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With 2012 getting off to a spectacular start, I thought I could review some fun things from 2011.

1. Nia's bridal portraits

My highest blog traffic day in 2011 was Oct 23rd, the day after my brother's wedding, and the same day I posted Nia's bridal portraits. Click THIS LINK to see the post.

 

2. Our Party Rock Anthem Flash Mob

Speaking of Austin and Nia's wedding. . . I loved their wedding and reception, and the flash mob dance we did with the bridal party and some of their friends involved with the wedding. I'm all the way on the left (18 weeks pregnant). I get hidden some of the time, but I'm wearing my tan bridesmaids dress and brown sweater. My sis (the reverend/ wedding officiant) is next to me wearing the purple dress, gray sweater, and silver glitter Toms. Her husband is the crazy guy bouncing around near the front right in the bow tie. And I find all those groomsmen in suspenders on the back row quite impressive/ entertaining--they are NOT dancing kind of guys, so they were really good sports to go along with all this. Watch the video.

 

3. Ninja Christmas

Say what?!? I have no idea. But it was the most interesting google search that sent someone to the Studio 310 blog in 2011. I have a feeling my blog came up because of THIS POST from a couple years ago of Emily and Jim's portrait session. But really; Ninja Christmas. Thank you world wide web and google analytics for that interesting info.

4. Teaching Photography Classes

I started teaching group Beginning Photography Classes in 2011. I really enjoyed it, and I'm looking forward to the classes coming up in January. I'm going to open another Beginning class this winter, so look for that info in the next couple days. Click THIS LINK for more info on the current classes being offered.

5. My BABY!!!

My best news of 2011. I'm pregnant!! (I couldn't NOT say it here--again.) I'm so excited about meeting my baby boy in the spring. Just a few months to go!

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1. Ginger Cookies

I'm loving ginger cookies this season. Gingerbread cookies and ginger snaps had never been one of my favorites in the past. (When I was a child, I really disliked them. I think that might be because I had them when I was sick one time.) But in my adult life, I didn't totally hate them, they just weren't my favorite. I don't know if they've just grown on me, or it's the pregnancy hormones making things taste different, or because my brother and his new wife served Moravian ginger crisps at their wedding, but this year I love them. I haven't made gingerbread girl cookies yet, but sometime before Christmas, I will.

 2. Andes Peppermint Crunch Baking Chips

I made some chocolate peppermint chocolate chip cookies a couple weeks ago that were delicious. But, I used crushed up candy canes in the batter. They were good, but the candy cane pieces were a little sticky for my liking. A couple days ago I learned about these awesome baking chips, when my friend Katie brought cookies that looked like the photo above to our Bible study fellowship. Now, hopefully I can find these baking chips, and I'll try them in that yummy cookie recipe. (I have lots of cookie baking plans.)

3. Cranberry Jello Salad

I found this festive photo on the Taste of Home website, but their recipe doesn't match how I make this Christmas-y jello salad. Jonathan's family has fun Christmas Eve traditions including supper with Wild Rice Soup and Jello salad. Last year I switched up their salad and took this cranberry jello salad. It seemed to be a hit, so hopefully they'll let me continue to contribute this. Here is my basic recipe (I think. if I decide this isn't right, I'll fix it here too):

1- 6 oz (large) package raspberry flavored jello mix

2 cups boiling water

1- 16 oz can whole berry cranberry sauce

1- 8 oz can crushed pineapple, undrained

1 cup chopped celery

1 cup chopped pecans or walnuts

Stir the jello and boiling water together until the gelatin dissolves. 

Mix in the cranberry sauce, pineapple, celery, and nuts. 

Pour the jello mixture into a serving dish. (I like a 9x13 pyrex)

Refrigerator overnight.

I usually stick with this recipe, but you can use different jello flavors--strawberry, orange, lemon, cranberry etc. If you have the smaller size gelatin packages, you can mix it up with a couple different kinds. Also, you could experiment with different fruits like mandarin oranges, apples, cherries, or grapes.

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1. my baby

Yep, this is a photo of me, 16 weeks pregnant. The baby is due in late March, but I'm counting on early April. I would post an ultrasound image, but I haven't had an ultrasound since week 8, and at the time, the baby was an 11mm butter bean with a beating heart. I'll have another ultrasound soon, so I'm sure I'll be sharing that--and the baby's gender. Weeee. 

I'm starting to feel better, so hopefully the blogging will get back to being a more regular thing. 

