Himalayan Salt Lamp >>>

My sweet friend Katelyn brought this beautiful himalayan salt lamp to me as a gift when she came to stay with me.  I replaced my bedside lamp with it, and I cant even express what a difference it has made in the atmosphere in my bedroom.  It is soooo beautiful to look, that it just makes my heart swoon.  I love that it is much softer than my normal lamp to read by, so James can actually fall asleep easier while I read.  I like to stay up and read and he snoozes within second of hitting the pillow.  And, James like to lick my lamp.  I licked it once or twice, but he keeps licking it, ha ha.  Beyond its yummy taste, Ive never seen a prettier lamp.  And reading about them, its awesome to know all of their benefits, beyond just their beauty.

Now, between this and having the record player in the bedroom, Id say its just about perfect.  Now I just need to get my Portishead Dummy album on vinyl, and it will be complete.

Instagram Love >>>

Here are just a few sneak peeks of some of the photos we took for the next Bohemian Collective lookbook.  These are ipod shots of images on my computer, so of course they are very grainy, discolored, and not full frame... the last one is a sneak of a shoot I did with Katelyn, which I will bring to the blog in a few days.  You can see a real sneak peek over on the collectives blog here.

Speaking of ipod, we might be going to get me an iphone today!!!  Technically in a few days it will be mine.  James phone is up for a super cheap upgrade, so hell be getting it, and then transferring over to my phone line a few days later.  Sweet man, huh??  Hell wait to get his until my phone is up for an upgrade sometime next year.  Im excited to join the iphone world.  I know how much I already love my little ipod, which before I had I thought I would not care for it... Dear instagram won my heart.  btw, my handle on instagram is lauramazurek, if you wanna follow along.

These are just camera pics we took from our first river adventure while Katelyn was here.  It was probably one of my favorite moments from the whole trip.  Katelyn has her work cut out for her with editing almost 300 photos for this lookbook.  Each time she sends me another edited shot, I get more and more excited for the release!  Its so hard to hold back sometimes!!!

Soulful Soup >>>

While Katelyn was here she made the most amazing golden split pea curried soup. It was soooooo good!!! I snapped these pics of her while she picked herbs from my garden and made it with her baby on her back.

Between the two of us, we had four bunches of bananas!  It was pretty hilarious.  Oh, and she also made two batches of yummy brownies that we devoured, (mostly James).  

Speaking of food, I am starting a 10 day juice/smoothie/light raw food fast.  Today is day one for me, and so far its going pretty good.  Im feeling a bit more hungry than usual, and am starting to anticipate tomorrow being much worse.  But Im going with the flow of it.  I used a juicer (thank you mama) for the first time today and absolutely loved it!!!  Im hooked.  I need to start saving my pennies to get myself one.  I have so much soul/health work going on in my life right now.  Its exciting and a bit intimidating at times... but Im taking it as it comes and backing off when needed.  It is not a race, or really an attainable goal... just steps to a better way of life.  Today a friend wrote me a message and it had this in it, which was so simply put: 'you must make a choice to take a chance or your life will never change'.  She called it the 3 C's.  Love this. 

Babies In A Tub >>>

I cant believe its been a whole week since I last blogged!  My sweet friend Katelyn and her two beautiful girls came to stay with us for a week.  It was suppose to be a business/pleasure trip, but ended up being more outweighed with business.  She shot all of the images for the upcoming Bohemian Collective lookbook... and can I just say, wow.  The images are so stunning its unreal.  I cannot wait to release it!  My nerves of being in front of the camera with someone else shooting, quickly diminished once we started on our first location.  I felt so comfortable with Katelyn and just went for it.  

Each of the 8 looks we photographed ended up being an adventure of some sorts, riddled with nature in all its glory of yin and yang.  Just a few of the things we faced were getting covered in baby leaches from the river, getting tons of leg scrapes and rashes from the grasses we tracked through, getting bit by ants while having to lay perfectly still to get the shot, getting jabbed by sharp tree limbs while laying over piles of dead brush, climbing a longggg rusty ladder that was suspended of a huge cliff by a wire cable, slipping and falling in slimy cliff sludge, a little bit of trespassing did happen, tons of 4 year old melt downs, walking through the woods in 5 inch heels (very slowly), along with buckets of sweat, all the while with a baby on Katelyn's back.  Im sure there was alot more I cant recall right now, but it was interesting to say the least.  But it was so fun to be matched with a photographer who was just as gutsy as I.  So much fun.  It was soooo hot that we had to schedule each shoot in the morning or evening, so we had to pack about two full shoots in per day, which watching two kids and feeding everyone between, proved to be entire full days.  It felt like a marathon, and we were both utterly exhausted after our last day of shooting.  We spent almost the entire next day sifting through over 3,000 images to choose the final cuts.  Wow.  

We did have some fun down time moments.  The first night before her new camera arrived, we swam down at the river.  Well, I guess I shouldnt say swim since the water is only a foot deep right now.  I thoroughly enjoyed sitting in the river with a baby in one arm and a beer in the other.  Ha ha.  It was perfect.  I fell in love with her newest little one Penelope, just like I already had with her older one, Leena.  Two precious girls, full of personality.  They kept us on our toes to say the least.  The above images were from an afternoon of fun the girls had in our plastic tub in the back yard.  They loved it so much.  Ill be back with many more photos!!!  It feels good to be back to my blog!  

Once I get all of my thoughts re-gathered, Ill announce all of the giveaway winners as well.  Im so behind on emails and such, so please be patient this week.  Oh, and Im also having a huge sale in both of my shops right now!  To get 30% off anything in my Roots and Feathers shop, and 40% off anything in my Violet Bella shop, just enter the code 'AUGUST' at checkout to receive the discount.  You should see the new total before you pay.