A recipe for disaster

Siiiiiiiigh. The other day, I heard about Dunkin' Donuts pulling a Rachael Ray TV ad while I was listening to NPR.

Internet searching led me to the story on MSNBC.com.


I don't have many nice things to say about this. How ridiculous! Seriously! I ranted to Erik for awhile, but then had to pause and look at the other side of the coin.

When I was headed ton Africa about a year and a half ago, I certainly was more than a little intimidated of some of my traveling companions. I'm ashamed to admit it, but I was skeptical of talking to the guy next to me on the plane from Atlanta to Paris. He looked middle-eastern to me (see how easily we can all buy into being terrified of people different than us?). Come to find out, he was a wonderfully nice business man who spent a lot of time between India and the U.S. on business. He had a young son, who he missed like crazy, and just wanted someone to talk to.

Then, in Niger, Africa, you didn't have to look far to see men wearing head scarfs. Heck, I was spending two weeks in a Muslim country, what did I expect. But did that mean they were all terrorists? No and HECK NO.

Less than one second after disembarking from the bus that took us to Agadez on the edge of the desert, I KNEW why they were all wearing scarfs around their heads. The wind was crazy and kicked up dust and sand into your hair, face, eyes and any other exposed part of your body. It did NOT take me long to purchase a head scarf of my own. Heck, does that make ME a terrorist? No and HECK NO.

I guess my basic message to anyone who reads this blog is this: Just because someone looks or dresses vastly different than you, jumping to conclusions is often the worst thing you can do. If you take a few minutes to engage with someone, you might have not only a new respect for their culture, but a wider world view. And that's something we ALL could use more of.

I'll close with this commentary from The Chicago Tribune. I think it hit the nail on the head!

Cookbook Idea

I'm super-busy this week, so just a short post. I LOVE COOKING and am excited about Tastebook.com as an idea.

I haven't done too much poking around, but it looks as if you can add your own recipes or get ones off of their archives. Yummie! Leave me a comment on YOUR favorite recipe!

Wedding Web Site facelift

Our awesome invitation designer, Heather, is getting CLOSE to having our invites all designed! I'm SO EXCITED!

To celebrate, I changed the look of our wedding Web site to match the colors better. Nothing will match perfectly, because I don't think you can customize the colors .... but oh well!


The old design wasn't spectacular, but they didn't have as many options. Now they have a plethora of choices at My Wedding.

Layoffs

Last week, the HDN let go a full time and part time employee.

TODAY they canned THREE MORE people .... including a 17-year employee.

Glad I'm on the way out already....

Quick Pic...

I really didn't want to be one of *those* people .... you know. The ones who take a crappy photo of themselves and submit it to the paper for an engagement photo. BUT I'm about outta Hays, and due to my awesome opportunity to go to Liana's Business Boot Camp, we had to postpone our engagement session.

SO .... here is the photo .... Yeah, I took it MYSELF with a camera timer. Not spectacular, but I want to get it in the Hays paper before I am too far removed from Hays.


I KNOW Mike will do a dynomite job, so be sure to stay tuned sometime this summer for the photos!

Also, this is the first photo you can clearly see my NEW GLASSES!

Soooooo, after a long absence, here are my new glasses. A few months ago, I posted asking for advice on new glasses. There were SO MANY people who left excellent comments. Thank you ALL for your feedback.

I did a preliminary search, and brought Erik back. I texted pictures to Robin, and finally Erik and I ended up on this pair.

Erik and I had different favorites among the pairs of glasses. He liked some dark black ones (I didn't want them too dark) and I liked tortise ones. He asked if I'd like those glasses in another 9 years (I had my last pair for 9 years!), and I decided I should go a little more traditional. SO, that's how we landed here.

Father Nick's Ordination!!!!!

This weekend I cruised over to Salina to inspect Erik's handiwork in our garden, as well as for Father Nick's ordination to the priesthood. (go post some comments and give him some blog kudos and love!)


Then I headed to Goodland for his first Mass, which was this morning. I'm chillin' in Hays and look forward to staying in ONE PLACE for the next 10 days.

Come July 1, Father Nick will be assigned to St. Mary's, where Erik and I are parishoners, and we're BOTH excited to have him around!

I'm so crazy busy, with WAY too much on my plate right now, so if you need something, talk to Erik. ;-) But seriously, unless it's an emergency, I'm not taking on anything else until about June 15. So if your e-mails or phone calls go unanswered, please don't take it personally!!!!

#2 — Quit my full-time news job

... not done YET, but today I gave my two weeks notice to the Hays Daily News. Another 101 in 1001 almost out of the way!

