no, no…not because it is november and thanksgiving is closing in. thanksgiving, can you please just give me a few more weeks to prepare? so not ready for you just yet.

no, right now im grateful that i have creative and talented friends and they spread the wealth around to me.

liz made me this necklace and you can almost just barely make out in the pic that it says “just be”. my motto not just in my business but in my life.

having this around my neck is a constant weighty reminder of how i want to live.

no matter what, above all other things, i want to have the ability to just be.
whatever that means to me.
i want the freedom to be myself no matter what.
i want to know that it is okay.
that i am enough, just as i am.
and i strive to be a soft place, to allow the people that come across me to do exactly the same.

because when it all boils down, there is nothing more important, more special, than the core of you.

thank you, liz. :)

with feet bigger than yours, tara.” said sabrina, in Wat Pho, the reclining buddha temple.

beautiful place

we had our palms read

my guy told me, among other things, that i love like crazy, but divorce is POSSIBLE. my mouth gets me in trouble.

only way to save marriage?

“HAVE! SEP-AH-RAHT BED ROOM!”

i have sat here for over an hour typing, deleting, typing, deleting…the right words just arent coming to me. i cant quantify how i feel now that it is over. its quite possibly the jet lag, i am still running 14 hours ahead of CA time. it could also be that there is just too MUCH to say.

i did have a very

but, until the words come, i will do what i do best. shut up and show the pretty pictures, as cathy would say.

this is our lovely group:

me, tami, sabrina, kari, michelle, doña, clare, jo, maren, april, amy, and my partner in crime: em.

some shots from around our first hotel in bangkok:

our time in bangkok consisted of much singing of this song, massages, a dinner cruise, a visit to a temple, having our palms read, an art journal workshop, lounging about the pool, and oh did i mention shopping? LOTS OF SHOPPING. so much shopping.

we drank loads of this fresh oj to keep refreshed and energized.

a couple shots from inside a taxi

the workshop took place under a pagoda on hotel grounds, on the edge of the river while the rain poured down around us. emily was in her element.

and then, a 90 minute flight and pure bliss after busy, bustling, bangkok: the tubkaak resort in krabi. we did a whole lot of this.

and spent a lot of time in this:

yes, that is a completely outdoor shower and bath. the details of this resort were beyond spectacular. i have never ever in my life seen something as amazing as it.

the day we arrived, as sabrina and i were unpacking in our rooms, emily comes rushing through the doors and says, “did i do good? DID?! I?! DO?! GOOD?!” i laugh even now thinking of her…she did more than good. the tubkaak will serve as location for my dreams for years to come…

this was where i did the photo sessions for the girls, mostly in my bathing suit. now, that is a dream come true. to feel comfortable enough around our tribe that i could contort myself into the positions i contort while shooting, in a bathing suit. but it was just oh so handy…and oh so cool.

(photo of me, photographing kari, taken by amy)

while in krabi, we each had five hours of spa treatments, spent a lot of time in bean bag chairs on the beach journaling and laying about, had dinners outside with the warm breeze and the lap of the ocean, had our lunches served to us pool or beachside, and in general pampered ourselves to excess.

here’s to being pampered to excess.

and to being back home again.