things I've enjoyed recently

1// Last weekend, a friend invited me an essential oils blends DIY, where we made some goodies to take home, like a calming face mist, roller for sore muscles, and detox bath salts. I've been curious about essential oils for a while, so this was a fun and informative introduction to it.

2// I'm in the middle of reading Jancee Dunn's How Not to Hate Your Husband After Kids, and so far, it's equal parts helpful and humorous. I love that she includes lots of of actual published data and advice from real marital counselors, but she's kind of my new hero for trying out the techniques she's learning on her own marriage. For the most part, the relationship between my husband and I is pretty solid, even post-twins, but there's definitely areas where we could improve. So this book is pretty eye-opening for me right now. (Bonus: even if you don't have kids, this book is filled with gems of relationship advice and holy-shit-that-is-so-us moments. If you live with your significant other and tend to fight a lot, you should read this!)

3// Catfight was soo good!

4// Suck it, People-Who-Think-Cats-Are-Assholes.

5// HBO's Big Little Lies was a slow burn for me, but so worth it.

6// This made me laugh!

7// My marriage recently turned 14 years old! Yay us! We went out for a much-deserved date night, and right before heading out, I asked my dear friend, who was babysitting the twins, if she would take this photo of us. I love that if you look closely, you can spot both loinfruits pressed up against the screen door, making Very Loud Noises because they wanted to be outside with us too. I'm so lucky to have these three people in my life :)

things I've enjoyed recently

1// Checking out a little pocket of Mission Hills, and trying out Kettle & Stone, a rad little coffee shop + boutique

2// This beautifully haunting photo series by Ville Kansanen on chronicling depression.

3// This delicious spiced pear sangria that I made on Thanksgiving!

4// The twin babes' first Christmas tree! Even though the only things they care about right now are food, sleep, and cuddles, it's still nice to have a freshly cut tree in the house, trimmed and decorated for the holidays.

5// I'm currently reading One More Thing, and Furiously Happy: A Funny Book About Horrible Things, and they are both excellent.

6// The mister and I went to this year's Makers Arcade to check out the vendors, but mostly just to get out of the house with the babies. The cocktails were yummy, and I wanted to buy all the things.

7// This and this made me laugh, cause it's true.

things I've enjoyed recently

1// A quickie Palm Springs getaway from a couple weeks ago, as evidenced above. This was basically a babymoon for my husband and I, a sort of last-hurrah-before-infants-take-over-our-lives. It was wonderful, and I swam in that pool every single day. 

2// This article that tests your Donald Trump vs Frank Reynolds quotes knowledge.

3// How George Washington got his hair to look like that. (Bonus: The Abe Lincoln portrait to trump all Abe Lincoln portraits)

4// Sometimes it's okay not to be so damn happy all the time.

5// Squee-ing over non-pink-or-blue baby clothes like this and this. (and panther pants!)

6// This wonderful article that takes a peek into life and parenting while living in Seoul, South Korea. (I was born and lived there briefly as a baby, and am dying to go back and visit properly as an adult)

7// The Revenant trailer has me so excited!! Can't wait to read the book as well.

current inspirations

Heart to Mouth High from bart hess 

1// This creepy/fantastic rubbery take on love (as seen above)

2// This made me laugh.

3// The peculiar and surreal photography of Yung Cheng Lin.

4// I'm not usually a fan of Bon Iver, but their new song for Zach Braff's new film might change my mind.

5// These embroidered landscapes are beautiful.

taming my mammoth

Sometimes you read something so profound, and at exactly the right time, that you wonder if isn't fate. Such a thing happened to me today, when a friend on facebook shared this insightful post: Taming the Mammoth:Why You Should Stop Caring What Other People Think.

As I read it, my internal voice was shouting, "YES! THIS!" It's something I've been thinking a lot about and struggling with in relation to my photography. And talk about timing; just last night, I uploaded a new image to my flickr, something I've been experimenting with for months, but was too afraid to share publicly. It's a new side to my work that I feel is deeply personal, but my own mammoth was holding me back; telling me it was too risky, and what would my friends and family think?

You can see the full image here on flickr (above is the cropped version, as it's NSFW at the link), and I wrote quite a bit along with the image. I'm still nervous as all hell that I'm actually sharing this, and I know it's something I'll continue to struggle with.

But it's a step for me, and a big one, taking me out of my comfortable little bubble, and into new territory.

buy some artwork!

Are your walls looking a little bare? Is it high time you upgraded from the posters you had on your wall in college? Are you sick of buying all your artwork from Ikea?

 Well I'm excited to offer prints of my work for sale! This is something I've been meaning to get around to FOREVER, but I finally found the perfect platform to sell my work through. I'm selling my work through Fine Art America, and their products are of top quality. All prints are produced using professional-grade Epson printers, on acid-free paper and canvases with archival inks to guarantee that your prints last a lifetime without fading or loss of color. There's also tons of other options, such as getting them framed/matted, metal print, acrylic print, etc.

 You can take a look at my store HERE, or alternatively, you can shop directly from my website HERE.

 I don't have a ton of images in my store right now, just some of my portraits and travel images. If there's something you would like to purchase and it's not in the store, please let me know, and I can add it for you!

how to write the bio for your lifestyle blog

I found this illustrated gem here, and it was too perfect/funny/a-little-depressing not to share :)