post by leslie

Sorry to fall off the grid like that, but my parents came to town at the end of last week, and I put my devices away. We spent our time fishing (as seen above -- he caught nine little guys like that one! Grandpa is a great teacher!), reading books, solving puzzles, playing Go Fish and playing with the early birthday present Grandma and Grandpa bought. We also cooked a little and ate loads of ice cream on the front porch. A pretty great weekend!For your internet shares of the day:+ I am always so enamored by airstream trailers. I'm not a tent camper by any means, but this? Yeah. I could swing this.+ How to ace the most common questions asked at job interviews.+ I keep hearing rave reviews about these towels -- what a great hostess gift!

post by leslie

Last weekend I was invited to photograph a little girl's birthday party, and wow, I had no idea what an amazing party it was going to be. This family goes ALL OUT for their birthday celebrations, and it was so much fun to see the love and energy they put into every single detail. The party theme was Under the Sea, and below are some of my favorite photos and just some of the amazing decor and food that they had there.Anyone else think this mom might have missed her calling as an event planner? So fun! For your internet shares of the day:+ Joanna Gaines has some new wallpapers coming out, and I think they are lovely.+ I might make this for breakfast this fall.+ This beta fish photography is lovely.

post by leslie

See that? That's my brand new, very expensive, central air conditioning vent. So now you can all relax, because this home improvement project will certainly mean the coolest days on record from here until eternity since we finally decided to spend the money.But those vents sure are pretty, aren't they? And since it's only 70 degrees out today, I'm not even running it. Ah well, I'm sure it will warm up outside eventually, yeah?That's been the news around these parts.And now for your internet shares of the day:+ NYU now offers FREE MED SCHOOL. Wow.+ Jamie and used to watch a guilty pleasure on TV called Grimm. We had no idea the two lead characters were actually married and today I got to see the inside of their real-life home and isn't the internet the most entertaining thing ever?+ Life as a parent in South Africa. This series fascinates me!

post by leslie

In case you were wondering, either 43 is the age at which you decide you are too old to leave the house past 9 pm for a concert OR having a four-year-old is the stage of parenthood at which you are just too exhausted to head out that late. I'm hoping it's the latter and that by age 8 or 9 we are all sleeping in past 8 am and I can get back out to more shows. Until then, photographing concerts takes more effort than I ever thought possible, and it's just not as much fun as it used to be.Don't worry, I'm not giving up! I'm still planning on putting in the work, but I'm being honest in telling you that at 9 pm on a Friday night after a week that involved three commercial shoots, a wedding and moving my studio, making it out to Beach House took some serious pep talks with myself.And that might also why if you ask me to review the show I will say: "Oh, you didn't get tickets? Just put on your headphones, blare some Beach House, and turn on the visualizer on your mac. Same thing as the show."I don't have any photos of the band's faces because they play in the dark (or are backlit).And I promise I'm not as grumpy as this blog post is making me sound! I'm just being honest about the levels of exhaustion we are facing in our world right now, and how certain parts of our lives are evolving with the lack of sleep and the amount of work and the increase of "Mom! Mom! Mom! Mom!" that is happening.Anyway, here are some more photos from the show! And internet shares below!+ Check out these amazingly beautiful cakes!+ The photos of the week this year were fantastic.+ I haven't linked to The Sartorialist in a long while, but I still love popping over there for both inspiration and (let's face it) giggles at what those Europeans are up to!

post by leslie

Heyo! It's Friday! I have survived the week!Today I'm in the studio catching up on processing a gazillion images. But real quick I wanted to pop in and show you a few leftover images from the north shore a few weeks back. Also? When life is hitting you from every directions, it's just fun to remember vacation. For your internet shares of the day:+ What is this sea monster that washed up on shore? Mother nature never ceases to amaze me.+ The cost of motherhood catches many women off guard, and I totally get it. I don't know how I would manage this if I still worked a traditional 8-5 job. I work more hours now, but the flexibility is so key.+ Secret messages for the win! I promise it will make you smile.

post by leslie

Hoooo boy! We did it! Lucy and I got all moved in and today we had our first commercial shoot in the new studio! It was, as you might guess, for the holiday catalog, so we had Christmas cookies, a tree and tinsel etc all around us. With the air conditioner on. It was kinda weird!But the shoot went great, and it was fun and exciting to be in the new space, and it was nice that we had room to breathe!I'll be using a majority of the next week catching up on my photo processing (along with a handful of shoots), and I am so thrilled for a little quiet time to work while listening to podcasts and books as I settle back into the desk portion of this job.Also! I should mention that a few weeks back I purchased an iPhone 8 plus, and that photo up there is from it. I am super impressed with the camera on this phone. It's WAY better than my last one (just in case you're pondering an upgrade).For your internet shares of the day:+ Well, I guess we'll just start eating organic everything now. We were already on the bandwagon for produce, but for some reason I thought granola bars and Cheerios were safe. Guess I was wrong.+ Two ways of handling the death of Aretha Franklin.+ Some really cool temporary tattoos.

post by leslie

Wasn't that space lovely? We sure made a lot of memories in that there studio.In case you haven't picked up on it, yesterday Lucy and I moved our studio to a new location. And I am SO TIRED AND SORE. But you guys, it will be totally worth it.I'm hoping to have a reveal of the new space in 3-4 weeks (waiting on some furniture to be refinished), and we'll be super excited to show it off. Until then, just know that between shoots and processing and meetings we are assembling IKEA furniture (ugh), attaching tall furniture to masonry walls (not so fun) and enjoying the sunlight of ten gorgeous windows.For your internet shares of the day:+ This story about women's experience with doctors is so frustrating and true.+ This piece about giving small children independence speaks to my soul. Once a week I let Ezra go by himself next door to see his best friend. I watch him from the living room windows until he enters the house, but it still makes me nervous.+ And as a lover of Bob Ross since childhood, this speaks to me.