polaroid week, summer 2011 / day one

This week is officially Polaroid week over on Flickr! These are my Day One Polaroids that I submitted to the pool very early this morning.  These are both of my sister taken in May this year at her graduation ceremony. She's the smartest, prettiest girl in the world- and I'm lucky that she's my sister because that means I can bug her to by my model, and even if she is annoyed, she still has to love me anyway. :) But! as a positive for her, she gets these lovely images to keep, along with her memories, for life.

Congrats to Allison and Yay for Polaroid week!

dog beach day polaroids

A few Polaroids* from a day spent exploring around a new (to me) Chicago neighborhood and then ending up on a dog beach. Lots of smiling happy dogs, running free and enjoying life. Can't help but boost your spirits watching dogs be so silly playing in the water.

*more to come! (will edit them in)

new chapter

Last night my dearest friend (pictured above) gave birth to a beautiful baby girl, who is going to grow into a person even more remarkable than her very own mother is today, I'm sure of it. This picture was taken just weeks before her life would be given the most amazing surprise ever- you're pregnant! I remember the night she shared her secret with me, my eyes welled up with pure happiness for her in less than an instant. We walked nearly 50 times around the same few blocks of the small downtown area we lived in, thinking of the future with only a positive outlook- that, and a million and one "what-if's." It was a special moment for me too in a way, as I've never had such a close friend of mine have a baby, or even any friend of mine really, but not someone as special as she is to me.

Ah, my heart is exploding with happiness for her and her family as well as her new little family, who has been officially three people, as of one day and a couple hours now.

Instagram weekend / June 25-26th, 2011

1/ Poetry foundation new building open house- really neat space! 2/ Vintage animated wall clocks- a panda and a poodle side by side!

3/ Dog beach! Seriously heaven. 4/ Balloons in the trees. I can not resist taking pictures of balloons.

5/ From where I stand- Natalie and I exploring a new shop full of bizarre things. 6/ Pretty soft baby blue sheer curtains.

7/ Natalie alone on a baseball field, trying to locate a friend in the distance. 8/ Stuff displayed on a wall for sale in the store of unusual and bizarre, yet interesting things.

Past, Chicago, Future

I never realized how important the sun was to me, until I lived in a place where it was constantly bullied over by a big grey blanket of clouds. Yet another thing that I've taken for granted. I've got to be more appreciative these days. I'm so tired of looking back and feeling that pinch in my heart, where I remember when I had it good. "The good ol' days" I say, but what's to say that these aren't? Will I always continue the cycle of living for the future, while wasting the present on missing past memories? While I do know that thinking about that little thought could keep me wrapped up in a hypothetical-life-phenomenon-brain-freeze, I do know that I would like more sun. A lot more in fact.