Vacation

Vacation - not a staycation, but an actual beach vacation, where the ocean roars and calms at the same time. This year is unique, as this is our second vacation to our favorite place, Stone Harbor, New Jersey. Our first was in June, with the extended family, as is our tradition. This vacation belongs to us, my husband Mark and myself. We celebrated our 30th anniversary this year and decided to come back to the shore in September to celebrate our anniversary with a special trip. We've had a couple weekend trips, but haven't really had a trip to ourselves since our honeymoon in 1978. Our excursions always included family, mostly because the trips were more economical.

How novel it will be to have the house we rent completely to ourselves. All our attention can be focused on one another. The beach belongs to us alone (I can ignore all those other people there). The town is there simply to entertain us and amuse us during this week of rejuvenation. The importance of rejuvenation cannot be underestimated. A need to refill the soul and believe that life is good keeps us going, sometimes for an entire year, until the next vacation. Our spirits drink in the calmness of the ocean and we are always awed by it's beauty. The scenes are familiar, yet welcome. Babies are playing in the sand, and toddling toward the water. Children are rushing to dance in the waves. Adults are hovering, holding their hands, introducing their children to the ocean. The same scene plays out again and again at the seashore.

I'm taking my new camera and experimenting on this trip. Hopefully I'll bring back something beautiful to share with you next week. Maybe a sunrise over the ocean or a sunset over the bay. Maybe a heron flying over the wetlands or the surfer race on the Nun's Beach. Whatever it is, I'm going to the sea again (isn't there a poem about that?) and I'm thrilled.

Have a good week.
mjs 9.5.08 11:28 pm

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What do I do with a blog?

Well, I'm new at this, so bear with me while I find my bearings.

So this is my blog. Hmmm. My mother always told me never to write anything I didn’t want anyone else to read, but I love to have other people read things I write. It may not always be quilting related, even though my website points to quilting. I have quite a few interests and want the blog to be a general life rant if I want to also.

Speaking of quilting, I found a great new site the other day called Spoonflower.com, which led me to a host of other new sites and so on and so on. They are a new company who will print your design onto fabric. Hopefully the prices will come down a little when they get past the beta stage and into big production mode or maybe they’ll have a wholesale price for a large quantity of fabric. That led me to another site called wordle.net and another called etsy.com. Hopefully reading others blogs will lead me to more fun and interesting sites like these.

So on to photography, I also was pointed to a site called Kelbytraining.com where you can pay a fee (by month or by year) to take online classes. Well, in the last few days, I’ve taken almost 4 full classes, on Camera Raw and my new D300, studio lighting and business ideas. I’m getting my money’s worth that’s for sure, but it’s fun too. And I have actually learned some things I didn’t know before. I feel energized in my photography and my quilting.

Sometimes I just have too many ideas floating around in my head to connect the two and then I get frustrated and go read a book!! Of course I always wanted to write a romance novel too. I devour romance novels. I’m going to keep track for a normal month and see how many I’ve read. There should be a frequent reader program.

Do what you love. Love what you do.

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