Weekly Photo Challenge: Create

            

          Initially I drew a blank for this challenge and wasn’t sure I had a photo to use. When I got to thinking, I realized that if there’s one thing we’re good at creating in my house it’s lovely meals. My boyfriend is what I call a “food snob” and he loves elaborate fancy meals. Lucky for me he likes to cook them as well and we are often trying new recipes and taking photos of our (more like his) creations.

            Last spring when his sister graduated with her masters degree, she wanted a home made sushi meal as her celebratory dinner. The two of them spent several hours in the kitchen preparing all the food and it was a lovely family meal. I was tasked with setting the table so I feel like I can take a little of the credit for the creating this time!

            

Stop To Eat The Yogurt

I have a confession to make: I’ve acquired a new obsession. I’ve only recently been introduced to the phenomenon that is U-Swirl Yogurt and now I can’t stop thinking about it.  My friend Sophie took me there for the first time last month and I dreamt about it for the next two nights. The concept is simple, it’s a frozen yogurt restaurant where you serve yourself and pay by weight.  It’s a bright, clean, minimalist set up. There are about a dozen different flavors lined up on the wall, each with a shiny silver lever for dispensing. Then there’s a looong toppings bar with anything you could ever want to top your dessert with (and some things you may not-candy rocks?) and at the end there’s a rack of syrups for drizzling. I’m not exactly sure why, but the whole thing brings me a great amount of joy.

Earlier this week, after a particularly rough day I decided to treat myself to a solo trip to U-Swirl on my way home. I sat quietly in the sun enjoying my creation and it was honestly a healing experience.

 

My "Buy 9 Get One Free" punch card is almost full. Each time I go, there’s a perfectly reasonable explanation for why it was okay to spend $5 on dessert in the middle of the day. Frozen yogurt is good for you, right? Plus I always put some fruit on it and that’s healthy. I like it to think I’m motivated to work out after I eat it but it’s actually usually a relaxing experience that doesn’t really motivate me to do much at all. I like to think that maybe U-Swirl is The Universe’s way of telling me to stop and take a break when I need it! I guess I’d better listen!

Weekly Photo Challenge: Close

              This is hands down my favorite photo of my pets. It was taken last summer when Jelly was still a young kitty. My boyfriend and I had been watching a movie and when we got off the couch and turned on the lights, this is how the pets were laying. They didn't even move when I got up for my camera. I love this picture because it is not only unbelievably cute but it really displays the rare bond that these two creatures share.

Weekly Photo Challenge: Friendship

            This week’s subject has proven more difficult than I expected. Initially I thought it was a no-brainer. Because I’m an only child my friends fill many roles for me. I have a few friends I’ve known for many years and by now our bonds feel much like what I imagine having a sibling would be like (in fact, I often refer to my friend Jake as “my brother from another mother”). I have many wonderful photos of me with friends but as I scrolled through them all I realized that the most important moments of our friendships are not ones that are typically photographed. When I lost my job a couple of years ago, my close friends rallied around me in a way I had never imagined. I couldn’t have made it through that experience without them but it’s tough to capture that in a photo. So while thinking about why I love my friends, I remembered a text picture that I received from my friend Melissa a couple months back.

            Of course this isn’t very significant without a back story, but that’s what’s so special about friendships. This wine comes from the winery owned by Dave Matthews (I happen to harbor a borderline obsessive love for Dave Matthews). I had a difficult time finding his wine when it first came out and in fact was able to get some at Target thanks to Melissa telling me she had seen some there. On this particular day, Melissa had seen the wine on sale for a price that she believed was actually a mistake and was giving me a heads up so that I might be able to get some. This sweet friend of mine has two beautiful little children plus a husband so I am sure that her time at the grocery store is not leisurely. When I saw that she had taken the time to take this photo & text me, I was touched and I remember thinking “Now that is friendship”.    

My Recent Guest

         Recently I was happy to have the chance to participate in a pretty cool project. I have a FaceBook friend who is an elementary school teacher in Pennsylvania. Several months back, she asked me if I'd be willing to have a "flat visitor". Her students had apparently been reading Flat Stanley books (click here if you don't know the story of Flat Stanley) and had created flat versions of themselves to mail to various locations. As the recipient of a flat student, my job was to show them around a place they'd never been and document it with photos I would then email to the teacher so the real student could see their travels.
          I was very excited when Flat Katie arrived but quickly realized it would be difficult to find the right times to take her out and about due to her size (she was almost as tall as me and had long limbs that like to flap in the Montana wind!). I managed to take her hiking once

and for a walk in our neighborhood

        I finally sent Flat Katie home shortly after Memorial Day and was pleased to hear the kids had enjoyed the photos and the letter I had sent. It was fun for me to share a little bit of this beautiful space I live in. 

Weekly Photo Challenge: Today

           

                              This week’s challenge required that I post a photo taken today.

            

       I took this photo this afternoon on my lunch break while out for a walk. I usually do the same lap on nice days to get out of the building to decompress. This is the view as I turn the final corner to head back to my office. I’ve lived in this town for five years and I’m still regularly in awe of the amazing scenery that surrounds us every day. It’s a reminder to me of why I choose to live here and sometimes I need that half way through a hectic work day!