A quote: “Earth provides enough for every man’s need, but not every man’s greed.”  -Mahatma Ghandi

Something personal:  Ten years ago, if someone would have told me that in one year I would meet the man of my dreams, get married, and buy a big beautiful house; then quit my corporate job, have two children, and start my own photography business…… I would have laughed.  It would have been one of those big GUFFHA kind of laughs.  Not only was this not part of my “plan” for the future, it was also something I had never imagined for myself.  EVER.  My childhood years were spent living in apartments, with just my mom, and no siblings.  I didn’t really have a vision of marriage or family in the traditional way.  And I certainly didn’t have a vision of me LIVING it!  Ten years ago the life I live now would have seemed like the ultimate in luxury.  To have my car paid off, no debt besides my home, the freedom to stay home with my children, a loving and generous husband, and a self created career on my own terms.  I mean OMG – REALLY?!?!  Is that my life?  Yes, it is.  But we all know it’s more complicated than that.   We struggle with many things, money being at the top of the list.  Not because we do not have enough, but trying to do the right thing for our family now, and in the future.  We experience our share of illness (sometimes it feels like an epidemic around here), and as most people know, Jeff has Crohn’s Disease which is a “forever” kind of thing.  Our house is constantly littered with toys, shoes, schoolwork, clothes, dishes, etc, etc, etc, ETC!  And there never seems to be enough time in the day to get everything done.  Most of the time we stay up too late, we don’t get enough exercise, and feeding ourselves takes a back seat to feeding our kids.  *sigh*  But even as I write this down, it all seems so simple.  What more could I possibly want?  What more can I possibly do?  But there is ALWAYS something more to want and more to do.  Always.  I’m supposing that can be good or bad depending on the motivation.  Striving to always improve my life, and the lives of others, or greed, just for the sake of wanting more.  Something for me to think about.

Whew, a little too deep for a Monday morning I think!  ;)  Here are two things I’m grateful for every single day.  Kylie and Jake.  I love the chocolate mouth and messy hair.  And it was worth the bribe to get a few candid shots.  ;)

Something I love:   I’ve been using more and more websites for recipes and I thought I would share a few that I like.

Gina’s Skinnytaste – her recipes are lighter versions of our favorites, and all the nutritional information is included (even Weight Watcher’s Points).  I’ve made lots of her recipes and everything is packed with flavor.  My most favorite is the Mexican Slow Cooked Pork.  I serve it with homemade pineapple coleslaw — delicious!!

Smitten Kitchen – I have made the Roast Chicken with Dijon Sauce SO.MANY.TIMES.  The sauce is so good, I just want to eat it with a spoon!  I found this one because Lisa Russo highlighted it on her blog, and she’s really into meal planning and cooking yummy food!  Here’s another recipe I haven’t tried yet, but want to make very soon.  Cinnamon Toast French Toast.

Dinner a Love Story – This is a favorite of my good friend Liz Seymour.  I recently began reading her blog and found a few recipes that have been an instant hit at our house.  Both of these are from her Top 10 Quick Dinners List. The first one was the Avgolemeno Soup that was REALLY easy and quick – and healthy too!  I served it with cheese toast.  The next one I tried was the Angel Hair with Bacon and Corn (everything is better with bacon, right?).   And last night I made the Hoison Turkey Burgers — and even Kylie inhaled it!   On a side note, it was from the DALS website that I was turned on to Ellyn Satter’s website and book: Secrets of Feeding a Healthy Family.  LOVE IT!  We are having a food revolution at our house.  Well, it’s actually an ongoing revolution…..  ;)

Continuing on with the food subject.  With summer right around the corner, and no more peanut-free school lunches for a while, I thought I would share my favorite brands of organic peanut butter and jelly.  :)

HAPPY MONDAY!!!

A quote:  ”We cannot always build the future for our youth, but we can build our youth for the future.” -Franklin Delano Roosevelt

Something personal:  What a lovely weekend.  Although I have been under the weather recently, I still enjoyed spending the day at the Annual May Day Festival at St. Benedict’s Episcopal Day School.  It’s such a wonderful school, and it has far surpassed any expectations I had for Kylie’s first year of “real school.”  Her teachers are wonderful, genuine, and caring individuals.  And the community to which we now belong is truly fantastic.  I volunteered to take pictures during the event so they could have them for the yearbook, etc.  It was hot, and very tiring, but so much fun.  I loved seeing the teachers, parents, children, and administrators all having fun together.  It felt good to be a part of something so special.  Here are a few pictures from the day.

