#please forgive the less-than-professional photography

[deathbycoldopen]

[ID: Three photos of embroidery hoops showing different scenes. The first is of two hands, shaded in blue and white, delicately posed with magical sparks floating over one palm. The background features swirls of smoke in shades of purple, gray, and red.

The second hoop shows a woman arching backward dramatically while dozens of disembodied red hands reach for her from a black ooze on the ground. The woman’s heart is glowing bright enough to light a halo around her, and her outstretched hand is emanating a similar burst of light.

The third hoop shows a woman standing on a rocky outcropping before a stormy sea. She holds an old-fashioned lantern up while the wind whips at her dress and waves pound the rocks around her. In the middle distance, an ominously red-tinged lighthouse looms, with a figure silhouetted in the doorway. Dramatic clouds cover the background. End ID]

Some of my most recent embroidery projects! I’m hoping to start selling these at some point, so keep an eye out for that!

[lucy-x-hannigan]

[ MADELAINE PETSCH, FEMALE, SHE / HER ] — If you’re strolling Derry today, you might see [ LUCILLE ROSE HANNIGAN ] along the way! The [ TWENTY-THREE ] year old has been in Derry for [ TWENTY-THREE YEARS ] and can usually be found at [ THE ROSE GARDEN, her family’s botanical shop ], when they aren’t busy with [ GARDENING or MAKING THINGS FOR HER SHOP ]. I hear they seem to be [ AMBITIOUS and PASSIONATE ], but they are also rumored to be [ BLUNT and HOT-TEMPERED ]. I’m sure they’d never admit it, but they’re terrified of [ RODENTS ]

- B A S I C - 

Full Name: Lucille Rose Hannigan Nickname(s): Lucy, Lu, Lulu Age: 23 Occupation: Owns \ Helps run The Rose Garden - a natural apothecary, also known as a botanical shop Birthday: January 11th Zodiac: Capricorn

- F A M I L Y -

Father: Hugo Hannigan Mother: Renee Hannigan Sibling(s): Older Brother Cousin: Chrissy Rhoades

 - P H Y S I C A L   A P P E A R A N C E -

Height: 5′6′’ Weight: 120 lbs Hair Color / Type: Red / Straight Eye Color: Dark Brown Piercings: Just once on both earlobes

- P E R S O N A L I T Y -

(+) Independent, Ambitious, Passionate, Hard-Working (-) Blunt, Hot-Tempered, Judgmental, Sarcastic

Lucy has always been hard-working and ambitious, especially when it came to the family business. It helped that it was what she loved to do, and that she was super passionate about it. Seriously, she’s not exactly the most social of people, but don’t get her started on a conversation about plants - she’ll definitely talk your ear off.

She’s pretty much always been independent, too. She’s needed very little guidance or direction in her life, as she’s known from the very beginning where she’s wanted her future to go. Which was helping her dad.

She can be quite friendly with most people, if they’re also kind and friendly in return. However, typical redhead, she can also be very hot-tempered when she is angry - and she can get angry pretty quickly, if her buttons get pushed too many times.

Lucy doesn’t have much of a filter, so she can be very bold and blunt on occasion, and sometimes she can come off as rude, but she doesn’t usually mean for it to come out that way. She’s just super honest and opinionated. And Judgmental, can’t forget that. Boy, can she be really judgy and too sarcastic sometimes. Easily her biggest flaws.

- H E R   B I G G E S T   F E A R -

Musophobia - the fear of rodents; particularly mice and rats. However, Lucy’s fear extends towards all types of rodent, except squirrels and chipmunks - she isn’t bothered by them as much.

- L I K E S   /   D I S L I K E S   /   H A B I T S

Loves gardening - she spends a great deal of her time in the dozen or so greenhouses that her father has put up on their property over the years - all of which house many of the plants that help supply their shop for things like herbs, teas, essential oils, etc..

Obviously, she's obsessed with plants. Her small one-bedroom apartment is filled to the brim with house plants, almost obsessively so. Thankfully most house plants are very forgiving when it comes to colder climates, so living up in Maine, where it’s usually always cold and rainy with very little sun, doesn’t affect them.

Working out and staying in shape. Goes to the gym three times a week, if she’s not super busy.

Keeping journals, as she finds her life easier to manage when she documents specific life events.

Heavily into plant photography. She keeps an online portfolios up on her online shop, listing all of the species of plants that her family grows and that they sell through their in-store and online shop.

Being social, despite feeling like, at times, she could be a bit awkward when it comes to actually starting a conversation with a stranger. Good thing Derry’s small and coming across a stranger is rather uncommon.

Is 100% vegan

She is a true artisan - she takes the most pleasure out of growing and making things from scratch and by hand. She dabbles in a lot of areas - from baking to cooking, to DIY arts & crafts, and especially to making and perfecting natural-based recipes for a lot of different things that she sells in her shop: lotions, soaps, lip balms, scrubs, essential oil blends, candles, tea blends, spice blends, etc. You name it, and Lucy’s very likely got her hands on it. 

She dries her own herbs and spices and tea leaves, and though it’s quite a tedious process, she LOVES doing it. She loves harvesting the leaves and bundling them in twine and hanging them to dry all around the shop. In her opinion, it’s totally aesthetically pleasing. That, and she very much enjoys doing things the old fashioned way. By hand. She’s got a total pioneer-like homestead mentality when it comes to how to does things.

Ever since she was a very young girl, Lucille’s always been more than willing to help her dad look after the greenhouses and she’d come into the shop whenever she could, helping him stock shelves and nothing’s really changed. Only now, she was selling a lot of her own products as well as the plants that come from both the Hannigan and Rhoades nurseries.

Enjoys baking and cooking, immensely - having been taught by her mother from a very early age. She uses her baking skills to make specialty breads and other baked goods to sell in The Rose Garden.

Is a self-taught pro at needlework - embroidery, knitting and sewing alike. A lot of her hand-made pieces can be seen hung up around her apartment and her shop.

- T H E   R O S E   G A R D E N -

“ Where the love for nature, baking and art meet “

It’s very much an artisan shop, heavily focused on home grown and hand-crafted products. A botanical shop / natural apothecary / produce market / bakery all in one.

See the overview list of things The Rose Garden sells here

- B I O G R A P H Y -

Is a native to Derry. She’s lived here her entire life, apart from the four years she left to go to New York for college.

Is of Irish / Welsh / Scottish descent, from both of her parents’ side

Has an older brother, whom she is very close with. He, too, helps out with the family shop when he can, but he’s usually off doing his own separate thing.

She is also close to her first cousin, Chrissy Rhoades (Lucy’s dad being the brother of Chrissy’s mother) who’s family owns their own plant nursery. The two families are greatly connected with one another, as the fresh produce from both nurseries and greenhouses are sold at The Rose Garden shop. Lucy also uses fresh ingredients supplied in bulk from both family’s crops to whip up large batches of her various handmade goods and body products.

While her brother preferred going off and doing his own thing, Lucy often stayed close to her parents, finding comfort and peace at their side verses being out-going and overly social. This lent to her growing a very strong attachment to both of her parents, since she was never very good at relating to other people as a whole and Hugo and Renee Hannigan were her whole world as a small child.

That being said, she’s always had a stronger connection with her father, with whom she shares a love for all things leafy and green, and the want to turn said leafy and green things into a variety of different things. They had the biggest green thumbs and most inventive minds of the family, and it was just something the two had always bonded over. That, and they were both highly anti-social and quirky individuals, preferring their plants for company rather than other people. Not that they weren’t friendly and welcoming to the other locals of Derry, they just didn’t know how to talk to people outside of business-talk. At least, not very well.

The two are insanely obsessed with the work they do for The Rose Garden, putting all of their time and passion into their shop and making sure their greenhouses and various equipment were running nicely.

So you could safely say that she was a daddy’s girl, through and through, from the very moment she came into the world. She took after him the most.

Her childhood was quite normal, all things considered. The Hannigans were a happy family with a pretty healthy family dynamic. All was great, or so Lucy thought. She was around 10 when her mother started acting peculiar. One minute she’d be fine, fixing dinner in the kitchen or cleaning and then the next she’d totally flip out and start screaming. At seemingly nothing. The episodes would send the entire house into chaos. Her father would shoo her and her brother up to their rooms or into the next room to keep them both safe and trying to keep them from witnessing the full extent of their mother’s mental breakdown. Which both children were more than fine with, as just listening to their mother’s blood curdling screams and subsequent emotional crying was more than scarring enough for them.

This went on for two years, the episodes unpredictable but never any less intense and frightening. The mental health of Lucy’s mother decreased significantly over that short amount of time, until it reached the point where Renee refused to get out of bed, and remained in a perpetual state of terror, leaving her essentially catatonic, apart from incoherent mutterings under her breath, and the godforsaken rocking. Not even the professionals could tell what was wrong with the woman or what had even triggered her mental decline, but they did eventually, very loosely label her condition as catatonic schizophrenia.

At age 12, her mother was taken to Juniper Hill Asylum, where she’s been ever since, still unresponsive to anyone’s presence apart from her own mental demons. She continues to mumble nonsense under her breath that nobody seems to be able to make out.

