I've been doing some work lately to beef up my product shot portfolio, and last week I spent one full day shopping for props and one full day shooting. I'll be sharing some of these images in the next few weeks, but this first shot is one of my favorites (probably because it's food related!).Also, this was a super fun project to work on as the lovely Lucy styled everything and worked with me on choosing the props etc. Having a partner in crime when working on these kinds of shoots is always amazingly valuable. Plus? We had a lot of fun!For your internet shares of the day:+ Three ingredient macaroni and cheese? In under 10 minutes? Hell yes!+ Last week's featured photos from The Atlantic were just fabulous. I love the frozen eyelashes!+ This speech from Nina Turner is so fabulous. An excerpt: "We can't have testimony without a test, and we are being tested right now for whether or not we've got courage enough, hope enough, fight enough and love enough to do what is necessary."

Actually, this title is misleading. If you know me at all, this is the ONLY thing I really know how to bake. I mean, sure I can throw together cake mixes and such. And I'm pretty good at doctoring them a little here and there to make them taste better than just out of the box. But when it comes to baking in general, I haven't been a fan.Until I was forced to spend winter weekends indoors all day with a toddler. Then I had to get creative, and fast.Besides Ezra's love of me baking, my parents got me the absolute best holiday gift ever, a Kitchen Aid mixer! I KNOW! I was so stunned and happy and surprised! So now I feel like I *have* to learn to bake all kinds of things in order to justify that gorgeous piece of machinery on my kitchen counter!I think this recipe is a good place to start because 1) it's easy 2) it's fast and 3) I usually have the ingredients in my cupboard. I blogged a few weeks ago that I was going to give this one a shot, and now that I've made it four or five times, I feel like I can confidently pass it on, as well as tell you a few adjustments that made this recipe work much better for me. So here it goes.  [kindred-recipe id="16157" title="Shortbread and jam cookies"]

Since it's a national holiday today (Happy Birthday MLK!), Ezra and Jamie were both home with me, so we decided to spend our morning wandering through the woods looking for birds and foxes and deer.We found none.However, as I have said before, a quiet walk through the woods is never a failed attempt as you return feeling so much better than when you entered (at least I do). And frankly, spying animals when a chatty 2-year-old is constantly asking "What's that?!?" would be short of a miracle anyhow.But I snapped these images of some ice on the creek that I thought were beautiful along the way.  That photo would have been a masterpiece had a deer shown up for a drink. But no luck.And now for some internet shares of the day:+ Man, would a retreat in this barn be amazing or what?+ Just a reminder that we are born the way we are.+ Something doggy to make you smile.

As I was sorting through some old files this week, I stumbled upon these shots I took back in December at our big 3M shoot. I absolutely loved the color palette of this set -- it felt so clean and bright and just lovely, that I had to share a few images.I'm posting this early in the morning today, so I don't have many internet shares yet. Instead, here are a few things I'm enjoying that you might as well.Watching: Man in the High Castle. Season one was fantastic. It's too early for me in season 2 to tell yet, but it is so beautifully filmed. Truly inspiring visually. Truly terrifying politically.Listening: I've been getting a lot of work done while listening to the La La Land soundtrack lately, which is very unlike me.Reading: This might fall into listening since technically I'm hearing the books as I work, but you get the idea. Lately I've enjoyed The Woman in Cabin 10, The Trespasser and Sweetbitter.Want to read: The Nazi Officer's Wife, A Gentleman in Moscow and What Alice Forgot. The waiting lists at the library for these books is insane, so hopefully I'll have them by summer!Eating: Lots of winter root vegetables, mushrooms and tons of soups. Last night I dined at Upton 43 and had a potato chocolate cake with potato ice cream -- it was phenomenal!Artwork I'm admiring: These pieces.Wishing for: The weather to head back up to the 20s so I can walk with Magda some more. And more cozy sweaters. Like this one.Well that ought to give you a few ideas for the weekend! Have a great one!

