Inventory Blowout Sale

If you are following me on Instagram and/or Facebook, you'll know that last week I promised an inventory blowout sale. I had a little hiccup in my timing due to an injury my kiddo sustained at summer camp but all's well and it's time for the sale! I am clearing out all of my inventory!

4x6 Photo Names:

Beach Light, Single Dahlia, Charming & Chandelier, Triple Dahlias; Acorn Caps, Enchanted Lanterns, Honey Leaves, Old Singer, Loads of Ranunculus, Purple Eventide (one left), Red Longboard

8x10 Photo Names (not pictured):

Enchanted Lanterns (2), Loads of Ranunculus (1)

8x12 Photo Names:

Acorn Caps, Baby Succulent, Beach Light, Birch Trees in Winter, Charming & Chandelier; Cove Creek Canoe, Farmers Grapes, Gift of Love, Loads of Ranunculus; Nature's Color Combos, Old Singer, Portland Cherry Trees, Purple Eventide, Red Trike, Seagrass; The Prettiest Tree, Tissue Paper, Enchanted Lanterns (one left)

Everything is buy one, get two free until they are all gone. My 4x6s are $10 and my 8x12s are $30. I will remove photos from the gallery as they run out so if you see it, it is still available. To purchase, email sweet dot eventide at yahoo dot com with the names of the photos you want and your PayPal address. Once payment is received, I will ship within two business days.

I do not have a photo, but I also have six Loads of Ranunculus iPhone 4/4S cases left. They are imperfect, with minor scratches or minor color issues so I never sold them. They are $20 each which is 50% off the normal price.

After this sale, I will not be offering these sizes again! Snap them up while you can. The 4x6s are awesome on an inspiration board.

Dahlia Love

Hello friends, I am traveling this week so I wanted to leave you some pretty dahlias in my absence.

Do you have any dahlias in your garden?

Brave Intuitive Painting

Two weeks ago (or so), I stumbled on Flora Bowley's book Brave Intuitive Painting on a library trip for the Noodle. Having just been to the open house for Soul Shine Studio, it definitely caught my eye. It was the final sign in a growing list of things calling me to try painting during 2013.

I've painted approximately nine layers now. For the past four layers, (two of which went horribly wrong and taught me the term "overworking"), I've been wanting and hoping and waiting for something, anything to "emerge" from my layers. I was stuck on my imagery. I sure as heck didn't want to paint some random flower or branch or worse, a bird, on my painting. I want my painting to be organic, seriously organic.

Then it happened today. I woke up and was working on the dark blue sections and would you look at that! A bird showed up. I am so over birds on things. I live in Portland, come ON! But I'm going with it. I stared at the bird and instantly thought it looked more like a peacock. So I started reading up on peacocks and their symbolism: "Seeing a peacock in your dreams is a symbol of spring, birth and new growth. A peacock is a symbol of a good omen, signaling prestige and success and contentment with your career."

Suffice it to say, I am in love with painting. It's so different from photography. It has nothing to do with my business. It's offline, analog, trust, faith; it's swirly colors and finger prints and pretty drips; it's maddening some of the time and exhilarating the rest of the time. I wake up and think about my painting.

"Unused creativity manifests as grief in our bodies."

Brené Brown

This is good stuff that I'm doing. It's all working together this summer: I'm taking in less information, I'm taking a break from my personal Facebook, I'm taking a break from business. I know it's leading me somewhere better because this is me listening to my needs. I have no idea what's next: in my business, in my life, in my painting. It's okay. For once, the not knowing is okay.

If you want to know more about Brave Intuitive Painting, this video of Flora painting is absolutely delicious. I've watched it about seven times so far.

Trillium Lake, Oregon

I have heard about Trillium Lake and I have seen other people's photos of Trillium Lake. Now I have my own stories to tell and a few photographs of my own.

Little known fact: swimming in lakes scares me. I swam in Detroit Lake last summer and Trillium Lake this summer. The moment where I feel my fears the most is when the water temperature drops and the color of the water gets black. In other words, when the lake gets deep!

