Friday Buoy: Inspiration Round-Up

Hold your breath, because this week's round-up is incredibly buoyant! First, thanks to Jenny for introducing me to the SoCal based photographer Christian Cruz – I've sparkled his pictures throughout because they're just so gorgeous. I love red balloons and this photo processing (anybody know what it's called?) & I hope you enjoy too.

Something else I want to show off is my husband's first music video! That's right, as an extra he played a builder in New Zealand's unofficial World Cup video. If you know him, see if you can spot him. Quite the debut.

Speaking of World Cup fever, anybody with me? Dan's caught it so bad he woke up at 4.30am for the NZ v Slovakia game. I have to admit that though soccer/ football is fun to watch, my favorite thing about the World Cup is not waking up before dawn, but the official song, Wavin' Flag by K'Naan. I saw K'Naan for the first time at a festival in England and was in tears within minutes – I have a soft spot for Somalian child soldiers turned socially-conscious musicians and K'Naan ticks all my boxes. Check out his World Cup remix to lift your spirits.

This picture...these curtains...so wonderful!

On a different note, I was thrilled to receive the debut book of Rachel Held Evans, Evolving in Monkey Town, in the mail this week and am loving it so far! Rachel was my first “blog friend” and I'm delighted to hold her book in my hands. Honestly, if I'm this excited I can only imagine how excited she must be! I plan to review it within the next week-ish so watch this space. Now, of course the content is really interesting to me (a spiritual memoir about faith evolving from fundamentalism to something less tight-fisted), but what also inspires me is that she did it. She's 28 & she published a memoir. I'm sure there were times she couldn't see the end and almost gave up, but she got there. This  tangible evidence of hours of invisible work (albeit her work) spurs me with mine.

And a few blog shout-outs for the road...

• Happiness is... fellow Washingtonian Shannon Eileen shares things that make her smile. It's also reassuring that I'm not the only one asking readers about who you are & the work you've been given.

• Shopping's My Cardio is Portland-based Becki's retail therapy blog. Becki quit her job as an attorney to follow her passion, and this wonderful site is the result.

Anyway, that's all from me. Hard to believe I've been back in the States for 2 weeks. For some reason I was expecting it to be a difficult transition, but to be honest, being back home is like riding a bike.

I'm at my friend Joey's house this morning (our husbands are watching the US v Slovenia game) and I need to go and give her daughter Avonlea a cuddle.

Hope you have a good weekend. I'd love to hear any links, songs, blogs, books or quotes that are getting you through Friday...