five things, october 26 edition

1. I think I am ridiculously proud of my husband and my son this week. We had Callum's first-term conferences yesterday, and suffice it to say, they went really well. Neel too, has had some good news this week, which I will reveal in the fullness of time, but basically I look like a complete loser next to these two. I couldn't be happier.

2. I think I've had another good week and done some things of which I'm pretty proud. I'll have some studio stuff to show you soon, but in the meantime, isn't this picture of my friend Catherine beautiful? She and I had a blogging brain storm session, and as soon as she showed up in that gorgeous turquoise top, I knew I had to photograph her holding a pomegranate!

3. I think getting out with my girlfriends is turning into a weekly thing. I like it. More, still? Yes please.

4. I think we've been watching the weather a lot around here. I imagine all of my east coast friends are as well. I'm stocking up on groceries today (finally getting into my Friday grocery store rhythm!) and we're pretty well stocked otherwise. May double check water and batteries and I'm sure Neel will pull the cars deep into the driveway. I'm a total weather junkie, and I've been watching this storm since earlier this week. Neel (after years of this) has finally learned to trust me about these things, but Sandy is baffling everyone. We'll know more today. Tropical Strom watches and warnings are expected any time now.

5. I think I can't believe that Neel and I are celebrating our 17th wedding anniversary on Sunday. Seventeen! And who knew that "generator" was the traditional 17th anniversary present. How romantic! We had plans for Saturday night already, so we're planning on celebrating next weekend. Nothing fancy this year. Because really every day is a celebration. Corny, I know, but there you are. So, in summation, we'll be hunkering down for our anniversary. How will you be celebrating?

chowdered {life}

I'm not going to lie. This really is the best corn chowder I've ever had. I had lunch with my friend Catherine last week and ordered a cheddar corn chowder and mine wins, hands down. Not that I'm bragging or anything. It's just that good.

We're big soup eaters around here. Callum has loved soup since he was a little little one. Our go-to lunch from when he was wee was generally soup and a quesadilla. Haven't added the quesadilla in awhile, maybe it's time. Back when Callum was so young, I relied on canned soups, I have to admit. It's just the way we rolled back then. We're still known to pull back the lid on a can of soup now and then, but when I make soup for me and Neel to share for our weekday lunches, there's really not much better. We were not incredibly inclined to share this go-around.

Bacon Corn Chowder, adapted from Cooking Light

6 slices bacon, chopped
1/2 cup onion, chopped
3 stalks celery, chopped
1 teaspoon chopped fresh sage
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 bag frozen corn, thawed (I used Trader Joes Roasted Corn, and I think it was one of the keys to the success of this dish)
2 cups chicken broth
1/3 cup half and half
sherry
salt and pepper to taste

Heat a large Dutch oven on medium to high heat, add bacon and cook for roughly four minutes until it browns. Remove bacon from pan and drain on paper towels. Add onion and celery to pan and sauté until soft, five minutes. Add garlic and sauté for a minute more. Deglaze pan with sherry. (Another key to the success of the dish, if you ask me. Just sayin'.) Add corn and stir until combined and warm, and then add the broth. Bring to a boil and cook for four minutes.

Put two cups of mixture in a blender (keep lid slightly vented so you don't have corn soup on the ceiling!) and blend until smooth. Return blended portion of soup to Dutch oven and stir to combine. Add half and half and additional sherry (as well as salt and pepper) to taste.

Note: The orginal Cooking Light recipe calls for cooking shrimp in the soup, and I think some sautéd shrimp would be great as a garnish. Too cumbersome for us for weekdays, but you can betcha we'll be trying that some evening.

homearama-lama-ding-dong {life}

The East Beach of Norfolk is one of my very favorite neighborhoods in the city. I definitely hear and completely understand the complaints that there are shades of Pleasantville in its carefully coiffed streets and that it's more Barbie Dreamland than real neighborhood, but those pastel shingles! Those metal roofs! The wide avenues! The Chesapeake Bay! What's not to love? Much as I love East Beach, I don't actually ever see us moving there (not enough outdoor space for my husband, I'm thinking), but that didn't mean I wasn't about to get my grubby mitts on any chance I could to take a look inside some of these stunning homes.

