through the keyhole ...

So about a month ago i was asked to write a guest blog for the wonderful Heather of Gathering Spriggs but here’s the thing, I'm not a writer i take pictures, i like to think they’re pretty but that’s about it. So when Heather asked me if i would be interested in writing a guest post of course i said yes, did a little whoop whoop dance & then freaked a little as i had absolutely no clue what to write & a total brain fart going on. I wanted to go out & shoot something new & wonderful but the changes of seasons & icky weather has left me uninspired. But there was another idea i’ve been working on, something i’ve thought about for a while to do with my home a chance to explore the things i love i guess & get to know me a little more. In the end though my friend's departure to California provided me with a different kind of  inspiration & i wrote a different blog for Gathering Spriggs deciding that this one would be kept for my own.

I can look at Gathering Spriggs & similar blogs for hours, staring in wonder at the amazing homes on display & gradually watch my skin turn a rather bright shade of green as i wish my house could look the same. So please don’t judge as i show you around my world but listen as i explain a few things to you: 

1. I’m a military wife currently living in Germany, this has been our home for the past 3 years & in 12 months time we will be packing up to move somewhere new. Right now i have no clue where (it could literally be anywhere in the world), all i know is uncle Sam will decide & then show up to pack my life into boxes & unpack it at the other end. 
2. As a military wife moving every 3 to 4 years i worry about investing in too much so my home is a mixture of ikea & the rest. The rest because one day i want to be able to pass down the wonderful items i’ve collected over the years to my grand kids & so on, & Ikea because it’s functional, it’s cheap, & if it breaks in one of the many moves it doesn’t cost a whole lot to replace. 
3. Every time we move i throw out some of the furniture i don’t like, the functional stuff that i wish i could turn into something special but unfortunately my brain doesn’t work that way. So slowly I'm turning our house into a home although sometimes i think it won’t officially become a home until my husband retires & we settle somewhere i can choose the colours on the walls. 
4. Somewhere along the way i’ve become a collector. I can’t think of any other way of describing it but it’s like things call out to me & i have to buy them over & over. My newest “collection” is old school alarm clocks, but my husband would argue why someone would need so many bowls!

So you look at my home & you learn everything you could ever need to know about me ... the things i love, the places i’ve been & really what makes me tick (oh yeah & there’s some hubby thrown in there for good measure). & i wanted to be able to share that with you because i love looking inside people’s home & discovering the things that make them who they are. 

In England there was this tv show called “Through the Keyhole” where they would explore the home of a famous person & get clues on who the person was based on what was seen, & try & figure out who it was. Well i guess this is my version of “Through the Keyhole” except you already know the answer ... this is my home!

California ...

You ever go somewhere & know that's the place you call home. I don't mean in the sense of a certain house being your home but this place is where you feel you belong. It's like it's part of you & you feel like without it there's somewhere missing. That place for me is California & right now i'm getting some serious home sickness!

In the midst of reading Ansel Adams Autobiography, i'm listing to him describe California in a way that i'd imagine only he could, in such sharp detail you feel as if you are part of one of his photographs. He talks about places i've seen, driven past & experienced myself but now i have to return to in the hopes of seeing the things he saw. I follow blogs such as those belonging to the Ansel Adams Gallery & Sierra Impressions Photography that remind me of the places i've been & grown to love.

The Sierra Nevadas are nothing like little old England where i grew up, vast & empty in places, they seem sharp, harsh & unforgiving compared to the green grass & rolling hills you see in England. But they seem to take over, there's no escaping them & their beauty, & the more i see the more i want to explore new areas. & not just the mountain surrounding my husbands hometown of Bodfish (it has a stop light & a Mcdonalds) but north & south to the coast & the cities. I have yet to discover a part of California i haven't felt as if i've belonged (although i'm not going to lie ... LA might challenge this). I never felt this way in the city i grew up, i was never able to be the person i really was but California lets me be me, it doesn't try & turn me into someone else.

& one day i hope to call California my official home, the place i will spend the rest of my days, hopefully earning my living selling my photographs in a little shop attached to a small gallery in a mountain town somewhere. Where people will buy my books, & notecards & prints & hang them on their walls for the world to see.

Cupcake Thursday

So today was "Cupcake Thursday ... which for those of you don't know about today, Thursday & i made cupcakes. Anyways it all started many many moons ago ... well actually 2 days when this lady contacted me asking if i had any photos of cupcakes. Well i didn't but i was all about getting some & i also had this cupcake recipe i'd been wanting to try so figured i'd spend my day off making cupcakes. & thus "Cupcake Thursday" was born. I'm not going to lie, it won't be a weekly thing or possibly even a yearly thing but it was fun (& messy) & at the end of it i got to eat cupcakes so really who can complain?

new etsy find ...

So i just wanted to share this shop i've just discovered (& thanks to my wonderful husband) make a couple of purchases from ... her items are stunning & i'm excited to have them in my living room.

Her name is Joom ... her shop is gorgeous ... & with such items in your home (she also makes totes amongst other products) how could you not smile every day!

& you can visit her here on etsy ... Joom