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. 

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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.
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The Girls >>>

Last night and today has just been us girls hanging out... eating lots of yummy food, chatting and just be-ing.  Soaking in our down time before we start our lookbook shooting.  Here are a few random photos from our time so far.  Isn't miss Penelope the cutest???  Leena helped me water all my plants this morning.  We watched Totoro.  And now she is making tons of art. 


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Pieces of Home >>>


1. tattered flowerchild wall hanging
2. tomatoes from my garden
3. my patchwork gypsy flag
4. james playing guitar
5. alyssum flowers
6. flycatcher (i think)
7. studio curtains
8. flowers from my bestie
9. the road home
10. bella

I think I say this everytime, but these Pieces of Home series that I post are my favorites.  All of these images of things around me, all feel like extensions of myself.  Home, pieces of my heart.  Things that make me smile, or tick.  All of these images are from the past few weeks.  Sadly, my vegetable garden is starting to come to an end.  I think the heat just really got to everything again this year, despite this amazing rain we have been getting the past few days.  My porch plants and non veggie things are doing great!  And my cherry tomatoes are still producing some... But my squash and zuchinni never took off, and I only got two bell peppers.  With my large tomatoes, its been a battle with the squirrels of who gets it first once they are ripe enough to pick.  Little rascals.  I do enjoy the process of learning though when it comes to gardening.  I daydream of having a backyard just full to the brim with flowers and vegetables...  


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