I’m not Monica Geller of Friends fame, but I’m pretty close.

Everything has a place–keys on the hook; hats in the basket; plastic plates in one cabinet, ceramic in the other.

And if you’re familiar with Season 8, Episode 14 of Friends, “The One with the Secret Closet,” you’ll soon learn that Monica and I have something else in common–hers was her closet, mine is my workspace.

It’s not pretty, folks.

What you see before you is essentially an armoire–one that I close (sort of, it doesn’t quite close all the way) when company comes; but the rest of the time, there it is, in the middle of my dining room–centrally located, the first thing people see when they walk through the door.

What’s currently in my workspace?  Let’s see . . . lots of photos of my children (those are always there); my cat’s collar (I miss her a lot), a box of Tic Tacs, some White Out, a Kindle that hasn’t been charged in three months, the latest issue of Cooking Light magazine, an OM (you must check these out), a converter from my recent trip to England, a note from my son that says “I LOE YOU MOM,” a bottle of silver nailpolish, and every paper that needs to find an eventual and permanent home.   We won’t discuss the mess on top.  That’s for another day.

Charming little setup, yes?

I’ve had many people ask how I can work in this space.  But, truth be told, I don’t really see it–at least not when I’m working.  It’s my “Monica’s Closet.”  Every organized person needs one–a place to stash anything and everything.

When I’m writing, I’m elsewhere.  I’m in the sentence, the paragraph, the thought.

And during those times of writer’s block or distractibility, when I look up, I don’t see the chaos of this space.  I see photos of my beautiful and growing boys and love notes that melt my heart every time.

For me, an organized workspace is not a prerequisite for creativity.  In fact, when I do take the time to take this all in, I can see in this small space my family’s history and our love for each other, our life together.

And that just may be precisely the inspiration I need.

One of our favorite sponsors, ClickinMoms, is generously offering a Prize Package — valued at $400 — to one of our lucky readers!  

Here’s what’s included…

• One Year Membership to the ClickinMoms Forum: Black and White. Film. Children. Street Photography. Processing. Lighting. Artistic Development. And more. Bring your questions, dive into a discussion, or just do some reading alongside thousands of other women who love photography as much as you do. Come grow with us!

• Film Art Presets: Inspired by modern film photography, Film Art is a collection of sophisticated black-and-white and color presets. Each preset is designed to approximate the elegant, sometimes edgy, and often understated look of various film styles.

• Inspire (CMbook volume 1): 145 pages of images that will inspire you, amuse you, and warm your heart. We scoured thousands of images from hundreds of photographers and put together this amazing collaboration of work.

• Laughter (CMbook volume 2): 175 pages of images that will make you giggle, snicker, and maybe even snort with laughter. We scoured thousands of images from hundreds of photographers and put together this amazing collaboration of work.

• Mom’s Gonna Snap Tee: Our bestselling tee features an updated design on a slate colored, very flattering tri-blend tee that has a slightly longer body than most t-shirts.

• Leica Style iphone 4/4s Tough Case: This slick new cutie acts as a defender of mishap while looking in style as a throwback Leica camera.

• Matryoshka Doll iphone 4/4s Tough Case: A cute set of Matryoshka dolls grace the cover of our new iPhone Tough Case.

• Seat in a Breakout Session of Your Choice: Access to a presentation from a professional photographer in a two week private forum with peer-to-peer discussion on the topic along with a Q&A video based on questions from you and your peers.

• Pink Diana Mini and Flash Package: The sweet and petite Diana Mini uses 35mm film to give you lovely square shots and half-frame photos. It’s a lot of fun! Now it’s even more exciting with the included Diana F+ Flash and the “Shoot Forever” book. Start tinting your pictures with a burst of colour – just slip one of the 12 colour gel filters in the Diana F+ Flash, and you’re on your way to bursting coloursplashes here and there!

To win, simply comment below and tell us what you plan on photographing this summer!  For additional entries just follow/like/stalk/subscribe to ClickinMoms via their social media outlets below, and come back and comment, once for each.  One winner will be randomly chosen and announced on Monday, May 21.  Best of luck, Creative Mamas!

