Story of My Life: Uptown Charlotte & the Lightrail

Posted on January 28, 2012 by Emily Lewin

Today was a beautiful day!  It was supposed to be a high of 64 and sunny.  In January.  I know, crazy right?!  You’d think I’d be used to it after Colorado’s schizophrenic weather but after a few weeks of overcast skies I was in need of more sunshine!  My friend Anastasia and I were talking the other day about saying yes to opportunities to do and try things that we haven’t done before or wouldn’t normally do.  Sometimes we can get tired and lazy and comfortable and want to stay in familiar territory but the kind of life I want to live does not involve staying just inside of the boundaries of the familiar.  So when my friend Calun stopped by on her walk and invited me to come with her and her family to Uptown Charlotte of the light rail I decided to go!  Actually I decided to make banana chocolate chip pancakes and then go.  I’m so glad that I did!  Geoff and Calun treated me and let me tag along with them and their two cuties and we all rode the Charlotte light rail for the first time.  :)   Such an adventure!

This is where we started.

Annabelle is such a ham for the camera, as soon as she sees it she turns on this HUGE grin!

Judah was very excited to be riding the choo choo train!

Our stop near the Epicentre.

These little birds were splashing and playing in the puddle and the drops falling down.

Me & the Judah man. :)

I squatted down to take a picture next to him and he sat right down on my knee and perched as the train went by.

The new location for Not Just Coffee which I was very excited to find at the 7th street light rail stop.

I love that quote! “Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

The columns of quotes outside the Library are so great!

Fun stamp sculptures outside of ImaginOn

Annabelle exploring in ImagineOn

Wild mobile, er sculpture, er…cool hanging thing in ImaginOn

Beautiful sunset on the way home. :)

This was very exciting to me because I’ve been wanting to explore Uptown Charlotte more and I realized just how accessible it is and where some sweet things are that I want to go back to!  What is your favorite place in Charlotte, or your city?

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Story of My Life: Guitars & Coffee

Posted on January 27, 2012 by Emily Lewin

This morning I had an in house tea date (kinda like a stay-cation…we met at my house) with Nadia, a friend of mine who recently returned from Iris Ministries Harvest School of Missions, a ministry school based in Mozambique, Africa.  Several of my friends have gone through Harvest school and I’m sure that more will as we go forward.  It is Heidi and Rolland Baker’s ministry and people who go there get wrecked, forever.  At least all the ones that I’ve met.  From what I’ve seen of the few people who I’ve interacted with pre- & post-Harvest school it seems to so wreck you for normal life that it will launch you into whatever capacity of a missions calling that you have on your life.  Which is great!  And super hard at the same time.  It’s always exciting to see what the Lord does in those moment of pressing through!  He is good!  I took some pictures of Nadia before she left for the school to help her raise support to go.  I didn’t get one with her as we were hanging out this morning so this will suffice for now. :)

A few days ago I received a text from Lori asking if I taught guitar lessons.  Her daughter Ava got a new guitar for Christmas and wanted to take lessons and she thought of me.  What an honor!  :)   I always feel honored when people want me to teach something to their children, it is such a position of trust and I don’t take it lightly.  However in this case I felt too under qualified even for my normal “fake it till you make it” attitude.  Having not had any formal guitar training myself I knew that I couldn’t give formal training to Ava.  I did tell Lori that I would be glad to hang out with Ava for a bit and show her a couple of chords and let her see if she likes guitar before diving into lessons with someone.  Today I went over to their beautiful home and showed Ava a few basics of chords, strumming, and by the time we were done we were playing a Taylor Swift song together (Long Song for those of you who want to know).  My favorite part is that I think that it helped Ava see that it is hard, but rewarding, work and that guitar is something that she wants to learn!  How fun to get to help start someone onto the path of music!  This experience made me want to acquire more technical knowledge so that I could know it for myself and teach others!  Teaching is so fun!  (Lori took these pictures and shared them with me, thanks Lori!)

Check out that cute little guitar!  It is the perfect size for a young girl and has real strings so she could play and get her fingers callused up for the big leagues when she’s ready.

After hanging out with the Clancys, eating some gluten free snacks, playing some music, and chatting with Lori for a while I was off to another coffee date, this time at…you guessed it, Rush, with my friend Sarah B!  Yes, I have 3 dear friends named Sarah B…she’s Say-ruh though so that makes it different.  :)   It’s always a delight to hang out with this woman and get to catch up on life, laugh, and share some fun moments.  I appreciate friends both who have wisdom and who draw wisdom out of you.

