Lovely and Beautiful

I stumbled upon this gorgeous set of photos on Flickr today, by artist Bethann Shannon.

Bethann Shannon compares the experience in the photo booth to communion:
"The photo booth was an impromptu sanctuary in the midst of a chaotic world. It was private, quiet and reminded me of a church confessional…I closed the little curtains, put a dollar in the slot and started to pray. I remember feeling deep despair that day. I needed help. I needed God to be real."

She began to pull strangers into the photo booth with her to pray and document the moment. At the end of four months, she prayed with 100 strangers in Times Square.

The result is fascinating and lovely and spiritual and kitschy.

Please refer back when you feel like you need a little prayer.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/theartangel/sets/72157617687754324/

Frugal Chic: Family vacation on the cheap

So, this post is long overdue, but forgive me...I have been traveling and working and living life.

We take an annual family trip with the kids but last year, our family financial situation was not looking super bright. We decided to investigate a vacation that we could enjoy with the family while not breaking the bank.

Last summer, the kids and I were at The Pacific Science Center at a special exhibit on "Speed." One of the displays was on sand boarding. We love to skateboard and snowboard, so this sport intrigued us. I went home and did a little walk through the inter webs to see what I could find on this.

My investigations led me to a sand board rental business in Florence, Oregon. Upon further research, I found a State Park, with sand dunes and all, right outside of Florence…the best part of this campground? YURTS!

Ahh! The frugal wheels never turned faster. Two tanks of gas, $28/night in the yurt, daily sand board rentals of $20 each...and POW! We have ourselves a 5 day vacation for four in Oregon for under $500, including meals.

The tricky part was securing the yurt. They are one of the most popular abodes to reside in at the state parks. And no wonder: ours had a bunk bed (double on the bottom), a futon that opened to a queen-sized bed, electricity, and (get this!) a heater. Now, I love to tent camp, but this was so easy and comfortable (and warm!) Anyhoo, in order to make a reservation on the yurt, I had to have my online forms filled out and ready to go by 7:58am nine months to the day that we wanted to go. As soon as the website was accepting reservations at 8:00am, I was ready with my cursor hovering over the "reserve" button, click-click-clicking away until I received a confirmation. Apparently, the yurts, cabins and tee-pees are all claimed by 8:02am on any given day, so you definitely have to be very ready and planned out in order to get one.

I know the suspense is killing you, so I'll cut to the chase: click through success! Yurt secured, we were ready to go forth with our summer plans. We invited another family with kids the same age as ours to come join us on our yurting adventure. They were able to reserve a campsite just around the corner from our yurt, so the fun was set in motion.

Flash forward nine months later: the trip was amazing and beautiful and everyone had a great time. We sand boarded two days, spent two afternoons at the amazing beach, only a short drive away, rented paddles boats on the lake in I could write a short story on the actual trip itself, but I really want to share the links with you so you can have an amazing Frugal Chic vacation.

Oregon State Parks: http://www.oregonstateparks.org/
We stayed at Jesse M. Honeyman, a lovely campground with two fresh water lakes, the aforementioned sand dunes, beautiful lodge and picnic shelters built by the CCC in the 1930’s, and free (!) hot showers.
Many states offer affordable yurts, cabins and tee pees for rentals, so if Oregon is too far away for your gas tank, do a search on your state or one nearby.

Sand board rentals: http://www.sandmasterpark.com/

Florence, Oregon information: www.florenceoregon.net

Fall Harvest Feast

T$ and I had a few friends over for a Fall Harvest Feast and costume party. The menu revolved around what is fresh from the harvest and boy, was it yummy! I thought I'd share the menu and a few of the recipes. The dishes were all home runs, and will definitely be made again in this house.

We started out with baked polenta rounds, topped with red pesto (thanks, B!) and yummy cocktails of ginger vodka mixed with Aranciata-flavored San Pellegrino.