The photography business will be a little different next year. This probably deserves it's own post, but I'll go ahead and share. I'll continue to shoot portrait sessions--engagements, bridals, families, and babies, but I am not shooting weddings in 2012. It's a tough decision now, because I'm not holding a baby yet, but I know it is the right decision for our family. You are still welcome to contact me about wedding photographers though. I have a couple great photographers that I've been recommending, and I'm happy to pass their info along.

Stay tuned for some blog updates from recent portrait sessions and baby news too.

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1. Ben's new tag from Make Your Dog Smile by Hattie Rex

Yall remember those cute garden and farm tees I shared a few weeks ago? That artist, Beryl Lynn, hosted an etsy giveaway on her blog a few weeks ago, and I won the prize from Hattie Rex. I got a credit to the Make Your Dog Smile etsy store, so I picked out this cute copper and nickel star tag and had it personalized with Ben's name and our phone numbers. I deleted the phone numbers from the photo--Jonathan doesn't need a picture of his phone number roaming around the world wide web.

In normal little boy style, Ben was more excited about the box. He stole the box off the kitchen table and ran around the house with it--that's what he does when he gets hold of something he knows he's not supposed to have. I retrieved it, and put it up until Jonathan got home and could see the whole package. After Jonathan had a chance to see it and made a plan to attach it to Ben's collar the next morning, he put it all on a table in our den. Ben stared at it and danced--he can be very poodle-y sometimes. So we gave him the box, much to his satisfaction.

2. carrots from my garden.

This was my first carrot growing experience. If my parents ever grew carrots, it was before I can remember. I started them with my spring garden, and probably would have needed to harvest them a lot earlier, but since my garden is getting over watered this summer, the spring fruits and veggies are still thriving. I planted a variety, hoping for lots of purple carrots, but I ended up with mostly white and yellow. It turns out, the white and yellow aren't my fave. I much prefer the orange and purple ones, so that's what I'll try next time.

3. the cooking with my kid website. 

This website is full of healthy, fun recipes and photos. There are several recipes I use regularly, a few I've tried out, and sometimes the website is just good for cooking inspiration. I was thinking today, I cook and bake almost everything from scratch, and it's recipes like these that make it so doable!! 

If you have kids, you can check out how they can help you out in the kitchen. If that isn't something you're used to doing, I can imagine you're thinking about how they'd slow you down, or make a mess; but it will be worth it for them to learn. My siblings and I helped my mom bake (sweets) and watched her cook when we were growing up. She taught us how to read recipes and measure ingredients. I don't know that I ever prepared an entire meal until I got married, but I knew how! My cousins are great cooks too, and I credit it to us being in the kitchen--occasionally--with our moms and grandmothers. 

Here are some of my favorites:

pumpkin mini muffins

banana nut mini muffins (i make lots of muffins--i have other recipes too)

tzatziki

mediterranean 7 layer dip

pumpkin pie granola

and here are a few I want to try soon:

cucumber limeade

whole wheat olive oil muffins

zucchini tart with whole wheat olive oil crust

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1. the BEACH

I love it. I enjoy going with my family and hanging out on the beach all day. This photo is from Oak Island, NC. It has a good balance of being not too crowded, but still enough people for some good people watching.

2. little girl footprints in the sand. 

these were still on the beach hours after my little cousin-niece left the beach. precious.

3. custom TOMS. 

my oldest cousin-niece (no, that's not a technical term. i call my first cousins' children my cousin-nieces and cousin-nephews.) anyway, my oldest cousin-niece has these cute custom TOMS she had painted at the Style you Sole Party, at Marsh's Surf Shop at Atlantic Beach, NC.

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Southern California!

Jonathan and I visited the Los Angeles, CA area for a long 4th of July weekend. We loved it! One of the great parts of the trip was getting a break from NC's weather. We left temperatures in the high nineties and higher humidity for sixties and seventies with very low humidity. It was amazing. We also enjoyed visiting one of Jonathan's friends and his family for a day. We visited some of the cities around Los Angeles, like Beverly Hills and ate supper one evening at a restaurant on the beach in Malibu along the Pacific Coast Highway.

Here are some of our Southern California favorites:

1. big league baseball. and a ballpark hotdog.

Jonathan and I attended an Angels, Dodgers game at Angel Stadium in Anaheim, CA. I was a little confused about which team to cheer for since the Angels are in the same division as the Rangers (my Uncle Johnny plays for the Rangers), but I decided to cheer for the Angels for the following reasons: a. it was ok to cheer for the division in this interleague game, b. my Uncle Jerry played for the Angels in the 80s, and c. it's fun to cheer for the home team. (I put a lot of thought into it.) It was so exciting to go to the game and fun to see a different stadium!!

