Unravelling winds down.

...this is a metaphor for who I am now: cracked open after a long winter, fresh air blowing, excited to see what comes next. Thank all of my fellow Unravellers for making this such a lovely experience...

Winter in Portland is notoriously grey and long. It rarely gets unreasonably cold or snows (in fact, I start to get unreasonably jealous upon hearing about a D.C. snowpocolypse, or recalling my scenic snowy college days in rural New England.) It's simply a long, muted wait for spring. So, it's a real gift that the last 8 weeks have been made so much brighter and more interesting by the Unravalling challenge with lovely, inspiring London-based photographer Susannah Conway.

I was a bit skeptical about a global, online class with nearly 200 female participants (and such a touchy-feely premise to boot), but it was completely engaging. As an adult, the chance to feel that you're part of any definite community beyond your family can be tricky, so gatherings like this are special. And I learned to see myself, my writing and my photographs in a new light, and made virtual friends with interesting ladies all over the world. {The next Unravelling begins March 8th, so there's still time to register if you're interested.}

Unravelling - Week Six

It's so lame to say that this assignment is incomplete because I couldn't be bothered to do some good old-fashioned dress ironing, but there it is. My alter-ego is a grown-up who irons, too, I suppose.

Be Still My Heart.

Let’s pretend it’s a work of art / Let’s pretend it’s not my heart

- The Magnetic Fields, “I’m Sorry I Love You”

Oh-so-happy valentine's day, y'all.

Unravelling - Week Five

I actually made a sound of disgust as I read about this week's assignment. I HATE having pictures taken of me and would never take them of myself. So I spent 20 minutes with the photobooth feature on my mac and snapped away to get it over with. My opinion of self-portraits hasn't change, but I do have to say that in the back of my mind my protests were met with the knowledge of LAST week's assignment, when I saw so many photos of myself that I had felt self-conscious about (or outright hated) at the time, but looking at them now, I felt sort of proud of that girl in the photo, and wished she had been confident enough to feel proud of herself. So, there's that that I'll keep in mind as I cringe at these shots.