Winter Words: cozy

Our last winter word is cozy. My photo is on the left and Allison's is on the right. I'm happy with how this project turned out. It was fun to look for photo opportunities based on winterish words and I loved the surprise of how our photos looked next to each other.

Mine was taken in Elliott Bay Cafe, which is a cozy place to go on dreary winter days.

Winter Words: spiced

The word of the week for our Winter Words project is spiced. My photo is on the right and Allison's is on the left. These are spices I used for a potato chickpea curry which makes an awesome winter meal.

Winter Words: snow

This week's Winter Word is snow. My photo is on the left and Allison's is on the right. I'm still hopeful we'll get the snowpocalypse that has been predicted for the Seattle area but so far we haven't had anything more than flurries since November.

Winter Words: steam

Our Winter Words word of the week is steam. My photo is on the left and Allison's is on the right. My glasses are constantly fogging up this winter, which was pretty amusing the first time it happened but by now the novelty has worn off.

Winter Words: tradition

The word of the week for Winter Words is tradition. My photo is on the right and Allison's is on the left.

One of my favorite Christmas traditions is when my family piles into the car on Christmas Eve night and we drive around and look at Christmas lights in our town while listening to our favorite Christmas tapes by The Living Voices. It was raining this Christmas Eve, as you can probably tell in my photo, but that never deters us. I look forward to this ride every year. I hope everyone had a great holiday weekend!

Winter Words: hibernation

The word for this week's Winter Words project is hibernation. My photo is on the right and Allison's is on the left.

Winter Words: layers

Here is the second installment of Winter Words. The word for this week is layers. My photo is on the left and Allison's is on the right. I'm really excited with how this one turned out! We chose pretty different interpretations of layers but I think the photos complement each other.

Pathways and pastries

I love this ivy arch. I've come across it several times on walks around my neighborhood and each time I'm thrilled by it and I try to make a mental note of where it's located but it never sticks in my mind. I just have a vague notion of where it is in relation to my apartment. But I guess that's okay since each time I come across it I'm happily surprised.

The beautiful plum danish in the bottom photo is from Cafe Besalu, which is probably my favorite bakery in the whole world. It was a deciding factor in my apartment hunt this summer. When Allison and I were talking about winter projects she suggested that we become regulars at a cafe, which I think is the perfect excuse to treat myself to a pastry here once a week.

Winter Words: serene

I recently met up with Allison, creator of the awesome blog 24:00, to discuss a project we could collaborate on this winter since we both struggle with finding inspiration during these months of short days and little light, so we came up with Winter Words. We picked a list of words that remind us of winter and each week we'll independently take a photo to represent that word and post them together on our blogs. This week's word is serene. My photo is one the right and Allison's is on the left (click on the photo to see a bigger image).

I'm really excited to see how this project pans out and hopefully it will help motivate me to keep taking photos even when I'm not feeling inspired. Are you guys doing any projects this winter?

This moment is breakfast

A friend and I got up early for breakfast at Portage Bay Cafe and I took this photo for the New York Times' global mosaic project. I am so excited to see this moment in time all over the world! Did anyone else participate?

You are what you eat, day 7

I was planning on using my final day of this week to reflect on what I eat and why I eat what I do and other things of that nature, but it's Saturday night. And even though my plans only include putting the computer right next to my face to watch United States of Tara, I don't feel like reflecting. It seems silly to even try to plan reflection time. It will happen when it needs to.


* waffle with butter, blueberries, and powdered sugar, waffle with butter and nutella, apple juice
* Blue C sushi: avocado roll, sweet omelette roll, inari
* caramel macchiato
* cheese pizza from Pudge Brothers
* butterfinger ice cream

You are what you eat, day 6

* english muffin: half butter and honey, half peanut butter and jelly, chocolate milk
* pastry and coffee from Zeitgeist
* mac n cheese
* mint dark chocolate
* chipotle black bean veggie burger with cheddar, ketchup, and mustard, salad

You are what you eat, day 5

Today was a little bit rough. I woke up with pain and redness in my left eye and after a few hours I decided I should get it checked for pink eye, which I had once in high school and the eye doctor said it was the third worse case of pink eye he'd ever seen in his life. I was impressed with my bacteria. But I didn't have pink eye this time. I have CLARE, which is an adorable acronym for "contact lens acute red eye" or "you have been leaving your contacts in too long and now your eyes are broken". Bummer. I don't have backup glasses, so I am slightly blind for the next week or so until I can put my contacts back in or my new glasses arrive. I couldn't tell if my photos were in focus as I was taking them, but luckily cameras are pretty smart and I think they came out fine.


* cereal with milk, apple juice
* darjeeling tea
* leftover pasta from the other night, only now it has a mysterious purple tint. Mei Li's leftovers are also turning purple. What's up with that?
* mint dark chocolate (just imagine 6 squares instead of 2)
* bagel with red pepper hummus
* cheese pita pizza, lemon bar, the last of the best ever feta, crackers

You are what you eat, day 4

If you are what you eat, today I am fancy.

I had a lunch worthy of a last meal at Palomino today. A bunch of my coworkers got together for the Seattle Restaurant Week deal of a 3 course lunch for $15. I love this deal. I want to try them all!


* mango, toast with butter, lemon bar
* chai with milk and sugar
* bread with olive oil, balsamic vinegar, tomato topping
* an unexpectedly delicious salad -- I don't normally like tomatoes but these were fresh and firm and so so good
* mac n cheese (they tried to get me to call it by its fancy name: Baked Four Cheese Trenne, but I wasn't fooled)
* dessert heaven

You are what you eat, day 3

* english muffin: half butter and honey, half peanut butter and jelly, chocolate milk
* wannabe burrito with rice, beans, onion, bell pepper, corn salsa, cheddar cheese
* darjeeling tea
* half bagel with red pepper hummus
* mint dark chocolate
* pasta with cauliflower, walnuts, and feta (go make this pasta right now, seriously), salad
* strawberries, lemon bar

You are what you eat, day 2

Taking these photos reminds me a lot of a blog I really enjoy: simply breakfast. Each breakfast is a little different but it's always shot from above. Sometimes Jen includes other small things from her day; a book, a necklace, maybe a postcard. It seems like such a wonderful ritual to capture and appreciate a beautiful meal the way she does.


* waffle with butter, blueberries, and powdered sugar, apple juice
* earl grey
* leftover curry and rice from yesterday
* blueberry dark chocolate
* yogurt with granola
* red pepper hummus, pita, my favorite salad with dried cranberries, walnuts, and whatever cheese I have on hand (today it's grana but it's best with cheve), cranberry almond dark chocolate

You are what you eat

I have a new project. This one is only a week long (unless I decide otherwise) and it consists of me photographing everything I eat, which was inspired by this article. I love all the crazy things you can find on the internet, like people showing the world every single food substance that enters their mouths. I just think that is super. And I want to participate.

* tea with milk and sugar
* The Usual (what I call Justin's classic breakfast of potatoes and eggs hashed together with whatever else he has in his kitchen; this time chives, white cheddar, and chipotle sauce), lemonade
* potato and chickpea curry over rice, pita
* raspberries, crackers with brie and blueberry preserves

The end of a year in photos

Today I took my last photo for my year long photo-a-day project . It's weird thinking that tomorrow if I don't feel like taking any photos, I actually might not take any photos. I feel both happy and sad about this. I think I've grown a lot during this project and I discovered a new passion that I want to continue to pursue, so even though I am done with the project I am in no way done with photography.

I picked one favorite from each month of this project, and here they are: