Give-a-ways

Let’s talk about photos, a day late

- jodimichelle 9 Comments

This giveaway is now closed, scroll down to see who won!

Today I’m going to be offering a giveaway from Easy Canvas Prints. Here’s my disclosure on such things.

I’ve been talking to someone at Easy Canvas Prints for a good 6 months now – through renting and then buying a house, to finally deciding I could start putting something on the wall. They were patient and so helpful. Three cheers for them! The conversation changed from month to month and we finally landed on instagram photos.

You can follow me on instagram, I’m @jodimichelle, who are you?

Wading

Some days we just end up here; missing you. Almost 8 years.

Droplets

Windy Red.

Gingersnapit!

But photos, the other language I speak. The way I draw, illustrate and punctuate our lives. Like bookends to the memories we make, a photo always brings me back – or thrusting forward. To say it was difficult to pick a few photos for prints was an understatement. I don’t print photos – haven’t in a good 3 years so I have an arsenal of photography just stored digitally and when I go back to sort through I get lost in the days we spent planting a garden, walks we would take downtown, beach afternoons and the soft skin of my newborns.

This giveaway is for one canvas print – you get to pick the size – either 8X8 or 8X10 and is open to US residents only. The Easy Canvas Print Giveaway ends August 24th 10pm EST.

I chose photos that weren’t of people and I poured over this decision to a fault. I ordered one for my daughter and one for my son – both of objects/scenes, of something that would remind them. I pin and clip all kinds of art ideas from websites and magazines because the art in a room is what gives it a soul, in my opinion. I like making my own art but I also like hanging photos, not necessarily my own. I like the variety – the unpredictability.

Not that the photos on our walls or desks can’t be of people. I love being reminded of the people in my life, but if I’m going to remember them – I want to remember what it was about them that I love so much.

Like how my son’s belly button is one of my favorite things about him. A little universe of HELLO!

Sleepy comic book reading belly buttons of Friday morning.

Not that I would ever say no to a photo of his smile šŸ˜‰

Summer heat

I love photos of processes. Mid baking, the kitchen sink full of clean dishes, chopping fresh veggies. Not the end result, the currency of the transaction.

Scones.

And the photos of my daughter lost in what makes her happy. The life of the imagination.

Practice bride. Stop time.

Untitled

What photos do you love displaying? Leave me a comment here and tell me about your favorite photo. Is it an old one of your grandma? Is it a traditional photo you took every year in the same spot, marking time?

One entry per IP address, per day. Giveaway for ONE Easy Canvas Print ends August 24th at 10pm EST.

It’s good to be back.

CONGRATULATIONS JEN!

time suck

- jodimichelle 16 Comments

I am actually on top of things where my minute-to-minute life is concerned. I have a white board in my kitchen now and every morning I list out what I need to accomplish for the day and then I actually do it.

For a very long time I’ve been kind of winging it where a schedule goes, as far as knowing what I should tackle first/next/now and I always fall behind because I don’t prioritize well.

My priority has almost always been my kids first and then this website – and even that line got blurry some days. So I have to really decide if I’m going to let my time suck be pleasing people or being a mom.

Surgery, temporary homeschooling and packing up for a couple weeks has made the decision very clear to me. Being a mom has to come first for me, something I’ve failed at far more than I’ve excelled.

I’m losing readers, the numbers are falling and I’ve actually struggled with this. Being a number-phobic person – each and every set of eyes that decides I’m worth their time is very important to me, so I feel like I’m failing (at a very personal level) when those people no longer find importance here.

I get it! I do it all the time. Clear the noise in my life, redirect my interests. It’s part of the amazing freedom of the internet and I applaud it, but it still stings a bit.

So part of me wants to please you and start writing my heart out again, doing list after list of things to do, creating new and exciting ideas/ventures/things but I’m exhausted and Bygones must be Bygones. I want to apologize for the loss of (possible) interest and I want to quit, actually.

