me

This is what happens when glasses are left on the ground… baby steps on them.
I just got my new frames in the mail. How many people in the world, or even our country, can afford to buy new frames right away? We are truly blessed, in many ways. It also helps that they were super cheap online.

Vacation is over and I am busy working on my album and print orders.  It is finally cold outside!  The weather began to warming up just after we saw “An Inconvenient Truth”.  Gore picked the right year to release this film.  If you haven’t seen it yet, you should.  An awesome display of evidence in response to Bush’s claim that global warming doesn’t exist.  Anyway, India and I have been enjoying kicking the soccer ball back and forth out in the cold as she waits for her bus.  I feel like a New Englander relishing the cold days.  Who knew that I could even have fun in 30 degree weather.  I guess I am no longer a California girl. 

We have had fun dreaming about building a green house this week.  We visited the National Building Museum in DC on MLK day and toured the “Glide House”, one of the only prefab houses on display for the public to walk through.  If you haven’t heard, pre-fab housing is the latest cool thing in building.  Basically, designers are creating 3-4 different designs which you can purchase and have put together like a kit.  Beyond having a wonderfully designed home these houses are also green and have the ability, if you get all the bells and whistles, to be unconnected to most (if not all) utilities.  A self sustaining house… what could be better?

It sounds like this year we are off to an activist start.  Ha!  Oh ya, there’s one more radical thing we are changing in our lives.  We have started this year by saying bye-bye to the Atkins mentality and hello to vegetables.  Not that we were ever on the Atkins diet, but you have to admit that our entire nation was swept into a no carb frenzy.  Every once in a while I am reminded of nutrition and the importance of eating right.  This year “The China Study” has helped me to remember all the things I had forgotten… and tell me things I didn’t know.  We (hum, I) have decided not to purchase meat for our home and even limit the amount of egg and dairy that we consume.  We are not super strict vegetarians, just trying to limit our intake of animal based products. 

Seeing as today is the last weekday before Christmas there was a huge push to get everyone’s gifts made and sent out.  One of the best gifts I think had to be India’s teachers’ presents.  We wanted to make something they would enjoy and let them know how much they mean to us.  So I decided to have India help me make a couple of small, soft covered photo albums.  She sewed the binding and used silver and gold pens to draw little pictures along the edges of the black pages.  She was excited to finally make an album with me.  I wish I had thought to photograph these little jems.  This type of album is something I make often, I will photograph the next one and maybe even write up a how-to.  They aren’t much without India’s drawings, though.  I love each of her creations.  Well, except for the one etched in the wood of our vintage desk top.  Is nothing sacred?

I hope everyone has a wonderful Holiday and a Happy New Year!

A new city, a new website (to be revealed soon), a new baby, and now a new blog.   To catch everyone up, I moved to Baltimore last November after living in Boston for the last 7 years.  It took getting through the winter to warm up to this city.  I am too accustomed to jumping on the T and having the city at my finger-tips… even with 2 inches of snow on the ground!  But I must say there is nothing like living in a house.  In Boston we had a tiny condo and loved it… even if it was itsy-bitsy.  It’s hard to beat the 1st floor of an old Victorian with 10 ft ceilings, double crown moldings, beautiful medallions and original hardwood floors with nails and a curved wall.  Ahhhh, I miss that place.  But now we have more rooms than we know what to do with, a finished basement (whaaa?), and a beautiful yard that I can’t wait to make my own.  In January 2006 I had a beautiful baby boy.  He is such a darling even with new teeth coming in this week.  Lots of drool, snot, and a little fever; but still smiling. As you can imagine a lot has been happening this year.  A few weddings and portraits to get my feet wet in this new city and lots of great friends.   I look forward to finding all the haunts and great locations that Baltimore has to offer.  I will keep this blog updated on all my latest photographing and any other creative things I’m working on or people/places that have inspired me.  Sooo… Visit often, comment freely, ask questions and enjoy the view. 

Stacie

Justine and Chapin; my 1st Baltimore clients