ClickinMoms Website   |   Blog   |   Facebook   |   Twitter   |   Pinterest

There are many things we make with our haul of strawberries, including jam, fruit leather and of course just eating them straight from the bowl!  But sometimes, you want something just a bit fancier than plain berries, something sweet that you can make as a dessert for your family or to share with friends.

This vanilla bean syrup comes together quickly and only needs time to cool before pouring over a bowl full of berries.  Our favorite combination is strawberries, blueberries and raspberries, but mix it up to your own taste or whatever is in season where you live.

Fresh Berries with Vanilla Bean Syrup

1 cup of water

1 cup of granulated sugar

1 vanilla bean

In a small saucepan combine water and sugar.  Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer.  Continue simmering until sugar is dissolved, creating a simple syrup.  Take the vanilla bean and slice it down the middle. Scrape out the vanilla beans inside.  Stirring, add them to the simple syrup.  Remove from heat and pour into a separate container to cool.  Cool completely.  Pour over berries and serve.

Let’s be real here: traveling with young kids is no picnic.

Sure, there was a time in my life when I looked forward to long car and plane rides with my kiddos. In the car we’d play games and listen to all our favorite tunes while counting license plates along the way. And on cross-country flights I’d have a sweet child nestled sleepily in my lap as the flight attendant came by offering more drinks.

And then I actually had children. And I realized the error of my ways.

These little people don’t always fit into the peaceful vision of parenting and travel that I’ve kept tucked away in my mind. In fact, fairly quickly after I gave birth to our first child I realized there truly was no such thing as vacation with a young child. There was just the act of going some place different.

Armed with that daunting little piece of knowledge our family has continued to travel the country multiple times a year. As a former military family, our friends and family are scattered across the continental United States; and as a photographer who takes travel commissions, so are my clients. Traveling with small kids comes with that territory.

On our most recent day of flights back to Alabama from California, we stumbled upon something marvelous – something that truly made at least part of our travel day enjoyable. We were faced with a three hour layover in Dallas after a three hour flight from California, and before a two hour flight home. We were in for a long day. About half an hour before we boarded our first flight I was struck with an idea.

What if we turned our three hour layover in Dallas into an epic airport scavenger hunt? Our oldest child can now read and write (thank you kindergarten!) so she was up to the task of creating a list of items to find. And since there are two children in our family, she would need to copy it again so they would each have one. So guess what she did for the entire first leg of our journey???

Once we landed the kids scrambled off the plane, excited for the adventure ahead. We stopped for lunch before the official start of the game, but the kids couldn’t resist. They started checking off items immediately while still in the restaurant.

For the next hour we crisscrossed the Dallas airport looking for everything from a wheelchair to a lady in a green dress (and when we found her, my was she confused about all the pointing and hollering!) to a real bird.

It ended up being an absolutely lovely day of travel for our family. One I won’t soon forget.

In fact, they were so tuckered out by the game that when we finally boarded our last flight they each swiftly fell asleep in our laps.

So my husband and I asked for another drink.

What are your best traveling-with-kiddos ideas? Summer vacation is fast approaching so let me hear it!

I digress.  Although I love and appreciate art (and spent a summer studying art history in Florence, Italy), I do not travel to see art shows, art museums, or art galleries anymore.  Something about kids and a budget?

Google has made life so amazingly easy in a lot of ways, but one particular awesome thing they do is called Google Art Project.  They are seeking to bring the art museum experience into your home and workplace by providing virtual walking tours (similar to Google Maps Street View) of major world museums.  Google is seeking to democratize art consumption through technology.

A thousand years ago, most people never saw an image. People who lived in a town might have seen art in their local church or temple but only the very wealthy could own images. In the sixteenth century, Henry VIII sent the painter Hans Holbein across the channel so he could see what a woman he was considering for marriage looked like. Throughout history, images were anchored to a place. Today, images are everywhere and infinitely reproducible. They may even be surpassing text as the dominant form of communication…The Google Art Project is an initiative to provide thousands of high quality, high resolution images from museums across the globe in one place, making art’s history, meaning and beauty available in ways never possible before. –Google Art Project

Right up there?  That’s Starry Night by the master Vincent Van Gogh.  Of course, that’s just the first image that popped up at the MOMA–you can find every piece obscure or well known.  I can check out what my local art museum the Indianapolis Museum of Art has on display, too.

