inspiration

I've been inspired by a few things/people/photographs lately. 
I shall share.

1) Stephanie Rita Hart.
Ms. Hart is first off AWESOME, secondly: a close friend, and lastly: an amazing photographer! Stephanie is definitely on my "top 5 photogs who inspire me" list (which if I must say..is a huge honor). Steph geniunely loves taking pictures, and takes them EVERY single day. She is so amazingly creative, and in viewing her pictures I often find myself thinking.. "Oh man, I wish I took that photo!" Also, can I just say.. You know you're an AMAZING photographer when most of your friends usually use your pictures as their facebook profile pictures (including myself).

Check out her amazing blog: www.thisworldaroundyou.wordpress.com, where she is doing a 365-day project (uploading a picture a day to her blog). I'm thinking of doing this myself.. but I may just limit it to a summer thing.. since I will be having an AMAZING summer (more to come on that soon)
Look at this amazing photograph..and then just try and stop yourself from not going to her blog to check out her other photos.

2) India Arie
Been listening to a lot of her music lately. And all this song is so old, I still love it, and desire to have her attitude.
"When I look in the mirror and the only one there is me. Every freckle on my face is where it's supposed to be. And I know our creator didn't make no mistakes on me. My feet, my thighs, my lips, my eyes; I'm lovin' what I see"

3) Etta James/Billie Holliday
Yes I know these two amazing artists are not the same person. But they invoke the same feeling in me. I would have absolutely loved to live in the era of these two ladies. How awesome would it have been to grow up in the 50s/60s? Whenever I daydream about this time period (which I'll admit I do everytime one of their songs pop up on my Adele Pandora station) I always picture myself in a black & white setting, in an old swing dancing club filled with people, and some guy wooing me in the corner. What can I say? I have a vast imagination, which is usually encouraged when my favorite TV shows do those "back in time special" episodes, where the characters are involved in some murder mystery. You guys know what kinds of episodes I'm talking about right?

4) I found this photo on Flickr. I want someone to take a picture of me like this. Coffee and sunglasses... pretty legit!

(photo cred: http://www.flickr.com/photos/46810783@N02/4547389889)


5) "Your love that rescued the earth, lives in me"- Hillsong
Yes another music inspiration.. but really this inspiration comes from Jesus. And the fact that I do not have to rely on my imperfections, but can actually love others.. the way he does. Man, am I EVER praying that God will help me do that right now.

So yeah.. that's whats going through my head right now. 
Look out for my next blog post,when I explain (in detail) what my AMAZING summer plans are. Seriously you won't not want to read it, just saying.. they're that good! 

conversations with mom

This text conversation that I had with my mom was too good to not share:
Me: How do I know if I'm still ameniac?
Mom: R u trying to say maniac?
Me: Noo anemiac.. Like low iron, low blood.
Mom: Hahaha. Oh, anemic. I think maniac is more fitting. I'll call you tomorrow and explain! BYE!

- A few things you'll be able to tell about my dear mother and I from this short conversation.
1) I'm not the best speller.. especially when I'm tired, and I'm trying to do 142 things at once..
2) My mom is frickin hilarious.
3) My mom is so good at texting now that she uses the lingo of "r" and "u"
4) When my mom is tired, she lets me know by ending our texting and gmail conversations with capital letters.
5) I will never be "too" old to text my mom questions like that, especially since she's a nurse.

I know this is my second blog post about conversations with my mom.. but if she continues to be this funny ... I'm going to keep on sharing. Maybe I'll make it a regular thing.

my prayer for today (4.17.10)

"You will keep in perfect peace all who trust in you, all whose thoughts are fixed on you"- Isaiah 26:3

I've check my phone and email about every half hour. I am anxious. I am worried. 
I want your perfect peace, God. Help my thoughts to be fixed on you, and nothing else.

indecisive

To the six people that read this blog (I know this little fact from google reader)
I'm sorry I'm so indecisive!!
But this blog URL is back to being imanifolkes.blogspot.com
Sowwy! Don't get TOO frustrated with me. I love you all.
-Imani

changes

Slight change to this blog of mine.
the URL is now: imaniF.blogspot.com
(instead of my full last name)
.. so if your subscribed to me on google reader, you may have to change it.. so there isnt a broken link or anything.


and since this post is kind of boring I've decided to include a picture. (also because I like taking pictures)

(When i first got my slr, I took pictures of anything and everything, hence this photo. This picture isn't anything great.. but i enjoy it a whole lot)

a few things i enjoyed this weekend

#1 Finding Remember the Titans on YOUTUBE.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5BIATEpbsX4 
(This was great because I left the dvd we have of this movie at home.. and because Remember the Titans is hands down one of the best movies ever made)

#2 Realizing that I need to pray this over my life so much more than i currently do.
"I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spiritof wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better."
 and having the faith that he will answer this prayer.

