So many books...so little time.

Every time I walk into a library or bookstore I'm immediately struck by the fact that I couldn't possibly read all the books there ever were in the span of my lifetime...but I can certainly try to make a dent.Here are a few books I'll be reading this month.Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy  by Helen FieldingWhen Stars Die by Amber Skye ForbesThe Raven Cycle #2: The Dream Thieves by Maggie Stiefvater  

Baby Yawn

Just after eight o'clock this evening as I was tucking my boys in, "snug as a bug in a rug", my son Evan asked me to lay down with him until he fell asleep. "Scoot over." I said, and snuggled in under the covers with him nose to nose.  He draped an arm around my neck, as he's so often done and yawned. He opened his eyes and saw me smiling at him, and asked, "Mommy is it rude to yawn in someone's face?"I said, "I suppose, but it's OK when it's Mommy.""Is it because even though I'm big, I still have a baby yawn?" He asked, eyes and voice, already heavy with impending sleep."Yes, that's exactly why." I said, and snuggled in tight, hoping for many more shared baby yawns.My "baby" is five years old now, yet I can still remember seeing my sweet son yawning when he was just a little thing, cuddled in my arms. He melted my heart then as he still does, and I'm sure, forever will. xo,nicole 

Sunday Morning First Day of Autumn

Hello remember me? I'm the one who is suppose to pop in and share what's up with her world, writing, and anything really...I could try to explain why I've been away. I have a ton of posts laid out in my head. Photographs even taken. I've just been otherwise engaged, which to my mind is such a rude thing to say, esp if you're here using up your valuable time to read this.However today is the first day of Fall. It's a Sunday morning here and my little Evan has a cold so we're keeping our germs away from Church and his RE classes and opting for a quiet Sunday at home. The hubster is stateside on TDY and we're content with a peaceful Sunday morning occupied with things we enjoy. The boys are in their playroom and I sit here at my desk.Happy Fall and I hope you have a great Sunday!To celebrate I thought I'd share this poem by Wallace Stevens it's a poem I've found difficult to read in the past but I like to go back and reread things as I get older and wiser. It's all about perspective I think... 

Sunday Morning

1Complacencies of the peignoir, and lateCoffee and oranges in a sunny chair,And the green freedom of a cockatooUpon a rug mingle to dissipateThe holy hush of ancient sacrifice.She dreams a little, and she feels the darkEncroachment of that old catastrophe,As a calm darkens among water-lights.The pungent oranges and bright, green wingsSeem things in some procession of the dead,Winding across wide water, without sound.The day is like wide water, without sound,Stilled for the passing of her dreaming feetOver the seas, to silent Palestine,Dominion of the blood and sepulchre.2Why should she give her bounty to the dead?What is divinity if it can comeOnly in silent shadows and in dreams?Shall she not find in comforts of the sun,In pungent fruit and bright green wings, or elseIn any balm or beauty of the earth,Things to be cherished like the thought of heaven?Divinity must live within herself:Passions of rain, or moods in falling snow;Grievings in loneliness, or unsubduedElations when the forest blooms; gustyEmotions on wet roads on autumn nights;All pleasures and all pains, rememberingThe bough of summer and the winter branch.These are the measure destined for her soul.3Jove in the clouds had his inhuman birth.No mother suckled him, no sweet land gaveLarge-mannered motions to his mythy mind.He moved among us, as a muttering king,Magnificent, would move among his hinds,Until our blood, commingling, virginal,With heaven, brought such requital to desireThe very hinds discerned it, in a star.Shall our blood fail? Or shall it come to beThe blood of paradise? And shall the earthSeem all of paradise that we shall know?The sky will be much friendlier then than now,A part of labor and a part of pain,And next in glory to enduring love,Not this dividing and indifferent blue.4She says, 'I am content when wakened birds,Before they fly, test the realityOf misty fields, by their sweet questionings;But when the birds are gone, and their warm fieldsReturn no more, where, then, is paradise?'There is not any haunt of prophecy,Nor any old chimera of the grave,Neither the golden underground, nor isleMelodious, where spirits gat them home,Nor visionary south, nor cloudy palmRemote on heaven's hill, that has enduredAs April's green endures; or will endureLike her remembrance of awakened birds,Or her desire for June and evening, tippedBy the consummation of the swallow's wings.5She says, 'But in contentment I still feelThe need of some imperishable bliss.'Death is the mother of beauty; hence from her,Alone, shall come fulfillment to our dreamsAnd our desires. Although she strews the leavesOf sure obliteration on our paths,The path sick sorrow took, the many pathsWhere triumph rang its brassy phrase, or loveWhispered a little out of tenderness,She makes the willow shiver in the sunFor maidens who were wont to sit and gazeUpon the grass, relinquished to their feet.She causes boys to pile new plums and pearsOn disregarded plate. The maidens tasteAnd stray impassioned in the littering leaves.6Is there no change of death in paradise?Does ripe fruit never fall? Or do the boughsHang always heavy in that perfect sky,Unchanging, yet so like our perishing earth,With rivers like our own that seek for seasThey never find, the same receding shoresThat never touch with inarticulate pang?Why set pear upon those river-banksOr spice the shores with odors of the plum?Alas, that they should wear our colors there,The silken weavings of our afternoons,And pick the strings of our insipid lutes!Death is the mother of beauty, mystical,Within whose burning bosom we deviseOur earthly mothers waiting, sleeplessly.7Supple and turbulent, a ring of menShall chant in orgy on a summer mornTheir boisterous devotion to the sun,Not as a god, but as a god might be,Naked among them, like a savage source.Their chant shall be a chant of paradise,Out of their blood, returning to the sky;And in their chant shall enter, voice by voice,The windy lake wherein their lord delights,The trees, like serafin, and echoing hills,That choir among themselves long afterward.They shall know well the heavenly fellowshipOf men that perish and of summer morn.And whence they came and whither they shall goThe dew upon their feet shall manifest.8She hears, upon that water without sound,A voice that cries, 'The tomb in PalestineIs not the porch of spirits lingering.It is the grave of Jesus, where he lay.'We live in an old chaos of the sun,Or old dependency of day and night,Or island solitude, unsponsored, free,Of that wide water, inescapable.Deer walk upon our mountains, and the quailWhistle about us their spontaneous cries;Sweet berries ripen in the wilderness;And, in the isolation of the sky,At evening, casual flocks of pigeons makeAmbiguous undulations as they sink,Downward to darkness, on extended wings.

