I Am Enough

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Have you read this series of posts on Tracey Clark's site called I am enough? I found it last night. It is some powerful stuff. I wanted to share it with you all in case you hadn't seen it.



This entry by Jen Lemen really moved me: "I am enough even when I don't understand." I am big on the understanding of things and in the meantime, I kind of hold back on the self-love. I clearly have a bit of work to do right there and it's not very easy to admit it.

These are three very powerful words if you truly own them in your heart: I am enough. I was re-reading my Blog It Forward post last night and the comments everyone left for me. Just so you all know, the comments are a gift that keep on giving. Thank you for keeping me company in this space, especially when I am a little vulnerable. Reading the comments again helped me realize that little old Jess is enough. I don't have to be anyone else but me!

I'm All Over the Place

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Hi friends! Today you can find me doing a little Client Show & Tell over at the When I Grow Up Coach blog. Please click over to hear the full story about my SIL's beautiful succulents.

Lulu's Succulents

I have a couple of other things to tell you. First, I was beyond giddy to discover that one of my photographs, Tutu's Tree, was featured on decor8's Etsy Take Five Tuesday this week! Second, I wanted to share a tweet I saw just this morning about frozen berry and coffee ice cubes. 

This divine image is © Bonnie Forkner

Seeing how the temps skyrocketed here yesterday all of a sudden, I'm in need of fresh, frozen ideas and we just stocked up on berries at the farmers market last night! And I always have coffee. :) What is your favorite way to cool down?

Alphabet Walk Blog Hop: O

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Today I'm participating in the Alphabet Walk Blog Hop hosted by Piper at One Sydney Road. Basically you signed up for a certain letter, "grab your walking shoes and camera"and take pictures of things that represent the letter you chose.


I chose the letter O and the whole time I was shooting for this project, I had this classic  Sesame Street song playing in my head. "How would you like to buy an O? Round and neat, a nearly perfect circle, tidy & complete."

The most predominant word that comes to my mind for the letter O is the color orange. I used to really hate orange but we made up years ago. The other thing that came to mind is a car wash one town south of me that I drive by all the time.

a local restaurant sets up for lunch

another clean, classic flower arrangement at Vanilla Moon

my sweet friend gave me these sweet orange slices last night

the O car wash


I hope you enjoyed my view of the letter O!

A Weekend Report

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Good morning! I had an interesting weekend so I thought I'd tell you a little bit about it. Friday night, I went up to San Francisco to Rare Device for the Pin It Forward party hosted by Victoria of sfgirlbybay and Pinterest.


I got all dressed up in a swirly black dress and high heels. I had a little boo-boo on my shin so I borrowed one of the Noodle's pirate band-aids at the last second. My husband couldn't get over that so he took a picture for me.

feeling a little bit punk rock

This weekend we also went to a summer pool party for one of the Noodle's bestest friends. It was classic and there was an underwater scavenger hunt which I thought was one of the coolest ideas ever. Yesterday the boys and Nana went kayaking in 

Elkhorn Slough while I stayed behind at Nana's house to prepare for my group career coaching with Michelle.

The homework this week was to work with the classic book Do What You Are. Now I've taken the lengthy type test way back in 1999 or so in college and I was an INFJ. But I really wonder if I was answering the questions for how I wish I was vs. how I actually am back when I was 19. I am very, very, very clearly an ISFJ now. I am sharing this because for awhile now I have been feeling very out of touch with my intuition about many things in my life. I have been judging myself pretty hard because my intuition is not strong.

Well last night, I did some further reading in the book (beyond what I needed to do for my coaching homework) and it turns out that for ISFJs, intuition is the weakest part of the personality! Blow me down people! So this is eye-opening to say the least! Now I can stop judging myself and start helping myself strengthen that part. This has so many implications, most obviously as I continue my path towards work but in all areas of life including parenthood. Another very interesting thing about ISFJs is that they get overwhelmed with the big picture and I think this is very evident with my photography even. It is no wonder that I am not a landscape photographer!

