Nectar & Light

our week was full of slow, quiet mornings and hectic afternoons brimming of laughter and chaos.  i mentioned earlier that it astonishes me how quickly we seem to have settled right back into our life in our little home.  yet, i am still working on the girls' room and there are some very blank walls in our living room.  i am trying to not be bothered by this, to be fair we moved in just two weeks ago - but there is something about a blank wall that does not comfort me.  i have a hundred ideas for some of the spaces and can not seem to commit - save for one - the area above the couch - i just ordered one of my own prints as a 30x30 gallery canvas wrap.  i have never printed my polaroids larger than 12x12 so this will be an interesting experience!

the rest of the house is doing quite well - and there is a peaceful calm in the home that did not exist before.  i have a strong inclination that is comes from the without - without baggage, without stuff, without 10 sets of dishes - without.  some of you may remember my post on things and about what we should hold on to and what we should purge.  well, purge we did.  years and years worth of things that no longer held a place in our hearts - we gave so much to our local Goodwill, they most likely took inventory for a month.  we did have to replace some things when we moved back into the house - but as opposed to have 20 different cooking utensils, I now have four.  instead of opening cabinets and having tupperware fall on my head, we have one set of four glass containers for leftovers.  instead of a random set of silverware, we are using my grandmother's silver - everyday.  it feels simpler, cleaner, easier.  and as i search for meaning in why our adventure had to be post-poned, i wonder if it was simply an exercise in learning to life simply.  too hot to go outside this weekend?  clean out our kitchen cabinets - you will feel like a new person...

have a lovely weekend friends...

xoox~jla 

finally, i want to thank all of your who pre-ordered a copy of for the love of light.  we have sold nearly 400 of the limited-edition copies!  and not only was i buried in boxes unpacking last week - i was also packaging and shipping all of the orders - yes, they have shipped save for a few international orders that will go out tomorrow.  i do hope you love it, i am so proud of the book and the photographers who participated.  if you would still like a copy, there are a few left here ;)

i hope to drop in again later this week, in the meantime, thank you so much friends - you all make it so worth every moment!

xoox~jla

when anne {who runs the "sneak peek" column on design*sponge} contacted me a month or so ago and asked if i might be interested in sharing my home with the readers of d*s, i was thrilled and said absolutely.  oh - wait a second.  i don't currently have a home, i thought.  after some discussion anne thought it would be fun to share some of the shots of the house before we moved out - and possibly, in the coming weeks, a second run of what it looks like now.  above is a sneak peek of the new dining room and here you can find the post at design*sponge.  thank you to grace and anne for extending the invite - it is an honor!

to my husband - i adore you endlessly and am so very proud of who you are - as a husband, a father and a human being.  have a wonderful day my love...

thank you, thank you.  thank you for your support, sweet words and kindness.  we spent the week really settling into the house and it feels like home again - it is almost surreal how quickly we fell right back into it - i hope to chat about it in more detail later this week.  but i wanted to thank you all from the depths of my soul...

and i hope you had a wonderful weekend.  we played in the new backyard, grilled salmon and feasted on caprese salad and grilled baguettes; and took the girls to their first concert - Fiest gave a free concert at Memorial Park - just a few blocks from our front door.  a wonderful weekend filled with reminders that life is truly what we make of it, to take every twist and turn with grace and to love where you are right this moment, regardless of where your passport will soon be taking you...

xoox~jla

hello friends - i do hope you are enjoying your summer immensely.  well... we do have some news to share.  i have to say that i have been rather hesitant to sit down and write this post as it will make the decision that much more solidified.  mainly due to the nearly inexistent american housing market - our voyage to italy has been put on hold; we are moving back into the house this weekend and hope to try to sell again when the market turns in a year or so.  it has been rather like a roller coaster ride as we tried to decide what was best for our family, both financially as well as emotionally.  in the end it makes the most sense to us to try and wait the downturn of the market out.  we returned from atlanta a week ago now and have spent nearly everyday trying to get the house ready to accept us again.  i have a difficult time stepping backwards and this has been my biggest hurdle over the last week.  changing the paint colors, moving some furniture around - adding some new pieces - and my sweet, wonderful father-in-law who basically re-created our entire backyard to include a new bricked patio and two new vegetable gardens helps make the experience feel as if maybe this is a new journey and we are not slipping back into a mirrored reflection of our lives just three months ago.  the decision had seemed like such an easy one at the time - this is what we want for our family - let's do it.  but maybe slowing down, stepping back again and realizing where we are must be where we are meant to be at this time, has helped put it into prospective. 

