About 8 months ago, on a beautiful fall morning at home this happened:

(photo: This Rad Love)

I have years of shoots that I want to share here on the blog. I wasn’t the best at blogging before this little one came along and now all the spare time, after client files are edited, is spent cuddling this sweetest bug. The blog has felt intimidating to come back to, how to break such a long silence, where to begin with all the photos I’m taking that I love. But I’m learning to ask for help because it’s taking a village, and family and friends are stepping in to help with the boy and the business and weeding the garden. The baby fog is lifting a bit and I’m excited about where life is taking us. All that is to say regular images will start to show up here again.

In the meantime I wanted to reset here and share a bit from my personal life, some of the beauty in the spitup, tips that are getting me through, and our own photos from this magic last year. We are so in love, all three of us.

One of the best pieces of advice I got before the baby came along was to get a Kindle and hook it up to my library card. All of the hours spent trapped under a sleeping baby were put to good use and I tore through many the titles I’d had on my list for years. There is nothing better to do with an afternoon than read a good book with your baby dreaming on you. Some of my favorites from this past year:
Dept. of Speculation
Being Mortal
Lila
The Good Lord Bird
Behind the Beautiful Forevers

Some of you may or may not know that I live in Annapolis, MD but most of my jobs are an hour to 3 hours away from Annapolis. I used to listen to music as I drove, but everyone’s favorite Serial really got me in the habit of listening to other podcasts and that makes that driving time feel productive. Now I can’t get enough of The New Yorker Fiction Podcast, Note To Self, Here’s The Thing, The Longest Shortest Time, and always This American Life. Are there good ones I’m missing? Let me know!

I love beautiful clothing. I’ve been sad to discover that while little girl’s departments are brimming with beautiful things, a few uninspired boy basics are usually shoved onto one rack in the corner. If I could I would completely outfit my babe from Mabo Clothiers.

Taking photos is a surprisingly physically demanding job. I’ve tried to really prioritize working out over the last few years so that I can keep up my stamina for shoots, but it’s very hard to find the time to leave the house for that now. You know, you’ve heard every new parent complain about it. My sister turned me on to YogaGlo, a monthly subscription with thousands of classes to choose from and filters for different levels, styles and amounts of time. There is even a postnatal section with reassuring class titles like ‘Quick Stretch While Baby Naps.’ They totally get me.

Are you all making the easiest most delicious no knead bread by now? I sadly don’t cook much anymore with the exception of this bread. It’s our go to for bringing to new parents, cookouts and having lots of people over. People get really impressed by homemade bread but I always fess up that it took about 2 minutes to make and is completely stupid proof.

I’ve always been minimalist when it comes to makeup. But now with needing to do all my getting ready one handed while holding a wriggling baby the routine is even more streamlined. If I do one thing in a day it’s put some color on my cheeks. I used to be completely scared of cream blushes, but as with all her products Tata Harper completely nailed the lip and cheek tint. It’s so beautiful, easy to use, and so good for your skin I don’t even feel like I NEED to wash it off at the end of the day.

(Photo: LA Birdie Photography)

A lot of children’s books are rough on parents by the 50th time through. If you can recommend beautiful, thoughtful ones please do!! Our favorites so far are Seasons by Blexobolex, On The Night You Were Born, You Are My I Love You, Each Peach Pear Plum, and Charlie Harper’s ABC’s.

We went camping with the baby. The first night I wondered what we were thinking, but after that it was amazing. Baby came back so calm and relaxed it made me realize we need to get away more often. We went to Camp Misty Mount where they have adorable rustic cabins with a single electric bulb for light. Just that light bulb and not dealing with a tent made everything totally doable with the baby, but there were still enough bugs and dirt that we were proud of how we were roughing it.

Thank you for visiting this space even though I’ve been so long gone, I’ll be back now and can’t wait to show you all of the love and beautiful moments I’ve been invited to capture in recent months.