Teaworthy Moved!

Please update your RSS readers and bookmarks to the new site
http://teaworthy.com

Continued on Page 7: I've Moved!

Jim Gaffigan has a funny bit about how when he sees that an article he is reading says, "continued on page 6" he mumbles to himself, "Well, not for me." He makes me laugh. I'm hoping that you are all willing to see Teaworthy continue on new, hopefully easier to read pages. Please update your RSS feeds and/ or bookmark to Teaworthy.com. You'll notice the old posts from here and the old Paper Boat Blog are all there waiting for you.

I'm still working on the details and format differences, but in the meantime, I'll be posting at the new address. And your efforts will be rewarded! I'm going to be having a contest soon for those who make it over to the new site, so you won't want to miss out on a chance to win. I'm so excited to have a place where I can blog larger images for my photography clients, and have room to drop an essay without being squished up.

Sea Sew

I've felt twelve kinds of love for Lisa Hannigan's music since hearing her with Demian Rice years back. Her new solo album Sea Sew is love, lovely.



She gave a great interview about her creative process and the album on NPR that you can read here. The liner notes include a photo of all of the song lyrics that she herself stitched on linen. She explains her song writing by saying:

"It's that moment where you see the turn of somebody's elbow or a book peeking out of someone's bag on the train," Hannigan says. "And — I do this anyway — I sort of construct a person behind it, invariably positive. And I think that song is about that moment, where you're sort of full of hope about someone you really have no idea about."

I love that. That's the beginning of every story that has already been going on without you. You just want to jump in. I feel that way when writing or taking photographs, too.


By the way, the pub where this is filmed, Dick Mack's Pub, is in Dingle which is in County Kerry, Ireland. I have never been to this pub, but I have been to Kerry and it is beautiful. Here's a few images of the pub (from a traveler on flickr) that make me a little thirsty for a pint.
Cheers.

This Message Has Been Brought To You By...

I have a lot of plugs to make here for people and things that have been amazing inspiration to me in the past few very busy weeks.

I took the plunge and went to The Love Affair Workshop for women photographers and I'm so glad I did. It was/is so so hard to give myself permission as a mom and as a counselor to lots of clients to step away for a few days and focus on something that is mine and mine alone, but I needed it. I never would have made the commitment without my husband encouraging me to go for it. I can talk myself OUT of almost anything. He just kept telling me, "Go for it!"



Love Affair is the creation of four amazing photographers that I have respected and followed for years: Lauren Clark of Texas, Davina Fear, of South Carolina, Millie Holloman in North Carolina, and Kelly Moore of Texas. {I list their states because so many Teaworthy readers live in their areas. }If you ever need a photographer, they each provide a unique, thoughtful experience with unforgettable images. There are not enough superlatives for their work or for who they are as human beings. I felt a little star struck and just tried to absorb as much as I could.

I learned so much from the other attendees. I have some new friends - always a great thing - and new photographers to follow and encourage on their journey too. My mom and mom-in-law are both painters and have told me about the benefits of workshops for years. I just could not get there until now. I'm going to try to go to one per year: a new commitment to myself.

Here are a few images of the models we got to photograph. {More to come later}




The finale party and several other details were designed by Joy Thigpen Environments and if you are in the Atlanta area and need an event to POP look no further.




The most thoughtful attention to detail is in everything. When I sat down at the dinner and looked at the place setting centered around a homemade jar of preserves, I read the label "strawberry" written by the 84 year old Georgia Jam Lady who made them, it looked exactly like my Grandma Viola's handwriting.



It was hard to swallow tears. Good tears. A little hello from her. That's how I see these things anyway. She loved quilting and crafting and giving time to her art too.

I finished up the week by meeting my guys at my parents' place. It was short, but so sweet.







Once home, I dove straight back into depositions and piles of paper, so I am still working through the laundry and blogging backlog. Lots of inspiration to share with you...and images...and exciting new things for my clients learned at the workshop....and a new blog in the making to replace this one with larger, crisper images, and
I'll stop.
It's good to be home.