Adjusting to life without their mother was hard for both Hannigan children, and hard on their father, but despite his heart breaking at the loss of his wife, he made sure his kids were taken care of and loved and wanting for not. And yes, they did consider Renee’s absence as a loss, for though she wasn’t dead, her lack of presence in their life was greatly felt and just as devastating.

They still, to this day, visited her often, but every time was a very painful experience, resulting in lots of tears, mostly on Lucy’s end. She just couldn’t bare to see her mother in such a sad state.

The absence of her mother caused Lucy to cling tightly to her dad, and even her brother. The three of them became one another’s rock, bringing the remaining three Hannigans even closer as a family.

After high school, Lucy moved to New York City for four years and graduated from NYU at the age of 22 with a double bachelors degree in Horticulture and Botany. That had been her set goal from as early on in her life as she could remember; she’d always planned to go to school to study plants and grow her knowledge on the subject. Plant science - or Botany, as it was called - and how to properly cultivate different species - was something she had always been fascinated in. She already had quite the training, having been taught a ton by her dad growing up, but she wanted to be properly certified when she joined him full time at the shop.

[honeymoonjin]

enjoy your stay (reader x Bangtan, Hotel AU)

A/N: Hi everybody! This is my first time posting a fanfiction about BTS, and also my first time posting fanfiction on Tumblr, so please forgive me if I mess stuff up! 

ENJOY YOUR STAY ↳Boss!Namjoon, Chef!Jin, Receptionist!Hoseok, Bellboy!Jimin, Bartender!Jungkook, Accountant!Yoongi, Photography student!Taehyung ↳Some inappropriate language and cursing. Later chapters will have sexual content.

SUMMARY ↳Working the graveyard shift at a hotel isn’t the most exciting job in the world, but your coworkers are certainly happy to have you here.

CHAPTER ONE ↳You’re surprised you were ever considered for a manager position, but your boss Namjoon seems certain you’ll be a good fit. (Note: Taehyung isn’t in this chapter, but that’s just because he’s not an employee. You’ll see him in Chapter 2 and onwards, I promise!)

You run the pad of your finger back and forth across the newly-cut corner of your staff ID card. As the owner led you through the winding halls of the main building, you had noticed that none of the other staff members seemed to be wearing theirs. You drop it and let it hang limply from the forest green lanyard and tune back in to what the man beside you is saying.

"...but you won't need to worry about that, since you won't be here during the day. Really, there aren't a whole lot of customers out and about after 11pm. Maybe if we were a bigger hotel, there'd be more customers off red-eye flights, but generally, the graveyard shift is pretty quiet." He clears his throat again and comes to a halt, clearly unused to giving the full tour. "Your job is more helping me and the other staff out than customers. I know it's probably not what you were expecting a night manager's role to be."

You smile softly at his sheepish grin and shake your head. "Honestly, I'm just glad you even considered me for the job at all. I kind of applied for this on a whim. Until you called me last week, I was resigned to working as a waitress until my dying day."

He let out a genuine laugh, one you joined in with. Although you were joking around with him, you were really honoured to be here. Not only was the job well paying and pretty straightforward, but Mr Kim, or, you supposed, Namjoon, seemed like a really kind man to have as a boss. That was rarer than a good job, and here you were with both.

"Well," he murmured, attention caught by a commotion down the hall, "we're glad to have you. Wh- Jin! What is this?"

You follow Namjoon's gaze to where the noise, a squeal from an older lady, had come from. She had her hands thrown up in the air in a show of dramatised fright, and one of them was dripping water down her sleeve.

The culprit was a man in a pristine white chef's uniform holding a metal ice bucket. His lips were parted and eyes widened in bewilderment. His head shot around to make eye contact with Namjoon, who had patted you on the shoulder in apology before storming down towards him.

Unsure of what you should do, and secretly wanting to get in on the drama, you quietly followed after him, hovering by a fake potted plant while he confronted the chef.

As soon as he asked what was going on, the elderly lady, now cradling her damp hand, screeched in outrage. "This is some sick prank! What's wrong with you people?"

Jin interjected. "Actually, ma'am, this is dinner." This time, when he lifted up the bucket again, you could see several live lobsters wriggling around in the water.

"Not helpful," Namjoon shot back, before turning to the lady. "I'm so sorry, Mrs Kang. It should've been in a food-safe container, not an ice bucket."

"Well, I never! My husband and I order a bottle of champagne to celebrate our anniversary and instead this...this madman presents us with seafood!"

Namjoon winces, but straightens up when he sees another figure approaching. "Ah, here the champagne comes now, Mrs Kang. Again, I'm terribly sorry about the misunderstanding. We'll take the champagne off your room tab for your troubles. Have a good night, and happy anniversary to you and your husband."

Pleased with the concept of free champagne, as well as its eventual arrival, Mrs Kang makes herself scarce, returning back into the room from whence she apparently came.

Heaving out a relieved sigh, Namjoon turns to the chef. Tiredly, he mutters, "that was a two hundred dollar bottle of champagne, Jin. Was there really nothing else you could've put the lobsters in? Lobster isn't even on the menu."

The chef, Jin, gives a radiant smile to his boss. "Lobster wasn't on the menu. It is now." He looks back down at the bucket. "At least, I hope so. She might've scared the lobsters to death or rotted them with her godawful screaming."

Namjoon darts forward and latches onto the arm not holding a lobster-filled bucket. "Quiet!" He hisses. "We're still outside the room, idiot!" From his new vantage point, he sees you hovering uncertainly on the edge of the hallway. His shoulders drop and he fails to meet your gaze. "Go set up for the dinner service, Jin. And for the last time, don't go through the lobby, use the service entrance."

Namjoon joins you, hand rubbing the back of his neck, and waits for Jin to happily trot off down the hallway to the restaurant. "I'm sorry about that."

"Don't worry, now I know not to harass customers with crustaceans. I'm glad I left mine in the car, now."

The brief awkwardness of the past few minutes is worth it to see the brilliant smile that lights up his face as he laughs. "If I were you, I'd be going out to make sure those weren't my crustaceans. Who knows where Jin gets his groceries."

The rest of the tour goes well, Namjoon having relaxed more, and you feeling more and more positive that this was the place for you. Apart from Jin, Namjoon said, the other workers in the hotel would leave at 11:30 to make way for the night shift. Since you were taking the tour at just 6pm, you wouldn't meet any of your coworkers until your first day, or night, of work.

That first night comes quickly, and although it's been less than a week since the tour, your heart races in excitement when you see Namjoon waiting by the front reception to greet you.

He looks good today, which is maybe not a thought you should be having about your boss, but the other day he was off duty in a polo shirt and linen trousers. Today, he was in all black, apart from the single stripe of forest green that ran down the front of his shirt. His pants were tighter than the linen ones, and his dress shirt had a high neck rather than a collar, making for a very appealing silhouette.

The lobby itself was lighter in colour, but no less dashing. The marble floor with its flecks of gold, the deep green couches, the high ceilings. You felt slightly inadequate, glad for the fact that you had a matching uniform rather than your own clothes.

He greeted you with a warm handshake, and drew your attention to the man sitting leisurely at the reception desk. How you ever missed him coming in, you didn't know, but now that you met his gaze, it felt like the room had brightened several degrees.

His luminous grin and friendly eyes reeled you in, and you found yourself grinning back as you shook his hand. Namjoon introduced him as Hoseok, but the man waved his hand. "Call me Hobi, everyone does."

You began to nod, but Namjoon made a noise of displeasure. "In your own time, sure, but when you're on the clock you can be professional, please, Hoseok. You don't walk around calling me Joonie when I'm trying to deal with unhappy customers."

"I would if I could, buddy." His eyes twinkled as he shot a sly wink at you, swivelling lazily back and forth on his chair.

"Hoseok here is the first thing that anybody who enters the hotel sees, so in many ways he's the face of the business. You can't redo a first impression. If you ever do have a customer out and about during your shift who wants to know something you aren't sure about, just send them his way." Behind Namjoon's back, Hoseok's eyes widen comically and he quickly shakes his head. "For example, if a customer wants to know where they can go to do laundry during a long stay, you'd send them to Hoseok and he'd tell them..." Hoseok's face lights up with a brilliant as Namjoon turns around to face him, but instead of answering, just waits expectantly for Namjoon to continue. Namjoon sighs and turns back to you. "He should tell them that there's a 24 hour laundromat a five minute walk from here if you go right at the main entrance."

You nod resolutely, willing your mouth to keep still instead of quirking up in response to Hoseok's sheepish grin. "No problem, sir."

The gazes of the men in front of you slide over your right shoulder, and you turn reflexively to see what's caught their attention. A young man in a classic bellhop uniform approaches the three of you with an eager grin on his face. The strap of his hat as well as his chubby cheeks cause his eyes to almost disappear in his smile, and when he reaches the desk he leans his back against it. "Hey, boss, is this the new chick?"

You introduce yourself to the bellhop as Namjoon cringes at the boy's forwardness. His name is Jimin, and he makes it very clear with his body language and cheeky grin that he's pleased to meet you. You feel your face heat up when he licks his lips, still staring directly at you. "Being a bellhop with no luggage to tote gets pretty lonely. I hope you get a chance to come and keep me company every now and then."

Hoseok, who had been previously watching this exchange from a leaned-back slump in his chair, sits up in outrage. "I'm here, Jimin! Am I not good enough to keep you company?"

Without turning to look at him, Jimin replies. "Not the kind of company I'm after."

