I know you’re not really supposed to say “thank you” for a thank you note, but I don’t care.  So….

THANK YOU!!!!!!

There’s just something about a hand written note.  It’s so personal.  I love getting to do what I do.  It’s fun for me and an honor to be able to take your photos.  But getting your thank you notes in my mailbox (which honestly sees way more bills and junk mail than fun mail) feels like a little part of you just showed up at my house to give me a hug.  It’s things like this that make not just my job, but my life an absolute joy.

It made me think about the people I am thankful for.  Do I show them enough?  How can I let them know how much I appreciate them?  And it sure as heck makes me want to write more notes so the people I love can experience that “hug in your mailbox” feeling too.

And this may sound corny, but how can my life be a “thank you note”  to the One who has given me life and has given it to me more abundantly than I could have asked or imagined?  Or what about the times when I feel like God hasn’t listened and things aren’t turning out at all like I hoped or imagined?  What then?  I read this in Shauna Niequist’s book Cold Tangerines this morning and I think this is a good answer to that question and a great thought to meditate on this weekend.

“Celebration when you’re calling the shots?  Easy.  Celebration when your plan is working?  Anyone can do that.  But when you realize that the story of your life could be told a thousand different ways, that you could tell it over and over as a tragedy, but you choose to call it an epic, that’s when you start to learn what celebration is.  When what you see in front of you is so far outside of what you dreamed, but you have the belief, the boldness, the courage to call it beautiful instead of calling it wrong, that’s celebration.

“When you can invest yourself deeply and unremittingly in the life that surrounds you instead of declaring yourself out of the game once and for all, because what’s happened to you is too bad, too deep, too ugly for anyone to expect you to move on from, that’s that good rich place.  That’s the place where the things that looked for all intents and purposes like curses start to stand up and shimmer and dance, and you realize with a gasp that they may have been blessings all along.  Or maybe not.  Maybe they were curses, in fact, but the force of your belief and your hope and your desperate love for life as it is actually unfolding, has brought a blessing from a curse, like water from a stone, like life from a tomb, like the actual story of God over and over.”

You are getting a lot of air time on my blog these days.  But you guys are so cool I can’t help it!  I loved the save the dates that you guys sent out!  I loved them so much they got their own photo shoot.

You guys are a great example of what it looks like to carry a theme through.  Nice work!

I mean, seriously.  You thought of every detail.  I love the custom rubber stamp with the little airplane.

I blurred out your website so all your adoring fans can’t stalk your website.

Look at you!  Even your stamps are fun!

I love it!

Love, Jen

PS- I can’t wait to post some pics of your custom designed guest book!

Thank you for putting these on clearance.  You knew that I have a hard time passing up a bargain and that I wouldn’t be able to resist them.  I’m so glad I gave in!

Every time I walk into the room they give me a little infusion of joy.

They have been making me happy all week.

$3.49 well spent.

Love, Jen

When last we checked in on this traveling duo, they were in Granada.  We had decided that we would rent a car for part of our trip so we could see more of the countryside.  I was really excited to be our designated driver so I got an international driver’s license before we left.  I thought it would just sound cool to say that I drove around Spain’s countryside.  Little did I know, an automatic car is hard to come by in Europe.  And this girl never learned how to drive stick.  Stink!  Luckily, Lanette does drive stick, so she became our driver I took on the role of navigator….. somehow not as cool.

We arrived in Ronda a little past half way through our trip and the timing couldn’t have been more perfect.  Scattered throughout the southern part of Spain are a bunch of little white washed hill towns.  Ronda was the first one we visited.  The main feature of this little town is the gorge.  The town is sorta divided in half by it.  Here’s the view fro the top.

I decided I needed to hike down to get a better shot of the gorge.  It was a lovely little hike.

I loved these yellow pom pom flowery things!

And the poppies!

And here’s the view from the bottom.

Aaaaannnnd that’s about all there was to do in this sleepy little town, so we headed to our “hotel”.  We hadn’t booked any places to stay before we left the States (except for in Barcelona) so we would find a wifi spot and get on booking.com to make our reservations for the next town we would be visiting.  We booked this place just outside of Ronda, but had no idea what a treat we were in for.

Here’s what we saw as we turned onto the dirt road to get to our place.  That’s it nestled in the middle of those trees.

We kept pinching ourselves.

We had no idea when we booked a room at Casa de Campo that we would be staying in paradise!

I sat out here and read.

The door to our room and our little balcony.

The comfiest bed of our whole trip.  And I loved all the little lanterns everywhere.

After the wonderful dinner that they served us, one of the ladies brought us a basket of wood and built a fire.  We sat here in disbelief at how spoiled we were.

The view from our little balcony.

We heard lots of noises from different animals and on our walk we found some of them.  The best one was the turkey that gobbled at us!

Cute little bunny!

The next day we decided to do nothing.  We needed a little rest from being on the go all the time.  Lanette took a nap on that comfy bed while I read and journaled and then explored the property a little more.

A peahen

Isn’t that pool awesome?  It even had a water slide!

More poppies and one of the bunnies we found in the barn.

Such a wonderful place to stay.  We were treated like family.  I don’t think I stopped smiling the whole time we were there.  I just felt so at peace that the joy of it all oozed out of me.  My friend Jess would call that a “little Jesus hug”.

Da da da da!!!!!! (That’s my best trumpet impersonation)

I am pleased to announce the launch of Jen Disney Fine Art.  It’s very exciting for me and feels a little bit like one of those “full circle” deals, since I was a fine art major in college.  Now you can purchase any of my art prints for your home or for a gift.

