Can't believe it's already 2am!

Entertaining, organizing thousands of pictures (I wish I were exaggerating), and setting up shop for better product photography have been my main focus for the past two days. There's always work to be done around here, but I'm really looking forward to tomorrow when I'll have a chance to hang out with my parents here at my house. We're going to do some cooking, and play games or watch movies or go for a swim depending on the weather. Good times... And perhaps I'll compose a dish with these lovely radishes I found. Aren't the colors just beautiful?
More tomorrow, I must get some beauty rest now.

Wonderful Wednesday

So I wanted to share this collage created by my extremely talented friend, C. She asked me questions about what I wanted to have or achieve in the coming year and in my life over all. You can see her notes from our phone conversation in the center, written on notebook paper. Then she created this collage. I believe this was one of a few different creativity exercises she was working on at the time, about a year ago. Every time I see this image on my computer screen, I smile, I'm inspired and I am reminded of how lucky I am to have such a great friend who is also immensely talented. She's probably thinking, "Iris that thing took 20 minutes, it was just an exercise!" But I've seen other work she's done and I know her talent runs deep. I just love it... perhaps I should ask her to make another, hmmm...



Also wanted to share a couple quick pics from yesterday because it rained! Yay!! Now, if you live in Seattle or Portland or even Houston, that may not be a big deal. But when your grass is more brown than green and becoming crunchier by the minute despite your watering efforts before 9am and after 8 pm, it's a big deal. We really needed it, and I hope it filled up our aquifer a little.



And one of my favorite things in the whole world is a super fresh tomato mozarella salad. I always thought they were good, but my time in Italy cemented my love for this super simple, but delicious dish. If you've never made it, I'll give you the secret... the best, freshest ingredients you can find. When your food is really clean and simple, the ingredients make all the difference in the world. All you need is bright red tomatoes, mozarella cheese (fresh is best, usually in a ball), fresh basil, some extra virgin olive oil, a little balsamic vinegar and a bit of salt and fresh ground pepper. Deeelish! As you can see, D couldn't even wait for me to take the picture before digging in!