Want to share two great recipes with all of you.

The best play dough recipe from my aunt Sondra. My son has absolutely flipped over it's soft texture 9like no other I have touched in play dough) and I flipped over the ease of making it and how non sticky it is.

In a pot on low-med combine and stir constantly until it pulls away from the edges of the pan:

3c flour
1 1/2 c salt
4tbs veg oil
2tb cream of tarter
3c water

when pulls away from pan and is no longer sticky plop out on the counter and knead a bit. Be careful may be a bit warm.

This next recipe is from my sister in law. This cake is so easy-and a great thing to bring to any party. It goes quick-it is moist and just sweet enough. Yumji!

Best moist orange cake:

1 yellow cake mix (any kind)
4 eggs
3/4 c vegetable oil
3/4c orange juice
1 package instant lemon pudding mix

Preheat oven to 350. Butter and Flour bundt pan (I use non stick pan instead). Mix all ingrediants until well combined, about 5 minutes. Pour batter in the pan. Bake 45 minutes and then check. If cake springs back to the touch, it's done.

The only frosting needed is a little bit of powdered sugar.

Not sure if that is the correct spelling of superheroes.hee hee

This is my soul sister Genine's gorgeous daughter Keira yesterday wearing my well loved superhero necklace Joy.

I have been wearing this necklace everyday. I absolutely love it and feel so much like a superhero when I wear it.

Each time I see Keira she wants to wear it. Wouldn't it be great if there were superhero kids necklaces?

I have been feeling a bit in need for some superhero powers lately. My emotions seem a bit raw as I venture into this new aspect of my business, of portrait work.

My friend Genine started portrait work as a side business around the time I started my etsy store. Having her support and encouragement to pursue my own portrait business has been amazing. I have been lucky to have the support of so many of you for a long while....with many of you being photographers as well. But there is something so beautiful and amazing about having someone you live near, someone who your client bases very well may overlap, support you that is life changing for me.

It has brought a lot of feelings to the surface and has made me want to look at my own ability to share and be supportive, without allowing my ego to get in the way.

To constantly remind myself that there is more than plenty to go around for all of us. That each artist is unique and something special to offer, even if they try the same techniques.

I am really embracing this idea that we all can be superheroes-we all can be rock stars. We can bring out the thunder in each other without it taking away from our own.

No one can steal your mojo or your thunder. What they can do however is find their own through you sharing yours.

So I blogged on my business blog some fabulous links and an invitation to share what I know with anyone who is interested.

The only restriction is my time and memory. Sometimes I do 20 million different things and forget each step , but I will do my best to remember.

I want to help others find their thunder the way my friends have helped me find mine.

A Mothers Day Note.......

I wrote this in an email for my friend Deni this morning. As I read it later I thought of all the other women in blog land that know of her, know of her journey and mine too. Parts of this note applies to all women who traverse the path to become fertile both physically and spiritually.

So I thought I would share this note here-to let the love spread to all who read it.

The second half of the note is also with so many of you in mind that I have grown close to. It is especially relevant to my darling sweet soul sister Genine, who has been my rock, both to lean on and to boost me in so many ways.

Mothers day this year feels like a day to honor the women in my life who in turn honor my mother day after day, by supporting and loving me through thick and thin.

.........with mothers day approaching, I am thinking of you and meeting you in our tender friendship place to hold your hand. To arch our backs and look to the sky-thanking the universe for all the gifts that have come along with our struggles. To bend and kiss the earth that has supported our weary feet as we have treaded sometimes oh so very slowly in what feels often feels like an emotional minefield. Hugging you toe to toe, breast to breast, forehead to forehead. To look into one anothers faces and eyes, to acknowledge the strength and wisdom we have worked so hard for.

I want to tell you that your most recent blog posts are absolutely life changing for me. The strength, comfort and peace you have found within yourself on this journey affects me irreversibly. There is something so powerful about our connection, somehow your process truly seems to bring me inner wisdom and affirmation like no other. Your voice, your being just keeps getting stronger and more amazing.

I love that I have you in my life-you are so much to me my love. So very much.

I am proud of you beyond measure. All the things you do on your life journey create a lovely beautiful aura and place that attracts such goodness and love.

So many artists are going to be blessed by having you be part of their inner and outer creative journey.

Thank you for helping me; see my beauty in light; remembering that I am powerful; reminding me how the law of attraction works by working it; and most of all giving me the security and love of your tender friendship.

It is one of the best gifts I have ever received.

I love you and bow to you my beautiful friend

Just dropped my boy off at school and thought I would get some of my updates up here before I start editing again.

Two weekends ago we went up to Saratoga for the 3rd Annual Adirondack Sports & Fitness Summer Expo.

They had a photobooth from www.saratogaphotobooth.com set up as a demo, where you could get FREE photos! It was so fun and I took full advantage:) I wanted a photo for my website of me with my camera so I used this as my chance. How cool to be able to rent one of these for a party! Oh and I was a bit worried about how I would look since I didn't plan on getting photos taken. The great thing is that is slightly overexposes-which is great for wrinkles:) Truly-I notice that I lean toward overexposing my portrait photos, and with all the editing I have been doing I have realized that the light fills out imperfections in the skin. I would like to say I new this and did it on purpose, but it was a chance discovery. I have a bit of shaky hand syndrome so I often have my aperture as open as I can -often at the lowest setting so that the shutter speed can be as fast as possible-eliminating some of the blur from hand shake.