My house-mate and friend Ashley also moved tonight…sadly she left on the busiest day of my entire week!  But we did get to hang out for about an hour in the middle and talk about Queens of England which is a fairly normal topic of conversation with that lovely lady.  :)   I know it won’t be the last we see of her in the QC!

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Story of My Life: Creative Community

Posted on January 26, 2012 by Emily Lewin

This evening my friend Anastasia came over to look at Lightroom…two hours later we decided that it was a night of hanging out and not shop talk and we resigned the photog chat to another day.  We have so much fun talking and being together because we have – as we discussed tonight – similar interests but totally different back grounds and cultures.  Isn’t it amazing to see how you can grow up in a totally different way from someone but end up having a lot in common and think the same things are ridiculously awesome and beautiful, or awful and outrageous, or funny?  Ana and her husband Jeremy are awesome, we talked about how they were the emo/punk kids in high school who grew up to be the awesome trendy, creative, hipster couple.  I love it!  She is super creative and is one of those lovely people who is always listening to some cool indie band or reading a sweet blog and actually doing a diy project that she pinned.  I told her that being her friend is educational for me, in a cool way of course.  (We were actually looking at things on her Pinterest, my Facebook, Flickr, and other fun places while hanging out…friendship in the age of technology – though I will say that this moment was preceded by at least an hour of just talking with no computer involved.)

We had a nice chat, some tea & hot chocolate, a couple of these divine flour-less chocolate cookies that she made for our Artist Way party in December and I hoarded and froze to have as treats later, yeah I’m weird like that, they tasted every bit as good warm from the microwave!  I love being friend with people who encourage me to be fully myself and fully creative and passionate about things like typography, good blogs, pretty things, and rad pictures.

Do you surround yourself with people who inspire and encourage you?  Fellow like-hearted ones who spur you on to be who you want to be?  Are you running the race with community?  I love I’m seeing that more and more in my life, it is absolutely worth the investment of time and intentionality to build relationships with people who make you want to be yourself.

Anastasia is also a photographer and blogger, you can see some of her visual goodness on her blog Living In Color.

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Story of My Life: January that feels like April

Posted on January 25, 2012 by Emily Lewin

Today I didn’t take any pictures with my big camera…oops!  But I had a good excuse!  I spent so much time outside walking around and enjoying the GORGEOUS weather that I didn’t end up taking any pictures.  Now I know that I could have carried it on my walk and ended up getting some but you know, sometimes it’s just heavy and I want to enjoy walking and not feel like I should be photographing every blade of grass I walk by.  :)   I did, however, take a couple of pictures on my phone for sharing with my fam and Facebook and I figured since I’m trying to do this every day and I did technically take pictures I should share them with you too!

Before the walk I made this delicious omelet to use up some of my leftovers from Ashley’s party.  :)   Yay for tomato, basil, parm, and muenster cheese omelets!

This is me, super happy to be outside and walking on a non-gray day!!  It was something like 45 degrees and not a cloud in the sky when I left my house.  Really amazing weather, not at all like the Januarys I’m used to.

I managed to get my friend Ana out of work fro a few minutes to walk around the lake and enjoy the sunshine and we saw a blue heron (at least I’m pretty sure that’s what it was) flying around.  He would spread out these massive, gorgeous wings and glide a few yards ahead of where we were and then when we would get close he would move further along.  This was the best picture I managed since we couldn’t get too close to him.  Ana suggested that I get a telephoto lens for my phone, haha!

I stopped in at a friend’s house who is packing up to move – I know! Lots of movers right now!  And shakers for that matter. – anyway on my way back to my house I saw this stop sign.  It’s at the intersection that’s right in front of my house and I thoguht it was really pretty amazing and right on for this season.  :)   Not so much for the HOA.

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Story of My Life: A Foggy Day in Charlotte Town

Posted on January 24, 2012 by Emily Lewin

Yesterday was a rainy, dreary day.  At least that’s how it looked from inside during the morning.  Then in the afternoon the rain stopped as a fog crept in.  Fog is such an fascinating phenomenon.  It is both melancholy and romantic, mysterious and enchanting, concealing and revealing, lovely and dark.  I had to drive a friend to pick up her car and on the way back I was thinking about taking pictures and I felt the inertia of wanting to stay inside where it was warm and comfortable.  I decided, once again, that if I want to live this life of adventure and fullness that it will require being uncomfortable and going outside of my lazy, sitting on a chair staring at a computer, norm.  So I set out bravely into the fog, and went about a block from my house, and spent an hour or so taking pictures of everything, it was so beautiful!  I’m very glad that I did.  Is there anything that your spirit wants to expand into that your soul wants to keep you in lazy-land about today?  If so – GO DO IT!!!  You might find something like this as a reward.

