I love love love Denver, but...

can I love this (^) just as much?

I certainly love this ( \/) much much more than I could love any city.

Sorry, self-timer shots are rough. I considered cropping to make it more aesthetically pleasing, but this better captured the crouch-behind-a-rock-on-a-gravely-incline-to-set-up-the-shot, then-try-to-hop-back-down-without-breaking-an-ankle clumsy fun of the moment. Also, both of these shots look better pre-blogger... not sure what happened there.


And after some tasty lunch and caffeination,

That's H showing off her cool color-changing nail polish in the background.


we tried to make some space for the creative juices to do their thing (in honor of Emily, of course) .







This was more difficult for me than I imagined it would be. I had to take my sheet of paper from empty to art. I think I worry less about how precise/inspired/good my creations are when they also serve some very utilitarian purpose ("Who cares if the seam isn't quite straight, it's a new bag?" type of mindset). I'm pretty sure I'm ok with that though. I definitely tried to assuage some of Hannah's self-induced pressure, reminding her that you have to let yourself practice and be ok with creating the worst crap in the world (a la Natalie Goldberg - she says it better, for sure), but I had too-high hopes for my blank white sheet as well. It's good to be aware of this in myself, but if I'd rather knit a garter stitch scarf in a plane ride or sew a skirt in half an hour, why in the world would I try to convince myself not to? Maybe once I've "mastered" these I'll have more reason to expand my horizons, but it seems silly to force such things. I do think challenging myself to take blank-ness to something-ness via elementary school watercolors was worthy... Perhaps I'm contradicting myself.


In other news, as I tried to put into words the ins and outs of creating and its effects on me, it dawned on me what a luxury this is. My worries are so minimal that I can not only spend time making things just for the hell of it, but I can then spend additional time writing about it. Perspective, I do love it when you show up at just the right time.