The kids started off the festival with some musical inspiration – directed by their fabulous music teacher, Mr. Butler.

Kylie and her BFF Ainslee.

 The highlight of the day was the dunk tank.  Both of Kylie’s teachers participated (below), along with Father Brian, and even the Interim Head of School, Mr. England.  The kids were ecstatic!

Jake could be found showing off his muscles for the ladies….

This is Ms. S and Mrs. R (as the kids call them).  I call them the best Kindergarten teachers EVER!  ;)  I can’t believe the school year is almost over and they won’t be Kylie’s teachers anymore after May 25th.

Something interesting:  On another note, I wanted to share some thoughts on the recent “win” in California.  The state successfully gathered 971,126 signatures in order to get the first-ever ballot initiative to label genetically engineered foods.  This is something that an overwhelming majority of Americans want, and yet legislators WILL NOT allow it on ballots for us to vote.  Over 15 other states have started legislation, only to have it get caught up and snuffed out in various committees.  The big food companies, and chemical companies (Monsanto, DOW, etc) do not want these foods labeled for fear that people might actually have a choice and stop buying them.  The good news about California is the awareness it brings to the table.  AND, if 80% (or more) of processed food contains GMO’s, it will be very complicated for these companies to “label” them for California but not for the rest of the U.S.  These foods will also be prohibited from being labeled “Natural.”  I’m very excited to see what happens with all of this.  And to think that the California Right to Know movement was started by one woman, a grandmother, who was concerned about what she and her family was eating.  You can read about Pamm Larry in the Huffington Post HERE.

HAPPY MONDAY!!!

A quote:  ”Striving for excellence motivates you; striving for perfection is demoralizing.”  Harriet Braiker

Something Personal:  So often in my life I have found myself waiting to do things until I can do them perfectly.  Even when I launched my photography business in 2007, I was so worried about what people would think of my work, my website, my talent (or lack thereof).  What would people think of ME?  It’s uncomfortable.  Terrifying actually.  There was another quote I came across by Rosalynn Carter, “Once you accept the fact that you aren’t perfect, then you develop some confidence.”  Right now, today, in this moment, I feel like I have finally accepted that I’m not perfect.  I have always known that I’m not perfect, but accepting that fact (and loving yourself anyway) is a much different feeling.  The most interesting part about this “awakening” is that I not only have a deeper love for myself, but also for my family and friends.  I find myself wanting to reach out to them and tell them how perfect they are in my eyes.

I see you.  I see how hard you are trying.  You are a good person, an AWESOME person.  You have a beautiful smile.  You are doing a great job at this thing called life.

That’s what I would say.   And hey, I just said it.  To you.  Believe it!

And so, in the spirit of imperfection, I wanted to share some photos that are far from perfect.  Taken with my iPhone, in those quick moments that would have been lost if not captured on camera.

iPhone_01 iPhone_02 iPhone_03 iPhone_04 iPhone_05 iPhone_06 iPhone_07 iPhone_08 iPhone_09 iPhone_10 iPhone_11 iPhone_12 iPhone_13 iPhone_14 iPhone_15 iPhone_16 iPhone_17 iPhone_18 iPhone_19 iPhone_20 iPhone_21 iPhone_22 iPhone_23 iPhone_24

HAPPY MONDAY!!!

A quote: “Today you are You, that is truer than true.  There is no one alive who is Youer than you.”  -Dr. Seuss, Happy Birthday to you!

Something personal: Exactly one week has passed since I turned FORTY!  Say it with me…. FOR-TEEEEE!  It’s hard to believe because I remember being twenty-something, and forty sounded REALLY old.  But honestly, I don’t feel really old at all.  I feel great.  And like many forty-something people have told me, it’s the beginning of some of the best years of life.  It’s a time of confidence, wisdom, and living without so much worry about what everyone else thinks.   I think I’m beginning that part of my journey.  Accepting who I am.  Loving myself for all my strengths and weaknesses.   I’m trying to put myself back at the top (or at least somewhere NEAR the top) of the priority ladder.  I want my kids to see a woman (not just a mother) who lives life to the fullest, who loves her family and most of all her husband, who is strong but admits weakness, who can laugh at herself and admit wrongdoing.  A woman who is not perfect in any way, and yet still beautiful.   That is my goal for the next 10 years (or more)!  :)

I felt so unbelievably grateful for the company of friends and family at my birthday celebration, and most of all I felt loved.  There is no greater gift than that.  Thank you!  XOXOXOXO to my sweet husband, for giving me the gift of love every.single.day.

