but blogging is what helped me for years… to somehow recognize, focus on, and cherish all the simple beauties when things felt overwhelming, challenging, busy and noisy.

I like the quiet of blogging. it’s slow. there is no instant recognition (often none ever). 

each day feels like a marathon to overcome lately.

I spent the last hour scrolling through memories and felt a little longing for how simple and beautiful and full of heart the last years used to be.

then I realized – in those days and years, I felt similarly to how I feel now. different of course.

instead of washing and hang drying cloth diapers… we are navigating middle school online. instead of preparing special meals for friends and family to gather in our yard, I am teaching a homeschool second grader and cultivating his love to work in the kitchen. instead of a crawling and sweetly sleeping baby, we are singing the alphabet and practicing letters.

it’s still beautiful. it’s still messy. it’s still chaotic. it’s still peaceful. it’s still a work in progress. just different.

the practice of blogging is an intentional practice. a discipline for me, in finding simple beautiful moments in the midst of a busy, full, anything-but-simple life.

it’s almost been a year since i took down my photography business – and what has filled that space has been so spirit filling.

this past weekend, i was honored to photograph a weekend retreat for families in the seattle area that have a child battling cancer. for privacy reasons – i won’t post any faces here, but it was humbling, exhausting, beautiful, amazing, joyful and sad.

what a dream.

to photograph my dear “old” friend’s creative new jewelry line (about it here), worn by dear “new” friends.

view collection :: R E B E K A H  G O U G H  J E W E L R Y  S P R I N G  L I N E  2 0 1 7

rebekah gough jewelry – spring 2017 from stacy bostrom on Vimeo.

february

march

april may

june

july

august

september

october

november december

christmas and december actually continued in Switzerland, more of that to come…

recipe coming soon…

and feeling extra fancy with a little special jewelry that came in the mail earlier this week from rebekah gough!

i drool rebekah. amazing friend!

rebekah gough jewelry

after admiring her work for almost 15 years, i am constantly amazed at everything she touches.

but possibly… there is a more to learn from roses.

roses are quite complex in their nature and care.

the foundation for roses matters. 

their branches are imperfect in appereance, but they are strong, and purposeful.

rose bushes don’t do well spreading themselves too thin, trying to make too many roses.

if the branches go in too many different directions, the outcome is diminished.

so scraggly, useless branches need to be pruned.  energy needs to be poured into creating a beautiful rose, not a bunch of branches of leaves.

if a rose bush is not tended, it does not reach it’s potential.  in essence, it’s beauty is never revealed because the focus has been lost.

pruning is essential.

taking the bush down to the bare minimal.

clearing out the old, the dead, the useless.

however, hacking away at the bush carelessly can be damaging.  pruning is a careful process. with thought & intention.

only then, can it come back healthy & ready to again create beauty.

the branches from which roses emerge are intense in their protection of the soft, delicate rose.  they can really hurt. and while they seem like such a tough & thorny ugly bush, they are quite fragile. a unique juxtaposition those rose bushes are.
some rose bushes produce an abundance of roses… they are filled with bright green leaves & trailing roses everywhere. but when you look closely, the roses aren’t very pretty. they aren’t all that interesting. And mostly, they are not complex. However… from a distance, these blooming & leafy rose bushes are quite charming.  And very popular. Because they produce a lot of roses. And often quantity wins over quality. I’m not saying I’m not a fan of these — I quite like them too, for a certain purpose.  I just find it so interesting that what appears great from a distance & has a lot of popularity is not what is most beautiful, unique, and complex.

Other rose bushes produce very few roses. but those roses are rich, complex, smell beautiful, and are far superior in beauty. those bushes from a distance are not very charming. they take a lot of work…

i only wish my grandma was here to teach me her lessons, what she had learned.

i look at these beauties and think about why our generation has a reputation for ripping them out of old gardens so often.

and i wonder what it was, about these roses, that had previous generations loving them.

possibly an appreciation & a respect for beautiful things that take hard work and time.

and our generation’s desire to have a lot… that looks good… from a distance…

possibly…

well anyways… i hear roses are coming back.  and i think we are all getting it little by little. i hope.

join me on this photography journal & link up with rebekah gough.