so, i do hope you stick around for more adventures here as opposed to abroad - but we hope those adventures will come one day very soon - i, of course, will keep you posted.  and i have to believe that we at least obtained the girls' passports for some immediate purpose - maybe that means some jaunts in the meantime...

have a wonderful holiday weekend - i hope to be back in full swing in the next week or so.

be well friends...

xoox~jla

p.s. the new Photo Trade theme will be announced by 11 july

our first real trip alone together since having children - the kind of trip that includes room service.  i am not sure i am ready to be honest.  my husband has a conference in atlanta next week and we are flying out early tomorrow morning to spend some time with my family first.  i am so very excited as we will be staying here - but fearing that i will be crying myself to sleep every night from being so far away from the girls - okay, i am sure it won't be that bad but 10 days is a long time.  the day we arrive home, my husband's parents will be visiting through the holiday weekend - needlesstosay, posts will be sparse in the next few weeks. enjoy the sweet summer and i hope to share some news with you when i get back and some summer recipes i hope you will love, including my favorite summer cocktail...

be well friends...

xoox~jla

p.s.  just added the photograph above and this one to my shop - and there are just a few postcard sets left as well... 

i do hope you weekend is full of wonderment - thank you for all of the amazing comments this week - everyone needs to find their own way in what is right for their family, and you have all reminded me of that in so many ways - thank you.  some link love for the weekend:

~ so excited to finally snag one of these - she has a few more designs in the shop now - aren't they exquisite?

~ this beautiful photo that i keep coming back to - summer softness and warmth...

~ loving this gorgeous portfolio;

~ exploring here;

~ and finally catching SATC with a good girlfriend who recently launched a wonderfully honest, funny and poignant blog all about motherhood and all that it entails.

enjoy!

xoox~jla

i am so intrigued by the dialog going in this post.  it is so wonderful to hear that so many are going through the same process and in turn, the same struggles.  i feel so blessed - so blessed that i have the opportunities to make these types of decisions for my family - when there are so many who can not.  but regardless of what you do to make changes - everything counts.  my husband and i joke that we are so spurned on to take action because of our guilt over what we drive - his company, which he founded just three years ago, sees to it that this will be our mode of transportation for some time.  in turn, we do everything else we can to make up for it - so to speak.  but he is now researching means of making these engines nearly twice as efficient - everything counts; i carry these religiously - i don't remember the last time i brought a plastic or paper bag home and we try to purchase items with the least amount of excess packaging - everything counts.  so one day at a time, one challenge at a time.  thank you all for reminding me of this and thank you for all of your insightful comments and sharing your experiences - i hope this is just the beginning. 

xoox~jla

p.s.  you must visit jen's new space - i can not wait to see the beauty to come...

nearly two years ago - just before the impending holiday season - my husband and i caught the documentary 'super size me' on television.  we watched in awe as morgan spurlock subjected himself daily to the calorie and fat packed diet that was his experiment.  but the profile that exposed the average contents of a child's lunch box, and subsequently what was available to them in the cafeterias at school, is what shocked us the most.  we decided at that moment that we were done.  done with fast food, done with simply choosing the best bargain at the grocer, done with the bliss of the unknown - the unknown being what we were putting into our bodies - and more importantly, our children's.

i became, and still am, a compulsive label reader.  the first victim to be kicked squarely in the pants and directly out of our pantry was high fructose corn syrup {HFCS}.  for those of you who know what this genetically modified sweetener is capable of, you will know this is a good way to start.  but this is also where it ended.  we had expelled HFCS from our lives - and it is a challenge, i assure you; it is in everything from ketchup and bread to granola bars and iced tea.  but, we felt that particular challenge was met and life went on.

after a few months however, on busy days in particular - i found myself steering into the drive-thrus of places i had cursed just months before.  i think i was becoming a little lazy, pretending not to pay attention.  but over the last few months my husband and i have been doing a great deal of reading not only about the problems with the average american diet in general, but it's environmental impact on the world at large as well.  and we have been making better choices because of it.  we have always purchased organic milk, fruit and vegetables as well as cage-free eggs {after reading an expose about the average chicken farm i was mortified} - but it is becoming greater than that - words and phrases such as slow food, back to the earth and carbon footprint suddenly resonate very deeply.  i find myself endlessly inspired by women like heidi swanson, author of All Natural Cooking - her outlook and guidance through the road map of natural ingredients is a resource that should be in every cook's library.

