After months of oogling and ogeling this camera, and the gorgeous photos of some of the artists who also use this camera, I finally got it! Meet my new Nikon D40 and my bright yellow rain boots. I’m already so in love with it. For so long now I’ve been wanting to post more photos on this blog and contribute more to Flickr, but I’ve been waiting for a chance to post them with better quality. I loved my Canon Digital Elph for the last 5 years, but lately I was having to shoot a lot of photos just to get one that wasn’t blurry. The limit of 2.0 megapixels just wasn’t working out anymore.
I took a black and white photography class in college and have always had a little bit of a passion for it. This will be so much fun to explore photography with an SLR digital camera. Oh, the possibilities!

Also, I want to make a note about yesterday’s post. I heard from one of my favorite people with concern that she had asked too much from me. I certainly hope no one misunderstood what I meant by my post.
It is very important to me to live as honestly as I can, to communicate as clearly as I can. And really I just feel bad, that I can’t do more, that I can’t visit more blogs, leave more comments, that I can’t always show as much support as I want to whether it’s through the internet or in person, that I can’t do even more for my customers, for my friends. The well has just been a bit on the empty side, that’s all. And I wanted to communicate that with you, so that there’s no confusion. (Two yoga classes this week, and painting the snow series is helping to fill it again)
While I want this blog to to stay happy and light, and filled with creativity, art and inspiration, I also, as I mentioned, want to be able to communicate freely here from time to time. I’m the kind of person that if there’s a "pink elephant" in the room, I want to point it out, especially if it’s my elephant. And I think in this case, the pink elephant is that for so many people, our plates are all just too full, and no one is saying anything about it. It is especially obvious during this holiday season, or I’ve just been watching the Today Show too much this week, where they’ve had at least 10 segments on how to make your holidays "stress free". It seems like people are just going on like this is somehow a normal way to live life, constantly depleted, with no sense of calm and peace. Granted, I do live in a big city where I probably see more of this, also why I’m wanting more peace so desperately. So, I’m calling out what I think is a "pink elephant", especially in my own life. I don’t really like to be a broken record of "finding balance". I know I’ve talked about it several times in podcasts and mentioned it here, and I realize more than ever that this is just some pattern that I’ve chosen to create in my own life. No one else is responsible for me feeling overwhelmed. On the days when you realize that your circustances have changed yet you still feel overwhelmed, that’s when you know it’s you, and not what’s outside of you. Yup, it’s ultimately all my choice ~ how I choose to feel about things. It’s a relief to know it’s my choice because this means I can change it, but it is also a curiousity to me as to why exactly I do this to myself? I just wanted to state all of this here on the blog, mostly as a reminder to me of the intention I have of changing this pattern and to let you know what’s happening over here incase you were wondering :)

I did paint another snow series and will be back to share it shortly!