Morning Coffee

Hannah

This is Hannah. She is my little sister and yesterday was her 12th birthday! I can't believe she's getting so big. She's such a blessing in our lives and I love her!

Tuesday Evening Banana Bread

I decided to try a new banana bread recipe. Randomly, on a Tuesday evening. I like baking and I like photographing and I wanted to do both. Why? Because life is short. Sure, this didn't exactly turn out perfect. Shortly after I took this photo I decided to remove the loaf from the pan to help it cool faster so I could drizzle the frosting on. My impatience got the better of me and I really messed up the loaf by removing it too early. Life isn't perfect and a lot of times it's messy, but if you're doing what you love (and get to eat some banana bread in the end) then it's all good, right?

Ribs

My wonderful husband decided out of the blue that he wanted to make ribs for dinner on Sunday! I was a little surprised but was not about to complain about a night off from making dinner and getting to relax while he worked on the food. I love his dedication to smoking ribs and getting the right temperature for the right amount of time. I am by nature an impatient person so I always admire how he smokes and grills ribs. Needless to say they were delicious. I was busy with photo shoots all day so unfortunately didn't have the time to make homemade potato salad and baked beans so they were the store bought and canned variety, but nonetheless the ribs and sides were quite tasty! Although I love the great fall weather we're having, I'm a little sad that the ribs were probably the last until spring.

Margarita Pizza

I was given a pizza stone awhile ago but haven't really been able to utilize it to it's fullest because I haven't had a pizza peel, but my wonderful Mom got me my very own peel for my birthday in September and I was finally able to play around with the pizza stone. I've been experimenting with crust recipes and finally settled on one that I really enjoy that seems like a "real" pizza crust. A couple weeks ago my training partner and friend gave me a bunch of basil from her garden and I knew exactly what I had to make! My first ever attempt at a Margarita Pizza and my first time to use the pizza peel and stone was a success but not without some stress, but the end result was a delicious tasting pizza which myself and my fellow pizza tester (husband) happily ate for dinner while watching a football game!

Apple Pie

I made apple pie this past weekend. It seemed perfect since we have been finally having fall weather and my wonderful Grandma said me some beautiful apples in the mail. I received the surprise package just as I was feeling really down, mainly due to a wicked case of bronchitis but also the post-marathon blues (especially since I didn't run as well as I had hoped). The apples were just what I needed to cheer me up and motivate me to do something I love (bake and photograph...and eat). Thanks Grandma, I love you!

Recently

I have been so crazy busy that I haven't had a lot of time to post here. Between photo shoots, marathon training and life I just can't seem to find time for anything else! Training finished up and we ran the RnR St. Louis Marathon on October 23rd. I didn't run as well as I wanted, but the trip was great and I'm already back to training for my next marathon in 11 weeks! I love making these collages and will maybe post an add on collage to this post soon just added:

Film

I love the way film captures moments and feelings in a way that digital just can't match. Don't get me wrong, I love my digital camera and 99% of what I do is digital. But there's just something special about film that keeps me coming back. My first cameras were film cameras and I've spend way more time than I'd like to admit in a darkroom so film holds a special place in my heart. I just picked up two rolls of film from the lab and I had to share a couple images. There's just something about film!

Busy

I've been so busy recently but I wanted to share a couple images from my baking project over the weekend. More will come soon. I tried Ruth Reichl's devils food chocolate cake recipe from her book "Tender at the Bone" and it was delicious. Used a basic vanilla buttercream recipe for the frosting and added the rainbow sprinkles. In honor of the okc pride parade of course. So happy pride and happy cupcakes!

Beginnings

This past Saturday was about beginnings, which I thought was fitting to talk about on this blog that I'm just beginning.  It was my very first time to be the lead solo photographer at a wedding and it was the beginning of married life for Brittany and Patrick. I was so excited and nervous for many different reasons. It went so incredibly well and I'm so excited for the next weddings. It was a beautiful (but hot) day for Brittany and Patrick to say "I do" and I was so lucky to be a part of the wedding. This marks a big step in my life as I grow into my profession of photographer and I couldn't be happier. After shooting this wedding I can now say with conviction that I love my job and I can visualize myself doing this as my "what I want to do when I grow up" job. It was quite more physically demanding than I anticipated. My body ached for days afterwards and I was totally wiped out, but it was worth it when I see the images I captured. I'm totally in love with the photos, especially this first black and white one capturing a tender moment between the newlyweds beginning their new life together.

Don't really know where to start

I have so many things in my mind and so many things I want to talk about and yet it still seems like I don't really know where to start for my first real post. I have so many different ideas so clearly I'm not going to be focused for the next few posts, but I can say I do have a lot that I'm going to share. I've been cooking and baking a lot recently and it's been wonderful. Mostly all successes, although one major failure. I've been photographing a lot too and since I'm a major perfectionist I tend to delay sharing photos because I want them to be perfect or can't decide which ones I like best. Editing and deciding my best work has never been something I'm very good at, but I'm trying to get better! I'll be sharing much more soon from my kitchen adventures.

It's been really hot here lately so I've been getting up early to run and just in general struggling to adjust to my new running times. Morning running is pretty nice once I get used to waking up so early and I had a good run this morning so that helps my outlook. I've been lacking structure in the last few weeks since my marathon which is both good and bad. But, with all the baking I've been doing I definitely have reasons to stay running! Usually I take a pretty big break after a marathon where I lose interest in running since I have no focus, no goal and no training plan. I do love my training plans! Thankfully, so far I've been staying really committed to running and I'm very pleased with it. There hasn't been much emotional or physical downtime and I'm enjoying the freedom of running whatever I want and still have the benefits of continued running. I know I'll be ready to start structured training again at the beginning of July but for now I'm enjoying the lack of a training plan.

I thought I'd share a few miscellaneous photos from recently. I will have more to share very soon! 

Why do this anyway?

I mean, really? There are about ten thousand other people who have something funny and witty and interesting to say about food. And have beautiful photographs to accompany there well written thoughts. So, why do this anyway? Don't get me wrong, I've definitely asked myself that about thirty times on my way to writing this post. In the end, I decided that I don't care if other people are doing something similar, I love everything about food and I love to run and live a healthy life. And yes, those two concepts can co-exist together. And that's what I want to talk about. About my messy and imperfect life of running marathons, loving food and photography and everything in between. I'm not claiming to be an expert on any of the topics so if you actually end up reading any of what I write, I'm just writing about little slices of my life, little gusts of happiness and the small events that punctuate the passage of time.