Stratford Family

I’ve got a lot of photos to sort through and share with you our over documented trip to the Northwest. We spent 3 days touring Seattle and we were tourists for sure, zooming around the city to lots of fun destinations. We LOVED Seattle! More to share on that in a couple of days.

For now I will simply share our view from Greg’s Grandma’s house on Lake Pend Oreille in Idaho:

So gorgeous to wake up and spend all day looking at the Lake – it was relaxing, peaceful, and restoring. Now I’m not one to get to super hokey about such things, but I do feel like this trip was good for my Soul. Living in the hustle and bustle is fun, but it sure felt good to take in some of nature’s beauty (with all the luxuries of home)! I am already planning to take the girls and spend a month there next summer.

and now for the LAUGH:

I asked Greg to take a cute pic of me and the girls, well – we got a cute one,  I just didn’t plan on getting peed on in the process! Ah the joys of motherhood! Thankfully we were inches from the lake for a good rinse.

Sometimes we get fixated on things without really understanding why. Recently I decided I wanted yellow shoes and went to the new Nordstroms shoe department with total confidence that I would find them. Well I was disappointed, the sales people looked at me like I was odd thinking that they simply must have a yellow pair for me. Something in me thought that yellow shoes would be the perfect summer shoe this season. So I went on upstairs and found a cute top to spend my gift card on that day. I was reminded of my obsession at a party recently when I saw a girl wearing a perfect yellow shoe, not a wedge like I was looking for, but cute nonetheless. The next morning I clicked on an email for those private sale websites and I found them on sale – Via Spiga which I know is comfy so I ordered them – it was meant to be. They arrived this week and I am excited to wear them, yes I will be over 6 feet in these shoes, but hey I like being tall.

In addition to the songs each class sang for the celebration last week all the Pre-K kids got together to sing a song for the beloved Hamo’ Robyn. C lucked out and got to rock out with one of the guitars. So fun!

Check out the fun video.

Hamo’ Robyn Tweet Tweet Tweet from Greg Stratford on Vimeo.

Okay so I teased about some exciting news and here it is I am starting a photography business! Please check out the site here: www.mshantiphoto.com

Going forward this site will go back to its original purpose of sharing the ins and outs of the family adventures and all my photography will be on its’ own site.

If you are interested in having me take some photos for you I’m offering some introductory rates if you schedule by the end of June.

If you’ve been paying close attention you’ve noticed I haven’t been posting all the photos from my class lately. I’ve been busy working on another little project I hope to share with you by Friday. I have been keeping up with the prompt from my photography class and here is the image from today. I was supposed to take a picture of a charm and this is one I inherited from my Great Aunt – I hung it on the books on my bedside table. I really really want to learn more about Buddhism, thus the books – I haven’t made it through them yet, but maybe some enlightened thoughts are creeping in as I sleep.

And on the topic of living a charmed life I thought this fish is very appropriate to me, I’ve spent much of my life in water, my husband and mom are both Pieces, and it represents my family history.

I feel grateful to be living a charmed life surrounded by a loving family that is healthy. Charmed that I get to spend these precious years home with my girls while they are young. And lately I’ve been feeling charmed in that I’ve found a creative outlet that is fun and inspiring to me and maybe just maybe I’ll be charmed enough to turn it into a business.

I got to spend the morning taking photos of brownies, bars and cookies for my friend Mercedes. Her business Mercedes Binge can provide you with yummiest baked goods! She has been baking for years and is currently launching into farmer’s markets and a website for special orders and events. I know this will excite some of you, she also makes tons of Gluten free treats! Mercedes herself has a wheat allergy, so can whip up delicious treats for all. Below are a few of my favorites from the shoot. If you are interested in contacting her:

mercedesbinge@gmail.com

310.714.4862

Now you know what I’ll be eating all weekend!

Do you need any product photography or portraits? Catch me now before I get all experienced and expensive!

mirandashanti@gmail.com

310.308.5575

Here are some highlights from my first portrait shoot today. I think I got some great shots of each of the kids, it’s not too hard when the kids are this cute!

It was lots of fun – thanks to all the families who came.

FLOORING!

Weird I know, I haven’t been this obsessed since I stepped foot in the Viceroy Santa Monica years ago and fell in LOVE with their grey wood floor. I still plan to replicate that in the main living/dining/kitchen area of my house someday. Kelly Wearstler’s designs generally have me swooning, but none so much as this simple grey flooring.

Now onto my current obsession: natural fibers. Jute, seagrass, sisal – I haven’t decided which I like best, they all look good to me. Now this I think would be good in my bedroom if I can figure out how to tie it into the wallpaper. I think it works nicely with the indoor/outdoor theme of our Cliff May ranch house – maybe a light grey tone would be best. Anyhow this is all just dreams as we have no plans to re-floor the house anytime soon, as I mentioned I just can’t stop thinking about it and am seeing it many places which doesn’t help.

image via younghouselove.com

Above from this post on YoungHouseLove blog of a lovely home in Sydney, oh I would die for this outdoor cabana in the same house (notice the natural ottoman as well):

image via younghouselove.com

More jute flooring seen here:

image via housebeautiful.com

Above image from a gorgeous house in OJAI that my friend Laura got to do a photoshoot at recently.

Friends do you have any random flooring obsessions to admit?

Any experience with any of these natural fibered rugs, carpets?

Now that I’ve blogged about it, maybe I can stop thinking about it…

Pfeiffer showing off her cuteness…

I tried the sheet in front of the window to take all these photos this morning, the faces are still a bit too dark, but not too bad for my first try.