So, enough of the mushy stuff…..  It’s about a month overdue, but I wanted to write about my Kylie Bear’s 6th birthday.  A far cry from the Spa Princess Party last year!   After much deliberation, she decided on a Pirate theme, with a treasure hunt of course!  The second choice was a Star Wars party since, in Kylie’s words, she’s “into boys.”

Argggghhhh!  Every time I wanted to take a picture, Kylie gave me a really good pirate growl – but I convinced her that I needed at least ONE “nice” pirate picture too.

Jeff was in charge of the treasure hunt, and he did not disappoint.  He made a treasure maps for everyone (to scale, matching Taylor-Brawner Park of course!).  We told Kylie this would be the last year that she could have a BIG party so she got to invite all of her friends at school, plus all of her neighbor friends.  And then, there are all of the siblings as well.  Needless to say, there were A LOT of kids – close to 40.  And leading them on a treasure hunt was no small task.  I have to admit I was so proud watching Jeff entertain the kids for this fun event.  Love that guy – ahem, pirate!  :)

I loved this picture of the kids swarming down the hill to find the next treasure.  I’m sure the other people at the park were amused by the madness.  Or maybe not.

The Pirate family.  ARRRGGGHHH!

That’s it for today.  Happy Monday!!!

A quote: “Cleaning your house while your kids are still growing is like shoveling the walk before it stops snowing.” Phyllis Diller, Phyllis Diller’s Housekeeping Hints 1966

Something personal:  Today was awesome!  I had a full day to do the things that I always procrastinate doing, for fear of being interrupted.  I always find that when I want to clean, it seems to get worse before it gets better.   I knew that once I started with the “clearing” of all the paperwork, post-it notes, office supplies, and of course, dust-bunnies, it would be an all-day-affair.  And it was, but it was worth it.  Boy does it feel good to have a clean desk again.  Whew!

That was my cup of coffee up there — it got me through the morning.  And I have to say, I’m mad that little post it note is still stuck to my computer in this “after” pic.  Hmph!

As for the rest of my house, total destruction zone.  But, alas, tomorrow is another day!

Something I love:  As I mentioned before, I’m planning to start taking pictures of the stuff I buy at the store (food, cosmetics, etc).  I have gone through much trial and error as I try new “green” products, so I’ll share my personal opinions with whoever is interested.  Just a quick favorite: Xochitl Chips.  I’ve loved these even before I started buying mostly organic food.  They are super thin, and just the right amount of crispy and salty.  The other day my neighbor was standing on his front porch eating these right out of the bag, and he called them the best chips in the world!  He also recommended putting them in the microwave for 10 seconds before eating – YUM!   I have found these at most of the Publix stores, as well as Whole Foods.

HAPPY MONDAY!!

A quote: “The day the child realizes that all adults are imperfect, he becomes an adolescent; the day he forgives them, he becomes an adult; the day he forgives himself, he becomes wise.”  Alden Nowlan

Something personal: Well, I think I’m ALMOST at the forgiveness stage!  What a great quote right?  I feel like my entire “mommy-hood” has been riddled with guilt in some way, shape or form.  The latest guilt is about Jake’s bed.  We recently took the front off of his crib so he could get in and out.  He has never climbed out of his crib, and in fact, I think he rather enjoyed the security of it.  But now that he rarely takes a nap, I felt guilty (there’s that word again), that he had to pee in his pull-up when he’s perfectly capable of going to the bathroom on his own.  Jeff and I have had many heated arguments discussions about the bed “situation” in our house.  I feel like we should have gotten Kylie a full bed rather than a twin, since she has the larger room and will be more likely to have sleepovers, etc.  That being said, I’m thinking we should get Kylie a full bed and move her twin bed into Jake’s room.  Then we have the problem of how do we make her bed look more “boyish.”  And then, we have to get some furniture for Jake’s room, namely a dresser.  Rather than deal with all of these things, we decided to just take the front off of his crib (so it’s a toddler bed), and when I look at these pictures I’m feeling guilty (again) because he’s clearly too big for the bed.  He falls off every night because he can’t even roll over without reaching the edge.  This never would have been “good enough” the first time around, but for the second child, it’s just not that big of a deal right? *SIGH*  I guess it’s time to do some furniture shopping.