Ten houses make up the East Beach Homearama, which is sponsored by the Tidewated Builder's Association and celebrated its 30th anniversary this year. This fall's Homearama marks the third time the event has been held at East Beach, an unprecidented repetition. Our community is justifiably proud of this neighborhood.

Each house was fully decorated and cleverly named, from Sweet Virginia Breeze to the Coastal Haven. It's a bit overwhelming, actually and lends itself to that air of unreality. (also, we're looking to add one of those cool barn doors in our kitchen hallway)

It's not that I didn't find each house beautiful, just a bit too "done" for my taste. I might need to do a good old fashioned house tour of homes people actually live in. All but two of these homes were already sold (the two left were for sale for $639,000 and $1.7M, respectively), and pretty much every single item of furniture was for sale too. If you can look past all of the perfectly-matched throw pillows and carefully-placed table runners, there are a lot of lovely details.

Check out the under-stairwell wine cabinet.

This sweet room was a third floor surprise. What a treat for kids. A really special space to dream your way to growing up.

The neighborhood is designed so that the houses have detached garages at the back (with courtyards in between) and front porches opening onto wide avenues. Above the garages are carriage houses, finished as rental income or in-law suites. Often, for me and my friend Jean, these sweet, small spaces were the best spots of all. This carriage house, pictured above was a studio (I'm standing at the top of the stair.), but several were one bedroom apartments.

They save the million dollar home (the first ever bayfront home featured for Homearama) until the end.

The views here were the best part.

I told Neel when I got home that it was a little like a 10-day European vacation. You get to Florence at the end, see Il Duomo and think, "Oh, another 15th Century church." Yeah, it's just like that. I was a bit overwhelmed by the end and I can't even remember the kitchen of the last house, but there were some definitely themes running through all the homes.

Mudrooms were big. I didn't get any photos, (which seems odd, since that was almost my favorite part of each house we toured), but many back doors opened into mud/laundry rooms. Also, of the ten homes we toured, only three of the master baths had TUBS. What the monkey? When you do a tour like this, you tend to pace yourself with other groups. Jean and I slid along with another pair of women who were in and out of the bathrooms around the same times we were, and they were just as dumbfounded. Gorgeous showers. Rain shower heads from high ceilings and multiple nozzles along the walls. Benches and notches for all your soaps and loofahs. But very few tubs. We were not fans of this plan. Lots of open floor plans, of which I am a fan. But lots of extra eating spaces, which I don't understand. Several houses had an open kitchen/dining/living room, and I'm all for that, and I'm all for eating at the kitchen island too. But an extra breakfast nook or formal dining room? Too much. And often times the master bed/bath suite was downstairs when the rest of the bedrooms (and a play area) was up. I wondered, even before Callum is living somewhere else, if Neel and I had a master "suite" (ha, now that's funny) downstairs, would I ever go upstairs? Worth contemplating.

And still. I loved every minute of it. Every single square inch. There's a fun article in the digital version of our local paper (although who took their photos?) about Homearama, capturing some of it's best parts. It's all about the little pieces of the houses.

And this view.

Monday Mash Up, October 22

1. Jackie's pizza | 2. House tour | 3. East Beach views | 4. Dinner with friends | 5. Best breakfast | 6. Necessary Bloody | 7. Dog Pile | 8. Painterly | (9.) Nearly there | 10. Studio light | 11. Prop shop | 12. Studio time | 13.  Bike ride | 14. Lunch | 15. October sky | 16. Violet | 17. Thea | 18. Lucy | 19. Grocery reward, saved for later | 20. Boys bathing dogs | 21. Drinks with dinner

So I got to thinking after last week when so many of you said, "wow, that's a lot!" in reaction to our weekend. Seems like I've had that comment on quite a few Mondays. I guess we do manage to cram in a lot. It's not my preference. I much prefer to sit on the sofa all day and snuggle up to a Harry Potter (or West Wing) marathon, but I figure there'll be time enough for that when it's 40º and rainy outside. Suffice it to say, this weekend wasn't much different. :) But it was good.

