I tried

I did. I tried............I tried to write more and I didnt't. Is it that life is too busy??? Yea, an excuse. I know. I cannot tell you how amazing the trip to Monte Carlo and the South of France was. We met a friend of a friend and had some amazing chateneauf du pape wine. So lucky we were. and the location of our hotel..........amazing. What a trip. I hope to share some pictures with you. And now we are back to our humble home. And the wind up of a year.........I am excited. An amazing friend will be hanging locally with us for the summer. Cannot TELL you how fun this will be............. hoping to find an amazing rental for them and a fun way to celebrate being together. truly what friendship is all about. so lucky we are able to celebrate summer together. Truly blessed we are!

hi, i'm still here

where does the time go? Three, maybe four blizzards have gone by......seriously the most snow I have seen since I've moved to the east. So many snow days, delays, early dismissals. I have lost count. I think we are taking away days from our February break now.......I tried to write more. I thought about writing more.................but yet I didn't. I have been taking pictures. Hubby knows that I want camera gear, not jewelry for significant holidays! So I got a new lens and an awesome printer. Found some incredible paper and have been playing with some abstract shots. It has been fun. And something to pass the time during this long, awfully snowy winter. My daughter wanted the snow to be so high we couldn't open our doors......well today we almost got that! See that patio??? Doesn't look like much does it? Well check this out................

halloween

I can't believe it is already November. I promised to write more, yet I've written less! It seems life just keeps coming.....I wish it would slow just a little. It's not like the stores are helping us out in slowing the holidays down....seriously do we need Christmas decorations up the day after Halloween? Does Starbucks really need to get out the holiday cups so early????? I know....I do bug my clients in August to start thinking about those family photos for holiday cards..........

it's beginning to smell.......................

A lot like fall. First it's the smell of fireplace fires in the crisp air. Then it's the fact that it is pitch black when I drive the kids to school and before we eat dinner. It's also the smell of grapes fermenting in the basement.

We purchased the cab grapes from Beckstoffer Vineyards in Rutherford this year and are doing primarily Cabernet, but are trying our hand at chardonnay, which I can't remember where we got those grapes from. We have 20 gallons of chard being fermented. We have almost 40 gallons of cab fermenting. Last night we pressed all of the amazing juice of the cab grapes and the color is just beautiful. The aromas wafting around our garage smelled heavenly. We plan to run the juice on both through a process called MLF (malo lactic fermentation). Without boring you, basically it is a secondary fermenting process that gives wine that buttery smell and smooth feeling on the mouth. We are very excited about this season and can't wait to see how the wine develops. It is such a learning process.

iPhone Pictures

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I know...............

I know..............I'm not getting much better at connecting. I'm trying. Really. This weekend I walked almost 40 miles in the Avon Two Day walk for breast cancer. It is an amazing event and it was an awesome experience. The weekend before that I met up with my aunt and my cousin and surprised my mom in Utah for her birthday. The hug I got when she saw me made it all worthwhile.

Life is really speeding up. I am working on custom cards, holiday photo shoots and fueling my creativity. This weekend I am photographing families who otherwise would not have the money for a family portrait. I think it is a highlight of my year to be able to do this, though it comes at an extremely busy time.

beautiful rain drops

It has been so dry around here....the grass is dying, my plants are dying....but yesterday the rains came....and it was glorious to wake this morning to the dew dripping off the fennel in the herb garden. The fog was just beginning to lift as I snapped this shot of our home in the reflection of the drop.