I thought I would share the snapshots.  These were taken in VERY low light with my point & shoot camera.  Hilarious right?  Jake rolls off the bed, then continues sleeping on the pad we put next to the bed.

I should add a footnote.  Jeff put the bed rail on at first, but I made him take it off since it’s not “supposed to” be used with cribs.  My bad!  

Something I love: Mexican food!!!  I love it!!  At Chipotle, it’s the veggie bowl with peppers & onions.  At La Paz, I love the Steak and Carmelized Onion Quesadilla.  At Taqueria del Sol, I always get a fish taco and a chicken enchilada with lemon cream sauce.  At Rosa Mexicano – GUACAMOLE!!!  And now, thanks to my friend who had her 40th birthday last weekend, I found another restaurant with wonderful “upscale” mexican food — Alma Cocina!   Okay, who’s hungry??

Happy Monday!!!

A quote: Use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without.  Proverb

Something personal:  My husband and I both grew up with very modest lifestyles.  Single parents, public school, simple home/apartment, etc.  I think we both learned to appreciate the value of a dollar that way, and how hard our parents worked to make sure we had the things we needed.  I have great memories of my childhood, of my first job (at 15.5 years old), and my first car (a beat up red camaro!).  I worked for everything, including my college tuition!   When I look at my life now, and my kids lives, I would say we are “rich” in comparison.  And yet we live on a budget, we try to save money, we are “upside down” in our home (thanks to the housing market), and I long for new clothes, shoes, and purses!   I often ask myself why I want these “material things,” and I’ve yet to find a good answer.  I just do!  But alas, the point to my story is that Jeff is really good at fixing and reusing things.  I love that about him (and hate it sometimes too).   Here is a great example of the latest reuse/recycle project.  Kylie’s Barbie bike that I purchased at a consignment sale for $20 two years ago, repurposed into a VORTEX racer bike for Jake.  It’s better than any bike we could have bought in the store, and the whole family had fun completing the transformation.  Grandpa even found a new seat and pedals to complete the look.  And now the “making” of the bike is part of the memory.  Love that!

Here’s a “before” pic.  Kylie learned how to ride without training wheels in December.

The “after” picture.  Jake looks pretty cool right?

Something cool:  A while back at a friend’s Pampered Chef party I bought the Mix & Chop Tool.  It has been the best purchase – and I use it all the time!  It’s always such a pain to chop ground beef/turkey into small pieces with a spatula. This makes it so easy!  It’s the little things…..

 HAPPY MONDAY!!!

A quote:  ”Your birthday is a special time to celebrate the gift of ‘you’ to the world.”  Anonymous

Something personal: I’m a little late, but I still wanted to post about Jake’s Birthday.  He just turned three, and I can’t believe how old (and yet how young) he is.  I still look at him as my baby, and wonder how long that will be the case (maybe forever).  And yet, he is growing into a sweet, outgoing, handsome little guy.  We decided to keep his party small (and it was a serious debate), so as not to overwhelm him with too much attention and chaos.  For some reason, in my mind, Jake is shy and I have labeled him as such.  If I take my mommy goggles off, I see now that he’s not shy at all, and he’s changing everyday.  I have a new goal to NOT label him (or Kylie) and TRY to let him grow into whomever he chooses to be.  VERY CHALLENGING!  :)

It was a beautiful day for his party and I had done much of the work in the month or two leading up to the day.  Which is a good thing because I was bed-ridden with Strep Throat the day before!  Thank goodness for Aunt Laurie, who not only helped with all the awesome decor (cupcake toppers, banner, thank you circles, etc.), but also arrived early and helped us get everything set up.  Jake had requested a ‘green’ party, and we added in the trains for a fun theme.  Kylie got to have her BFF over for the party and we told them they could help us with the little kids.  It was a great time!

To start off, here’s Daddy working on the train cake.  This was Jake’s self-proclaimed FAVORITE thing about his birthday.

I often found Jake hovering around the party table, waiting for a quiet moment to sneak some candy off the cake.