and... we have stopped eating meat.  the reasons seemed to come to a head all at once.  firstly, i ate about a half of a cow on memorial day {okay, not that much - but it was a really, really big hamburger} and that night i read the chapter in this book about extracting the morrow from cow bones - finally, i have been reading and re-reading this beautiful post by nicole.  and suddenly i realized - for so many reasons, some above and some not listed, i really don't want meat in my diet any longer.  i am not saying that i will never eat a hamburger again, but it feels right for our family at this moment.

and this brings me to my final thought - we do everything we can to better ourselves and our environment in the process.  but is there a line and when {or should} we ever cross it?  this thought came to me while ordering breakfast at my favorite greasy spoon, "i wonder if they use cage-free eggs?"  i realized that i could simply ask - but did i want to know the answer?   does every choice we make - no matter how seemingly insignificant, contribute {or possibly take from} the greater cause here?  what choices have you made that impact your diet and the earth, do you allow yourself to toe that proverbial line?  when does responsibility truly challenge resonability?

would love to hear your thoughts...

xoox~jla

p.s. nicole has inspired me to start planting veggies - i am getting ready to bury my hands in the earth!  thank you friend ~xoox

i can't lie.  i was rather giddy with joy when kristina asked me to be a part of the in the kitchen with series on design*sponge.  and i was overcome with giddiness when i saw it posted on d*s this morning.  so if you are in desperate need of some weekend sweetness, head over for my recipe for chocolate-walnut mandelbrot!

have a lovely weekend!

xoox~jla

thank you, thank you for the response to the book.  it has been a bit overwhelming and i still have a good deal of work cut out for me when the books arrive on my doorstep the first week of july - i love that sales are literally coming in from around the world - thank you!  this cup of love is for you - have a wonderful weekend and if you are in search for some inspiration, be sure to check out the photographers who so generously provided work for the book - they are my favorites - obviously. ;)

xoox~jla

p.s. and thanks jen for reminding me to get my tail in gear for this - another project i am so proud to be a part of!

i can hardly believe it is finally time.  for the love of light:  a tribute to the art of polaroid is ready.  the website launched this afternoon and we will be accepting pre-sales starting tomorrow at noon cst.  this has been such a labor of love for me and i feel so close to all of the amazing photographers who are apart of this project - i hope you love it as much as we do...

xoox~jla

p.s. EDITED on 5 June -  buy it now!!

as we age i think we become more and more aware that life is anything but black and white.  we tend to see things, if not in technicolor, in shades of gray.  there are obviously moral and ethical rights and wrongs that for the most part remain unquestioned in our minds, but life in general - the everyday - is becoming less and less about absolutes.  

i am feeling overwhelmed with confusion and emotion about what shall ever-after be termed as "Our Little Project".  my anxiety is reaching levels that i have not experienced since last trying to sell our home when i was 7 months pregnant {not a bright idea for anyone who might think otherwise}.  as you can imagine, a great deal of this stress is coming from the fact that our house has yet to sell - but it's not just us, nothing is really selling right now.  so, me, being all sorts of the over-thinking type, begins to wonder if Our Little Project is ill-fated.  i turn it over and over in my head - is this a sign, are we not supposed to be leaving Omaha - why can we not free ourselves from that house?  i love the house, i love the house so very much, so it makes the questions that much more difficult to turn over in my mind.  and then there is Italy - that was the plan after all.  so at what point do you say, never mind.  or do you say - we shall charge ahead the uncharted road and see what could happen? 

stepping back, i can see with a touch of clarity that i need to do something, i am unsure what - that part is still a very rainy day - but it is so hard for me right now to just let go - i need some control over the situation and i think i may know where to find it:  in our pj days.  our pj days started as a weekend tradition in the winter - but they have crept up on us again like a winter frost - we are aching to shake the icy frost from our limbs.  so i am making a concious effort to get everyone dressed in the morning and out of the house everyday, whether for a walk, a trip to the grocers or an afternoon at the zoo.  it is my diversion as to not obsessing about everything else going on and reiterates to my girls that all is right and we will find happiness, joy and fulfillment wherever we are in the world.

xoox~jla

p.s. i am re-reading this and it sounds so scattered - i am sorry - i just needed to out it into words.