Now, I feel like THIS:



(Photo by Steven Hausler when I was on assignment at Blue Sky Miniature Horse Farm a few weeks ago).

I am not doing the "salty stomp" out of the news business. It's just time for me to move on past Hays. I need something more fulfilling in life. I enjoy writing, but it is not my passion. It doesn't get me out of bed in the morning or keep me up late into the night. Heartland Photography fits that bill and I'm elated to have the opportunity to go full time! (UGH! I swear, once I'm full time, the new Heartland Site will go LIVE!!!! I can hardly wait to share it with all of you!)

There are SO MANY people who have helped me to get to this point — encouraged me, let me cry on their shoulder and given me sound business advice — they range from my parents who instilled a sense of independence at a VERY young age to Erik who is my number one fan to Mike who really helps me kick my photos up a notch!

There are MANY others (Sarah, Robin, Nicole, Angela, Kim, Kitty, Liana, Tyff & Jeff....), but there's not enough hours in the day to give blog love to those who have helped me. Please know I thank each and every one of you from the depths of my soul.

Dream, dream, dream, dream...

A few weeks ago, I saw the following quote in a post on the suber-fabulous Jasmine Star's photography blog that struck such a deep chord with me.

I can hardly read this quote without tearing up ... and this seems like an appropriate week to share it with you. (BTW, JD is Jasmine's husband)

"Money should never be an issue when dreams are concerned and, JD says, I've given him another reason to wake up and go to work. To him, my aspirations don't have a pricetag."

(emphasis added!)

A poem

Hold fast to dreams,
For if dreams die,
Life is a broken-winged bird that cannot fly,
Hold fast to dreams,
For if dreams go,
Life is a barren field,
Frozen with snow
~Langston Hughes

This poem/saying was on the bathroom mirror growing up. I must have read it in a literature book and liked it ... and I am spending a lot of time thinking about it this week.

A better update, and less cryptic post coming Wednesday, I promise!

On Marie's Blog!

The fabulous Marie posted the above collage of us BBC survivors on her blog.

Sa-weet!

Where's Erik?

Hmmmm...this blog probably seems really "Karen heavy" right now. Not to fear! Erik is still around and kickin' but behind the scenes.

His No. 1 priority right now is seeing the Royals to 500. They're 2 games away from 500, so at that point, Erik will do lots of dancing right here on the blog.

He's also sending regular updates on our GARDEN! The beans are up and we have LOADS OF LETTUCE peeking out of the ground. He's concerned the rabbits will eat it, but once I move to Salina, Esse will be unleashed on the yard, so I'm not concerned too much about it!

On BBC blog!

Yay! Liana put our group photo up on the BBC blog

From left to right: Beth Daane, Michelle White, me, Marie Bunke, Ellen McRaney and Jamie Delanie.


I'm not sure exactly what we're laughing at, but FULLY aware of how goofy I look!

Photogs taking photos

Just another quick peek into my images from Keepin' It Fresh. Pictured is Jeff, one of our workshop hosts in the Scottish Rite.

Sheesh! I have SOOOO MUCH to catch up with on blogging.

What if ...

... was the starting point for the Doodle 4 Google.


Check it out HERE.

A local girl in Hays was the finalist for grade 10-12, region 6. Vote for her!!! :-)

Yeah, yeah, yeah, some of the other entries appeal to me more, too, but let's support Kansas!

Yet ANOTHER workshop!

Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know I just returned from a workshop in Atlanta, but this time, the workshop is literally in my OWN backyard! My buddies, Tyff & Jeff and Brett, are putting on Keepin' It Fresh in Valley Center (with some shooting in Wichita).

The above finger directing models Kristin and Michael is the uh-mazing photographer Mike Colon.

Anyhow, I'm waiting on photos to download/backup so I thought I'd share a few quick favorites from today. I'll be sure to share more tomorrow of photos of photogs ... I just can't stop from stepping back and photographing the entire scene ... I'm sure passers by wonder about the herd of photogs! :-)

More of the stunning Kristin...


I also want to give a BIG shout out to my biz buddy, Mike, for changing my flat tire tonight! He and Brett took care of it and I'm super thankful for their help!

#83 — Plant a garden

.... CHECK!

Saturday, some friends came over to help me till a patch in Erik's backyard for a garden. Sunday, Erik and I went to pick out our plants!

We planted:
Goliath tomatoes
cucumbers
basil
squash
snap green beans
3 kinds of lettuce
AND STRAWBERRIES!!!!!!! (but to have better fruit next year, we have to pluck off all of the flowers, so no berries this summer).