Welcome to the party!!!  (with Aunt Laurie)

Thank you bags with train whistles and train lollipops.

Our train cut-out craft magnets for painting.

My little man – hamming it up!

The whole group!  Jake’s best bud, Anna, who he has basically grown up with.  Plus, three friends from school and Kylie and Ainslee (our helpers) in the back.

The train theme was from TomKat Studio, and the cupcake toppers were from Parker’s Flour Patch on Etsy.  The custom Train T-Shirt was from Smitten and Company and the super-cool train puzzle was from Grandpa’s Workshop on Etsy.

Something cool: As many of you know, I always put a quote in my Monday Love posts.  I find them from various sources on the internet.  While searching recently, I found a website with tons of Dr. Seuss quotes and I have to say – that man was brilliant!  Though most of his quotes are in his children’s books, they definitely pertain to adults as well – even more so!

Here are a couple awesome quotes at the top of the list.  You can view more HERE.

“Don’t cry because it’s over, smile because it happened.”

“You know you’re in love when you can’t fall asleep because reality is finally better than your dreams.”

“Sometimes the questions are complicated and the answers are simple.”

HAPPY MONDAY!!!

And so to watch them have their very own special moments, the creation of what I know will be treasured memories, fills my heart with love (and my eyes with tears).

Here are a few pictures I snapped in the five minutes before they left for their very first Daddy-Daughter Dance.  I had to be quick, Jeff was annoyed that I even made him walk downstairs off the deck (to the patio) to do the pictures.  It’s hard to not be part of this special night, but I suppose I did my “part” by getting the dress, painting her nails, and doing her hair.  She’ll remember that too right?  Mostly I think she’ll remember all of the desserts at the party!

So grateful…..

Sniff-sniff.  Tears……

A quote: “It’s good to have an end to journey toward; but it is the journey that matters, in the end.”  Ursula K. LeGuin

Something personal: It’s been a while.  I know.  A long while actually.  The fall was busy and then I fell off the photography planet and into another world, otherwise known as “my life.”  I’ve spent time with my family, time cooking (and even BAKING), I joined a running club with the goal of running my first 10K in March, I’m eating healthier.  I have also been spending time being creative in other ways that give me joy, like planning ridiculously cute details for Jake’s third birthday party (even though it will be super small) and thinking of ideas for Kylie’s possible “Pirate Birthday Party” in March, and even MY fiesta in April — the BIG FOUR-O!!  In short, I’ve been enjoying a life of what some people would call “leisure” and I’m trying not to feel guilty about it.  Would you believe I actually started designing MY OWN family album from our beach session last October?  *GASP*  All of these things happen between carpool, laundry, dishes, childcare, and husband-care (is that a word), but I have enjoyed every minute.

I cannot promise when things will get back into full swing for Tiny Heart Studios, as I’m taking a little break right now.  I have some other projects in the works, one involving the Atlanta Children’s Shelter.  And I thought I would share a recent project that got my work on the cover of the 2012 Winter/Spring WHERE Atlanta Street Map & Visitors Guide!  I did some pictures of some well known Atlanta landmarks and this one was picked up by the Publisher of Where Atlanta.

The original image:

And the map:

Here are a couple other images – the Atlanta Fish Market and one from the World of Coca-Cola:

I don’t really consider nature/landscape to be my specialty, but I had fun dabbling.  ;)

Something helpful: So maybe I’m behind the times, but I rarely (if ever) go to YouTube for anything.  I joined the facebook wave, and I do have several Pinterest Boards, including one dedicated to what my dream home (specifically the kitchen) would look like!  But, I guess I always thought of YouTube as a venue for a bunch of teenagers to make videos of themselves doing silly things.  I know, I know, it’s SO MUCH MORE.

So for anyone else who is maybe a little like me, and just doesn’t think of YouTube as super helpful, here are a couple videos that I think ARE pretty cool.

Recently I linked over to this video about how to curl your hair with a curling iron and it was really quite helpful.  The link, of course, was from Pinterest.  That got me wondering how many other helpful videos might be out there – and there’s A LOT!

Gordan Ramsay taught me how to chop an onion (I was doing it all wrong)

This one showed me a MUCH better way to cut a bell pepper into strips

And the parents that caught this on video and put it on YouTube should be given a hefty sum of money.  Hilarious!

That’s all for now!  Happy Monday!!!