For our main dish, Mathew brought an amazing pumpkin curry, a perfect, cozy, vegetarian comfort food (don't have the recipe, but maybe Mathew will supply. hint, hint!).

Our sides were wild rice with butternut squash, leeks and corn: http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Wild-Rice-with-Butternut-Squash-Leeks-and-Corn-350425

Brussels sprout slaw with mustard dressing and maple-glazed pecans: http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Brussels-Sprout-Slaw-with-Mustard-Dressing-and-Maple-Glazed-Pecans-355785

and chard and sausage (substituted soy sausage) stuffing: http://www.sunset.com/food-wine/holidays-occasions/thanksgiving-side-dish-recipes-00400000056366/page14.html

Yummy breads that tasted like cinammon & spices from Great Harvest Bakery were consumed along with the meal (thanks, Lani!).

And for dessert, we ate fancy bat and pumpkin-shaped cookies (Lani) and mini coconut creme pies form Dahlia Bakery (B & Mathew). http://www.tomdouglas.com/restaurants/dahlia-bakery

Adults and kids alike wore costumes and we even had a family disco and hoola hooping party after the meal!

omg Death Star Pumpkin carving!

Apartment Therapy is one of my favorite blogs for awesome house decorating ideas.

Check out these amazing pumpkin ideas, including my fave, the DEATH STAR!!!

http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/ny/inspiration/pumpkin-carving-inspiration-from-martha-plus-the-death-star-099782?image_id=842960

This is insane...

Portable record player:















http://www.pyottdesign.com/linos/


oh, those clever industrial designers!

I love love love...

...this photographer. I wish I lived in these times. I love the fashion. I love the Kodachrome. Except I want that time to be magically placed in our time and we have technology and that fashion and that Kodachrome.

Slim Aarons. love.

http://www.photographersgallery.com/by_artist.asp?id=2

Speedy Stranger Photos

About a year ago, I joined the 100 Strangers Project group on Flickr. I love the idea of forcing oneself out of the normal comfort zone to ask people you don't know if you can take their portrait.

One evening, while at the street music festival with my husband and another friend, Tony, we decided to power through the strangers project, seeing as I had only taken 2 Stranger photos in 9 months.

I didn't get most of their names and I didn't spend any time with them, hence not really following the guidelines of the original project. This was still super fun, but I realized that I was making a NEW project, which could in turn become a new group: the Speed Strangers group was born.

The challenge I am creating for Speed Strangers: take as many quick one-person stranger portraits as fast as you can. If you randomly end up with their name or any other personal info, get it quick and move on. See how many random strangers you can photograph. The caveat: please try to take at least a little time to create nice portraits. The Strangers must know you are shooting them. NO random street strangers. Please ask people to take their portrait, snap it and go forth, por favor.


As a nod to the inspiration for this group, please see the rules for "100 Strangers:"


"The challenge : Take 100 photographs of at least 100 people you don't know. Approach a person or group of people and ask for permission to both take a photo of them and to post it to this group. Get to know your subjects. Who are they? What is their life like?
Try to tell a small story with each photo you take. This may be a story about the person or how you felt approaching that particular individual. You may have, for example, tried a new approach or used a new photographic technique. Try to learn something from every encounter you make."


http://www.flickr.com/groups/100strangers/
thank you, "100 Strangers, " for the spin off idea!


Now, for a few random strangers and a link to my flickr set! I don't want to set a number yet for how many you should take. 100 will go really fast, so for now, the group is set as "speed strangers." numeral TBD at a later date.



enjoy!

http://www.flickr.com/groups/speedstrangers/

free classes

Creative Techs, a Seattle design company offers free Adobe CS4 design classes. Did you hear that? FREE!

Now go out and learn something.


http://www.creativetechs.com/

More Awesomeness!

This comes from a very talented photographer that is one of my Flickr contacts. This is seriously the coolest marketing idea that I have seen lately. SO brilliant!

http://http://onelovephoto.typepad.com/heathergilson/2009/04/the-blist-and-our-little-cameras.html

Stylin' Camera Bag

What every girl needs!

http://photojojo.com/store/awesomeness/bowler-camera-bag

Art CRUSH!