i am a bit overwhelmed with trying to finish the book this week - and oh yes, being a good mother to my girls at the same time - a challenge when on a deadline i assure you.  i wanted to pop in and thank you again for the support of the sale over in my shop - there are just a few sets left - thank you, thank you.  and to leave you with some beautiful link love - hope to pop in on friday... until then, happy browsing:

~ amalia's wondrous portfolio;

~ one day hannah is going to be famous;

~ a favorite new {to me} space;

~ and this {more on my current obsession with this woman coming soon}.

enjoy, enjoy and enjoy...

xoox~jla

{the image above was shot last weekend with the hasselblad - i feel like i should share when i post any non-polaroid shots as the new tag line indicates that this is a polaroid blog - i am strange that way.}

good morning - i am so energized by all of the work i got done on the book this weekend.  i can't wait to share more with you.  i hope to have more news in the next week or so, but i am so excited watching this project truly take shape {you can sneak a peek at a teaser of one of the possible covers here}.  and in other news:

~ i am sure you noticed that i freshened up the blog a bit - summer is starting to gently creep into my limbs and when the seasons change, i tend to change a lot of things around me - i also wanted to mark my first 6 months back with something new - hope you don't mind ;)

~ i updated the shop with new prints and a sale.  all of the note cards are 50% off to clear room for some new things i hope to add soon - any order over $50 will also receive a free set of note cards;

~ above is one of the photographs i submitted to pia's inspiring project, 'my heart wanders'.  if you are interested in submitting work - do so soon - there is only 20 days left.

enjoy and be well...

xoox~jla

p.s.  thank you so much for the response to the sale this morning - i am nearing my '100th' item sold - who ever purchases that 100th item will receive a free 8x8 print of their choice - thank you so much friends!

spring is:  sweaters & skits+dappled sunshine+cool evenings+curls flouncing+trike riding+sandals+green+warm days with delightful breezes+rain+tapping on the roof like a lover at the door+filling the air with mist & promises+color+smiles+happiness.

a few things to check in on over the weekend:

~ my friend anna's new blog highlighting her beautiful photography;

~ the heady beauty of heartdew {via anna};

~ new flickr favorites here & here;

~ trying to read this and get my mind off of this {the most delicious book i have read in ages}

~ listening to this {alone} & this {with my girls};

~ and hopefully shooting more film {like the shot of ayla running about above}.

have a truly beautiful weekend friends...

xoox~jla

 

i am sorry for the lack of posts last week - days after arriving home from atlanta, my brother's family came into town to stay with us for the week.  it was the last chance to spend some time with him before he deploys for the fourth time.  it is a very emotional time for me, he is my baby brother and seeing him as a man - one who has created a beautiful family with a caring wife, and two gorgeous daughters is surreal at times.  but it is the life he has chosen, his unselfish and unwavering devotion to America that moves me to tears nearly every time he walks across the landscape of my thoughts.  truly, it is the angry growl of his Harley that i hear first - then his face comes into focus - the boy i love so and the man i respect endlessly.   please pray for his safe return...

{above:  adie on his bike the day before he left}

a good monday friends!  a hope you all had a wonderful weekend.  i am so proud to share with you all that i have been asked to be the guest contributor at everyday polaroid this week.  while i wanted to share bits of my everyday life with the readers, i also wanted to do something a bit different - so please pop over if you would like to follow the adventures of the glass dove this week.

also, be sure to check out the new volume of lines & shapes featuring the work of one of my favorite photographers, maditi, who is also contributing to for the love of light. 

have a wonderful day friends!

xoox~jla

My mother:  is the most beautiful woman i have ever seen+is the reason i am a good mother+reminds me everyday that life is what we make of it+is the most gentle soul ever created+giving+unconditional+open-minded+open-hearted+a rock star+a beauty queen+a princess and the pea+a dirty martini+she is the woman that i most admire+my light+my rock+my mother.

My girls:  without whom i would feel incomplete+bring endless joy to my soul+remind me to stay young+remind me to have a wonderful time no matter the task+make me so proud to call you my daughters+amaze me with your insights and depth of emotion+remind me that you will not always be so young and that the strength and beauty of the bond we cultivate now will only flourish as we age together.

To all of the mother's in my life, the mother's who read my little space here, the mother's to be - may you always love and be loved unconditionally and without question; may you cherish the bond with women in your life and remember that we are the soul and eternal element that defines the world.

Happy Mother's Day to all... have a lovely weekend friends...

xoox~jla

p.s.  my mom and i on cape hatteras in 1977