learning how to knit.

Quite a few years ago I bought some knitting needles and some yarn and then I immediately failed to learn how to knit. But the funny thing is.. I didn't even try. That's like ultimate failure. Then a few years ago I thought I'd try and after about 5 minutes of effort I got some yarn on a needle and stopped there. I referred to it as a caterpillar. Failure again. But not really failure either time because I couldn't figure out.. just because I wasn't even close to trying. I don't even think it should count as trying.

I've always wanted to knit. I've always been envious of knitters. So... I finally learned!

Last night I spent a little bit of time looking around for a knitting video that made sense to me. After finding one and watching it with yarn and needles in hand I had myself a littler caterpillar again.



And then it turned into a line.



And from a line it turned into a stripe.



And now it looks something like this...



It's still not anything. But it's a knitted not anything. And it's blue. And I made it. And I'm proud.

I encourage you to learn how to knit because:
- It's so easy.
- You can make things for yourself.
- You can make things for others.
- You will never waste another minute of your life.

Let me elaborate for a minute about that last one. Sometimes when I learn or do something new I get a little (or a lot) bummed about how my life would have been so much better and/or different had I had this skill or knowledge previously. So think with me for a bit, if you will, about all of the times that I have had to sit and wait for something over the course of my life. Time spent on public transportion, being bored in class, in a doctor's office, waiting for someone to get off of work, etc. I HAVE WASTED SO MUCH OF MY LIFE. If I would have known how to knit I could have been knitting. I could have been accomplishing something.

So. Let me recover from being upset about wasting my life...

Okay. Now I will look forward to all of the neat things I will be able to knit, especially while waiting for things. Like today while I waited for Olive to wake from a car nap while running errands. I worked on my stripe until it no longer resembled a strip. Progress!

Click here to see the video that helped me a bunch.

homemade almond milk.

We've been drinking a lot of almond milk lately. Out of a desire to lessen on dairy intake, out of pleasure, and just because. A few weeks ago I purchase Silk brand almond milk as it was on sale at a local chain grocery store. Unfortunately I didn't pay any attention to the ingredient list until I got home - there were a lot more than I was expecting and some pretty weird and probably unnecessary things. Other than that one time I have been buying Blue Diamond brand almond milk from one of the local co-ops (they don't carry Silk almond milk). Blue Diamond has a lot less ingredients than Silk but still more than simply almonds and water. I saw a photo of fresh almond milk on Instagram last week and decided I would give it a try. Depending on the ease of making it, the cost effectiveness, and the quality I was prepared to make it a regular occurrence in our home, much like making butter.

So here is what I did...

For all of the steps you will need:
1 cup of raw almonds (organic if possible!)
Around 10 cups of water
Some sort of sweetener (I used a tablespoon of maple syrup)
A towel
A fine strainer and/or cheesecloth
A blender
A few containers

This makes approximately one half gallon of almond milk.

** Update ** Due to my container size and finding our desired strength of almond milk I now use 3/4 cup of almonds and 6-7 cups of water.



First being by taking 1 cup of almonds and putting them in a bowl. Cover the almonds with water and then cover the bowl with a towel and place it somewhere cool. Let the almonds soak in the water for 24-48 hours. If you soak them for more than 24 hours empty the water once, rinse the almonds, and cover them with water again. The almonds will absorb water and become quite plump.





After the 24-48 hours rinse the almonds and discard the soaking water.



Put the almonds into your blender or into a large container if you're using an immersion blender. Add 7 cups of water and then blend. The water will quickly turn white and frothy so blend until you think there are no large almonds left. This is a bit more challenging with an immersion blender so move it around and do your best to find all of the almonds. Add your sweetener and blend again.





After everything is blended pour it through a strainer and/or cheesecloth and into the container you wish to store the almond milk in.







You will be left with almond milk and almond meal. The almond meal is the ground up almond pieces. This can later be used to make grain free pancakes, be added to baked goods, and more.



In my experience the immersion blender missed a few almonds so I was left with almond milk that tasted a little watered down. It will take a few tries to completely get the hang of it and to hone in on my preferred consistency and flavor. You can play around with the ratio of almonds to water and sweetener as well until you get exactly what you're looking for.

If desired you can remove the peels of the almonds after soaking but before blending. This will change the flavor slightly and you will be left with almond flour after blending rather than almond meal.

Here is a photo comparison of my almond milk (on the left) and Blue Diamond almond milk (on the right).





The cost of a half gallon of Blue Diamond almond milk is $4.19 and the cost of approximately two cups of almonds is $2.47. Two cups of almonds yields one gallon of almond milk so cut that cost in half and you see that $4.19 vs less than $1.25 is a wonderful deal. Of course there is more time involved in making almond milk yourself and a few additional costs including the energy to blend it, water, sweetener, and cheesecloth, if used. But you gain a fresh homemade beverage without any added ingredients. So... give it a try and let me know what you think! :)

an exotic engagement session.

It's wonderful to have an oasis like the Como Conservatory in St. Paul, Minnesota to visit in the midst of the winter months. While winter weather still hasn't fully arrived yet (it seems to be rather late this year), outdoor photos aren't often an option. It's chilly outside, it may be snowing or raining, and most people would rather not brave the elements.

