Posts Tagged With: North Carolina

Story of My Life: Let’s Fly Away!

Today I was sitting on the floor going through some creativity books that I have and I glanced up and really liked the way that all of the lines looked outside the window with the long stretch of sky above the house.   It was another gray day and it just looked interesting to me.

In other news, I made something SO cute!!  I was trying to design a flyer for my upcoming trip to Cincinnati and ended up making this along the way!!  I’ve been wanting to do something like this for a while and I have a feeling that it won’t be the last thing that I make.  I’ve thought about making cool headers kinda like this for my shoots and this was not that hard so you may be seeing more things like this in the future.  Other than that I was doing some research and reading articles for the upcoming creativity group that is starting this week!  I’m excited about that too!  Lots of good and fun things coming up!! Do you have any favorite creativity resources/books/websites/articles that have helped you creatively?  By the way, this picture is from Joseph & Megan’s engagement pictures that I took last spring.

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Story of My Life: Dilworth

This is my friend Sarah Bryan.  If her picture could talk she would say that it’s nice to meet you in her cheerful way and by the twinkle in her eye you might catch a glimpse of the mischievous sense of humor behind her well bred southern manners.  ;)

You may remember Sarah from before, I photographed her jewelry (Aisle14Designs), she was in the first Artist Way group that I did, she’s an amazing artist and interior designer, and we tend to pal around quite a bit.  We are kindred spirits.  As someone told us recent, we are two peas in a pod.  I joked that it was because we’re around the same height and both have dark features and they responded that it was because of a similarity in the way that we operate internally.  There is a lot of truth to that.  We can both be a bit snarky & sarcastic, we both have a love of laughing, cuddling, quality time, good design, good music, and good food.  We also love God, love to worship and pray hard, and love to get into the Word.  The way we operate in the Spirit is much more similar than the way we operate in the outside world.  Sarah and I differ quite a bit in our styles, which is part of the fun of being friends!  Even though we were both born in Georgia, when you get down to it, Sarah is a fairly classic, yet modern, southern young lady where as I am a laid back, slightly hippie westerner.   Yesterday, as you can see, she was wearing a b&w polka dot cardigan over a frilly salmon pink shirt, she also had on dark skinny jeans zipped into tall, black riding boots (which you’ll see later).  I was wearing dark wash bootcut jeans, with short gray slouchy boots (the only ones I have), a predominately blue plaid shirt, an an orange & blue striped scarf, and a brown leather bomber jacket.  But I love how we can both be ourselves, be so different, and yet be so complimentary.  As we start being ourselves it causes so much freedom to be released for other people to be themselves and such a joy in the full expression of our differences that our similarities become more apparent and cherished as well.  I love that!

We went to Dilworth Coffee, in Dilworth of course, to check out their newly renovated space since one of Sarah’s friends recently did the re-design.  I really liked the decor & feel, but the coffee was not my fave, however the light made up for it.

After coffee we decided to risk the rain and brave the gray day and began to walk around the area.  We wandered through the shopping area and then began to wend our way through the quaint neighborhood streets with their bungalows of all shapes and sizes intermingled with huge trees!

A secret garden we found locked away in the courtyard of a modern looking apartment building.

This tree was so amazing!  It was not about to let having it’s top cut off to make room for the power lines cramp it’s style even a little bit.

I became slightly obsessed with puddle reflections while on this walk…there were so many amazing ones to choose from!

There are oh so many comments that I could make for this…two heads are better than one…two peas in a puddle…

I LOVE this house.  We were picking out houses that we would want…Sarah is very much Arts & Crafts style bungalow with a deep porch (with a pale blue roof & rocking chairs), preferably with yellow paint.  Something about this house and the garden I just loved.  Very English Country Garden style, at least that’s what Sarah said, and I believe her…she usually knows about these things.

You know I love everything about this.

Fun peep through!

Apparently you can call the number and find out what happened at that exact spot at some point in history, cool idea!

We discovered this marvelous park!  The perfect spot for a winter picnic we’ve been planning with our little classy party group (you know who you are).

This poor flower bush burst into bloom in the unseasonably warm weather we had last week not realizing that we still have a couple months of winter ahead of us.  It was lovely to see the bright blooms contrasting with the gray sky.

Sarah decided that she wanted a photoshoot in the log pile so she hopped on and started making faces.  ;)

My intrepid explorer friend. :)

There are a few more of my faves here on my photography blog. :)

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Story of My Life: Surprises

I did not take any pictures today…oops!  The reason being that my day did not go at all as I had planned.  I went to the chiropractor and then had enough time to slip into the end of Coffee Girls – the coffee and hang out time that the women’s ministry and M* does – which I haven’t been to for quite some time.  It was lovely to see the women and catch up with people!  As I was standing in the lobby chatting with Ginger my friend Nichole came up and invited me to lunch with her and a bunch of other girls and Aliss Cresswell.  Aliss was there visiting and teaching in the 2nd year class of MSU (the ministry school at M*) and she and her friend Sarah, who also works with their ministry, popped out for a bit of lunch with us girls.  I had planned another meeting before  knew about lunch so I could only stay for about half and hour but it was so fun to get to hear their stories and what they are doing.  Aliss and her husband Rob run a cafe and shop in Chester, England and they frequently see people healed and saved and delivered and all kinds of miracles!  They are helping launch businesses that are also churches, where people can come to know Jesus and then come back again and again to be discipled and be part of community.  I think it’s amazing!  (I snitched this picture from their website, you can click on it to be redirected there, that’s Aliss on the right)

