obsession.

i am currently obsessed with this photo. the more i look at it, the more i like it. i'm going to say nothing more, but just sit, enjoy, examine.

xoxo.

thanksgiving.

through this blog, you will get to learn a lot about me. this thanksgiving, i want you to meet who it is that has shaped me to become this person. these are just some of the many people who i am thankful for.

here we are, mi familia. if you don't know us, then its hard to understand how hard it was to get us all to "pose" like this. "normal" i venture to say. but if you know me, then you know, that "normal" just ain't so!

this is who we are (well most of us) "normally". and it is for moments like these, i am so thankful for my family.

there are also a couple of little ladies that make my life interesting on a day to day basis. i have always fancied myself to be a "dog person" and when i first adopted saki, i thought i had lost my mind. and then a year later when i wanted to "gift" her with a sister, i knew it had happened. marbles, dropped and rolling across the table, to the floor, and out the door. these two little ladies are part of everything i do. whether it's, chewing on my yarn as i knit, attacking the printer as i print, or crying at my feet as i cook, they are 100% my heart and soul. and i am ever so thankful that they have entered my life, taught me patience and control. without them, well, there is no with out them. they are here to stay, and i will never have it any other way.

without further adue, meet the culprits behind all the cat hair in my projects.....

sakura mochi and kiryoku naru.

and yes, those are cats on my pjs. get used to it. :)

i am also incredibly thankful, amongst many other things, to have been supported and encouraged to go on my many adventures. without that support, i wouldn't find myself in places, that i can capture things like this.

happy thanksgiving everyone!

xoxo.

weddings schmedings.

as a young girl, i never envisioned my fairytale wedding, i never dreamed of my white dress, i never longed for the day that "my day" finally arrived. so ironically, at the age of, gasp, 30, i find myself having been in the wedding industry for the last 5 years. as a banquet captain, i ensure that someones life long dream, finally comes true. now it could be because i have heard the same speech, quote or saying hundreds of times. because i have listened to the same song, be countless of couples, special, only ours, first dance song. or any of the other things i have witnessed, experienced, and laughed at, that happens on such a repetitve basis, that weddings, to me, have lost all romance. i have become so desensitized to the beauty that i am part of that i almost never get moved. almost. that is until this week.  i shed a tear. i admit it. i can't believe it, but, i admit it.

on friday night, as the routine first dance was happening, the bride and groom suprised me. mid dance, the groom stops, and in a full embrace, grabs his bride and spins her as they kiss. the lights are bouncing, the crowd is cheering, glasses being clanked, elvis prestly is chroning in the backgound, and all the while, it is so evident, that to these two, nothing else in the world existed. it was just them. as he let her go, and slowly started to put her down, the most incredible thing happened. she took her hands, and gingerly wiped away the tears that were streaming down his face. and then gently, kissed each cheek. it took all of two seconds, but the love that radiated from these two, brought me to tears. now mind you, it wasn't gasping for air, deep hard sobbing tears, it was just a slow delicate trickle, that was quickly erased before anyone realized it, come on, i have a reputation to protect!

the reason i share this story is because suddenly, at age, gasp, 30, i realize that i am no different from those little girls. even though life has thrown a few curve balls, i will one day, be the reason, a perfect stranger, will shed a tear.

that very same day, these flowers moved me to do something else i never do. they were so beautiful that, i brought my camera out at work.

xoxo.

taco soup.

for wine and dinner night, bestie, ( a term you will hear(or read, if you will) often, lovingly, referring to any of my girl friends, or "besties", pronounced best - eeees) introduced me to a delightful, waist watcher friendly, soup. taco soup. i know right?! taco soup? what can that possibly be? delicious is what it is! the point is, i just couldn't let it go. i had to have it, and often. not only did i have to personally have it, but i also had to share it. and let me tell you, it has never been met with anything other than sheer joy! although, truth be told, most of my friends have never met a soup that they didn't like, we're just friendly like that, but that doesn't take away anything from the awesome power of yumminess this soup embodies!  after many demands for the recipe to be paid forward, i have decided to put it out there for everyone! it is delightful. and now, as it starts to get cold out, snuggling up with some hearty meat and beans, sounds like nothing other than, an awesome plan! so please, yoink the recipe, make it to your hearts content, and enjoy!

