Good eats weekend

So it was Super Bowl yesterday, which means it was a day to eat. And my family never disappoints when it comes to communal eating. My mom, who I never even see watching TV, made two awesome dishes she picked up on “Martha Stewart” and “Oprah.” Who knew?

On Oprah, she got the recipe for Cristina Ferrare’s Kick-Butt Chili with chuck roast, dark beer and masa. The chili is super yummy and chunky. It was darker than normal and only had a slight hint of tomato flavor. The dark beer (I think she used a Japanese beer), came through strong, but it was surprisingly a great twist with the meat and variety of beans. I think I might have to use this recipe at the next chili cookoff, though, I’ll cut back on the spice.

The other dish was Martha’s Nachos Supremo, which were more like chiliquiles or chicken enchiladas than nachos. The thing that made these nachos was the awesome cheese sauce that also called for beer. I could really taste the beer, but again, it brought out so much of the other flavors. I totally think it was a perfect pairing of food. And I’m not gonna lie, I’ve been craving those nachos all dang day.

And I haven’t really mentioned anything about the rest of the weekend. I gave myself a play day Friday and stayed home from work. I am not one who can function on only a few hours of sleep, but I stayed up until after 3:30 a.m. Thursday night just because I could. I worked on wedding photos and projects, and it was glorious. I woke up Friday at 8:30 and had a whole day to work on more pictures, organize my external hard drive (yes, I can be that nerdy), attempt a rather unsuccessful doggie photo shoot, take pictures of a whole bunch of stuff I needed daylight to shoot and I ate. Yep, I celebrated Friday with a turkey burger made Jen-style, with Worstester sauce and a packet of dry onion soup. Then I had a bowl of Girl Scouts Thin Mint ice cream, but shhhh…it’s a secret. For dinner, we had the breakfast of girls, homemade waffles. MmMmGood.

A San Francisco Love Affair

Last weekend I helped Jen photograph Alan and Brit on their wedding day at the Clift Hotel in San Francisco. They had the perfect setup. On the 17th floor, Brit and Alan’s suite was only down the hall and around the corner from the reception area and room that transformed from ceremony to dining room and then to lounge. Brit and Alan and their entire family were so great, and they’re the kind of people you wish you could hang out with all the time.

Brit and Alan are big on candid photos and didn’t want any posed photos, so we shot pretty much everything. Here are some of my shots from the day. I hope you enjoy them.

Allen and Brit are far from traditional, so it wasn’t surprising that he helped her get ready and even walked down the aisle by her side.

And then they partied it up with the San Francisco skyline surrounding them.

This is just a funny shot of one of their Obama-formal poses I shot while Jen got everyone in order. I would have taken something serious, but I didn’t want to be like, “OK, my turn, say Canada.”

And they lived happily ever after.

In that moment

Happy Tuesday, everyone! As you know from my last post, I helped Jen shoot a wedding at the Clift in San Francisco this past weekend. The bride and groom were darlings and so were all of their super fun and friendly guests and family. And the wedding and ceremony were both fantastic, too. I’m on writing deadline tonight, so I’m doing all I can to not allow myself to edit photos, but I wanted to offer some kind of preview from the evening (even though when Jen did a tease I told her the karma police were going to get her because it’s just not cool to post one photo…so, I’m sorry). But Jen’s been a busy been and has a whole bunch of wonderful photos posted, so visit her on her blog at NewVintage Photography. Don’t forget to say hello; and tell her I sent you : )

All my bags are packed, I’m ready to go…

Camera? Check. All sorts of batteries? Check. Lip gloss? Check. RedVines? Double check.

I’m so excited to tag along and help one of my bestestestest buds Jen shoot a wedding tonight at the Clift Hotel in San Francisco. It’s fun shooting with Jen because she’s such a pro and she’s so supportive of me as I learn more and more about this photography thing I’m loving so much. The couple seems really fun and playful so I’m going to work on my overall skills, but I’m also going to play with my Holga (a funky medium format film camera; blogged here and here) and a fisheye lens for it.

I hope everyone has a great Saturday and I hope the sun shines brightly through your windows like it is mine.

It came from grandma’s house

It’s Thursday night and it feels so go to just stay in. I went to the gym for a little while and spent the rest of the evening searching for a missing pair of shoes and putting away a pile of trinkets my grandma brought earlier this week. My grandma is the biggest thrifter and bargain hunter I’ve ever known. EVER. All of her finds come together so perfectly kitsch in her home, but she can’t hang on to anything for too long before she gets the urge to pass it along. We get these huge bags of teeny-tiny items with little hand-written notes saying things like, “I really enjoyed this,” “this works great” and “this is really old.” It’s so cute. It’s always fun to unpack the surprises. Sometimes they have our names on them; other times, they’re for everyone to dig through. Sometimes, though, we find the funniest things, things you’d probably never see anywhere except her house. Here is a little collage of some things she brought me this week, some that I really do like and others that I’m not quite sure what to do with. I’m not going to tell you which though.

Top left-right: A tiny ceramic purse; a partially burnt candle; teeeeeny-tiny tea pots with roses on them; a purse-shaped picture frame; strings and yarns; a ceramic sun hat; mini oriental vases; a French press.

And more: A little tiny jewelry box topped with a pink hat; a bronze ash tray; a beaded lampshade; yep, that’s a Thomas Kinkade night light; a clay hat; a super mini Victorian shoe; a multi-colored lantern; and a little straw basket from Mexico.

