Karin Elizabeth

…he asked me to marry him

(Of course I said yes.)

Live by the sun, love by the moon

This is everything to me. I need to listen to these words and act on them.

Today is May 5th 2012.
67 Years ago, The Netherlands was officially no longer occupied by Germany.
Today, we celebrate our freedom.  
Yesterday we took a moment to honor the fallen: victims of war any time, any place.

I’ve been neglecting my blog again! Mostly because I’ve been busy with a photo shoot (see diptych below for a preview!), my personal and very secret photo project which I’m still keeping secret, and I’ve also been dealing with pharyngitis.

Which is the weirdest kind of ill I’ve been in a while. Ya kind of don’t really know what to do with yourself. (I’ve been reading, East of Eden, and I also developed a fondness for cryptogram puzzles.) I hate being sick, but I hate it most when ‘being tired a lot’ is a symptom. Yesterday, while the pain – the ear aches were especially devilish – was finally starting to fade away, I also found myself just completely unable to move, that’s how exhausted I felt. Every step I took, took a weird amount of effort. I think it was my body finally ridding itself of the infection, and it sucked the energy right out of me. But at least now, five days later, I’m finally starting to feel better.

So that’s what I’ve been up to.

Being sick has allowed me to do a lot of thinking, as well, and I made a few decisions which will affect my everyday life, but decisions I feel will benefit me in every other aspect of my life. More on  that later. When I finally make the decision count, probably.

Evaluating April 2012:
- Blogging: I was doing fine the first half of April, after that I found myself focusing on imagery more, and less on words. But I will have more to write about now
- Sleep cycle: ah. I slacked off a little again, but not dramatically. I think it was because of daylight saving’s time, and then going to the UK a week after that. So I’ve been waking up an hour later every day in April, compared to March. I’m going to get back into my routine starting this week.
- Reading: I’m doing okay, still pacing through books slowly, but reading all the same. I’m currently reading and thoroughly enjoying East of Eden by Steinbeck. I also ordered a few new books (yes…) which I look forward to reading.
- Buying books: yeah. I bought a lot of books in the UK and I just bought 3 new ones. I think I’ve reached my quota for the year, all in the span of a month. I’m going to try and work through my TBR-pile before buying anything else. Good luck, me…
- Saving money: doing great!
- Laundry: Getting some loads done now that I’m feeling better! The house is looking pretty nice and tidy. I still really want to take some updated home photos. I’ll try my best to take a few tomorrow!
- Earrings: I’ve been wearing my owl earrings. That’s it, haha. I’m going to try and wear earrings every day the coming week. Hopefully after that I’ll be used to them again and my ear piercings will no longer get so irritated and infected.
- Work on conceptual photos: I think I can really give myself a major pat on the back for this one. I’ve been doing great on my new project and I’ve also made proper use of my dummy so far. I’m going to keep at it. I’m feeling like shooting this coming week, work out some ideas – selfportraits – and I’m going to make an effort. I’m considering doing a 52 weeks sort of project… I’m too busy for 365, but 52 weeks might be good.
-  Healthier eating: I’ve been doing better the past few weeks! I’m going to forge ahead. I bought a new vegetarian cook book today which contains a LOT of healthy recipes that I’m eager to try out. Also: I’ve become a huge fan of lentils over the past couple of weeks. Healthy & nutritious!
- Try new recipes: I tried one in April, a Frittata type thing. I’ll be trying something out of my fat new cook book in May.. I’ll try and take better photos of that experience.
- Photograph life: I’ve been focused on my recent photo shoot and my conceptual projects lately and haven’t really been taking a moment to snap what’s also very valuable to me: our life and surroundings.
- Get organized: I cleaned up my office space, and I’d like to adjust a few more things about it to help improve my workflow. I plan on dividing up my weekdays a little better, spending certain hours of the day on predetermined things. Just a proper schedule, if you will. And getting back into my normal sleep/wake routine will help as well. I have a lot to work on in May…
- Socialize: this always remains challenging for me. I’ll get there. I do feel more open again, as opposed to last month.
- Don’t give up: part of this next bit has to do with the decision-to-change-something-about-my-daily-life, but I do feel a lot more driven and focused. My business had a good month in April. I feel hopeful that it will only get better IF I continue to put the work into it, which I am doing. Now I just need to push myself to broaden my horizons and to not postpone GOOD business decisions much longer. So in May I hope to take a new direction for my business which I’ve been hesitant about at first, because it’s a GOOD decision.
- Style: I’m coming into my own a lot this year, style wise. I’m still loving nail polish, though I haven’t been wearing any this week to give my nails a chance to “heal” (they’re very dry and chipped). I may invest in a better nail hardener (Trind) to keep my nails healthy while wearing nail polish. I wear a budget brand now (HEMA). I’m excited for the weather to improve. My favored summer style is somewhat Bohemian (long skirts, messy braids, bracelets, sandals, rings, oh!) and I can’t wait to go back to that!

I hope you’ve all been well.