Love Project Scenes

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

Love is beautiful.

My talented friend, Pam Carlson, sent me this Glacier Point (he)Art. (Click to make it bigger. So cool.)

~~~~~~~~~~

From my beautiful friend, Christie, who said this magic “happened when I tried to take a picture of a full moon holding the camera with my shaky hands and not putting it on a tripod. I was shocked and happy when I saw how it came out!” Holy cow, me too!

~~~~~~~~~~

Some love I found while walking the Lexi beast.

~~~~~~~~~~

My friend, Patricia MacDonald, swears this is real. Carrot love!

~~~~~~~~~~

This picture from Jo Wheeler makes me smile. I love shell love.

~~~~~~~~~~

Three fun “found love” pictures from our very own LunaJune.

~~~~~~~~~~

Inexplicable leaf love from Becky Sain who wrote, “the tree I have in my front yard does not have this type of leaf.”

And this one is like a love letter from the earth.

~~~~~~~~~~

Found on the sidewalk, walking the beasts.

~~~~~~~~~~

Nature love from Shelby Shock, who wrote, “I wandered into the garden section and the first plant I saw caught my eye and I knew I needed to take a picture and send it to you. It’s a heart-shaped leaf that light was hitting just right and it reminded me of your love project.” You should see my grin. Thank you, Shelby!

~~~~~~~~~~

Love rocks.

~~~~~~~~~~

My son, Dillon, whittled me a heart. Just typing that makes me grin. Look how cool it is.

~~~~~~~~~~

I’m putting my picture with Jen Erbe‘s picture because we were on the same wave length, except she’s an extremely gifted photographer and I’m a hack (but an enthusiastic, open-hearted hack).

My picture is of a sea shell and a piece of beach glass I found on a beach in Mendocino. Here’s what Jen wrote about her picture. “I had my toes in the lake yesterday, and saw this beautiful heart-shaped rock. So I had to grab my camera and take a photo for you.” HUGE smile.

~~~~~~~~~~

Humboldt-Vacation love!

~~~~~~~~~~

Finally, beach love that isn’t a sand heart (not that there’s anything wrong with sand hearts)! Very cool “found love” from my soul sister, Jill.

~~~~~~~~~~

Love this love from Terre Pruitt (especially because she named one of the pictures “heart for j”).

~~~~~~~~~~

Kellie Walker found this bit of wonderful over the 4th of July weekend while walking her dogs through her neighborhood.

~~~~~~~~~~

Check this out, from the endlessly wonderful Michael Lochart. He told me, “There literally wasn’t a panel that didn’t have some brash, absolute statement about love on it. I imagined it with California plates on it.” *grin*

~~~~~~~~~~

I love this tile, in a Capitola retainer wall lined with these beautiful, hand-painted tiles. This one says, “Will you marry me, Elaine?” And then in the lower left corner, “Yes!! Brian” Cuteness!

I ♥ shadow love.

Sunshine + sand + sea + j = Self love.

Graffiti love in Capitola, California…

~~~~~~~~~~

During a bit of turbulence in j-world, the wonderful Milli Thornton sent me these pictures to remind me that at the heart of everything, there is love.

~~~~~~~~~~

LOOK at this graffiti love created for me by the beautiful, poetic, thoughtful, sweet, always-there-for-me Simon Lloyd. I can’t tell you how many times he has made me smile in the middle of a really bad day, because he does stuff like this. The world is better for Simon’s presence in it. When I count my internet blessings, he is right up there on the top of the list.

~~~~~~~~~~

The Boy and I went to Berkeley and among other amazingly fun and silly things, we took pictures of graffiti love. This first one? We decided it’s a picture of Cupid.

~~~~~~~~~~

Look what Chad made – mowed grass and rose petals. Swoon.

~~~~~~~~~~

Dillon found this note beneath an outdoor table at the Panama Cafe. It’s not to me, but I think it’s kind of sad and hopeful and beautiful, the way only love can be.

~~~~~~~~~~

It’s true. I melted a little when Amy sent me this, a letter from her now husband, Paul. Everyone should get something like this at least once in their life. (Click to make it bigger.)

~~~~~~~~~~

Two from the effervescent Estrella, her homemade bookmark (lover her crafty goodness) and this gate which is even red!

~~~~~~~~~~

I love this shot from Jennifer Erbe, who wrote, “I noticed the hearts in this photograph a few days ago, and it reminded me of your Love Project, so I thought I’d send it along.” (And so now, of course, I love Jen, too. Check out her GORGEOUS blog.)

~~~~~~~~~~

Check out the shadow! I couldn’t resist.
~~~~~~~~~~

The relentlessly wonderful Hippiechick sent me this from the New Jersey shoreline.

