Montana

In an effort to visit all 50 of the United States, this year I am knocking off two new states. First up - Montana! I have a friend from college that lives in Big Sky so I set up a little trip with some girlfriends to get some R&R at her family's log cabin just outside of Reed Point - how beautiful is this place? Upon arrival we were greeted by a deer lapping up some water in the pond on her property. Woke up the first morning to a deer outside the bedroom window just munching on some grasses. Were visited by all kinds of birds, bees and bats! Late one evening while we were on the deck just chatting away I spotted an owl perch on top of one of the trees - just checking us out then after a bit flew away. How crazy is that!? Emily says she's seen all sorts of animals there but never an owl! The sound of the wind through the pine trees might be my favorite part - so soothing and beautiful. While I was completely out of my element (city girl deep in the country) I really enjoyed everything!

Montana makes state No. 32 .. got a little way to go yet.

10 on 10 [4.2017]

April showers for sure. We have had solid rain for what feels like forever and finally a tiny break this weekend - couldn't be happier to have a lazy day to be able to head to the lake to walk. I chose to go SOOC on these - no editing - just because.

3 of 12 : SP2017 : 44

Another year older and wiser ... well not sure about the later, but I do seem to learn something new everyday. 44 looks to be full of travel - Denver, San Francisco, Amsterdam, Budapest, Brugge, Burlington, Stowe, Bozeman all in queue.

10 on 10 [3.2017]

Hellooooo March! Was supposed to be in beautiful Vermont this weekend, but with the frigid temps we decided to postpone till the fall. We knew we were taking a risk planning trip in winter, but were hoping for temps at least in the 30s! So back here in Chicago it's a lazy day spent learning my new Leica D-Lux Type 109, lunch and vintage shopping and a headshot with Amanda, a stop by the beach was so cold I needed some hot cocoa when I got home! March is proving to come in like a lion, let's hope it goes out like a lamb!

2 of 12 : SP2017

'and you, you scare people because you are whole all by yourself'

And don't you hate it when you cut off an eye ?!

Looking a little mad in this one

Phoebe had to get in on the photoshoot, but sadly she doesn't like to look at the camera. 😕

10 on 10 [ 2.2017 ]

Decided to pick back one of my favorite photo challenges.

1 of 12 : SP2017

A few years back (in the heyday of Flickr groups) I finished a couple of 52 week projects focused on self portraits. I ultimately took on the 365 project after completing those, but no way could I keep those self portraits. How many times can you process a photo of your own face, you know? But looking back on those couple of years documented got me thinking I should pick up a self portrait project again to see how I age. I'm going to do a monthly portrait so as to not overdo the "selfies" and how much do we really change week to week? So this is January... Am I the only one that makes funny faces when taking portraits?

2016 best nine

I'm actually pretty happy with this set. Funny how Lucy almost always ends up a favorite. She is a pretty girl.

oculus

It's no secret that I'm a fan of Santiago Calatrava's architectural style. If I could, I'd visit and photograph every single one of his structures around the world. I finally made it to my second of his beauties during my last trip to New York. The Oculus, "it’s a magnificent boondoggle" Calatrava referred to it. I have to say it is something. I do love the structure, but it does seem oddly placed sitting among giants.

Beer bread @ Hewn

Joined Julie and Ellen, owners of Hewn Bakery and Cesar, co-owner of Sketchbook Brewing, tonight for some beer drinking and bread making! Ellen and Cesar spoke so passionately about their craft and may have actually inspired me to try my hand at bread making .. But on the other hand, Ellen already makes the best bread in town .. Either way, we had a great time learning and Ellen was so entertaining, you can tell how much she really loves what she does! Here are some shots of the evening. Ellen telling us about real yeast "starter" and her simple recipe for bread making. She believes in making bread by hand and every loaf they produce is made fresh daily from this same starter. Mixing the ingredients for beer bread : starter, equal parts water and beer (wet ingredients first then add the starter) then flour - they use all locally sourced stone milled flour for their breads - a combination of white and wheat. Gently mix and let rest for 30 min. (Go drink beer!) After 30 minutes your dough should look something like this - add salt and a splash of water to integrate the salt in several batches to make sure you don't have pockets of salt in your bread. Then let it rest for the next three hours or so turning every 30 minutes or so during that time. Once the dough is ready, divide using as few cuts as possible (you don't want to break down all those beautiful bubbles), shape and score. Now the shaping is much harder than it looks - you want very little rice flour and for the dough to still be slightly sticky so that it will shape properly. Once shaped, gently turn into lightly floured bowls. (for home she recommends dutch oven)

After second rise, turn out of bowl, score and bake. They use very high heat (485º for around 30-40 minutes) For home dutch oven - bake with lid on for about 15 minutes - remove lid and continue to bake