Tonight I got to go to a Galentine's Day Party at my buddy Sarah's. What's that? It's a party for girls. It was awesome. There were these amazing cupcakes and cookies and wine and mushroom-and-swiss melted sandwiches on ciabatta, and all kinds of delicious snacks. And so many fun women!For my internet share of the day, I'm sending you to this link where President Obama asked Netflix to release House of Cards a day early for everyone snowed in during the storms. Netflix said no. That right there takes some chutzpah. I'm pretty sure if President Obama called and asked me to give up a week of my life to math and science problems, I'd have to say yes (and we all know how miserable that would be -- for everyone involved).But! As of Friday morning there's no more waiting for the show! And that's what Jamie and I will be up to for the next 13 hours or so -- camped out on the sofa, eating greek food and watching Mr. Frank Underwood manipulate this country's politicians like nobody's business. Don't call us unless it's an emergency please.

Not the most artistic photo on the blog today, but I thought you might want to see the progress of our basement remodel. Right now, we're* working on the photo studio part of the basement (!!!). We tore down the fake wood paneling, sealed the walls and have put up sheet rock (which you can see). We also opened up the ceiling to create more height for my lights and paper rolls (we'll be painting that later). And my favorite part is that we widened the doorway to the room (which had no door) and added these new french doors! I'm gonna be spending some time this week (and weekend) at old antique/salvage shops looking for some antique doorknobs that are a close match to the rest of the house for these doors. Oh! And next week? New flooring! And paint! (And don't worry, that water meter you see is going into a nice little closet.)And after that, we'll turn to the other half of the basement, which will be about seven thousand times more difficult (and expensive). Which is why (deep breaths) we are not going to SXSW this year. Sigh. Adult decisions are hard, but this is a good one for my business and for our  home.For my internet share of the day, I have two again! Double bonus! First, this new album from Phantogram is streaming and I LOVE IT, so go and listen. And second, I am sharing a cat video. I know!? Who am I?! But it's adorable!*And when I say "we" are doing x, y and z in the basement, I of course mean the contractor and his team because, if you remember, Jamie and I almost got divorced one time after hanging a medicine cabinet. We are not DIY people. We have accepted this.

I think I have mentioned that we have a remodeling project going on in our house. It has involved removing walls down to the concrete foundation, sealing the foundation, and then drilling sheet rock into the concrete. To say things have been a bit loud around the house is an understatement.I was worried this would distress Magda. I was wrong. Today, in the middle of the drilling, I walked into the bedroom and found her like this. What you can't really see is that she is asleep. Yes, passed out asleep in this crazy position. What a nut! (But an adorable one.)I'm not sure if the construction really doesn't bother her a bit, or if it's because she was in doggie daycare all day yesterday. Either way, I'll take it!For your internet share today, I have two things for you. The first made me laugh almost to the point of tears, so please enjoy it (and watch through the end). For the second internet share, this is a news story from my hometown newspaper that made me VERY ANGRY. Maybe I should have put the laughter one after this...

Miss Magda will have to wait a few days -- first because I figure you guys would want to see some Justin Timberlake, and second because she was in doggie daycare all day which left no time for images of her.So! Last night I got to photograph the JT concert! And how much fun! Not only because (let's be real) this man is dang easy on the eyes, but also because I shot it on deadline and as a former journalist, I do love a great deadline-fueled adrenaline rush. Oh, I have 15 minutes to edit my take of 500 images down to 5, write captions and send them all into the newspaper? LET'S GO!And then, to wake up this morning and see the photos that I took 9 hours before in print, so big and pretty! It was a great day. So that's what I'm sharing with you today. Plus, I know my mom wants to see it :)And for your internet share, I'm giving you two today. The first is completely self-serving because it's an interview with me in a local magazine! They have narrowed down the cities' top concert photographers to a group of finalists, and I am amazingly flattered to be included in the group. Each day, they are running a profile on one of the finalists for people to read about and then vote on (it's a reader's choice award). And today I was profiled! You can read it here.And for the non-promotional internet share of the day, how about this article about how Target is letting top Pinterest users create a line for them? How rad is that?

