Floating houses, night kayaking, bonfires, grilled bananas, learning German lullabies and how to do grind dance moves, laughing so hard our tummies hurt and sleeping beneath the stars...this was by far a successful weekend! Hope you enjoy the photies! :)

Hope Home is a foster home for disabled Thai children. We do bi-weekly art workshops with these sweet children using art as a means of physical therapy and self expression. Chiang Mai, Thailand.

On one fine Friday afternoon, a crew of us loaded up our wee and smoking motorbikes ans hit the road to our weekend adventure at the Floating Houses. 30minutes into a 1hr+ drive, I started to feel raindrops on my nose, so as leader (yes be afraid, very afraid) of our fearless pack, I pulled over to put on my raincoat. Everyone else thought I was crazy, that it wasn't going to rain and opted to stay cool. No worries. We took off again and after literally 5minutes of driving all hell broke loose. If cats and dogs could have fallen from the heavens, they would of...and so there we were, zoom zoomin' on our motorbikes all hunched over in the pelting rain (which hurts like a bitch when going any speed above 20mph) and there I was smiling all cozy in my raincoat. ;)

The floating houses were a little piece of heaven! They took us on a long boat to the other side of a big green lake and there tucked back a little nook was a floating sanctuary. The beds were luxurious comfy things (extremely rare in Asia) and the floor was all slatted so you could see thro to the green murky water below. You could sit on the toilet and watch the fish swim peacefully by beneath you. I seriously considered rigging a fishing pole in the bathroom so that I could snag a couple of those happily floating fatties while on the pot. :)

We had an incredible weekend of swimming, fishing, kayaking, relaxing and playing games!

~SP#15

So I thought maybe I should go back and add an explanation to this self portrait. I don't want people thinking *cough my mom* that I'm suicidal in any way. So this self portrait is kinda raw, but shooting me was very therapeutic (haha all puns intended). Oddly enough this one is not about death.  It's about how when people that you care for and put trust in lie to you and hurt you in a horrible way it kills pieces of your trust and innocence or whatever it is that causes you to believe in the best in people. Sometimes without even knowing it, your faith and trust in people is the collateral damage of relationships gone wrong. But I can't loose the part of me the believes the best of people because that IS who I am and how I live my life. That's what I love most about this world, that people can change, grow and become better, strong, wiser. That we can learn from our past mistakes and create a better, happier world. Things that have happened in my personal life recently have definitely shook my trust in others, but more severely my trust in myself and my judgement of people. I did something that's not normally like me, I tamped all these emotions down deep inside and just ignored them for as long as possible. Shooting myself in this self portrait was actually incredibly relieving and helped break up the stoney exterior I was fakin.' ;) 

And yes Mom, the Land of a Thousand Smiles will be back in my portraits next time. ;)

On the way to Vientiane, Laos.

SP #14

I'll believe you, everyone word.

Oh boys. You can create a whole lota heaven and a whole world of hurt. There's a point in your life (or is there) where you realize trying to be someone else is a losing game. All those little lies you tell that accumulate into piles and mountains eventually catch up to you and the better you are at telling them, the farther you get buried in the end. Boys, this is you being BURIED (hopefully alive).  

I know I owe you all one more self portrait (*cough* don't punish me teacher inge!) and it's on it's way, promise! :) 

Check out Inge Kathleens #15! (Yes, we made it already to #15! I can hardly believe it!)