Life In Limbo

Everyday Beauty: Week One

January 11, 2013

One of my goals for January was to seek out the everyday beauty in my daily life. So far, it’s worked wonderfully, and I’ve had a great time doing it! I bought a new photo-editing app for my iPhone that I really like, and I’ve been having a great time tweaking my photos. The photos you see above were all taken by my iPhone, which is why, if you click on them the quality of the larger-size photo may not be very high. But using my phone lets me capture the more spontaneous moments more easily than my big camera would. In coming weeks, I’ll probably have a combination of pictures from both my camera and my phone.

These were all small, for the most part quiet (with the exception of the first one!) moments in my first week of 2013. So far, it’s been awesome! A lot of reading, a lot of cozy time indoors, a lot of eating. I hope it can continue like this for the rest of the year. ;)

Project 365: The End

January 10, 2013

The above picture is a mock-up of my Project 365 Blurb Book! I am anxiously awaiting its arrival, and I’ll post a few photos of it once it gets here. I had always intended to print my photos from 2012 into a book, and needless to say I cannot wait to flip through all the pages of photos from this past year. I didn’t quite make it to 365 (I lost about a week, somewhere or other) but you can see my Project 358 photos in their entirety here!

I’m really happy I chose to do this project. It’s true that my photography has improved by a lot from the beginning of the year to now, and I’m proud of that. At the same time, I have been relieved not to have to scrounge around my badly-lit apartment for a decent photo on days when I am feeling busy and uninspired. I’m conflicted about this! Part of me thinks that searching out beauty in the everyday is important (it’s one of my goals for January, after all!). The other part of me thinks that being creative shouldn’t feel like a total chore. I was starting to resent doing this project every single day. So I’m giving myself a little time to “detox” from the project, and giving myself permission to take photos that inspire me and make me happy, whenever that may be. I’ve also been using my iPhone to take photos much more, which I’ve enjoyed (it’s easier, and always with me). We will see how 2012 goes from here re: photography!

November + December

January 9, 2013

Here it is, the last video of 2012! I had a really fun time making this one – I loved the music, and getting a chance to look back on all of 2012 was really fun. It helped me realize just how wonderful the year was, even if it didn’t always feel like it at the time.

I don’t know whether I’ll be doing monthly videos this year. I’m happy to not have the goal, it makes me feel freer. So maybe I’ll just do videos whenever I capture moments, when I feel like it.

Either way, I’m sharing it here just for fun. Happy Wednesday!

Best Brussels Sprouts

January 8, 2013

Okay, everybody and my mother (literally: my mom is reading this and rolling her eyes) is sick of hearing about my newfound love for brussels sprouts. I’m sorry, I am. But also, I’m not. Because they are so good! And I am so happy to be incorporating new veggies into my world. Also, please note that there is a great big love for these sprouts all over the internet right now (check ’em out here and here, for starters), so I am not alone.

Here’s what I do (original recipe I used is here!): for one serving (me, myself & I), I use about 7 sprouts. I lop off their stems and peel off the dirty/old first layer. Then I chop them up, usually into eighths, then diagonally slice off any bits of the stem that remain. I pan-fry them in butter, letting them get nice and browned. After a couple minutes I usually add a couple chopped cloves of garlic or a little onion, and salt to taste. A couple minutes after that, I add some chopped pecans. Stir it up until the sprouts are fairly tender, then add parmesan cheese! Delish. I fry a couple of eggs and put them on top and eat as is. For real, so good + easy too.