5 Random Friday Finds

I am taking Vivienne McMaster's Be Your Own Beloved self-portraiture class right now. This class is just the spark of creativity I needed this week. Faced with day after day of snow and cold, I needed something to make me pick up my camera. Each day we get a prompt to somehow include ourselves in the photo. Thursday's prompt was a photo walk around our neighborhood and include our hand in the shot to showcase things we found on our photo walk.

Did I mention earlier the snow and the cold...

Was she serious a photo walk...how was I going to do that? It was frigid outside and there is two plus feet of snow in my backyard. But...if you know me at all by now, you know that I refuse to be beaten. So I put on my big girl snow pants and went outside. 

Find No. 1

The first thing I found was the light right outside my side garage door covered with a dusting of snow and some lovely frost on the panes of glass.

Find No. 2

Next I found the pine cone my daughter had put out last year covered with peanut butter and birdseed. The peanut butter and birdseed are long gone, but the pine cone remains.

Find No. 3

I found rhododendron buds on my bush waiting for spring.

Find No. 4

I made a path to the wood pile.

The wood pile made me happy and so worth wading through the snow.

Find No. 5

Then I waded across the backyard to the compost bins.

It was cold and it was snowy, but you know what it was also a lot of fun, and I proved to myself that I don't have to let the weather stop me. 

My reward for completing my photo walk...

I got to snow blow the driveway. 

The downfall of glasses. After this I claimed my reward of a nice chai latte.

I hope everybody is staying warm out there.

Joining Kim for Friday Finds

The Coffee Shop Chronicles - No. 27

There is joy in learning new things on a subject you are passionate about, for me that subject is writing. I am on a quest to close the gap between the writer I am and the writer I want to be. Part of that quest involves taking writing classes. I was fortunate enough to have taken two classes last year with Amanda Mays of ALM Writes that helped me finally establish a daily writing routine. A routine I had been wandering around avoiding for the past two years. My daily routine has brought such joy to my writing life.

But even with a daily writing practice the gap remains between the writer I am and the writer I want to be. In the on-going quest to become a better writer I started a new writing e-course this week taught by the very talented Jenna McGuggian. We are learning about writing with our heads, our hearts and all of our senses. Which are all great things until I tried to put all of these components into this week's coffee shop chronicle. Let me tell you, things quickly became a muddled mess. I was trying to find the most exquisite, mouth-watering description for my cinnamon twist. When I really wanted to say "it was a less-than warm, slightly misshapen cinnamon twist that had been delivered to the coffee shop in a  white cardboard pastry box sometime in the early morning hours. It was sitting on a small glass plate with a plastic, fast food style fork as its only companion." Maybe next week I will try to savor the flavor a little more. Or, maybe I should go back to that first coffee shop, the coffee shop where the chronicles began and get a freshly, in-house made, double chocolate muffin with little surprises of mini chocolate chips inside. The chocolate chips having been made all soft and melty by the fact that the muffin has been warmed and slathered with fresh butter.

After endless pages of sensory overload and mindless dribble I decided to rip all the pages that I had written out of my notebook and throw them on the cutting room floor. What you are getting now is written directly from my heart, the place I have always written from best. I will slowly continue to add in the other components we are learning. I will continue to enrich the story without overloading it with detail. The gap can't be closed in one day, one story, or even in one writing course. It is a process, and I know in my heart that the joy is in the process.

I arrived at the coffee shop at eight o'clock on the dot.

This seems to be the perfect time to arrive. I have missed the coffee to-go, before work people and it is a little early for the morning coffee date people.

I had been coveting this perfect writing spot all week as Scout and I walked past the coffee shop windows on our morning walk. It is the perfect little window nook with three sturdy, wooden bar stools. One bar stool for my writing bag, one in the middle for me, and one empty one for space. You know that no one, unless desperate, would sit that close to a complete stranger. I was counting on that fact and I didn't feel the least bit bad about it. I like to spread out when I do anything creative and this was the perfect amount of counter space.