I had two meetings on Friday, so instead of cleaning my house and hitting the grocery store (which is what I'm meant to do on Fridays), I was out and about nearly all day. My new Friday tradition is going to include stopping by Jackie's for bread, however. Especially when she feeds me brick-oven pizza. Really, nothing tastes better, you know. We might have to order one next week. Neel and Cal had what Cal has long called "Man's Night" Friday night while I went to Homearama with my friend Jean. We've been wanting to do this for ages, and the event totally lived up to its billing in one of my favorite neighborhoods in Norfolk. I'll post on that tomorrow, so you'll just have to stay in suspense for a bit! We had a spot of dinner too, and, like with my friend Tracy, solved all the world's problems. Why don't I do this more? Family time is important, yes, but time with friends leaves me refreshed and rejuvenated and brings home a better version of me for my family. I'd do well to remember that.

My goal for the weekend really was to set us up for the next week. Laundry, clean house, chores done. We pretty much got there. I don't want to fall into the trap of doing it all on the weekends, but we laid a good foundation for future weekends, I think. The studio is pretty functional. The bathroom ready for its final phase. Floors are vacuumed. Laundry done (mostly, and then there's the ironing...), groceries are here and meals are planned. We might make it! We didn't get everything done, but. But. We did give the dogs a bath! How's that for productive? And I've worked out my schedule for the week (in my head at least). And that alone makes me feel as if I'm starting the new week off right.

It was a gloriously beautiful October weekend here. I've mentioned in the comments on a couple blogs that fall hasn't really struck in the Tidewater yet. Our leaves don't really peak until early to mid-November, and they're just now starting to turn. We have so many evergreen magnolias and pine trees around us that every single year I wonder if the leaves really will turn. They do though. The bright yellow ginko and the scarlet maple. I'm trying to be patient. But that sky! That is what an October sky should look like. Give me more and more days like these. We rode our bikes to lunch (which was probably why we didn't get the pictures hung in the dining room, but I'll take it.) and the air had that perfect crisp bite to it. Lunch was a bit of a bust (neither Callum nor I liked our soup very much), but the ride alone, along the Elizabeth River was totally worth it, with the sky reflected in the water and the pop of white of a sailboat dotting the horizon. I'll respond to your comments from earlier posts this morning, especially the political ones, but if there was any doubt that Virginia was what they call a "swing" state: Obama won on yard signs on the way to the restaurant and Romney on the way home. Not long now.

As you know, I've been feeling very blessed and energized lately. I try to remember these moments when I fall into those inevitable pits of despair! They never last, but boy, you can try to pull the good lessons with you, I suppose. Theresa noted last week that the universe was smiling on her. Tori posted a wonderful video that, if you haven't seen, you should go check out. Janine found it very inspirational as she guides her daughter to begin her own choices for her life's work. As I read Janine's post, I was reminded of a series on NPR from years ago called This I Believe. They produced it in the 50s and then brought it back a few years ago. One of our favorite essays from the series was by professional skateboarder Tony Hawk and called "Do What You Love." Very few of his words are all that prophetic, but his story is truly remarkable. Worth noting, for sure. And at the end of the essay he writes, "You might not make it to the top, but if you are doing what you love, there is much more happiness there than being rich or famous."