There's an artist whose work I am totally (newly) crushing on. I had heard of Andy Goldsworthy a few years ago, but kind of filed him in the back of my dusty head somewhere over the last few years. I was looking for an artist & project to teach at my daughter's school this month and stumbled back across him.

I am crazy about the idea of making art for art's sake. It is so easy to become attached to the things we create. I cannot imagine being in the mindset that all of my works created in order to

d i s i p a t e. Furthermore, Goldsworthy often produces his sculptures far away form any normal human pathways, so there is the potential that the only person who will see the piece in real life is the artist himself. Luckily, Goldsworthy documents his art in photographs so that the rest of us can taste a slice of what he has made. I imagine that a photograph is nowhere near as emotive as seeing his sculptures in the wild: kinetic, soulful, fragile, audacious and powerful. We hold on to our things so very much in this culture, that it is hard to wrap my head around an artist that does exactly the opposite that every time he creates. Every time. Fascinating.

I presented a few clips from the documentary, Rivers and Tides, to my daughter's class. We also flipped through several beautiful books of Goldsworthy's artwork. The kids were as fascinated as I was at his simple, yet extremely sophisticated works. Goldsworthy's art is stunning and fantastic, yet speaks to us on a Jungian, collective conscious level.

Kids are natural artists. It is insane what comes out of their souls when they are allowed the freedom to express themselves through art. Photos below of some of their creations.

Where the Wild Things Are!!!

Can't wait! Can't wait! Can't wait!

Maurice Sendak's amazing children's book, Where the Wild Things Are, is being adapted into a feature film, directed by none other than Spike Jonze. The hip factor does not stop there: author Dave Eggers collaborated with Jonze on the script; Arcade Fire's song, "Can't Wait" backs the just-released trailer; and music by Karen O from the Yeah Yeah Yeahs will be featured on the soundtrack. Wha, WHA???!!!

It's going to be a long wait until the film is released on October 16th, 2009.

Thinkin' of a Master Plan...

One reason to be thankful for the recession? I have had to get creative in thinking of business ideas, career opportunities, and how to bring in some cash. My part time photography business is still going successfully, but I am ready to expand my career.

I am very interested in the ad/branding/graphic design industry. After researching some ads on CraigsList and realizing that I don't have very much experience in that world, I decided to pursue an internship with a friend's company: guruuve.

Guruuve is owned and operated by two amazing, smart and creative women, Sharon Backurz and Jeannine Axelson. They were more than happy to have an extra hand at the office. When I contacted them, they were in the process of brainstorming ideas for their website, which is currently a glorified "under construction" site at this point. I came at just the right time, as they were looking for assistance with styling the front end of the site as well as someone to photograph all of their products. They are teaching me the basics of the Mac as well as instruction in InDesign. Luckily, I have tons of experience in Photoshop, so "indie" does not feel extremely foreign to me.

I am one of those people that is overflowing with ideas. I need to keep a notebook with me so that I can write them down when they come to me. Luckily, I had a notebook with me for my latest two ideas. I won't reveal them here, but I will say that one is an idea for a book that I plan to work on with my good friend, LV, and another is a business idea that my husband and I are inspired to work on. LV has another book idea that we are excited to collaborate on as well.

With so many people unemployed, it seems to me that this is a great opportunity for people to explore new careers through internships, volunteering, taking classes, etc. I know that can be tough to find the time when people's basic financial needs are not being met. Putting food on the table trumps pursuing your dreams, but I wonder how many people would benefit from taking this time as an opportunity to reflect and then act on where they would like to go.

Do we all feel like we are still searching for who we want to be when we grow up? Maybe now is the time to figure that out and go after it.

Produce & recipes, week two!

