Ellingsen Photography

This is the 10th edition of 10 Things since I started this little corner of the internet! Woot! That’s 100 things I’m grateful for/are making me happy. I feel pretty good knowing I’ve stopped to take stock at least that many times in the last year(ish).

1. Adorable Laura George greeting cards. I’ve been admiring her work for ages on Etsy, and with several birthdays coming up, plus various days celebrating parents, I went ahead and ordered a set all at once. Don’t you just love the colorful envelopes?

2. Lake walks. I know I’ve said it too many times before, but they’re just so damn good for me – for my senses, soul and thighs. I’ve hoodwinked a few friends and family members to join me and that just makes it even better.

3. The new Nerdist and Geek and Sundry YouTube channels. Their wonderfully geeky original content is what finally convinced me to join the 21st century and actually subscribe to a channel. Felicia Day is my hero, I’m so happy she has a regular video blog (The Flog) now! Both channels launched this week – nerdgasm!

4. A new Star Wars moleskine. Speaking of nerdy…but I got it on sale! It’s truly the perfect size to take everywhere.

5. A new haircut. There’s nothing like the feeling of freshly coiffed hair, amiright? (I used an app called Photo Collage to combine the before and after.) I am devastated that my genius stylist is moving in August after she gets married. So happy for her, but I’m still selfishly sad!

6.  The resurgence of the annual Family Easter gathering. We’re not particularly church-y, but we do love a reason to get all the cousins together (when I say “all”, I really mean my three cousins and my uncle and aunt). And we’re especially overdue because the last year we really did anything was back in 2009. Crazy how time flies! Tangent: I couldn’t remember the last time we went all out for Easter; luckily I’ve been blogging and taking photos regularly for so long I was able to look back and see! It’s one of the main reasons I’ll never stop – the historian in me loves to document.

Anyway, even though my dad is still in Norway, my mom and I decided to go ahead and gather everyone anyway. So I whipped up a lovely email invite from Paperless Post (gorgeous designs, half of which are free!) and mom and I menu planned. Can’t wait!

7. Actually completing a project. Like cutting up old desktop calendars to string up underneath my bedroom window. Pretty cute, right?

8. Cooking, for realsies. I’m pretty honest about not being, shall we say, anyone’s choice if they’re facing an Iron Chef-style challenge. But this year I’ve finally found myself actually wanting to cook meals at home on a regular basis, and not just whipping up chicken salad melts and calling it a day (even though they’re delicious). And it’s not that I suck at cooking, I’m just terrible at improvising or looking at ingredients and coming up with something. I do much better with a recipe to follow and all the ingredients at hand. But I suppose some of that comes with experience, right? Sure. {Please share your easiest go-to recipes with me!}

So, for example, this week I made Pioneer Woman’s pasta with tomato cream sauce and Kate Miss’ recipe for cauliflower and leek soup (with a few modifications – half beef broth, half chicken broth in place of stock, and I used green onions instead of leeks). This was my second time making the soup and I have to say that recipe is get-outta-town good. And with no milk products (except butter)! Plus you get to use an immersion blender – awesome! I was so hungry by the time it was ready I didn’t even stop for a photo.

9. Photo-a-day challenges. This time, it’s via Instagram! And it’s only a month-long challenge, so you don’t feel the same pressure as with something like Project 365. Plus they make it interesting by having a different theme for each day! I’ll share my images all together at the end of the month. If you want to join in, I found the themes listed here.

10. Discovering new inspiration. This week I completely fell in love with the work of Canadian photographer Benoit Paillé, especially his portraits of attendees of the Rainbow Gathering. The honesty and beauty of his work took my breath away. Big thanks to my peeps at Faded + Blurred for blogging about him!

Hope you guys have a wonderful weekend!

xoxo