Namjoon's fingers pinch the bridge of his nose and he scrunches up his face. "A little less sexual harassment in the lobby would be great, Jimin. We don't want to scare the new manager away before she's even begun."

You replace your flattered and flustered smile for what's hopefully a more professional, neutral one. "It was lovely to meet you two. I'm sure I'll see you guys around."

Namjoon takes that as a safe point to end the conversation, and mutters a gruff goodbye to the other two before guiding you out of the lobby with a warm hand against your lower back. "I apologise for them," he murmurs as he navigates the carpeted hallways, "the majority of our employees work during the day, and as it happens, all of the female employees, too. The night shift has been a boys club for a while now." He anticipates your unease as you process his statement. "But don't worry! All the guys are great, and you'll get along just fine. Any problems, you can talk to me."

He suddenly turns a corner, and you're led into a small lounge with a fully stocked bar in the far end. There's a man behind the bar, looking the part with an apron around his waist and a rag thrown over his shoulder. The rest of the room is empty except for a single figure at the bar, hunched over with his back to you. He doesn't look up when the two of you approach the bar, even when Namjoon pulls out a stool to sit beside him. The mystery man is flicking back and forth through pages and pages of spreadsheets and data tables, scrawling notes here and there and punching furiously into a calculator. Namjoon leaves him to it for now, and calls over the bartender.

"This is Jungkook, our newest hire. Well, I suppose he was before you came."

The man in question flips a glass bottle of liquor in his hand with a touch of showmanship. "I'm a seasoned employee now, Namjoon. Did I tell you I got to make a sex on the beach the other day? I just about passed out when the lady ordered it, I had her pinned for a white wine kinda gal. I reckon she just had the hots for me, because she took one sip and scrunched her face up like this," you grin at his enthusiastic recreation of her expression, "like she didn't realise what the drink had in it."

"Or maybe you just made a terrible sex on the beach."

"Well, maybe if I was put on the evening shift I could actually make enough drinks to find out," he protested, crossing his arms over. You hold your gaze stubbornly to the shelves behind you in order to avoid staring at the way the muscles of his exposed forearms flexed and the veins in his hands jumped with the action. Why the fuck was everybody in this hotel so hot?

"Yoongi, would you like to introduce yourself to our new night manager?" Namjoon tried to give the man at the bench meaningful eye contact, but the black head of hair was buried in paperwork.

"What I would like," the man drawled under his breath, "is for us to stick to our goddamn budget for once. Just one month, Namjoon, and I'd kiss your fucking shoes." Namjoon cringed at the curse, but had the decency to look a little guilty. The man, Yoongi, sat up a little, enough for you to see most of his face, and flipped through until he found a certain page. "Here," he growled, finger rapping angrily at a money breakdown report, "does Seokjin really have to spend nearly three hundred dollars on chicken stock? Nobody's ordering chicken noodle soup in the middle of summer!"

Namjoon frowns and leans in closer to Yoongi. The pair of them fall into intense conversation, and you awkwardly avert your gaze to give them some privacy. The bartender, Jungkook, sees you shifting around and rests his elbows on the bench. "You want a drink?"

You blink. "Oh. No, I don't think I should be drinking on the job. But thank you for offering."

He lets out a chuckle. "We have water," he says, eyes twinkling. "Do you really think I'd get you drunk on your first shift?"

You shake your head, feeling silly that you had assumed he was offering you alcohol. "Water would be nice. Thank you."

He sends you one last toothy grin over his shoulder as he grabs a glass, and fills it for you. The water is so cold that by the time he sets down a coaster in front of you, condensation has gathered on the outside and drips over your fingers when you take a sip.

He watches you for a moment, reflexively whipping out his rag to clean up the water droplets on the bench. "So, why the hotel?"

"Hm?"

"Why is a girl like you applying for a job where the only hours are the middle of the night?"

You set your glass down. "I don't know what you mean by a girl like me, but to answer your question, I'd take any hours if it meant I didn't have to wait tables anymore. I've dealt with enough shitty customers to last a lifetime."

He nods thoughtfully, but his lips are quirked into a smirk. "Better no customers at all, huh?" He waves his hand to gesture at the empty room.

"Actually, better all the angry customers have tired themselves out with the day staff and are sleeping peacefully." The pair of you fall into a comfortable lull of silence, but it doesn't last. "Don't you get bored? Being a bartender with no drinks to make, I mean?"

"Not when I have a pretty girl to think about." Although he wiggles an eyebrow suggestively, you know you're right.

Unaware of the fact that the conversation to the left of you has finished, you shoot back a reply. "Thanks for that. So far every staff member tonight except Yoongi has flirted with me. I feel like I'm collecting the whole set."

You hear a scoff, and the fact that it's too deep to have come from Jungkook sends blood rushing to your cheeks. The man in question has tidied up all his papers into a single neat pile and is staring directly at you. You're not completely surprised to see he's absurdly good-looking too, now that you can properly see his face. He doesn't seem to be mad, just a little begrudged. "Maybe if Namjoon would hire adults for once, rather than horny little boys, you wouldn't have to deal with it."

Jungkook lets out an offended cry, but you ignore him and turn to face the two older men. "I don’t know,” you joke, “just think how much money you must save hiring horny little boys rather than qualified adults! It probably evens out the chicken stock fund." You don't quite manage a laugh out of him, but Yoongi's quick flash of a grin seems reward enough.

Namjoon decides it's time to move you along, and the last thing you see as you exit the bar is a rueful smile and wave from Jungkook, and Yoongi's curious stare. You expect to be led to another room to meet more employees, or to Namjoon's office to get started, but before you go anywhere, he gently presses on your shoulder to slow you to a stop, and leans in to talk to you in a soft murmur.

"I'm so, so sorry if you feel like the other staff members have been inappropriate with you." Guilt darkens his face. "And I would be completely disappointed in myself if you felt like I had acted the same. I'm so sorry," he repeats awkwardly.

You shake your head and give him your brightest smile. "It's totally fine! All the guys, you included, have been nothing but sweet to me, and besides, I was just joking around with Jungkook. No harm done, honestly."

He searches your face for a few moments, then slowly nods. "Okay. Okay, let's get started, then."

[kriskebob-blog]

Day 2: In which the real challenge is, can she keep it to one post this time?

Hello again friends. I have buddies who have been writing partners with me over many years, some spanning back to freshman year of high school. Any of them can tell you that I tend to provide a LOT of background information and context when telling a story. If you’ve made it with me this far, you too are now beginning to understand my verbose tendencies. But I’m really going to try to keep Day 2 contained to a single and readable blog post. Let’s see if I can pull it off. 

To my pleasant surprise, I sprang out of bed at my 6am alarm with no problem in spite of going to bed a bit late. I was excited to get this burrito bake thrown together and ready for Sam. Since I had prepped all the components the previous night, it didn’t take much time at all to assemble the burritos. I did have to get out the bullet to crush up some pumpkin seeds, which Dr. G advised me would make for a pleasant crunchy topping. I winced as I hit the pulse button a few times, hoping I wasn’t waking Sam. 

Once more I was assembling wraps. Here’s how they looked before I folded them over: 

Please note I prepped them literally on my stovetop because I HAVE NO COUNTER SPACE. 

Anyhow. They were definitely super full but since they only needed to be gently folded over and then placed seam side down, I got them into the baking dish no problem. Topped them with a few scoops of salsa and the pumpkin seeds and into the oven they went. Once they were out, they also got topped with some avocado. 

Here’s a few pics of the finished product. Please forgive the fact that I know nothing about photography, especially food photography. Like, does the rule of thirds still apply? I’m thinking no...

I proudly told Sam breakfast was ready and we devoured these. And... I have to say... it needed salt! Does this Dr. Gregor guy really know what he’s talking about? I couldn’t help but wonder. Sure, he knows about medicine and nutrition and stuff, but food needs salt, and nutritional yeast is a pretty unconvincing substitute on the palate. Hmmm. I decided I might have to do some further digging on this guy and his philosophy. I’d bought his cookbook pretty impulsively, after all. Don’t get me wrong - there were a lot of tasty things going on in this recipe, but I definitely felt like it needed more seasoning. Even a bit of hot pepper flakes or something would probably have helped distract my mouth from the lack of sodium it’d become so accustomed to. 

Sam went on his way to work and I settled in to relax with some trashy TV for a few hours. I felt like I’d earned it after all my running around yesterday, dang it! (Parents everywhere roll their eyes... I know, I know.) I got hungry around 10:40 and ate a banana and felt like I deserved an award for my healthy choice. When lunchtime rolled around, I didn’t really feel like assembling another wrap and we had a lot of shredded lettuce left over, so I put the chickpea mixture on top of that and had a salad instead. I realize I never actually commented on how the curry chickpea wraps came out last night. They were delicious! The sweetness of the apples and raisins helped distract me from the lack of salt, hah. Honestly a really nice combination of textures and flavors, and easy to make. I’d make it again.. probably with more salt but anywho...