 

Then I got to go help a friend clean and organize their house after some flooding that had happened for a little extra cash which was great!  And they fed me dinner and we watched a movie, also lovely, and all told I didn’t get home until late in the evening!  Definitely a day that didn’t go “according to plan” but turned out so much better than I would have expected or anticipated.  Sometimes things not happening the way I think they should or will go is the best way after all.  At the end of the day, living a life that is flexible enough to enjoy and engage with surprises is the way to truly live an adventure!

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Story of My Life: A Baby & Golden Light

Today I got to do another newborn photo shoot with a precious little girl named Anna Grace.  What a delightful way to start a morning!  :)  

After returning home I started working on moving from one room to another in the same house, which is an interesting experience, and then started on various work projects.  By the time the sun was setting I tore myself away from my desk and took a brisk walk around the block.  It’s so hard not to spend time outside when the weather is so beautiful!

There are profuse beds of clover all over the place.  I love seeing the bright patches of green!

I loved the gradient of dark blue to golden hued cloudless sky!  We truly had a golden hour today.

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Story of My Life: Uptown Charlotte & the Lightrail

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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Legit

I am now officially a South Carolina resident…I know I told everyone that I live in Charlotte, North Carolina but that’s not exactly true.  It’s like telling people that I’m from Denver, Colorado.  Did I actually live in that city?  No.  Is it the area that I lived in and the closest city that anyone would recognize?  Yes.  So therefore I say Charlotte.  However I actually live in a small town barely across the border in South Carolina.

All of that to say, after four trips to the DMV and one to the county tax office I am officially installed as a SC resident with both a SC drivers license and registration/tags for my car.  Apparently my new license plate (which includes the word OFF) is going to become quite the inside joke with my friends, I should have gone with the pretty one over the interesting one.  I was a little sad to lose my Colorado license with the pretty mountains in the background in exchange for the rather ugly and plain SC one…but change is good and I’m glad to make this one more official!

We’re kicking off our Women’s Conference, Bloom 2011: Flourishing in the Reality of the Spirit, tomorrow night with a Cupcake Party and the day is going to be filled with pulling together last minute things, blowing up balloons, making gift baskets, and a variety of other admin details…a lot of work and planning has gone into this event and it’s almost hard to believe that it is already here!  I am excited to see what the Lord does through this Conference, I feel like big things are coming for women and this is, at the very least, a small part of it. Here we go!

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The Queen City [part 4]

I should not have waited so long between posts, I now have SO MUCH that has happened, I’m not sure where to start…omg.

This is going to be in story board-ish format again…so last week, er make that two weeks ago:

I got to sneak into random bits of the MFM (MorningStar Fellowship of Ministries) retreat – all of the pastors and ministry leaders from the churches and ministries associated with M* come together for one big conference.  I got to listen in to a little bit of it and sit on prophetic teams.

Todd Bentley sharing at the conference

Crazy crazy divine appointments that happened during MFM:

#1 I sat in a random seat in the 2nd row back, front and center on Sunday morning at the 11am service before MFM started and it ended up being the seat directly in front of the couple who were our pastors when we lived in New York 16 years ago.  O_O

#2, I sat on prophetic teams with the associate pastor, from that same old church, who I recognized somehow…I was 7 last time I saw the man.  Turns out my parents/family planted seeds in that church that area still thriving and producing fruit today which was very encouraging to hear! =)

As soon as that conference ended the Worship and Warfare conference began – these M* people are hardcore with their conference stamina…dang.

MSU Student Art Exbo during the W&W Conference

I spotted this bumper sticker on my way to my car after one of the sessions:

hm...ditto?

I explored Main Street a little bit and discovered that they actually have a thrift store…why do all thrift stores smell the same?  Do they have an certain spray that they all use? Since my suitcase was barely under the weight limit on the way here I walked in and out quickly hehe.

Again, hmm...?

Because the house where I was staying was so close I walked to most of the sessions.

Climbing the little hill on the way to the house.

On one of those walks to the conference, I think it was the first morning, I saw these three large birds flying over the tower and then over the main building, circling around each other and up and down on the air currents.

I knew all my crazy proph friends would like that. ;-)

I spent some time one afternoon in the Watch that they had going before, during, and after the conference.  It was saucy in that room let me tell you.  It always pays to go sit in the place where all the crazy, older, intercessor ladies are…oh, and the family with four sons who are all ridiculous multi-instrumentalists worshiping helped the atmosphere quite a bit too.

Intense.