Ah, yes. The universe and Tony Hawk have spoken. (Side note, what an amazing idea for a blog series, huh? Too bad it's already been used. Maybe I can tweek it.) Here's to a spectacular week, my lovelies!

five things, october 19 edition

1. I think I can't take much more of election season over here. On the one hand it's pretty fun to watch it all unfold. Callum is passionately interested in politics, and Neel and I are glad to see that. I'd say we've inspired it to some extent. We want him to be civic minded and interested and involved in his country and community. I'm watching the polls the debates and volunteering and getting mad at the tv. All the things you're supposed to do during an election cycle, but I'm not sure how much more my heart can take. Annie had asked if I'd write a political post, and I do have pictures from a rally we attended a few weeks back, but ummm, ahhh....politics. That's a hot mess, man. I'm not sure I want to open up that kettle of fishies. What I will say, passionately and unequivocally, is that I care very much about voting. As a woman, I especially care about voting. There are women (and men) who worked hard for me to have this right and some even died for me to slide into that booth. There are still people, men and women, who don't have this opportunity and who long for it. But why am I going on and on? This video says it much better than I can. Obama, Romney, Green Party, Purple Party, even though I can't really say that I don't care who you vote for, really? I mostly care that you just go and vote.

2. I think I'm still working on my three words. How are you coming along? I tried to convince someone yesterday that given the fact that she'd told us about three words and I'd seen that video suggesting five words, I should really get eight words, but she wasn't buying it.

3. I think I may just have to own this food photographer bit. What's holding me back? Yeah, I don't know. Do I think it means I can photograph anything else ever? I don't think so. Does it mean that this is my only niche or that I can't take other jobs? Not necessarily. But is it what I get really jazzed about, feel instinctively the most comfortable with, dare I say it, the most turned on by? It might be time to just own that and roll with it people.

4. I think I'm really tired. Neel is having about one of the craziest months of his career (am I calling that about right, babe?), Callum is hitting the books hard and the track hard, and well, he's 13. He hits life hard! I'm feeling like I'm juggling about a bajillion things at once, and while they're all pretty awesome, we're all pretty beat. Oh, and we have to paint the bathroom this weekend.

5. I think, despite all of that fatigue (election and otherwise) this was the only picture I could have picked to represent this week. It's a product shot I did for Selma's, and I love these holiday bowls. I've had a spectacularly wonderful week. Scuffs toe, beams and blushes. There are some details to unfold in coming weeks, and nothing is that big a deal, just lots of little bits of wonderful that added up to feeling energized and filled with joy. Lunch with a friend who is also a client (You've seen her macarons here, have you not?) has me excited and energized beyond belief and other meetings have my creative spirit humming. I've rarely been home; my house is a wreck, and my studio barely functioning, but I pulled seven splinters out of my finger and thumb all by myself so clearly I am a rockstar. And today I get more bread.

nourished {life}

The only thing warmer than the bread coming out of Jackie's oven was the welcome she gave me while I spent the morning with her last week. She mentioned on facebook that she was making pumpkin spice lattés, and I teased her that my beverage of choice was a salted caramel mocha. Of course she had one waiting for me. She also made homemade apple doughnuts. Yes. In addition to baking 3 loaves of rustic white, 6 loaves of sourdough, 6 loaves of pumpkin raisin, 6 loaves of cinnamon raisin swirl and a batch of buttermilk biscuits, she made doughnuts. And apple cider and caramel glazes for them. All I did was take pictures.

We talked a lot. I think that's the thing about food, and why I like taking pictures of it so much. It's about connection. Sitting in Jackie's kitchen, dogs and cats underfoot, we chatted as she kneaded and I snapped away. The people who came to get the bread needed that connection too. They came for the bread, but they wanted to stay and talk a bit. To spend some time. Jackie talked about it too, that connection. You don't get it from the bread that you buy from a store, she pointed out. Machine-made loaves. They're fine, but with this? Her hands have been on this bread. It connects us, the food we share. The bread we break together.

Baked Apple Doughnuts with Caramel Drizzle (from Bakers Royale and adapted from Artisan Bread in Five)

For the doughnuts

3/4 cup lukewarm water
2 teaspoons active dry yeast
2 teaspoons salt
3 eggs lightly beaten
1/2 cup brown sugar, lightly packed
2 small apples (skin off or on, depending on your preference), diced
3 3/4 cups all purpose flour
3/4 cup (1.5 sticks!) butter

For the Apple Cider Glaze, Jackie combined confectioners sugar and apple cider. Perhaps she can give us approximate ratios in the comments? :)

For the Caramel Drizzle, go here.