We’re still undergoing a major redesign and it’s just stressful. This isn’t an income for me, this website. So spending extra time and money and pouring my wants and needs into this thing is exposing me on a level I wasn’t aware would be required.

If you’ve made it this far – thanks for sticking with me šŸ™‚ And because I love you all, literally, all of you, I’m giving away ONE (1) $20.00 Amazon gift card.

Answer me this (your one and only hoop for an entry) in the comments:

If you were going away for a couple weeks (doesn’t matter where or with who) what would be one thing that you’d be SURE to do/try while away?

{Giveaway closes Sunday January 16, 2011 at midnight EST. Winner announced Monday January 17, 2011.}

Want more information? Chatter? General Jodi-Speak and crazy talk? Head on over to facebook and don’t forget to “like” me, I like you too.

I really like you

- jodimichelle 13 Comments

***Update: Winners of the bouquets are Charity and Kris! Congrats ladies!! Look for an email from me soon.

Flowers!

Flowers!

There’s a Tornado Watch in Holland, Mi this morning. School’s are canceled … dishes are falling off my counter from the open window and I made a pot of coffee.

Tornado Watch

I’m a bit of a romantic (SOOO Surprising, I know) so this weather lends to some really nice fantasy living. Candle light, coffee or tea, jammies all day, movies and cartoons, watching the world around me argue over wind possession and I can sit and watch the show for free.

Better than theatre in my opinion.

This morning as I was getting ready I was having a self talk that revealed, once again, that I just need to take things one at a time. Days, decisions, meals, requests. I’m always so overwhelmed with peace when I give myself permission to think only an hour ahead of myself.

Right Now … this is important. I’ll worry about the rest later.

Which brings me to this: I really like you guys. I’ve done countless giveaways in the past – and even self sponsored quite a few about a year (or two?) ago around the Holidays. Here’s what I’ve decided: I love to give. But giveaways are so empty at the end – all the hype and comments and even conversation and then a random generator picks a number and it’s done.

I want to do more than that – I love to interact with you guys. It feels so empty to give away some one else’s product no matter how much I believe in it. I don’t feel like I’m making a lasting impact on you. Whether or not that matters to anyone, I just don’t know. But I spend enough time here, talking and writing and wanting to get to know you that when it comes to gifting you with something … I kind of want it to mean something … for me.

Driving around the other day (one of my happy places, alone in the car) I was praying and talking and generally just organizing my thoughts, waiting for clarity and accepting silence as an answer … I had this feeling that maybe my job is to stuff women with purpose, with love. To believe in them when no one else does so that some day they might look in the mirror and believe it too.

I want to be a small voice in a big sea that has the impact to single handedly over turn the affects of advertising and judgement on women’s lives. In our daughters lives. In my own mother’s life.

Tall order, no?

Friends, I want to love you with courage and passion and I want to express my deep gratitude for you in my life. As small as it may be. Just a click here, a glance there. You affect me on a daily basis.

So this week I’m going to be sending some of you flowers …

flowers

They won’t last forever of course, they aren’t a kitchen aid and you can’t make a stew with them … but hopefully they’ll be a bright spot in your day and week. A reminder that even the most anonymous voice can be heard. That you are worthy.

You so totally are.

***I’m sending these flowers to you because I care and because I can. I’ve saved up some money in order to be able to pay it forward to my website … to you guys, who make this possible for me every day, who make it worth it.

To Enter:

Comment here and tell me the last time you received flowers – what were they for?

Giveaway open to any one, any where. The Random Generator will assist me in choosing the lucky winners. Comments will close at 10pm on Thursday October 28, 2010.

Other ways to stay in the know: Follow on Twitter or Friend on Facebook.

This might change, but right now I plan to send 2 of you a bouquet. I’m not leading this one, friends. I’m being led. Can I just say that as freaking scary and out of control that it feels … that I also have never felt so secure either?

This weather, I tell ya … there’s just something to it.

Love yourself.