Between the worship and the teaching it was quite a conference!  There was so much that stood out and was so good that I’ll have to spend some other posts later sharing some of my notes…

As soon as that conference was over we had the Sunday morning service and dove straight into the last week of school for MSU…

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The Queen City [Part 3]

Here’s another update for you! :)   This one is going to be mostly photos with some commentary thrown in because I’m just processing all of the crazy fun things the Lord has been doing here…so many sweet encounters, divine appointments, provisions, and reminders.  He’s good like that.

Last week I got to celebrate my Uncle David’s birthday with him:

and his family:

Uncle D lent me a car:

We’ve driven and walked past some fun street signs

Today we went grocery shopping.  Here are my groceries – or the half that aren’t in the fridge…it was WEIRD shopping for one person…

We stopped at Bojangles’ afterward

because Gloria wanted some chicken.

I got to go eat dinner at the home of a lady named Freddie Power who travels to Africa once a year and runs 3 churches for the homeless in uptown Charlotte…quite a lady.  She had butterflies all over her house.  Oh and because some of you will think it’s fun, this was image #333 on my phone…yeah.

I’ve spent quite a bit of time at MorningStar

By the way, this is the only photo that’s duplicated between this blog and my photography site, to see more of my fancier photos go check out my updates.

Besides that I’m editing photos from Leif & Karen’s wedding and a few other projects and seeking the Lord for vision for this next year.

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Queen City Update [1]

Hello there!  One thing that I love about traveling is getting to meet new people, and from the time I left my mom at the airport in Denver yesterday morning meeting new people is pretty much all I’ve done.  From the sweet methodist couple in the airport who were in transit from one daughter’s house to the other, to the 6’4″ graphic designer who is pretty high up in his company who chatted with me in between reading a book on his iPad on my first flight.  There was the sweet lady, I think her name was Peggy or Patsy, or was it Patty?  She works in IT at an energy company and told me all about the different attractions of Charlotte and where I should go or what I should do, including places to “indulge or partake” haha!  Then there have been the girls who picked me up from the airport and that I’m staying with for the next week.

After my flights were delayed for various reasons it seemed to take a very long time for my bags to come down to the baggage claim, once they did mine was the first one on the carousel.  Chalk one up to favor.  I was picked up at the curb in a shiny silver sporty little convertible (I honestly wasn’t sure if all my stuff would fit but we managed…barely) containing Christy & Gloria.

Side note: it is so refreshing and fun to come outside of our little community and meet other radical, Holy Spirit following, Jesus loving people.  No one things twice about me being out here on a Holy Spirit adventure.  Love it.

Back to Christy and Gloria.  Christy is from Wisconsin, recently returned from a trip to England with many detours courtesy of the volcanic ash from Iceland, and she won a ridiculous amount of money and a vacation on Wheel of Fortune thanks to Holy Spirit giving her the bonus round answer before she got there.  Holler.  Gloria is another radical from Uganda who has been a missionary in Nepal and will soon be going to other far reaches of the world.  Both of them are MorningStar University (MSU) students, second and first year respectively.  Gloria lives in a house with three other girls who are from three other countries.  Katrina is from Italy, Beatrice from Brazil, and Sarah from the US.  Sarah said something about how she lives at the UN with all of these girls from so many nations.  I have so enjoyed the diversity of stories and accents and impressions thus far.  All of the girls in this house are first year MSU students and they have a broad range of ages, backgrounds, dreams, plans, and gifts.   I’ve met a few other students as well, one of the most prominent being Farmer, a stocky Northern Irishman who is a first year in the school of worship.

When I let the Lord plan and run my life and I go along and enjoy the unfolding of it I am constantly amazed at the timing and perfection with which He organizes things.  He is simply amazing.  Today I went to MSU chapel, worship, and class with the girls and the speaker was Rick Joyner.  He was explaining to the students what MSU will look like next year.  I know right, could the timing of that have been any more perfect?  I don’t think so.  I must admit I am quite interested in the school.  I thought that I probably would be after coming and meeting people and seeing what it’s like but it really does sound amazing and right up my alley.  It’s hard for me to think of leaving the glorious community that I have at home right now to start all over somewhere else…but it is tempting none the less.

More details on MSU later, for now I’m going to take advantage of having four hours with no where to be and nothing to do and spend some much needed time with my best Friend.  I have a feeling that I’ll be doing a lot of that these next couple weeks hanging out here at M*.  Bring it on.  I desperately need the rest.

Two interesting quotes/thoughts from today:

The first is from Rick Joyner, he said that if we get our authority/power from the people then they are the ones that lead us, not the Lord.  We have to love people and lay our lives down for people but not place our trust/hope/faith in people because it can put too much pressure on them and potentially even cause them to fall from the pressure.  Plus then when people do struggle and even fall we won’t be so shaken by it and can continue on without so many going astray.

The second is from Molly Skaggs during the School of Worship class that I went to today.  She said that we have authority over sound, that is the area where we (as musicians) have authority.  She was asking them what that sounds like in the Kingdom, what does that look like?  In terms of the sound we passionately release from the life source within us.  It definitely has me thinking.

In parting I will just say that I asked someone to get me some allergy meds at the store because I think if those cleared up I’d be feeling pretty good, the cough/cold is only bad at night, and my hair is definitely jiving with the humidity.  :)

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