Heat oven to 350º F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Place the water, yeast, salt, eggs, apples, flour and butter in a bowl and stir until mixed.

Let dough rest, covered, at room temperature for two hours. Transfer to a refrigerator and chill for three hours.

Remove from refrigerator and transfer to a pastry bag with a round tip. Jackie used a ziploc with the tip cut off, and, failing that, spooned the batter into the rounds of a doughnut pan. The doughnuts could also be spooned free-form on a cookie sheet.

Bake for 18 minutes, remove from oven and transfer to a cooling rack before applying glaze. Makes 18 doughnuts. (Or less. Or more.)

 Best when enjoyed fresh from the oven.

Bread Making {life}

It starts with the fire, which she lights at five a.m. But really, it starts with the email that she sends early in the week. Good afternoon Breadies, Below are this week's bread choices: traditional sourdough boule, cinnamon rasion swirl, pumpkin rasin spice batard, and southern buttermilk biscuits. Of course I asked for something completely different, because Cal had liked the sample she'd given us earlier so much. Rustic white. Breads should be ready by 12- 12:30 p.m. for pick up, but can be picked up anytime in the afternoon.

The oven itself sits proudly in the backyard. A path away from the house, sitting round and proud, almost patient. Ready for the fire. It's all day work, baking the bread. Jackie lights the fire early and brings the heat up to 800º. The goal is to get the heat deep into the bricks, really soaked in. Once the coals are banked and the temperature is down around 500º, it's time to bake.

As the oven heats up and cools down, she measures and mixes, kneads and rolls the dough. It's fascinating to hear her talk about bread and baking. The dough rising too fast and being "happy." About how homes where bread is baked a lot have more yeast in the air. Bread and life are truly connected, aren't they?

The Breadies started arriving early, just as Jackie said they would. Several stayed to nibble on a doughnut (I'll be showing you those tomorrow.), and wait for some extra loaves to come out of the oven. Jackie blogs about her breadmaking here. Later, once everyone has gone, and before she puts her feet up for a much needed rest, she might throw in some heads of garlic to roast. Or the pot of beans that she'd boiled the night before. She hates to waste the heat. For her work, she takes "a small donation to the flour fund" but really, she gives so much more. It's more than the bread, which is pretty spectacular. It's about connection and friendship and caretaking. We all need more of that, I think. Bread and life, yeast in the air, and caretaking. The world needs more of that, I think.

Monday Mash Up, October 15

1. Friday hike | 2. Dinner with Friends | 3. Baby boy | 4. Track meet | 5. Running man | 6. Mama and Papa watch | 7. Neel's salad | 8. Celebration dinner | 9. Snuggly beagle | 10. Dismantling | 11. Winter throw | 12. Ready for paint | 13. Yard day | 14. Soup day | 15. Ironing :( | 16. Studio, outside | 17. Studio, inside | 18. Studio, close up.

Well, there were some bright spots, but over all the weekend was kind of "meh." I say meh because there was too much work and not enough play, and we all know what that does. I shouldn't be surprised that it shook out that way. After two weekends in grant-writing mode, Neel needed to be out and about and working around the house. We both did. But the work/play balance was not what I hoped. But. Enough whining. I had a great hike with my friend Tracy Friday morning. We basically solve all of our own problems, our friends' problems and achieve world peace on these hikes so it's a great way to kick off the weekend. Dinner Friday night was with that baby bug you see in the upper right corner, even though his mom deliberately kept him asleep so I couldn't hold him. These guys used to be our across the street neighbors, and we don't see them enough since they moved one neighborhood over. It was nice to gather for dinner, and I clearly need to figure out a way to see them more.