Lunch was over and this was around the time I’d normally indulge in some chocolatey granola. I could feel the craving for chocolate kicking in, hard. Alright. Time to put together these no-bake brownies. This was another recipe that was super simple so long as you had a food processor or some kind of chopper - you literally just pulsed chopped walnuts with a handful of pitted dates, then added in a bunch of cocoa powder, and boom. “Brownies.” Dr. G. advised I use parchment paper to press this rather crumbly mixture into a square baking dish, so that it wouldn’t stick to my fingers as I evened it out. Worked like a charm. I pressed some chopped pecans into the surface, covered the pan in foil, and put it in the fridge. Dr. G. said it would need an hour to set before eating. Sigh. That was a long time to wait when I wanted chocolate now. I settled for some strawberries instead for the time being and began looking at the recipes I’d be cooking that night for dinner.

And thank goodness I did, because there were several things I needed to start prepping early. I would be making zoodles with a cashew cream sauce, which meant I needed to put the raw cashews in water ASAP so they’d have enough time to soak before dinner. Took two seconds, but you can see that you need to really plan out your meals and read the recipes well in advance if you’re going to cook this way. I also would need 1.5 cups of homemade vegetable stock or  water. Okay, I definitely didn’t want water in place of that much stock. I flipped to the vegetable stock recipe. It looked very simple to throw together, but it would need an hour and a half to simmer. I looked at the clock. About 1:20. I could’ve started it then, but I really wanted to get to the library. 

See, I’d done a little research after lunch. I wanted more detail about Dr. G’s nutritional philosophy than this cookbook alone could offer me. Nikki had told me about the book he’d written and I had seen it on Amazon. But I didn’t really want to pay for it, and also I wanted it now. It wasn’t available at my local library, but luckily a quick search of their databases revealed that the next town over had it. 

I drove on over to Tolland Public Library, feeling like an interloper with my Vernon library card, but it didn’t matter. I walked out triumphant and more surprised than I should have been at how huge the book actually was. I got home and got to work on throwing the veggie stock together.

This is before I added parsley and some other seasonings, but you get the idea. Took probably ten minutes tops to throw together. I set it to simmer and settled into my armchair to start reading Dr. G’s book. 

I was hooked. A professional sharing their expert knowledge on the science behind living a longer and healthier life is like catnip to me. I was thoroughly bummed by this part, though: To see what effect an increase in meat consumption might have on disease rates, researchers studied lapsed vegetarians. People who once ate vegetarian diets but then started to eat meat at least once a week experienced a 146 percent increase in odds of heart disease, a 152 percent increase in stroke, a 166 percent increase in diabetes, and a 231 percent increase in odds for weight gain. During the twelve years after the transition from vegetarian to omnivore, meat-eating was associated with a 3.6 year decrease in life expectancy. 

Damn it, Dr. G. You’re telling me I can’t eat a burger even once a week without being way more likely to die a prolonged and terrible death one day?? I hemmed and hawed as I read on. Eventually my stock was ready to take off the burner and cool. The next step was to put it in the blender and liquefy it. It made so much I actually had to do this part in batches. Dr. G. also directs you to take out a small amount and mix in 2 tablespoons of miso, which helps add some sodium but in a healthier way, since soy is good for you or whatever. Awesome. My stock was done. I put that away and went back to reading for a little while. 

Alright, still with me? We’re almost there! Just gotta get through dinner. According to Dr. G’s meal plan, this dinner should contain two parts: a huge salad, and also the zoodles with the cashew cream sauce. I honestly wasn’t sure where to start and decided to make the cashew cream sauce first. It was pretty easy - mostly ingredients I already had on hand at this point, such as the stock, blended lemon, yeast, miso, etc. I just had to chop up half an avocado and toss it in and boom, I had my cashew-cream sauce. The next part of this dish was to spiralize the zucchini and steam it lightly. Once that was done, you would combine it with the cashew sauce and some chopped grape tomatoes in one big pot just long enough to heat it through. “Avocado-cashew alfredo” is what Dr. G called it. He also suggested you sprinkle it with “nutty parm” when it was done. Turns out nutty parm is a big heaping handful of nutritional yeast blended with a few handful of nuts. It does not taste nearly as good as actual parmesan cheese, but you knew that already, didn’t you? 

The salad was pretty simple too. Chop up a bunch of lettuce, mix in some baby spinach, some shredded carrot, more grape tomato, etc. The only part that took any extra work was making the dressing. I was really skeptical of the dressing because it had no oil in it. Just water. As a woman who married into an Italian-American family, the lack of love for EVOO in this book hurts my heart a little. But again, no half-measures! The dressing’s base consisted of water.... and then you add raw garlic, yeast, some almond butter, blended lemon, our old friend miso, fresh parsley, turmeric, the savory spice blend, and “salt free stone-ground mustard”. I don’t know what magical land Dr. Gregor lives in where he can purchase salt-free condiments - I stopped at the health food store on my way back from the library and even their condiments still have some salt. I just used the coarse-ground mustard I already had on hand. Finally, the salad also called for a healthy sprinkling of hemp hearts. 

Here are the finished products:

The verdict? Delicious!! Both dishes! I think it helped that I used normal-people mustard for the dressing, and I also added a healthy sprinkling of red pepper flakes to the zucchini dish while it was heating through. And honestly, apart from having to make the stock and be sure to remember to soak the raw cashews early in the day, this really didn’t take more work than a lot of other veggie-forward dishes I’ve made from omnivore recipe books. Less, even, because I didn’t have to worry about handling or cooking meat safely. 

I warned Sam about 5 times that there was dessert “but not like, a normal dessert. Don’t get too excited. It’s a healthy one.” We each took a tiny brownie square (Dr. G advised cutting the already small pan into 16 “brownies”... hilarious) and munched on it, eyeing one another as our respective brownies crumbled between our fingers. “Well?” I asked. “It tastes healthy,” he nodded. “Ha. Sorry,” I said. “No, it’s not bad. I do actually like it, but it’s kind of hard to eat without an egg to hold it all together,” he told me. I’d have to agree. 

And that’s a wrap on Day 2, guys! Since I didn’t have my lascivious FRIENDS luring me out of my healthy haven with their Cheetos and Harry Potter games (love you Tina :* ) I was able to grab some unsalted peanuts when I got my late night snack craving, and that was that. A day of fully whole-foods, plant-based eating, and it wasn’t that hard at all honestly. See you on the Day 3 post! 

 Gadget rec of the day: A spiralizer! You can get one for like 20 bucks on Amazon and turn vegetables into long ribbons that can almost trick you into thinking you’re eating a tasty bowl of pasta. 

Music rec of the day: “Entropy” by Grimes 

[sconesteaandmysteries]

Ad Meliora, Chapter Five

Next chapter. Sorry this is late, but life got in the way. :)

Chapter One, Chapter Two, Chapter Three, Chapter Four

Summary: Father Brown catches Sid in the midst of a bad decision...

Chapter Five: Falling Away, part one

“Isn’t it wonder, Father? So many families within the parish have made a contribution to our art fair.”

Father Brown nodded as he took in the sight in the churchyard in front of him. He had requested suggestions for new ideas for fundraisers, and Lady Felicia had approached him about hosting this event after a brief vacation in France. While she was there, she had stopped by a small village that had set up a sale of paintings from local artists to pay for some badly needed construction work on the main road of the village.

Around the same time, Father Brown had been contacted by an old friend of his from his seminary days, Father Stephan. Stephan headed a small church in London; St. Peter’s which had recently suffered damage from the recent Blitz bombings. Thus, Brown figured that this would be a good opportunity to give Lady Felicia’s idea a try. The suggestion met with the usual resistance…such as Mrs. McCarthy referring to it as “hogwash”…but when he proposed it to the congregation after Mass one Sunday, his parishioners seemed to respond to it favorably. The fact that Lady Felicia also promised free tea, sandwiches and desserts on the day of the event probably helped things along.

The result was an even more enthusiastic response than anyone had anticipated. Almost thirty art pieces were donated for the event. The pieces ranged from oil and watercolor paintings to wood working and sculpture and even jewelry craft and photography. Each piece was going to be sold off in a silent auction with all of the proceeds being sent to St. Peter’s to help with the repair to the church.

Father Brown finished the sandwich in his hand and brushed a couple of crumbs off his cassock. The turnout for the actual event had been good, and from the look of it, almost every art piece had at least one bid on it.

‘Good to see that no efforts will go unappreciated,’ he thought. He poured himself another cup of tea and was just about to drink it when Mrs. McCarthy and Lady Felicia ran up to him.

“The last item finally got a bid, Father,” Felicia said.

“Which was a miracle, if you ask me,” McCarthy added.

“Then it’s a good thing that nobody had asked you,” Felicia retorted. “I imagine my sculpture did not receive the proper attention it deserved due to being put next to that drab, little watercolor painting.”

“Drab?” McCarthy gasped. “Just because I chose to make a simple portrait of our fair countryside rather than throw together some misshapen monstrosity….”

“I thought we had all agreed to keep the identities of the artists confidential,” Father Brown injected.

“We did,” Mrs. McCarthy nodded primly. “But just because there aren’t any names on these art pieces doesn’t mean that people can’t figure out who made them.”

“Quite right,” Felicia said. “The works might be anonymous, but the personality of the artist will always show itself in their work.”

“Good,” Brown said. “Glad to see that we’re all in agreement.” Lady Felicia and Mrs. McCarthy looked at each other with bemusement while he gulped down his tea. “Excuse me.”