in order to get started, you're going to need the following ingredients:

 cans of : chili beans, pinto beans, black beans (i personally add these because i love them but not in original recipe), corn, regular tomatoes, mexican tomatoes, ground turkey, a large onion (or 2 little ones), a ranch packet, a taco seasoning packet, and some chips.

ok. i confess, i bought the wrong size tomato cans (should be the 8ozers) but, used it all anyways and it still tasted delicious!

the first step is to brown the meat and the onions in a skillet. once browned and drained (a lesson i learned after the spaghetti and meat sauce incident of '98), add the two powdery packets and mix.

when you finish mixing, take all of the canned foods and throw them into a giant pot, undrained. now i repeat, undrained! seems weird but all the canned juices make the soupy part, otherwise you'd just have beans, tomatoes, and meat in a pot.

mmmmmmm, can't you just smell it as it simmers!

now i warn you, for the next hour, you will have to patiently wait for it to simmer properly. avoid all temptation to jump in and start early! its like a patience building exercise! and good things come to those who wait! i promise!

it's important at this point to sit down, with a bottle of red, a full (been sipped on while opening cans) glass, already in hand, and surround yourself with good music, good conversation and wonderful friends, because before you know it...

ding! hours up!

now remember, like in life, presentation is everything, no point in making something delicious if it's just gonna look like slop... isn't there a saying like that?  if it looks like a slop, walks like a slop, talks like a slop....or was that a duck? anyways, you get the point! dress this soup up! make it so pretty, that its almost hard to eat!

so.........

hopefully while you were at the store you grabbed some extras like my favorites: cheese, sour cream and avocados. because if you did, and with the help of strategically placed chips......

voila!

now you try!

bon appetite!

xoxo.

sometimes, a light bulb, is just a light bulb.

one night, sitting on the porch, i looked up and suddenly saw something i hadn't noticed before. i ran inside grabbed my camera, and got all paparazzi on it! snap snap snap. so excited at what i had created i ran inside to show it off.

me: isn't it awesome?
him: what?
me: these pictures! aren't they cool!
him: its a lightbulb.

waah waah waah. sometimes a cool piece of linear lines and light, is someone elses lightbulb.


xoxo.

a stones throw.

skipping rocks on whidbey island, wa.

 

xoxo.

my first wedding.

i have been incredibly lucky this year and was given the honor of shooting the weddings of a couple of great friends. although the pressure of shooting a wedding really isn't for me, i had a great deal of fun doing this for my friends. here are a couple of the pictures from the Stanton Means wedding in atascadero, ca, in march of 2009. this was the first wedding i have ever shot.



xoxo.

right place right time.

fortune a fire.

i am certainly not one to devalue the amazing fortune that can occur being at the right place at the right time. this here is a shining example of such an occasion. the following misfortune for someone and my fortune occurred in the little town of atascadero, ca, on march 6th, 2009. the last photo earning me an honorable mention at the san diego county fair. it is this very reason that you will always find me with a camera on hand.




xoxo.

food for thought.

it's really no surprise that i constantly find myself in the restaurant industry. i am a total foodie. i love cooking, i love exploring new tastes, i love the anticipation of waiting to see if something will actually pan out. i love the way it smells. i love the way that it brings people together. i love the fact that no matter where i am, the most amazing conversations happen in the kitchen. as a slightly feministic woman, i am never offended by the obsertity that its insulting to say a woman belongs in the kitchen. (irony of course being that men dominate in the "chef" world.) as long as i have the choice, i want to be in there. (that is to say as long as someone else is doing the cleaning, now there is one line i draw in sharpie.) the point being, i love everything about food. if i could have a yard and grow all my own produce, i would be get all martha stewart on that one!

after a long conversation with a chef friend of mine, i came to the realization of how much art and food have in common. cooking is art. its beautiful on the taste buds, in the smell, and more often than not, its beautiful to sight. i am certainly not a food photographer, and this was just to help a friend, but i wanted to share the beauty that i see in food.
bon appetite.

xoxo.