Saturday was a bit of a blur. We knew Cal had a track meet in the morning (it was homecoming at his school), but his coach was unclear as to when exactly he needed to be there for the meet. So Neel emailed the coach Friday night, and at 7:15 Saturday morning, we got an email back saying he needed to be at school at 7:45. Um, yeah, we were all still in our jammies and Callum was still asleep!

We were only a little late. (Wink. Wink.)

The races are so fun to watch. For some reason (Don't tell Cal.), I like the girls the best. Something about watching those girls stream past the finish line just thrills me. Fun. But a harried and rushed morning. Thank God, I wasn't the one who was running.

Oh, then we had to buy a dryer. There are some appliances that are fun to buy (buying my new stove a few years back comes to mind), but dryers don't rise to the top of the list. Had to be done though, which was a huge bummer. Not having a dryer is a bigger bummer though, and the new one will be here today.

We're keeping up our Saturday night dinner tradition, only this week's dinner was a celebration. Neel made an amazing salad for us. There's been a lot to celebrate around here. Neel finishing the grant, obvs. Isn't it a bummer that he won't find out about it for months? Callum got some great news at school on Friday. Like I said, it may have taken six weeks but it seems like we've finally settled in. We're pretty proud of him. And I got some good news too. A possible dream come true, and some projects coming up that are really going to push me but that I'm so very excited about. I'm feeling quite breathless, actually.

And then a beagle fell asleep on my lap. She loves to sleep under the covers, and she got a special treat Saturday night while we cuddled up for a The West Wing marathon. Callum is really into the upcoming U.S. election, so how could we resist? Except, said beagle hurt her paw some time later that night. She seems much better now, but she's so pathetic when she gets hurt (drama queen).

Sunday was a work day. Neel, as you can see, disassembled our air hockey table. More on that in a bit. Our guys were here to work on the bathroom, so the walls are done and will be ready to prime and paint by next weekend. Randy, our contractor, admits that Butch, the guy who's been doing the work, is not the neatest. Ahem. After Butch left, Neel was helping Randy fold up some tarps, and Randy said, "Butch is like that guy in Peanuts, what's he called, Mud Pen?" Uh, Pig Pen? Yeah, that's the one. 

Neel got a much needed yard day in, which helped him immeasurably I think. And I made soup. We used to eat salads during the week, but the weather really is turning cooler, so I've decided to make us soup on Sunday to see us through weektime lunches. Not to brag or anything, but that up there might be the best corn and bacon chowder ever. Just sayin'. If I get my act together, I'll pop up a post about it this week. And because we had to borrow our neighbor's dryer for a load, bringing the clothes back and forth, I ended up with a lot of ironing to do. Not my fave.

But for me, the best part of the weekend was the amazing work my wonderful husband did clearing out a studio space for me. He's pretty special, isn't he? The dogs, who sleep there too, are a little freaked out. I left for the grocery store and he was still pulling the air hockey table apart (it pretty much didn't work anymore), and by the time I got back the table was gone, the room cleared out and the floors mopped. There's more work to be done, but I think he was as excited as I was to set up the saw horses.

My lovelies, how was your weekend? What wonderful things are on tap for you this week? For me, it's nothing but blue skies ahead.

five things, october 12 edition

1. I think I had the most amazing day yesterday. I can't wait to share with you the photos I took at my friend Jackie's as she baked and baked and baked the most amazing bread. Can you guess just how awesome her house smelled? It was pretty nice. And while I was there, I got a couple messages from the universe that I was on the right path with this whole photography business. That was pretty nice too. Moral of the story? Follow your heart and listen when the universe speaks. If you do, the universe will reward you.

2. I think, speaking of messages from the universe, something's up. Our dryer is broken. Our toaster died (and with some bread-loaf bounty coming home with me yesterday, you can bet I bought a new one pretty sharpish). My phone is on it's last legs. Our master bath is leaking, making the guest bath a race against time. Our mattress, most definitely not old age, is killing my hips. What's the thread?

