C'est La Vie!

C'est La Vie!

uyguguygu   05.00   Comment  

Last week I splurged and bought the Laudree Sucre cookbook on line. I've been obsessed with macarons ever since my very first visit to Paris and I've fed my obsession with visits around town to various macaron makers and a visit or two to the Laudree in New York City as well. With the new cookbook in hand my friend Jess and I decided to attempt our very first batch of macarons. 

By the end of the experience we decided to re-name what we made "gluten free sandwich cookies" instead of macarons since that's really what they looked like, not the perfectly round fluffy macarons that we anticipated from looking in the cookbook! 

The point, of course, of all that baking was to have fun and I would say we did that pretty successfully! We laughed our way through the vague directions and chit chatted about anything and everything. 

One of the  great joys of my life here are the wonderful friends I have made. I have learned so much about being a faithful and consistent friend from them, about opening up, even about the scary stuff about yourself you'd never want to admit to anyone, and how sharing in experiences with people can grow you together and separately. 

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This photo set was taken by the amazing Jessica Triggs! Love to her, always. 

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I'm wearing Madewell Skinny Skinny Jeans, Madewell Sandals (out of season - similar here), and a j. crew shirt (on sale!). Keepin' it simple. 

Go Placidly Amidst the Noise and Haste of the Universe...

Go Placidly Amidst the Noise and Haste of the Universe...

uyguguygu   18.59   Comment  

I want to tell you about a book I read when I was fourteen or fifteen. I can't remember the name of the book at it was so short I think I read it in the course of an afternoon. It was classic young adult fiction, the sort of thing written for moody teenage girls (which, of course, I was) to devour and feel like someone understood them. 

Anyways, the book was about a girl who was in high school and wanted to be a dancer. She must have been in a pre-professional company or something. Every day she would go home and struggle with whatever she struggled with and tell her parents she wanted to be a dancer. 

And every time she said that her dad would gently remind her, "You are a dancer."

And that was the whole lesson of this book. You are a dancer. 

But maybe you're not a dancer. Maybe you write stories in your spare time. You, my friend, are a writer. Or maybe you ride your bike up a mountain or only down the bike path by your house. You are a cyclist. Maybe you make dinner every night, and even though the only patrons at your restaurant are you and your family or even just you. You are a chef. 

The point I'm trying to make here, the thing I first read in this book and learned through living and trying, is that you are what you are doing in life. Even if you're not being paid to do it, if there are no material gains or social rewards where you put your time is who you are. 

One of the things that is generally implied in life as you are growing up is "do good work and the rewards will follow." I believe that contrary to that idea the work is the reward in most cases. There is pleasure in having and finishing, of course, but the stretch of hard work, and the space and time you give to being something, if that makes sense, is where the real joy is discovered.

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I cannot honestly remember the brands of any of my dance clothing. I do know my pointe shoes are Bloch. 

All of these stunning photographs were taken by Jessica Triggs at Heartflip Photography. Love and gratitude to her, always.