Innocence.

The innocence captured in this photograph is the innocence that I want to capture in my mind of my two daughters. I want to always remember their love for simple, their quiet beauty and their search for fun. (Photo by Ella Blue Photography)

This picture was taken at a friend's wedding held in Port Gamble and this picture captures what I want to remember, and not necessarily what I do . . . While the beautiful innocence of my daughters was being captured in this photograph, I was trying to reassure my mother that I knew where they were while at the same time stressing out because I had to get up every few minutes in the cold (no I did not have a jacket) and walk around looking for them. Between that and continually telling them that they had to stay within eye contact ... and to please not spill the bubbles on themselves or someone else ... and to please put their sweaters back on ... and to be carefull and not run down the concrete hill towards the road ... and to . . . . . As I look at this picture though I realize what is important and it reminds me that I need to slow down and enjoy every minute because soon the minutes will be behind me and I will have missed them.

Earlier today I went to see my daughters while they were downtown Poulsbo at the Dancing Brush doing some artwork. They had each chosen a cute little flower piggy bank that they were painting a wide arrange of colors. They were both very excited to see me, first asking why I was there. When I expressed that I just stopped by to see what they were up to, they immediately lifted up their porcelain object covered in paint to show me what it was. Trying to acknowledge both of them at the same time . . . a feat almost impossible . . . I saw that they each had totally different techniques for completing their works of art. My older daughter would do a color and then add other colors on top in different areas of the piece. My younger daughter though is a perfectionist in training. She would paint some color, lean back and look at it and then wet her sponge and rinse the color all off. She would then choose another color, or the same color and paint it again. She continued this process quite a few times. I, realizing that those places charge you by the amount of time it takes you to complete a project, decided I should probably encourage her not to rinse it for fear that I would go poor while she attempted to get her piece perfect. You could tell that she would contemplate my suggestions but didn't think they were that great.