Stories from the past week: hosting a family party for 14 in my perfectly imperfect house, seeing the kids sound asleep on the attic floor in Nana's room, going camping without my husband and pitching the tent with my sister-in-law's awesome and patient help, trying to work my husband's backpacking stove in the dark with my mother-in-law so we would know how to make our coffee in the morning, hearing my Noodle laughing and smiling with his cousins, having diving contests off the rocks into Trillium Lake, climbing around the dock where folks were fishing for rainbow trout, lips turning blue, going back to camp to warm up by the fire, my idea to raise the bar on my s'mores by putting the chocolate inside the marshmallow prior to roasting...

Summer is in full swing here in Oregon...see you next Friday!

Three Rules to Live By

I have a card on my inspiration board with a Ralph Waldo Emerson quote on it. It's a reminder of three simple rules to live by and I never regret following them.

Live in the sunshine,

swim the sea,

drink the wild air...

These rules to live by are good year-round, but during an Oregon summer? No excuses. Which brings me to an announcement: I'm going to switch my blog schedule to posting on Fridays only through Labor Day. I want to get out there and drink the wild air, not be indoors on a laptop. Thank you for understanding!

The Declaration of You: Success

Special note: The Declaration of You, published by North Light Craft Books, is available now and gives readers all the permission they've craved to step passionately into their lives, discover how they and their gifts are unique and uncover what they are meant to do! This post is part of The Declaration of You's BlogLovin' Tour, which I'm honored to participate in alongside over 300 other creative bloggers. Learn more -- and join in by clicking here.

When I was approached to contribute to The Declaration of You BlogLovin’ Tour on the topic of success, I said “Absolutely!” immediately after reading the email. And immediately after that, I thought, “OMFG.”

I am not even going to lie to you all, that is exactly what I thought. Exactly like this lady, whose photo someone didn't keep, thereby enabling me to buy it at an antique store and pin it above my desk for moments just like this.

The reason I had such a wild set of reactions is due to the ongoing conflict that exists between my heart and my head. My heart said YES without any hesitation whatsoever. Then, my head bullied its way in and took over for awhile.

This is what I wrote when I accepted the invitation to write about success for the BlogLovin' Tour:

“Success is a challenging topic for me in some ways but not others, so I'm grateful for the lead time to think.”

After preparing to write this post, I have a renewed clarity and sense of authenticity around success. I will tell you what success means to me. But first let me tell you about how I recently lost my way.

For the past three months, I have narrowly and wholly defined success as getting an A+ on a Giant Metric Test Fest (so that I could then advance to the Giant Consumerist Society Test Fest). You see, I had made a business plan for Sweet Eventide Photography, and I had outlined my goals for the second quarter of this year (in a gouache painting no less). Then I dutifully began doing a number of things that I thought would help me meet these goals:

I was blogging consistently on my pretty new blog/portfolio website!

I was including a short description before my photos to improve my SEO!

I was creating and launching a new product that represented my mission!

I was out shooting new work!

I was making treasuries to increase my visibility on Etsy!

I was trying to think like my customer!

I was actively maintaining my Facebook page by asking questions and posting a photo with my links in the comments!

I was still dealing with the Chris Benz/Lancôme/Saks copyright infringement drama!

(Oh wait, that wasn't one of my quarterly or annual goals)!

Hold up, wait a minute, let me put some boom in it!

(Sorry I couldn’t resist.)

Do you know what I was not doing in April, May or June?

I was not making the quarterly goals!

I was flunking the Giant Metric Test Fest!

I was not selling a damn thing!

Okay, that’s an exaggeration. I sold 12 things over these three months. That is an average of one, yes, ONE sale per week. One sale per week does not a thriving, profitable business make. I was very aware of this fact every excruciating minute of the second quarter of 2013. I was studying my ass off but failing the Giant Metric Test Fest anyway.

While I was not making enough sales and when I was not throwing my hands in the air, I was either reading the umpteenth article on how to run my business or obsessively refreshing my stats. Over the past year, I have purposefully created a symbiotic relationship between me and my business. I even made a Venn diagram to illustrate how I was in the middle between my life and my business. You see, I want to have an authentic, soulful business because I am an authentic, soulful human. This is a lofty idea but it can cause trouble if you’re not careful. I was not careful and I was defining myself by Sweet Eventide’s success or failure. (Although it took writing this post to realize that is exactly what happened.)

