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?