Saturday

Today, it has been cool and rainy here which was the perfect excuse to hit up the french bakery, make paper dolls, have a tea party, watch old Gilmore Girls episodes and (naturally) princess movies.

As Bear Grylls would say, "If I'm honest" this week has, "not been ideal." In some ways, it has been a crap week. After some tears, my husband drug me out to our favorite bookstore, a sure-fire cheer-me-upper. It wasn't working, so we wandered over to the music section. He placed head phones over my ears, cued up this song on the listening booth, hit play, smiled and walked away.


I so love this man.

Magical things really are happening in the world. I love that he reminds me of that, even after hard days.

I'm stocking up on the good stuff. Here's some things I have found. I hope they help you, too.

-The most fabulous summer mosaic I've seen from Emma Bradshaw here.
-An uplifting story of moms helping moms from Amanda Blake Soule.
-Travel inspiration from my friends Jill & Steve.
-The funniest story from my friend Ross about an unlikely robbery.
-A really good person became an American citizen this week. America is a little brighter to have a citizen in my friend and gifted writer Mwabi Kaira.

I'm slowly working my way through photo editing my last wedding, savoring every bite.





Yes, magical things are all around.

Know Your Onion

Do you know that Shins song called Know Your Onion? I love the line from it, "But when they're parking their cars on your chest, you've still got a view of the summer sky."

After a 7 hour deposition today, it's good to be home with my guys and a kettle warming up for tea and pjs and a little photo editing. Magic at the end of a long day. Things like this are my view of the summer sky.

Stars Hollow for Sailors

My latest travel obsession began with a lovely post about sailing a Sunfish on Lake Michigan here...which led to a search about Lake Michigan sailing... which led to the discovery that there is a town called Holland, Michigan.

Holland was my grandfather's last word before he passed. It was the name of his home, too. So I check out Holland, MI and find that there's a college there named Hope with an anchor in the middle of campus. Love that. And! Just so no nautical reference goes unturned, there's a lighthouse and an adorable knit shop {Lizzie Ann's Wool Company} with this in the window. {yes, that's rope}





Even the local library is picturesque...



AND! There are cottages kids. Wrap around porch, sandy path, screened in porch, hardwood floor lovin' cottages. Would they need a translator to understand my southern accent? Probably. Would I care? neh. I may have to plan a trip. Of course it could never live up to how it looks in my mind. If anyone reading lives there or has been there, tell us all about it!! Are the downtown sidewalks really heated in the winter?



Speaking of cottages, love this NYTimes story on a couple who bought a house for 90K and turned it into something amazing. Be sure and check out the slideshow. Love the colors!

Em & Frank Wedding Teaser

My daughter thinks Little Em is Cinderella Barbie come to life. Can you blame her?
Em is just gorgeous inside and out.









These are my favorite moments -when they forget about the camera.

I really have to make myself stop or I will never leave my computer.

I hope everyone had a great weekend and that you listen to your favorite lovey-dovey records tonight.

Waiting for this moment to arise

On the cover of our wedding program, I asked them to print Blackbird lyrics. It probably seemed like an odd choice for a wedding, but it was perfect for us. We were together 4 years before our wedding day and during the planning, I kept hearing in my head, "All your life, you were only waiting for this moment to arise."

I love this version of the song, taken from the album McCartney, because you can hear Paul's toe tapping and Linda open a door in another room of their house where he was recording. Her with her camera, him with his guitar, in their little cottage.




They felt like home to us. My husband even had a coat just like the one Paul has his little baby in when we met eleven years ago. And that photograph on the back of the album with the baby face in magic hour has been my favorite since I bought her book of photography called Sixties as a high schooler. We listened to that record, the one with the cherries on the cover and Linda's magic hour photos inside, a million times. We listened to that record during times when our visits were sandwiched between Fridays and Sundays because we lived so far apart and didn't know if we would ever be in the same place at once.

The beatles BlackBird (répétition)

I loved what seemed quiet and peaceful about their life together. Now I realize that I've been waiting for THIS moment to arise, too. And that it has. I see how so much of their story has influenced ours. Eleven years later, we live in a little cottage with a baby girl and a dog and cat and cameras and books and music. I realize now that we already have all that we dreamed of. We have our tea in the afternoon and I can hear his toe tapping to music as he types with headphones on. Our story built on theirs and so many others. I have to think this is what love stories do for us. We build on them and dream with them.