Wallace Stevens

Summertime Skin Care - My favorite Moisturizers

I was putting on my makeup this morning, and I got to thinking about how much I liked the two moisturizers I wear daily.Thought I'd share...In the summer I don't wear foundation. I mean, what's the point?I do however wear a moisturizer with sunscreen every day all year round and this summer I've taken to wearing a tinted moisturizer (also with sunscreen) on top of that.Over kill? I think not.

I am actually very happy with them both and I think they're happy on my face.

I use Aveeno's Positively Radiant daily moisturizer with SPF 30 every day. This is one of a few broad-spectrum SPF moisturizers I use all year round. I like it because it's gentle on my skin. Has a higher sunscreen quotient, and it's not greasy and absorbs quickly.

In the summer I like to layer that with Olay Fresh Effects BB Cream tinted moisturizer which also has a broad-spectrum SPF of 15. I have used this alone, on summer evenings out and it is great. It does all the things a BB cream should do with out being greasy. The tint in the cream blends super great which I can sometimes have a hard time with since I'm so fair.

These are both great products that are super affordable and I think these last two I purchased using a coupon. You can find them at drugstores, and big boxed stores etc.

love & moisturizer,

nicole

*I was not compensated for this post.

What's On My Desk? 1.0

One's desk, much like their purse is a very personal thing (or at least it should be.) I think it says a lot about the person who spends their time at it.I love to see where other writers write. Kami Garcia often shares what's on her desk and purse on her blog. Maggie Stiefvater has also shared her office space or the chaos that can become her desk when she gets to drawing.I've shared my work-spaces in the past too, but it's been some time since I've done so and I thought I'd share with you a few things that are sitting on my desk today.Research books on Spain gotten from my base Library. I really must visit some of the places I'm writing about. I'll call them research trips!At any given time there is a notebook or three on my desk (or in my purse, or beside my bed).I found an old hair ribbon I used to wear back in College during sorority events (Go Phi Mu!).I have a box of colored pens I purchased at a local market. I got them for my son who likes to journal and draw, but he left them here last week and so I've been using them too. I like colored pens, because sometimes black or blue ink, just isn't enough!I found some neat pencils while visiting Belluno, Italy this weekend. Belluno was so charming, much like these pencils I picked up in a little boutique, they have Swarovski crystals on their tops. Charming, sparkling writing utensils. Oh what joy!If you're wondering why I have toys on my desk, that's totally my youngest son's fault. He likes to bring me little treasures.I found some Swarovski crystal pencils on amazon I think these would be lovely presents, don't you?Save

I've been feeling creative and inspired...

Here's what my Muse has found pleasing...I made this little graphic so I could print out and tape into my journal - but quickly discovered that my printer is out of ink. Grrr, I purchased those before I left Miami, but I guess not using them for nearly six months can make them feel all ignored and decide their not in a printerly mood.I so do love Shakespeare's Sonnet 43... The way it speaks of yearning is so poignant. I'm totally channeling this feeling for one of my characters.The photo I used I found via Tumblr.  Apparently it's a statue located in Rome. So it's on my list of things to see when we visit. I just have to figure out where.Music definitely helps rev up my creativity. I recently discovered The National, I've had their album High Violet on near constant replay. They're heading straight toward being one of my favorite bands.

Florence + the Machine ...  Two songs specifically I've found to be quite thematic, for my writing these days, Cosmic Love and Blinding off of the Lungs album.Le Sigh. Love those. Here are a few links to the two albums I referenced. These links are affiliate codes...

Birthday Aspirations: Goals for my Thirty-Fifth Year

It's my birthday and I've come up with some things I will aspire to in my 35th year.The last few years I was pretty stagnant in the whole goal department. My biggest goal was to simply survive my husband's two year tour overseas. Now that my family is once again together I feel much more at peace, and in a way I feel like I've experienced a rebirth. It's like I've been a shadow of myself these last two years and the Nicole I know and love is finally coming back into the light.These last few months have brought fourth many new changes and challenges and I want to take advantage of all the opportunities and experiences that will come my way, but I've also set fourth a few goals for myself for my 35th year.

• Write every day. I've gotten out of the habit of writing daily. This is a travesty I will eliminate completely this year.
• I want to achieve the goal of self publishing something -my goal right now is a short story -but that could turn into a novella if all goes well.
• I have wanted to try Yoga for years. This year I will begin exploring yoga. I think it will really help me to focus and calm down a bit in certain aspects of my life where I tend to be "high-strung".
• I want to learn a new skill. I'm leaning towards the Piano.
• I am an incredibly shy person. As an adult I had to force myself to be outgoing and I've found that my shyness is rearing its head in a HUGE way. I need to put myself out there and really make some new friends.
• Finally, I plan on volunteering some of my time. I've already made arrangements to be a Sunday school teacher in the Fall and I think that will be a great avenue for me.

love & birthday candles,nicole