Lessons from the Public Toilet

I bet you’re a little scared right now.

During a late dinner out last night, I walked into a restroom to find a girl fist-pumping, rocking out to whatever song was on the radio. She immediately froze when she saw me, started to apologize, and then said, “You know…it’s been a horrible week.”

To which I said, “You know, sometimes you just got to rock it out.”

I’m pretty sure she started dancing again as soon as I went into a stall.

What about you? Do you need to do some rocking out today?

love, elizabeth

Kate

My maid of honor, Kate, is flying in tonight so we can spend the whole weekend being 14 again. Or maybe we'll be super sophisticated like this.

Source: parisapartment.wordpress.com via Elizabeth on Pinterest

Knowing Kate...it'll be a little A, a little B.

I can't WAIT to blog about it!

Thursday is almost half gone. How did THAT happen?

love, elizabeth

Starving Artist

Creative people have heard the cliché. The truth is, being an artist of any kind makes earning a living wage difficult, hence the whole…starving thing.

But what I think we forget is that young artists are sometimes starving for other things like encouragement…response…hope… We love art in all its shapes and sizes and for all the ways it enriches our lives. I wonder, though, if all the artists I loved and admired had felt so discouraged that they gave up, how much would be missing from my life?

I’m one of those people who is fortunate enough to be surrounded by creative, hard-working people all the time. I think I take that for granted. So in the spirit of loving artistry and craft and creativity, I’m starting something new called Starving Artist. It’s a bi-monthly post featuring a new, young artist and their work. It could be in any creative field…music, dance, performance, film, visual art, writing, design, craft…

To kick things off, I’d like to recommend Emily Jeziorski’s historical romance…

Source: google.com via Elizabeth on Pinterest

 

Mack & Moira

When Mackenzie Cruz makes an unbelievable discovery in the turn-of-the-century New York home she’s just purchased, she is plunged into a world long gone, a world of swishing skirts and fast-talking working men and boarding school secrets and a love story that was never supposed to happen…

Moira stood, rooted in place for one long moment before she caught Jack’s lips curving up into another grin. She smacked him across the face; her hand stinging as it made contact with his cheek.

“Oy!” Jack cried, rubbing his face. “What the hell is dat for?”

“How dare you!” she exclaimed, feeling the blush rise up her neck. “Of all of the rude, uncouth…”

It was Maxine’s turn to intervene as the carriage pulled up. “It’s been a gas, fellas,” she said grabbing Moira’s hand and giving a swift tug, “but as we were saying, it’s time to call it a night. Long ride back to…” she looked at Samantha and Caroline who shrugged, unable to supply another borough’s name, “wherever we’re going.”

It’s exciting, sweeping, and really, really funny…and you can follow the whole story by visiting Emily’s website here. I couldn’t stop reading and I think you’ll love it, too…If you do, be sure to email her or leave a comment of encouragement/reaction for her here! This is a great chance to watch an amazing novel from its beginnings…

Photo credit

….

Would you like to be a featured Starving Artist?

Are you a songwriter? A poet? A graphic novel illustrator? A fashion designer? A filmmaker? A photographer? Are you an Etsy artisan? The list goes on and on…

If you’d like to be featured here, please send me an email at loveisadventure@gmail.com. I’d love to post your video or painting or poetry or a sample of any other kind of media you might like to share. Maybe this is an opportunity for some exposure or a chance to meet a potential new audience or just get some encouragement/love from other creative people!

Because really…aren’t we all starving for something just a little, wanting someone to love what we create, what we put our hearts into?

Wishing you a creative Wednesday…

love, elizabeth

Giveaway Winner, etc.

First of all…I am so happy to announce that Mrs. Pancakes won the Valentine’s Day Giveaway! Mrs. Pancakes, email me your contact info when you have a chance and I will get this in the mail to you right away…

Secondly, and this one seems obvious…the blog has gotten a little face-lift (we have a new ‘about us’ page, too). I’m still in the process of re-designing buttons and widgets but I’m really excited to have the new header up. My poor, sweet husband endured a lengthy photography session with the absolute minimum of complaints and/or mocking.

