Intro
It’s Friday, which in most cases means I post some recent images I’ve taken on film.
Here are a few other Film Fridays to peruse at your leisure.
All images were shot using Kodak Portra 400 using a Canon A1 50mm 1.4.
This week started off with a block party. Which, in my opinion, is a perfect way to start your week. Pizza by the slice, beer in the sun, bright balloons, friends mingling, kids freely running amok, ice cream, macarons, and little white dresses stained with tomato sauce.
A good week also involves the learning of new things. This week I’ve learned (or re-learned in some cases):
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I am not perfect, nor do I want to be. So stop trying and stop the dissatisfaction when the perfection is not there – because it won’t be.
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Cardamom, espresso, dried cherries and chocolate make a winning combination when bound together with butter, flour and sugar in a cookie.
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Everyone’s journey is designed for them. I have my own. Stop wishing for a new route because this one was designed for me.
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Being happy for people is a lot more fun than envying them.
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I am in more control of my life than I let myself believe. But I can also rest assured that ultimately it is not me that is in control.
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Thoughts can be good or bad. Stop the bad ones and turn them into good.
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Sweet potatoes roasted with paprika is gosh darn amazing.
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When in doubt, read a good book.
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Somewhere there is a balance of contentment while maintaing a wild imagination that creates lofty dreams. Maybe someday I’ll find it.
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Sometimes the answer is to stop thinking and start doing for other people.
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From now on finely julienned fennel will always be found in my coleslaw.
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Even though our little house lacks in space, enough chairs, and is cluttered with kids and all their things I must open my doors and invite people in and feed them. It feeds me.
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Oh how I love your lessons this week. This post really just penetrated my heart, I can relate to many of these affirmations and I’m sure so many others do too. Giving them a space to breathe here lets everyone know they’re not alone. I’m trying not to gush at the risk of sounding insincere, but I’m so glad to have found your site. I love how I’m constantly being invited to shift my perspective through this diverse, and crazy online social landscape. Happy Weekend to you, and your crazy-beautiful life.
@Kelsey – Thanks so much for such a heart felt comment. It means the world to me.
Love your Friday pics. Makes me wish I had a film camera!
Also love your list, especially the lines about being in control & our journeys. I’ve had such a stressful few weeks. It’s a very good and timely reminder that ultimately, I don’t control the universe. This is my journey, designed for me. So, so right.
well said. truly beautiful words. when shopping for tomorrow’s menu in which we’ll be hosting good friends (and maybe more), I had to stop and remind myself that yes, I want the food to taste good, but it sure isn’t gonna be perfect. they’ll love it and we’ll have a good time. sometimes too much planning leads me to too much stressing and then I fail to acknowledge today. and yes, maybe it’s because we don’t entertain nearly enough – I’m “rusty” – and like you, we have 4 chairs to our name and well…let’s hope we can be on a blanket in the backyard! cheers to good friends!
@Brenda – That’s exactly right. And I find that a blanket in the back yard is the perfect setting for a meal.
Amen.
i want to live on your block. and sit at your table. xox
@Tara – Any time friend. Any time.
Doing something to help someone else is usually good medicine for what ails you. Cookies also help. 🙂
Please, PLEASE share your cardamom cookie recipe! I think you just hit on all of my favorite flavors in one blessed dessert.
What a yummy looking pizza! Great pics this week too 🙂
“Everyone’s journey is designed for them. I have my own. Stop wishing for a new route because this one was designed for me.”
Best lesson of the day! You’re a very insightful blogger 🙂 Now, I’m a fan.
An amazing post – you made me smile so much and made me reflect on my own list of learning. Thank you Ashley – you are one in a million. XXX
Stop thinking and start doing. That’s a good thing to be learned.
Great words of advice girlie. Mind adding one about making the best of having no summer of 2011? Now *that* I could really use!
Have a marvelous weekend,
xx
Such great lessons learned – and relearned – this week. I should refer back to this post at least on a weekly basis. Also, I have the feeling you need a hug, so I’m sending you one. *hug*
Your musings have made me realize that I’ve passed through that time of self-doubt that comes with growing as a woman and a mother and moved into a time of a certain kind of comfortableness with who I am. My new challenge is something that your wise eye spotted: that of balancing contentment with a robust imagination and a lust for fresh and creative vision. Contentment is a deceptively easy, but dissatisfying place to live. Thank you for opening up with your thoughts, Ashley. It’s a powerful thing when women share their hearts. 🙂
This is such a lovely post to remind us of some of the important lessons that we tend to forget. I’m going to print this off to put above my desk for just such occasions. Thank you.
Such thoughtful lessons to bear in mind… I’ve been putting together my own list as of late, just trying to embrace the beautiful simple things more often than not. It can get hard in these hectic modern lives we lead, can’t it!
Hello again 🙂
I very much appreciated your post this week. I also enjoy reading your blog, but I was very much comforted by this post. Sometimes life is all crazy and out of whack and you become exasperated by it, but your head can still be full of dreams–some that can and some that cannot be. All in all you just keep trying, and it is comforting to read or hear when others you thought had it all figured out are really just trying to figure it out too.
To be honest though, I don’t think the dreaming or hopes for change (either in yourself or others) ever does change or if that balance will be found…but at least you know you’ll always aspire for more in life 🙂
P.S. Are you going to post that cookie recipe? It sounded fantastic!
I’m so enamored with your film images. And I love these compact little snippets of wisdom.
Fantastic photos!!! And thank you for your words of wisdom. Perfect food for thought for Monday morning.
beautiful words + beautiful photos. thank you!
thank you so much for sharing these thoughts. Many of them hit my heart and had that little voice in my head saying “PAY ATTENTION HERE, you need to learn/re-learn these too!”
@Jamie – I’ll be re-reading them right along side you. 🙂
Your writing is as lovely as your blog – calming and thought provoking. I loved all the things you learned, but I have to say, “When in doubt, read a good book,” is my favorite. It’s SO true!
@Mikaela – Thanks so much. I appreciate your kind words.
great thoughts 🙂 it hard to remember but true. recipe for that cookie you mentioned?
@Mary Jo – Still working on perfecting the recipe. Will post when I’ve done so. 🙂
Beautifully, beautifully put. Thank YOU.
This has my mouth watering. My mother-in-law raises honey bees and we receive a good amount of honey throughout the year. I now have a refreshing cool drink to serve on the hottest days. Thank you.
I just adore the film shots. Do you have a super-dooper scanner?
@Kate – Thanks! Nope, just a great photo lab. They give me a disc of the scans.
your blog is great! ……..and do you really have a wood fired pizza oven in that picture? envy.
@Jaime – I wish. That’s at the pizza restaurant near our house.
Inspiring. It always amazes me to find that people who I think so highly of and seem so thoroughly together and obviously talented have self doubt and struggle too. My internal monologue has been very similar lately. Thank you for sharing these thoughts and continuing to post your film photos–they (and you) are lovely.
@Britt – Thanks for such a heart felt comment Britt. I have found in reassuring at times when people whom I’ve labeled as “having it all together” come clean about doubts and insecurities. I don’t want to deceive anyone that I am free of those toxic thoughts but what I do want to do is learn from them, grow through them and encourage others with similar emotions.
I love this list. Love it.
I just found your website! My friend Crystal, is being taught by one of your parents, who told her about this site. Oh my gosh, I need a boodle of time to just peruse everything here. Love it!!!
this post is so poignant and true!! thank you and God bless you!