I've been blessed to photograph many weddings now. But Saturday's will be the first one that I have been with the couple since their engagement began and I am so happy for these very special people. New love stories are being told and stitched together with different songs and light and experiences and each one I capture becomes part of my story, too. And yours.

On their wedding day.

Notes from a small weekend: on things learned

*We had friends over for brunch today who live far away. Brunch is always better when all that is left on the plates is syrup tracks and everyone lingers as a second pot of coffee brews. I love starting the day that way.

*It was a quiet weekend of laundry and movies. Rain and books. Bubble paths and princess costumes.



*We played hard which, according to science, is good for us. This morning NPR's Speaking of Faith ran a really cool piece on the importance of play for all of us. If you missed it, here's a link.

*I read this book by Dr. Chopra this weekend about finding meaning in coincidence. I've read quite a few of his books, but this one may be my favorite. I try to be open to signs in my life, but lately I haven't known what to make of them. I was blessed early in my life to get big, very clear, writing-on-the-wall kinds of signs. But lately, things have been more subtle, and completely contradictory.

*I learned that {thanks to my husband} the Ellie Krieger spicy pita chip recipe is amazing. Great with hummus or chicken salad.

*I learned that Casper The Friendly Ghost is still lovely all these years later. My girl loves it as much as I did growing up. The Pink Panther and Woody Woodpecker are on Hulu too. And I was so excited to learn that HBO made a series Harold and the Purple Crayon based on the book series. It is adorable and available free on Hulu.com.



Harold draws solutions with his purple crayon any time he is in a jam. It's very deep actually and has me thinking a lot about how we, in large part, create our worlds....the architects of our own lives. I need to sharpen my crayons and think about what it is that I most want to create in my life.

*I was enchanted by this sweet wedding story in today's NYTimes. It's cheesy, but man it's sweet. The photograph by Robert Stolarick is what caught my eye.

Love this quote from the groom about meeting his future wife years after their high school romance: “It was the first time in 16 years that she looked at me the way she used to,” he said. “Some keys unlock doors. Some looks unlock you.”

Baby Love

Just a few details from a recent baby girl birthday party session. The gorgeous cake was from Cakes By Melissa.

The Moment

Paulo Coelho {author of The Alchemist} has a blog which includes video chats from him. Very cool. I love this post. It is one of those posts to print out and paste in a journal.

I've been thinking about this quote from it for days now.

" We have to take risks. We can only truly understand the miracle of life when we let the unexpected manifest itself.

Every day – together with the sun – God gives us a moment in which it is possible to change everything that makes us unhappy. Every day we try to pretend that we don’t realize that moment, that it doesn’t exist, that today is just the same as yesterday and will be the same as tomorrow. But if you pay attention, you can discover the magic instant. It may be hiding at the moment when we put the key in the door in the morning, in the silence right after dinner, in the thousand and one things that all seem the same to us. This moment exists – a moment when all the strength of the stars passes through us and lets us work miracles."

-Paulo Coelho
6.24.09

Gallery Hop

Mom and I started new schools at the same time. I began kindergarten. She began college to study art. We went to plays and galleries together. I would bring my sketch book and markers. I cannot draw to save my life, but I loved being in an environment of artists with her. It helped me begin my own education by looking for and appreciating different art forms.


This documentary film Herb & Dorothy looks interestingly quirky to me:

HERB & DOROTHY Trailer from Herb & Dorothy on Vimeo.

Do you collect art? If so, what is your favorite piece? What makes you bring something home?

Sunrise

When I was in college, I went to a sunrise wedding on Sullivan's Island. It was dark when we arrived. The moon was still shining on the water. As the sky turned lighter blue, I could see shapes of people walking down the path over the dunes. Most of the guests were barefoot and carried coffee cups, still steaming. Some of them had sleepy, slowly blinking eyes, like dosing cats. The sun peaked up over the Atlantic turning the sand pink and yellow. The bride's sister handed her some flowers she had put together for her. Everyone whispered.