The list this week is a bit more challenging for me. I love peppers, but P absolutely doesn't like them at all. I am still not sure what I will do with those. I like celery, but I was unsure of how to create a whole side dish out of it. I might make cream of celery soup (sub the cream for almond or soy milk) so I bought a celery root, which incidentally is one ugly root!

I have some definite recipes I am making this week and then I'll wing it at the end. I have a few ideas.

Again, we'll have the fruit for snacks and dessert.

Produce box:

Snap Peas

Red Thumb Fingerling Potatoes

Broccoli

Rainbow Chard

Hass Avocados

Red Bell Peppers

Red Cherry Tomatoes

Celery

Romaine

Lettuce

Strawberries

Navel Oranges

Cameo Apples

Mangos

Here is our menu:

Rainbow chard with raisins, pine nuts, and hard boiled eggs and served over brown rice:

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Swiss-Chard-with-Raisins-and-Pine-Nuts-231509

Repeat of last week's romaine topped with stir fried shrimp and snow peas (snap peas this week). We used romaine for the greens, instead of watercress and arugula. I also candied the walnuts (recipe at bottom of note), and tossed the greens in a little olive oil & white wine vinegar before adding the toppings. Vegans could sub tofu for the shrimp. That recipe was a HIT!

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Stir-Fried-Shrimp-Snow-Pea-and-Walnut-Salad-11911

Chilled soba noodles with snap peas and tofu or shrimp. The reviewers on epicurious suggested that you avoid cooking the dressing, just whip together and toss all ingredients at the end:

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Chilled-Soba-with-Tofu-and-Sugar-Snap-Peas-242834

Stir-fried suagar snap peas & cherry tomatoes, roasted rosemary fingerling potatoes and veggie burgers or baked true cod. Last week, we baked fresh true cod in lemon juice, olive oil, lemon zest, salt and paprika. It was awesome! I got it fresh from Uwajimaya and it was only $7.99 a pound. yum.

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Stir-Fried-Sugar-Snap-Peas-and-Cherry-Tomatoes-5828http://www.recipezaar.com/Roasted-Rosemary-Fingerlings-218656

Hmmmm. Now for the broccoli, peppers and celery.

One dish I thought might be interesting is to make quinoa and then create a fried rice-type dish with the rest of the veggies and the quinoa. It would probably be yummy with mango mixed in. I have never done this with quinoa, but I am guessing it will work.

If I don't do that, I will make celery soup, roasted red peppers for a side dish and open faced broccoli melts (using sheeps' milk cheese). The open faced broccoli sandwiches come from Moosewood's Simple Suppers, my favorite vegetarian cookbook. Below is a recipe for roasting the broccoli, which might be really good prior to melting a big slab of cheese on it. Otherwise, I just saute it in a pan with a little spray oil and seas salt, so it gets a little crispy while it softens.

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Roasted-Broccoli-with-Garlic-and-Red-Pepper-351031http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Roasted-Red-Bell-Peppers-231977http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Cream-of-Celery-Soup-996

BTW the lacinato kale salad and the shimp salad from last week were everyone's favorites. The greens from the farms are absolutely incredible.

Recipe for candied walnuts, which I tripled so that we had plenty (found on the web):

1/4 cup nuts

1 T sugar

1/4 t salt

1 t walnut or olive oil
preheat oven to 350

toast nuts in oven, about 5 min, or until fragrant.
while nuts toast, in a small bowl, stir together sugar, salt, oil.toss toasted nuts in sugar mixutre and stir.

heat small skillet on med heat, add nuts & sugar mixture, stirring regularly until sugar caramelizes, abt 5 min.

Cool on parchment paper.

Lebanese Lentils & Rice with Caramelized Onions (Injadara)

I'll post up upcoming recipes for this week as soon as I get that organized. In the meantime, here is the recipe for traditional Lebanese lentils & rice. I added a modern twist of caramelizing the onions, instead of frying them (traditional). This is a very simple and satisfying dish.


