Magic Monday

This week's Magic Monday is from Celeste of Wanderlust, a fantastic blog on life and all of its wonderful components. Her pictures are stunning, her travels worthy of envy, and her musings charming and genuine.


Here is what she had to say...

"I've never been afraid of heights, but when I stood with my toes aligned with the cliff my heart skipped beats. The ocean was so big, and so blue. Thinking back now, I can still feel the heat of the rocks and my wet footprints evaporating in the sun. And I can feel my legs pushing off, my heart sinking, and the warm, welcoming blue as I fell into it.

This is how I'll always remember Greece. It's the clearest blue water you've ever seen. The refreshing ocean in the heat of warm sun. The saltiest water you've ever tasted- so much salt that you can just float and bask and think, "Am I really here?"

This photo brings back so many feelings. It was taken in Aegina, a beautiful island southwest of Athens, during my trip to Greece a year ago. To me, this photo isn't only of an amazing experience, but it also represents the leap into my wanderlust heart. It's understanding that there's always a little fear in what's ahead of you but going for it anyway because you don't learn when you hold back. 

(Also, if you look really, really closely, you can see a little green kayak out further in the middle of the sea. That's my friend, Jamil. And the little blob swimming next to him is my friend, Chris. Both wonderful friends I made that summer.)"

Magic Monday: Lovely Lydia

Today's Magic Monday is Lydia of Style is Style. She is a brilliant and charming blogger who hails from just north of me (BC, Canada). Her blog is both heart warming and fun to read and I am so grateful to have her contribute something to my young blog. Maybe one of these days when I'm in Vancouver I'll be able grab a cupcake with her and hear more!

Here is what she had to say...

"I hold this picture very dear to me. It was taken on February 12, 2010, on my first trip to New York City. It's of Grand Central Station, and it was one of the very first photos I shot after arriving in the Big Apple. I am still awestruck that I got to the amazing opportunity to be a part of Chictopia's first Fashion Week event. I can't believe I went to NYC!!! It's been months and it's still one of the most surreal things to happen to me. I met sooo many amazing bloggers (many of whom I had been admiring from afar, aka the Internet) and I had so, so, so much fun! Such a great experience! This little thing called blogging has brought such interesting and amazing people and places into my life, and I am very excited for whatever may come of it in the future. "

Magic Monday: Rebecca Amongst the Clouds

This weeks Magic Monday is Rebecca of The Clothes Horse, an inspiring fashion blog I have been reading for quite some time now. She's inspired millions of writers and fashion enthusiasts to embark on their own creative journeys, and I was so honored to have her as my first blogger featured in my Magic Monday section.

Here's what she had to say...

"As a personal style blogger I take daily pictures for my blog to record my outfits. The longer I blogged the more invested I became in my “photo shoots” and I began dragging my tripod out and about with me on little adventures into the wild. Yet, despite the initial idea of recording what I’m wearing, my favorite shots are the ones where I’m in profile or my back is to the camera…something about the absence of a face in these photographs allows me to remove myself and my experience that day from the image. Instead of the actual experience and the person I really am, I look at the image and conjure up some impressive heroine and a day of epic proportions.

Even the images of other photographers who leave their subjects faceless and anonymous are often my favorite. An empty scene can lack depth or a sense of a story, but once a person enters the pictures, even unknown, a plot starts to emerge, but the essence of the story and main character is left to the viewer to decide. They’re the visual equivalent of reading a first-person story and feeling as though you become the lead character…but perhaps I spend too much time staring at anonymous photographs and reading fairy tales.

For better or for worse, this is one of my favorite pictures from the past year. I’m 23, but looking at it I can imagine being a small child and diving into clouds…not a murky lake."

Magic Monday..errr, sort of.

It is not Monday. But for the sake of this post, I am going to pretend it is. Mostly because I would like Mondays to always be magical, also, because I would like Magic Mondays to be a weekly forum for myself, and other bloggers to showcase an image they find magical, inspiring, and/or special.

Since this blog is in it's fledgling state, I am the first Magic Monday.

This image was taken this past February at Gas Works Park in Seattle. The feet in the brown booties are mine, the black booties are a dear friend (my other friend and roommate is not pictured). It was one of those lovely Sundays, where I had papers and reading, but we went on a picnic instead. We ate tuna fish on a plaid blanket in the grass, drank store brand soda pop, and munched on a tin of cookies my mom had given me for Christmas. The perfect, blissful spontaneity of it all opened my eyes. I don't know if I realized this then, but I realize it now; magic is wonderful in its simplicity. And if you don't feel that magic enough, you need to revise your lifestyle. Shortly after this photo was taken, I transitioned out of a long term relationship, decided I never wanted to live with another boy I thought I loved until I was engaged, and grew up a little. Magic isn't a fairy tale, magic is finding one pair of the perfect shoes in the clearance section and they're in you're size. Magic is an inside joke between good friends. Magic is tuna fish in the park.

Today, I constantly look around and feel a warm, comforting sense of magic in my life. That's how I know I'm in a good place.