There were no cameras. That was the part that fascinates me. I thought about the Indigo Girls lyrics, "don't write it down. Don't take a picture. Remember this in your heart," and I have. But as I stood there as a 21-year-old watching this experience, all I could think about was the photographs that I wanted to take: how beautiful the bride looked, how proud the adult children looked and how her golden retriever napped at their feet during the vows. The ceremony lasted 10 minutes and I can think of 100 photographs that I wish I could have taken: photos that would have been nice for the couple to have and return to on hard days. It was so peaceful. At the time, I felt like taking a photograph might have taken something from that very quiet moment.

I think about the peace of that experience every time I see the sunrise, or carry my coffee cup to an early morning destination. I hope I can bring that kind of peace even when (especially when) I have the camera with me.

Heartbeats

I spent Saturday with a family celebrating their daughter's first birthday. They are the kind of people you wish lived next door so that you could hear them laughing and be waived over for a beer in the afternoon. They are lovely and the village of people they have collected to love this baby are welcomed like family.

We got to see Away We Go and I loved every word. I can't remember the last time I saw something so close to my own experience that I felt like it was just for me. A quiet gift. I'm so grateful for experiences like that. It's the kind of art that steadies me and keeps my heart going at 60 beats per minute.

I picked up the soundtrack and Vendela Vida's book Let The Northern Lights Erase Your Name. The soundtrack is great writing music. I am saving the book for a rainy day.

Your Summer Work Out Mix

Outrun the treadmill with this summer work-out mix that I put together now available through itunes. Warning: Contains explicit lyrics.

Check out Artists Who Blog

I recently stumbled upon a site Artists Who Blog. It's a great place to discover so many talented people and it is where I found the work and blog of Shelby Healey. Lovely.




Her etsy shop is here.

More Mary!

I am literally taking notes watching The Mary Tyler Moore show's first season on Hulu.
FREAK OUT!
First, it is beautifully done. Ted Knight. The Love Boat Captain. Ed Asner. You can't lose. The blocking and sets make you feel like you are watching live performance.
But Mary's clothes and the furniture in her house are just beyond. I can't get enough of it. I love every outfit she wears in the pilot. I wish I could find more still images to share with you. Here's a few.





What I couldn't find in photos are the super cute boots she wears, and the cool trousers worn with a crisp white shirt, heels and gold necklaces. The masculine cut in a feminine way. Very cool. The fashion is its own character, like in Breakfast at Tiff's or Sex And The City.
And to have a platform on the floor separating the room that doubles as a bookshelf? Eames chairs? The tulip tables?
So cute.

Photography Inspiration

I first noticed Roger Neve's work in these perfect ads for Isaac.


But his photos of Benjamin Bratt and Talisa Soto in this month's O Magazine will stop you mid page flip. They are timeless and romantic and the colors really pop. This one below is one that I scanned in, so it doesn't do the image justice. There are several pages of photos of them so be sure to check out the hard copy version.

I love stories and photos of married couples that are just as romantic as ones of brand new relationships. Love his work and he has me thinking about portrait sessions in a new way.


He is one to watch.

The Ever-Rising Tide

In reading about the writing process for Away We Go, I learned that the married screenwriters of the film {Dave Eggers & Vendela Vida) don't have internet at home.


Dave Eggers was quoted in this interview as saying, "For us, to be able to concentrate, we don't have internet at home, for example, because we had to put a levee up against that ever-rising tide. That's the way for us to control our intake. There's a lot of media really affected by all these changes, but what's funny is that the book world has kind of stayed constant. Sales are about what they always were, we've found."

Wow. I admire their discipline and it must be working based on their success and quality of their work. And it's not like he's a ludite or something. He hosts a website himself.

While we are not good candidates to give up the internet, there is a larger message I can take from his point about how important it is to limit media consumption when you are trying to create. Everything I produce creatively as a photographer or writer or attorney is certainly affected by all of the media changes. For the most part, it has been a good thing. I am accustomed to creating with the short hand convenience of hyperlinking so that the reader can easily hear the song, see the film clip, read the case I am referencing, etc. But this sensory supplement does make it more difficult for me to make things quiet. Sometimes I wonder as a writer if it is lazy to just show the thing, whatever it is, rather than find a creative way to describe it.

