you guys, isn’t that the most adorable thing you’ve ever seen?! maybe i’m biased. maaaaybe. anyway, the image above was actually taken with the ae-1, the camera matt grew up with. a couple of years ago, matt’s dad gifted us that camera and little by little matt has started capturing our own family with it! so for our most recent trip to yosemite, he decided it was my turn. we packed various films and i spent the trip getting to know the little old camera that is such a part of my family. i really enjoyed it. here are just a few of our favorites:

it’s kinda hard to see matt in this next one but i still love it. also, this camera is not very tight, so we are just accepting the light-leaks. maybe one day we’ll really get in there and fix it but until then, let’s all embrace the ‘vintage’ look. ;)

of course, matt stole it for one.

bottom line, we highly recommend a trip to yosemite! ok, time for me to get back to work… :)

fast forward 6 years. it’s our four year wedding anniversary and we’ve carved time from our busy fall to really celebrate our anniversary and our life together. yosemite was the natural choice for relaxation, exploration and rejuvenation- exactly the combination we were looking for. we booked a little cabin in the park and spent our sunlight hours hiking to majestic waterfalls, quiet mountain lakes and points with views that quickly put life in perspective. in the evenings we cooked decadent late night dinners and lounged around our little cabin with books and a splash of scotch. can you believe we actually came home? we almost didn’t. ;)

here are just a few of the images matt captured. i’ll do a followup post in a bit with a few of my images when i finish sorting them. i just love how he sees the world:

this is why it’s taking me a while to get through the images- we’ve been scanning in film for days! can’t wait to share a few though…later…

in case you didn’t know this about me, I LOVE SNOW! i was so excited to climb up just to touch it and crunch it with my toes.

this little peninsula was our lunch spot our first full day in the park. we had thick, delicious sandwiches with cured meats and cheese and olive oil and olives and black pepper. heaven in the middle of a long hike. and then we stretched out to rest…and got terribly sunburned.

there was plenty of snow around the lake- our elevation was about 9300 ft! the lake was icy cold, my hands ached just from rinsing them off before lunch. but those of you that know matt know he wasn’t going to pass up an opportunity to jump in. crazy man. this next image is quite possibly my favorite image ever ever, even though matt is probably in considerable pain or completely numb. still awesome:

…and this was my spot:

shimmery dust:

let me tell you about this next set of images. i stubbed my toe something fierce and while i tried to pull myself together and start walking again and not lash out at the world, matt decided to take pictures. and then insisted we post them. so yea…here i am in pain! ;)

moving on! ;) half dome, i was too scared to hike it. we got permits and everything. and then, i started youtubing. if you’re at all interested in making the hike do not search youtube for ‘half dome descent.’

instead we hiked up to vernal and then nevada falls, simply beautiful and plenty steep!

you can barely make out the little people at the top of nevada falls in this next image…that’s where we went!

bone-in ribeye, folks:

matt also insisted on posting these early morning pics, wohoo! ;) if you haven’t read the hunger games, stop everything, start NOW! we loved them!

this next image makes my stomach churn just looking at it. we had heard of this unmarked overlook and decided to go look for it. well, found it! but, for someone who has a problem with ‘edges’ this was pretty tough for me. i love hiking and views and exploring…but edges? yikes! still, what a beautiful spot:

one evening we decided to go for a sunset hike up to sentinel dome from glacier point. it’s a little used trail- there’s a shorter, more direct one but it didn’t start from our location so off we went, just us, racing up the mountain as the sun fell lower and lower. just as we reached the top the sun touched the horizon. it was stunning. i’ve never seen anything like it. we enjoyed the lingering daylight and then ran all the way back to our car- banging sticks together since i read that that intimidates bears. i cannot even imagine how ridiculous we looked but we didn’t pass a single person on the trail and we got back to the car, panting, but thankful that the most dangerous thing we ran across was a family of deer and some tricky rocks. a great night!

and the last day we were there we saw these sweet big trees:

soon to follow, yosemite: film edition!

because of that last bit, it’s always so interesting to me to hear how other artists recharge creatively. for some it’s a personal project within their own professional craft. i’m constantly amazed by the personal images created by some great professional photographers- so poignant and bold. for others, like me, energy and inspiration comes from other creative outlets and i think that is ok. if you can imagine (i barely can, my todo list is insane right now.) waking up to a whole day set aside for creative exploration what would you most want to do? after a few minutes of silence (or of falling back asleep, i’ll be honest;)) what comes to my mind is a lingering trip to the farmer’s market and an afternoon tinkering around the kitchen. for me, personally, knowing what other outlets get my creativity flowing is a really important part of my energy as an artist. so i guess what i’m really trying to say is- there is no formula to creating. however you arrive at inspiration, however you view your craft, why you do what you do- it’s personal. the way i see it, as long as you are honest with yourself in your work, you’re successful.

