Shady Entertaining

I didn't really know what to do or say when I started blogging. But, now, I'm feeling overwhelmed. I'm finding all these stories and ideas that I can re-share with anyone who may care. I'm also finding awesome blogs and secretly becoming a junkie. My husband thinks I'm working but I'm blogging.
Design Sponge - so inspirational - especially when so many of the best magazines have folded leaving us very little to flip through. Yes, I know I'm so behind and everyone knows Design Sponge already, but it still had to be said again. Happy fifth anniversary to them! Also Cannelle et Vanille - I've got to go back to this when my daughter goes to bed tonight. Bloody beautiful to look at and no doubt just as tasty. I so envy food stylists. It's such an art and is not easy to do. I foolishly tried from time to time to make some food look good for a shoots. Here are the links to both:
http://cannelle-vanille.blogspot.com/
http://www.designspongeonline.com/
Hang on, I hear a fight going on between my husband and daughter - she is 20 months, seems he is 24 months most times. Better intervene..
Problem solved - his beer spilled down her slide -you can see how both would be upset by this.

I miss the rain. It's dry and hot and my skin is feeling old. My farm is so dry too.

This is an appropriate story for hot weather that I produced for Gardening Life (sigh, they folded). It was an entertaining in the shade article. I hung cheap blinds from Ikea to block out the sun on two sides of the table. I used cut dill sprigs and specialty begonias planted in rice steamers to decorate the table top. That is Kate holding the salad cone - one of the sweetest ladies I know. She also works as an assistant to Janis. I put salad in a parchment cone and then wrapped a grape leaf around it.

All photos by Janis Nicolay - again!

This was shot on my back deck. Most of the stories I produced were shot here. That is Jake, our cat. He is rather vain. He manages to get himself in almost all the shoots we do here.