Last, but never least, if you’ve sent me an email or left a comment recently, please expect me to respond this week! I’ve been awful about getting back to each of you promptly. I promise I am not ignoring you – your sweet thoughts and questions are so important to me and I value every single one.

Hope you’re having a good Tuesday.

love,

elizabeth

Be My Valentine: DIY

Anyone sick of me talking about Valentine’s Day yet?

This year I was craving that feeling I got when I was a little girl and used to make my own Valentines. So I got all the essentials: construction paper, Elmer’s glue, doilies, glitter. It was pretty therapeutic.

 

What about you? Any Valentine’s Day traditions for you?

love, elizabeth

Don’t Mind the Mess

Just a quick note – the blog is going through some construction/re-design right now and it’s going to be changing a lot. The current header is just a placeholder while I finish building the new one so…don’t mind me!

love, elizabeth

Please Let This Mean Something

“Better yet, folks, we can combine[social networking websites] all into one site called “knowny” which records every interaction, every movement of every person on earth and posts them online like a storm of random data points that shouts out to the blind, indifferent universe, “WE EXIST! WE EXIST! PLEASE LET THIS MEAN SOMETHING!”

- Stephen Colbert

 

Source: google.com via Elizabeth on Pinterest

 

I’m starting to feel the weight and responsibility of social media pressing down on me like so many tons of html-coded brick.

I wonder about myself and the role of things like Facebook and Twitter and sometimes even this blog in my life. What part of my identity is really revealed in these things? This probably goes hand in hand with yesterday’s post about sharing too much of your heart with the world but…I am beginning to question my attitudes toward social media.

Facebook feels like a chore and yet, I continue to log on, incessantly almost, to see if people have liked my status or tagged me in a picture or commented on the YouTube link I just posted. And then I think, What is wrong with me? Why do I care? What about all of this do I truly find self-affirming? Helpful? Healthy?

Let me be clear. This is not an attack on anyone who is totally plugged in to their Facebook and Twitter and Google Plus and Flickr and Tumblr and Pinterest and YouTube and Blogger and Instagram and so on. I can easily see all of the amazing benefits and unbelievable assets that come with living in this internet-powered decade. It’s kind of mind-boggling how connected to the world I can be with just a click of a mouse (or sometimes less). I see the advantages and I am blown away by the advances in technology that allow us to learn and grow and move with the globe in exciting, revolutionary kinds of ways.

I’m just not sure if it’s really good for me anymore. I actually find myself more and more unhappy with the role of all this stuff in my life. I don’t even want to count the hours I while away, automaton-like, moving between three or four websites like some kind of deranged robot. 

Source: google.com via Elizabeth on Pinterest

 

I find myself torn between the desire to keep up with all the cool and new and hipster and deep well of desire to shut it off, shut it down. I long to drive to the library, not for the list of books I downloaded from the online catalogue but to browse the card index, to revel in the Dewey decimal system, to press my nose to yellowed library book pages and wonder about all the people who checked this book out before me. I dream of meeting each of my Facebook friends, instead for a cup of coffee (my treat) to look them in the eye and say, “How are you? I’ve missed you.” I imagine taking my rolls of film to the Walgreens and leaving them there, sometimes for a week, before receiving a set of prints, often blurry and disappointing and unedited, but fully tangible. I remember when I didn’t text or email, what it was like to call my friends or write them a letter, to hear their voice, to trace the line of their scribbled cursive across the page. I miss that. I miss the part where people had to ask you what your favorite movie was or what you did on Saturday night. Now it’s a click to my profile and you can read a list, a summary, a form meant to condense my entire personality and self – my faith, my politics, the books I’ve read, the quotes (not mine) that are somehow meant to express my depth and worldview and profundity. It’s a strange thing.

I guess I’m looking for balance in my own existence. This is not meant to be an answer for anyone else or even for me. I will keep blogging because I love it. I will keep my Facebook because I want to keep in contact with my family far away. I will Tweet because I enjoy quipping. I love my social media. I kind of hate it, too.

What about you? Do you struggle with this? How have you chosen to find balance in your life?

love, elizabeth