Yet ANOTHER 101 in 1001 item accomplished!

(note: Monday's strong rain washed out a portion of our beans, so I'll have to re-sew them over the weekend)

I'll be sure to bring you updates throughout the growing season! :-)

OH ... and I totally muddied up some shoes, so I got some super-cute galoshes for the garden! (Gotta LOVE sales at Target!)


Erik thinks they're super cute, so I hope he doesn't stretch them all out with his big feet! ;-)

#28 — Attend Liana's Photo Business Boot Camp

... CHECK!

It feels SO GOOD to check another item off of my 101 in 1001 list!

A few weeks ago, I read on the BBC blog that Liana was taking applications for a scholarship to her Business Boot Camp. After begging Erik and dad to nominate me, I threw my hat into the ring! I was a finalist, but didn't make the first round of cuts. BUT Liana had several last minute cancellations, so ALL FIVE finalists got to go. The last night, she said there were dozens of applications, and she had a hard time narrowing it to the top 11 .... let alone the top 5. To be among those in the top five is a HUGE honor.

There were six of us at the workshop, and FIVE of us were there on scholarship. I'm guessing Liana didn't turn a big profit on the workshop (especially since she gave us three days, as well as cooked us lots of yummie meals!). From the bottom of my heart, THANK YOU LIANA for your generosity!

Pictured are my super-excellent classmates (from left) Jamie Delanie, Ellen McRaney, Marie Bunke, Michelle and Liana Lehman.

The experience was UNBELIEVABLE! I took a very good, hard look at our business numbers and am WAAAY more comfortable with my task of running the book end of our business. We also talked about goals and dreams .... and Liana encouraged us to dream BIG! I can't wait to share when those dreams become a reality!

It was also super-fun to give the other attendees ideas for their business. I am excited to see them grow and blossom! I'm ALSO excited for our book club. I keep telling myself I *need* to read business books, but don't get motivated to do it. With some friends reading the same books, it's gonna ROCK!

Awesome e-photo!

This is the best engagement photo EVER! It makes me smile. Can you see why????

(This tickles my funny bone because of the Mikols obsession with small rodents, as well as the K-State photog obsession!)

I found it while stalking the blog of my buddy, Erich Camping (I met Erich at the fabulous Flourish Workshop in January).

Greek salad!

This is the yummiest salad EVER!

Erik is SUCH a big fan of salad, so when I found this recipe in Better Homes and Gardens, I HAD to try it out.

Erik of course modified it a bit and added a Greek feta cheese dressing, which was AMAZING!

It was TOTALLY easy to make and super yummie. HERE'S the recipe.

Cat nap

Esse was enjoying one of her cat naps Sunday evening.


She was nestled all snuggly ....


ON MY BUM!

I'm not exactly sure what the allure was, but she wouldn't move! I pulled the sheets off of Erik's bed to wash them and was testing out his memory foam mattress topper. SO Esse felt the need to test out a new sleeping place, too.

Erik took this photo with my pro camera, and I'm proud at the wonderful job he did!

I've been replaced!

Erik and Esse had all last week to adjust to living together. I would get daily reports, and they were always good. It sounds like Esse is a *little* clingy to Erik, but he's a handsome dude, so I can't blame her! :-)

SO I am around over the weekend, and was of course snuggling with Erik. Esse was NOT happy. If we were snuggly, there wasn't room in Erik's lap for HER. Ok, so after the first day she learned. Once Erik sat down, she'd IMMEDIATELY hop up into his lap.

Booger.

But that means she likes Erik, which I'm glad for.

Now it's just getting through a few more weeks in Hays ... but sans kitty! I know she's in good hands with Erik, but Esse and I have lived together for more than 4 years, so this is a BIG change for me.

Last day in Atlanta

I'm SO SUPER EXCITED to go home and see Erik and Esse today! I have thoroughly enjoyed and valued my time here in Atlanta, but I'm ready for my own bed!

SO since I'm pathetic and cat-sick, I'm dedicating this post to Liana's cats. This is Grace "Pretty Girl."


This is Ellen loving on Charlie. (I LOVE this photo!)


Marie and Charlie loving on each other. Aren't they sweeeet?







Lastly, my all time FAVORITE mug ... with a dash of Charlie.

Inspiration

I was blog stalking again this morning, and came across these BEAUTIFUL photos on the blog of Rachel, Millie Holloman's associate photographer.


I am simply SALIVATING over the beautiful blue/brown combo! I also dig the swirls on the tablecloth, and how the silverware stem echoes the tablecloth.

You WILL SEE some blue hydrangeas in the wedding, though! LOVE THEM!