My crazy mom...

She took a plane ride over Everest. Holy cow!

Happy Birthday, Spring!

Last night, Steve and Julia threw a birthday bash at the Sleepy Hollow Inn in Huntington, VT in celebration of Spring's arrival. I took a few pictures (below) of the round barn where Steve spent some of his time cooking the six chickens. We spent most of the evening at the inn itself which was just a short walk down the hill. Julia is the innkeeper there and since there were no guests at the inn, she and Steve were able to have a pretty large group of us out to see the place and enjoy the food they had prepped over the weekend. They didn't disappoint. There was beer can chicken, sage rubbed lemon chicken, sweet potatoes, green salad with salmon, homemade bread, a selection of yummy cheeses and we can't forget the THREE, three layered cakes that came out for us all to enjoy, fireside. We decided to read The Legend of Sleepy Hollow as a group (since we're at the Sleepy Hollow Inn) in the dark with only a flashlight! We took our cues from our brilliant friend, Laura who just recently hosted a similar and slightly more intense read-aloud evening. So, we got out the rocking chair and started in, passing the book every few pages. There was some giggling, some amateur sound effects when the drama was high and of course someone on hand to hit the lowest key of the piano at every mention of Ichabod Crane! Kind of awesome. Some of us fell asleep in the warm, dark room-not hard to after such a great meal.

We finally decided it was time to venture home. I decided to leave with a few others since the roads were muddy. I managed not to get stuck in a ditch or damage my car! I made it home and fell into bed.

What a weekend. I'm exhausted but, happy. I'm lucky to have such amazing people in my life who are smart, creative, funny, generous and kind.

Boiled Dinner.

AB and Max had a couple of us over last night for boiled dinner-corned beef, cabbage and potatoes. We finally got to meet AB's sister Heather (aka Little B) and her husband! We'll all be in AB's wedding together. Max pulled out all of the stops and made a ridiculous meal including dessert--fruit slump. A-mazing! AB and Max are famous for hosting meals that are accompanied by a very well rounded drink menu. So, throughout the evening things got progressively more festive and I eventually busted out my camera when the ladies decided to adjourn to the bathroom for a hair and makeup session. The original purpose of this session was wedding prep. It soon turned into an orange lipstick wearing, hair teasing, smokey eyed, photoshoot. We all shared a cab and made it home in the early morning hours. Thanks for the lovely meal AB and Max--oh, and for my new head massager. Yes!

Jeffé is 28 years young!

Last night, we celebrated with Jeff (left) over flatbread and two kinds of birthday cake made my his lovely GF Cristina, carrot cake and german chocolate cake. YUM! Here are a few pics from the evening.

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot.

I've joined a book club! Last month we read, A Short History of Women by Kate Walbert. “A Short History of Women” consists of linked stories: in this case, 15 lean, concentrated chapters that hopscotch through time and alternate among the lives of Dorothy Trevor Townsend, a British suffragist, and a handful of her descendants. Several of the stories have been previously published; most could stand alone. Yet together they coalesce into more than the sum of their parts. It is Walbert’s conceit that while the oldest and youngest generations never meet, they share a legacy of echoes: objects and phrases that repeat mysteriously, and with increasing significance, across the decades. This spare novel manages, improbably, to live up to its title: it delivers what feels like a reasonably representative history of women — at least of white, Anglo-Saxon women, over the past hundred-odd years. -NYTimes

I hosted our March gathering and chose, "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks." From the very beginning there was something uncanny about the cancer cells on Henrietta Lacks’s cervix. Even before killing Lacks herself in 1951, they took on a life of their own. Removed during a biopsy and cultured without her permission, the HeLa cells (named from the first two letters of her first and last names) reproduced boisterously in a lab at Johns Hopkins — the first human cells ever to do so. HeLa became an instant biological celebrity, traveling to research labs all over the world. Meanwhile Lacks, a vivacious 31-year-old African-American who had once been a tobacco farmer, tended her five children and endured scarring radiation treatments in the hospital’s “colored” ward. -NYTimes

I strongly recommend this book. It's a page turner. I didn't know much about the history of bioethics and medicine in general but, I walked away stunned at how these actual events played out in our not-so-distant past. For those of you who work with the very prolific HeLa cells, they came from a human being--Henrietta Lacks and her story is amazing.

The author, Rebecca Skloot, did an incredible job sharing this family's story as well as her own research/writing process. It was her first book and you can be sure I'll be looking for her second!