Towards the end of the Giant Metric Test Fest, I got the request to write about success. I also happened to have a light bulb moment about my need to divorce information, because the way I consume information comes from a place of lacking and it divorces me from my heart.

I do not want to be divorced from my heart. because my heart knows that the kind of success that is not a challenge for me to think and write about is life success. It is only when I measure myself against the standard, traditional life path that I come up wildly short. I didn’t go through college in four years, I didn’t choose a degree that led to a career where I worked my way up the ladder, I didn’t get married, buy a house, have two kids, in that order and build a nest egg all along the way.

No, instead I took 10 years to get through college. I married the wrong person the first time. I bought a starter house and went back to renting instead of upgrading. I am building a business around a passion and a gift and it has nothing to do with my degree. So maybe I don’t have all that career and money success stuff figured out yet, but guess what? I have some important life success stuff figured out already.

I know that being in a four-year durable remission has allowed me to graduate to annual oncology checkups, without scans. This is a special, incomparable level of success for a cancer survivor.

I know that my second marriage is based on love, friendship, respect, admiration, honesty and awesome communication and it has a solid decade behind it as a foundation for the future decades.

I know that my son is growing up in a stable home with two loving parents, who make mistakes and admit them, try new things and get help when it is needed.

I know that the incredible, wise and utterly beautiful circle of family and friends that surround me offline and online are a clear reflection of incredible, wise and utterly beautiful ME.

I know that when I listen to my heart and trust it, I am not only on the right path. I am on the only path that matters.

I know that I'm on the right path when one of my lovely customers said, "Your stuff is stunning. Seriously. What you are giving to the world is beautiful and thought provoking. That's what you need to focus on and remember. I spend 10 hours a day in a grey cubicle doing meaningless work. But it pays the bills, right? You are infusing the world with glorious and uplifting images."

I know that when I choose self-care over housework that I have made a good choice that day.

I know that when I open the door and invite people into my wabi sabi home for good company or a simple meal that I have made a better choice that day.

I know that when I keep my patience and encourage my child, or any child, that I have made the best choice that day.

I know that when I tell my son that anger is powerful and scary but love is more powerful and infinitely stronger that I am giving him a gift that I did not receive as a child.

I know that every day, no matter how little sleep I have gotten or what is ahead of me, that I wake up and open my eyes with an internal sense of hope and optimism that my wonky life path has never managed to squash.

I know to look for light and beauty everywhere I go because I have seen plenty of darkness and ugliness.

I know that when a life ends, metrics and money are meaningless.

I know that on the Giant Life Test Fest, I have earned my A+ and that is how I define success!

You can watch The Declaration of You book trailer right here!

Thank you Michelle and Jessica from the bottom of my heart for inviting me to be a part of your colorful, beautiful BlogLovin' Tour!

Unconferencing the World Domination Summit

For the past three days in Portland, my town was filled with World Domination Summit (WDS) attendees. Many of my favorite online people travel to Portland for the conference and I visited with as many of them as I could in between their events. (It turns out there was a name for what I was doing, "unconferencing" and there was even a hashtag #unwds going all weekend for it.)

Let yourself shine, even if you don't always feel shiny inside! That's what I did!

I went to the Soul Shine Studio Open House. I went to The Declaration of You book party to support my friend and former coach Michelle Ward and my local namesake Jessica Swift. Today is my last event, a luncheon with my soul sisters from Hello Soul, Hello Business last year. I went to two meet-ups and met many very interesting people. I pushed myself way out of my comfort zone and I am beyond proud of my introverted self for her bravery.

I am also thrilled to announce that Michelle and Jess have asked me to contribute a post this week for the BlogLovin' Tour for The Declaration of You for Success Week. My post will be live on Wednesday, July 10, 2013 right here. I am in stellar company this week with Kelly Rae Roberts and Jennifer Lee, two women I admire and respect and I have even been their students. I have been reading my signed (with love) copy of the book and it's beautiful, colorful and heartening. I highly recommend it! They have a Vimeo channel which I have been thoroughly enjoying!

