Hi friends. How are you all?

It's been awfully quiet on this blog lately, hasn't it? I wish there were an extra hour in each day for me to sit down and post something wonderful for you all. Something fabulous and juicy with lots of delicious photos to scroll through. But instead, I've been busy working on something that has been neglected for far too long.

Me.

Oh how selfish that sounds! But it's the truth. After 8 months solid of traveling and shooting and workingworkingdon'tstopworking, this little heart of mine needed a break. Some rest. Time to sleep. To go out to dinner with friends. To spend a Sunday -- yes, all Sunday, without breaks -- laying on the couch, in front of the fire, watching silly movies that I've seen 7 times before. Time to cook and chop and boil and bake and stand in my kitchen soaking up all the delicious scents. Time to drive down to yoga class and let my body remember how it feels to twist and stretch and
just. lay. still.

Of course I'm still busy processing images and designing albums and shooting various projects, but it's been so nice to have a little time to be quiet. To find balance in my life again. I think that's important as a photographer...it's important no matter what you do, really. We need to take the time to find our inner peace and energy that help make us the amazing people we are and that help drive the beautiful little creations we make from each day.

This past weekend I made a cake. A huge decadent chocolate cake.... And for no reason at all. It wasn't anyone's birthday, we weren't celebrating... I just felt like making a cake. And believe me when I say that words cannot describe how delicious this cake was. It was UNbelievable. And the other night, I went to a book fair. I spent two and a half hours wandering around a big old warehouse packed solid with books as far as the eye could see. And the place was filled with people! Book lovers of all kinds came out of every nook to come out to this building and feast their eyes on a million and one different titles. It was wonderful and crazy and I stood in line for an hour and it was worth every minute. Oh....how I needed to do these things.

And tonight I'm packing up for my flight down to North Carolina to visit my sister and my niece and nephew.... And my parents, who just finished moving into their new house a block away.... And my other sister is flying down, too, with her 3 kiddos. I am SO looking forward to it all. I really can't imagine a better way to spend a few days....surrounded by my family, who I don't see often enough anymore.

So before I go, one more sweet little Zen moment from my last wedding. This shot just makes me happy. I feel like you can hear the wind blowing through the grass when you look at it....

Hope you all find a little time to breathe, or bake, or stretch, or play....or whatever it is that makes your heart feel light.

Friday night we took Gabe, Liam, and Ty out trick-or-treating. Liam's the only one old enough to really get what's going on, and this was his first big Halloween adventure. He was so excited, he actually refused to take his costume off for another 3 hours after his spin around the neighborhood. Gabe & Ty tolerated their fuzzy costumes and passed out halfway around the block -- which is about all you can ask from 4-month olds.

I think this is the first image I've posted of my nephew Gabe, which is a crime since he is so stinking adorable. I still have to post his baby shots. I'm a little late on those. Anyway, this weekend was the first time we saw Gabe smile and ....oh.....once you get one of those sweet little chunky-cheeked grins, you'll make all the ridiculous faces in the world to get more.

Liam was Curious George! He was completely in love with his costume.

Liam: "Hands? Hands? Hands?!"

Gabe the chunky-cheeked dragon and Ty the floppy-eared Ty-ger.

Liam wanted to introduce us all to his cousin Gabe. He was nice enough to point him out.

We realized afterward that Gabe would have made a darn good Barack Obama.

Oh those little pink ears...can you handle them?

Everybody loves a baby dragon.

A quick animated treat from my photo shoot in NYC yesterday. It moves kind of slowly until the whole page loads, and then it really takes off.... So if you're patient, you'll get the full effect (it's worth it, I promise).

I wish I had been able to record the audio from this, too -- the singing that went along with it was priceless.

So....you may remember last yearish when I had all of these fun posts from minidigi (our little point and shoot cam). And you may or may not remember that one day, the minidigi posts just kind of....stopped. Well, I am so SO happy to announce that minidigi has returned!!!

Here's the story: Last year on the Saturday before Halloween, a big group of us got all decked out in ridiculous costumes and went out for a very fun, cocktail-filled evening on the town in North Carolina to celebrate my sister's birthday. We dined on fabulous food. We danced like fools. We lost each other on the streets of downtown Wilmington. And found each other again. We even bumped into the one and only Chad Michael Murray and chatted for a bit, thanks to our friend Michelle whose acting career is currently booming as a result of several appearances on Mr. CMM's show, One Tree Hill.

Moving on...at the end of this wonderful evening, some terrible and surely doomed person was tempted into criminal behavior when they swiped my innocent and beloved minidigi. I was crushed. Terribly sad. And also extremely relieved. I suppose if I had to lose something, I was much happier that it wasn't one of my real cameras.

Since the theft, Jed and I have been on the hunt for a new minidigi in our free time. And since neither of us really has any free time, we actually did a lot of talking about how we needed to get a new point and shoot, and not a whole lot of actual shopping.

So anyway, I'm outside hanging laundry out the other day when my wonderful, sweet neighbor pops her head out and we start chatting. She's a fabulous painter and in the last few months, she's also begun perfecting her photo skills. She mentions this new point and shoot that she just picked up, and my ears perk up. She brings it out. I take it for a spin. It's pretty nice. I go home. I walk up the stairs to the computer. I click. I find. I buy.

Our new baby arrived the other day and after charging her up, I did what I always do when I get a new camera -- brought it over to the barn to test out the shutter on my other baby. I wasn't sure at first, but after downloading and re-checking, I'm happy to say I'm in love.

And the best new minidigi award goes to..... the Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ5 with a supersweet 28mm Leica lens. YUM.

When I accidentally capture my horse's runny nose in perfect focus with a silly little point and shoot, I'm pretty darn happy.

Welcome home, new minidigi.