Hello, Georgia.

So here I am, sitting in my fluffy hotel bed in Dohlonega Georgia.   I conquered hunger, I conquered twisty roads, I didn't get lost.  And now I am ready to enjoy this awesome bed. I'm here in Georgia to help the lovely Mrs. Rebecca Claire shoot her brother's wedding.  We're staying at The Smith House and I have to say, it's pretty snazzy.

It's been a long day and tomorrow is going to be even longer, so it's off to bed with me.  I wish I was at home with Speed Racer but this lovely down comforter will have to keep my cozy instead.  Happy Labor day weekend everybody!  Stay safe!

Dish-o-the-Week: Steak Shish Kabobs and PW Twiced Baked Potatoes

Since it's fair well to summer, I thought we'd do a little grillin' tonight.  It's still hot as Hades here in the South, so we went with some nice marinated steak shish kabobs and some delicious Pioneer Woman twice baked potatoes.  I went a little over board though, so Speed Racer and I are pretty stuffed. There's nothing like some fresh veggies roasted over a fire to make your mouth water.  I used onion, green pepper, steak, cherry tomatoes, and mushrooms on our shish kabobs.  First I marinated the steak, green pepper, and mushrooms in some red wine vinegar, Worcestershire sauce, garlic, and lemon pepper.

I decided to go with PW's twice baked potatoes for our side.  They are fantastic, although I should have cooked them longer.

Then I got the bacon and fixin's ready for the twice baked potatoes.

Next cut up all your veggies and layer them in order on your skewers.  Note!!  Make sure you soak your skewers for at least 20 minutes before you grill...or they will catch on fire...and that's no good.

Next be sure to take a bite of your extra twice baked potatoes fixin's while you think no one is looking, but really your husband is taking embarrassing photos of you really looking your worst.  But then go ahead and post them on the internet...because we like to keep it real here.

Once your shish kabobs are done, and your twice baked potatoes are all cheesy and gooey...go spend an evening watching the movie Star Trek with the hubby, because you know that's how you roll.

I love September

It's hard to believe that today is the first day of September.  Fall is upon us and I don't feel quite ready.  I love September.  It's my favorite month...also because it's my birthday month, and well, quite frankly I LOVE birthdays.  Especially mine.  But this year it has snuck up on me, and I'm not quite sure what to do with September. I woke up Saturday morning at my parents house, to a foggy field view.  (Thus all the pictures.)  To me, it's a magical time when the seasons begin to transition.  Everything changes, and seems full of mystery...and there is fog.  I love fog, it reminds me of fairy tale books for some reason.

But I woke up, eyes still blood shot and exhausted from the day before to this beautiful view.  I stumbled out of bed...found my shoes...mumbled something about photos as I passed my Mom and went out the back door.  While I shot, I began to wake up.  The cool crisp air made me realize that summer is gone...and somehow I feel like I missed it.

I am determined not to do the same with September.  Don't get me wrong, it's going to be a busy month.  I have two, possibly three, weddings to do with Rebecca Claire Photography.  I have to get my tonsils removed.  And I have several senior portraits lined up.  Not to mention just the day to day working.  Speed Racer also has a ton of travel ahead of him this month, so that just makes us busy.  So I already feel like I'm letting it slip by.

Usually by now I already have my birthday list sent out (at times I have sent it out in July...yeah, I'm that kid).  But I haven't done it yet, and each time I try to I just seem to get discouraged.  Speed Racer wistfully asked what I wanted for my birthday this year, and for once I said, "I just don't know."

Unlike most people who say that who are modest and not greedy people, I did not say it because I don't want presents, I think I said it out of exhaustion.  There are MANY things that I want, but none of them seem to come in gift form...or affordable gifts at that.  I want time away.  Just for me and Speed Racer.  I want to buy practical things that make dumb presents.  I want to figure out things.  I want to be surprised.  Stuff like that.

But the great thing about fall is that it always seems full of new prospects to me.  Unlike Spring, fall to me is a time to hunker down with a good book outside, and spend some quality time.  Even if this fall is busy, I know it's going to be a good one.  I'm taking fall back.

Friday. Friday!

Happy Friday everyone!  I'm headed back to the land that I love, the land of my youth, the land where everyone knows my name!  Well, maybe not that last one, at least I hope not, that would mean I'm in trouble. I'm headed back North to Virginia for the weekend.  It's going to be a fun time of get together, and actually lots of photography as well!  My friend The Twin and Preacher are in need of some photography skills, and I am happy to oblige them.  Lots more to post when I get back of the photo sessions.  Have a great, safe, weekend everyone!

ABCs

E is for Elephant.  I don't know how many times I said that this morning.  Learning the alphabet is an important part of children growing up, but it can also be a helpful exercise for photographers.  Not just because, "Me photographer, me need to know how to speak and write," but for many reason.

