In love and blogging...in your nineties

When I read about this couple on CNN my heart melted a little bit. Harry and Barbara Cooper, affectionately known as PopPop and Cutie, have been married for 72 years!  That's not even the best part...they keep a blog about it called The OG's (Original Grandparents).

It's great to see a marriage so strong after so many years. 

He Took The Butter Off Her Knife

During half time of the World Cup yesterday, I walked through the street fair taking place next door to my friend Amanda's house.  I love checking out all the different tents from different vendors, but I don't often come upon something that I really like adore.  Yesterday I did!  I found Bonnie Jones Photography, she's a local artist and she was displaying her work at the fair.  I came away with a great little piece I'm saving for my sister (who doesn't read this blog, so don't worry) and her upcoming birthday. 

I checked out Bonnie's blog, Explore Daily, and saw that she is currently working on a project called Journal Portraits. Having been a the kind of girl who has kept a journal on and off since 3rd grade (all stashed in a box under my bed), most diligently when I'm traveling, I find a strong connection to her images.

The above photograph "He Took The Butter Off Her Knife" corresponds with this entry:

Friday, January 4, 1946

Canada

"She was at the table one day and she reached her knife and helped herself to butter. And her husband took his own knife and stretched his hand out and took the butter off her knife with his knife and put it back on the plate. It was as though the poor thing couldn't have any butter. Maybe it was no wonder she became queer - and maybe she wasn't the only queer one in that family. That was a queer thing to do, to take the butter away from her, right off her knife with his knife."

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*It made my weekend to find something like this in my own backyard, and it also gave me inspiration to keep working diligently on my own photography.

Darling Diptych :: Found

 

Left: Mo

Right: Brittany O 

What Else Is There?

Röyksopp - What Else Is There?

{I don't know what more to say...I love this song, this video, this voice.}

Twelve Things

One of my favorite bloggers, Lobster and Swan, started an interesting blog topic...Twelve Things.  What 12 things would you take with you if you had to start over again?  Not the everyday necessities...but the sentimental items.

These are the 12 items that I picked out.  They are for the most part items that remind me of my love, my family, important friendships and traveling.  You can see them featured at Lobster and Swan with many other lovely items by clicking here.

ADDED NOTE: I forgot one very important item that was a wedding gift.  It is so fragile and precious that it has been packed away in a box with lots of padding until I can find a safe place to display it.  It's so special that it jumps to the start of the list that is now Thirteen Things.  I'll take it out and add it in a later post so you can see what I'm talking about.

Darling Diptych :: Red

Left: Mo

Right: Brittany O

I LOVE the color red!  I painted the walls of my college bedroom red, floor to celing.  It was pretty intense. 

I hope you all have a fun and safe 4th of July/Holiday weekend! I'm looking forward to diving into the next book in the Slow Readers Book Club, The People of Paper by Salvador Plascencia.  

Ten off the top

"Unclose your mind. You are not a prisoner. You are a bird in flight, searching the skies for dreams."                  ~Haruki Murakami {from Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World}

Thoughts like that are why Haruki Murakami has held place in my heart as numero uno ever since I first peeled back the pages of the above book over 10 years ago...

As summer surges on, and with a Holiday weekend approaching I find myself thinking about books, books, books!  I have a few in mind to read this summer which I'll share in another post, but first I wanted to share some of my all time favorite reads.  These books are in no particular order other than Murakami's novel, which is what I'd take with me if I were stranded on a desert island and allowed only one book. 

Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World ~ Haruki Murakami

One Hundred Years of Solitude ~ Gabriel García Márquez

Stone from the River ~ Ursula Hegi

Geek Love ~ Katherine Dunn

Tipping the Velvet ~ Sarah Waters

Of Human Bondage ~ W. Somerset Maugham

The Grapes of Wrath ~ John Steinbeck

The Alchemist ~ Paulo Coelho

The Fountainhead ~ Ayn Rand

In the Time of the Butterflies ~ Julia Alverez

What about you?  What books do you recommend off the cuff?  I love hearing about the books that inspire others.