This next photo my husband took last night after dinner when i was checking out the dancing with your inner child you tube video Deni linked to on her blog. I look a bit pissed off-but it really that I am nearsighted and didn't have my glasses on. Actually I was a bit annoyed since my son kept coming up under my arm to see too. I love him dearly but in the evening after dinner and a long day of being attentive to his 3 yr old needs and discussions I look forward to my husband taking over. Sometimes my son will get a kick out of being under my arms so to speak when I finally get on the computer at night and am no longer paying full attention to him. He is also encouraged when my husband gets a kick out of my slight annoyance and decides to take photos of it. My son is a real ham.

Speaking of cameras-I splurged and bought myself a new canon 40d and an 85mm canon lens a few weeks ago. The quality-is really really an upgrade from the rebel in terms of noise. The blotchy grain you get when your ISO is higher to compensate for lower light. The noise is nice to some degree in my fine art photographs but not so great when taking portraits. I did purchase noise ninja which is an amazing tool but it adds an extra step to editing and sometimes takes too much away from the photo, in terms of skin texture-especially with people who have freckles or with men with any type of beard scruff.

I have made big financial investments in my photography so this is a big part of why I have been so consumed trying to get my portrait business up and going. I have to pay off my camera and all the other investments I have made! All of the shoots I have done so far have been portfolio building=free sitting fees. Luckily it is starting to shift to paid shoots but I still have to get all the galleries up for the portfolio building models, and editing a bunch of photos at once is a lot different than editing a flower photo here and there. I have been exploring a lot about batch processing in photoshop. I really want to share all I have learned but I have to wait for a bit of free time, but I will get to it and share what I have learned.

With all this editing I have been focusing alot on balancing my time, being a good mom and wife at the same time.

My day goes something like this:

7:00 my husband wakes up and my son does soon after.
8:00 I crawl out of bed go downstairs and eat breakfast with my son on the couch and watch cartoons with him.
8:30- my husband gets ready to leave the house and my son and I get dressed brush our teeth etc.
9:00-9:30 I check in with my friends on the phone-see what the plans are for the day for them and us. Wed, Thur and Fri my son goes to school at 9:15. Monday and Tuesday we meet friends for playdates at around 10:00.
10:00-11:50 on school days I get home and start editing and doing business stuff
11:50-pack a snack to bring with me when picking up my son from school.
12:00-1:00 either run errands or wrap up from playdates.
1:00- get home play a bit and then put my son down for a nap.
1:30-3:30- often my son naps and I clean up the kitchen and house a bit. Do Do more business stuff, get dinner started.
3:30-my son gets up we have snack and then play either outside or go to see friends.
5:30 my son watches a show while I get dinner set.
6:00-6:30 my husband gets home we have dinner and play with my son.
7:00-7:30 my husband takes my son-I check email and then clean up from dinner. Or if I have a shoot it is usually around this time.
7:30-8:00 I do some computer stuff
8:00-8:30 spend time with husband and then off to bed at around 10 or 11. I am pooped.

hmm speaking of schedules ....I need to get to editing.

Stretched

I feel stretched lately. I just finished this girls gallery. I learned so much about proofing doing this gallery. I also taught myself last night, how to make a new logo. I poured over my photoshop book and cursed a lot but finally got it. I plan on putting up a tutorial on my business blog on how I did it. I will post here when it is up.

I miss my blogging family! I hope to be around a bit more as soon as I get the next 4 galleries finished. Hopefully it will go faster now that I have learned how to batch process images.



I feel a bit lonely in my self contained bubble of editing. I have been working hard at being present with my son when he is awake and then using nap time efficiently. In the evenings I shut down the computer and hang out with my husband, except for tennis nights-like last night, when my husband goes and plays.

Ok off to a mothers tea at my sons school. More soon.........

I am still here. It has been an intense week and a half for me.

I finally posted the tutorial over on my business blog.

I took on way too much-felt crazy and overwhelmed, but then looked at things as objectively as i could and decided to clear my plate a bit by going on "vacation" from my two etsy stores, while I get my portrait business stuff in line and organized better.

I have a lot to share about this process so I will be back soon to write more.

Just wanted to peek in and say hi.

New Website

My new website is up. I wanted to get it up so a client could see their proof gallery.

I still have more to add. My wonderful sister in law is helping me with my about page, so that will be updated soon. I am the queen of run on sentences.LOL.

man I am beat....

Comfort

I am editing like a mad woman for my website and feel completely isolated....good but a bit isolated.

This photograph instantly made me think of the song Comfort by Deb Talan. I have included the lyrics below. I heard Deb wrote the song for her friends that were having babies. Now some years later she has had her own!

***oh and I have a little tip I learned about making layers work that I am going to go post on my business blog right now....*****

Comfort by Deb Talan

When everyone has gone to sleep and you are wide awake
there's no one left to tell your troubles to.
Just an hour ago, you listened to their voices
lilting like a river over underground
and the light from downstairs came up soft like daybreak
dimly as the heartache of a lonely child.

If you can't remember a better time
you can have mine, little one.
In days to come when your heart feels undone
may you always find an open hand
and take comfort wherever you can.

And oh, it's a strange place.
And oh, everyone with a different face
but just like you thought when you stopped here to linger
we're only as separate as your little fingers.

So cry, why not? we all do
then turn to one you love
and smile a smile that lights up all the room.
Follow your dreams in through every out-door
it seems that's what we're here for.

And when you can't remember a better time
you can have mine, little one.
In days to come when your heart feels undone
may you always find an open hand
and take comfort, there is comfort.
Take comfort wherever you can, you can, you can.