Gold by James Vincent McMorrow

planning our wedding: the overview list

i hope you've enjoyed this wedding series as much as i've enjoyed finally getting it all out my head. because lists are nice...here are all of the "planning our wedding" posts:

• intro
• the ceremony: 6 questions to ask yourself before you begin planning + our ceremony flow
• forget the reception: a celebration where napping was encouraged
• our itemized budget: how we got to $17,676
• our vows
• regrets
• everything is expensive, but these 5 things are free!
• 4 things we delegated that thoroughly surprised us
• why we said no to a bridal party
• saying no to pinterest

and to end this series, here's the video slideshow that our photography oh happy dawn made for us.

love,

liz

oregon | mushroom hunting

it had been far too long since visiting beloved oregon, so i took a quick trip up during memorial day weekend. it was perfect for many reasons, but one significant one was that i got to go mushroom hunting with my friend isaac and his brother carlos. 

we drove out to mt. hood national forest from the east side, and carlos tells me to pull over on a relatively abandoned road. i'm thinking, "interesting....right here??" but what do i know, he's the mushroom hunter, not me. so we pull over and start walking into the forest. within three minutes, my excitement changes to, "it's impossible to find mushrooms!" (oh, fickle liz.) i then proceed to hear a small chuckle from one of the guys.

about 15 minutes later, i hear carlos yell, "i found one!" isaac and i rush over to see the morel. i arrive last and ask, "where is it?!" carlos tells me to look for it and i quickly take out my laser focused mushroom vision glasses and begin searching. i look all around that area while isaac and carlos stand there watching me.  umm... turns out it was right next to my foot where i first stood. next time, i'm not relying on those freaking glasses. 

anyway, we roam around for another 30 minutes or so and without any luck, we decide to go to another location. when we get to the new spot, we begin the same process of walking slowly through the forest, scanning for the disguised lil guys. funny thing is that although they're hard to identify, once you see a morel, it is impossible to not see. in fact, we got a chance to record the 2nd morel find of our hunt and my very first mushroom!

take a look!

the farm | chicken chicken!

did you know that we have 13 chickens now? one rooster and a dozen hens. (lucky guy.) i've noticed that there's been a shift in the female demeanor since the guy came around. it seems there's an increase in both submissiveness and aggression. funny how a boy can shake things up!

the last two images are of romeo, the rooster. he's not only the solo male, he's also the smallest breed. he's a silver seabright bantum, meaning he's a dwarf. romeo (aka: rainbow, the name we called him before we realized he was male) used to sleep in my hand when he was just a tiny chick. take a look:

squaw valley | french meadows reservoir

i've been playing with video a bit...here's a little something i put together with some of the footage from this weekend. it's a bit of a teaser, except this is all of it. you'll see what i mean... and fyi, the music is by brooke fraser and it's called faithful. 

grand canyon // the video recap.

i have been in a intense flow today editing photos and getting this video together. and although i prefer to be outdoors than sit in front of a screen, i have felt an immense satisfaction in creating something - it's not perfect; in fact, it's too fast....but for the practice of just putting things out there w/o the expectation that it needs to be perfect, here it is.

grand canyon // july 3-5, 2010 (click here for larger view)

i hope you enjoy this 3 day journey in 3:49 minutes. this video features my group - 5 other folks, including my mom; each of them a unique and beautiful gift to my life. i am inspired by their stories and who they are because of those stories.

sometimes...

we just need to put ourselves out there.

i am bad at hip hop. i mean...my body was just not built to move like some folks. so, i decided to take a free hip hop class, offered by nami lofland -- who is a ball of energy and passionate about dance.

let me tell you, i suck at choreography so trying to memorize a routine where i have to move my body in unfamiliar ways is just embarrassing. (and i did mention that i'm bad at hip hop, right?) i think i tend to look like a stiff board trying to pop it and lock it and rock it and sha-bop it, but i just don't got what bon qui qui got (at the end of the clip).

but, what i learned in doing something i'm bad at was this:
1. it's vital to be able to laugh at ourselves
2. it helps us to either become humble or remain humble
3. it challenges us to still give it our best, even if our best sucks
4. it provides opportunity to appreciate others' gifts and talents
5. it creates a sense of openness to learn

so, with that....um. yeah. uhhh.. .. . i want to share a little video clip of me. .... dancing! (i'm squirming right now). it's just a little sharing of a little me doing a little something that's helped bring me more awareness. by all means, this is not anything to show off. (i didn't even know it was being recorded!)

i'm sharing this so that TODAY, maybe you'd be inspired to:
*do something unexpected or out of your norm;
*do something that you're really bad at, and that you'd laugh at yourself while doing it;
*appreciate someone around you for their talent and go up them and tell them with a BIG smile
*"unlock [your] body and move [your]self to dance" (thanks wilco)