~~~~~~~~~~

My beautiful niece, Jessica, sent me this one. She wrote, “We were in this enormous park in Spain called Parquet de Retiro (meaning retirement park, as it was built for the monarchy when they wanted a break from the city) and on the way out, we walked down this row of trees and I noticed one was different so I stopped and saw it was covered with carvings. I took a picture with my iPhone because it reminded me of you – it had all these hearts and love things on it.”

~~~~~~~~~~

I love this from Joanne Firth. Here’s what she wrote about it: ”I thought of you and j’s Love Project when I saw this chain of hearts growing in, of all places, our gutters!”

~~~~~~~~~~

The lovely Lisa Adams sent me this picture, found by her son in their rock garden.

~~~~~~~~~~

My friend, Amy, sent me this with the note, “Proof of love in the wetlands.”

~~~~~~~~~~

Love this from jb, taken at the annual Makers Faire. Kids flocked to this giant rotating granite stone (and, like magic, worked together to make it spin). Check out the shadow in the upper left hand corner.

~~~~~~~~~~

The Boy saved me this strawberry because he said it’s a perfect heart. (He ate it right after this picture was snapped.)

~~~~~~~~~~

As far as I’m concerned, you can never see too many sand hearts. I found this one at China Beach in San Francisco.

~~~~~~~~~~

Michael Lockhart went to his brother’s wedding and he sent me this gorgeous picture. I told him they had “the look” and he said “they are the real thing too. Fucking awesome…” Awww.

~~~~~~~~~~

I ♥ graffiti LOVE. Hippiechick sent me this, taken in NYC.

~~~~~~~~~~

Commercial signage love!

~~~~~~~~~~

I went to a wedding…

~~~~~~~~~~

My soul sister, Jill, sent me these three pictures. The first is her self (love) portrait. (How wonderful is that?) The second is a picture of her son’s bike, which was given to him by my son, (who, at 15, had to admit he was too big for it). When Joey wrote his name on it, I knew it was love.

And this one, where clearly mom-love shot from Jill, through her camera, and captured her son in all his boyhood glory.

~~~~~~~~~~

Shadow love.

~~~~~~~~~~

Milli sent me this sweet picture. Here’s what she wrote (because I can’t possibly say it better): “I was 7 years old and this was our dog Duchess. When she started having her litter of pups, it was night-time and she was in the basement where she was supposed to be. I was in bed upstairs, and I was supposed to be asleep but I was sneaking some time to read my book by the bathroom light, which I often did even though I was told it would ruin my eyes. Still in labor with the other babies, Duchess brought her first puppy to me and put it on my bed. We were a family of eight kids (I was #7) so I wasn’t sure why she chose me out of all the people in the house, but I was totally honored!”

~~~~~~~~~~

The effervescent Kellie Walker sent me a picture of this locket which her husband gave her to celebrate Valentines Day and the launch of her gorgeous website, Get Your Life In Gear.

~~~~~~~~~~

The beautiful Estrella sent me pictures of hearts she’s found all around the world… She took the lock picture in Taormina, Sicily, later learning that love locks are a worldwide tradition .
I love what Estrella wrote about this sand heart, which she saw on a beach in Messina, Sicily: “There’s something in this picture which makes me think of not losing hope; even though the waves will wash over that heart and in a few minutes, there will be no trace it ever existed.”

And finally this one, from Estrella. “I hadn’t noticed the birds sort of hugging in mid-air until I downloaded the photos to my laptop and took a closer look. I love how literally love is in the air in this pic!”

~~~~~~~~~~

Last spring, I took some really fun (beautiful, weird, goofy) pictures on train tracks. I was going to do a post featuring tracks, because I think they’re so full of possibility and story. I didn’t for reasons that don’t seem important now. In fact, maybe I’ll go ahead and do the post, but in the meantime, here are two shots I wanted to include here because when I said, “Hey, I need help taking some crazy pictures for Zebra Sounds, Chad and The Boy didn’t ask why, or tell me what I was interrupting, or demand to know “what kind of crazy,” they just said, “Yes.”

~~~~~~~~~~

My friend, Allison Wright walked out to the Cabo shoreline. It was a chaotic time of transition in her life. I think it’s kind of wonderful that her trail of footprints, intersecting randomly with the footprints of others, made a heart.

~~~~~~~~~~

Pam Carlson (the amazing artist who created the zebra in my header) found this heart in Green Island, Queensland, Australia.

~~~~~~~~~~

Cynthia Fassett commented here on ZS that she was about to witness the reunion of her daughter and son-in-law, who were meeting for the first time after a two month separation while her daughter was in boot camp. In her note to me, she said, “I am in AWE. What two people will do in/for/with love is extraordinarily beautiful.” That is true, and here are the heart-melting pictures.

~~~~~~~~~~

I found amazing, relentless beauty… and lots of LOVE in Humboldt.

~~~~~~~~~~

My dear friend Carey, wished for “a nice, dark-haired guy that was completely free and available,” one who would love both Carey and her daughter… and then she found him…

~~~~~~~~~~

My friend Crystal (sister of the wonderful Hayley, who was the impetus for the Love Project) posted this on Facebook, where I promptly stole it (with permission, of course).

~~~~~~~~~~