hello everyone. 
i am moving to seattle (physically) and so i thought it appropriate to move to a new blog (internet-ally).  feel free to follow!

http://janelleinthedesert.tumblr.com/

did a photo shoot for my cousin and her kids today at the horse stables. this is noah, her youngest, and he has the most expressive little face. i love it!

Got this really cool glowy candle as an extremely early Christmas present from a good friend. written in sharpie across the top are the words, “The Son is always brightest in the desert.”

i am still in minnesota.
today i got a chance to [finally] go to a couple thrift stores.
among my purchases was this yellow beauty for only $4.99.  i immediately bought film and started snapping away (the camera’s name is actually Snappy).  i have no idea if it really truly works - i will find that out tomorrow when i venture over to walgreen’s.  but even if it doesn’t work, it makes a great necklace.

i got a manicure in minnesota today.  i can’t even remember the last time my nails were a color other than “natural” but my friend is getting married and i’m playing piano in the ceremony and if the photographer photographs me playing piano, i figure my hands should probably look professional.

i picked out the above color: lime-ish green.  the lady asked me approximately 6 times “Are you SURE you want that color?”. To which I responded 6 times: “I’ve never been more sure of anything in my life.”  The seventh time she asked me, I replied “I just really like weird colors.”  She looked at my outfit and then said “Yeah….I can tell.”

HUGE compliment :)

yesterday the pendulum swung wide.  words of admiration erased with words of deep criticism left me thinking. and thinking. and thinking.

i’ve decided to go

“…suppose I were to describe to a person who was entirely ignorant of the subject the way in which a lump of clay is made into a beautiful vessel.  I tell him first the part of the clay in the matter; and all I can say about this is that the clay is put into the potter’s hands, and then lies passive there, submitting itself to all the turnings and over-turnings of the potter’s hands upon it.  There is really nothing else to be said about the clay’s part.  But could my hearer argue from this that nothing else is done because I say that this is all the clay can do?  If he is an intelligent hearer he will not dream of doing so, but will say, ‘I understand; this is what the clay must do.  But what must the potter do?’

‘Ah,’ I answer, ‘now we come to the important part.  The potter takes the clay thus abandoned to his working, and begins to mold and fashion it according to his own will.  He kneads and works it; he tears it apart and presses it together again; he wets it and then suffers it to dry.  Sometimes he works at it for hours together; sometimes he lays it aside for days, and does not touch it.  And then, when by all these processes he has made it perfectly pliable in his hands, he proceeds to make it up into the vessel he has proposed.  He turns it upon the wheel, planes it and smooths it, and dries it in the sun, bakes it in the oven, and finally turns it out of his workshop, a vessel to his honor and fit for his use.’ “

-hannah whitall smith

family makes the world go round

brings me back to my glory days (jr. high)

SECRET AMBITION
michael w smith