Chomp & Stomp 2009

Jeff and I headed to Cabbagetown for the Chomp and Stomp on Saturday. Our goal was to leave by 11:00 am. Gotta get there early to get the chili. We left about 11:30, parked on Chester and made our way over to the park.

We hit the restaurant chili first and Ria's was my favorite! Then we slowly made our way to the competitors chili. We got to Tye street about 12:30 and folks were out or running out. We were still able fill our bellies with some good chili and some not so good chili.

As we were making our to the Sweetwater beer truck. Jeff spotted a sign that said BBQ $5 and on the smoker I saw this...



and I wished I had not filled my belly with chili.

please don't put plastic in my diet

Monday I volunteered at Sweetwater Brewing Co. for a fundraiser for Green Plate . What is Green Plate? I pulled this from their website.

To the public, we provide products that aid in the reduction of single-use plastics. For restaurants and businesses, we provide resources, tools, products and training to reduce their environmental impact AND save green.

WHY DO WE CARE?
In the Pacific Ocean there's an area twice the size of Texas where the plastic to plankton ratio has been measured as more than 6:1. We now know 90% of marine trash is made of plastic - and 80% comes from land and local watersheds. Plastic is being mistaken for krill, eaten by fish, and is now entering our food chain.

YIKES!

Support this great cause by visiting their website and learning more about the Half Off Green program. Where you can get 50% off gift cards to local, green businesses.

Pine Street Market=YUM!

Pine Street Market is a boutique charcuterie, where they make their own sausages and cure salamis. I love this place. Owner Rusty is very friendly and generous with the samples. A few months ago Rusty asked me to do some photos for his new website (coming soon!). I jumped at the chance. I mentioned it to my friend Annette Joseph who is an amazing stylist and she said she'd like to help. Me: "Really! Perfect!"
Below are a few shots from the shoot.

Blog revival

So after attending the latest Lady Rogue Business Network meeting and hearing from the woman at NewTricks . I've decided to rededicate myself to blogging. Of course that was a few weeks ago... So over the next week I will be blogging about all the fun stuff I've been doing this summer, including a shoot at Pine Street market , a trip to Field of Greens and a Corn Maze!

Until then check out the pics I took of theUrban Oasis B&B. This is where our LRBN meeting was held and the place is amazing. Sorry for the iphone pics it's all I had on me at the time.

My Milk Toof

Check out this cute blog. It's too fun!

http://mymilktoof.blogspot.com/

Ladybug update

At least 50 ladybugs were still hanging around this morning. YAY!

Here are the tips that I used to keep them from taking off to the neighbor's yard.

1. Put them in the fridge for at least an hour. Mine were in for 3 hours. They go dormant in the fridge.

2. Water your garden first, then spray sugar water in your garden. The ladybugs will eat the sugar water until they find the aphids.

3. Release the ladybugs at dusk or when the sun is not out. I released my ladybugs around 6pm, it was cloudy and set to rain.

I can't wait until next year to do it again!

The impatient and annoyed gardener

The title says it all. I'm impatiently waiting for my veggies to produce. :) So I found other ways to entertain myself in the garden. I'm also annoyed at the aphids that are eating my beans to bits. Today I released 1800 ladybugs into the garden. That was fun! My little natural born killers. Go eat aphids! I found my ladybugs at Hastings for $9.99.



In other news we planted two heirloom brandywine tomatoes. These tomatoes average 1lb each! Excited! Any advice about growing heirloom tomatoes welcome!




Cucumber week 2



Tomatillos!



Homemade topsy turvy version 1.0



Then I did a little research and found out I would probably need a bigger container. Here is topsy turvy 2.0. I love it and can't wait to see if it produces fruit. :)

Whatcha doing?

Idea from the gardenpunks.com

This weekend I'm looking forward to: organizing my basement, ladybugs, oakhurst plant sale, grilling out, fire pits, hanging with friends, decatur arts festival, takeout.

What are you doing?

Watching my garden grow

Today Jeff and I made this trellis and I planted cucumbers. I hope they get enough sun. I planted the cucumbers straight into the ground as the soil look really good in this area. I plan on planting lettuce and peas here in the fall (I think). I left the daylilies and cannas, I'm hoping their flowers will attract pollinators.

I planted zinnias in the veggie garden for two reasons. 1. to attract pollinators 2. in hopes that the bugs will eat the zinnias and not my vegetables! *Fingers crossed*

Green beans 1 week, I planted these seeds last Sunday. I think it is so cool to watch them grow!

Jeff made a really cool birdhouse out of a cedar fence post.

First Veggie Garden

Last weekend Jeff and I put in our first veggie garden. It measures 5 ft wide by 8 feet long. It's a raised bed. We planted beans, sweet yellow peppers, basil, tomatoes, two kinds of oregano, and a bunch of zucchini. I'm excited about it and check it everyday to see if anything is growing. The image above is our zucchini week one. I'll post images of the construction of the garden soon. Enjoy!

Free Seeds!

Check out this site…it Campbell’s soup…They are giving away tomato seeds to people and donating seeds to FFA groups across America. It’s a good cause and you get free seeds…you can’t go wrong!
http://www.helpgrowyoursoup.com HelpGrowYourSoup

Click on the little packet that says “Seeds”. The info will slide out from the side. Complete using the information below.
Use the following codes:
Code 1: P5
Code 2: 25
Select Chicken Noodle soup from the drop down menu

EDIT: to add this is a repost from http://howmygardengrows.wordpress.com/ It's a great site check it out!

Rocco & Agility

Rocco and agility are like fire and ice.

Rocco finished his 6 classes of agility and I think he's happy it's over. He improved a lot of those 6 weeks. He went from not wanting to do any of the agility equipment to be able to do all of it. With a lot of encouragement and hot dogs from me.

In the video, you see him run away from me. He's trying to get to Jeff and my mother in law, I think he was hoping they would save him. :-)

Brendan 2 weeks

One of my oldest friends had her first baby. Here is Brendan, he has my heart.

relax

I worked with the women from Terracotta Properties today at a great house in Decatur. While reviewing my shots tonight I found something about this shot so relaxing. I wanna be in that tub.

Introducing Mavis!

also known as Cravis. Crazy + Mavis= Cravis



and the cat that hates her. Mickey

Testing w/ Christan

Christan (a stylist I know) and I decided to get together and play around in the studio this week. Here's what we did on Monday.

Vote for Monroe!!

Atlanta magazine is have a "My pet is cuter than your pet" contest. Go here to vote for Monroe!!
http://www.atlantapetshowcase.com/View.aspx?ID=112052

Portrait 01/09

This is a portrait of me that I submitted to Atlanta Magazine along with a short bio. This was soooo painful for me to do, but I think it turned out nice. Fasha will be famous!! The hand you can't see is holding her still.

Edit to add: Jeff says Fasha didn't need that much coaching and was great on set.

Obama Icon

Sweetwater Creek Park

This was Rocco's first trip to Sweetwater Creek Park. He loved it! He did get a little freaked by the rapids. He's a city dog, but his hound dog showed through when we had hike a rocky part of the trail.



The Trail!

furry photo assistant

I was shooting some exteriors this morning, when this friendly kitty started wrapping herself around my legs.

Matt Janke-Studioplex

Here's another shot from Matt Janke glass studio. I love the light.

Bad Ass

I photographed this glass blower for Loft Life magazine. After watching him work I have to say it was amazing. My exact word were Bad Ass! His name is Matt Janke and you can buy his work or take classes at Studioplex in Inman Park.