See you here on Wednesday to talk about success!

Inspiring and Motivating Sayings

My neighbor uses the stairs leading up to her front door as a place for inspiring and motivating sayings. Isn't that a great way to remind yourself of something every time you come and go? These are a few things for which I could use daily reminders:

Patience is a Virtue Play Now, Clean Later Never Give Up More is More Take a Walk

What do you need reminding about right now?

Farm Fresh Raspberries and a 4th of July Wish

The essence of summer in the Pacific Northwest for me is time spent on Kruger's Farm on Sauvie Island, listening to various bands, eating ripe berries, roasted corn, dancing with my sweety in the field, watching children giggle and run around, feeling the soft summer air, breathing deep, watching the sun go down in glorious colors.

I wish you all a happy 4th of July tomorrow, I've been pinning some festive 4th of July treats and things if you need some last-minute ideas. Not everyone feels joyful on holidays, I think of those mourning the loss of loved ones and for you I have a special wish for tomorrow: find those moments where your heart is not heavy and hold on to that feeling at the molecular level. Take that berry and savor it for the one you are missing. Dress up your corn and eat it in rows or around the cob, just the way they would. Send a wish up to the skies with every sparkler, send love out with every explosion of fireworks and color in the sky.

Never Too Late

I might have been and can still be:

an athlete, a baker, a mentor, an author, a traveler, a teacher, an urban farmer, a ballerina, a graduate student.

What can you still be?

Vote for Your Favorite Edit: Wheat Fields

I photographed a wheat field during my trip to Adelman's Peony Farm this year. I need your help because I liked several edits. Take a look at the original, plus three options and then leave your opinion in a comment.  I will list the most popular vote in my shop, marked as a Reader's Choice.

original

sepia

dreamy

pastel

Thanks for your help!

Tenth Wedding Anniversary

Today is our 10th wedding anniversary.

We were new parents, I had started chemotheraphy six days prior to this photograph being taken. I was afraid of losing my hair so with much help, we planned a wedding in six short days. I debated about the date as it was the anniversary of my father's death in 1998. I decided to make a new memory on that date, a happy one and it worked like a charm. I don't dread June 21st, I love it. Our son was barely six weeks old on the day we got married. My aunt held him during our ceremony, and Jeff's mom took him overnight so we could go to San Francisco for a little one-night getaway. We went out to dinner two blocks from our hotel in Union Square dressed in our wedding clothes. People thought we were in costume, but we were for real. We are still for real.

I still love our vows, here is an excerpt:

I will laugh with you

and cry with you.

I will love you faithfully

through the best and the worst,

through the difficult and the easy.

What may come

I will always be there.

As I have given you my hand to hold

so I give you my life to keep.

June 21st has a distant bitter taste, wrapped in a joyous celebration with a side of summer solstice this year.

Divorcing Information

I had a wonderful conversation with my mother-in-law on our way to Astoria last weekend. We talked, for the umpteenth time over the course of 10 years, about how my intuition is the weakest muscle in my life. I told myself, "it is even a part of my personality type, having weak intuition." I rely very much on information, I rely way too much. When faced with uncertainty or fear, I look outward for information, hoping to gain confidence and reassurance in my decision making. I don't even think about it, I simply seek. My information-seeking muscle is so strong, it requires no thought in order to flex it.

Intuition by Paper Whistle on Society 6

As Betty and I drove along Highway 30 towards Astoria, discussing my lifelong struggle to trust myself to know what is right, the conversation naturally meandered to the fact that I clearly recognize that until I start trusting myself, this muscle will remain weak. And that's when the proverbial light bulb moment arrived. I said (without over thinking), "I am in a bad marriage with information. I need to divorce it."

I've had that phrase ringing in my ears all week long...as I unsubscribe from this email list or that one (no offense people!) or unlike this Facebook page or that one. These are easy decisions for me now. "Divorce it! Divorce it!" I whisper to myself as I click. I have not even seen the effects of a less-crowded in-box yet, but I trust that they are going to be positive effects and arriving soon. On a daily basis, I bring in so much external feedback, it's absolutely overwhelming and paralyzing at times. I seek information on everything from mothering to food to climate change to politics to photography and entrepreneurship. Looking outward for business advice, particularly marketing, is leading me astray from my biggest strength: ME.

