Under Lavender Skies

"In photography and in life, Always look for the light - if you don't see it, bring it..." /John Waire/  You may know that photography has a lot to do with light, practically everything.  Each photo you take is created by light bouncing off an object, hitting your camera's sensor and voila a picture appears.  That is a very simple version of how a DSLR camera works.  I find that type of information, and most aspects of photography, fascinating. However, that is not what I want to write about today.  I believe, light can be one of the most beautiful things.  The way light behaves, bends, and changes every hour makes for some wonderful and challenging photography situations.  During the peak of the afternoon it is not as easy flow with the light.  Straight in the sun, photos are often filled with nothing but harsh lighting, squinting models and, I promise, other unmentioned problems.  However, there are ways to use that harsh ligh...

What Inspires You?  These days people find inspiration anywhere.  There are many ways that someone would put their work out into the world and I find it wonderful how many people put their work out there to inspire someone else.  I work in several different arts so I am always looking for many different types of inspiration. Art  We live in such an inspirational world, some days it gives me goosebumps!  Right now, outside my window the sky is enveloped in clouds.  They are littered across the sky in the most amazing way, and filled with color and texture, perfect for painting.  As an artist, clouds come naturally to me.  I love the texture of clouds and I love all the beautiful Oklahoma skies.  I am able to see inspiration every day right out my window.  Using assets like Pinterest and looking at images that inspire me is also something I do daily.  Photography Many sources inspire more than one thing for me. ...

A Short Story or a Novel?  This will be short- short and sweet as I always say. A couple of weeks ago I watched a video about short stories.  Not far into the video the person who was speaking gave her definition of what a short story is versus a novel, here's what she said: "A novel focuses on a journey that transforms the character whereas a short story focuses on an event that changes or reveals the character."  (A short story being only 2,500 words in general.)  This is good to know because it helps writers to decide if their idea is better suited for a novel or a short story. This has been on my mind for a while.  Towards the beginning I was not sure why this lingered on my mind but after awhile came up with an analogy. If you are going through a time in your life where at every corner you turn and see something rough, strange or uncertain, you need to be honest with yourself and ask yourself: is this a time in my life just an event that will ch...

Dreams In my opinion, dreams make some of the best and most interesting conversations.  It's always fun to tell someone about my dreams and hear all the interesting stories in other people's dreams as well. The fact that anything can happen in dreams makes it even better.   Another concept that interests me greatly is lucid dreaming.  Lucid dreaming is dreaming yet knowing you are in a dream.  It could be as simple as only knowing you are dreaming and can go all the way to you being able to react with dream characters and essentially control the events in your dreams. I decided this sounds very cool and I am going to try and teach myself how to lucid dream!  Lucid dreaming is like any skill, you must work on it and it will develop over time.  Before you start lucid dreaming you must be able to remember your normal dreams each night.  You might not have known that people actually dream every night, just don't remember them mo...

Poetry  I love writing in every form including poetry.  I enjoy writing and reading it so today I am going to share with you some of my favorites.   Here is one of my favorite poems that I have writen: {Light} I look in a dimly lit room There were lamps shining bright on the wall Shadows loomed in the corner standing in front of a door standing tall I open the door to the light so bright, Step outside and am illuminated in light.   -Abby f. m.  I have written many poems and I like this one because it's simple, it's not too long, yet I hope descriptive and puts an image in your head. One of my favorite poets is actually not well known at all. She goes by e.h. on all of her poems but I believe her name is Erin Hanson. She writes very beautiful words that I have mostly found on Pinterest. Here is one of my favorite poems by her: Last year, I got a little book of classic poetry for Christmas.  Two o...

Short story,  The Imaginary Journal of Sylvia H That day I woke up feeling empty and alone.  Because I was.  I was alone. Sammy forgot to wake me up that morning, and the next.  She keeps forgetting, even though two years ago she told me she would never, never forget. My name is Sylvia, my hair is black, shiny and slightly flicks out at the bottom.  There are only a few millimeters between my hair and my shoulders.  If I force my neck down I can feel the blunt ends of my hair scratch against the tops of my shoulders. Samantha got my name from some of her mother's books.  She’s never read any of them but has noticed them and seen her mother reading them many times.  Every time she asked her mother about them she would respond calmly, “The author's name is Sylvia Plath, Sammy dear.  Don’t worry about her yet, you might enjoy reading her work when you're older, you might not.  For now just wait.” Sammy listened to her mo...

Art and Beauty Short story, the Flower Bed   Every day durring the spring time after school, I like to go to a little park in the center of my neighborhood.  I sit on a bench and read, write, plan, or work on any homework.  Each day I like to sit in the same spot because right in front of where I sit is the most beautiful flower bed.  There are many different types of flowers, more than I have ever seen in one spot before.  And oh, are they beautiful.  A couple days ago a teen boy walked by the flower bed, talking with one of his friends.  He was chewing gum and I watched as he ripped a flower head off the mess of petals and stems.  He stuck his gum on the flower head and casually dropped it.  He probably would have seen my mouth drop open if he looked my way, but he didn't.  That got me thinking: is it only me who thinks that messy flower beds are the most beautiful things?  How would someone be able to overlook that? ...