If you’ve made it this far and want to see more there’s quite a few more (different ones) here on my photography blog. :)

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Story of My Life: The Artist’s Way Group 2.0

Posted on January 21, 2012 by Emily Lewin

From mid-September to mid-December I gathered weekly with a group of friends to go through the book The Artist’s Way – it was life changing, if you haven’t read it then I highly recommend it!  We were all people who considered ourselves creative but we learned so much about how blocked we really were and how much more there was for us to tap into and it was amazing!  What was one of the most amazing parts was doing it together.  There’s just something wonderful about being creative and going deeper into who you were made to be in the context of community.  We found that all of our friendships deepened and that after the 12 week course (and our intro week and party finale) were over we really missed seeing each other, especially because everyone split off to different ends of the world for the holidays almost immediately afterward.  Much to my delight these wonderful women wanted to continue meeting, fellowshipping, and sharing what we’re doing and working on.  We had our first post – TAW gathering today at a fun, and bustling, Starbucks off of East Blvd in a part of town that would have been much more fun had it not been pouring rain all day.  It’s amazing how quickly time whisks away when you’re in delightful company.  Here’s a few pictures of our little gathering.  We’ve decided to try fun restaurants, throw more amazing parties, and live fully together on a more regular basis – we already have our next meet up scheduled (that’s what you get with a bunch of creative administrators)!!  Love these ladies!

Yes I had a venti Salted Carmel Mocha.  With whip.  And I drank the whole thing. Oh yeah.  And it was free.  Hollah for gold cards!

Catching up on life, work, holidays, wedding planning, and general goodness.

The Starbucks “for here” mugs are all the rage in this group…Rush has ruined us for to go cups. :)   Also, we were considering going through the follow up book to The Artist’s Way which is called Walking In This World.  A few of the girls are reading it.

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Story of My Life: Amelies with Ashley

Posted on January 20, 2012 by Emily Lewin

This morning we all woke up early and saw my housemate Sarah off to the next chapter of her adventure and then, since we were up, Ashley and I decided to go to Amelies and hang out for a while, drink some French press, and eat some yummy treats.  Since Ashley is also moving in a week I have jumped at every possible chance to spend time with her.  It’s sad to have two such dear friends and house mates move away but I am so excited about what they are going to do that it is hard to be sad for long.  I just know that I will miss having them involved in my every day life.  But really, if we’re all going to live these crazy amazing lives for the Kingdom then we’re probably going to be spread all over the world, that’s just how it works.  Thank God for technology that allows us to stay in such close touch and still semi-involved in each others lives even from a distance.  :)   And for planes, trains, and automobiles to take us to visit.

I’m learning more and more that a big part of life is treasuring the people who are around you in the moment and then releasing them to move on when it’s time, hoping that they do the same for you, while still loving on and supporting them from a distance as you are able.  It is so worth it to invest our hearts, lives, prayers, time, laughter, encouragement, tears, money, time, energy, enthusiasm, time, conversation, trust, and ideas in the people around us.  Yes I know I said time three times, it is a big investment that we choose to make.  Such investment makes parting more painful but if it wasn’t painful would we really love each other?  And it all makes Heaven so much more sweet to know that there is a place where we will never be parted again.

On that note, yay for awesome French bakeries that have (of course) french press coffee and some delectable gluten free treats!  Oh, and beautiful light, let’s not forget that.  To give you the complete ad, they are located in NoDa and open 24/7.  It doesn’t get much cooler than that.

This was Ashley’s treat of choice, a Key Lime Tart. My mouth is watering just looking at the picture.

And my treat, succulent Almond Tea Cakes (made with almond flour) in almond and lemon flavors.

I made her put on her glasses indoors because I wanted to get one of her with those sweet aviators in this amazing light. :)

We were journaling and hanging out with Jesus, comparing Bible translations, and just being together, it was quite pleasant. (this is a fun picture I took on my phone – my fingers look SO weird! – I thought the reflection in the French press was sweet)

My friend Caitlin joined us after a bit (I didn’t manage to get a picture of her then but this is her from the 4th of July).

