photojourney.

photo credit: kendra smoot 

I love pictures- portraits, still life, landscapes- that draw you in and instantly inspire stories in your head.  I like to daydream about the people in a photo. Where they work, who their family is, their accents, the way they make breakfast in the morning.  How they laugh, what they're scared of, or what book is sitting on their dresser.  I think it's a testimony to the talent of a photographer who can draw you in and inspire those kinds of thoughts from a single glance.  

Also, this video made me teary-eyed over morning coffee a couple days ago.  Makes you want to get out of the city and just breathe deeply for awhile.  With an amazing camera in tow to capture everything with.

xo

alli

on blog silence and motivation.

Enough of the blog silence!  I know I've been quite absent recently, my friends.  And although life is busy at the moment, I'm not even sure if I can blame it on that.  I feel like I need to reorganize mistinguette a bit, or at least have more of a blogging goal.  I'm inspired by so many of the craft, cooking, fashion, and travel blogs that I read and although mistinguette touches on many of those subjects, it just feels so unorganized and thin to me sometimes.

I had a little brainstorming sesh this morning as I sipped my coffee and watched the morning sun reflect on the beautiful leaves outside my apartment window.  I've come to know that I am a person that is motivated by goals that are concrete and determined over a certain time period.  That's how I trained for and tackled the half marathon- I've never been so motivated to run in my life.

So! I've decided that I'm going to give my blogging self a month long boot camp if you will.  I am going to post every single day of November.  I'm sure some of the posts won't be lengthy or profound, but I'm interested to see what will come out of forcing myself (in a nice way :) to blog everyday.  To write everyday.  Even if it's just a few words.  And now you've heard (read?) me say it.  So. I have to keep my promise.

So stay tuned, for an active November on mistinguette :)

xo

alli

painfully vibrant.

weheartit.

There is an incredibly beautiful sunset out my window.  Today there was a clear blue sky, and the air was deliciously crisp.  The cold that makes you button up and wrap a scarf close to your neck, without the bitterness yet that winter will bring.  A peek up the hill on my morning walk to campus and I can see leaves slowly changing.  Farmer's Markets are buzzing, and there's the anticipation of everything lovely about autumn.

But.

There's something inherently melancholy about the whole thing.  The vibrant colors.  Painfully so.  The sun reflecting off an airplane in the fading blue sky.  The stillness between light and dark.  The silence of street lights warming up a street.

Perhaps it's the quiet ache brought on by nostalgia.  Reminders of memories and moments lived in past seasons.  Braided together with the present.

Do you ever feel like this during autumn?

xo

alli

Although I'm not quite sure this video would cheer you up, it might captivate you like it did me.  Nice song, and a pretty powerful video.

originally posted on dooce.

check in.

I'm still here!  And I have plenty to update you on.  Like how the half-marathon went, (finished in 1:55! the last three miles were SO hard! I couldn't walk down stairs for days!) what's been on my stove and in my oven recently, (creamy tomato soup, beef stew, carrot and ginger soup, and another batch of choc. chip zucchini bread) and the wonderful burst of fall weather we've been having.  I won't tell you about the cold that I fought off for days which finally got the best of me, (which is why i'm cutting this short and heading to bed) or the power outage that struck the moment I got out of the shower on monday morning which left me no choice but to go to work with wet hair (don't do that when you're sick btw).

Hopefully i'll give you a more appropriate and lengthly update soon, but for now i'll just tide you over with this quote which i really sort of love.

“Each of us stands at one unique spot in the universe, at one moment in the expanse of time, holding a blank sheet of paper”

- by... ican'tremember at the moment-

So what will be on your blank sheet of paper? Will you scribble in marker? Or write in dainty cursive letters in the middle? Or print methodic and deliberate script along the edges?

Back soon friends, enjoy Autumn, if it's Autumn where you are!

xo

alli