...IS UP!

today is the fourth day of
the fourth month of this year.
today is also the four year anniversary of this blog.
and today is the day this blog says goodnight.

it is hard for me to fully express my gratitude but I will try…
thank you for leaving your words, each droplet of love and encouragement along the way.
thank you for bearing witness to my journey.
thank you so much for each of you.

spurred on by andrea’s lovely ‘posts that mean something to me’,
(an idea made even more perfect by the fact that this dear friend’s writing brilliance
and personal encouragement got me started blogging in the first place :)
i offer you two sets of four posts that mean something to me.


four on my lovely boys…

riley’s insides

riley’s outsides

a boy lost

and a boy found



four that mean much and do a pretty good job of summing me up…

11 things

100 things

everywhere but especially

one more thank you

___

there will be a new blog along with
a new website soon (almost finished! watch this space for an update :)
though it will admittedly be less personal, less LeSophie.
perhaps check in now and then at my flickr for that.

so i bid you adieu for now, my lovelies, and in the words of patty griffin…

“may you dream you are dreaming, in a warm soft bed
and may the voices inside you that fill you with dread
make the sound of thousands of angels instead
tonight where you might be laying your head.”

love and gratitude,
LeS

If you are not yet aware of this lovely creature please allow me to introduce you to Lisa of doorways traveler. She is a delight, a woman of purpose, a woman to admire for her generosity, her honesty, her burning desire to make a difference in the world.

And you can help her do just that!

She is currently raising money to travel to Uganda so that she might help spread the word for women in need. Go on over here to learn all about it and, if you throw a little money her way, you have excellent odds at taking something beautiful from some of her friends home! I am honored to call her friend - I am honored to donate the three prints seen below towards her cause and am straight up determined to join on her on just such an adventure one day :)

go on - you know you want to!

you might just win...

dandelion love:


or pluot love:


or seafoam love:

I was JUST thinking about you :)

"for a long time, she flew only when she thought no one else was watching"

- brian andreas

for Kristin's birthday:

and then sent them off in yesterday's mail :)

...and because the benches were so very very shiny.........


.................................and because the grass was so very very green.......


............and, well, just because.

after.





from a recent shoot for Edible Magazine - Marin/Wine Country :)

It has been nine years since I discovered The Sun magazine while sitting newborn vigil with my dear friend Rebecca in her living room. It sat innocuously on the side table...I picked it up, soon after subscribed and have not stopped going back to it since.

Decidedly left but even more decidedly human...more a friend than a magazine. There are a few b&w photos, no ads, and then just writing. Non-fiction, fiction, poetry, Readers Write...so very much.

Reading it over the years I have frowned, belly laughed, raised an eyebrow, hit my head against the wall, heaved a happy sigh and like last night while reading a poem in the January issue by Alison Luterman called 'Because Even The Word Obstacle is an Obstacle' just openly wept.

In other words, I love The Sun.

Buy it.
Read it.
Love it, too.

oh my, yes!
bring it.

...this song is Patty Griffin's tribute to the great Martin Luther King as inspired by his very last speech.

Chills and tears and so much gratitude are spilling over into my day :)

And the speech itself...

Riley and I decided to go to SFMOMA and check out their 75th anniversary exhibition today.

This is officially my very favorite photo that I have ever taken of the two of us.

Ever.

We are cups, constantly and quietly being filled.
The trick is knowing how to tip ourselves over and let
the beautiful stuff out.

- R. Bradbury

Yesterday I was gifted with the opportunity to spend seven hours and capture over 1200 images within the heart of a developmentally disabled community of remarkable human beings.

It was not only one of the most positive days I will be lucky enough to have in my career but in the entirety of my life.

Of that, I am certain.

and will never take where I live for granted.

Ever.

1. hey, 2009? you can kiss my ass.

2. hi there, 2010 ;) you wanna make out?

It is an odd sort of limbo, this week between holidays.