Happy Sunday! I was a little perplexed on what to make this week for the blog, but I decided on this recipe for several reasons. First, I consider it to be a "special occasion" dinner in that it's more complex than your normal weeknight fare, and second, it's really really delicious rich. The good part about that is that it makes for excellent leftovers. The bad part is that if you are like me you shouldn't eat a ton or you will feel like a walking heart attack. Hey mom? You're gonna love this one.So why a special occasion dinner? Because this week is Valentine's Day! And while some people (me) prefer NOT to cook on this day, I know others who do enjoy making a special meal. So here you go.First off, here's what you're going to need:• 1/2 stick butter• splash of olive oil• 2 onions, diced• 1/4 lb prosciutto• 4 cloves garlic• 8 pieces of chicken on bone with skin• 1 large container (or two small) of sliced mushrooms (I use baby bellas)• 1 cup cream. I used half and half and it was SUPER RICH. So be your own guide on this one...• 2 cups white wine• salt and pepper• fresh flat leaf parsleyOk, are we ready to begin? First we start by heating the butter and oil in the pan until hot and then browning the chicken in the pan, flipping halfway through.While waiting for the chicken to brown, chop up your onions and garlic.Once browned, remove the chicken (but leave the fat!) from the pan and toss in the onions, garlic and prosciutto.You want to cook this until most of the pork fat is released and the onions are starting to soften and brown. Once that happens, remove this mixture to another bowl (again, leave the fat!) and toss in your mushrooms.Once the mushrooms have lost their liquid and are browning nicely, add the onions and prosciutto back to the pan. YUM.Cook for just a minute or two, and then add the chicken on top of this. Oh, and add in that wine. Two cups is a lot, but it is soooo good. And salt and pepper it to taste.Now, doesn't that smell fantastic? You want to simmer this mixture (covered) for about 15-20 minutes or until the chicken is cooked through. You just try to keep the dogs (and men) out of the kitchen at this point.Next, uncover and raise the heat as you add in the cream (or half-and-half). You want this mixture nice and warm and mixed, so cook for about 10 more minutes (if you can stand it).Add the parsley, and you're done! Now, as you can see here, I had mine as is, served in a bowl. But Jamie had his over rice, and it looked divine as the rice sopped up all those buttery juices. Also? I ate about 1/4 of this bowl here. Have I mentioned this dish is kinda rich? Yeah.Aaaand now the calories. Ahem. This dish, if divided up for 6 servings (which is about what we did) is 499 calories if you use half and half and not full heavy cream. Also, that's without rice. Again, this is a special occasion dinner.For your internet share today, how about a fascinating article on how salt works to make food less bitter, more sweet and even increase aromas? Cool, eh?

Wow, check out today's sunrise! I wish I had a clearer shot, but the back (east) of my house is surrounded by trees, so this is the best I could get.Today we got up early and were out the door by 8:45 am  shopping for materials for our latest home improvement project. You'll hear more about it next week, but know that today we chose and purchased several doors, decided on flooring, narrowed down some paint chips, decided on some tile and brainstormed things like sinks. It was a busy day and we were at a flooring shop, a salvage yard, Lowe's, a tile shop and Home Depot.And then I took a nap. I do not understand how people build homes from scratch -- these decisions take all of the energy I have.For today's internet share of the day, let's test ourselves on languages, eh? I'm ok at the European ones, but the Asian languages KILL ME. Good luck!

I had a birthday lunch with my buddy Nancy today, and she kept trying to split the bill with me (um, no, not on your birthday) and trying to give me cash. Who even carries this much cash around? It reminds me of my grandmother. I can remember stopping off at the local grocer with her for a pack of gum or something small, and her pulling out her wallet and out would come hundreds and fifties and twenties -- it was CRAZY. And let me be clear, I do not come from any sort of great wealth. She just liked carrying a lot of cash.Me? I'm more of the single credit card type. Safer from the robbers that way.For my internet share of the day, how about this wonderful television ad... FOR NEWSPAPERS?!? Eh? I love it.

I shot this image last night. Yes, I'm cheating again! But I had so much fun at this show, and I wanted to tell you all about it. My buddy (the all-knowing) Kyle, told me months ago that I HAD to see this band when they came to town. I couldn't find their music anywhere on the internet (except for one great song). So like a music nut, I went and bought two tickets and told Jamie we were going.Now, let's rewind to yesterday. For some unGodly reason, I woke up at 4:18 am yesterday and never made it back to sleep. I had an afternoon FULL of meetings, which meant I needed to get all of my work done in the morning. And I had a shoot at 6 pm, right after all those meetings. So my day was packed (and I was kinda tired). And Jamie? He had a crazy-busy day at work on top of having to take poor Merlin into the vet (and pick him up again later) for a teeth cleaning. When we got Merlin home, he was walking in diagonal lines with his eyes half open like a drunk pirate. Oh, and then Jamie had a board meeting thingy at 7 pm and wasn't back home until 8.And after all that, we were heading to the Turf Club at 9 for the show. There was definitely some whining. Like, "maybe we should just eat the tickets," or "oh my god, it's like -4 degrees outside," or "but I'm so huuuuuunnnnnggggry." But we did it. We manned up and got across town to the show.As we were walking (in the FREEZING COLD) from the car to the club, I was still in my mind thinking this was stupid, and we should have stayed home, and we could be in bed asleep right now. And then we walked into the club, and all was right with the world.It was warm, the music was fantastic, our friends were there, we were smiling and dancing and taking photos and within 1 minute. I was so happy that I had decided to head out for this wonderful hour of music. And? We were home by 10:30 and under the covers warm and toasty and passed out asleep.Going out takes a lot of effort. But the memories? They are totally worth it for me. To see the rest of the photos from the night, look over here.And for your internet share of the day, I'm sending you to the movie trailer for Divergent. I'm gonna start these books this week so I'm all caught up by the time the movie comes out. Super excited!