He left them behind so he could examine each piece one more time before the auction was over and to check on the bids that had been submitted thus far. Some of the pieces were clearly done by amateur hands, but some of them showed professional skill which intrigued him. He wondered how many other hidden talents the members of his parish possessed and how he might discover more about them.

Several of the pieces had multiple bids which Father Brown was pleased to see. A rough estimate of the total bids told him that they would be making a significant donation toward the rebuilding of St. Peter’s. It was always gratifying to him to see how generous the members of his flock could be in the face of a crisis.

The sound of laughter caught his attention and he looked over to see some children playing near the churchyard. He spotted Sid and a couple of other boys leaning against a building and talking to each other.

Father Brown’s face fell a little. He was glad that Sid was making friends with other children in the village. However, those two boys in particular had become rather wayward in the last year or so. Given the fact that Sid had a penchant for mischief himself; Brown worried that his hanging around the wrong crowd could lead to trouble and temptations that might be hard for Sid to resist.

Still, Father Brown made sure to not interfere with Sid’s social life. True, those boys had gotten into trouble before, but it was wrong to assume that that trend would necessarily continue or that they lacked the capacity to be good. He would have to trust Sid to make the right choices in his personal affairs.

“Father,” Mrs. McCarthy called to him. “They’re ready for you to announce the final bids.”

“Right, on my way,” Father Brown said. He glanced over at Sid one more time before heading back toward the crowd that had gathered.

Almost two hours and a couple of last-minute bids later, the bids were sorted out, the money was collected and the art pieces were distributed among the winning buyers. As he gathered the money into a locked wooden box, he realized that the total proceeds probably exceeded his original estimate.

‘I should call Father Stephan tomorrow morning,’ he thought. ‘The last time we spoke, he wasn’t sure if he could be able to pay for the repairs to the altar. It will be a blessing for him to know that he will be able to start on that work soon.’

“Oh where is that boy?” Mrs. McCarthy huffed, her hands on her hips. “Father, I told Sidney that he was to help with the cleanup.”

Father Brown frowned and scanned the courtyard. Sure enough, there was no sign of Sid or his friends anywhere in or around the churchyard. He let out a small sigh, but made sure to smile when he looked over at Mrs. McCarthy.

“I’m sure we can get a couple more of the WI ladies to pitch in,” he assured her. “After all, ‘many hands make light work.’”

“I suppose so,” McCarthy frowned. “Still, this isn’t the first time he’s wriggled out of his chores of late. This could be the beginnings of a bad habit.”

“I’ll speak with him after dinner,” Brown said.

“Good,” McCarthy nodded. “I know you mean well, Father, but sometimes you ought to be a little less forgiving and take a firmer hand with Sid. Trust me, it’s for his own good.”

Father Brown nodded as he began to gather up the plates. He knew that Mrs. McCarthy had a valid point. Sid needed to learn responsibility and the necessity of honoring his word when it’s given to others. Because Sid was still a child, Father Brown knew it would be up to him to instruct Sid and give him boundaries so he could learn these concepts. Brown wasn’t entirely sure of what sort of discipline would be best. He was only certain that it would need to be consistent and punitive without being vengeful in nature.

Later that evening, Father Brown and Sid were sitting at the kitchen table, finishing up some shepherd’s pies that Mrs. McCarthy had left them. Sid, as usual, had already cleaned off his plate before Father Brown was done and was about to get up when Brown placed a hand on his arm.

“Mrs. McCarthy was expecting your help with the cleanup after the auction today,” he said. “As was I.”

“Sorry,” Sid replied. “But I…I had stuff to do.”

“I’m sure you did. But that does not mean that you can skip doing the work you were already obligated to do.”

Sid rolled his eyes and fell back against his chair. “Fine. I’ll make sure to do it next time.”

Father Brown frowned. “Sid, it’s important that you do not attend to your chores solely because I tell you to do so. Daily chores are part of the responsibilities you have while living in this house. Also, when you make a promise to someone, you ought to keep it.”

“I said, fine, all right?” Sid sighed. “I promise, I’ll make sure to do it next time. Can I be excused now?”

Father Brown frowned a little more. This talk wasn’t going the way he had hoped. Sid seemed to only agree with him to avoid an argument rather than coming around to his point of view. Still, Sid did acknowledge that what he did was wrong and seemed to be somewhat contrite over it. And Brown was aware that some lessons needed time to truly sink in. Pressing his point even more right now might do more harm than good.

“All right, you’re excused,” he said. “But remember, you’re to be back in by nine ‘o clock.”

“I know,” Sid nodded. He got up from his chair. “See you later, Father.”

Sid dashed out the side door while Father Brown watched, a slight smile appearing on his face. He finished the last bit of his pie before getting up to put the dishes into the sink to be cleaned later.

It was just after midnight when a noise woke Father Brown up. It sounded like footsteps and low voices. Someone, more than likely more than one someone, was downstairs.

Brown sat up in bed and reached over to his bedside table to fetch his glasses. It wasn’t a total shock to hear someone downstairs at this time of night. He did leave the church and the presbytery unlocked and it was not unusual for someone to need a priest at all sorts of odd hours. Thus, he wasn’t overly concerned about it, but he was aware that he needed to be a bit more cautious these days because he now had Sid to consider.

He grabbed his robe and put it on along with his slippers before quietly walking down the stairs. As he descended, he was able to make out most of what the voices were saying.

“Can’t you get the lock?”

“Do I look like I’ve got a key?”

“Come on, hurry up. You said it’d only take you a minute to do this.”

Father Brown followed the voices to his office and saw that there was what looked like candlelight streaming through a crack in the doorway. He immediately decided that more light was in order.

He swept the door open and flicked on the light switch on the wall. He discovered three boys huddled in a circle behind his desk. One of them was Doug Abernathy who was holding the locked wooden box that held the proceeds from the art auction. Another was Nicky Anders whose hands held several shillings which he was certain came from said box.

And the one holding the candle was Sid.

“What is going on here?” Father Brown asked, his tone a mixture of disbelief and disheartened.

All of the boys opened their mouths and started to point at each other before hanging their heads in shame. Doug sat the box down and grabbed the candle from Sid. Nicky shoved the money he was holding back into the box. Then the three of them walked out from behind the desk to stand in front of Brown.

“We’re sorry, Father,” Doug and Nicky said in unison. Sid bowed his head even more and remained silent.

“I forgive you,” Brown said. “And God will as well if you are truly repentant. Now, I think we can avoid involving the authorities…or your parents. I have some yard work around the church that needs to be done. I think a day of your time spent on that will be suitable penance. Say, tomorrow at three ‘o clock?”

“Yes Father,” Nicky said. “We’ll be here. Come on, Doug.”

Brown moved aside so Nicky and Doug could shuffle out of the room and out the side door of the presbytery. Sid started to walk out too, but Father Brown held up a hand to stop him.

“What happened here, Sidney?” he said, anger creeping into his tone. Sid slumped down even more.

“We, we were just going to borrow it,” he mumbled. “It was only going to be a few shillings and we were going to put it back later. It wasn’t even for me.”

“No, but you were helping other people steal,” Brown replied. “That money is for a church in London who is in dire need of assistance. You of all people should know what hardships they’re facing.”

“I know,” Sid said, his voice barely above a whisper. “I, I’m sorry. I’m so sorry, Father.”

Father Brown watched Sid silently for a moment. He was still upset over what happened, but did not want to let his feelings cloud his judgment over how to handle the situation. He took a deep breath and turned to face the hallway.

“I see no reason for Mrs. McCarthy to hear about this,” he said. “For now, I think it would be best if we returned to our rooms for the night. We’ll discuss your penance in the morning before breakfast.”

“Father,” Sid croaked out. “I’m really sorry. I…I didn’t think about….”

“Sidney, we’ll discuss this in the morning,” Father Brown interrupted.

“Please Father,” Sid said. “Please don’t be angry.”

Brown let out a soft sigh. “I’m not angry….but I am very disappointed in you.”

Father Brown walked away from his office to back up the stairs to his room and get back into bed. A few moments later, he could hear Sid make his way to his room and shut the door behind him.

With a heavy heart, Father Brown closed his eyes and tried to quiet his mind so he could get some sleep.

[suraj-singh1]

How To Start A Photography Business From Home

Well, starting a photography business from home is something I did 20 years ago, so I can give you a few tips and tricks to do it successfully.

The first thing you’re going to want to do is please get yourself an education. I don’t care if you do it through college, university, or you hire a mentor, but you’ve got to know what you’re doing with that camera and you’ve got to know what you’re doing with the people on the other side of the camera.

A top photography hack that might surprise you, take a course in psychology. Understand how people work, because as a photographer, your clients should not remember you at all when they look at the pictures. When they look at their pictures, you want them to remember how fun it was for them to be together, to be with each other. Their job is to create memories. Your job is to document it, not to be this super-stressful photographer that’s trying to get the dad or the child to smile the whole time while the mom’s just fussing around trying to create clothing that’s not wrinkled or keep handprints off herself. They wanted to have a fun experience.

Get an education in photography and your camera, read your camera manual, and get some kind of education in psychology and how the human brain works and how to just work with people, especially if you’re doing portrait photography.

