I Love L.A.

I am a born and bred Southern California girl and have lived in the suburbs of Los Angeles my whole life. Where else on the same day can you go surfing in the morning and then skiing in the afternoon? Within a 90 minute drive I can be in Santa Barbara, Palm Springs or Mexico. While there are things I definitely do not love about living here (smog, traffic, prices), there are so many things I would never see or do if I lived anywhere else.  

When I heard the Endeavour space shuttle would be making it's final flight over L.A. before landing here for good, I knew there was no way I was going to miss this historic event.  The list of places that she (yes, in my mind, the Endeavor is a girl!) would be doing flyovers were many and I was close to all of them. Heck, all I had to do was stand outside my front door and I would have seen her but I wanted a bird's eyeview.  The flight would be low, only 1500 feet.  Griffith Park Observatory, which was on her list to fly by, is at 1100 feet. At only 400 feet above me head, I could almost reach out and touch her!

I expected a crowd to show up so I planned accordingly.  We left the house at 7:30 a.m. and 90 minutes later we exited the freeway.  What is usually a 10 minute drive up to the observatory took almost 90 more minutes.  When we finally got to the top of the hill with what felt like the entire population of Los Angeles, the excitement was palpable. 

Eyes turned to the sky for what seemed like forever, when first one person called out and than another. "There it is! There it is!".  There was a dot on the horizon that slowly grew larger and as she got closer, the crowd grew louder.  Hundreds (probably a thousand, easily) of cameras and cell phones pointed to the sky, awaiting for that one moment in time that would never repeat again.  When the moment finally arrived and she flew over, the jet engines so loud that you couldn't hear anything else,  it took my breath away.  I suddenly became emotional at the thought that a part of history was coming to an end.  There was cheering and clapping and the crowd began to chant "U.S.A.! U.S.A.!".  That glorious piece of machinery gave us a show and flew over and around us 3 times.  It was magical, awe-inspiring, amazing and I would do it all over again.  I mean, really, only in L.A. are you going to see a space ship right above the Hollywood sign and never think it's an odd sight at all.  I love L.A., I really do.  :)

How about you?  Everyone has something they love about where they live.  Today, share with us what that is. 

mail

My best friend of many years was here visiting from Alaska last month.  I've known her since I was in the 3rd grade.  We grew up on the same street, only 3 house apart.  Even though she went to a private school and I went to public school, we were inseperable and were together everyday after school.  When it was time for high school, she moved away, but not so far that we didn't spend most of our weekends together.  It wasn't until she married and moved to Alaska that that all changed.  She may have been thousands of miles away, but our friendship was permanent. 

Last month, on her way to Colorado for her daughter's wedding, she made a detour to California to see me.  It had been ten years since we had last been together.  I cherished every minute of the week we had together and before I knew it, it was over and she was off to Colorado.  After she had gone, I went through all the photos I took while she was here and wanted her to have something to remember our time together, so using some of the photos I had taken using Instagram, I first made a collage using the Diptic app. Then, using the Sincerely Ink app, I used the collage to make a postcard.  I sent one to her as well as myself.  I don't know when I'm going to see her again but until then, I have this postcard.  It sits on my desk where I see it every time I sit down at my computer and apparently, it's where she keeps hers, too.  We may live in a digital world, but thanks to apps like Sincerely Ink, I'm rediscovering 'snail mail', and that's a good thing!

Speaking of snail mail, who wouldn't want to receive one of these gorgeous necklaces in their mailbox from the lovely Stacy De La Rosa of Bella Wish?!  Stacy has graciously offered to give one away to one lucky winner. Just leave a comment here no later than midnight Wednesday, Sept. 26th!  Stacy's also giving our readers who wish to purchase a necklace a 10% discount.  Promo code: ShutterSisters10

UPDATE: Congrats to Shari Sherman!  You're the lucky winner of the the gorgeous necklace!!

'tis the season

I love this time of year, I really do.  Though we really don't have a 'fall' season here in southern California, certain things, I think, universally signify the burgeoning change of season: school starts, days shorten, temps drop (though not here yet!) and of course, football.  High school, college or professional, nothing says 'fall' like football!   It's the one thing that helps ease me out of summer.  I love wearing my team's colors, tailgating before the big game and yelling "Defense!!" until I lose my voice.  I wouldn't have it any other way. And with the lost voice, my husband wouldn't have it any other way, either!

How about you? What is fall like for you? Please, do share.  

Laundry

When I saw that my word for today was 'Laundry', I thought, great, what am I going to do with the word 'laundry'?  Well, I guess the 'Laundry Gods' took care of that for me because it just so happens that as of Saturday, my dryer decided to stop working.  Obviously the Laundry Gods also thought a visit to a Laundromat is what was needed for me in order to help with today's word. I guess they were right.  So thank you, Laundry Gods. Now could you please produce a new dryer for me? I would be forever grateful!

Today, share your laundry with us in any shape, place or form, and be sure to add your photos to the OWP Flickr pool or tag your images #sselevate on Instagram.

looking down

There was an air of nervous excitement in the air as the kids headed out to the field to begin their first day of band camp.  Being the high school band photographer, I accompanied them and stood back a bit, watching, waiting to snap photos here and there as I begin to document the first days of the their new season. I watched as the kids haphazardly dropped their belongings on the ground, gathering in small groups here and there.  In one group, the 'seasoned' band members talked excitedly about their upcoming junior and senior years while in another corner stood the quiet freshman, looking so serious with their 'first day' jitters.  As I moved around, I almost tripped over this gathering of items on the ground and had to smile.  In looking down, I realized the story of the day was right there in front of me: bottled water, sunblock, an instrument.  So simple, yet so telling.  

Today, share your 'looking down' photos.  Be sure to tag your images #sselevate and play along with us.