The last thing from this weekend to share is this wonderful, amazing film Jeff and I watched last night.


It was completely charming and funny and beautiful. Great soundtrack too!

Now I must go because I am hosting the Noodle's first sleepover today with the party princess from the weekend pool party. We had a playdate planned for today for weeks but I woke up and turned it into a sleepover and the Noodle doesn't know about it yet! He ended up sleeping over at Nana's last night and he's not home yet. I think you will hear his gleeful screams as soon as I tell him.

Did you have a good weekend?

Blue Skies

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I know it's late in the day but I wanted to wish you all a wonderful weekend. Here we celebrate Independence Day and have a long weekend. We'll be spending it with the extended family and the Noodle will be with his cousins which is going to be nice for him.


Lots of things wrapping up this week, including Summer Colours Week with Poppytalk and Flying Lessons with Kelly Rae. This is the first color week I haven't really participated in which was really hard for me actually. I'm not one to turn down a creative photo challenge!

This weekend I'm going to try to do a little bit of organizing around the house -- wish me luck! See you back here next week.

Guest Post: Elaine

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Hey hi! I'm Elaine and I'm subbing for Jess today on her last day of vacation. Jess mentioned inspiration when she asked me to fill in for her and you know, the timing couldn't be better.

Lately I can't stop playing this game of trying to figure out how to elevate my daily schlep. Anything that strikes my fancy, I love using as a source of inspiration. When an idea hits me over the head, figuring out how to make it work is ridiculously entertaining. It takes the edge off all follow-up emails and excel spreadsheets. You know what I mean.

Case in point: recently I can't get enough of this image of Angelica Houston from the new book featuring '60s and '70s hairdresser Ara Gallant's amazing work. I spent a few good minutes staring at it when i first saw it.

I'm in love with everything going on here. Simultaneously it's spare and lush, hard and soft, shiny and powdered, subtle and arresting, deep and flat...it's like, whoa.

To wait for holiday would be a cop-out and I'm not willing to be patient for that long. Besides, ideas are free and after newly born, they have limited shelf life. So this is how I'd go about to trying it: grey embellished tank top, dark rinse denim, distressed lace-up boots and a single bracelet. Busting out the curling iron would soften the edge of the jeans and boots. I'd finish up with sheer-textured color on the mouth and eyes. SO...FUN.

Although this picture is from the '70s disco era and I like it a little bit '90s punky, it easily translates to ladylike J. Crew, Anthropologie and Banana Republic, don't you think? One picture, a million ways to run with it. I'll be thinking about it for a few more days, I'm sure.

Guest Post: Elaine

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Hey there! I'm Elaine and I'll be your blogging host for today.

Sweet Eventide readers, more than usual, Iately I can't get enough of figuring out how to make the inspirational accessible to my everyday life. I see something I love and immediately my mind rushes to figure out how I can wear it, make it or decorate like it. For me, this on-going series of puzzles gets me through my days filled with follow-up emails and excel spreadsheets. I need to look at pretty things to get me through the day.

Case in point: recently I can't get enough of this image featuring Angelica Houston from the new book featuring the amazing work of '60s and '70s hairdresser Ara Gallant.

Can you say "GOR-geous?!" I can't help but fall in love with all the things going on in here. It's all at once spare and lush, hard and soft, shiny and powdered, subtle and arresting, deep and flat...oh I could go on and on.

Although this would be amazing reference for holiday, I'm not ready to wait that long.
I think this is how I'm gonna do it. Grey/silver embellished tank top,



Gust post : Jacqueline

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Hello and happy Friday! This is Jacqueline from So Cute It Hurts. I'm a crafter and blogger from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, visiting you here today while sweet Jess is away enjoying her Mexico holiday. I'm both thrilled and delighted to be here as i'm a huge fan of Jess's inspirational photography.

