quinoa burger

recently i made some quinoa burgers after hearing somewhere, somehow about a food van making them (san fran? craftzine?).

for these ones, i used 2 cups of cooked, mixed quinoa (a combination of white, red and black quinoa varieties). mixed in 2 eggs and probably about 1/2 cup of whole wheat flour, plus salt, pepper an fresh dill (thanks carol!).

then, i shallow fried them in vegetable oil and made them into veggie burgers. they were really yummy! sometimes i make patties with split red lentils but that can get a bit stodgy and dry. not so the quinoa patty!

sisters

a few weeks ago I took some shots of these sisters at a local park/skate park. their mum chose their little skater girl inspired outfits and it definitely suited them.

they are so sweet with each other and i had an awesome time deciding what sort of feeling i wanted to give these photos. in the end i sort of went with a clean, lofi vintage sort of thing, inspired by the lords of dogtown.

















i am using a trial version of radlab by totally rad! photoshop actions, and i must say it is pretty addicting. i didn't even really know what photoshop actions were 6 months ago but i am definitely seeing how nice it is to be able to consistently and quickly give images a particular look and feel. this week i watched this video my elizabeth halford and i was really inspired to treat editing as a special part of the process.

how to make kettle corn

Oh, the sweet and salty addiction that is kettle corn. if you make it yourself, it is one of the cheapest snack foods around. you can make a big bowl of organic kettle corn for pennies.








Use a large, heavy bottomed pot on medium heat. coat the bottom surface with a thin layer of oil, then add the popcorn kernels and a couple of good pinches of sea salt. don't bother with preheating, just whack it on and in all at once.

Leave uncovered until the first kernels start to pop. Then, quickly sprinkle kernels with a couple of tablespoons of sugar and cover the pot with a tea towel instead of the pot lid (this keeps the popcorn really crisp).

Shake and shimmy your pot as the kernels pop until rapid popping ceases. At this point, remove from heat and dump the popcorn out of the pot, i usually dump it onto a clean cutting board or straight onto the same tea towel i used to cover the pot. Do this last bit quickly because the sugar will burn given the slightest chance at this point.





et voila!

you have kettle corn.

watch the snack munchers devour it.

hunting and gathering

we've been doing some pretty serious foraging around these parts - upon discovering an unspoken for mulberry bush and a rather neglected grapefruit tree our forays into urban foraging have been plentiful and fruitful, so to speak.




currently we are accumulating frozen mulberries for use in pie and jams - the bush looks like it will be producing for the next few weeks so a new routine involves walking to our bush with a couple of pails and having a little pick at the ripe berries. it is so fun! the kids love it, little Ruben even gets in there and picks (and munches as he goes).

our other abandoned fruits of the neighborhood are a very very sour variety of grapefruit - i think! they are full of seeds and require doctoring with a simple syrup. we use it as a sort of cordial and have also made popsicles. i like the thought of getting free vitamin C!



any abandoned bushes ripe for the pillage around your parts?

teagan and zac are getting married

last weekend i took some engagement photos for a super couple, Teagan and Zac. i was really excited to take some photos of adults instead of kids for a change! wow, adults are so obedient!

teagan and zac were very natural in their photos - they have been together for ages and their photos clearly show how much they love each other. it was truly inspiring seeing them together and hanging out with them for a couple of hours.

thanks for the lovely afternoon teagan and zac! i think you two are going to make an amazing partnership - you already are.

summer making

i had an extremely productive sewing weekend after a client had to re-schedule.

i've been away from my sewing machine for too long, and this weekend i cracked into the fabric stash, the ottobre mags and made some summer stuff for the kidlets.


for bea: she is allegedly making a switch from exclusive skirt wearing to choosing pants/shorts more and more (phew!)

ruben, still wears just what i want him to.







which in this case, includes fun print shorts with side-vent sort a of vintage board-short look, and harem-style jean shorts (made from the cut off legs of my jeans, from which i acquired a pair of jean shorts).  lastly, a little rocket ship t-shirt.

i am loving the harem pants/shorts thing for babies - it looks super comfy and fits cloth nappies with no problem whatsoever! i'm debating making myself a pair of harem sort of shorts. hmm. not sure about harem bum on grown person. i'll get back to you on that one.

inspired by

this little session from Monday was inspired by this song by gotye. specifically the video clip. bea especially likes the idea of body painting. she decided we should do something like it and take some photos.

all photos were taken using a tripod and timer, or by bea herself. she was quite the little director.
all the colour is crayola washables. we love those. they are super fun to draw all over yourself with, and wash off with just a rinse.


















afterwards, we enjoyed watching the colours go down the shower drain.

ice cream sandwich

soft chocolate cookies + ice cream = yum

my address has changed!

Oh hi! i've just changed my blog address to saybooplease.blogspot.com in an effort to streamline my photography business blog into my personal blog as well. If you need to, please change the address in your reader! I didn't happen to see a note that mentioned my gingerbooandpickles address would redirect automatically. if it does, yay! thanks! i hope you do keep me!

if you go into the woods today

2 little girls named beatrix and lola went out into the bush, to do a bit of camping and gathering. bea was the bigger girl, and lola was the smaller girl. they were a little worried about witches and bears and snakes and zombies, as the day was a bit dark, and the clouds a bit ominous.



the bigger girl, (beatrix) decided to go and gather some herbs for their decorating, and she reassured her little friend that she would be safe in the tent.



lola stayed in the tent. she was feeling a little scared, but she tried her best to be brave.



beatrix literally ran to the clearing in search of their favourite little flowers. she was a little creeped out.



she had the distinct feeling that she was being watched.



she brought back her flowers and herbs and told lola that there may be something lurking in the trees. . .



the girls stayed in the tent, where they felt safer. but they still couldn't shake the feeling that something was coming. lola kept her ears pricked for any suspicious sounds.



they were most pleasantly surprised to find that it was only their little toddler friend, ruben! he must have followed them through the bush. everyone was most relieved to be together again, so they all relaxed and hung out in the tent. they felt much more cheerful after finding out the scary noises were only the sounds of a toddler bustling through the underbrush. the end!

play

bea, is very good at playing. she has the capacity to shut herself up in her room and play for a couple of hours without a break. she makes up little stories amongst her little bits and bobs.

the capacity for play is really nice to have. it means you will never be bored.

i've been playing with photos and playing at making a website.

here are the recent fruits of my creative play.

the photos are over exposed photos of the kids layered with 'bokeh' photos.
i kind of like the surreal feel to them.

B and K decided to have a tea party photo shoot.

last week. on tuesday morning, bea decided that what she wanted to do was have a tea party. photo shoot. i had to chuckle. she claims she is starting to believe me when i say taking photos is a job. maybe this photo shoot idea was her way of saying sorry for laughing in my face when i told her i was starting to take pictures for people as a job. she literally scoffed and said 'that is NOT work. where is your office?'

so, we dutifully rounded up some items that would be suitable for a tea party. in the end, it had to be watered down quite a bit from her initial ideas of tablecloths and cucumber sandwiches. in the end, she settled for neenish tarts from the shop and apples and pears in a pail. water in the teacups instead of honeyed tea, as she'd originally thought.

here is their little story.



two girls decided to have a picnic tea party in the field. so they packed their snack and ran off together.



they found a spot that was just right and set down their things.



they had a spot of tea (ahem, water).



and a lovely chat.



until the sun was low in the sky (and the baby brother was too cranky for anymore photos to be taken).



the end.

.