I know it's not going to be easy, but I'm looking forward to growing my intuition muscle and the relief of letting go of my fears. I will often state goals and dreams out loud as a way to take the next step in the process. Usually I just say it out loud to my darling husband but this time, it's blog worthy because of the business piece. I have been feeling for quite some time now that there is some "missing piece," some "thing" that was holding me back in business. I have sought and sought and sought that missing piece. I thought more and more information was the way to figure it out. We'll see what happens as I divorce information and open the door to ME.

I am 42 years old and I'm ready to trust myself.

Field Trip: Astoria, Part Two

I mentioned on Monday that Astoria reminded me of San Francisco. The day was clear, sunny and crisp with a gusty bay breeze. There were hilly streets with historic Victorian homes and a thriving art scene. I was camera happy all day between the rainbow painted utility meters to the garbage cans with vintage typography and the bridge, oh the bridge! Enjoy more of my Astoria photographs!

Tell me, are you about to book a vacation to Astoria now?

P.S. While I was editing the very last photo in this post, I though there was a lot of dust in it.

As I zoomed in, I realized every "speck of dust" was a bird in flight! Cool! :-)

Field Trip: Astoria

This weekend, two little dreams came true: I went on a field trip to Astoria and I got to ride in a Mini Cooper. My mother-in-law Betty arrived from CA Friday night and was game to go exploring on Saturday with me. She rented the car and we had a super fun day! I hope you enjoy these photos of a pretty store's outdoor display and all the old signage that can be seen in historic Astoria, Oregon.

I will have more photos to share so I'll post those on Wednesday. I hope you'll return to see the rest. Have you ever been to Astoria? It really reminded me of San Francisco.

Field Trip: Adelman's Peony Farm

Peonies, peonies, peonies.I highly recommend visiting a peony farm at least once per year.

Happy weekend!

Peony Intoxication

I made it out to the peony farm today!

Friday's post will be chock-full of goodness like this, I promise.

Flowers really do intoxicate me. -- Vita Sackville-West

Market Peonies

Sadly, on Saturday morning a migraine foiled my peony farm field trip plans with Chelsea. But I did go looking for 400 mg bottles of riboflavin at the natural foods market because my friend (who is a physician) told me it significantly reduces migraines if taken regularly. Lucky for me, the market had a beautiful florist on site, Espe Floral even though they didn't have the riboflavin. Elizabeth was a joy to chat with and we gushed over her peonies and exchanged business cards.

Aren't they divine? I'm trying to reschedule my field trip. And wouldn't you know, I bumped into Espe Floral on Chelsea's Instagram photos from the peony farm. The floral world is small and beautiful.

Butterfly Kisses Etsy Treasury

I've been busy today making lots of treasuries to promote my female Photogaphers of Etsy (fPOE) team. My first one today was in Caitlin's honor, and I called it Butterfly Kisses. It's full of purple, pink, butterflies and rainbows, some of Caitlin's favorite things.  

Did you know it really helps my visibility on Etsy if you click on my treasuries and favorite them? I would really appreciate it if you have a few minutes to do that. Here's one inspired by the anticipation of school getting out! Woohoo summer is on its way...

The sunshine has returned to Portland and I'm going to the peony farm tomorrow. I hope you have a wonderful weekend planned too!

Highlights from the Past Seven Mays

I've been blogging for a long time now. Very rarely do I go back and read what I have written, so today I am doing just that! Here are some highlights from the past seven Mays on Sweet Eventide.

May 2006: the one where I taught my son to chew gum.

May 2007: the one where my son taught me about his sister.

May 2008: the one of many where I share my dad's poetry.

May 2009: the one where I pretended I was on a beach in Italy.

May 2010: the one where I visited Portland to research neighborhoods.

May 2011: the one where I talk about stress and how important it is to breathe.

May 2012: the one where I tell everyone that I quit my day job.

I hope you had as much fun going through the blog archives as I did!