Up in the Air {or how I spent time waiting}

If you’ve flown anywhere in the last 10 years since 9-11, chances are you have had to wait at least once. Whether in the plane on the tarmac or in the terminal for a late or cancelled flight, or you just have a big layover,  you’ve waited.

I ended up on planes and in airports four times in 2010. That was a new record for me. I’m not a good flyer, so a career that included a lot of travel was never “in my future”. 

Now with all that flying, I also did my fair share of waiting and what better to burn up time in an airport terminal then wait?
Watch!

I’ve always been a people-watcher and I love just sitting and watching people coming and going in a large airport (probably because I ‘m often too jet-lagged and anxious to concentrate on reading something).

So on one of those trips I pulled out my camera and played.

Let me tell you something; if you want to stay inconspicuous while sitting in an airport for three hours, don’t sit right in front of the people-movers with a camera at your face. You will get a lot of stares.

But still, I just sat and played with a REALLY low shutter speed and my aperture stopped down– not looking for sharp, clear images of people frozen in time. I wanted to capture  the blur and distortion of constant movement that takes place in a busy airport - every. single. day.

Yes, I ended up with a kah-zillion images as I changed settings on my camera to account for the back light and movement and experiment...
But, boy did that layover fly by! (no pun intended)

And just like that, I was back up in the air.

linked | breakfast

When I think of breakfast I think, “The Most Important Meal of the Day”. I’ve spent most of my life eating cereal – hot and cold.  The older I get the less of a morning person I become.  The more tired I am, the less chance  I have at making a good bowl of hot oatmeal until I’ve had my first cup of coffee and awoken a bit more.  Heck,  just the other morning, in my tired state, I poured orange juice over Harrison’s cereal.

Now if I’m starving when I first wake up I can always manage a bowl of cold cereal (as long as there is no orange juice near by).  But I love breakfast and I always eat more later… when my body is awake.

Some mornings when I’m really lucky, the G.I.D. will make us eggs (once he’s first-cup-of-coffee awake). Let me tell you, he makes Awesome eggs.

Still, I tend to romantically wish every morning started out relaxed and tranquil, sitting at the table bathed in soft sunlight, drinking tea and eating homemade toast with fresh strawberry jam.  Then I realize where that sweet dream comes from. Mornings at my grandparent’s house during childhood. Precious memories that I want to recreate with my own child.

And for a long time I really tried to make Harrison well-round breakfasts. Then Grade School happened.  The rush to get ready, to get him breakfast, dressed, shoes on, teeth and hair brushed, lunch made and out the door for school.   He eats his fair share of cereal.

After all that, I quickly grab my coffee mug (which has been lovingly filled by the Guy-I-Dig with coffee he set to brew that night before). The one I use EVERY day, day-in, day-out.  It’s not a cool photographic retro mug or a colorful, fun mug that doubles as a food photography model.

Oh no…
it’s an old travel mug that I am literally lost without. I mean go-through-withdraws lost without. Like OCD lost without.

Lovely, isn’t it.

Luckily, we have a backup copy.

Oh wait, I LOST that one.

 

Get linked each week this year with: Tracey, Stacey, Michelle, Heather, Andrea, Jenn, Jessica, Kristin, Sara, Janet, Lesli, Amanda, Amanda, Naomi, Tracey, Rhonda, Carla, Lena, HeatherA

“They had me at Fresh” Part II

I finally came clean about my passive relationship with the kitchen and how that all changed back in September. 

Looking back, here’s a few things I discovered after only one month of pre-planned meals:

• I REALLY am a messy cook .
• My fridge is  chuck-full of fresh, unspoiled vegetables, herbs and fruits for the first time in… EVER.
• Electric burners really do have more than two settings {HIGH and LOW}.
  Who knew cooking over MEDIUM  heat would do wonders in saving my food AND pans.
• I can make food fly.
• I can still burn a decent sauce even over medium heat .
• I can MAKE a decent sauce.
• That REALLY BIG knife in the block {that I rarely used} is NOT just for psychopaths in horror flicks – it’s FREAKIN’ AWESOME!
• I ♥ kitchen gadgets
• Fennel!
• For the first time in my life, I have made dressings, lasagna, chicken dumpling soup, beef stew and alfredo sauce - from scratch.
• COOKING FROM SCRATCH – GET OUT!
• I still don’t like brussel sprouts, period.
• On any given evening my kitchen is an even balance of Ratatouille
  

  tasting fireworks
• and Julie & Julie
  
• I want NEED more BIG, sharp knives! Bwahaha!!
• How have I lived without a salad spinner this long? 
• Apparently three sets of measuring spoons are not enough for me. 
• blanching – who knew?! I love fresh meat and fish wrapped in brown paper
  