The big window makes me happy. I love looking out at life going on downtown. Being a photographer, I liken the window to my camera view finder. I can frame the picture, or the story anyway I want to, choosing what I want to focus on.

As I settled with my cinnamon twist and my chai latte, notebook and my pen, I began the process of framing the individual stories.

First, my favorite story, the continuing story of the little china doll grandmother from last week. This little lady is a relentless walker. I don't walk downtown on the weekends, but last weekend my husband and I happened to come downtown to his favorite breakfast place. They serve the best restaurant version of a home-cooked breakfast, and cinnamon rolls the size of dinner plates oozing with frosting. As my husband and I were turning the corner onto the main street, there she was crossing at the intersection ahead of us. I pointed her out to my husband, thankfully he had already read the chronicle that week so he knew who I was talking about. Earlier this week I gave her a big hearty Good Morning at our first crossing of paths for the day. I think I scared the crap out of her, because since then she won't even make eye contact with me. But on a positive note, she doesn't move over as far on the sidewalk when she sees Scout and I coming towards her. I continue to make it my goal to have a conversion with her someday.

My next story involves a man and his dog. I have never seen them downtown before. They paused outside my window so that the man's medium-sized Chewbacca looking dog could lift his leg to pee on a tree. Now I am not a fan of this type of behavior. I have a male dog but I take him discreetly behind the buildings to a little square of grass (currently a patch of snow) to pee. Thankfully Scout also squats like a girl, due I think to his less than stellar hips. Anyway while Chewbacca was leaving a trail of yellow on the tree and at the base of the tree, I turned my focus to Chewbacca's owner. This man could have been a tree himself, he was dressed in a big, puffy brown winter jacket and atop his head sat a forest green, knit stocking cap. He stood just as still as a tree too, waiting while his dog relieved himself. Maybe he was embarrassed by Chewbacca's behavior? Well you know what then? You can change that behavior. You are the owner, you have control.

After the man and his dog moved on, a movement in the tree caught my eye. A long, shiny white ribbon wrapped around a tree branch. A string belonging to some child's lost ballon, the ballon now long deflated. I sat mesmerized by the swaying of that shiny white ribbon in the gentle breeze. I wondered about the child who lost that ballon. Was it their prized possession from a long, tiring day spent downtown with mom and dad? I am certain there were tears involved, there always are in these situations. Did Dad save the day by going to get another ballon for the young one? Or were they just as crabby as the child by this point in time and told the child that they should have held on tighter? Unfairly placing blame on that young child for something that was an accident. We will never know, but I am hoping there was the appearance of another ballon before the day was over.

My last story framed through the window was of a man in a bright red snowmobile suit digging through the trash cans. In his hand was a plastic bag, he was collecting remnants of uneaten food. Did you ever think that your half eaten hot dog would be another man's meal? Every town, every city has their underbelly, the thing they don't want exposed. The man in the red snowmobile suit is ours.

5 Random Friday Finds

Find No. 1

I love how finding a simple weed stuck in the snow can turn into a piece of art.

I could have played with this image for hours, but eventually you have to put down the iPad and walk away.

Find No. 2

I found some ice encrusted on the bowl of a metal drinking fountain.

Find No. 3

After an appointment downtown this week, I had to wander farther down the street to capture this vintage theatre marquee.

Find No. 4

I found a lone ice fisherman.

Find No. 5

My friend Jill and I had one of our adventure days last week Friday. We were also celebrating Jill's birthday. She should probably be scared when I text her and tell her to pack warm mittens, something to keep her head warm and boots. But being the true friend that she is, she just does it and doesn't ask questions. I love this picture of us because we are totally in the moment and enjoying a cold, snowy winter day at the beach.

This is what I made us do. We parked on the closed to traffic beach road, climbed over the guard rail, waded through the snow and beach grass, so I could get some photos of these ice bergs. Never a dull moment on our adventure days!

Hope you are having a great week!