A solid potion of my world is dominated by a specific spectrum of color. I'm aware of the fact that i'm drawn to color in general, but most recently i've noticed a lot more of one particular color range ~ white to pink with a little mix of maroon. Most of my color inspiration comes from flowers around my little studio and the house.

One of the qualities that i enjoy most about flowers are their ability to embody a different meaning, mood, feelings for each individual bouquet. Here's a glimpse to some of my color inspiration that inspires each of my creations. I hope you enjoy!





Thank you kindly for having me sweet Jess! Wishing you a wonderful happy merry family holiday! Lots of love to you and yours!

Puerto Morelos

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Hi everyone! I scheduled this post for you in my absence to show you a little of Puerto Morelos, the town that is closest to where we are staying. I am looking forward to sharing my own images with you, but until then, enjoy these.





Image credits top to bottom: Andrea Peverali, David Clarke, jhenryrose, ChrisGoldNY

You can find many more dreamy images in the Puerto Morelos Flickr pool. Take a dip! :)

Guest Post: Erin

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Please give a warm welcome my first guest poster, Erin of the amazing and delicious fresh365 food blog. I hope you all enjoy all of the wonderful ladies who have agreed to contribute to Sweet Eventide while I am away. I can't wait to catch up when I get home!

Hello! I am Erin from fresh365 and Jess has kindly invited me to share on Sweet Eventide while she is enjoying her Mexican getaway. I am delighted to be here, as I always find so much inspiration and joy when looking at Jess’s photography. Born and raised on the east coast, I particularly love looking (with longing!) at her shots in and around California.

Today, I thought I would share with you a few shots I took when playing tourist in my own city, Boston, earlier this spring. The trees were just beginning to bloom and it was a beautiful, warm day in the city. I hope you enjoy!







© fresh365, All Rights Reserved.


Thanks for having me Jess and have an amazing trip!

An Evening Walk

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Yesterday we had the end-of-year class party and learner exhibition, which is where the kids present some of the things they've been studying. In the Noodle's class, it was the California Redwoods. My boys headed home before me, so I walked home. I happened to leave right around eventide and I happened to have my camera with me. Lucky me.




These images are SOOC (straight out of the camera), look at the way the light is oozing through that leaf! This 20-minute walk was one of the most peaceful experiences I have had recently.


And talking about luck! If you head over to Michelle Ward's highly inspirational When I Grow Up blog, you can win lots of good stuff this week in her Great Giveway -- including a little something from me!

Happy Weekend!

Flickr Vacation: Mexico

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In six days, we will be going on our first international vacation as a family. We are heading south of Cancun, Mexico for a beautiful destination wedding. I needed to take a little Flickr vacation to Mexico today though because I've been way too busy with end-of-year school activities.

all photos © Robert Crum

Have you ever been to Mexico?



P.S. You can also see Robert's photography in his Flickr photostream.

Willow Baus Etsy Shop

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I had no idea when I bought the red love boat in Portland that it was from an Etsy shop owner. I knew from the hangtag that it was made in Portland, which appealed, but it was pure coincidence that I was visiting Etsy yesterday when the Willow Baus teepee on the front page of Etsy yesterday. I added it to my favorites right away but it took another 24 hours for me to connect all the dots: the teepee shop made the love boat!

Am I ever glad I saved the hang tag!



I want a real Danish Floral Sailboat someday! Isn't that the best thing about quality toys? How they work with your imagination and truly carry you away somewhere special.

Love Boat

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I wanted to bring home just the perfect souvenir from Portland for my sweet Noodle. I was scouting the Sellwood neighborhood and wandered into Spielwork Toys. It was a wonderful toy store full of wooden, imaginative and open-ended toys. I spent a full hour trying to decide what to bring home.


The love boat stole my heart right off the bat, handmade in Portland and seemingly the epitome of how much I missed my little boy. Also it reminded me of another little wooden sailboat I gave him last summer. When I gave it to him, I said, "So do you like it?" and he said, "I don't like it. I LOVE IT."

Now we are on the hunt for a little creek to set sail.