anticipating the unwind

As summer gently edges spring out the door, the call to "unwind" whispers through the balmy breezes that caress my open window. Lessons are still piled high on my desk, but just beyond them is Pineapple Frozen Greek Yogurt dripping on a silver spoon, wildflowers blooming in the yellow fields, and the crisp exquisiteness of Kinfolk magazine (vielen dank, Carlotta!)

 Now if only my pencil would work faster; if only my eyes would stay on the page and wander not to the window; if only the call to unwind would wait until unwinding is truly a possibility. The summer ahead holds so many endless possibilities and loveliness, if only I could let it in. 

Nevertheless, this coming week and month promise to be resplendent in themselves. Here's my little list of happiness. 

June || TO ANICIPATE

Weddings >> next week a sweet friend of mine is tying the knot, and I can't wait.  

Photography >> I was asked to second-shoot a wedding later this month. Eeep!

Bare feet >> mild temperatures mean no more shoes. 

Airborne >> we got a trampoline, and I'm addicted to flight-by-bounce.

Garden-grown >> our seeds are sown, our soil is tilled. Fresh lettuce is on the way!

To read >> my bookshelf is stocked and ready for love. 

To run >> my last cross country season is nearly here. Time to train. 

Happy Tuesday, friends. Here's to 'anticipating the unwind!' What's on your list? 

xo,

lucia 

ps- summer design? you like?

sunlit portraits // finalists

Yesyesyes. I'm late again at announcing photo challenge finalists. And a month late at that. I decided to skip May's photo challenge entirely, just because of extreme busyness and all that bueno stuff, but keep a look-out for the upcoming June challenge, right on schedule.

As usual, I had an tough time narrowing it down to five finalists for April's challenge: "Sunlit Portraits." I saw so much delicious lighting, amazing captures, priceless faces--but in the end, my favorites were...

by Lauren. Oh, goodness, I love this sweet face and that milky beautiful sunlight, complete with sun flares. 

by Emily Grace. This is a self-portrait--which I think is ridiculously amazing in itself--and then that hazy lighting + sun spotting is spectacular! What gorgeous scenery, too. 

by Mary Katherine. Oh goodness, what a sweet and dreamy shot. I love the natural framing of the branches, the dress, the smile, the lighting...lovely. 

by Savannah. I keep coming back to this photo--I love the glamour of the black and white, her back lit hair, her expression...gorgeous. 

by Abi. This. Lighting. ...Beautiful. What gorgeous streaking + back lighting. 

So which was your favorite? Vote for it on the sidebar poll--you have until next Monday, and we'll announce a winner then! Thank you all for participating in April's challenge and sharing your talent with me. Every single photo entered was lovely! 

xo,

lucia

beautiful places || down the lane

Our house is perched atop a little grassy hill that’s yellow and mown in the summer and clovered and green in the spring. From an upstairs window you can see a majestic Mount Hood rising from behind the trees and the highway and the train tracks, bordered by horizon clouds. Around us are the scattered homes and churches, close yet distanced, that make our little country town of Warren.  

Down the lane is the little white church where my great-grandmother, grandmother, and mother walked down the aisle, each in their own space of history. The short road that goes past it is quiet, lined with a few small homes and rustic barns. Cows dot open fields between houses, and red-winged black birds always sit chattering upon the telephone poles that line the road. 

In the summer, the kids are out shrieking in the sprinklers or swinging on tire swings beneath the age-old oak trees which have been here for a hundred years. These old trees know Warren thoroughly; they've been climbed by children in suspenders and children in Nike baseball caps, they have swung wooden seats, war-patched tires, and brand-new ropes. 

It's a beautiful place, Warren is. The neighborhood can’t quite be called a neighborhood, and the town can’t quite be called a town, but we love it how it is--the quiet roads and the wildflowers blooming along them, the tractors lumbering slowly along and stopping traffic, the tumble-down sheds and the garden mailboxes. 

It's all a part of who we are as a community. 

..Warren is not ideal, it is not utterly perfect; it is not "left behind," but it's also never going to catch up. Warren is simply the place no one has ever heard of, the place that you couldn't find on a map if you scoured it inch-by-inch--and it's the place I am proud to call “home.”

What is your "beautiful place?"

-lucia