I’ve been slacking on the daily photo recently, but here are some of my favorites from the past month.




My Name is Meeko, I wear a hoodie
Meeko is a little bit gansta and a little bit pirate. Apparently his mama (my co-worker, Amanda) got this hoodie for him at Walmart! I told Jef I was going to get one for Buster. What do you think?







Never Again
We played the drinking game ‘I Never’ at my friend Sueann’s bachelorette party a few weeks ago (a prerequisite at any girls night) and this is the bride-to-be presumably wondering why she let herself get roped into playing this stupid game.







Liz is a hoot in the play ‘Crazy Like a Person’
A musical comedy by Rain Nox that asks “What is crazy?” Katie thinks maybe she is. That is until she meets a psychologist, psychiatrist, and life coach whose lives make Katie’s seem normal.
Austin New Music Workshop

Categories: Daily Photo · Friend-ish · Shutterbuggin'

I may have mentioned, I tried to grow basil last year and killed it in 5 minutes. This year BAM! mounds of basil. I hear everyone is having a crazy basil year. Maybe last year was too wet… you’ve got to have a good, miserable drought to keep basil happy. I’m watering it every day to make up for it, so I’m not sure that’s true, but I won’t think TOO hard about it. I have basil! In the bottom of that pot you’ll notice some other greenery. That would be some sad parsley on the left (that’s a two year old plant that has never done well), and some lemon thyme on the right (which is divine and grows very well, just about anywhere - that’s the third time I’ve transplanted it. I’m hoping it will fill in a little more over the summer).
(You should also check out Jeremy’s basil, because apparently it’s even bigger than mine.)

This is the topsy turvey I got for Christmas (my sister and Jef both got me one, I’m not sure which one this is exactly). :) I have cherry tomatoes in it at the moment, and it’s growing ok. I like the idea of them being up off the ground, so I’ll use this method again, but the tomatoes aren’t growing wild like I imagined. If you’ve used one, I’d love to hear your experience (and advice if you have any). I’ve had a few baby tomatoes, but the birds got to first ones while I was away, so I’m anxiously awaiting the next round.

Categories: Foodie · Home Sweet Home · Nature-ish · Shutterbuggin'

Several things that have made my life easier this week:

Categories: Learned Something New · Linkin · R-R-Rambling · Tech-ish

A week home from Ruidoso and the sensory overload is finally starting to wear off enough to give a basic update. It’s hard to know where to start, so maybe I’ll start at the end and work my way backwards. Here is an except from an email we received from Todd, our fearless leader, a few days ago:

I’m in San Angelo making my way back to Austin, and had a bit of time to reflect on the week. Thanks to all of you for signing up to go to uncharted places based only on my wild promises of coolness. This couldn’t have been possible without your willingness to come along and create the experience.

That were many great fun and poignant moments along the way, and I’m already going through them in my mind, so just wanted to thank you all again for being a part of the workshop. I’m grateful. Ditto to Mark, Duane and Nick. Thanks for the missed meals and sleep.

Those brief sentences sum up the trip so much better than I ever could. We had no idea what the days would bring other than we had our cameras and Todd said it was going to be COOL. And it was. It was very, very cool. There were 7 students and 4 instructors, and I can’t imagine there will ever be a group like this again. I don’t know if it was because we were friends first, or if because we were the inaugural group, but the dynamic was amazing. The 7 students all stayed in one house, but we never felt like we were invading each others’ space (except poor Dan who was sleeping in the living room, we invaded his space every waking minute). Also, had we not stayed together in the same house we would have been deprived of the luxuries that Susan brought with her from Austin like agave nectar, vegan chocolate chip cookies and and fresh, organic coffee from Whole Foods.

One the thing that struck me was how encouraging this group was towards one another. We were genuinely happy if someone got a killer shot, even if it was better than the one we had gotten. More than once I was been disappointed by a picture I had really, really wanted, but was thrilled that someone else had gotten it because at least it wasn’t LOST. Apparently there are are other workshops that can become incredibly competitive, so this sense of comradery wasn’t taken lightly.

I’ll tell more stories as I post pictures over the coming weeks, for now I’ll end with a few things I’m grateful for:

- Building a relationship with eleven of the most wonderful people on the planet (who didn’t get tired of talking about photography, even after five whole days)
- Meditating at White Sands at sunset.
- Learning to appreciate GOOD coffee (and experiencing the other end of the spectrum, trust me)
- Dan driving us all over God’s creation and never once complaining
- Building confidence in street portraits
- Missing a shot I really wanted so I could be sure not to next time
- Feeling humbled, over and over
- GPS Navigation
- Resolving the donkey

Categories: R-R-Rambling · Shutterbuggin'

These are links from my del.icio.us feed for June 15th through June 16th:

• GARDEN: Tipsy Pots Tower - With the right plants this could look really cool, lord knows I have enough empty terracotta pots around.
• PHOTO: Route 66 - Bottle Trees from Ken Rockwell - More bottle trees. I think this is going on my 'places to see before I die' list.
• HOME: Bottle Tree at Shelterific - I think this is pretty cool, but I don't think Jef would go for it.
• MARKETING: How bright is your bulb, and where does your light shine? - "Stop worrying about how much you GET from social media, and concentrate on how much you can GIVE AWAY."
• DESIGN: Coffee Cuff by Veer - I'm absolutely in love with this and wouldn't mind if someone wanted to surprise me with it for my birthday, or Christmas, or you know… next Tuesday.
• HOME: Hand Painted Antique Roof Tile of Buddha - These are beautiful.

Categories: delicious

I am heading out to Ruidoso, New Mexico tomorrow for what my friend, Kate, calls ‘Photo Camp.’ It’s really a Photography Workshop, but I giggled so much when she said ‘Photo Camp’ - like it was a middle school volleyball camp or something - that’s all I can call it now. So much for sophistication.

The instructor, Todd Williams, who taught the Documentary Photography class I took in the fall, has a really unique look at teaching photography. He teaches technique, but is also very philosophical. I remember the first day of class he gave us two handouts for homework, one about light metering and one about yoga. The next week he asked us if we knew why he’d given them to us. A guy’s hand shot up in front. “I have no idea,” he said. We laughed. Basically he wanted us to understand that he wasn’t just going to teach us about the settings on our camera, there had to be an inner balance and focus as well. If we didn’t get that right from the start, we probably wouldn’t get that class.

Todd hasn’t taught workshops in a few years, so this Ruidoso trip is a ‘test’ trip. Some students from our class, and some from his last classes, got together for a few happy hours and after enough margaritas, we finally convinced him that we were the group to get him started again. The agenda is jam packed, but laid back enough that if we all want to do something else, we will.

My friend, Mia, told me this afternoon she hopes I come back with a giant creative hangover. I hope so too, because that sounds WONDERFUL.

Categories: R-R-Rambling · Shutterbuggin'

But so short this time we used the clippers in the back. That’s a first.

Categories: All About Me · Shutterbuggin'

Buddha says:
Let us rise up and be thankful, for if we didn’t learn a lot today, at least we learned a little, and if we didn’t learn a little, at least we didn’t get sick, and if we got sick, at least we didn’t die; so, let us all be thankful.

Categories: Austin-ish · Daily Photo · Learned Something New · Shutterbuggin'