Joining Kim for Friday Finds

The Coffee Shop Chronicles - No. 26

I was torn that morning between watching the sunrise or getting to the coffee shop at an early hour. The sunrise had potential to be a beauty. In the winter there isn't a lot of sunshine, blue skies or sunrises. I am happy for any small peek the sun will give us. But Scout and I had been scoping out the downtown coffee shop for the past week, I needed to know the best time to come and actually find a place to sit and write.

Displaced from our usual morning walking route at home due to icy sidewalks, we had moved downtown. Our downtown has a snow melt system under the sidewalks, creating ice and snow free walking paths. Usually we arrive downtown about 8 a.m. There is enough daylight to see but the shoppers have not yet arrived since most of the stores don't open until 10 a.m.

Scout is a little over-excited at new places and around lots of people. This is something that we are working on. When we had both dogs it was hard for me to take them places like our downtown because they were both extremely excitable. Two golden retrievers who love people and want to be everyone's best friends proved challenging for me.

Now with only Scout it is easier for me to tackle places like downtown. Currently we are working on healing on the busier sections of the downtown blocks, also sitting and staying at each corner if the traffic light is red. He is doing amazingly well, so the old adage that you can't teach an old dog new tricks would be incorrect.

Anyway, as I was saying, Scout and I have been scoping out Holland's famous coffee shop for the past week. This place is crazy busy all the time which is why I don't usually go there to write. I hate trying to wade through a sea of people to find a table in some remote corner of the coffee shop. But I have noticed when we walk by between 8:00 and 8:30 each morning that the place is fairly quiet. So that was my plan, to arrive in that time period.

What I hadn't planned on was being awake before four, I finally decided to just get up. I figured I could get a lot done in four hours. My husband was out of town for work so it was just Scout and myself anyway. By half past seven I was ready to go, a lot accomplished already for the morning.

I arrived at the coffee shop at ten minutes to eight.

Unlike every other morning that I had observed the coffee shop, the place was busy. Maybe it was the before eight o'clock rush, everyone getting coffee on their way to work. A lot of people did get coffee and leave with their to-go cups in hand. But there was still a high concentration of men sitting at the tables that were usually empty when I walked by. Maybe it was a men's society meeting on the last Tuesday of the month.

I didn't need a table in the main part of the coffee shop though. I wanted to sit at the counter than runs along the front windows. I wanted to sit by the window and watch the walkers and runners outside, my new community of people. These are the people that Scout and I see every morning as we walk. They have become my new cast of characters. I wanted to have the opportunity to observe them in a more deliberate way.

There is the little China doll grandmother in her powder blue winter parka, the hood pulled tightly around her face. We are always walking opposite directions so we tend to pass each other a few times doing our loops. I am quite certain she does not like dogs or at least not big dogs, because she always moves to the far edge of the sidewalk when she sees us coming. The other morning I gave her a big smile and said "Good Morning". I am hoping that I can win her over with kindness, and eventually she won't move as far over when she sees us coming.

There is the lady in the winter version of a track suit, shiny, bright pink winter jacket and shiny black rain resistant pants. She wears a thick, wooly looking headband in her long brown hair to cover her ears (and half her head). She also has enormous black snowmobile gloves on, and whenever I see her, she is talking on her black flip phone. She is holding that tiny little phone in her enormous black gloves and holding the phone about eight inches from her head because of the big wooly headband. I wonder if whoever she is listening to is on speakerphone?

There is the lady in her 60's who runs past us every morning in her latest bright, colorful outfit purchased from the running outfitter located in our downtown.  I am quite certain this lady lives by me because I would recognize the bright outfits and that unique running form anywhere. She too has decided to move to safer terrain.

On that morning as I sat at my window seat, I wanted a bundled up lady with a over zealous golden retriever to walk past. I wanted to know what I look like to the people that sit at this window on the other days of the week. Do they wonder about me?  Do they try to figure out my story? Some might. I can't be the only one that is curious. But instead of a lady with a golden retriever I got two ladies walking with a greyhound/doberman looking dog. He was wearing the most adorable black and gray plaid dog coat. I think Scout would be irresistible with a bright red plaid coat of his own. I actually looked at them at Christmas, but as much nervous energy as he has he would probably get too hot.

