Inspirational Quote

via absolutely beautiful things

Peonies + Coffee

Coffee and flowers {especially peonies!} make my mornings very happy. Remember this post? Well last week Trader Joe's finally had some peonies and I of course immediately brought some home with me. Unfortunately they're on their way out {the petals of the ones on my coffee table started to fall off last night} but I thought I'd take a few photos since they're fully open and look absolutely gorgeous:

Here's a shot of them on my desk with my morning coffee and toast {whipped cream cheese+jelly=yuumm!}:

Flowers on Balcony

Happy Friday! This weekend we'll be working on a little DIY project making a flower box for our balcony and I'm taking inspiration from these beautiful photographs...

I know I definitely want to have some jasmine and several hydrangeas, but not sure yet what else. Do you have a flower box at home? Any tips?? I'll be sure to post pictures once its all done :)

*All photos limked to source

Real Love Doesn't Make You Suffer

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Glimpses of love and joy or brief moments of inner peace are possible whenever a gap occurs in the stream of thought. For most people, such gaps happen rarely and only accidentally, in moments when the mind is rendered "speechless", sometimes triggered by great beauty, extreme physical exertion or even great danger. Suddenly, there is inner stillness. And within that stillness there is a subtle but intense joy, there is love, there is peace.

Usually such moments are short-lived as the mind quickly resumes its noise-making activity that we call thinking. Love, joy and peace cannot flourish until you have freed yourself from mind dominance. But they are not what I would call emotions. They lie beyond the emotions, on a much deeper level. So you need to become fully conscious of your emotions and be able to feel them before you can feel that which lies beyond them. Emotion literally means "disturbance." The word comes from the Latin emovere, meaning "to disturb."

Love, joy, and peace are deep states of Being, or rather three aspects of the state of inner connectedness with Being. As such they have no opposite. This is because they arise from beyond the mind. Emotions on the other hand, being part of the dualistic mind, are subject to the law of opposites. This simply means that you cannot have good without bad. So in the unenlightened, mind-identified condition, what is sometimes wrongly called joy is usually the short-lived pleasure side of the continuously alternating pain/pleasure cycle. Pleasure is always derived from something outside you, whereas joy arises from within. The very thing that gives you pleasure today will give you pain tomorrow, or it will leave you, so its absence will give you pain. And what is often referred to as love may be pleasurable and exciting for a while, but it is an addictive clinging, an extremely need condition that can turn into its opposite at the flick of a switch. Many "love" relationships, after the initial euphoria has passed, actually oscillate between "love" and hate, attraction and attack.

Real love doesn't make you suffer. How could it? It doesn't suddenly turn into hate, nor does real joy turn into pain. Even before you are enlightened --before you have freed yourself from the mind -- you may get glimpses of true joy, true love, or of a deep inner peace, still but vibrantly alive. These are aspects of your true nature, which is usually obscured by the mind. Even within a "normal" addictive relationship, there can be moments when the presence of something more genuine, something incorruptible, can be felt. But they will only be glimpses, soon to be covered up again through mind interference. It may seem that you had something very precious and lost it, or your mind may convince you that it was all an illusion anyway. The truth is that it wasn't an illusion, and you cannot lose it. It is part of your natural state, which can be obscured but can never be destroyed by the mind. Even when the sky is heavily overcast, the sun hasn't disappeared. It is still there on the other side of the clouds.

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-Eckhart Tolle, The Power of Now

images via concrete and honey

Trader Joes is Such a Tease!

I get excited about the little things, like when I see the first peonies of the year....

excuse the photo quality -I took these with my phone camera

Peonies have got to be my absolute favorite type of flower, followed by irises, lilies, and roses. I surprisingly saw these at Trader Joe's a couple of weeks ago on a cold night but didn't pick up any since I was going to be gone from home for several days and wouldn't be able to enjoy them. I've gone back several times since then (at opening and closing times), but unfortunately they haven't had any. I know its mainly a spring/summer type of flower but if they had some a couple of weeks ago, they gotta have some again some time soon right? In the meantime, I'll admire them from photographs....

via paris apartment & concrete and honey

via la belle vie

via ghettojack

Midweek Wisdom

image by cannelle-vanille.

"Do not look back on happiness or dream of it in the future. You are only sure of today; do not let yourself be cheated out of it."

-Henry Ward Beecher

via Lonny Magazine

A special thank you to the lovely Taryn, of Love.the.Life.You.Live. who tagged me this week with the Kreativ Blogger Award. ¡Muchisimas gracias!
I recently wrote 7 things about me, which as a receipient I am asked to do. You can read them here.

It's Here!

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So the day has arrived -today is officially my last day at my full-time career job. No more long workdays involving leaving my house before sunrise and returning back when it it's already dark out because I had to finish writing a report at the office, and no more hour plus long daily commutes down the infamous 405 LA freeway.

However, I’m sad I will no longer have the weekly Century City farmer’s market to look forward to–the place for delicious Hawaiian BBQ Chicken, yummy fresh fruit and veggies, and beautiful flowers (this week’s flowers shown above!). Above all, I am sad I won’t get to see and interact with daily the awesome people I worked with. I have them to thank for making me laugh and smile every [work]day.

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my little cube

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Ah change…it’s a little scary I’ll admit. I've had this job since I graduated college and it has provided a lot of stability. I’m stepping into an area of risk and uncertainty, but I’m up for the challenge and I’m excited for the independence and creative freedom that I hope to experience as a small business owner.

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I feel grateful :-)

Thank you everyone for taking the time out of your days to stop by this little blog and for all your beautiful comments! Thank you for adding smiles to my days!

"Whatever course you decide upon, there is always someone to tell you that you are wrong. There are always difficulties arising which tempt you to believe that your critics are right. To map out a course of action and follow it to an end requires...courage."

-Ralph Waldo Emerson

Beautiful Find

Check out this necklace by Etsy seller myrakim. Isn't it beautiful? It's made with several hand cut and sewn layers of chiffon, silk, silk organza, tulle, glass beads, and a few silk flower petals sewn onto a lovely pink satin fabric. You can find it here.

Spotted!

Remember my recent post on flower rings? Well I was delighted to find this beautiful photograph by Phil Poynter with a woman wearing a ring very similar to ones I posted about. So pretty!

For this upcoming Dia de las Madres...

For my amazing Mama, I'm thinking....

A lovely breakfast...


Flowers of course...

Something from philosophy...


And a day trip to the Ojai Valley Inn and Spa for a pedicure/manicure and a little rest and relaxation...

Have a Beautiful Weekend!

Below are a few shots of the beautiful flowers I purchased yesterday at the weekly Century City farmer's market. These are currently the centerpiece on my dining table :-)








Have a beautiful weekend!