This shoot makes me think I need to use balloons more often. I love the punch of color in an otherwise neutral photo.
Were you part of the Hunger Games mania this weekend? I read the books last year, but I’m nervous to see the movie. I hate when movies ruin the wonderful experience of the book. And it’s happened more than once. So, I’m on the fence. Those that have read the books and seen the movie…was it worth it? Do you feel angsty about having seen it? Did it do the characters justice? Do you feel like maybe I shouldn’t be obsessing about a young adult book/movie when I am WELL into my 30’s?
Speaking of young adults…middle school. I photographed a local middle school’s graduating 8th graders and don’t ever remember looking this cute. Not in middle school, and maybe not ever!
Here’s a few other sessions I had this last week. On sunnier days. I told Brent today I was so tired of the gloomy weather and he asked me if I meant I was tired of the last 10 hours of gloomy weather. Because yesterday was beautiful. I just forgot. And the week before. Oh, Long Beach. You spoil me.
Ever since moving to Long Beach 3 years ago, I’ve commiserated with friends about the lack of good eateries. When we want to go someplace special, we drive south or to LA. Long Beach is full of chain restaurants, but when you’re not feeling like Outback Steakhouse or Mimi’s Cafe, you’re hard-pressed to find a way to spend your date night. Then came Starling Diner. I know it’s been around a long while, but we just discovered it. It’s convinced me that there’s an underground of locally owned restaurants just waiting to be found.
On the recommendation of Yelp, we ordered the stuffed french toast with brandy butter apples along with a applewood bacon, tomato and cheddar scramble the first time we went. It was a sunny morning and as much as I wanted to enjoy the inside of the tiny restaurant, we ate outside on the orange laquered patio tables. Neighbors walk by with their dogs and it’s quite charming. You know what else is quite charming? And delicious and amazing? The french toast. I liked the scramble, but I fought for the last bite of the french toast. It’s a piece of baguette stuffed with some sort of mascarpone and crème fraiche combination. Then. Then it’s topped with apples sauteed in brandy butter. Did I have you at stuffed? I should.
The menu has a little info on the back about the owner and how she came to open Starling. My favorite part was when she talked about how as a child she would open a restaurant in her parents garage every summer for the neighbors. I can’t wait to explore more of Long Beach and find restaurants where people are living their passion. And it shows through the food.
I hate to be a tease, but guess what? I’m going to. Last week, my friend Erika let me RE-TAKE images in her modern home because sommmmmeone lost all the images she took the last time she was in Erika’s home. Boo. But, the bonus is that Erika’s baby is now sitting up and crawling and chubby and just the cutest thing you’ve ever seen. So. It’s not so much a bad thing when you re-take images and there’s a very cute baby there to photograph as well.
Here’s where the tease comes in. I have to be out the door in about 10 minutes for a photo session AND I won’t be home again until about 8:30 tonight. Can you say working mom? Anyway, I only have time to post Erika’s entry way. TEASE. Oh and her cute baby. I promise I won’t lose the photos this time and I’ll share her living area with you next week. promise.
Her door is perfect. It made me want to get a new door. And paint it. She told me the pots on her front step are from Anthropologie and Home Goods. Gotta love a girl who does high brow/low brow.
Okay back again with more from Erika’s house next week. Oh and Baby Monroe gets her own post too.
Do you ever feel a little overwhelmed by your to-do list? Sometimes I find myself making mini-incentives, like finish editing this photo session and you get a cup of coffee or finish this load of laundry and you get to have a seat and read for 15 minutes. Oh, it’s the little things. And whatever get’s the job done, right!? Breaking things down makes the tasks a lot more manageable and not so overwhelming.
Come to think of it, I do the same thing for running. Finish this mile and you can slow the pace, finish one more and you’ll get to the new song you just downloaded. And the list goes on and on.
The other day I was looking on Pinterest for vegetarian taco recipes. Now I should clarify that when I say vegetarian, I don’t mean tofu. My friend says, you’re not going to like substitute something weird for the meat, right? No. I just wanted something that would taste Mexican-ish and not include meat. So, let me break. it. down.
Start with a bag of broccoli slaw from Trader Joe’s. Squeeze the juice of a lime along with a dash of olive oil, salt, pepper and cayenne pepper. Toss gently.
