rainy nights and rainy days ...

... are sort of perfect for finding awesome on the web.  Here's some of the lovely photographic inspiration I've found over the last very rainy 48 hours (grab a cup of tea or coffee and settle in, this is some good stuff):

JR.  I love anonymous street artist JR, and even though I've known of his work for a long time now, I finally found his website, a place where I predict I'll be lurking a lot going forward.  If you're unfamiliar with his work, check out:

Women Are Heroes, a portrait of women in the 21st century ...

Bande Annonce Women Are Heroes by womenareheroes

... and Face2Face, his project in Israel/Palestine.

FACE 2 FACE trailer by JR and Marco by JR

Moment Junkie.  I'm not someone who cries very easily at photographs; however, I apparently will make an exception for this site.  Gabby Blair is responsible for this discovery, where special (and many unexpected) moments at weddings around the world are captured.  Oof.  I double dog dare you to scroll through the archives and remain stoic.  I triple dog dare you.

Creating Time Capsules.  I've mentioned my friend Xanthe Berkeley's work before:  in addition to her own beautiful site, she's 1/2 of the two brilliant minds behind one of my favourite blogs, London vs. Paris.  Well, darlings, that's not all she does -- take a look at this beautiful video time capsule she did, capturing her 2011, below:

Isn't that gorgeous?  But even more exciting, Xanthe is launching her first online course, Creating Time Capsules, where she's going to be teaching her methods and techniques to help you create your own time capsules with your imagery.  I've already signed up for the class, which begins Monday, February 20th.  I. cannot. wait.

And finally (and even though this is not something I found in the last 48 hours), if you haven't signed up for gratitude.2012 yet, please go give it a gander.  It might be just the thing to guarantee something good happens every month.  And of course, I'd love to have you.  The next newsletter goes out February 1st.

Song:  I can't stand the rain by Ann Peebles