For a small fee Como Conservatory allows a photographer to photograph up to two people for thirty minutes in the various Conservatory garden rooms. I visited there about two weeks ago with this nice couple who will be getting married next year. We quickly made the rounds in the gardens and were able to capture some great moments and it looks like we went somewhere pretty exotic and warm. :)















Congratulations! I cannot wait to photograph the wedding!! :)

(Feel free to leave comments here or visit my photography website and give me some feedback there!)

sisters!

Nearly two weeks ago I visited the home of the two lovely girls below. It's always a challenge photographing an infant AND a toddler so I make sure to take quite a few photos in hopes of finding a few gems. :) The girls had some time together as well as some session time all to themselves. Below are some of my favorites... Enjoy!! :)

our wish list.

Olive and I have created a wish list for Christmas and our birthdays (2/20 and 3/10 respectively). If you're curious and/or you're someone that we typically exchange gifts with check it out! :)

an autumn family session.

Here are a few photos from a recent family portrait session. We were lucky enough to get these photos taken the day before the first snow of the season! There is a nice little park across the street from the couple's home - their home can be seen behind them in a few of the photos. :)

Olive joined me for this session. She kept us entertained by crawling around in the mulch - eating it and getting it stuck all over her. And then the baby girls got in a little play time. :)

my thoughts on black friday.

I've been meaning to write a post sharing with you my thoughts on Black Friday but, big surprise, I haven't gotten around to it until now when Black Friday is long gone. Actually, from here on out I will no longer capitalize black Friday. It is not deserving. (Does that give you a clue as to how I feel about the day?) I've had mini discussions on the topic with friends in person and Twitter friends. I would like to attempt to get all of my thoughts out here and maybe, just maybe, change your mind (assuming you're not as crazy against black Friday as I am).

Let me start off by saying I completely understand. I understand the desire to get good deals. I understand the desire of a company or corporation to make money. I'm not against good deals and profits.. I'm against the manner in which they are obtained in this particular instance.

Take a moment to imagine with me, if you will, what black Friday very well may look like a few years from now. You may think I'm going overboard but I'm not. When I was younger there were sales the day after Thanksgiving. Just some really great sales. Great. More recently these sales have become rather intense and stores have extended their operating hours. I first became aware of this a few years ago, while living here in Minnesota, when some store like Herbergers or something was open 24 hours at a time. I found that absurd. I should have seen what was coming! The rate in which black Friday intensity has increased is so dramatic over the past three years that I can only imagine it will snowball into something resembling black week. During black week stores will be open 24 hours every day - including Thanksgiving. Think that's a stretch? I don't.

Companies these days care about profits and only profits. They do not care about their employees (don't let them fool you... they really don't care) and they do not care about their customers (again... don't let them fool you). Capitalism is king in our country and people are... nothing. And what are most of us doing? We're buying into the whole darn thing because everyone is getting so stinking materialistic I want to scream.

Yes, maybe you can get a great deal on a giant television on black friday. But do you need it? If I can't afford it on any other day I'm not going to buy into the absurdity of this crazy day, punch someone in the face, camp out in the cold, to get my hands on something as unnecessary as a television. If I can't afford it any other day it's probably something I can live without.

This is a slight tangent but I can't forget... The thought of parents bringing their children with them to this black Friday stuff nearly makes me sick. It's a terrible terrible lesson. It's already hard to resist media telling us we need so many things.. black Friday magnifies that times a billion.

I read an article from the perspective of someone that works in retail who was pretty down on all of the black Friday haters because she sympathized with the employers. Retail is about working, she said. You don't get many days off. If you think you do... you're in the wrong business. Okay.. BUT! Most people are not in retail by choice, most people work retail out of necessity for a job.. to provide for their families.. the families that they cannot celebrate holidays with because of their stupid jobs. What a vicious cycle.

As I said before I understand the desire to get a good deal. But, dear little stores, why can you not operate only during your regular hours? You will still sell that silly doorbuster if you open at 9:00 rather than midnight (or maybe they're banking on sleep deprived irrational midnight decisions? Oh yeah... clearly they care about you, clearly). One store started it so now they all have to follow suit because that one store can't nab all of the profit. I likened this situation to when I used to work at Starbucks. I hated the opening shifts. Not too many customers would come in at 5:00 and those that did usually bought only coffee.. nothing fancy. Now, is it too hard to make coffee for yourself at 5:00? If Starbucks did not open until 7:00 everyone would deal with it and they would make coffee at home and it would be okay. But corporations do these things to increase their profits and what do we do? We eat it up like a swarm of mosquitos flying into a bug zapper. Awesome.

Personally I have decided, if I can manage, to not spend a single dollar at any store that operates outside of it's typical hours this holiday season. This may prove slightly difficult when I have a giftcard to use up or if someone asks for something found at only one store. But I will do my best and I hope that you'll join me. These corporations and companies respond to their profits.. if they see a reduced turn out and smaller profit it may encourage them to lessen their operating hours. I can only hope that there are enough of us out there that feel this way and can possibly do some talking with our pocketbooks before we start seeing a black week. Because... gross. We'll just have to move to a not so material country if that happens. As a culture we need to take a huge step back from material things. It's really getting out of hand.

Please share with me how you feel about black Friday. I'm really interested in hearing other opinions!