Why is it so Hard Last week I wrote only a bit on change.  I didn't have much time to write so I couldn't expand as much as I would like to.  I noted how many people I know (and most people, I think) have a hard time going through large changes.  I can agree to this as well (depending how large the change is, of course).  Today I am going to go through points and reasons why I think many people have a hard time going through change.  Some are my own, unaffected opinions, and others some points I found through simple reaserch. I believe hard or large changes are good simply because they are necesary.  One would have a very hard and sad life if they were not able to go through changes and make it on the other side without awful things happening in the middle (which is actually what I think happans to many people, so let me rephrase).  One would have a very hard and sad life if they have panic attacks every time things change.  Most likely tha...

Hello friends ✋ Recently I got glasses! If you have needed glasses in the past you will know one doesn't really know they need glasses until they put them on and begin to marvel about how crisp trees and blades of grass really are!  The only reason I thought I needed glasses is because I had a hard time reading the menu at Panera and seeing the board during my spanish class, pretty important, am I right? I mean, I just stared at the trees outside for probably 3 minutes.   I have never had glasses and I kinda love new things.  Recently some things have happened that have never happened before.   No. 1, I got glasses.  No. 2,  I wrote a ballad!  I wrote a ballad for a class. In February I took a literary analysis class and for the final assignment we could pick between a couple things- an exploratory essay, a comparative essay, a ballad, etc.  I have never done anything like that before and think it was pretty fun...

Stuck? F or all of my friends who write: what do you write when you're stuck?  That is kinda how I am feeling right now; stuck.  I have many titles for possible posts that I saved as drafts but I am not sure where I was going with them when I wrote them down (I am sure it will come to me later).  As I said, I am stuck so I have decided to write about some tips I have for you if you are stuck.  Yes, I have decided to not use any of these tips and write about them instead.  (Also don't worry, not all of my posts will be about writing and books😄) Most of the time when ever I get stuck when writing (a blog post, specifically) it is because I don't have a topic.  When I find something I am interested in, enjoy, and want to write about, I am pretty much set.  I also think you have to be in the mood to write.  Ninety percent of the poems I have written were at 1 o'clock am and written with the faint glow of my alarm clock so I am able jot dow...

Books  Books.  One of my favorite conversations with some of my favorite people is talking about  books. I love hearing peoples favorite books and recommendations. I want to know  what books made you cry and which ones you would and wouldn't read again. I also prefer to read and formulate my own opinions on books that other people didn't always  love.  But lets talk about some of my favorite books and suggestions for different situations. The Great Gatsby  I read this book three days before January 1st, 2020 and finished it in three days. I also really  enjoyed it. Someone told me I wouldn't like this book so the next day I bought it and  finished it three days later ready to prove them wrong. But no, I seriously liked it, I am  not sure everyone would though. The book was set in the '20s so I thought it was  perfect to read right before 2020. It...

The Definition of a Writer A writer is someone who writes. If someone came up to me and spat that sentence in my face I wouldn’t necessarily disagree. I just believe I have a greater definition. A writer is someone whose mind is flooded and overflowed with words. They are constantly coming up with phrases and words. They mentally switch out previous words for more powerful ones in the everlasting inner stories. A writer is someone who wakes up every morning and begins creating poems as they drink their daily cup of coffee or tea and watch the sunrise in all its splendor. A writer is someone who comes up with a poem or story before they fall asleep or when they wake up at two am and have to write it  down with the faint glow of their alarm clock or any other light source in arms length. A writer often can’t sleep for the countless and endless words. Don’t worry, a writer is never bored, they alwa...

Enjoy the Little Things A phrase blurted, uttered, whispered, and declared from so many people but how many people truly  take notice of the simple yet beautiful happenings day to day? Did you notice your daily cup of coffee tasted especially good yesterday? Or your piano, violin, or guitar song is taking great leaps in improvement?  Did you notice how happy you are that a song you have been working hard on is moving forward on the scale from good to great.  I believe there are so many joys that come with life.  And a big one has to be the happenings people call little.  Amazing, spectacular, adventurous things are not going to happen every  day so noticing things in life that, to the naked eye, may not fall under a column  with those adjectives might make life a whole lot better during the routine day to day.  A little while ago I noticed the sky decided to paint.  If you ride home with your nose ...

Welcome to my Blog! All the websites and other blog posts I have found stated that when first creating a blog you should pick a broad topic so that your blog is not all over the place and follows a more consistent theme. However I am still deciding if I want to follow that or figure it out for myself. I have always enjoyed a broad array of hobbies and topics which is why I think it  would be rather difficult for me to stick to a theme until I find what I particularly enjoy to write about on here. I can tell you what I wont be writing about though! I will not be writing about tips for stay at home moms, how to meet friends at a new job, or traveling tips. But you know all that if you know me at all. I really enjoy the arts in almost every aspect and form you can come up with. The "arts" is such a broad term so let me do my best to narrow it. I love writing including but not exclusive to poe...