Then I headed off to another coffee shop – Rush Espresso – to meet another friend for the afternoon.  I got there a bit early and ended up eating lunch there and working for a while before Kay arrived.  This was my delicious lunch – the very dill-y chicken salad, I think it’s called the Perth as a sandwich but they are so sweet and modify it for me.  I love the people at Rush, they are just grand.

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Story of My Life: Roomie & Friend

Posted on January 19, 2012 by Emily Lewin

My dear friend and hall mate Sarah is moving away tomorrow.  Although I am sad for myself (because I love her dearly and we have had many fun times and hilarious memories) I am excited for her to walk into the next phase of her life!  This woman is destined to do great things for our nation and our world, through making them laugh if nothing else because she is soooo funny!   We shared a bathroom at the end of the hall and our rooms were caddy-corner for a year.  I’ve enjoyed her counsel, humor, hunger for knowledge, and companionship.  I will sorely miss her.  We had a nice little chat with yummy drinks in the afternoon.  I sent her off with chips and queso to celebrate upon her arrival at home in PA!

This was part of the packing process, lots and lots of Vera Bradley.  :)   Sarah worked there and had lots of requests for product to take back with her since there isn’t one near where her family lives.

We did a little photoshoot more in the fashion end of things for fun.  Isn’t she beautiful!?

We had a fun adventure to Freedom Park.

We had a ridiculously fun birthday party for her at which my amazing friend Tiffany made this incredible cake with all of her favorite things…including chips & queso and coffee!!

Matrimony concert.

We had a super fun 4th of July picnic and concert in the park!

And of course, at lots and lots of sushi, especially here at Cowfish.

On another note, I just got this in the mail (the book not the worn out moccasins)!  It is the follow up book to The Artist’s Way and I am excited to dig in and see what nuggets of goodness this one holds.  If it’s anything like T.A.W. it will be well worth the read.

Overall it has been a fun, full, and adventurous year and I’m excited to see where we all go in this new year!  Upward and onward!  Thankfully, in this day of technology we don’t have to lose touch when people move away.  :)

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Story of My Life: Downton Abbey & Co-Working

Posted on January 18, 2012 by Emily Lewin

One of my new favorite things to do is co-working.  I get so weird if I sit in my house alone all day so I try to get out, for at least a few hours, and work in places with people.  But my favorite thing to do is bring along a friend to work with me!  We don’t have to be working on the same projects, in fact it’s probably better if we aren’t that way we can both get our work done but have company.  It’s great!  I’d love to do more of it.

My other new fave – thanks to my friend Tiffany – is Downton Abbey.  D.A. is a show about a huge house in the beginnings of the 1900s.  The first season starts with the sinking of the Titanic and ends with the start of World War I.  It’s a BBC/PBS production and I love how beautifully it is filmed!  It’s such a treat to watch movies where the cinematographers make an obvious effort to use creative framing and angles and make things pretty.  Plus it’s well cast with good character development and story lines – although it is a bit on the dramatic side.  The 2nd season is airing now and I’m trying to keep the will power to wait until the DVDs arrive to watch it all at once rather than having to wait and see it week by week!  Has anyone seen it?  My roomies had a marathon and watched all of the first season tonight, I watched most of it with them and thoroughly enjoyed it the second time around!

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Story of My Life – Correspondence

Posted on January 17, 2012 by Emily Lewin

One of my all time favorite things in the world is receiving mail, real mail, from a person who loves me, not bills.  Not far behind that is sending mail.  Besides being with people who I love, getting to read and re-read notes and letters from them makes me so happy!  I have just started exchanging letters with a friend and I’ve been treasuring up her note and thinking about what to write back.  Today was my chosen day for letter writing.  I’m thinking about picking a day of the week and writing at least one note or letter on that day weekly.  I decided to write a couple of notes at the same time, I made the cards as well using some of my pictures, and I’m going to post them tomorrow. Do you like snail mail?

One of my other major activities was sorting through one of my email inboxes.  I realized that working such an administratively intense job – where most of my time was involved in emails – I had no energy or motivation to actually check my own email at the end of the day.  I had 1800+ unread messages in my inbox, which is ridiculous for me since I am one of those people that loves to have a clean, almost empty inbox, or not more than a page of emails.  It’s kind of ironic that my time was divided between two types of mail.

One other thought for the day, provoked by reading Rolland & Heidi Baker’s Christmas newsletter, in my email. :)

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