One Thousand: Clean sheets

Clean sheets straight out of the laundry.....ahhhh.....I could lie there until they go cold. One of those simple pleasures that you often don't have time to enjoy. 

Thank you to my beautiful assistant, Ceara, for climbing into pyjamas in the middle of the day. I love having other people be involved in my project!

Gift #28: Clean warm sheets out of the dryer 

One Thousand: Relaxation and Wine

I'm sure that most of you will agree that there is something so nice about watching tv and enjoying a glass of wine. Feet up, husband by your side, wine at your feet. So relaxing.

Gift #27: Relaxing with a glass of wine

One Thousand: Seeds

I started my summer garden today! I know, you probably think it's too early being that it's only January. However, I want to give my little plants a head start by planting them inside first and then moving them outside in March. I'm pretty excited! This season I will be growing heirloom tomatoes, red peppers, purple tomatillos, basil, cilantro and lettuce. As well as a couple of red sunflowers. I can't wait to see those little sprouts pop through the soil!

Gift #26: The joy of planting seeds

One Thousand: Dancing

Here's a bit of a random one!

Last night Scott and I went to see The Muppets. We were joined by three other people in the entire movie theatre. When they left, we had a dance party in the empty theatre. :)

I hope to take a better photo of this one someday! Only had my iPhone.

Gift #25: Dancing in empty theatres 

One Thousand: Patterns

I think God is such an amazing artist. I absolutely love this tree I found. The patterns that the branches made across the sky are beautiful.

Gift #24: Patterns in nature

One Thousand: Promise of Spring

While also out walking I came upon this gorgeous flowery tree. We in California have not had what you would call a bad winter. In fact we've had an amazing winter! Sixties pretty much everyday and blue skies. The only problem is that we may actually be coming into a drought. Not so great but it's been so nice to be outside everyday. So, I am definitely not here to complain about a bad winter or that I can't wait for spring. What I loved about this tree was that while everything else is brown all around it, it is full of life and the promise that everything will soon be green and colourful again.

Gift #23: The promise of spring

One Thousand: Quietude

For the past three days I haven't been sleeping well and then waking up not feeling well because of it. Today is one such day where I just felt lousy. To try to shake myself out of my daze and fogginess I thought I would take a walk. It may not have been completely the best idea because I felt out of breathe and a little faint. But I found a lovely road that I've driven down before but never walked down. It was so peaceful. The air was fresh, there was no one around, it was quiet. And as I kept walking further down the road I then heard water running over stones in this small creek along a vineyard. My heart sighed. I closed my eyes and listened. I savour these moments of solitude and quietude in this noisy world.

Gift #22: Moments of quietude 

One Thousand: Clouds

Don't you just love the way clouds wisp, group, float, and meander across the sky in the last remaining moments of daylight? Makes me think of heaven.

Gift #21: Shapes of clouds

One Thousand: Oranges and Hot Chocolate

Here are two gifts that are somewhat similar. :)

Yesterday, Scott and I were at a coffee shop sitting outside where I noticed an orange tree right next to us. I love little surprises like that! The oranges were still on the tree. Little joys when you least expect them.

Gift #19: Oranges still on the tree

I'm not sure if there is anything much better than homemade hot chocolate on the stove. The smell, the warmth, the taste...I love the swirling chocolate in the pan.

Gift #20: Swirling hot chocolate

One Thousand: Blueberry bread

I am not sure if there are many things more wonderful than freshly baked blueberry muffins. Well....blueberry bread. I guess I don't have muffin tins like I thought. 

Gift #18: Blueberry bread out of the oven

One Thousand: Shadows

After a few days of rain, we had one sunny day. I love when you open your eyes and can guess if it's a beautiful sunny day or not by the shadows that are cast by the trees outside on your curtain. A gift to me: shadows that say it's a sunny day.

Gift #17: Shadows on curtains

One Thousand: Birds of a feather

One yet another cold, rainy day (I guess winter is finally here) I see so many birds crowding in the trees by my back window. They are little specks of sunshine with their yellow and red bellies. Today's gift is one of simplicity. I love the feathers and the constant life that birds always seem to have.

Gift #16: The free spirit of birds

One Thousand: Rain Crystals

So much rain! But I love how it collects on tree branches and looks like little crystals. The trees around us are adorned with them. 