Over the past couple of years, I have tried to quiet the house and streamline. I canceled the home phone, redirected email addresses to one in-box, cut off cable, canceled TiVo, unsubscribed to most newsletters and junk mailers, and yet, it still feels like a constant barrage of information: texts, emails, mail, voice mails, updates.

I will work on how to do more, just after I check my email.

How To Make A Paper Boat

I mention in my website bio that I made paper boats as a child with my grandpa, so I thought I would share this helpful demonstration. I sailed one in my daughter's bath the other night and she loved it.

How To Make A Paper Boat - Funny blooper videos are here

And, I just love this post from Zen Habits about pursuing dreams. What would will you do when you quiet the naysayers?

Let's pretend we are still at the beach with...

A vacation in a pot:

Poppytalk had a great post about making a Beach Garden in a pot from Sunset Magazine. Just lovely.



Beach Reading:
I am reading Shakespeare Wrote for Money, Nick Hornby's collection of columns for The Believer Magazine and sequel to The Polysyllabic Spree. I am always a little sad when I finish his books. He's the kind of guy you wish you could have over for dinner.

I'm only a few pages into Their Eyes Were Watching God and I'm already underlining beautiful passages. For example, the powerful first lines of the book:

"Ships at a distance have every man's wish on board. For some they come in with the tide. For others they sail forever on the horizon, never out of sight, never landing until the Watcher turns his eyes away in resignation, his dreams mocked to death by Time. That is the life of men."

My husband has peaked my interest in Kazuo Ishiguro's novels {Remains of the Day, Never Let Me Go, A Pale View of Hills etc.} I will let you know.

Pat Conroy's South of Broad comes out August 11th. I spent enough years in Charleston to recognize a character or two in his books, so it's worth a trip to the library to see the latest installment of elite life at the tip of the peninsula.

The new Victoria and Coastal Living Colors issues are beautiful eye candy. Also, this month's O has a great spread on books. Here's a link to their summer reading list. I've noticed several summer reading lists have included Dreaming in Hindi and Are You There Vodka, It's me Chelsey.

Beach House Style
When I go to yard sales, they hardly ever look like the "Tag Sales" where Martha Stewart finds cool beach glass and milk bottle vases. When frustrated by an unsuccessful attempt at finding cheap vintage, eye candy is always available at Farmhouse Wares.

I have been visiting this website for North Carolina's Cottage Chic Store for years.


It is great for window shopping.

What are you reading this summer? Any beach products you can't live without?

Cheers to you, Dads

I adore my father.
It's kind of ridiculous how much.
My daughter's father is an incredible human being, too. The bar was set high for my expectations for my child's father, and yet he always surprises me with all that he does for us.

My favorite thing is seeing the two of them together, my father and my husband, laughing hysterically, usually over a glass of red wine. So, this little column from Dottie & John about chilled reds for summer seemed appropriate today.



Cheers to you and to my father-in-law who has my love, too, as we laugh hysterically over cold Miller Lite.

**for more of Dottie & John, read their memoir Love By The Glass, one of my all-time favorite love stories.

Date Night!

I can't wait to see it. Is it on here? No. Will it ever be? Who knows. But I would love to see it.
The beautiful soundtrack by Alexi Murdoch is to be released this week. I love that the screenplay was written by a couple {Dave Eggers and Vendela Vida} who are both amazing writers.

Also coming out this week on June 23rd is Regina Spektor's new album, Far. It's gotten some less than favorable reviews, but I'm still interested. Speaking of which, I bought the new Dave Matthews and well...sadly, it's just not my thing.

However, the new Black Eyed Peas, The Energy Never Dies, completely delivers. It's hopeful. It's interesting, but it's still light enough to accompany you at a cook-out or on the treadmill.

I'm tightening up all of my photography business materials with a blue-teal-white color palette. Maybe that's what reminded me of this old album cover from Madonna's Ray of Light which I picked up used at CD Central for 6 bucks this week.