The first thing you’re going to want to do is to start building your portfolio. This means just going out there and shooting. If you’ve just created your portfolio with no images in it, there’s no reason for anyone to hire you as a photographer, so go shoot everything you possibly can and find your niche. You might find that you like landscapes. You might find that you love working with babies. You might find that you love doing families. Maybe you love to travel photography. Maybe you love weddings. Maybe you want engagements or maternity or couple shoots, or single or high fashion. There are so many different kinds of photography that I haven’t even scratched the surface on, so shoot everything you possibly can. When you do that, you’re going to find what you love to shoot most.

When I started, I literally shot everything. I would do still lifes. I would do travel. I would do macro. I would do this grunge feel. I would experiment with everything, and gradually I found which kind of photography that I love doing most. I had to go through a lot of weddings to learn this. I had to go through a lot of family shoots to learn this. I finally figured out, as I was sitting there on the beach in Mexico and I was watching this family play, that I was having the time of my life traveling and taking these epic pictures of not just families and couples, but of the architecture and of things that people don’t get to see every day. Travel photography and travel couples photography, that’s my niche. That’s what I love to do.

Will I do the occasional wedding every now and then? Sure. Will I do professional headshots every now and then? Absolutely, if I love it, if I want to work with that person, but my favorite thing to do is travel photography. That’s my niche. Discover your niche just by shooting everything that you possibly can, and save it for your portfolio.

A tip from the pro, get yourself an external hard drive, please, at least a few terabytes in size. I bought a two-terabytes external hard drive off of newegg.com a couple of years ago. That thing is almost full and it’s growing quickly, so get yourself an external hard drive for storage.

Also, please, pretty pretty please, back up your work offsite using a site like Carbonite. You are dealing with huge files here. You’re dealing with many huge files, and you’re dealing with priceless memories that you can’t get back. Unless you have a triple backup, meaning your hard drive, your external hard drive, and something offsite, you don’t have a backup at all, so triplicate or nothing, onsite, offsite, and on your hard drive. Please, please, please back up your work.

Also, something that I wish I had done when I was first starting out, metadata. If you don’t know about metadata, learn about metadata. Metadata is this little sidecar file, it is what it’s called. It’s all the information about your picture. It’s got the location of your picture. It’s got the time your picture was taken. It’s got your camera’s data on there, what f-stop, what aperture, what shutter speed. It’s got all of the information on there. You can actually manipulate that metadata to put some extra information in there.

For example, if you went to Mexico and you shot a family on the beach there, then you would go into that metadata and add the word Mexico, add the word family session, add the word Puerto Vallarta if they happen to be there, add whatever color they were wearing, or add the word beach, anything that describes that picture because you never know. You never know when you’re going to be inspired by a contest and want to pull your beach pictures, and then you want to find that one, but you’ve got so many files, you can’t find it because you didn’t add the beach to the metadata sidecar file. Manipulate that metadata sidecar file as soon as you shoot the picture and get it into your Lightroom. Add that metadata. I promise you, do yourself that favor right now.

Another thing you need to know when considering photography is Instagram. Instagram is where all the photographers hang out. In fact, a lot of photographers don’t even have a website anymore just because they’re using Instagram exclusively. Instagram is all about images, so start a very high-quality Instagram profile. In fact, you can check out some more of my videos on how to create a very stunning Instagram profile, which you’re going to need for your photography business.

That being said, you need to master hashtagging. Hashtagging is almost like adding data to your sidecar file in your pictures on your hard drive, except now you’re doing it for the public. If you have a wedding that you shot, make sure you hashtag #wedding and the location of your wedding. If you have a family, make sure you have all of the relevant hashtags with that. In fact, I have another video for you about how to find the most popular hashtag for your images. Become a ninja at hashtagging.

When you’re starting your own photography business, it’s so important to have contracts in place. If you’ve watched any of my other videos, you know that I care a lot about managing customer expectations. That’s why I’ve recorded so much content on it. Those are going to be all outlined in your contract, and you need your contact to cover you in case there’s some kind of a dispute. I don’t care. If you’re photographing friends and family and think, “Oh, I don’t need to do a contract for this one,” wrong. Get a contract. Have everyone read it and sign it.

On top of that, make sure you have an insurance policy. You can get a million-dollar insurance policy for usually less than 500 bucks in this industry. You should have that in place. You never know when someone’s going to trip and fall on a shoot. You never know if an accident is going to happen on a shoot. Heaven forbid, let’s be real here, but you want to have an insurance policy to back you up just in case. I promise you won’t be sorry.

You can also ensure your equipment on that policy. Every time you buy a piece of new equipment, add it to the policy. It shouldn’t cost you extra very often unless it’s a giant, huge piece of equipment. But include it all in your insurance policy.

When you’re starting your photography business, you want to define what your goals are. Do you want to just build a massive portfolio? Do you want to have a certain dollar amount that you’re making every year? Really be clear, crystal clear, on your goals and understand that you’ve got to deconstruct them and reverse engineer them.

For example, if you want to make $10,000 a month doing photography, how much are your portrait sessions? Maybe they’re $500 for a portrait session. How many times does 500 go into 10,000? How many of those $500 sales could you do in a week? How many people do you need to gather at your specific closing ratio, meaning how many closes with sales can you do out of how many people you talk to? How many of those can you close in order to get however many you need every week to get that dollar amount per month? Reverse engineer your goals and then have a daily action step to do with each of those.

We’ve talked contracts, we’ve talked about what to do with your images, we’ve talked storage, so I want to actually go to a question that came in on Quora. This question is from Tiberiu Tesileanu. I hope I pronounced your name right. Forgive me if I didn’t. And the question is this. Is photography meant only for the rich?

I want to tell you about one of my favorite photographers of all time. His name was Edward Weston. If you look up Edward Weston, you’re probably going to see a black and white photograph of pepper, a bell pepper. Now, this bell pepper was photographed by Edward Weston because he was so poor. He was so poor, and he wanted… He was a brilliant photographer, but he really didn’t have anything to photograph, so he made this black and white photograph of this pepper, which has turned out to be one of the most popular photographs in the black and white photography industry.

So is photography only for the rich? Absolutely not. It’s for the creative. If you’re creative, get behind the camera and start creating some beautiful work.

Photography is also for those that want to document. Some of the most valuable photos in history are not because they’re technically beautiful, not because they’re photographed well, but because they exist. Imagine if we had a photograph of the man who shot Kennedy in the action of doing it. That would probably be a hugely valuable photograph. Imagine first-edition photographs of people like Abraham Lincoln. Or imagine if cameras were around in the time of George Washington, how valuable that photograph would be.

Photography, it’s for everybody. It’s for those that want to document and remember, it’s for creative artists, and it’s for anyone that values looking at a piece of history.

I look forward to seeing more of yours there, and I’ll be checking back in. But if you’re interested in starting your photography business at home, I’m going to encourage you to just get started. Go out there and shoot something super cool today.

Thanks for reading this blog post today. I hope you enjoyed this. Go out there, start shooting, create amazing images.

[xhostcom]

20 Best New Portfolios, December 2018

It’s December, which means it’s officially carol season. Oh well. Whether you’re a curmudgeon about these things like myself, or are even now feeling the heat rise in your elf ears and Santa hat, we can all agree that portfolio sites are cool, right? Let’s see what those wacky designers have come up with now. There are quite a few modern, as in pre-post-modern designs here. You know, classic, business-friendly minimalist sites. I must say, sometimes my writer and designer sides clash, and I worry about what design trends make me do to the English language. (Also, I’d like to take a moment to thank Hubert Gałczyński from the previously-featured K2. He has directed me towards Wappalyzer which is a tool that’s helping me more accurately figure out what platforms and CMS everybody is using.) Note: I’m judging these sites by how good they look to me. If they’re creative and original, or classic but really well-done, it’s all good to me. Sometimes, UX and accessibility suffer. For example, many of these sites depend on JavaScript to display their content at all; this is a Bad Idea

, kids. If you find an idea you like and want to adapt to your own site, remember to implement it responsibly.

TJ Dhillon

TJ Dhillon’s portfolio starts as the rest of this article will probably go on. It’s simple, it’s clean, it works. It’s got some nice little drop shadows on hovering over certain elements, and is it weird that I’ve actually missed those? They were never a bad thing in moderation. Moderation might be the key to this whole site design. There are frills, but they’re not overdone. Platform: Static Site

Matt Kevan

Matt Kevan’s portfolio looks a little bit like a prototype, though it’s obviously polished. As he is a UX designer, the aesthetic certainly works thematically. He’s also elected to put his writing front and center, rather than his more visual work. It’s certainly one way to demonstrate your expertise, but I wish I had some kind of analytics Platform: Jekyll

Daniel Spatzek

Daniel Spatzek’s portfolio will take us, just for a moment, to the world of the ultra-modern. You know how I feel about sites that are this JS-heavy, but I’m still a sucker for that grid-based aesthetic, especially when it’s properly using the full width of my desktop screen like this. Platform: Static Site

Undersight

Undersight has that clean-and-modern look, but with a little bit of artistic flair provided by the work itself. It feels like the portfolio pieces are almost as much apart of the overall aesthetic as any other element of the site. In a world where so very often the design and content almost feel like separate parts of a website, this is an improvement. Platform: React

Sei Yamazaki

Sei Yamazaki’s portfolio is focused on art. With this comes the classic “art gallery style” which includes lots of white space, and text that’s perhaps a bit too small at times. Still, the layouts themselves are beautiful, and the featured installation has some of the finest video presentation I’ve seen in a while. Platform: WordPress

