Happy New Year

We got invited to a friend's home for a big creole dinner feast. These are the hosts - she is showing off her brand new tattoo. A new tattoo for a new year, I suppose!

Photos by Julia

I just had to share this collection of photos, taken by Julia, age 3. She has quite an avant-guard style, highlighting her perspective of the world, and using unconventional cropping techniques. Scroll down for 6 photos.

Chillin'

Here we are just chillin'.

Julia

Here's my favorite little person to hang out with performing the chidhood ritual of "licking the spoon".

Farmer's Boots

Off to the farm...

Our good friend is a dairy farmer in PA and we are gradually making it a tradition to go to the farm around New Year or the week after Christmas. It's the most peaceful, relaxing place on the Earth for us and is a great place to reset to prepare for the clean slate of the New Year.

Hippy Cat

SICK! First shot of the day at 10:58 PM. Decided that my parents' cat would be the easiest target but she didn't want to cooperate! I have quite a few photos like this - me under the piano or table or chairs - and her running away! Now you can see what I am capable of when I don't have my wits about me.

Backyard

On the train...

I missed what I am sure would have been the most amazing photo - the sun streaming through the window, with lens flare, to light up the book I was reading. But by the time I got the camera ready, the train had pulled into the station and blocked the sunlight.

Pool with Gords

We are starting to realize that we won't have much more time to spend with our friends in NY.

Brunch

I spent the day having brunch at my former boss's apartment in Manhattan. She pretty much has the most beautiful apartment I've ever seen!

Brothers

Evil Dead

My husband decided to surprise me with tickets to a show. The show turned out to be "Evil Dead; the Musical". I thought the most interesting thing was the ultra-mod theatre space. Example: the coat check. This is where I spent Act II, reading a book and taking photographs while inside, people were being splattered with fake blood.

J

I was bummed today (a side-effect of the post travel return to NY) so J made me warm bread with butter to cheer me up. This was long before the days of making our own bread, but bread has always been a staple of our diets as well as emotional happiness!

Picasso in Texas

Last day in Austin, Texas and we visited the wonderful Harry Ransom center. Unfortunately, the world's first photograph was not on display today but I had more fun with the windows of the building anyways. They are etched with the likenesses of the art the collection owns - including Picasso's Eyes.

Austin, TX

J and I went to look at moving to Austin, TX - one of the finalists in the "where should we move to contest". It's a cute little city that's great for a long weekend visit but neither of us could see ourselves living there.

But, Jo's Coffee Shop, now ranks up there as one of my top 5 favorite coffee places in the world. Outdoor seating all winter is a big plus, and the people watching was great. I want to build a mini version of their deck on my house some day and spend my mornings and afternoons drinking coffee there.

Mushroom Helping

Here is Mushroom helping me read my book. Scroll down for a photo of "Where's Mushroom?"

Junk

In preparation for the move, I spent the entire day organizing our storage space in the basement. We will have to get rid of more than half of this stuff if we want to be able to afford to move!

Ham

Some days, the best you can do is a picture of ham.

Christmas Tree Shopping

I went down to VA to help my parents buy their Christmas tree.

Mom

The other problem, sometimes, with choosing just one photo a day is that there are too many to choose from. Of course, on this same day, I shot my mom in the studio as well.

Dad

In the year+ that I have been doing this, there aren't many days where I would change the photo-of-the-day if I could, but this is one of them. I chose this first photo of my dad back in 2006 but if I had to do it over again, I would choose one of these other shots...

Home

Home visiting the rents. Their house has always been a bit difficult to photograph. The surrounding trees block a lot of light and the house is beige brick - so it doesn't make for the most exciting photographs. This is the house I grew up in.