3. I think we all did better this week playing offense, not defense. I could still manage some more structure to my days, I think, but now that we're done with the second week of October, it feels like we've settled into a nice routine. I probably shouldn't have said that. ;)

4. I think I'm really looking forward to the weekend this weekend. Neel thinks he'll be done with his grant (fingers crossed!), and after Callum's Saturday morning cross country meet, we have some fun errands to run and work to do on the studio. We're hoping for dinner with some friends, and some relaxing family time. It's going to be gorgeous. I can't wait.

5. I think I love fall. I always have to remind myself that our trees turn much later here than the rest of the world. Like, November later. But this week has brought cool temperatures and fireplace nights. Just the thing to get me in the mood. Every time I long to move back to California, I think about how much the shift into this season energizes and refreshes me. Life is good.

studio work {life}

Perhaps it's funny to have a post featuring such gorgeous necklaces (I can't take credit) be primarily about photography. That's how it goes today. Despite the fact that I've been getting good work and emotionally I'm dedicating more of my heart to photography, I can't deny that I've been feeling stuck lately. It's not, by any stretch, that I don't feel that I have any more to learn. It's more that I feel that there's so much that I don't know. I don't even know where to begin. I take workshops and a little tiny lock opens. I read an article, and another little tiny lock opens. But there are so many locks! More than that, I still don't completely know which locks are mine to unearth. It's a lot to figure out.

So lately, I've been reaching both out and in. Trying to really understand what my goals are for this work. Trying to verbalize them, if only to myself. And as I understand more deeply what path I want this journey to take, I'm trying to really, truly know what I need to do to get there. So I've been reading and pinning and planning a studio and taking classes and joining a meet-up. All good things. And yet. Yet. I realized this week that I was forgetting to do the most important thing, and that was to take the time to do the work. In my very first photography class, my teacher Jackie's (meet her and her bread here next week) most important advice for us was this: Practice, Practice, Practice.

It's that simple. I've spent too much time flying by the seat of my pants, and not enough properly planning, preparing and executing the kinds of photoshoots that I want to create. It's important to take the time. If I really want my photos to get better, I need to put in that time. So from here on out, I'm giving myself one day a week dedicated just to the practice of my craft. I'm pulling out my creative muses from Plate to Pixel to The Creative Habit and letting them be my guide. Sometimes if might be food, sometimes a still life. But there's no other purpose than just the work. Going slowly and taking the time for the work. You'll see the results here on Thursdays. I'm not sure if this is a blog series or not or if I'll give it a name (any thoughts?), but I figure sharing it with you guys will be good for me. I hope you like it too.

And what about those necklaces? Pretty spectacular aren't they? The artist is Jamie Joseph, and I did some product shots of them for Simply Selma's and oh, you know, just happened to have them lying around. (If you're interested in any of them, they ought to be up on the web site soon, or contact one of the gals and they can hook you up.) The light wasn't great, and the timing wasn't either, but it was a start. A start to paying attention. And I can't thank my ladies there for being my own personal prop closet. We'll see. We'll see where the path leads.

autumn had come {life}

Pretty much my dream evening last night. Rain. Wind. Shadows drawing close. To celebrate the first real chill of autumn, we threw together our old stand-by one pot dinner of sausage and beans and ate in front of the fire last night. With Callum staying late for cross country practice these days, we generally roll in the door about the same time as Neel does, so our dinners have changed a bit. Cal did go to school yesterday, and he's glad he did! Got some good test grades back and won a flip video camera in a raffle. Holy freaking awesome, batman. Not too shabby!

After we all settled in, Cal headed up to work on his homework, and Neel and I gathered in the living room to decompress and chat about the day. These are the nights I love. Not the rush to get dinner on the table with the news squawking in the background. Not the nagging to get back on the homework. Not the clock watching or the worry that there isn't enough time, ever enough time to get it all in. Just the wind, the rain, some warm food, a glass of wine and a happy kid. All I need, really. All I ever need.