Gift #15

One Thousand: Raindrops

Haven't posted in a few days! For the past three days, my church was taking part in a three day fast. Part of my fast was fasting from our blog. During those few days it pretty much rained the whole time. We definitely needed rain here! While I'm not much of a fan of being out in it, I do love the sound it makes and watching it. This photo is inspired by the beauty of rain falling from the sky.

Gift #14: The beauty of raindrops falling

One Thousand: Words and Mail

These two gifts kind of go together simply because they both deal with the written word. If you think about your day, you'll realise that most of it is spent reading or writing. Even if you're sitting in front of the tv, you are reading. I am so grateful for the fact that we can read. That we have some way of communicating thoughts and feelings. Where would we be without them? 

I decided to include mail in this post (I kind of copied one of Ann Voskamp's gifts because I think it's so true!) because you need words to send mail! I LOVE getting mail as I'm sure most of you all do too. One of the highlights of our day is checking the mail. We sound like we have no life! But there's just something about receiving letters that were meant completely for you. Ah, the feeling of opening up to a mailbox chuck full of mail. And, oh, the disappointment when there's nothing. :(

Gift #12: The ability to write

Gift #13: Receiving mail

One Thousand: My husband's weird-ness

My husband is a strange human being. I love him so much but no one ever sees the side of him that I get to see on a daily basis. Therefore, I have no choice but to make today's gift be about my husband's weirdness day in and day out. Without it, my days simply would not be complete!

I love you hubby. 

Gift #11: My husband's weird-ness

One Thousand: Birds and Wildflowers

These two photos didn't come about because of any great inspiration. While out shooting yesterday I stumbled upon these birds in these wintered trees right next to our house and knew that I needed to take this picture. Even as I edited it I couldn't decide what gift I wanted to use it for. But as I thought about it, the main thing that attracted me to the photo were the little outlines of the birds in the trees. Therefore, I am thankful for birds. I think they are beautiful and I love their beautiful songs...most of them anyways!

The next photo was also a spur of the moment shot. Scott and I picked up some flowers yesterday that a neighbour had cut off their bushes and decided to put them in our thrift store bought bottles that sit on our computer desk. The light was pouring into our window so beautifully and I knew that the flowers would look so pretty in them. I know these aren't exactly wildflowers but we found them in a place they weren't supposed to be in...off their bush...so in a sense, they are wild. 

Gift #9: Birds in the trees

Gift #10: Wildflowers in jars

One Thousand: Colors

I love colors! And that's all there is to it! What would we do if the world were gray? 

Take a moment, look around you, and see the amazing variety of colors in the room where you sit.

Gift #8: Patterns of colors

One Thousand: Music

This gift has been in my life ever since my first part in a church musical when I was eight. My love of music developed early on and has shaped so much of who I am and my life. Through it I have met some of the most amazing people that I never would have otherwise and travelled to some incredible places. 

I will always always love and cherish music for as long as I live. 

Gift #7: Sheets of music

One Thousand: Memories

As Scott and I packed up our house in Scotland to move to California, we, of course, packed all of my camera gear. In the process we found a bunch of old film that I've had for a couple of years....still all unused. I bought a film camera ages ago in the hopes of studying photography but never ended up using it! It will probably serve as a house ornament until I can be motivated to really learn to use it. 

When we finally arrived in California, we unpacked all of my gear and stuck all of the film roles in the fridge. Randomly the other day, I decided to go through the canisters to see if any of them had been used. I found one! The others will continue taking up the space in our butter compartment of the fridge for now. 

Before church today we dropped the film off to be developed having absolutely no idea what would be on it. Picked up the film after church and the photos were extremely poor to say the least! Some of the photos I can't even explain! I don't know who took them or where they were taken. However, a few of them were taken when Scott and I had a friend "date" in 2009, I believe, before we started dating. Before I was interested in Scott at all, we would have little photo outings around northern Scotland. On this particular one, we found a beautiful lighthouse on the coast. I snapped a few photos of it which you can see in the film negative. Those actually turned out beautifully! The other two pictures on the negative are of the beach right by our first house as a married couple in Scotland. Our house was a stone's throw away from the beach....not that it was ever warm enough to go!

The first two pictures are from before Scott and I were married and the second two are from after. I love these special moments when you find something that you had completely forgotten you had and they serve as wonderful memories of different times with your loved ones. 