This would be excellent topped with toasted pine nuts and raisins, but it is yummy just as it is.

Ingredients:
1 ½ cups dried lentils
1 ½ cups brown or white rice
5 cups water for lentils
3 cups water for rice (or per directions on the rice)
Salt & pepper

2 large onions
2 Tablespoons olive oil
2 Tablespoons cooking sherry
2 Tablespoons sugar
Salt

Yogurt or sour cream (optional)


1. Cook and caramelize the onions, according to the directions below.

2. While onions are cooking, cook the lentils and rice:

3 Rinse lentils and pick out any stones. Put water for lentils and the lentils into a medium pot. Bring to a boil, turn down heat to low, and cover. Simmer for about 25 minutes, or until lentils are cooked. Add salt and pepper to taste.

4. Cook rice according to directions on bag.

Caramelize the onions: heat oil in heavy large skillet over medium high heat. Add onions; sprinkle with salt and cook until beginning to brown, stirring often, about 8 minutes. Reduce heat to medium-low. Stir in vinegar and sugar; cook until onions are browned, stirring often, about 15-20 minutes. Add salt to taste.

On a large platter, layer first the rice, next the lentils and finally the onions.

Serve with yogurt or sour cream.

Makes about 6 servings as a main course.

Menu & Recipes based on Full Circle Farm's produce box this week (be quiet, tummy!)

We are starting our first organic farm produce delivery this week. I am so excited to make some new recipes! I spent a few hours last night and this morning coming up with a menu for the week based on the box contents. Listed below is what we will receive this week:

2.25 pounds Yukon Gold Potatoes
3 each Garlic
1 each Broccoli
3 each Tomatoes
1 each Romaine Lettuce
1 each Eggplant
0.75 pound Snow Peas
2 each Yellow Onions
1 bunch Lacinato Kale
3 each Hass Avocados
1 pint Strawberries
6 each D'anjou Pears
6 each Braeburn Apples

Menu & recipes:

roasted eggplant & tomatoes w/feta, stuffed in pitas (with a side dish of quinoa)

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Herb-Roasted-Eggplant-with-Tomatoes-and-Feta-240367

kale w/ feta (or ricotta salata if I can find it) & brown rice (+ pine nuts, pomegranate seeds, hard boiled eggs)
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Lacinato-Kale-and-Ricotta-Salata-Salad-236940

shrimp & snow pea salad (will use romaine for the greens instead of arugula & watercress)

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Stir-Fried-Shrimp-Snow-Pea-and-Walnut-Salad-11911

buttered carrots & snow peas; mashed Yukon gold potatoes & baked fish (tbd from Uwajimaya)
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Buttered-Snow-Peas-and-Carrots-11146http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Mashed-Yukon-Gold-Potatoes-with-Goat-Cheese-and-Basil-5156

broccoli risotto (from Moosewood, Simple Supers cook book)

lentils & rice w/caramelized onions

The recipes are mostly found on Epicurious.com. The lentils and rice dish is a traditional Lebanese recipe, which I am altering with caramelized onions instead of crispy fried ones. The broccoli risotto is from Moosewood's Simple Suppers.

Our family has dairy issues, so we substitute goat butter and either goat cheese or sheep's cheese for the dairy versions.

We will be using the fruit as snacks and/or dessert. The avocados will be added to eggs, salads and maybe just to some toast with mayo, cheese and sea salt for a tasty sandwich.

Wish me luck with these new recipes! Hopefully the kids will enjoy some new flavors.

http://www.fullcirclefarm.com/

Photo of the kids and one of their honorary grandmothers; taken at her organic farm in Missoula, MT, in the summer of 2008

Overdue: Photos from R's 12th bday

It's hard for me to believe that my son is now twelve. He is an amazing young man; full of creativity and energy and empathy. I am so proud of the person he has grown to be and I eagerly anticipate the man he will become.

I love you, R! I love you more than you will ever know.

a few photos from the show