Monday Mash Up, October 8

1. still life | 2. runners, take your mark | 3. post meet, meet | 4. brick oven | 5. fruits of the oven | 6. smooth | 7. third base fundamentals | 8. taking grounders | 9. homework, as ever was | 10. coffee house, 1 | 11. coffeehouse, 2 | 12. coffeehouse, 3 | 13. campari and orange, it's been so long | 14. frozen yogurt | 15. bloody mary, it's been so long | 16. breakfast | 17. rainy day | 18. afternoon work

Hello my dears! How was everybody's weekend? Can you believe it's Monday already? I was so toasty and warm and cozy as I wrote this that I just resisted the thought of Monday coming at all. Our weekend started with Callum's cross country meet at his school Friday afternoon. I took pictures with Big Daddy, but I haven't taken a good look at them yet...not sure if I can eek out a post on it or not! We had a great time and caught up with some old friends from way back in the lacrosse days. That was a long time ago!

Now the bread I will be posting about next week, and I can't wait. My friend Jackie, who is my original photography teacher (and a woman to whom I owe many thanks), has a brick oven in her back yard and she bakes once a week. Our original plan was for me to come and take pictures last Friday, but the headaches got me down, so we bumped it to this week instead. She was kind enough to offer us some bread anyway and give us a quick tour of her gorgeous oven. I can't wait to really show you. I only wish I could share with you some of her amazing bread. And look! We made progress on the bathroom! The plaster is up. The walls just need to be smoothed and we can prime and paint. I can almost smell the finish line. There are only some plumbers standing between me and our long awaited dreams (wink, wink).

Baseball lesson Saturday. Neel's writing a grant, so his weekends are spent at work. Cal has some sniffly bug, and he clearly doesn't feel well, but he rallied to take some batting practice and some fielding practice too. Without our beloved fall ball, he needs these tune ups, and I was mesmerized watching his coach work with him. For those of you who think baseball is boring, come with me sometime. So many little tiny pieces that make up every single throw, much less every play. Not to mention the fact that his coach is a, well, a character. Ahem.

Of course I saw all of this after Neel and I snuck out to the coffee shop for a bit. I love that place. So much to look at. If I'm feeling stuck and lonely here at home, I need to remember that this amazing space (and coffee!) is available. Getting a different view is important, sometimes, don't you think?

On Sunday, Cal was even snifflier. Poor guy had to give a Bat Mitzvah party he was looking forward to on Saturday a miss (We took him out for yogurt to try to make up for it. Remember those strawberry thingies, Erin?), and there's not much worse than facing down a barrel of homework when you're feeling crummy. Sunday was my favorite kind of day. The temperatures dropped 30° in about 12 hours, making for a cool, blustery, fall-like day. Finally. I may hate it in late February, but right now, I'm happy to have the lights lit, the gray skies and the smack of wind-driven rain against the windows. I spent a lot of time at the computer on Sunday. An inspiring Blog Brunch on Saturday had me thinking even more about how I want things to work more smoothly around here. I'm worried about how things are going at Squarespace. I'm wanting (haven't I been saying this for ages?) to switch things up a bit. I want themes and tag lines and whine, whine, whine. I realized that even though we're getting into a better routine (hello, finally), I'm operating more defensively than I want to. I want to play offense, not defense. So that's me from now on. I have the ball.

I watched this video this weekend, which talks about picking five words to describe your brand. Funny. It echoed something one of the photographers at my group mentioned last week. That was three words you want people to use to describe your photographs. People. This is not easy. Trying to represent yourself in tag lines and words and images. Tricky stuff that. So in the coming weeks, I'll be working on business plans and short and long term goals, and really trying to understand what I want this place to be and what I want my other work to be. Some of that I may share here, but who wants to see the sausage making, really?

So here's to a good week, peeps. As I write this, we don't know if Callum will be at school in the morning. He sounds really yucky. Of course, by the time you're reading it, the decision will be made.

Three words, five words, hmmm..... What are mine? What are yours?