Then, preheat your oven to 450. Either cut up some butternut squash or buy a bag at Trader Joe’s. Toss it with olive oil, cumin, chili pepper and garlic salt. The inspiration on Pinterest had regular potatoes for this part, but I wanted to try using butternut squash and I thought it was delicious. BUT, if you have an aversion to squash, use a regular old brown potato. Bake it for about 15 minutes or until tender.
Cilantro lime rice. Do you love Chipotle as much as I do? This is a knock off of their rice. I make the 5 minute kind, add a dab of butter, the juice of a lime, chopped cilantro and some salt and pepper to taste. Boom. You’re almost done!
Black beans…crack open a can. Rinse ’em.
I do this part last or I will eat it all before dinner comes. My guacamole is simple. Just mash an avacado with the juice of a lime, garlic salt and cayenne pepper.
Seriously people, you’re done. Break it down and you’ve got a really delicious healthy dinner. Although if you try to multi-task too much like I do, you may have to ask your children to fan the smoke alarm because you burned the first batch of squash. But, that’s neither here nor there.
Moving on…crisp a tortilla over the flame of your stove top, have a seat and enjoy!
So, this flashback is just from a few weeks ago, but I didn’t get the chance to blog it! I photographed a campaign for Oilily Spring 2012. Jillian and her friend Lydnsay got to model for me. Love when those sample sizes are an 8!
I was able to shoot in my studio because they wanted a plain and simple backdrop. Do you recognize these paper flowers? Here they are in action!
And this is the finished product on the Oilily website!
Can we talk for a moment about time? Where the heck does it all go? I totally feel you when you call me and say…I just want to capture my kids the way they are today. His missing teeth are going to be filled in, like tomorrow, with those big adult teeth and that empty space on the top won’t be empty again. I love that you want to freeze time for a moment.
This week I had such a fun session with a 7 and 10 year old. We were running with bubbles and jumping over waves. My kind of work day.
I also finished up the sessions at Rascals to Rebels. The kids were amazing…lots of babies this time around. And I didn’t plan it this way, but the colors and the softness of the backdrop was perfect for babies. So, win win.
And newborn season. Yes, there is a season for newborns. When Baby Morgan came to the studio this week I was talking to her mom about how during the fall and winter months I see a few newborns, but when spring rolls around those babies come one right after the other. So, yeah! We’re into the newborn season!!
So, in the last month I’ve been on a bit of a reading kick. Normally, my life doesn’t afford me the time to sit around and read, but I went on vacation and plowed through a few books. The trend didn’t stop when I got home. I just had to finish the one I reading on the plane, then the next one after that…
I’m a picky reader. It has to keep my attention, and like I said, I don’t have time to sit around and read, so it better be GOOD!
I loved Unbroken. That’s what kicked off my reading frenzy. The book was passed to me by some friends at church. It’s a true story and they knew the brother of Louis Zamparini, so it made it that much more special to read. The Paris Wife hooked me from the moment I picked it up. It’s about Hemingway’s first wife and they’re year in Paris and abroad. It’s written so well, I think I read it in two sittings. Dovekeepers was the book I read on the plane and ended up having a few late nights after to finish it. The author is such a great storyteller.
The Soldier’s Wife was another book that tells such a beautiful story. I love learning about history while I’m sucked into a world outside my own. Maybe that’s why historical fiction has such a draw for me! I know I’m a bit late to the game with Bossypants, but it was just what I needed after reading a few heavy books. It was so funny and it was like Tina Fey was reading it to me! The next book on my list is Cutting for Stone. A friend recommended it and it looks really good! I’ll tell you all about it when I’m finished!
If you’re a mom, you can relate to eating cold dinners. Or at least not piping-hot dinners. By the time you cut up everyone’s food, pour drinks, clean up spilled drinks… you get the idea! One of things that makes my life a little easier is kitchen shears. I pretty much always bring them to the table along with all the silverware. It’s so much easier than cutting up food with a knife and fork.
I’ve done this for years and never thought about it, until a few of my friends commented while eating dinner at my house. So, I thought I’d share it here! They are just the perfect tool to cut up food into bite size pieces. I even have a back up pair!
I’m just emerging from a crazy weekend, in which I didn’t even get time to tell you about what I was up to LAST week! So, here it goes…