I leave the tree up, turn it on each morning and let it illuminate the house. The vintage outdoor lights twinkle across the porch until it is dark yet again and time to climb back in bed.



The anticipation of shiny wrapped boxes and the rituals so filled with loving promise have passed. There is much work to be done, many corners to clean, much list writing and resolution pondering yet I think I will still linger long in my pajamas,



nurse my warm mug of coffee deep into the days for just a bit longer while I enjoy the last of the sparkles.



How about you?

and thank you all for stopping by over the past year!



Much love, warmth and joy to you all!

Love,
Leslie, Riley & Iggy
(and Rocket too :)

like a weed I tell ya'

...and they are all but grown.

how in the world are we about to celebrate his 16th Christmas?
how in the world are we 2 1/2 years from him leaving home?
how in the world............how in the world, indeed.

and maybe I am feeling particularly melancholy and sappy today but can you see how the bushes behind him are vaguely heart-shaped and love-is-everywhere-ish?

...sigh.

on the corner of our street.

I just want to publicly thank my friend Andrea Jenkins/HulaSeventy for her kind words about our home on Poppytalk this week. Reading her words and seeing her images of the house sprinkled with mine has been a treat. As has the response! Apartment Therapy reposted it and - wow! - you guys have been so sweet as well :) Thank you all much.

The comment from 'emilypdx' over at AT? I could not be more pleased - and from a stranger no less??..."Anyone with tons of money can hire a decorator, point to some stuff in a catalog and, poof, furnish a house. But this place feels creative and like it came together over time, piece by piece, fun find by find, and that is real style!"...I have worked slowly and deliberately over the years - curating here and there, bit by bit, and to be acknowledged for this, well, no words :) If you know who she is tell her how much joy that brought to me, k?

Oh, and have a happy weekend all, won't you?

MUAH.
xoxox, les

Bench Monday! :) And a very merry one to you all...

...and OH MY!!! Looks like Zazzle is offering a big sale on calendars right now! If you haven't snapped my calendar up yet, you can right here, enter the code YOURCALENDAR during check out and save a bundle (up to $9 - wow indeed)!!! Hurryhurry because present day quickly approacheth!!!

The delightful andrea came to stay for a few days. we walked. and talked. and walked again. and slept a little. and then walked some more....here is San Francisco's Chinatown through my lens alongside a dear friend...won't you join us?



although, imho, this slideshow is better bigger :)


(and don't forget to visit (or join!!) the wonderful walk with me group to take all sorts of walks with flickr people the world across :)

There are stories to tell about last weekend...stories of funky hidden dinners...and vintage photobooths...and shopping finds...and talking late into the night...and walks (really good ones with cameras in hand, of course)...and even a gaggle of fabulous new acquaintances thrown in but the best part is that I got to spend two days with one of my favorite people. And that would have been grand even if we had sat still in the same place the whole time :)

for the walk with me group. This walk is inspired by Kristin's sunrise walk but rather than the gorgeous beach in Maine, mine takes place in the vineyard surrounding my parents home in the Napa Valley on Thanksgiving morning...still pajama-ed and makeup-less...just how I like it :)



Alternatively, you can view it great big by clicking here :)

from me to you.

I am filled to the tippy top with gratefulness and love and thank you each and every one for being in my life no matter how tiny or grand.

I am also still and always thankful for these 100 things with no time this year to post 100 more...

I wish you and yours a long delicious love-filled holiday weekend :)

Mason, this pure talented delight of a young man, close enough to feel like my own, goes into an eight hour spinal surgery to correct his scoliosis at 6am pst tomorrow (Monday, 11/23).

If you would, please keep him in your thoughts and send him juicy healing love waves?



thank you, my love-filled blog friends :)

**UPDATE - tuesday morning** all is as well as can be expected! the surgeons were "beaming" about how well the surgery went :) scariest part over and now the road to recovery...phew and hooray!

well, at least for one of us!