As I sat there at my window looking out at our beautiful downtown filled with old buildings containing unique shops and the most amazing restaurants, I realized how fortunate we are to have this downtown. While most cities' downtowns are dead or dying, ours is alive, filled with walkers and runners before the shops open, shoppers during the day, and at night the town is alive with people of all ages coming to experience one of the many brew pubs or trendy local food restaurants. If you are ever in the Holland, Michigan area you must make a visit to our amazing downtown, have a stop in at the local coffee shop, have a seat at the window counter and tell me what you see.

Grow Your Blog

I missed the cut off for this fun link up party last year. Thankfully this year I was a little more on top of things. Alright then...on to the introduction.

My name is Sarah. I live in Michigan in the United States. I live about a mile from the shores of Lake Michigan. I can't imagine ever living far from a body of water.

On January 1, 2012 I started my first blog, a creative journey to become a better photographer. That really was my focus when I first began, learning to take better pictures. Along the way I rediscovered a love of writing. This love had been lying dormant inside me since early elementary school.

My blog name Paisley Rain Boots came from a self-portrait class that I took in the Spring of 2012. I live in Michigan where there is snow quite often until April and generally quite a bit of rain in the Spring. I was not very comfortable taking self-portaits shots that included my face.  Instead I would photograph my feet which most often happened to encased in my paisley rain boots. I got so many comments on my boots from the photographs I posted in the class Flickr group, this made me think. "What a great name for a blog....Paisley Rain Boots". The blog could be about anything which was great since I love to photograph and write about random topics. The blog could also about exploring. I love to explore the back roads; old barns, fields, orchards, lakes, etc.

On January 1 of this year I started a year long project called A Year Beside The Water. A project with a more specific purpose, marrying photography and writing all based on the subject of water. This project will stretch me in new ways, but I am one who is constantly striving to learn new things and experience growth from that learning.

I have been married to my husband, Glen for 28 years. We have one daughter, Mallory who is a college senior and will be graduating in May. We have one cute as a button, but naughty as can be golden retriever named Scout. Scout often accompanies me on day outings, he doesn't mind riding in the car, and loves to go for walks and hikes in the woods.

I would love to connect with other photographers and especially other bloggers who have a strong desire to write. You can contact me at paisleyrainboots@gmail.com

5 Random Friday Finds

Find No. 1

I found this lovely weed encased in ice last weekend while we were in Traverse City. I love iPhone apps! Something so simple turns into a piece of artwork.

Find No. 2

The one drawback of melting snow is that it creates icy sidewalks.

Find No. 3

To avoid the icy sidewalks, Scout and I have now decided to walk the heated sidewalks of our downtown. Two four block loops takes us about 50 minutes.

Find No. 4

In November I did a photo documentary project for our church for Advent. The theme was Hope. The week I had to shoot for the theme was despair and Hope. This is Mallory in front of the District Court downtown.

This week while we were walking downtown, I decided to recreate the shot with Scout. I think he looks a little more hopeful than Mallory.

Find No. 5

I love wooden docks, and I am especially loving them this winter. The contrast between the wood and the ice is wonderful.

Joining Kim for Friday Finds

5 Random Friday Finds

In keeping with my vow to appreciate the beauty of winter this year, here are a few finds from this past week.

Find No. 1

I find beauty in the simplicity and barrenness of winter. I find this shot very peaceful.

Find No. 2

I found a dog not to happy to be tied to a tree while I climbed through some snow drifts to get down to the beach and Lake Michigan. I was only thinking of him and his old dog hips.

Find No. 3

I found a frozen channel, a big red lighthouse and a lovely sky. That is suppose to be the water filled channel on the left hand side of the the blue railing.

Find No. 4

I found on a chilly -2 degree morning a beautiful sunrise.

Find No. 5

I found some beautiful frost on one of my outdoor light fixtures just by walking out my garage door.

See...winter beauty is all around us. All we have to do is be looking for it.

Joining Kim for Friday Finds