Capturing that New York moment...

While living in New York I discovered how much I enjoy photography. There are so many opportune moments while exploring the city that I want to capture. I don't always have my camera on hand, I currently have a Sony Cyber-Shot, but I always carry my iPhone. Now I know a phone can't take the sort of pictures as an SLR, but I do believe in the product of my iPhone photos. Below are photos I took on my iPhone while I was at the Loose Park Rose Garden in Kansas City, Missouri.

Timing Is Everything

When the stars line up
And you catch a good break
And people think your lucky
But you know it's grace
It can happy so fast
Or a little bit late
Timing is everything


You know I've had close calls
When it could have been me
I was young when I learned just how fragile life could be 
I lost friends of mine
I guess it wasn't my time
Timing is everything


And I could have been a child that got took home
And I would have been one more unfinished song
And when it seems a rhyme is hard to find
That's when one comes along
Just in time


Well I remember that day
When our eyes first met
You ran into the building to get out of the rain
Cuz you were soaking wet
And as I held the door
You wanted to know my name
Timing is everything


And I could have been another minute late
And you never would have crossed my path that day
And when it seems true love it hard to find
That's when love comes along
Just in time


Well you can call it fate
Or destiny
Sometimes it really seems like
It's a mystery
Cause you can be hurt by love
Or healed by the same
Timing is everything
And it can happen so fast
Or a little bit late
Timing is everything


-Garrett Hedlund

I didn't want it to end!

I just finished The Help by Kathryn Stockett, and I'm sad it's over. The book is set in the early 1960s in Jackson, Mississippi at the turning point of Civil Rights in America. Martin Luther King Jr. was on the rise and President JFK had just been killed. The book takes you through the lives of three extraordinary women, Minny, an African American maid who has been cleaning houses since she was 14. She has a mouth on her and is quick to get fired. Her best friend Aibileen, who is also a maid, has raised over 17 white children while her only child died in a car accident. And then there's Eugenia Skeeter Phelan who just returned home from college and is ready to start her future as a writer. The three woman are devoted to the Southern traditions but are anxious and terrified of what could happen if they keep quiet.

I loved this book so much I was sad when it was over. I want to know more about what happens to these women, to the town of Jackson, Mississippi. Keeping my fingers crossed Kathryn comes out with a sequel.

A Few Good Recipes: Monkey Bread & Strawberry Butter

While preparing my menu for Thanksgiving a friend of mine recommended I make the famous Neiman Marcus Monkey Bread and Strawberry Butter to accompany it. It was my first time baking bread and it was something I wasn't too familiar or comfortable with but I took the plunge and it turned out to be delicious!

Monkey Bread Ingredients:
1 TBSP + 1 TSP Active Dry Yeast
1 Cup Warm Milk
1/4 Cup Sugar
1 TSP Salt
1 Cup Melted Butter
3 1/4 Cups Sifted Flour


Preheat oven to 400. Place the milk in a heavy bottom pan on low heat. Stir until bubbles appear around the edges - do not boil and then removed from heat. Pour milk in another bowl and add yeast and a pinch of sugar. When yeast has dissolved stir in the rest of the sugar, salt and butter. Add flour and beat well. Cover and allow dough to rise to almost double, this will take about an hour. 


Once the dough has risen, punch down the dough and turn out onto a lightly floured work surface. Using a rolling pin roll out to a thickness of 1/2 inch. With a pizza cutter cut the dough into 2-inch squares. Gather up four or five squares of the dough and press them together with your fingers (otherwise the finished roll will not hold together). Place the remaining 1/2 cup of the melted butter in a shallow bowl and dip the rolls into the butter (reserve the remaining butter). Transfer the dough to a buttered medium-size muffing pan, buttered side down, and let it rise in a warm place for about 30 to 40 minutes, or until doubled in volume. Bake in the oven for 15 to 20 minutes, or until golden brown. Brush again with the remaining melted butter.


Strawberry Butter Ingredients:
1/2 Cup Butter
1/3 Cup Strawberry Preserves


Beat/whip butter until nice and fluffy. Add the preserves & stir/beat until well combined. Keep refrigerated, this lasts for 2-3 days. Wonderful on anything!

Playtime in the snow

My Serenity...

Snowmass, Colorado

There's something about fresh morning tracks on a beautiful blue bird morning, high 20s and fresh new powder.