4POR4

4POR4 is a rare breed indeed. Normally websites that use this much space-related imagery have darker layouts. But here we have lots of literal white space mixed with astronaut imagery, illustration, and photomontages. It’s a bit bandwidth-heavy, perhaps, but the overall effect is stunning. Platform: Static Site

Your Creative Copywriter

Your Creative Copywriter is, as a website, the very picture of business-friendliness. The layout has elements of post-modern asymmetry while maintaining a clearly businesslike look. The illustrations are classic, and even the stock photo of the hand holding the pencil is perfect for the market. Sure it’s a little cheesy, perhaps, but far from the cheesiest stock photo we’ve ever seen. It’s always interesting to see a site so clearly made with modern tech that feels like something from another era. It doesn’t hurt that this is probably exactly what their clients are looking for. Platform: Static Site

Niccolò Miranda

Niccolò Miranda’s portfolio is one of the most “presentational” sites I’ve ever seen. It’s dark, it’s got animated illustrations, and even the blog is animated to an extent. This is only possible because every blog post is a YouTube video tutorial, with accompanying practice files. It’s not the most accessible site I’ve seen, but it is beautiful, and it takes an interesting approach to ongoing content. Platform: Custom CMS (I think)

Pixavio

Pixavio is another highly presentational site with a “modern” look so old it reminds me of old fashion magazines and, weirdly enough, a lot of the barber shops I went into as a kid. It’s something about the typography and gradient use. The site shows off the flexibility of this aesthetic by using a different color scheme for each portfolio page. It feels like a blast from the past, but it still works today. Platform: Static Site

Eleken

Eleken brings me back to a time when everyone was doing design “like Apple but with thicker headings”. It’s pretty classic minimalism, mixed with a little background video, and workplace photography. Platform: Gatsby

Kobu

Kobu is a rare beauty. It’s sleek, stylish, and makes wonderful use of curves in its illustration and animation. The animations run smoothly, and aren’t altogether too distracting. The color palette is strong, and the headings are thick. And it does all of this without scroll-jacking. Can you even believe it? A fancy site that performs well and lets me scroll normally. I’m in love. Being a bit more serious, it’s a lovely looking site. Just wish they had more fallbacks in place for all of the JS stuff. Platform: WordPress

MOXY

And we’re back to the scroll-jacking. But I can forgive MOXY for this because it’s just that pretty. It’s sites like this that remind me why—even though I dislike how JavaScript has become the new Flash—web animation is a discipline and an art form all its own. It’s an art form worth exploring, and MOXY does that beautifully. Platform: React App/Static Site

Trajectory

Trajectory is doing it all wrong! If you’re going to use a monospaced font, your site either has to be an ironic brutalist meta-commentary on web design or a post-modernist artsy design. None of this pleasant, business-friendly stuff with smooth illustrations and gorgeous gradient use. Using monospaced type for all the body text might be a bit much, but it certainly does stand out when combined with everything else. Platform: Craft CMS

Soap Media

Soap Media is hitting all the right buttons for me, personally. It’s bright with bold colors, it’s playful, and it’s got a huge rubber ducky. This is an entirely subjective point, but I just like rubber duckies. The whole site feels creative and whimsical in that “we’ll playfully make you a lot of money” sort of way. It’s genius. Platform: Static Site

Nate Denton

Random chickens are equal to rubber duckies if you want to be silly and playful. Nate Denton’s portfolio went with a big one, contrasted by a relatively soft and warm color palette. The resulting aesthetic is a combination of professional and artsy that is overall pleasing to the eye, but less likely to scare away the more straight-laced potential clients. Platform: Static Site

Crema

Crema is this month’s site that isn’t mind-blowingly experimental or anything, but is here because I admire the craftsmanship. Plus rounded corners. We don’t seem them as much as we thought we would, do we? Platform: Custom CMS (I Think)

NoBears

The amusingly-named NoBears agency goes with wackiness, combining striking photomontages and background video with a comparatively subdued dark design. I’m still a sucker for those semi-visible grids as part of the design, so of course this one’s on the list. Platform: Silverstripe

BAUNFIRE

While many other sites are going for bold and bright aesthetics, BAUNFIRE keeps it soft and pleasant with a pastel-infused, and fairly minimalist design. It’s a calming and soothing experience from an agency that presents itself as easy to work with. Platform: Craft CMS

Friends

Friends’ website presents a fusion of that near-postmodern, element-overlapping aesthetic with some more classic-feeling minimalism and typography. That fusion works quite well. Platform: Craft CMS

Daniel Kusaka

Daniel Kusaka’s portfolio gives me some of that good old magazine feel that designers wanted to do for years. Well now we can, and I can’t get enough of it. God bless Flexbox and CSS Grid. Platform: WordPress

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20 Best New Portfolios, December 2018

It’s December, which means it’s officially carol season. Oh well. Whether you’re a curmudgeon about these things like myself, or are even now feeling the heat rise in your elf ears and Santa hat, we can all agree that portfolio sites are cool, right? Let’s see what those wacky designers have come up with now.

There are quite a few modern, as in pre-post-modern designs here. You know, classic, business-friendly minimalist sites. I must say, sometimes my writer and designer sides clash, and I worry about what design trends make me do to the English language.

(Also, I’d like to take a moment to thank Hubert Gałczyński from the previously-featured K2. He has directed me towards Wappalyzer which is a tool that’s helping me more accurately figure out what platforms and CMS everybody is using.)

Note: I’m judging these sites by how good they look to me. If they’re creative and original, or classic but really well-done, it’s all good to me. Sometimes, UX and accessibility suffer. For example, many of these sites depend on JavaScript to display their content at all; this is a Bad Idea, kids. If you find an idea you like and want to adapt to your own site, remember to implement it responsibly.

TJ Dhillon

TJ Dhillon’s portfolio starts as the rest of this article will probably go on. It’s simple, it’s clean, it works. It’s got some nice little drop shadows on hovering over certain elements, and is it weird that I’ve actually missed those?

They were never a bad thing in moderation. Moderation might be the key to this whole site design. There are frills, but they’re not overdone.

Platform: Static Site

Matt Kevan

Matt Kevan’s portfolio looks a little bit like a prototype, though it’s obviously polished. As he is a UX designer, the aesthetic certainly works thematically.

He’s also elected to put his writing front and center, rather than his more visual work. It’s certainly one way to demonstrate your expertise, but I wish I had some kind of analytics

Platform: Jekyll

Daniel Spatzek

Daniel Spatzek’s portfolio will take us, just for a moment, to the world of the ultra-modern. You know how I feel about sites that are this JS-heavy, but I’m still a sucker for that grid-based aesthetic, especially when it’s properly using the full width of my desktop screen like this.

Platform: Static Site

Undersight

Undersight has that clean-and-modern look, but with a little bit of artistic flair provided by the work itself. It feels like the portfolio pieces are almost as much apart of the overall aesthetic as any other element of the site. In a world where so very often the design and content almost feel like separate parts of a website, this is an improvement.

Platform: React

Sei Yamazaki

Sei Yamazaki’s portfolio is focused on art. With this comes the classic “art gallery style” which includes lots of white space, and text that’s perhaps a bit too small at times. Still, the layouts themselves are beautiful, and the featured installation has some of the finest video presentation I’ve seen in a while.

Platform: WordPress

4POR4

4POR4 is a rare breed indeed. Normally websites that use this much space-related imagery have darker layouts. But here we have lots of literal white space mixed with astronaut imagery, illustration, and photomontages. It’s a bit bandwidth-heavy, perhaps, but the overall effect is stunning.

Platform: Static Site

Your Creative Copywriter

Your Creative Copywriter is, as a website, the very picture of business-friendliness. The layout has elements of post-modern asymmetry while maintaining a clearly businesslike look. The illustrations are classic, and even the stock photo of the hand holding the pencil is perfect for the market.

Sure it’s a little cheesy, perhaps, but far from the cheesiest stock photo we’ve ever seen. It’s always interesting to see a site so clearly made with modern tech that feels like something from another era. It doesn’t hurt that this is probably exactly what their clients are looking for.

Platform: Static Site

Niccolò Miranda

Niccolò Miranda’s portfolio is one of the most “presentational” sites I’ve ever seen. It’s dark, it’s got animated illustrations, and even the blog is animated to an extent.

This is only possible because every blog post is a YouTube video tutorial, with accompanying practice files. It’s not the most accessible site I’ve seen, but it is beautiful, and it takes an interesting approach to ongoing content.

Platform: Custom CMS (I think)

Pixavio

Pixavio is another highly presentational site with a “modern” look so old it reminds me of old fashion magazines and, weirdly enough, a lot of the barber shops I went into as a kid. It’s something about the typography and gradient use.

The site shows off the flexibility of this aesthetic by using a different color scheme for each portfolio page. It feels like a blast from the past, but it still works today.

Platform: Static Site

Eleken

Eleken brings me back to a time when everyone was doing design “like Apple but with thicker headings”. It’s pretty classic minimalism, mixed with a little background video, and workplace photography.

Platform: Gatsby

Kobu

Kobu is a rare beauty. It’s sleek, stylish, and makes wonderful use of curves in its illustration and animation. The animations run smoothly, and aren’t altogether too distracting. The color palette is strong, and the headings are thick.

