new blog location!

Life happens, and my little blog home got neglected for awhile. We moved, we started school, and grandma moved in with us! Lots of adventures, but not a lot of time to blog. Because of some email changes, and html updates, I've actually moved my blog to the following location click here to visit the new site!

Holidays, learning to knit, and other excitement!

Lots of really exciting things in the works, including...I am learning to knit!!! Mary at Lizzie Ann's Wool Co has taken me on as a student. I could not beleive I was able to leave the shop after less than an hour with crazy knitting skills! Okay, not quite crazy, but I can cast on, and I can garter stitch something fierce! Purling is next...

My first project is a basic scarf made from some INCREDIBLE Classi Elite Aspen Yarn in Resort, a fantastic multi-toned purple.

I've also been working on some fun little projects for the holidays, Etsy, and a friend who's expecting a little one in March...

not too much to say today...

Just a snap of some recently thrifted items. vintage linens just like the ones my mom had as a girl, some diner mugs, and a nice pyrex casserole...I can never have too much Pyrex or Fire King!

Been feeling very blah lately, I think it's a side effect of an endless marathon of editing weddings and protrait sessions in front of the computer. As of right now, I see no light at the end of the tunnel, hoepfully that will change in another week.

So, can I live vicariously through you all? Do me a favor, get some fresh air for me and enjoy the fall! :)

the last few leaves...

I can hardly beleive that fall is nearing it's end. It seems like just yesterday that I was posting about the end of summer. Although it was busy, we had lots of time to enjoy the crisp weather...picking apples, outdoor portrait sessions, trick or treating, soccer games, and of course, football! My favorite holidays are just around the corner, and a season filled with baking, sewing, needlework, family time, and just being snug as a bug.

Photo Therapy!

Even though I felt icky and depressed, I could NOT resist the incredible late October weather that we had yesterday. I borrowed my business partner's camera, and set out with my little Stella Bella, in her special Matilda Jane dress, and I decided to just try to have fun with a camera...no pressure. We chased fairies, made wishes, picked flowers, and spun in circles, and took a few pictures along the way.

It really was good therapy...here are a few images that I loved!

pieces of grace...

Sometimes when we are at a low point, or a point in our lives where we choose to question who we are, who we are meant to be, and who we want to be, a little piece of grace, purely by chance, drifts our way.

Photography is not my passion, that is far too limiting. It is in fact, how I see the world around me. It's my saving grace, my sanity, my outlet, and it ironically allows me to let down my guard. I can see a side of people, even loved ones, through my camera, that are so blatantly pure. I have documented my newborn babies while I still lay in the bed they were born in moments before, the face of my beautiful daughter as her tiny body was set in her wooden coffin, my grandfater staring into the sunset at the same nursing home he passed at months later, my 2 youngest children tucked into a cardboard box, pretending to sail away, never knowing I was watching...beautiful and painful things.

Lately, I have questioned my ability, and have had moments of doubt, where I think that just maybe this love that I have for images and portraits and the world around me is not what I should be doing, not my job to document, and is not a gift that I have.

Then I watched Antiques Road Show (I know, that's what you all expected me to say, right?), the same as I do every week while I edit images on my laptop, and as I was about to shut off PBS, the biography of the incredible Annie Leibovitz came on. Of course I have been a huge fan of hers for years, along with Bresson, Capa, and the modern day Jill Greenberg, but I had never before seen this side of her. Very real, vulnerable, and at times it appeared, unsure of herself. To see someone that in my mind has always been so sure of herself, and so in charge, and has documented and recorded some of the greatest portraits of our modern times, was just...grace. Pure, saving, grace. Something that I needed to hear. I am quite possibly the most self critical person that I know, but I realized that's okay, as long as I can keep at it. If my criticism ever gets to the point that I want to quit, then the point of what I set out to do is gone, as is my love for photography. I want to push myself BECAUSE I love what I do, not to MAKE myself love what I do.

back to blogging, and doing fall stuff...

So, I would be lying if I said the insanity has died down, and that's why I'm back to blogging, but alas, it is not. Things are still going full force here...photography sessions, proofing, packing to move, cleaning incessantly, and sadly, dealing with the theft of thousands of dollars of photography stuff. Big huge bummer there, but many thanks to Stuart and my fellow OSPers for their help in that department, and for letting me borrow cameras and stuff!

The fact is...I just miss blogging, about the little bits and pieces of day to day life that keep me sane. And insane. :D Right now, I am trying to find little snippets of time for Christmas gift creation. I'm working on a granny square scarf, I think for my sister, in lovely shades of espresso brown, gray, and muted pink. I may have bitten off more than I can chew in the realm of handmade items, but we'll see what I can squeeze in time for. I just cannot bear to give my family more toys. We really need no more cheap, mindless toys! There may be a felt board in the works inspired by my friend Visty. I think a fabric play teepee, and thanks to Amanda Soule I (along with the rest of the world) flocked to the Stubby Pencil Studio to load up on stocking stuffer crayon rocks, and art supplies, for Max, my mercurial artistic genius of the bunch. Just a peek below of the scarf, cuz it's perdy!