Mouse

May 25, 2013

Mouse, aka Drusilla, aka Moosh Moosh, and her best friend Lola.

Small Steps and Big Leaps

May 23, 2013

We're leaving for our first ever Asia trip in less than a week! This trip has been on our life-list for years. After we got married we especially felt the need to go visit our family that couldn't make it to the wedding. You know that feeling when you decide to commit to something and seconds later you sense that it was a good and sound choice? That's how I felt when we purchased plane tickets: it immediately felt like the right thing to do. Whether it's choosing what to wear in the morning or what to eat off of a menu, signing a lease for a home or a marriage certificate, I believe that sometimes it's good to take a leap of faith and then wait for the goodness to sink in deep.

I bought these Superga shoes for walking—how hard is it to find comfortable women's walking shoes?!—and I'm ready to explore. I am a heavy planner but an easy traveler — as long as I keep an open heart and eyes wide open, nothing can go wrong. I'll have my camera at my hip the whole time, so watch this space for travel photos sooooon.

From the archives:

New York, a work trip with some me-time squeezed between

Paris Honeymoon, Part 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8

Belize, a retreat that my college friend and I booked and scheduled, only to realize one week prior that we had been talking about different dates the whole time!! We ended up taking separate trips, a month apart, with another friend, but man, always a funny story.

Spring Cocktails

May 21, 2013

I'm so thankful that Connie reached out to me through this blog a couple months ago. We had common ground as aspiring stylists, and we decided to do a test shoot together. Here is the result!

Brainstorming over about two dozen emails, we came up with the idea of a spring cocktail shoot. The seasons were just starting to turn, so wanted to work around bright, happy colors. Connie came up with the idea of cocktails, which we'd have to concoct and then consume, so why not? Concept, check. Her parter Bryan does photography on the side, so we had a photographer. Check. One Google doc, a ton of mood boards and a delayed shoot day due to gloomy weather? Check check check.

I lugged a suitcase over to their place a few days before and a bag full of flowers on the day of, and we immediately got to work. My favorite part was tossing ideas back and forth and seeing what organically formed. We ended up rearranging the entire living room, which they left untouched after the shoot. We even photographed our lunch, that Bryan picked up from Salumera. Best salami sandwich I've ever tasted. Connie and Bryan, you two were so much fun to work with, and so dang cute together, might I add. What’s next?

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Styling by Connie Chung and Milan Lee. All photos by Bryan Song. If you are a photographer or fellow stylist or have access to a beautiful space, let's talk.

The Invitation

May 13, 2013

Generally, poetry doesn't speak to me, but this one was moving. I wanted to find the right imagery to match these words, and Carissa Gallo generously allowed me to show her work in this composition. Enjoy, and let me know what you think.

It doesn’t interest me
what you do for a living.
I want to know
what you ache for
and if you dare to dream
of meeting your heart’s longing.

It doesn’t interest me
how old you are.
I want to know
if you will risk
looking like a fool
for love
for your dream
for the adventure of being alive.

It doesn’t interest me
what planets are
squaring your moon...
I want to know
if you have touched
the centre of your own sorrow
if you have been opened
by life’s betrayals
or have become shrivelled and closed
from fear of further pain.

I want to know
if you can sit with pain
mine or your own
without moving to hide it
or fade it
or fix it.

I want to know
if you can be with joy
mine or your own
if you can dance with wildness
and let the ecstasy fill you
to the tips of your fingers and toes
without cautioning us
to be careful
to be realistic
to remember the limitations
of being human.

It doesn’t interest me
if the story you are telling me
is true.
I want to know if you can
disappoint another
to be true to yourself.
If you can bear
the accusation of betrayal
and not betray your own soul.
If you can be faithless
and therefore trustworthy.

I want to know if you can see Beauty
even when it is not pretty
every day.
And if you can source your own life
from its presence.

I want to know
if you can live with failure
yours and mine
and still stand at the edge of the lake
and shout to the silver of the full moon,
“Yes.”

It doesn’t interest me
to know where you live
or how much money you have.
I want to know if you can get up
after the night of grief and despair
weary and bruised to the bone
and do what needs to be done
to feed the children.

It doesn’t interest me
who you know
or how you came to be here.
I want to know if you will stand
in the centre of the fire
with me
and not shrink back.

It doesn’t interest me
where or what or with whom
you have studied.
I want to know
what sustains you
from the inside
when all else falls away.

I want to know
if you can be alone
with yourself
and if you truly like
the company you keep
in the empty moments.

Written by Oriah © Mountain Dreaming

All photography, courtesy of the talented Carissa Gallo

Kamakura home

April 22, 2013

To preface: Jas and I are going to Japan and Korea in a month (eee! still have to book hotels!) and I am so looking forward to being completely inundated with inspiration. And perspiration. It'll be the beginning of the hot summer months, the only time I've ever visited Japan so I don't know any better. It's also my first time to Korea and Jason's first time to Japan, so we'll take turns playing tour guide!

I could go on about how big of a fan I am of The Selby and his work, but the primary reason for this post is to share one of his features, the bright seaside home of Hitoshi Uchida-san and his family in Kamakura, Japan.

Been thinking about where to go and I wish we could tour this home while we're there. As I study to be a stylist, I realize that this kind of personality and life history is one-of-a-kind. Lifestyle is a genuine existence that can't—and shouldn't— be reproduced. The best I can do is absorb and enjoy the experience, and draw from it for inspiration. What I see in these photos is my dream: A beach house in a small town of Japan. That, or to be Todd Selby himself.

all photos by The Selby

Aside from daydreaming about stalking people in their homes, this weekend we enjoyed the warmest weather in the bay so far. To offset the cost of eating out Friday and Saturday, I rushed around the kitchen for three hours, prepping two meals from What Katie Ate to enjoy throughout the week.

A rich, slow roasted pork and red wine ragu, and a pork, pumpkin (butternut squash) and sage canneloni (lasagna). Three things about the canneloni: 1) I used butternut squash because I couldn't find a pumpkin and I used lasagna noodles because I didn't want to use too much ricotta for a stuffing; 2) this recipe is waaaay too much for two people, and I tried to invite people over but no luck! Guess it's lasagna week, and 3) I'm determined to learn how to photograph lasagna as appetizing as Katie does. It's got to be the hardest thing to food style!

I shredded the pork this morning before work and I am so excited to get home and make worth out of the fifteen thousand steps of the recipe.

Happy Monday!