it because I feel like I should have seen it coming. I overlooked red flags that I shouldn’t have. So now I’m scared to make friends but thankfully my husband isn’t. We’ve hung out a few times with a new couple recently. Clients turned friends seems to be the trend for me. After doing some pictures for them a couple months ago Josh asked if they liked a specific restaurant. They did and thought going out to eat would be fun. (Yay!) After we set up a time I joked with Josh that he asked them out. I’m so glad he did because it turns out we get along really well and we’re excited to have new friends. I just decided that I can’t let a bad experience ruin future amazing experiences. That’s how life goes.

Though sometimes I feel like I just don’t understand life I do know this… I am lucky to have this boy and this man. They make me smile and love me in a way I didn’t know possible.

I’m a homebody by nature, always have been. However I do like to see new places and travel. (I just couldn’t go on a two-three week vacation.) Lately I’ve had this insanely strong urge to go somewhere. My travel Pinterest board just keeps growing. The last vacation Josh and I took was to Maine for our honeymoon (six years ago).

Josh and I are laid-back vacationers. We don’t want to take a bunch of tours or have lots planned out. We want to just wing it. We love the exploring and figuring out as we go. We are also totally not lay on the beach type of people. Sure it sounds relaxing but I think I’d get bored too quickly. Shoot, I can barely sit on the couch without doing something.

So we’ve been talking about where we’d like to go. Right now the plan is to go to Seattle. You know, someday when we have money. Also on the list: San Francisco, New York, Italy, Greece, Ireland, Australia… Ha. Yeah, someday we’ll go to all of those places. Josh and I have always talked about going back to Maine for an anniversary sometime. Part of me really wants to go back because it was so amazing. Another part of me doesn’t want to go back (at least not for a long time). There are SO many places I want to go. I can’t imagine using my rare vacation to go to the same place I’ve already been. Plus I really want to keep Bar Harbor special and I’m afraid going back might change that. I think of Bar Harbor and I instantly feel newly married and how amazing that vacation was. I kind of want to leave that feeling alone.

We are really hoping to be able to plan a vacation to Seattle in the next year or two. Financially I don’t know how we could ever swing it but you never know what will change in a year. I have high hopes that someday we’ll see all of the amazing things we want to see. We’ll spend the rest of our lives trying to figure out how to do it all. Because why not?

Thought I would repost one of my favorite Martin Luther King Jr. quotes in honor of his day. I got to hear a powerful (and convicting) tribute to him yesterday. What an amazing man and what a legacy… Peace is a better answer. Love your enemy, no matter how they continue to hurt you. The time is now to do what is right.

A few things before we start the review.

First, this is collaboration between Josh and I. Second, we are nerds. Big nerdy nerds. We love art, in this instance photography, and we will watch any documentary about the subject that we come across. Josh could go into a deep philosophical rambling about art and life and a defense of photography as an art form and so forth, but that’s not the point. The point is we are really into photography.

Third, we love simplicity. What I mean by that is that we love looking at things at their smallest, most basic parts. Get rid of everything that is excessive or over the top. We like clean…clean lines, clean design, clean houses, clean children, clean layouts…you get the idea. We don’t care for what we consider excessive Photoshopping or distracting composition. All I want in a picture is sharp focus and a clear subject, that is properly framed. Which is also how I like life: sharp focus and clear direction.

Okay, that should pretty much get you set for our point of view.

I watched Bill Cunningham New York one night when Josh was at work. I liked it so much that I wanted to watch it again with Josh. We have since watched it another time together. The film documents the work of Bill Cunningham, the most famous fashion photographer you have probably never heard of. It follows Bill through various cuts from his apartment at Carnegie Hall (that needs to be seen to be believed) to the streets of NYC where he takes candid photos of people going about their day. His work is published in the New York Times under a column titled On The Street.

He talks about looking for what’s interesting and finding something that moves him. He doesn’t care at all for celebrities and he isn’t particularly fashionable himself. He wears these cheap blue blazers simply because they’re cheap. When it rains he uses a plastic rain poncho with duct tape over the holes. Money is not important to him. He eats the same thing at the same place for breakfast because of the price. He says at one point in the film that “If you don’t take money, they can’t tell you what to do…” In his eighties, he goes everywhere by bicycle. Basically he lives to find beautiful things and shoot them. Simply awesome, this guy.

This documentary really affected me. I have so much admiration for Bill Cunningham. He has continued to do something he loved in a way that he chose. He wasn’t affected by money, or what others thought he should do. He just kept doing it how he always did. He said this at one point, “It is as true today as it ever was – He who seeks beauty will find it”.

Anyway, I could go on but you just need to watch this movie for yourselves. You can thank me later.