So go on over and take a look and let me know if you’re interested in having a “Jen Disney original”.

There were some beautiful buildings.

We made sure we went to this famous place for churros y chocolate.

And this was the sketchy place we stayed that had hookers standing not far down the street.  The first thing Lanette did was pull back the covers to see if the sheets were clean.  I didn’t blame her!

Then we stopped in Cordoba for a few hours on our way to Granada.  The further south you get the more Moroccan/Moorish influence you see.  This was a cool little market that I probably could have spent a lot of money in.

The signature Moorish keyhole doorways.  This was part of the old wall or old gate….. I don’t remember, but it was really old.

Our trip to Granada was all about the Alhambra, the Moorish palace built in the 14th century.  We hiked up to a spot with a beautiful view of the Alhambra.  It’s huge!

I was continually amazed by the carving in this place.  Amazing.

There was a team of photographers doing a “day after” type of shoot there.  If the couple wasn’t out of focus I would totally put this in my portfolio and say, “look, I’ve shot a wedding in Spain!”  Just kidding I would never do that.  It was really hard to not go pose that couple though.

Look at all of that detail!

Of course, after the Reconquista, portions of the Alhambra were used by Christian rulers.  Charles V, however, decided he needed something new to live in and built this interesting palace.

I’ve always wondered what the public baths that I’ve heard about in the history books looked like.  Well, here’s one.  Pretty cool.

The gardens were stunning.

Not a bad place to live, huh kitty?

Which one do you like better?  The horizontal or vertical view?

Water means life in the Muslim faith, so there were lots of water features.  The stairway below had cold, cold water running down either side so as you walked up the stairs you could run your hand through.

Beautiful.

And there’s my name!

I love that it’s so personal.  Here’s the story behind all of the places.

Broadway: I love New York, mostly because I LOVE Broadway.

34th ST: Every Thanksgiving my brother and I watch Miracle on 34th Street to usher in the Christmas season.

Central Park:  I love Central Park.  It’s just beautiful and I have some great memories there.

Brooklyn: mmmm… I’ve only been there once, but I’ll admit…. it just looked cool in my design.

Greenwich Village:  I love the character of the Village and I have great memories wandering around there trying to find Magnolia Bakery.

Washington Heights:  I’ve actually never been there, but I love the musical In the Heights and it takes place there.

42nd Street:  The beginning of the Theater District and a classic musical.

Avenue Q:  Not really a street, just a really funny musical.

via Roma: The street I stayed on in Florence.

Monamarte:  yep… I know…I spelled it wrong.  But even though I didn’t use spell check, it’s still my favorite area in Paris.

via delle Cinque Terre:  the main road in Cinque Terre, one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever been.

Firenze:  Florence… mmmm…. I love that city.

Union Station:  One of the most beautiful buildings in LA.  I’ve done some really fun shoots there.  I love riding the train there and taking the subway.

Hope St.: My great aunt lives on Hope Street down by the music center in LA.  And hope has sort of been my family word for the past several years.

Lawrence Ave:  Home sweet home.  No matter where I travel, Dorothy was right… there’s no place like home.

Especially compared to the stick biscuit.

When I was a kid, my family and I learned how to make these delicious campfire treats from our neighbor Shirley, a former girl scout leader.  Sitting around the camp fire one night we decided we needed to come up with a name for this yummy-ness.  We settled upon the name “stick biscuit”.  Descriptive… yes.  Creative… not. at. all.  One year Shirley’s husband, Bob, made us our own stick biscuit sticks and since I’m the one in the family who has a firepit, I thought it was only fair that I confiscate them.  Since then I’ve been introducing my friends to the wonder of the stick biscuit.

And now… oh faithful blog readers o’ mine… I share them with you.

Monday night my friends Karey, Zak & Andrea came over and we made some so I took photos.

They’re not very good photos, but c’mon… I had a biscuit to get back to!

So here’s what you do.  Take a refrigerator biscuit (Pillsbury Grands is what I use) and form it over a dowel rod.  Then you bake it over the fire.

I aways tell people it’s definitely an “activity” since it takes some time a patience to cook.  It probably takes about 15 minutes to bake. Gives you time to visit and talk about the fine art of baking biscuits over a fire.  And usually we start thinking about how we can get creative and what else we could bake over the fire.

To see if it’s done, use a napkin to take it off of the dowel and see if it’s still gummy inside.  Careful…. it’s HOT!

Now comes the good stuff.

Once it’s done, you take it off and you get to fill it.  I usually put out butter, mini marshmallows, butterscotch chips and chocolate chips.  I’ve also had heath bar crumbles, nuts, honey… whatever you want really.

Then what you have are some happy people.

And that, my friends, is why the s’more will always be the inferior fireside treat in my book.

It’s no secret that I love my home.  But, one of my favorite spaces in the house is my bedroom.

I often find it hard to get out of bed.  Sometimes because I’m tired, but mostly because I just love being in that space.  I love the way the light gently pours through the curtains every morning.  I find myself lying there staring out the window or listening to the tinkling of the wind chime in the backyard.  It’s just peaceful.

This is where my first thoughts of the day formulate.  It’s where most of my reading happens.  And more and more, it’s where I find myself returning with my breakfast and a cup of tea.

It’s quiet.  It’s soft.  It’s cozy.  It’s safe.

It’s pretty.