Echo's Bunny Suit

Oh my gosh, I'm one of those moms that dresses their kids up in costumes and photographs them! My dad bought Echo this adorable bunny suit and I couldn't resist a spring photo shoot this morning. At least it's more tasteful than the pink bunny suit from a Christmas Story so hopefully she won't hate me for it later. Personally I think it's amazingly adorable. Babies are so lucky, they can dress up as bunnies (or any other animal they want) any time and it is perfectly socially acceptable!

Here is the amazing miss Echo in her fabulous bunny suit!

More Garden Prep

Spring has been in the air lately, well off and on it has, and I was inspired to not only work in my garden but also to give my blog a spring makeover! Yay!

This weekend the weather was so lovely that I worked on some Spring garden prep. I worked on clearing my larger raised bed of leaves and acorns (many of which had already started to grow roots) and improving the soil quality. I thin the lack of good soil really hurt me last year so this time I mixed in quite a bit of composted cow manure and peat moss to make the soil rich and light. Eventually I can use my own compost to enrich the soil but it isn't ready yet. Hopefully this will improve my garen production this year.  

Both raised beds are prepped and planted now

I planted both beds with radish, swiss chard, lettuce and a few carrots. I'm excited to get this growing season started. My rosemary and mint are starting to make a comeback after winter as well. They are my only two perennial plants in the garden and it's nice to see a little something green in there.

Rosemary

Mint

 In addition to my raised beds from last year, Eric built me a new one with a lattice this time. I plan on growing green beans and peas in here but I haven't planted it yet

Above is a view of my whole garden set up at this point. I'm sure we will be adding to it as the years go on but for now this should be all (probably even more) than I can handle.

PB and J Yogurt Parfait

Ya'll, I have found the next big thing for breakfast! This is truly a fantastic combination and I must say I'm patting myself on the back for coming up with it :-)

I have been in to making granola lately and recently came across this recipe from A Beautiful Bite. I liked it because it had simple ingredients and seemed easy to make. We love granola in this house but it can be very expensive, it's amazing how much money making your own can save you.

We also have a lot of homemade yogurt on hand since Eric has been making it regularly and I have been experimenting adding different flavors and toppings to it. One of the ways I like to flavor my yogurt is by adding a swirl of jam to it. We have some fantastic raspberry jam that my mother in law gave us (homemade by a friend of hers) and it goes great in yogurt, it tastes just like the yogurt you buy at the store that has fruit on the bottom.

Yesterday morning around breakfast time inspiration struck and I realized that peanut butter and jam were a natural combination and the PB and J yogurt parfait was born!

If you make your own yogurt or just buy plain from the store I highly recommend this combination, delish!

Working With Off Camera Flash

I've never been a terribly technical person and even though I am a professional photographer now I sometimes have a hard time with the technical aspects of my trade. One of the things I love about digital photography is that I can experiment and learn by doing and I don't have to waste a ton of money on film and then wait to see the results of what I've done. I learn much better by experimentation and hands on activities than from a book so this is an ideal medium for me.

For a long time I was scared of flash and tried to avoid it at all costs. Once I began shooting weddings however using flash became a necessity and I purchased an external flash for my camera. This alone made a huge difference in my work since I was then able to direct the light where I wanted it to go and bounce the flash off of walls and ceilings to create softer lighting.

This was working great for a while and still works great in some situations but I have recently seen the need for a more elaborate lighting set up. Thanks to some advice and gentle prodding from my photography partner I purchased an extra external flash, some light stands and a remote flash trigger system and began experimenting with using my flashes off camera. here are the results so far.

Echo gets to be my model, poor kid :-)

The two photos above were taken with the flashes off camera, one bouncing off the ceiling and one off the wall. It makes for nice even lighting and true to life colors. See how different the effect is than with a shot taken with the on camera flash as seen below.

These are my light stands and flashes. Notice on the left how half the picture is black. This happens when my shutter speed is too fast, I recommend staying with a shutter speed of 200 or less.

 Of course in my mind you still can't beat natural daylight as was used in the photo above. Sometimes this is just not possible however and when that's the case off camera flashes are a great option. I really feel that with a bit more practice they will help take my photography to the next level.

Integrating Play Space In The Living Area

Anyone who follows me on Pinterest can see that I've developed a big interest in interior design geared towards children of late. There is something a bit more magical and fun about spaces designed with children in mind. Eric and I can't stop talking and making plans for the tree houses and play areas we want to design for our kids (Echo and her future siblings) and we don't want relegate their play areas to a separate part of the house. We want to the kids to feel that the house is theirs too, the whole house, not just their designated rooms. As full fledged members of the family they should be able to enjoy the living space as much as the adults.

The nice thing about owning your own home (soon to be paid off in full!) is that it gives you a lot of freedom to do whatever you want with the space, we can be as wacky as we want! And since we don't really view our home as an investment but as a place to live and raise our growing family we don't really need to be concerned with resale value when we make plans for building play areas in to our main living space.

I've been able to find some pretty excellent examples of children's play areas on pinterest, here are some of my favorites.

None of these are exactly what we want but we do plan to have some climbing space and a reading nook/hideout. We have some pretty exciting plans for all this but luckily we have some time since Echo won't be climbing for quite a while. Who knows what kind of cool designs we will come up with in the meantime?

Sitting Up

Echo is growing and maturing at an astonishing rate. The period between 4 and 6 months witnesses a crazy amount of development and she is literally changing every single day! She will be 5 months next week, how the heck did that happen?

Yesterday She sat up on her own for the first time! This of course means that I put her in a sitting position and she stayed there, not that she got in a sitting position by herself. She also pushed up her front half while lying on her tummy, what they call a mini push up, for the first time yesterday. it's amazing to watch her grow so fast. It makes you realize how little time they spend as babies, I want to soak up every minute of it. I'm excited to see what other new milestones she conquer over the next few months.

Homemade Tortillas

This is one of the easiest and tastiest recipes I've ever made. Going with homemade tortillas is totally worth the extra effort. personally I am crazy about corn tortillas (way better than flour!) and they are whole grain to boot! Try it out sometime, here is the ridiculously easy recipe I used.

Mix 2 cups masa harina or masa flour with 1 1/2 to 2 cups water (you want it to be soft and pliable but not crumbly). Divide in to 8 equal portions and keep covered while you work so they don't dry out. Using a tortilla press, press the dough between two sheets of wax paper. Mine still came out a little thick with the press so I used a rolling pin to get them a bit flatter after I pressed them. Cook in a hot cast iron skillet until just starting to brown, about a minute on each side. Store in a covered dish until you are ready to eat them so they won't dry out. 

These are so great for tacos and don't fall apart like store bought tortillas. Yum!