If you follow me on twitter there is a chance you’ve seen me mention that I’ve been working on a site redesign and relaunch. The day for that has finally come.

From now on, please follow me over at my new site www.ashleyemoore.com !

I’m very excited about this new launch and I look forward to seeing you over there!

Love,

Ashley

Saturday was one of the most beautiful days we’ve had this summer, and that’s a bit sad seeing as it was the end of July.

M. and I took full advantage of the day and had a bit of an impromptu picnic. We got out an old blanket; got strawberries, grapes and raspberries; got three different kinds of cheese and a loaf of french bread; made drinks and then laid out in the sun reading comic s while listening to the New Pornographers on my portable record player. It was heaven.

This July hasn’t turned out as I had hoped, mostly due to the dreary weather, but there have been some good things in it.

- M. and I have gone on three nice long bike rides around the city. M.’s bike is grey and mine is baby blue. Now I just need a cute basket and I feel I’m set. I even managed to bike in skirt on one of the rides!

- We took a weekend trip to Seattle, which I will talk about more once I get the film back from being developed.

- I can say now I’m much more relaxed than I was before or even right after the wedding. Which really, is what I wanted from this summer, is relaxation.

- Polaroid week was a fantastic highlight! There was so much inspiration!

- This past weekend I learned to make my first cocktail type drink that involved more than just pouring booze into pop. Let me tell you, these Rosemary Gin Fizz drinks (pictured above) are the perfect refreshing drink. (Especially when cute striped straws are used.)

Now it is August and the weather channel is saying we’ll have beautiful weather for at least the next week, maybe the next two, so I want to get as many summery type things done. I hope to go to the beach at least once, as well as do some photo walks in areas of the city I don’t spend a lot of time in.

What are you plans for the rest of the summer? Are you headed towards beaches and large bodies of water or are you loving the simple shade of trees in a green meadow?

Lately I’ve had all kinds of thoughts running through my head. Thoughts about where I want to go with my photography, ways I need to expand with it. Thoughts about where I want to go as a person and how to become the person I want to be.  Heavy thoughts that blind fold me, spin me around and then tell me to pick a direction, and it had better be a good pick ’cause there is no take-backs and no do-overs.

Of course, that’s not really true. Whatever choice I make, should it not work out, I can always choose to change things up again. But once in a while I always forget and end up in a panic.

Today I’m trying to remind myself of that, of the how very few things in life are permanent, and while one thing, like the flower above, may fade, in its place there may grow something that is just as beautiful in a different way.

Here are some things that are blooming for me today and making me smile:

- The thought of sunshine tomorrow and bbq’d ribs in the evening.

- ‘Everything Beautiful Began After’, a beautiful book by Simon Van Booy, whose writing I fell in love with through his two short story books, ‘The Secret Lives of People in Love‘ and ‘Love Begins in Winter’. This man can use words like no one I have ever read and honestly, I think I’m a bit smitten.

- Sleeping in my own bed after being away last weekend. Nothing is quite as good as sleeping in your own bed with your husband and your cat.

- True Blood. It’s cheesy, it’s sexy, it’s addicting. Each week I wonder if I’ll be able to make it until the next episode. Lately I’ve been reading the novels which the show is based on. Though reading might not be quite the right word as I have finished the first four novels in just 4 days. Devour might be a better word.

- Plans for a fun party I can hopefully pull together this summer. It involves paint, canvases, friends and food. Sounds like the best party ever!

What is making you smile today?

I’m super excited about going to Seattle and I’ve been stocking up on film, so I’m sure I’ll have tons of things to share with you all once I’m back. In the meantime, have a lovely lovely weekend and to all the wonderful Polaorid photographers out there, thank you for making Polaroid week awesome.

Day 4 Favorites Gallery.

I’m pretty sure M. is tired of listening to me talk about how much amazing work I am seeing in the pool everyday.  For the first day of ‘Roid Week I would sit on the couch with my laptop and make audible noises of delight everytime I saw a wonderful photo. And every time I did, M. would ask what I was looking at. Now he doesn’t even ask, he just looks at the cat, smiles and shakes his head.

These photos are from Sunday when we were out with friends at a great little place on Main.  If you’re ever in Vancouver and find yourself at Caffe Barney for dinner, I HIGHLY recommend the maple bacon and asparagus spagehetti. HIGHLY.

Day 3 of ‘Roid week favorites here!

On Saturday M. and I had our first meal outside of the summer. It’s always so wonderful to eat outside, and when the eating involves hamburgers slathered with guiness bbq sauce, grilled asparagus and watermelons… how could it get any better!

To see some of my favorite photos from Day 2 of ‘Roid week, check out this Flickr gallery.

It’s the most… wonderful time… oooofff the yeeeeeeaaarrrr!

I love Polaroid Week.  Here are my submission for day 1!

These are from May, but with the wedding and everything I didn’t get a chance to upload them. It was nice to save them for Polaroid week though.

I’ve created a gallery on Flickr with my favorite photos from Day 1 of ‘Roid week. Check out the rest of the group pool, there is so much amazingness there!

I figured that a perfect way to kick it off was with a post about the Mikael Kennedy Polaroid show I saw the other week called ‘Pieces of the Moon’ at the Catalog Gallery in Vancouver that is curated by The Jealous Curator.

I was incredibly excited when I heard about this show because, honestly, there aren’t often Polaroid shows in Vancouver. Most of the ones I know of are in New York where the US office of The Impossible Project is based.  So a polaroid show in Vancouver, especially one featuring photos by the wonderful Mikael Kennedy, is something I couldn’t pass up!

M. and I checked it out with a couple of our friends and it was incredibly inspiring! ‘Pieces of the Moon‘ is selected photos from a larger show called ‘Shoot the Moon’ comprised of 500 polaroids of Mikael Kennedy‘s exciting life and travels around the US. ‘Pieces’ takes 50 photos out of that and focuses on the women from ‘Shoot’.

The polaroids themselves are so beautiful and understated. They are photos of people being people, giving you a tiny glimpse into the life of someone you will never meet, and yet, all the glimpses feel familiar. The women in the photos are relaxing, hanging out, walking, riding in cars, and doing things I do almost everyday. With each photo I saw I felt less like I was looking at someone elses life, and more like I was looking at my life played by different people in different settings. The intimacy of it is startling and breath-taking.

It was a beautiful evening of meeting people and inspiration. M. and I walked through the whole exhibit at least twice, often jumping from one wall to another as we discovered photos we liked and calling the other over to see. Neither of us could pick a favorite.

If you are in Vancouver and have time to see this show, I encourage you to do so. It is up until July 17th, and is completely worth a look.

Many thanks to the Jealous Curator for curating this amazing show.

So I had this whole big idea for a post last week about goals, creativity, blah, blah, blah, but then the long weekend hit and I never got around to finishing it. I planned to finish it on Sunday, but then M. got crazy sick and so all plans were on hold while I played nurse. I thought I might finish it on Tuesday, but then I got crazy sick and that has been the status quo since.

The only one who isn’t sick is our cat, Spandy, but unless he learns to go to the grocery store and buy cold medicine, it’s not actually helping that much. Seeing as my attempts to get him to learn to clean his own litter box have been rather disastrous, it’s probably a good thing I don’t entrust him with money for cold medicine. He’d probably just buy magic catnip beans with it.

For now, until I feel better, please enjoy this pretty photo of cherry blossoms.

And don’t forget to take your Vitamin C!

I have so many pictures from this spring that I haven’t had a chance to post because of wedding craziness.

So here are two Polaroids I took in April, right at the end of cherry blossom season. The streets and gutters were so full of pink petals that you could hardly see the ground beneath them.