And it does all of this without scroll-jacking. Can you even believe it? A fancy site that performs well and lets me scroll normally. I’m in love.

Being a bit more serious, it’s a lovely looking site. Just wish they had more fallbacks in place for all of the JS stuff.

Platform: WordPress

MOXY

And we’re back to the scroll-jacking. But I can forgive MOXY for this because it’s just that pretty. It’s sites like this that remind me why—even though I dislike how JavaScript has become the new Flash—web animation is a discipline and an art form all its own. It’s an art form worth exploring, and MOXY does that beautifully.

Platform: React App/Static Site

Trajectory

Trajectory is doing it all wrong! If you’re going to use a monospaced font, your site either has to be an ironic brutalist meta-commentary on web design or a post-modernist artsy design. None of this pleasant, business-friendly stuff with smooth illustrations and gorgeous gradient use. [/sarcasm]

Using monospaced type for all the body text might be a bit much, but it certainly does stand out when combined with everything else.

Platform: Craft CMS

Soap Media

Soap Media is hitting all the right buttons for me, personally. It’s bright with bold colors, it’s playful, and it’s got a huge rubber ducky. This is an entirely subjective point, but I just like rubber duckies. The whole site feels creative and whimsical in that “we’ll playfully make you a lot of money” sort of way. It’s genius.

Platform: Static Site

Nate Denton

Random chickens are equal to rubber duckies if you want to be silly and playful. Nate Denton’s portfolio went with a big one, contrasted by a relatively soft and warm color palette. The resulting aesthetic is a combination of professional and artsy that is overall pleasing to the eye, but less likely to scare away the more straight-laced potential clients.

Platform: Static Site

Crema

Crema is this month’s site that isn’t mind-blowingly experimental or anything, but is here because I admire the craftsmanship. Plus rounded corners. We don’t seem them as much as we thought we would, do we?

Platform: Custom CMS (I Think)

NoBears

The amusingly-named NoBears agency goes with wackiness, combining striking photomontages and background video with a comparatively subdued dark design. I’m still a sucker for those semi-visible grids as part of the design, so of course this one’s on the list.

Platform: Silverstripe

BAUNFIRE

While many other sites are going for bold and bright aesthetics, BAUNFIRE keeps it soft and pleasant with a pastel-infused, and fairly minimalist design. It’s a calming and soothing experience from an agency that presents itself as easy to work with.

Platform: Craft CMS

Friends

Friends’ website presents a fusion of that near-postmodern, element-overlapping aesthetic with some more classic-feeling minimalism and typography. That fusion works quite well.

Platform: Craft CMS

Daniel Kusaka

Daniel Kusaka’s portfolio gives me some of that good old magazine feel that designers wanted to do for years. Well now we can, and I can’t get enough of it. God bless Flexbox and CSS Grid.

Platform: WordPress

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[flowermandalas]

Handling Change, Part III: Creative Approach and Experimental Attitude

Handling Change, Part III:

Creative Approach and Experimental Attitude

      Creative Approach

Creative activities – and the creative approach to life that often accompanies them – can also help us become more emotionally adaptable.

Creative activities are rewarding as outlets for self-expression. They feel good, they are centering, and they give us a sense of accomplishment. And they’re often fun! But besides these more obvious benefits, creative activities can also change the way we approach our lives.

When we work creatively, we dive deep. We pause, look at what we are making, check inside and ask “Is this working?” and then bring up something of value that we might otherwise never have discovered. As we pause/look/check/incorporate, we create something new and authentic.

Because our brains get better at doing whatever they do, the more we practice diving deep, the better we get at it. Regularly doing creative activities often leads to a more general diving deep, allowing us to become more proficient at sensing and incorporating the less obvious aspects of ourselves and the world around us. This increased facility for sensing and responding to the whole of our present circumstances makes us more aware of ourselves and our surroundings, and more adept at adapting to change.

When we make the effort to check in with our deeper natures, we also tend to forge ahead more surely. If we look only at our superficial thoughts and feelings, and we try to make a change, it’s as if we are trying to move an iceberg by pushing on the tip. We may manage to lean it over, but it will eventually spring back. Diving deep allows us to travel below the water’s surface in our mental/emotional submarine, where we can take in the whole iceberg, home in on its center of gravity, and exert our efforts exactly there. The movement that results may be smaller, but what moves stays moved.

I see this dive-deep/move-forward-surely process often in therapy. Clients who tend to make the most profound changes may begin a session by simply describing a situation. But then they pause, check in with some murkier, less clear part of themselves, and bring to the surface what they find. For instance, they may begin by describing a situation that made them angry. “When he did that,” they might say, “I was so mad that…” And then they pause. “Well, it wasn’t just that I was mad. I got mad, but really, I was hurt.” Then we can deal not only with the surface feeling of anger, but also with the deeper feeling of hurt that triggered it.

Engaging in a creative hobby can not only train the brain, but can lead to changes in what we do with our lives. A friend in the construction business for most of his career began to create small oil paintings a couple of years ago. He found the practice centering, calming, and self-reflective, so much so that now he is taking the necessary steps to become a professional artist – a reinvention.

If you’re already doing something creative, keep doing it! If not, experiment with different art forms. Begin with the forms of creativity you enjoy taking in. If you like to read, consider writing. If you like to listen to music, consider learning to play an instrument and/or composing. If you like to look at art, consider painting, photography, sculpture, pottery. If you like movies, consider acting – or making movies yourself. If you enjoy walking in gardens, consider starting one.

One of the best books on living more creatively is Julia Cameron’s The Artist’s Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity. For specific training in diving deep, both in life and in creative activities, see Eugene Gendlin’s work with Focusing at focusing.org and his concise handbook on the technique of Focusing, Focusing.

Experimental Attitude

As discussed in more depth in another post, maintaining an experimental attitude toward life keeps us more open to experiences and to other people and helps us be more resilient in the face of difficulties.

Acceptance frees us from unrealistic hope and unwarranted anxiety, self-compassion from self-criticism, and forgiveness from the weight of unforgiving.

Relieved of these burdens, we are more able to adopt an experimental attitude. We can face our lives with open minds, seeing them as ongoing experiments. When things shift in unanticipated ways, we can say, “That was my path, but this is my path now,” adapting to the present moment as it arrives. Instead of conforming to the limits of past patterns, we can try things out, see what happens, and adjust our view of reality – and our next steps – accordingly.

An experimental attitude gives our ReBalancers the power to craft new strategies on the fly whenever new challenges occur. These new strategies, once created, cannot be uncreated. They are always there, ready whenever we need them, helping us to feel confident that we can handle whatever unknowns life (and UnBalancer) hands us with curiosity, resourcefulness, and equanimity.

For more on the experimental attitude, see the blog posts The Experiment and How to Design an Experiment.

What to do:

Create and dive deep. To train your brain to respond more fully to yourself and your surroundings, do something creative on a regular basis, then practice applying the dive-deep/move-forward-surely process of creative work to your daily life. See Julia Cameron’s book The Artist’s Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity for more on living creatively and Eugene Gendlin’s book Focusing for a way to integrate subconscious needs, wants, and desires into your conscious self.

Experiment. Maintain an experimental attitude toward life to stay open to experiences and to other people, and to grow ever more resilient in the face of difficulties. Experience your life as an ongoing experiment, rather than as a fixed path. For more on experiments and the experimental attitude, see the blog posts The Experiment and How to Design an Experiment.

COMING NEXT: Three Ways to Mix Mindfulness into Your Life

Related Posts: The Under Toad and the UnBalancer The Balancer/ReBalancer Tag Team A Mini-Lesson on Mini Self-Care Gyroscopes and Personal Flywheels Hanging in the Balance Balancing the Books The Experiment How to Design an Experiment Build Your Resilience in 6 Steps How to Rebalance Your Brain in 3 Easy Steps How to Boost Connections and Support Handling Change, Part I: Radical Acceptance and Self-Compassion Handling Change, Part II: Forgiveness and Self-Forgiveness Handling Change, Part III: Creative Approach and Experimental Attitude Three Ways to Mix Mindfulness into Your Life

Books: From Paths to Wholeness: Fifty-Two Flower Mandalas COURAGE: “The difference between those who successfully reach the end of their Hero’s Journeys and those who do not isn’t better opportunities, more strength, or superior allies, but the courage to get up and try again, even when the odds seem insurmountable and discouragement feels overwhelming.”

Print: Amazon  –  BookBaby  –  B&N  – Books-a-Million eBook: Kindle  – Nook  – iTunes  – Kobo

NOTE: Paths to Wholeness is now available at the following Boston-area bookstores and libraries:

Cabot Street Books & Cards, 272 Cabot Street, Beverly, MA 01915 The Bookshop, 40 West Street, Beverly Farms, MA 01915 Boston Public Library (main branch) Brookline Public Library (main branch) NOBLE Public Libraries (Beverly Farms and Salem) MVLC Public Libraries (Hamilton-Wenham)

Please let me know if you find it in other locations!

Also available: 52 (more) Flower Mandalas: An Adult Coloring Book for Inspiration and Stress Relief 52 Flower Mandalas: An Adult Coloring Book for Inspiration and Stress Relief Paths to Wholeness: Selections (free eBook)

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from Handling Change, Part III: Creative Approach and Experimental Attitude