Gift #6: Moments with my beloved 

One Thousand: Veggies and Fruit

What more do I need to say? 

Gift #4: Veggies

Gift #5: Fruit

One Thousand: Hidden Treasures

A few days ago, Scott and I decided to take a trip to a huge Salvation Army store/rehabilitation area in search of a desk chair. We finally upgraded from a barstool at our kitchen counter to a desk and chair. My bottom feels so much better for it. While there we founds tons of fun stuff! There were two boats for sale at about $200 a piece (I tried convincing Scott to let me get one but practically won out), a piano with five pedals to make it sound like an orchestra, loads of walkers, golf clubs, and skis of all things! 

I love digging around places like that where you never know what you might find. My little treasures for the day were a little recycled glass pitcher that I intend to put flowers in and a 1976 Polaroid Super Shooter Plus camera. The grand total of these two items together was a wapping $2.50....everything was half off! Isn't it true that one man's junk is another man's, or in this case, woman's, treasure? I have absolutely no idea if the camera actually works. I need to save up for some film! 10 shots costs anywhere from $25 to $60. I can't wait to use it!

For this gift, I chose to depict hidden treasures using this poor forgotten cheap camera that is now one of my prized possessions! 

Gift #3: Hidden treasures in a bin

It's arrived!

Eek! My copy of One Thousand Gifts arrived today!

Kelsey

Introducing my beautiful sister, Kelsey! What model material. :) They are all beautiful of her.

And there's just a couple of silly ones in here too.

One Thousand: Free Will

Today's gift is quite a heavy one so please forgive me. All day I kept toying with the idea of photographing something I'm thankful for using an apple. Is it fruit I'm thankful for or the color red or things that are round? Finally I realised that one of the most amazing things that I am thankful for is free will. True, the fruit Adam and Eve ate in the Garden of Eden was most likely not actually an apple, but this is a reference that everyone understands. 

In the Garden, Adam and Eve loved God in an innocent and undefiled way. They were friends with Him in such a way that we can only imagine (if you haven't read or heard of the book Havah by Tosca Lee, I highly recommend you do!). But one of the greatest acts of love God gave them was the ability to choose to love Him or not. Sadly they chose to go against His perfect design but they realised with this sin that what they had/have with God is more than anything they could ever have elsewhere. With their ability to choose, they were able to love God more than they would have without this choice. This is something God gave us. 

We may have hard lives here on Earth but because we can choose, we don't have to live it alone. 

Gift #2: Free Will

One Thousand

As the new year has come and gone, I've seen people start their photography resolutions with full force and doing an amazing job with it. I (Kendall) have tried the 365 challenge before (taking a photo a day for a year) but failed terribly. There would always be days I didn't want to shoot or simply didn't feel inspired. So I've decided to take a different approach! After reading this, you may think I'm crazy. 

There is a book going around that some of you may have heard of. One Thousand Gifts by Ann Voskamp is an amazing book (or so I've heard) about modelling a life of joy and thankfulness after Jesus' own life. I haven't read the book yet but it is on its way to my front door! Based on this book, many women are making their lists of thousand things that they are thankful for and finding it to be a challenging and enriching experience. 

I not only want to make my list but I want to see the multitude of things that I am thankful for. Over the next couple of years, most likely, I want to photograph 1,000 things that I am thankful for. 

I hope that you will all join and support me in this journey and that maybe it will be an inspiration for you as well to see the world in a new way. I am so excited to see what this project has in store for me but also nervous and scared about the magnitude of what it entails! 

Love,

Kendall 

Gift #1: Sunshine on mustard flowers

New Bag!

Ah! My beautiful camera bag arrived yesterday! It is beautiful and perfect. If you are interested in a camera bag that isn't like other camera bags because it's actually cute, then check out Kelly Moore Bag (kellymoorebag.com).

Beautiful Light

The light coming in through our living room window was just way too pretty to pass up this afternoon! Gorgeous yellow, orange rays. 

Bree Bree

Just a little post all of my little sister!

A beautiful day at the coast

During our time in Southern California for Christmas, we went to Morro Bay. The weather was perfect! We were able to do some exploring, go kayaking, eat amazing seafood outside without having to bundle up in tons of layers! Here are a few photos from our time there. 

A beautiful, perfect end to the day.