Now, about that crazy hotdog; I think it is called a Halo Dog. It's a hotdog wrapped with bacon, and topped with chili with beans, jack cheese, and pico de gallo. I ate some of it with a fork because it was huge.

2. Balboa Island and their competing "original frozen banana stands."

Jonathan's friend, Jim, took us to Balboa Island in Newport Beach, CA, and it was CROWDED--holiday weekend. The guys got balboa bars from one of the frozen banana stands. I enjoyed seeing the diverse architecture and all the pretty flower gardens.

3. Walt Disney Concert Hall in downtown LA.

This beautiful work of architecture was designed by Frank Gehry. The lobby and garden of this concert hall are open to the public. The actual concert hall is never open to the public because of performances and rehearsals, but we had fun checking out everything that we could. We visited on Sunday, and people were setting up for 2 weddings, and there was a concert going on while we were there.

4. Santa Barbara, CA

Jonathan and I spent a couple days in Santa Barbara. As I mentioned earlier, we loved the weather!! We didn't get the normal Santa Barbara experience (although I'm not entirely sure what that would have included--maybe visiting vineyards and wineries, and some bike riding or kayaking). However we did get the Santa Barbara, 4th of July experience, which was a lot of fun. That included a parade, walking to shops downtown, music on the beach, fireworks, and lots and lots and LOTS of people. Jonathan said early in the trip that CA does nothing in small quantities. The people in Santa Barbara on Monday were no exception. The rest of the photos are from Santa Barbara. . .

5. an ice cream cone during an Independence Day parade.

6. a red velvet cupcake with cream cheese frosting at the whimsical cupcake shop, WhoDelicious.

7. an Air Force jazz band playing música Latina en la playa. 

I can't figure out exactly who these guys are, but I'm guessing they're one of the ensembles from the USAF Band of the Golden West.

8. our view and the best Oysters Rockefeller I've ever had at Brophy Bros. seafood restaurant.

9. watching the fishermen bring in their catch next to the restaurant. 

We understood that those sea urchins were being exported to Japan. Does anyone like uni? I've never tried it, and I'm not sure I will anytime soon.

10. baby seals playing in the water near the beach.

I know this photos is very Loch Ness Monster-esque, but really, who doesn't love baby seals. At least that's what we were told they were. The people looked at us like we were stupid when we asked what the barking noise was, but we don't have seals in NC. We have sharks and jelly fish, neither of which are cute--even baby ones.

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Here are some of my summer favorites:

 1. these ugly beasts. These tomatoes grew in my garden. 

They finally gave up growing bigger and decided to turn red. Jonathan and I recently had some landscaping done in our backyard, which requires some heavy watering, so my garden is drowning. I'm pretty sure that is what is causing all the splitting. That doesn't affect their deliciousness though. Which leads me to:

2. a BLT. 

Bacon, lettuce, tomato sandwiches are a summertime treat. M&M sandwiches are too (maters and mayonnaise). One way I help contribute to a ridiculously low grocery budget is only buying produce when it is in season. Not only does it save money, but I really don't trust fresh tomatoes not grown in NC or SC in the summer. I may be spoiled, or maybe it's just practical. If my tomato plants do well, hopefully I won't have to purchase any tomatoes this year.

3. wild blackberries.

Free fruit is always good. They definitely require a lot of work to pick though; lots to contend with: heat, bugs, thorns. Last year I probably picked 3 quarts to a gallon of blackberries. No joke. I knew when I was picking them last year, they would probably not come as easy this year. And it's true. A lot of the canes got cut down. They've come back, but they missed the flowering and fruit. The fruit that is available is both smaller and some of it, completely impossible to get to. So this year it was more like wild blackberry hunting rather than picking. I'm happy with my quart though. I should be able to make a small cobbler. yummm

4. the farmers market.

I love the farmers market! and Smithfield, NC has their own farmers market this year. Downtown!! I also love the hugeness and awesomeness of the NC State Farmers Market too. I'll have to show you photos of that one another time. I get summer and fall produce that doesn't come out of my own garden at the farmers market. Like:

5. peaches.

I love peaches. Sweet, juicy goodness. Like eating candy.

6. these garden and farming t-shirts from Beryl Lynn.

I yanked these photos from her etsy shop. You can also check out her cute blog. She writes about her baby boy, gardening, sustainability, vegan eating, and other things I can appreciate.

I end up wearing shorts and t-shirts in the summer and jeans and t-shirts, over long sleeve t-shirts in the winter. Sure, I'd love for my style to be a little more cute or dressed up, but this is what seems to work for me since I do a lot of work at home. (or I'm getting down and dirty or hot and sweaty at my outdoor photo shoots). So it turns out I like t-shirts, and I really like these cute ones.