The other day I went out and about Knoxville and tried to find letters.  I had a specific word in mind because that helped me focus a little bit more.

But you would be surprised how hard it is to find letters, "in nature."

I love this exercise because it makes you look at the world differently.  It's a lot harder than I thought it would be.

I encourage you to try this, even without a camera!  It really helps you "see" objects not just how they are but as how you would like them to be. (Deep, right?)  So in the end I ended up with the word I wanted.

I'm still going to play around with the letters more, and also try to find some more letters.  Feel free to share what you find!

Back to School and a bit of Bravery

It's back to school time.  A time when children will strap themselves to bed, so summer can last at least one more day.  A time when Mother's will try to hold back the tears and protecting arms.  A time of new shoes, bouquets of sharpened pencils, and haircuts. I use to get super excited about going back to school, cause, well I'm a dork.  Don't get me wrong, I LOVE summer, very very much.  But especially when I was little, and the summers seemed long, I would get excited about seeing friends again and learning.  But most of all, I would get excited about back to school shopping.  As some of you know, I inherited my Grandmother's love of shopping and finding a good deal.  So back to school was just an excuse to go shopping! Hooray!

Inevitably however, the morning of the big day, I would find myself new outfit on, haircut, new kicks tied, backpack full of school supplies, bus note pinned to my chest, and absolutely feeling like I was going to puke my guts out.

Suddenly I would lose all care about friends, and realize that I was going to be in a crowd of people I didn't know, in a place that I would get lost in, and without  my Mommy.  This feeling has never gone away.  I was a wreck the first day my parents left me at college, and every first day at a new job ever since.

I know that everyone is nervous about change, and that change is always scary.  I know that doing things in spite of change, and in the face of nervousness is actually brave.  For a long time I thought of bravery as something reserved for hero's, for wars, and people who saved babies from burning buildings.  The truth is, that is beyond brave...that is unfathomable.  That is divine help.  But when I look around me in my life, I see people who are brave daily, and that is a hard kind of bravery.  Mother's and Father's who do it all on their own, friends who tell you the truth when they know you'll be mad, spouses who work at jobs they hate because it's best for their families, people who swallow their pride and take unemployment or lesser jobs than they are qualified for, people who help strangers, people who embrace family struggles or a family that may not embrace them back, people who keep trying no matter what it's about.

Bravery can be a lot of things, and most of all it's about being vulnerable to change because you know it's right: whether it's letting a child go and grow up, or getting on a big yellow school bus while holding your brothers hands.

Sunsphere

I took a very hot walk around Knoxville the other afternoon, hunting up some photos for another project.  But as I was glancing around the horizon line my eye caught, as always, on the Sunsphere.  It's a pretty cool structure and one of the most famous one's in Knoxville.  I realized that even though I've been here for awhile now, I really don't know much about the Sunsphere.  So here is what I have learned, I'm not sure if all of it is true, but here it is all the same. 1. The Sunsphere was the symbol for the 1982 World's Fair.

2. It is 266 ft high.

3.  It was designed by the Knoxville Architectural firm, Community Tectonics.

4. The tower's window glass panels are layered in 24-karat gold dust and cut to seven different shapes.

5. It weighs 600 tons.

6. In the early morning hours on May 12, 1982, a shot was fired from outside the fair site and shattered one of the sphere's windows. No one was ever arrested for the incident.

7. On Sunday, May 15, 2000, nuclear weapons protesters scaled the tower and hung a large banner that said "Stop the Bombs." They remained on the tower for three days before surrendering to police.

8. It's really cool.

9. It's full of leprechauns.

10. It use to be a restaurant.

Like I said, all these MAY or MAY NOT be true.  But it's worth exploring.  And now you have some facts on your local landmark.

Dish-o-the-Week: Homemade Mac N' Cheese

I know, your mouth is watering already right?  Who doesn't love Mac N' Cheese?  Crazy people that's who!  I'm pretty serious about my mac n' cheese if you can't tell.  Actually, Speed Racer has had to cut me off from Easy Mac...I wish I was joking.  I had a little bit of an Easy Mac problem there for awhile. My sister in law Olie saw this recipe in the Pioneer Woman cookbook and highly suggested I make it.  I think she was implying that I make it when she was around so she could partake in it, but alas, she lives too far away.  Sorry Olie!  But I'll make more mac n' cheese next time I see you, I'm just making sure I get the recipe perfect first.

So here's what you need.  Pretty basic really.

First you want to cook and drain your macaroni noodles.  You want them a little hard since you'll be baking them in the oven later.

Now we're going to start making the delicious cheesy sauce.  On low heat, we're gonna mix the butter and flour.