Another perk of today was finding a roll of 120 black and white film at the thrift store for only $1.45 and getting my Etsy order of glass in the mail. Yay!

Beads, metal and color

I just finished up what I think might be my favorite soldered charm yet. Instead of using photos, I used a portion of one of my favorite paintings in the Papaya series. I cut the image from an old calendar.

I wore the necklace today. It hung long like this, but was on a different chain. Tonight, I messed around with some chains and beads and wire to add some matching color throughout. But what do you think? I’m not sure I like it. I’m thinking maybe I should stick to a ball chain or something simple. The beads a) remind me of a rosary, and b) seem to take away from the beauty of the image with their too-playful, too-loud presence.

I’m not a huge fan of clear beads, but I thought they’d be fun on this project. I’m interested to know what you think. I’ll wear it a couple of days and see if it grows on me or if any improvement ideas are sparked.

Soldering Saturday

I’m so excited to post about my new favorite thing: soldering (pronounced “saughtering,” because everyone always wonders what I mean when I write “soldering”). I’ve been admiring these little pieces for a very long time, but never imagined I could ever make them. I always thought I’d need a work shed and a huge blow torch or welding machine like my dad uses to make things like wrought iron gates. But, thank God, it’s so not the case.

My friend Cindy, who turns anything she touches into artistic heaven, taught me to solder two weekends ago. It was so much fun. I left her cute little art studio with a new necklace with two of my photos in it. Sure, it was little rough and jagged, but I was still proud.

This past weekend, Maggie wanted in on the action, so we set up shop and made some charms. She made a few charms with some of my photos and with photos for her college friends. One of my favorites has black and white pictures of Pippi Longstocking, my childhood hero. Another one I like a lot is a picture of a girl under an afghan. It’s a photo I found on flickr and have always loved. On the back, the image is cropped a little differently and says “sometimes you need that.” We’re still getting a hang of the whole process, and the charms are by no way perfect, but our finished products still made us get all giddy and excited.

New inspiration for bohemian style

today i rediscovered a yummy, yummy inspirational blog, “from moon to moon.” it’s filled with home decor that made me stop what i was doing and start daydreaming (and practically drooling) over these amazingly creative homes. it’s weird to me that people actually get to call places like these homes. ‘one day,’ is all i can tell myself. as you enter into this very wintery weekend, take some time to cuddle up and get lost in this blog. i know i’ll do that a little more too. thank you “from moon to moon” for sharing such beautiful finds with the rest of us. these are just a few of my favorite photos, but there are tons more on the site.

Camping weddings

This week at work, some of my coworkers and I have been going crazy over the OnceWed blog I found. One coworker is planning a beach wedding, another is planning a backyard vow renewal, I’m always looking for inspiring photos and one formerly anti-wedding friend has even admitted to browsing the site one night while she was alone in her apartment. The photography is beautiful and the weddings are so unique, personal, detailed and creative.

The one I’m showing below is one of my favorites because it follows in two of my favorite themes: Campers and camping. Yep, it’s pretty awesome. The lovely photography is by the coup’es’ friends and family who went to town with their own digital cameras, Polaroids and Holgas. I hope you enjoy the sites and photos. When you find your favorite wedding, don’t forget to share it.

Oh, here is another camping wedding that’s kind of gypsy-inspired that I equally love.

Hey, look at that…

i just hit 50,000 views. thanks for being part of this little blog i enjoy so much. i’m workin’ on some fun stuff for you.

dear twentyten…

We’re only a week into twentyten, but doesn’t it feel like it’s blowing away? I know the days do. I wake up with so many goals in my head and checklists started, but it’s as though the sun rises and sets before I have a chance to say hello or goodbye or do any of the things that I was so excited in the first minutes of waking.

I also realized today that we’re a week into the year, and I haven’t even typed up a yearly list of things I will accomplish. Last year, my list was nearly 100 items long. I checked some off, some I’m still working on, some don’t matter because I changed my mind.

For now, Mr. Twentyten, I’m counting on you to be pretty amazing. I want changes. The good kind that you need once in a while. I want to learn new things, like how to make apple pie and to be that kind of person who glides through life laughing at everyday stresses. As my friends and I discussed this week, I’d be plenty happy moving to Minnesota and living in the woods with a lumberjack/candlestick maker who bakes me fresh bread every Sunday. I’m not picky.

But here are a few of my other specifics, because those are kind of important, too:
— I want to visit my cousins in Seattle.
— I want to explore photography more, including weddings (I opened 2010 by photographing a wedding of two people who really love each other, which I’m hoping to blog next week).
— I want to find a home that is all my own (well, mine and my dog’s and all my books and craft supplies and tapestries and candles and pink flamingos).
— I want take back time that is mine to be quiet and write and read and pray and think.
— I will conquer the StairMaster, and the scary trainer’s mixed martial arts class that he keeps bugging me about (uh oh, it’s in writing now).
— I will pay off two annoying pieces of debt (which I’m doing tomorrow — hooray).
— I want to go to Renegade Craft Fair in San Francisco.

I’m both scared and excited about this year. I think we’re going to find comforts and have wakeup calls, but it’ll be good.

Now, enjoy a few Polaroid SX-70-inspired photos from a market in San Francisco.

My Year in Review: November and December

Happy New Year, everyone. May your year be filled with new friends, creativity, pretty food, successes and long weekends.