just felt like throwing that out there this morning. :) i have a full day of editing ahead of me and i’m feeling energized and excited to get started! maybe because yesterday i spent my afternoon in the kitchen with stella- making sauces and marinades, and my evening with matt- grilling baby eggplants, artichokes and oysters- i’m ready for anything! :)

and just because, here is miss stella in the kitchen, being awkward and adorable, her usual:

back to where i started- spring is such a beautiful time to sit back and love the world around us. lucky for us, we recently seeded our yard which means a few weeks of twilight watering. which REALLY means chatting in the back yard swing while moving our little sprinkler six times so that it waters every corner of the yard. so, for around an hour, we’re pulled out of our little world of email, podcasts and editing and we just sit and watch the sparkling water fall around us. we talk about everything, or sometimes nothing. it’s such a great time for us- we may just stick to it even when the grass starts to grow!

lately, some nights, just before swing/sprinkler time, i make us a cocktail. i am hardly a recipe follower so usually i just combine what i like and hope for the best. then, i split it and add a little more sugar to matt’s and a little more bitterness to mine and we just sit and sip. on a really good night i’ll take down a little snack too but, honestly, i think that’s only happened once so far. ;) anyway, because a post is always better with a picture (and a recipe?), here is my latest favorite, let’s call it a rosemary old fashioned soda?

the recipe:
2 oz bourbon
2 dashes bitters
1 oz rosemary simple syrup
(1c sugar, 1c water, 2 sprigs rosemary, crushed, simmer, let cool)
1/2 of a caramelized lemon, juiced
(place lemon in a pan cut side down, cook at medium until warmed through & browned, let cool)
3 cherries
orange peel
rosemary sprig
soda
fill a tall glass with ice. throw in first 7 ingredients and swirl. top with soda. go sit outside. ;)

do you have a favorite back porch beverage? i’d love to hear about it! happy spring! :)

our website! over the past couple of months we’ve been slowly updating the site, re-writing some copy, uploading new images- just generally refining and cleaning things up. and, finally, for the first time since december of ’09, we took new images for our blog header! we’d love for you to click over and check out the new look- any and all stella compliments will be passed to her in the form of a treat, go!

in other news, the garden is about half planted and we’ve thrown down some clover seed in the yard. really all that means is that the lovely view from our kitchen is now of a somewhat organized mud pit. we’re crossing our fingers for a lush, green, delicious result! but for now:

other than that, we’re attempting to cut back on our coffee consumption so please bare with us as we whine and adjust. ;)

i’m noticing that this post is getting progressively more personal. i can feel the rambling starting in the recesses of my mind and if i let this continue i’ll end up telling you all about my current honey versus sugar dilemma and trust me, that would just be too much. so, instead! please do click over to the updated site- we’d love to hear your thoughts!

after passionately explaining how fruitful our future garden will be and, once i calmed down, proving i had a plan (i don’t always, it was a fair question), matt agreed to a little building project: a seed starting station.

in case i haven’t mentioned it in a while- matt is so awesome at projects! since we don’t have a lot of space we decided to modify an existing piece of furniture and hang a fixture underneath it to provide light for our baby seedlings. we also ended up using cookie cooling racks to create a base for the plants to sit on- how awesome (-ly ghetto) is that!? look how dedicated matt is, working late into the night (or not, it gets dark at like 6:00 these days- ew! but that doesn’t take away from how super my husband is):

i potted up seeds while matt finished with the wiring (scary!) and before we knew it we had a legit little setup! but then, when the little guys started sprouting, we decided it looked like we were growing, um, weed, so i decided to be very clear with anyone who came through our door. except the cable guy- i left him wondering about us…both at home in the middle of the day…in our pajamas…seedlings in a dark corner of our dining room…bahahaa:

so i hope to keep you updated with good news regarding the garden but i’ll be sure to also let you know if the seed starting is a huge failure. for now i’m just so excited to watch the little guys grow and nibble the baby leaves as i thin the weaker plants out (…no waste, right?) and around mid march if i have something left to transplant that will be fantastic. :)

think back several years… kate and i had barely started dating when it was her birthday and i really didn’t know what to do. with the help of a friend, i decided to make her breakfast in bed- french toast style, basically because it was all i knew how to do! that with some fresh fruit and powdered suger and some orange juice on the side, the delivery was made, up and back down the hill to her dorm room in brumby. had i known then that i’d be making breakfast in bed a bunch of years later, i might’ve taken the time to figure out that she prefers bagels w/cream cheese. :) i lover her!!!

everyone be sure to wish her a happy birthday below or on her twitter!