When you're stuck in a tiny car in the middle of a blizzard for 20 hours straight, there's no room for blogging. There is room however, for leftover Thanksgiving turkey sandwiches, tears, flat tires, and countless hours of NPR podcasts to get you through the home stretch.

In the last week Chad, Daphnie, and I have spent over 45 hours in the car (and that's NOT counting the time sitting in San Fransisco rush hour traffic.) We drove from Durango, CO. to Northern California for Thanksgiving. In the end it was a wonderful trip full of friends, family, wine tasting, food, pie making, ocean kayaking, snow, being a tourist, more food, old movies, board games, and food (did I mention lots of food?)

Stay tuned.

More of this adventure to come!

I don't know what got into me this week. I did something I had never done before in my life. I was at the grocery store with a list- a meal plan for the week. And I bought mushrooms. MUSHROOMS. It occurred to me as I was standing, perplexed, in front of all ten different varieties that this would be another "first" to mark up on my life list of things I've done. I can now pencil that in along side skiing, scuba diving, and going on an airplane trip by myself. It took me twenty-something years to get comfortable eating mushrooms. And when I say comfortable I mean buried in a lasagna or sprinkled among overpowering toppings on a pizza. Occasionally I'd indulge in a mushroom cap fried and oozing with cheese so cheesy you'd forget you were eating the mushroom at all. So, to buy mushrooms to make these was pretty brave of me if I do say so myself! And, it was amazing. 

I've been stressed this week. Without realizing it, every time I'm stressed I find myself throwing myself into the kitchen. I used to think about going to culinary school. Now I realize cooking could never be something that serious. It's my release. It's where I get away and have fun. It's where I can challenge myself and be creative in entirely different ways. So, this week I made soup, cornbread, mushroom thingies, chocolate chip cookies, and a bunch of other random stuff not photographed.

So enjoy, and please excuse the butter and eggs for not behaving in front of the camera.

Happy eating and Happy Thanksgiving.

rawr.

So I'm going along editing pictures of my beautiful bestie and her cute boyfriend and.... BAM! Suddenly, something about this picture leapt out and bit me. Her eyes. His slight smile. The light. The color. It's one of those moments every photographer hopes for. Not just a beautiful picture, but a picture that makes you FEEL. This one says "rawrrr."

Sheri and Luke, you're stunning. Can't wait to show you the rest of your pictures. And yes, Sheri, that means don't steal this one! Just wait and you'll get the bigger, better version, without my name on it. Promise.  :)

Full session coming soon!

I'll be honest, a lot of my time this week was spent in front of my computer and not behind my camera. However, I find this to not be very unusual. Especially if you're trying to be a photographer professionally. It snowed this week though and this little southern girl didn't know what to think. I was in Oklahoma two weeks ago where the days were warm and the leaves hadn't even changed yet. This probably explains why I had this conversation earlier in the week:

me:   "It's so COLD!"

chad:   "Well, It IS winter..."

me:   "No it's not. It's Fall. It's November. We just had Halloween. It's not even Thanksgiving yet! "

chad:    "Well, you live in Colorado now. Welcome to winter."

Have a warm week!

I turned 24 this week. My boyfriend "shaved" his head and I made a LOT of pumpkin pie- all for no reason but to eat it. No sharing this time people. We like our pumpkin pie a little too much around here. I learned recently that canned pumpkin isn't really pumpkin. I was very excited then, to turn my pumpkins into yummy pie- no cans involved! Yay for cooking from scratch! And yay for being young and healthy enough to put away a lot of pie. A lot.

in between.

My favorite parts of a wedding are the moments in between. Here are a few of my favorite details from a recent wedding I shot in Ouray, CO. at the gorgeously vintage Beaumont Hotel with the wonderful Kyla Jackson Photography.

enjoy!

I'm not the kind of girl who's too proud to buy myself a bouquet of flowers. So, I treated myself to a 12 day trip back home. It started out because my best friend begged me a few months ago to come home. Then I wanted badly to go to an OU football game and see familiar faces and familiar land that stretched as far as the eye could see. I wanted to spend 12 hours on the road there and back with nothing but my thoughts buckled safely in the passenger seat. I wanted to let loose and have a few beers with my closest friends. I wanted to get away from my computer. Get away from my boyfriend (sorry Chad!) And get closer to myself - the purest part of who I am. So a simple trip home turned into a birthday gift to myself, and I didn't even know it.

I've struggled the last year on where exactly "home" is anymore. In the last two weeks I have come to realize that home will always be Oklahoma. The endless sunsets, Braum's pumpkin shakes, and friends. 

I took a LOT of photos on this trip so stay tuned for more posts! But for now, here are a few of my favorite moments that took place between the lines.

Special thanks to my "best friend" Luke for the photos of me and Sheri.  :)