Then I added the milk and spices.

You want to keep stirring the sauce until it gets like milkshake thick, then switch it to low heat.  Next I whisked the egg and then tempered it with some of the sauce to keep it from cooking when I poured it into the sauce.

Then more spices. And cheese.

Delicious!  Mix it all together, until it's gooey and wonderful.  Then put into a baking dish and top with.....more cheese!  Because honestly, most things cannot have enough cheese.

And then...enjoy.  It really is a great comfort food, and it's fat free!  Just kidding.  I wish it was, but you can always pretend.

Hello, Monday

The day after coming back from vacation is always a rough one for me.  I have a sense of "coming back to reality"and trying to play catch up, while really all I want to do is go bask in the sun. There are good things about coming back from vacation though.  It's always good to realize you're home, to be kissed hello by a husband who maybe, (maybe) missed you, and to sleep in your own bed again.  But even then, I usually spend the first week back, thinking about my vacation and smiling at all the great moments.

This vacation my family and I spent at Pipestem State Park in West Virginia.  We stayed in a cute little cabin at The Resort at Pipestem, and were fantastically isolated in the woods.  It's always hard, for me, to find a balance between activities and just being lazy on vacation, but this time I think we got it right.  We usually got about one activity in a day, whether it was cards, playing life, archery, hiking, boating, swimming, or horseback riding.  There was even a little mini golf...I won't tell you my score, because I would just hate to brag that much.  And between it all I was able to get some couple portraits in of my Brother Jack and His wife Pockets, but more of that later.

If you've never been to Pipestem State Park, I highly recommend it.  The park is clean, there are a variety of places to stay from the lodge to tent camping, and the staff were all really nice.  So without further ado, here is a lovely mix of our activities.  Sorry there aren't more of the swimming, archery, etc type activities...I had my hands a little full.

I feel Pretty

I feel pretty.  That's right, I, goofy, awkward, uncoordinated Runawayalice, feel pretty. Yesterday I went and got my haircut by AJ at California Concept, here in Knoxville.  I love her!  She does such a great job and is really fun and easy to talk to.  Anywho, she had some extra time so she curled my hair for me.  I don't do hair very well.  We're talking my glam look is maybe I will put it up in a ponytail.  But the curls were different and made me feel very pretty.  So I did a little research on why women should feel pretty, the results were interesting.So by research I mean I put that exact question into google, just to see what would come up.  I got hits on everything from "I don't feel pretty please help me," to "successful middle aged women," to "I don't feel pretty without make-up."  It was a little scary.   I felt like starting a support group.  "Now repeat after me.  My name is Runawayalice and I feel pretty.  It's okay for me to feel pretty." The truth is it's taken me awhile to become okay with feeling pretty and with my "girlishness."  Ever since I was little I've been a Tom-boy and trying to keep up with my brothers.  I fell down stairs trying to keep up with them because my legs weren't long enough yet.  After my brothers, I always had guy friends, and I wanted to keep up with them.  I mean, I had to run just as fast, or faster.  I had to be able to be tough, to not cry, to hike mountains, skydive, bungee jump, not scream when something was scary.  All those things.  And I love every one of them.  I think that's what took me so long to figure out, I don't have to be one or the other.  I can love shooting guns and having my hair curled too.

I spent most of my teens and college, being one of the guys, and trying to be a tough chic, and I succeeded.  That's part of who I am and I have a great group of guy friends.  But now as I'm getting into my mid twenties, I feel like I'm coming into my womanhood a bit.  That sounds dumb but it's true.  Really over the last year I realized how many amazing women I have in my life.  They've taught me that I can embrace both sides of me.  So here it is, what makes me feel pretty and why I feel pretty.

Hi, my name is Runawayalice.  I feel pretty.  I feel pretty when...

1. I'm wearing my chacos

2. My hair is curly for no reason at all.

3. I'm camping in the middle of nowhere.

4. I help people.

5. My husband whispers he loves me.

6. I see my mother.

7. I shoot a gun.

8. I'm in a bathing suit.

9. I'm at the beach.

10. My Dad hugs me.

11. I'm with my girlfriends.

12. I laugh.

13. I take photographs.

14. I hold a baby.

15. I'm hanging out with the boys.

16. I'm skydiving.

17. I'm alone.

18. I wear cowboy boots.

19. I make art.

20. There's no reason at all to feel pretty.

Why do I feel pretty? (This is the hard one to say because we've been taught not to say it.) Because I am pretty.  Because I enjoy my life.  Because there's so many reasons to feel pretty inside.

Feeling pretty comes from confidence, from finally getting to know who you are, and taking joy in life.  It really has nothing to do with mascara, hair, clothes or anything else.  It's feel pretty Friday.  Feel pretty, because you are.  Happy Friday.