Where I like to be

It's no secret, my kids dress themselves.

Sunday is no exception.

I can't deny I was a little surprised upon exiting the vehicle when I discovered lucy's Sunday shoe of choice...


oh yeah. We wear combats boots to church AAAAAALLLLLLLLLL the time. haha! Sometimes I think Chad gets bugged at how little I care what my kids wear. He tells me like it's a travesty and I just kinda shrug and move on with life.

It's really of no consequence.

But I should have known then that lucy was in firecracker mode.

chitter-chatter, snicker sniff laugh... getting louder and louder and LOUDER.

Finally about half way through I leaned over to Lu and first gave her the look... followed by a little hey, you can play as long as you don't make noise. You think you can do that?

to which she responded by leaning forward, pulling her arms back in tight fists, closed her eyes and wrinkled her nose up then squeezed out a smelly little blast of gas which echoed off those dang metal chairs we were cursed to sit on for an hour.

Uh gee thanks.

haha. Not gonna lie. We probably laughed for a good five minutes after that. Not super reverent if you ask me.

What's not to love????...



I rest my case.

p.s.- it's my sister's birthday. Happy birthday Lolo!!!! love you :) !!!

If I call it cane sugar you will think I'm fancy no?

Occasionally I'm just doing my thing and I accidentally invent something supremely fantastic.

And since I'm deeply devoted to you all, I share all my secrets before I even think about getting a patent on it.

haha just kidding. I don't think you patent recipes. You just don't always share ;)

Unless of course you're me, then you do. Giddy up!

Not sure where that came from. ha!

Now I'm not sayin this doesn't exist in some form out there, all I'm saying is, as far as I know it came out of my brain as of Sunday night and I personally have never experienced it in any way before... but I live in a dark closet.

That was my disclaimer incase you're all about to tell me that I did not in fact actually invent this. Fair? ok.

Behold...




Shall we talk a little about where on earth you might find a used half of a vanilla bean?

Sure.

Look in your sugar canister.

What? There's not one in there?! Thats weird. There should be!

Sometimes things are so deeply ingrained in me I forget you don't know the possibilities unless you and I are standing face to face with only a canister of sugar wielding a used vanilla bean between us.

Did you picture that? I totally did. haha!

*GOOD IDEA* (write this one down)

when ever you use a vanilla bean, toss the used pod into your sugar canister. It will turn your plain old sugar into super tasty magical vanilla sugar.

You will find a used vanilla bean in my sugar canister at any given time.

But if you don't have a used one, don't fret, you may use a new one as well with acceptable results. Just take your vanilla bean and split it down the middle lengthwise. Open the pod and scrape the innards out with the back of a spoon, or if you're a grossioso then just use your filthy fingernail. But clean it out with a potato brush first would ya! (just use a spoon people!)

I probably wouldn't put all the good stuff out of the vanilla pod into the simple syrup mixture, but I would toss it into my sugar and give it a little shake!

Try it out, let me know what you think. Or better yet drop by with a glass full and I will happily taste test it for quality assurance.

And yes the heating it up step is entirely necessary.

<3 Jill

I swear there's gold in those hills.

I sat starting at this photo for several moments last night. It's really beautiful I thought. Not just because it's my little Lucy but because there's something about it. It also brought to the foreground some things I've been needing to address with myself.

I thought I would talk a little about the circumstances by which this photograph was made and why I fail at film.

or maybe I shouldn't...

no, I should.

I am starting another film photography class tomorrow and this is something I need to work though.

So after staring at this image for quite sometime I went back into bridge to have a look at this little group of photos. There were probably about twenty or twenty-five in the group. Over and over I searched for something else to catch my eye. It wasn't there. Out of all those images there was exactly ONE that was working for me.

Miss Lucy makes my heart sing.

She just wanted a bath so she could play with her new bath toys. Daddy pulled her hair up into a silly little bun, kind of off to the side. Not particularly prim. Its a sign that bath time will be more playing than washing. The light was pretty much as horrible as it gets. Pure incandescent, coming from straight up. But oh the way shes holding her little lips. and the tilt of the head just so. the wisp of fallen hair so perfectly dangling from her sweet noggin. a downward glance at just the right moment to show off those baby lashes. rosy. posy. cheeks.

And it occurred to me... this is why I am failing at film.

I should show you my contact sheets from last semester. Ha! Each image different from the next. I gave each intended shot exactly one try. Maaaaaaaaaybe two on very rare occasions. Never did I just take the camera and do what I do. And do you know how many shots I missed? Me either! Kind of glad I don't know actually :)

All I know is if I stopped after the first shot the above image would not exist. because sometimes its the little unplanned details that make the shot fantastic. and we all know you can't plan for unplanned perfection.

I mean you can try. good luck with that. Pretty sure the earth would stand still at that very moment.

bracing myself for the sheer number of frames I plan to shoot this next semester.

and now I must say goodnight as i have class quite early tomorrow!!!!!!

g'night.