This morning I was running around the house tidying up, when I stopped to notice the light coming into Ezra's room and filtering through the snow globe I got for me him for Christmas*. Isn't it lovely? It's from Target. I got it for him both because who doesn't love snow globes, and also because it's a music box, and Ezra loves being able to turn on any kind of music.I love how this light shows the age of the window glass that it's filtering through, and I love the light shining through the globe, but I especially like the little "waves" of light to the right of it. I have no idea what caused those, but I adore them.I don't know how you all are doing this year so far, but I'm having a bit of a tough time. Normally, I start new years fully inspired and excited for what's to come, but I'm just not there yet this year. I'm pulling out all my old tricks (reading business books, cleaning up and organizing my work space, looking at inspiring work), and I'll be sure to let you know when it all kicks back in. But for now, I just want to hide under the covers and read/watch any sort of fiction that might transport me to another place.***I didn't have my camera on me at the time, so this image was shot with my iPhone.** While I am WANTING to hide away for the next four years and I'd love for this all to go away and pretend I'm somewhere else, I know this is not the responsible thing to do. I know I need to watch the press conferences and stay in touch with the news. I know pretending like horrible things aren't really happening helps no one (and in fact only helps the evil masterminds at hand). So don't worry. I'm keeping informed and trying to think of how to help. Which is probably why I desperately would rather be hiding under a rock.Internet shares:+ Speaking of staying informed, here is a fact check on Trump's first press conference.+ I am contemplating this camera bag. I now have four camera bags. And I'm thinking about another one. Someone send help.+ But if retail therapy isn't your thing, here's how we can all eat our feelings instead. 

It snowed again yesterday (and today), so I headed to my nearest woods to search for deer. Sadly, they were all hiding, and instead I was left with an hour hike through gorgeous nature looking at animal tracks and enjoying the scenery. In other words, life was good.Lucy joined up with me (fellow winter nature lovers unite!) and she brought her *amazing* big-ass lens (yes, that's the technical name for it), while I just shot wider nature scenes. You can see her amazing images from the walk over here.Today we were both back together again scheming and creating portfolio pieces in the studio. I'll share more with you later, but you should know that studio shots of "real life" take FOREVER and we busted our ass all day long and I have zero internet shares to show you because of it. Oh! Except for this. I believe there may have been some jokes about the President Elect and that lens. That is all. 

At the end of last year, I was honored to be featured in Into Quarterly. They had put together a publication about Minneapolis, and they had asked if I would contribute several images. I really didn't know much about the publication, but thought sure, I'd do it.Then a month or so later, I was invited to the opening reception, and I was blown away. The quarterly is filled with photos, but also words from local artists. And the launch party featured many readings from the book by local writers.Wow. These readings and these artists. I could not have been more thrilled to have been included with such talent. The publication is LOVELY and wonderful, and I cannot suggest picking up a copy enough. (I get nothing from it financially -- I just think you might want to see it.)The quarterly is now available both online and at local book sellers (I believe Common Good, Forage Modern Workshop and Magers and Quinn all carry it).For your internet shares of the day:+ I wish I had the patience to do this with my hair.+ This piece about leaving White Nationalism is enthralling.+ I love these two street fashion photos.+ Moby was asked to play Trump's inauguration. This was his response.

I had a corporate photo shoot downtown this morning, and as it wrapped up it was still snowing outside. Since the wonderful Lucy was assisting me today, she and I headed over to the North Loop to catch some images of the snow. Sadly, the flakes were TINY, so the photos weren't as great as I had hoped.That said, it's never a bad thing when you get to take time out of a day to make photos purely for the fun of it! For your internet shares of the day:+ These photos of President Obama in 2016 are A+!+ And I also was mesmerized by these images of roadside glaciers in Alaska. Whoa.+ Remember that dog show I shot last weekend? You can see more photos here.