I tried to come up with some easy menu ideas for this book before I started to read. Tacos? Lasagna? After the first 100 pages it hit me. Southern Comfort food is the only way to go. So, we all coordinated - pot luck style-and came up with this spread:

Sweet potatos w/ coconut milk, collard greens, spicy rice, bbq pulled pork w/ herb biscuits, polenta-with or without shrimp marinated in garlic and diced tomatoes, homemade vanilla bean ice cream with the most amazing banana topping drizzled on top (secret ingredient? splash of rum) and for the first time for most of us--mint juleps!

A group of 9 ladies squeezed around my dining room table for dinner. There were lots of laughs and eventually (after we enjoyed our first bites from our full plates) a great discussion about this book!

My mom and Patrick.

They sent greetings from Delhi, INDIA! Here they are in front of the India Gate.

The India Gate is the national monument of India. Situated in the heart of New Delhi, India Gate was designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens. Originally known as All India War Memorial, it is a prominent landmark inDelhi and commemorates the 90,000 soldiers of the British Indian Army who lost their lives while fighting for the British Indian Empire, or more correctly the British Raj in World War I and the Third Anglo-Afghan War. It is composed of red sand stone and granite.

Meet Dana.

She has a future in modeling. She was one of the three girls we worked with last month in NYC. She is stunningly beautiful and her gaze would make Zoolander spontaneously combust. This picture is my favorite. Nice job, IPW.

Snow Day.

Burlington got twenty-something inches of snow in the last 24 hours! Things closed in Vermont today and that never happens. I even stayed home from work. What a day. I went out for a walk during the magic hour and got this one shot. I ended up in waist deep snow in some places. I guess it wasn't a good day to go off the beaten path. Yesterday morning it was a balmy 48 degrees so, most of the snow had melted. The huge piles of snow I encountered today were entirely fresh and not packed enough to walk on. I just slid right into them. Oh well. I enjoyed getting outside after spending the day on my couch watching the snow fall.

Quick NYC Trip.

Last weekend, I was in NYC for a couple of days putting together a little shoot for Isaac. He and I had been chatting for some time about what he would want to shoot if he had access to professional talent, a wardrobe stylist and hair and makeup stylist. So, we did it. It took a bit more time that I had expected to plan since I didn't have a team to help me organize--and a budget of $500 or less is always a challenge for any type of shoot. Over the course of a few days, Isaac and I discussed his ideas, generated a style guide and I helped to brief our team in NYC so we could realize Isaac's vision. It was great to put together a shoot that wasn't work related, get reacquainted with some old NYC friends who I haven't worked with in some time and make some new friends /contacts! In the end we worked with three great girls, each with their own unique look and feel. I'll share the final photos once they are done being edited. I did get a quick sneak peek. I think the stylists and the photographer will be proud to include these images in a portfolio.

Here are a few pics from NYC. My feet hurt just looking at them...

For Pete's Sake

Moved to help a friend rebuild operations of a local organic farm destroyed by fire, Driven Studio, is staging a one-day-only art exhibit and sale entitled "For Pete's Sake" at the JDK Gallery, located at 47 Maple Street in Burlington, VT on 6-10PM, Friday, March 4, 2011

100% of the sales will go to rebuilding efforts following a devastating fire on Wednesday January 12, 2011 to Pete's Greens, in Craftsbury, VT. Pete’s Greens lost their barn, the balance of their winter inventory and critical equipment.

Featured artists include Dave Kinsey, BigFoot, Dave Aron, Andre Razo, Ben Tour, Chris Pastras, Tyler Lepore, Ryan Wallace, Reid Stewart, Allison Ross, Ellisa Weishaar, Shem Roose, Gary Land, Skye Chalmers, Lee Neary, Elise Smith, Mikey Welsh, Clark Derbes, Nick LaVecchia, Amanda Lawrence, Randy Gaetano and Marin Horikawa. All artists donated their work and JDK has donated use of their main lobby for the exhibition.

Pete's Greens was founded in 1996 by Pete Johnson in Greensboro, VT and has been certified organic since 1998. In 2005 the operation expanded to 240 acres in Craftsbury, VT and they maintain 40 acres of vegetable production and produce 80 varieties of greens, 300 other fruit and vegetable varieties, as well as pasture-raised chicken, pork and beef. The recent fire destroyed the farm's three-story barn along with all of its storage crops, vegetable washing and processing equipment.

Ryan Hawks.

Today, my thoughts are with my cousin David Stetson and his wife Samantha Hawks Stetson. Sam's brother passed away today after being seriously injured this weekend in a Freeride World Tour event at Kirkwood this past Sunday. Those close to him remember his courageous spirit and zest for life. He enjoyed every moment...