It is perfectly sunkissed for summer.

A Postcard

My parents are celebrating 100 years of marriage this month. Not really, but it has been a long time. As Cliff says, "a little romantic inspiration," for your anniversary.

Cosby Show sing Night Time Is The Right Time by Ray Charles
Uploaded by ecureuilvolant.

and just for you, a link to your song.

Tempo

My husband took this while I was trying to {quite precariously} set up the mast head photo. It's an out-take of course that I would normally delete, just like every other photo that I happen to find myself in. When I pass by this one in the iphoto library, I see the tea that I was spilling, the weight that won't go away, the bra strap. The problems.
I see the problems.
This is something I am working on.

The night before my daughter's 1st birthday party, I worked on her cake until 2 in the morning. My first attempt at a pink cake in the shape of a number 1 came out looking very much like .... well....boy parts.
One boy part really. So I had to start over.

I worked so hard on everything to make it a pretty party to celebrate both her birthday and getting through what had been a very tough year: a year where I went back to work full time 9 weeks after she was born... a year when we had been through Rotavirus, RSV, Hand-Foot-Mouth, ear infections, and vomiting blood. A year when my husband had to take a master's exam after being up all night bailing water out of the basement. A year of contentious cases and deadlines and the beginning of my sleeplessness. A year that was just as challenging for us as it is for anyone else who has had a baby.

I just wanted it to be a nice day. I wanted my daughter to have photos from the day that she could look back on and think, "I was really loved."

One guest, who doesn't really know me very well, said without smiling and to no one in particular, "well, everything is just perfect, isn't it. As usual." Back-handed is the perfect description of that kind of compliment.

I guess she didn't see the black circles under my eyes, the cake in the trash can, the weeds in the garden, the years I'd spent hoping for a child.

That kind of comment or ones like it (it's easy for you, it's perfect for you) are meant to put you on a raft and cast you out to sea while everyone else turns their backs and goes back to the beach bonfire of common experience. You can't relate. It's perfect for you. You're not one of us. You're on your own.

About a month ago, I got the same kind of comment about this space which has sort of made me not want to post here since because I want to make sure that I'm not sending the very dangerous message (particularly for mothers) that being a parent, or anything really, is easy or perfect.

Like most people, cropped outside the margins of my work, somewhere in the periphery of each image or essay are enormous personal heartbreaks that I may never, ever find a way to fill. And, as it is my goal as a writer to do no harm, I don't feel it is appropriate to write here about tragedies that don't just involve me. None of us live or work in a vacuum. But I try to leave the good stuff here as the focal point: the things I am grateful for and want to return to when the day is cold or the night is long. When I sit down with anyone for very long, I find that all of us have had a rough go at one time or another, especially in these times.

There's a moment at the end of The Royal Tenenbaums when Ben Stiller's character turns to his father and admits, "It's been a really tough year, Dad." That scene always makes me cry. It has been hasn't it? For all of us.

There is no one form of expression that can encapsulate human experience. This place is just my metronome, a lightly tapping foot to remind me to slow down, be thankful, notice beauty. I hope it is for you, too.

------

In the good energy department, Katy, the beautiful new PhD had her second amazing son Owen this month and also the brilliant soon-to-be PhD Grims introduces her beautiful Nuala Jane.
Two new babies of super moms who stop by here from time to time. You are the luckiest little babies! I'm honored to know your moms.

A New Day

I launched a new website this week for my photography business, Paper Boat. Until now, I was hosting through blogger. I'm still doing some tweaking, but it's great to see a dot com sailing.

Teaworthy will now be the landing page for the photography blog site, so there will be posts here from time to time about photo shoots. I'm excited to streamline content and have more frequent posts here.

It's an exciting step for me that has taken years to evolve. Like Will.i.am sings, it's a new day.

Sand In My Shoes

As wonderful as it is to finally be home, I've been thinking about this song while sorting out the laundry and wondering how to keep the kind of peace I find in these colors after the sand has been washed out, when the air is not as welcoming.

Every weekend should begin and end with salt water, warmth and moonglow.