Author: Jana

  • I has facebook

    So John’s been doing this FaceBook thing so I decided to join up and do a bit of ‘social networking’ myself. Interesting stuff. It seems a bit more like LiveJournal than blogging–lots of party pics and random brief comments. Not very substantive unless you take the time to add a bunch of bells&whistles to your profile page. I’m not sure how much it’s good for other than just a means for seeing how many friends one has who are themselves FaceBooked. Am I missing something here?

    Anyways, so if you use FaceBook, let’s be friends. :)

  • morning glory


    grandma’s glory, originally uploaded by pilgrimgirl.

    My big sis owns the home where my father grew up. It’s a thrill to wander around the backyard and to flashback to when grandma and grandpa lived there. The far rear of the back is especially memory-full. There is where grandpa kept his pigeon coop. And there are the remains of an old gate and a hodgepodge of fencing. I suspect it was originally a vegetable garden and was fenced to keep out the family dog. But who knows for sure?

    This wee morning glories were climbing on the remnants of the old garden gate. I’m not much a fan of morning glory in my own garden, but seeing it in grandmas reminds me of sitting in the back porch late into the evening, eating watermelon with aunts & uncles & cousins, swinging on the clothesline, and playing lawn darts (always worried that one of the younger kids would get hit).

  • inspiration


    artsy fartsy, originally uploaded by pilgrimgirl.

    A pic from my sis’ living room. I love the colors and am green with envy at the fine art on display in her home (this is a Picasso lithograph that hangs over her fireplace)!

    I want to make my own home inviting–filled with spaces that inspire creativity and celebrate life.

    But for now I am just focused on unpacking.

    One box at a time….

  • first things first


    priorities, originally uploaded by pilgrimgirl.

    Upon setting up my new kitchen (with its groovy orange-y red countertops), the first thing I did was set out the teakettle. Thing #2: organize the tea cupboard [note: trying to shift the balance to all organic and fair trade teas, but I’m still finishing up my older stash first….]

  • early morning


    close, originally uploaded by pilgrimgirl.

    While I was traveling in SLC, I often arose early in the morning to get to the Sunstone Symposium. I got my batteries charged by snapping photos before driving downtown. This was a pretty flower in my sister’s yard, shown here in the morning light.

  • a little lechery for you…

    Any moment now I will be downloading the gazillions of images off of my camera. But until then, here’s a little lechery for you [note: will be especially appreciated by those who share my hot-Asian-guy fetish].

  • if this is you…

    If it is nearly midnite and your body is aching nearly everywhere because of packing, lifting, cleaning, reaching, and walking. And you are now stretched out on your cozy chair, checking email for the first time in three days. And every once in awhile you look up and around your ‘new’ living room and remember the drama of your friends unrolling the magic red carpet and arranging the furniture that made this nice place into a *home*. Well if this is you, you just found yourself thinking back to that cozy little place across the street where you’ve lived the past five years. And you wonder if the next residents will know what those initials and handprints in the front sidewalk mean? And will the painters even pause a moment when they see a row of pencil marks and dates along the edge of the wall marking my kids’ changing height? And will those few rooms be somehow, always, marked with the memory of us even when all of the superficial evidence is gone?

  • gate


    blurry gate, originally uploaded by pilgrimgirl.

    Can you see my blue garden gate in the background??? :)

    Moving Update: We are living in a sea of boxes and assorted disassembled furniture. We pick up the keys early tomorrow morning.

    Who says moving takes a lot of time? (three cheers for the three day move and can someone please pass the bottle of ibuprofen….!)

  • that kind of hell


    People:
    Guess what? I have just volunteered myself for that special kind of HELL called MOVING.

    Yes, our little family is moving to a slightly larger space because I need a bathroom that’s modified for disability access. My past few major falls/accidents have occurred in bathroom spaces and I’ve just finally come to accept the fact that I need a bit more space and the security of grab bars around toilet and shower. So we are trading in our 675 sq ft place for a whopping 850-ish sq ft. It seems HUGE to us.

    And not to worry–we will be easily found just across the street from our former digs. And when we are out of HELL, you are all invited to a ginormous housewarming party (details to come soon)!! :)

    Note: this will mean that our filing cabinet will no longer be in our mini-kitchen. How weird will that be?? It will also mean retro orange-y countertops–just perfect for my yellow kitchenaid!

  • sunny


    sunflower w/garden in back, originally uploaded by pilgrimgirl.

  • home

    Dear People:
    I am home now. Arrived late, late last night. Cleaned and returned rental car at lunchtime. Drove more than 2K miles in the past 10 days. Crazy.

  • love


    IMG_3669, originally uploaded by pilgrimgirl.

    Hello friends! A thought for you:

    “To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything, and your heart will certainly be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact, you must give your heart to no one…wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements; lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket–safe, dark, motionless, airless–it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable.”
    ~C.S. Lewis