Maria and Bryan- sneak peek

Maria and Bryan just got back from their 3-week honeymoon in Italy! And before I leave for my little vacation to Portland tomorrow (which is practically the same thing as Italy) I promised I'd give them a little sneak peek from their beautiful day in Napa last month.



And this is not my standard choice for a sneak peek shot, but I just love Mr. Castellucci, so here's to daddy-daughter dancing and our great landlords :)

Lacee and Portia

Ray and Lesley were walking by the studio one day back in February, and due to some health issues that one of their dogs Lacee was having, they decided then and there, just on a whim, to do a photo shoot the next day.

I loved the way this shoot came out! Portia is the pretty white Whippet and Lacee is the adorable unrecognizable mutt. They were fantastic subjects, and serious lickers.






Lacee was not one to be shy with her feelings.


. . . at all.






After hanging out at their place for a while, we headed over to Fort Funston where I always love to go. How can anybody not love to go there though? I mean, it's a beautiful park by the ocean filled with dogs and lovey-dovey hippie graffiti. What's not to love?!




Ok, I'll just say it- I'm pretty damn proud of this shot!








Thanks for the great afternoon guys.

sneak peek- Rocco

I have been so bad at blogging lately- And what I have blogged has all been my garden and no work :) But here's to me being back on track!

Starting with this one from my shoot with the adorable Rocco on Saturday. Him and his dad play ball at the edge of the water in the evenings. It's quite nice :)

More from Arizona

I posted those pictures of Frank and Jeanne a while back but am just now getting around to posting a few more from our trip to Arizona two months ago.
Lauren and Brendan were as cute and sassy as ever. We spent our time playing in the tree house, playing jump rope, playing tether ball, making several trips to get ice cream, making ice cream, and eating more ice cream.


Brendan is one-of-a-kind. I mean seriously, just look at that face!
At one point he was leading me somewhere with my eyes closed and I said I didn't trust him, and he just responded completely matter-of-factly, "that's because I lie all the time" :) Shawn and I always compare him to Tatanka- so so naughty, but so so irresistible.




Lauren and I beat Shawn several times at Tether Ball. He claims we cheated, but I think he may just suck at Tether Ball.






The kids were getting ready to get a horse, so we did a fair amount of playing in the new horse trailers.






So that was our trip. It ended with lots of tears, watching the kids say goodbye to their dad as he headed back to Iraq (Man, war is such a lame idea on so many accounts). Anyway, he'll be home soon and we'll go back soon.

Food from our Garden

Ok, we didn't grow the fish, but it was a nice side-dish to our fabulous red potatoes (with green onions) and red chard (prepared with lemon and chili flakes). This dinner was so so so good.


Some yellow potatoes and peas.


Potato, carrot and cheese quesedilla.


Potato, spinach/chard stir fry with onions and lavender.


And this is Courtney after a trip to the grocery store in our backyard!

Gardening- the 3rd update.

Ok, I left off a few days ago with where we were in May, and now here we have what things were looking like last month in mid June. It's totally starting to look like a real backyard! You can see we harvested our potatoes in the back and then finally cleaned up the center area a bit. We're sectioning off the back half of the center area for some new foods yet TBD.


Our squash started taking over the sidewalk by this point. Looking at these amazes me every time. That started as a seed! That's crazy! I know that is a basic life lesson, but still, that was just a SEED.


And our bed of leafy greens was pretty magnificent at this point, if I do say so myself. The smaller stuff in the front is more newly planted Kale.


The blueberries are getting bigger and bluer, and here is a close-up of our nifty hand-made fence. They sell these things pre-made for like $2 more than making it but Nate was set on making a fence. I do have to say, despite a lot more time, and maybe one or two breakdowns concerning Nate's daddy issues, it was a much nicer fence than those other ones :)


On the right hand side, we have the very pretty beginnings of some blackberries, and on the left we the the pretty endings of a shallot that I think we waited too long to harvest.



Ok, and now, finally we get to the present- July. We did a mad rush of getting things "finished" the week before 4th of July so we could host a little bbq, and while there is still lots left to do, it came together quite nicely. I unfortunately forgot to take any pictures during our party, but here's a few of hanging out with my fellow farmers afterward. You can kinda see how we put a little strip of grass in under the hammock and then created a social area with the little pebbled oval.






Tatanka is pretty sure this picture falls under the "life imitating art" side of the argument.








And finally, a little vegetable check-in: squash are growing, and we need to figure out how to get rid of all the bugs eating our lettuces.



The next day I finished up planting some more moss. I love moss; it's so satisfying just to push my hand down on it over and over again.


Courtney and Shawn took control of the squash plant and redirected it from the sidewalk to the fence.


And you can see some of the backyard furniture we bought that day from a lady on craigslist.


And here you can see our garden as of this morning! Unfortunately our grass is allready not looking good due to my precious dogs :( Most of our greens were going to seed so we harvested those, as well as the peas, and, uh. . . I guess that's all for now.

Lily and Andrew- sneak Peek

Just a quickie from Lily and Andrew a few weekends ago. Can't wait to show the rest!



LOVE this couple!