I can see so many applications for this tool, from homeschooling to personal browsing to discerning your taste in art.  There is such a vast collection of art all in one place, all “sharable”, and searchable.  This is what Google does best, and it’s amazing when it is applied to something you love.

In my home, the art freely flows.  We make messes, we explore, we paint, we sketch, we color with Crayolas.  We experiment with color mixing, we experiment with different tools to get color onto canvas or paper.  One thing we haven’t done, though, is appreciate what has come before us.  I think it’s time to change that.

Here it is, Mother’s Day night and I am reflecting on the craziness of this day. Of this month. And, the month to come. The packers arrive on Tuesday and by Saturday, I’ll be flying to Tampa while my husband drives with the boys. We close on our new home on Tuesday, just to begin the unpacking process in the next few days. Of course, as soon as we’re settled-ish, we’ll be welcoming our fabulous fourth in August. This mama’s head is swirling, but in times like these, I am on task. On a mission. And I’m going to getter done. Our day was low key celebratory-wise — and mostly filled with packing and pre-moving checklists. But tonight, I took a moment to appreciate all I have been blessed with. These three, soon-to-be four miracles that make every day worth it. These tiny people, that I would do anything for. And, who will never understand just how I feel until they have children of their own.

This week, some of my favorite children’s-but-great-for-grownups-too artists Renee & Jeremy released a new CD that has the most amazing cover and video of Coldplay’s “Yellow”. It so beautifully encompasses my thoughts this evening as I embrace the stillness for a moment. I thought you might enjoy it too:

It might only be May, but here out west things are already starting to look a lot like summer. We’ve been exploring outside and by default the kids are in great moods and the house is cleaner. Double score. The other day, I took the kids to the lake nearby to feed the ducks our old bread and we were surprised to be greeted by a friendly turtle. The kids sat there for a good five minutes waiting for him to poke his head back up. I took this shot before we continued on our expedition; spending a good part of the afternoon circling the lake in search of him.

-We’ve also been playing car wash over and over again which was inspired by this post. Instead of playing in the bathtub, the kids and I took two big buckets filled with warm soapy water, toothbrushes and the Hot Wheels collection outside to the backyard. They were out their for hours; I kid you not.  They are fascinated by anything to do with playing in the water including run off in the neighbor’s gutters so I’m sure we will be giving this rainbow colored river a go as well.

-Do you have a little one in a a booster seat and you’re still buckling them in? I just ordered one of these for Jack- he loves being able to fasten his own seat belt and now I only have to worry about buckling the other two. Yes, I have THREE car seats. Trust me on this, I’m practically a certified expert.

-Quite possibly, the most perfect cookie for warm weather months. I’ve made these babies four times after discovering the recipe- including a gluten free version using this flour for my little brother who has celiac disease. This one is a crowd pleaser folks.

-Im obsessing over this gorgeous sequined camera strap. Well whataya know? Sunday is Mother’s Day!

-Every year I plant tomatoes and every year something goes wrong with them. I’m hoping this article will save me from heartache. I really need good tomatoes in my life this summer.

-Where I live, its already warm by breakfast time and my go-to hot oatmeal just doesn’t sound as good these days. This recipe from Alison as well as this one have thankfully reinvented breakfast for me during the heat.

-These acrylic green and coral tumblers from Target’s The Shops put me right in the mood for summertime’s lemonade in the backyard. They are out of stock online but Ive seen them all over the stores.

-Speaking of lemonade…Basil Lemonade? Trust me on this- so, so, so refreshing. Definitely my new favorite summer refreshment!

-So have you been on Spoonflower yet? I spent hours on this site while I was working on Violet’s nursery a while back. Im breaking out the sewing machine again and onto a new project to commemorate the kids’ birthdays using this Star Wars fabric for Jack and this mermaid one for Ru.

-Whoopsie daisy…you forgot to grab a Mother’s Day card and you don’t want to fight over the three mediocre ones that are left at your nearest store? Print this one or that one on a nice thick card stock and you’re good as gold.

- A great quote from a fantastic article that reminds us of our bond as mothers this Mother’s Day. “Despite all of our differences as women, moms have one thing in common: we are all warriors for our children in so many ways. And our stories bind us.” So very true.