#3 Talking to my mommy via gmail-chat. (I'm just genuinely happy that my mom is so much more tech-savvy now.... She texts too!)
-Here's a glimpse of our conversation:
(she says a "new" smiley face.. because gchat animates the smiley faces

7:51 PM me: just pray for me, thanks :) Faith: oooh, a new smily face! How do you do that one? Nice talking to you. I mean that!! Love you lots!

7:52 PM me: haha.. you just put a colon and a parenthesis

  okay love you too!

  get some work done

  i have to too.

  byee

25 minutes

8:18 PM Faith: :) Doesn't work! Nope, you are holding out on me!

8:19 PM me: uh

  it just worked!

  i see it work

  it should work for you too though

 Faith: Oh, once I sent it , it worked! Now i can finally get bact to work :) :) :) :)

 me: hahaha.

8:21 PM Faith: Bye for Good this time!! :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) sorry, I just love to see them turn around.. coool!

-I love that woman, and her 10 smiley faces in a row

#4 Productivity!
Now... anyone who knows me, knows that I'm not the one to jump for joy as I do my school work/to do list things (and that's an understatement)... but this weekend wasn't that bad because of the things I have to show for it:
• a new and improved resume
• a FOUR day start on my paper due this week. (this almost never happens)
• a 30 second video on the amazing Alexa!
This was a project I had to do for my photo class.. It was my first time using Final Cut, so pay more attention to Alexa's wicked awesome violin skills than my technical skills.
(pause my music player on the right to watch it)

"Practice Makes Perfect" from Imani F. on Vimeo.



I like this list thing, I think I'll do it more often.

...yet i will trust him

"You that are lowest on the scale of visible joy, you that are broken like a shipwreck, you that are a mass of pain, you that are in poverty, will you give your Lord a good word? Will you say, 'Though He slay me, yet I will trust him.'

At our worst, we are better off than the world at its best. Godly poverty is better than unhallowed riches. Our sickness is better than our sinner's health. Our depression is better than the earth's honors. We consider it better to suffer pain equal to the torture of death than bathe in sin's pleasures. We will take God at all the discount you can put on Him. You can have the world with all the compound interest that you are able to get from such a sham.......

Sorrowful yet always rejoicing. Do you know this paradox? Some of us have known it for many years."

- Charles H. Spurgeon

this is so incredibly challenging.

"with my God"

"With your help I can advance against a troop; with my God I can scale a wall"

2 Samuel 22:30

It's THAT week. --4 pg essay, an exam, two photo assignments, a ton of cover letters, and applications to do.
But instead of stressing, I'm going to remember that God is the same God that David wrote the above verse about, after he delivered David from his enemies.
My week seems a bit impossible to get through. As, I'm sure David's situation seemed pretty impossible as well. I'm choosing to believe and trust that with my God (..with the HELP of my God) I will successfully and amazingly complete all of my work.... and then relax my butt off on Sunday night!

dream

When I was in 8th grade I had a dream that AUBREY GRAHAM (back then he was an actor on the tv show, Degrassi... you may know him now as the rapper Drake) was my boyfriend and he gave me my first real kiss in an airport. It was amazingly realistic (at least to me)
Drake is performing in the Carrier Dome this April...
maybe I should let him know about our fate.

(hmmm... probably can't let him know at his concert, since i'm not buying tickets)

oh my goodnes. oh MY goodness. OH MY GOODNESS

 http://www.raylamontagne.com/

"We are very excited to announce that Ray LaMontagne will embark on a U.S. tour this summer, starting in Columbia, MD on August 15th, 2010. We’re also thrilled to include singer-songwriter, David Gray, who will be co-headlining with Ray.
Ticket sale details and additional shows to be announced at a later date."



everytime i listen to ray lamontange i re-fall in love with his voice.
and now i'm going to do it LIVE!!