I don't like meat dresses.

Almost any difficulty will move in the face of honesty. When I am honest I never feel stupid. And when I am honest I am automatically humble.

Hugh Prather

Last week I was asked to submit a bio..you know write a little ditty about yourself..like this..

Amber Strehle

Amber's journey began when she sprang from the womb with a vintage Hasselblad clutched in her hand. Following her life long dream of...words, words, words, art, words, words, words, children, words, most important, words, words, travel, words words words, please for theloveofpete hire me, words, words, words.

I kinda got a little neurotic (can you tell) when asked to submit it. I started researching "How to write an effective bio line" on google, pretty much stayed up for like 24 hours straight, micro analyzing myself, generally freaking out.

I came to a conclusion..

I suck at tooting my own horn...or a more businessy term..

Self Promotion.

I'm not good at it. I'm envious of those who are.

You know those businesses/blogs..they talk up all the places they have been published and seen..and then it's really like this teeny-tiny picture in the back 2 pages..but they act like it's the stinking cover of Time magazine.

I wish I could be like that. Really I do..but instead I tend to downplay my accomplishments, I think self-promotion should be saved for when I actually have something of worth (like the cover of Time)(cure for cancer)(world peace) to self promote.

BUT how will I be discovered by Time Magazine if I don't promote myself??

CRAZY KEEP ME UP FOR 20 HOURS STRAIGHT QUESTION!!!

Even writing this post feels a little too "toot my own hornish".

Am I passively agressively self-promoting, by writing about how I hate to self-promote, therefore self-promoting myself????????

AHHH THE HUMANITY!!

Last year I met a book publisher (random meeting) she was pretty awesome. My head was SWIMMING..like I was sooo freaking out inside. I had a gazillion questions..she gave me lots of good advice and insight..one thing she said was,

"Amber we look for rock-star qualities, those are the people who make it, they want it..bad."

Oh.

Is what went through my head (super deep, right?). I'm sure I even looked a little deflated.

I'm not a rock-star, never will be. I have goals/dreams/ideas that I hope and work dang hard to one day live out..things I work toward accomplishing..

but I'm not wearing a meat dress to get it...

So I wrote my bio..and re-wrote, called The Dish (we made up a few faux bio's..HILAROUS), wrote some more, called sexiest jogger in all the land husband (umm no help), stopped by The Store (Timi is my biggest cheerleader..RA-RA Amber!), wrote again, finally said ENOUGH and submitted the thing.

Actually when I think about it..it kinda comes down to being real. When I sit down to write about myself, I can't write fluff. Even if I did have the cover shot on Time..I think I would still have a hard time not being real..Amberish.

Not average.. not predictable.. drinks too much coffee..cleans toilets on Tuesday and eats popcorn late at night.

Maybe a little bit batty.. (just maybe..husband is NOT allowed to comment on my blog)

Me.

The List..vacation style.

10. 6 people (4 being 14 and under) in a smoking hot mini-van cross country would send most people over the edge. Not me:) I have to say that I just might have the best car trip children in all of the land. They did awesome.

9. Books on tape are a life saver. We love us some books on tape, a few years ago during road trip 2009 (AZ/CA/UT/ID/WA) we listened to the entire Narnia series. This trip we listened to 3 different books, for a total of like 60 hours of reading.

Readers are leaders!

8. The fact that sexiest jogger in all of the land husband and I are still married after a nine day road trip/visit inlaws/cheap hotel vacation is proof that God really does indeed exist. (because we could not have done it on our own)

7. Genetics are a VERY powerful thing! Our kiddos have not been raised with my husband's side of the family (this is a little sad to me). It totally AMAZED me how much they are like his side of the family!! SERIOUSLY! They just fit right in, it was almost like we had always been around, like we really did belong in Nebraska. It made our hearts all happy and big:)

6. We really felt pretty dang loved on. Thank you:)

5. Fireflies!!! Us west coasters have never seen such a thing! Isabelle and Silas spent hours chasing and collecting up jars of the little blinking bugs. FUN!

4. It's amazing how much your perspective shifts with age and a slight attempt at wisdom.

3. It's a little hard to leave family, especially when you are not too sure you will ever be able to see them again.

2. You know..it's kinda a big deal when you offer up your home to a family with 4 kiddos. While we are a pretty well behaved bunch, we still make messes and just generally upset the natural order of things (cuz we are awesome like that). A big big thank you to Sue and Gil for making us feel so dang welcome and comfy.

1. Family is important.

We had this running joke on our trip (this happened at least 6 times..I'm not joking, maybe more)

"So where are you all headed?" The friendly stranger would ask.

"Nebraska!" We would all respond in our most positive tones.

"Why?" Would be the panned face response.

It made me think about how family is not as important as it used to be. Working is important (and it is, don't get me wrong) fancy vacations are important (and they are pretty dang nice..don't get me wrong) completing lots of home renovation projects and finding yourself in Kenya is important (again..they both hold important spots).

Issues and a bit of dysfunction will always be present. Learning to navigate our way through all those realities is honest, gritty life.

Cabo will always be there.

Grandma will not.

I can't stress how happy we are to have made the cross country trek. It truly was a trip for the memory books. Thank you, thank you to all our Nebraska family for such a lovely time.

And remember..I hear that Washington State is really nice during..umm..well ok..honestly..it is NEVER nice here, but the bed is cozy and love is abundant.

Visit soon:)

Pictures..of course! (only a few..lots of very special peeps are missing from these)

Zach, Strehle kiddos, Grandma, Aunt Mary and uber popular cousin Greg:)
Zach, Strehle kiddos, Hesshiemer cousins and Zach's mom:)
Zach and his Grandma:)

Strehle kiddos at Rushmore..another post on that stop entirely! It was AMAZING!! For some reason I got all sentimental there..felt all Americanish and also totally inspired by the story and passion! Just think of the creative genius it took to make such a piece..crazy!!!

Inspiration

Your muse can be a funny, fickle thing.

She flits around from moment to moment, she is elusive, fleeting and rarely comes right when you need her. Many an artist have cursed inspiration.

Many write about how to power through the times (years even) when she is absent.

When I think of how inspiration hits..for me it's often like this..



If you remember the movie correctly, Greg Kinnear's character had gone through some pretty rough stuff. In a perfect world, life is easy and inspiration readily flows..as we have all noticed this is hardly a perfect world. I think this scene truly portrays how inspiration strikes..it's not like he was looking all over for it..he was not even thinking about creating at that moment..then it just happened..it was time to work..it was a force..and it could not be stopped.

I think finding inspiration in the hardship that is life is where beautiful art can be created. Beauty in the conflict, beauty in the raw, beauty in the mundane.

At times, we as artist's try to force..stage it. I'm not saying there is anything wrong with that, but when you think about art that speaks the most to you (I mean really think about it) most of the time it is not the forced or staged piece. The picture that you love of your children the most is normally one that you snapped in bad light, slighty fuzzy and just might not have great composition..but it is raw and honest.

Finding the balance between working only on inspiration vs. forcing beauty is a tricky little spot. I wish I was better at working in forced situations. I'm just not. I think it is my free spirited tendencies..I love the idea of wistful beauty and constant inspiration..that is sooo not my life!!

Take this post for instance..really I should blog about our vacation..I should post lots of {forced} family pictures..but instead I'm choosing to be wistful..it really is a bit of a problem..shame on me.

Stay tuned for the vacation post..it's coming..really I promise..but for now here is the wistful post..and some wistful pictures to accompany it.


I'm not sure why I love this image so..but I do, it's a little "depression era-esque" if you ask me.


My muse often lays in abandoned buildings in rolling meadows.