• I have  never chopped so many onions in all my life.
• I make soup from scratch!
• Okay, maybe I like brussel sprouts – a little bit –  roasted in the oven with Sea Salt and Olive Oil.
  I know I like how they come on a stalk...
  
• And Above All – I REALLY need an apron before I ruin all my clothes!! (told ya I was messy)

 

Seriously though, we are eating better, fresher less processed foods and Harrison tries everything put in front of him.

That’s what really counts in the end.

Just Create

In recent months picking up a pen, a paintbrush or even my camera for leisure seemed farthest from my mind with all the other “noise” going on in my pointy little head.  I wasn’t feeling inspired or creative so how could I possibly BE creative.

However, as with anything in life. Sometimes you just have to do it.
Step out.
Jump in.

That’s just what I did one day last week when I made a stop at the pier as the sun began to settle low in the sky. 
Pictures for only me. The way I wanted them. No rushing, no posing, no cares but my own.

Although I let Harrison pick out the image for my 365 Project…

I decided that one way to open my creative floodgates after a dry year, is to once again resurrect the 365 Project for myself. The last time I tried it, I only got about 104 pictures taken in 129 days. Not so successful.

People have asked me why I’m taking on 365 again.
It’s three fold really.

• To challenge myself daily. (pushing myself to SEE outside the box more often)
• To chronicle our lives (I love looking back at over the blog and remembering events and days and our home)
• To Create (by my own rules).

Feel free to follow my my 365 roll here.

Break Down and Moving Forward

Hard to believe it’s 2012. 2011 flew by and I realized that I posted (cough-cough) a mere 20 times last year.

Twenty times. Wow. 

Honestly, when I took my business to a new level and blogging became about building business, I lost a creative drive to blog. I froze up didn’t want to suddenly sound superficial in my posts. Each and every client last year still brings me joy every time I look at their images, for so many different reasons; and somehow I felt I couldn’t properly and authentically express this.

I see so much in their faces – Beauty blossoms before my eyes, out of the brief moments with them when I’ve captured them living… getting married, becoming a Bar Mitzvah, renewing vows, tightly hugging each other, laughing together, embracing new life, rejoicing in generations being together.  Thank you for trusting me to capture those memories with you all, I am more honored than you can possibly imagine.
And I Still plan to share some here as I begin to pick up my virtual pen once again - if only for my own fulfillment.

On a personal level, our little family experienced a lot of bumps along the way last year. Bumps that we pushed through – if only by the Grace of God. And I can now see in retrospect that over the last two years I  slowly lost my “voice”.  Stress and fear tried often to rule my thoughts and actions; and I confess, sometimes I let them win.

Somewhere I broke-down. Not physically, not consciously and I didn’t realize this fact until this last Sunday while sitting in church. My pastor shared a video about a Olympic athletic hopeful, Derek Redmond, who tore his hamstring during a semi-final but got up, insisting on finishing the race – ultimately with the help of his father.  I was left in tears at his, agony, disappointment, strength and courage.

So there I was, realizing my creative and spiritual break down, however that’s all it was.   A break... separation, fracture, crack, divide. 
No drama-worthy One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest or Girl Interrupted moments, I came to a stop.
 Just a season that, too, will pass.

Along that vein - for the first time in three years, 2012 came in like a quiet Lamb. No illnesses at all. No flus, colds, sinus infections or pneumonia to join us inringing in the New Year. We are looking to 2012 with renewed strength, health and hope (Romans 12:2). There will be new challenges that stretch us; but that’s okay – we’re moving forward anyway.

We can never see where the road leads, still…



We’ll always move forward. 


Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us,  fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith.
Hebrews 12:1-2