green goodness

After a wonderful Christmas Day, I was desperate to get my run on and detox after all the rich food that was consumed yesterday.

I present to you my breakfast this morning...

much love,

larajane

Christmas Blessings

I awoke to the rain pounding on our roof. It was still dark. But this Christmas Eve I was to meet some of my closest friends for a walk through the forest at first light.

I have been on quite a journey this fall. God has revealed Himself to me in ways I could never dream. His grace has been abundant and His mercies new every morning. Today and everyday I need to give thanks for all the amazing gifts I have been given.

So today I am thankful for the amazing women God has brought into my life

For the beautiful trees that surround my home.

For the laughter that is shared.

The sun broke through just after 3:00 this afternoon as I was surrounded by my amazing family. The fog was glorious and the light shining through was breathtaking.

I watched my two five year old nieces dance together on the back porch with sunlight filtering through there hair.

I listened to my brother in law excitedly show me the incredible gift he had created for his wife.

Two sister in laws sat side by side with their pregnant bellies.

It was cold this evening as my little family stood amongst our neighbours and friends.

The sky was clear.

We were singing songs of joy.

Songs of love.

Songs of our Saviour's birth.

Hot chocolate and coffee were warming our hands.

Hugs were being given all around.

This Christmas may God's love shine on you and yours.

much love,

larajane

200th post!

Oh blog, how I have ignored you this summer.

Can it really be only two weeks left until school starts? Actually 12 more days? Ahhhh!

I have to say this is the first summer where I haven't been itching for school to begin. Maybe it's because the kiddos are so much more independent, or maybe it's because the summer weather has finally showed up. I also look at my list of "to do's" for the summer and realize that hardly any of them have been accomplished! So what is it, you may ask that has kept me from this list (or maybe you just really don't care!)

Right now I cannot say a lot. I can say that God has moved in an incredible way and pretty much turned my life upside down. Okay, perhaps that is a little dramatic... but doors have been opened and many prayers answered. I am in a place that a year ago, I would have never thought I would be in. Let me assure you that all is good, actually all is great! The blessings God has poured out and is continually pouring out is phenomenal.

I will write more, but it may not be for a bit yet. Still working out some details.

xoxo

larajane

Hello seven year old

I will do a more "formal" post full of photographic delight on my Photography blog tomorrow, but for today I just wanted to relish in the last day of having a six year old.

Okay, actually, I wanted to blog about the tough love that has been going on in our house of late.

Having two children, one boy and one girl, we have always been able to keep things fairly even. El goes out for breakfast with dad, Connor gets snuggle time with mom (and really doesn't care about going out for breakfast) Connor does Legoland for his birthday, Elissa does American Girl.(This has just happened once! We're not those parents) But things have always been equal and the kiddos have always been happy with how things have gone. Until this week...

I'm not sure what happened. I'm not sure what changed. But something did.

So Wednesday night I was supposed to have a shoot. When we booked this shoot we had envisioned beautiful, warm setting sun that was casting lovely light on the children. Well, Wednsday happened, and there was no magical light to be found... until 7:00 when said shoot had been scheduled (but was re-booked) So I grabbed my little 6 year old and said lets do a shoot! He agreed and as we always do on our "birthday shoot" we go out for a treat after.

So we did the shoot and enjoyed the 2 minutes of filtered sun and then headed out. Well Elissa semed to think that she should be able to go as well, but Connor said he just wanted to go with me on a date. So we left Elissa in the arms of her daddy and in tears.

So, fast forward to today. Elissa is at a friends house and runs home to ask if she can go to the candy store with her friend. I say okay. Elissa returns from the candy store with a lollipop. A big lollipop. Connor bursts into tears saying it's not fair... Ahhh, really, life is just not fair. And that is okay. It's been a good week of lessons.

Anyway, here is a shot from the other night.

the perfect day

pender island. a morning run. sunshine. swimming. great friends. my amazing family. the beach. boat rides. impromptu games of football. pancake breakfast. summer. ice cream. laughter.

I feel so blessed.

what inspires you?

If you haven't signed up for Pinterest you need to. Right now. It will soon become an addiction. Okay, perhaps addiction is a strong word, and the word addiction has a rather negative vibe to it, and Pinterest is anything but negative. It is a place of super great inspiration. I have a few "boards" on there and I thought I would share some images that inspire me!

Here are a few from my "home" board.

blessed

For years now, Joel's family has talked about getting the whole family together for an "annual McAllister camping trip." For years now, it never seemed to happen... until this year.

I love that my husband is a go getter and usually a fairly organized one at that. This past January, he was on top of things and chose a location and date for what planned to be the begining of a new tradition.

He sent out the email to his brothers and parents saying this is what he had chosen, and asking whether they were in or out? 7 out of the 8 families were in, along with mom and dad. It was sure to be an epic adventure.

Well, the camping trip has come and gone, and as I sit here looking through the pictures I took I can't help but feel incredibly blessed. I feel so blessed:

*be part of such an amazing family and have 7 SIL's who are also some of my closest friends

*to have a husband who loves his wife so much that he rents a warm, comfy tent trailer to go camping with even though he loves sleeping in a tent

*to have amazing friends who freely lend us their min-van so we can tow said tent trailer

*for the laughter that was shared

*for the incredible beauty that we were surrounded with

*for my children who have great cousins, who are also the best of friends

Sarah and Elissa on the dock

This is what we live for...

Last night Joel and I went with some friends to the Canucks game. It was a beautiful evening out and the streets were buzzing with excitement. As we took our seats, they were playing a video on the big screen of last games huge goal by Alex Burrows. The goal that sent the Canucks onto this round of the play offs. I have to admit I got a wee bit emotional watching it again, especially how it was mixed with the cheering fans, the reaction of the team, and the utter look of joy on Alex's face. At the end of the clip these words in the shape of the Stanley Cup came up... This Is What We Live For. I thought, wow, is this really what people live for? They live for watching normal guys skate around on an ice rink trying to score goals? I mean, yes, I get very excited about the game and I love watching them, but it certainly does not rank up there with what I live for.

As I looked around at the fans screaming with their white towels I began imagining what it would be like if we were all there celebrating Jesus? Why can't we sell out Rogers Arena 3 times a week and get this excited about God and all He has done for us, and continues to do for us?

I know you know the answer as well as I do. So what can I do about it? What can you do about it? Everyday we make choices. Big choices, little choices... but ultimately we need to choose God. After all, He did choose us.

much love

larajane

Dreaming

It's been a while since my last post.

I was challenged this weekend to search my heart and to really think and pray about what my dreams are.

I love photography. I love capturing children's different life stages and all the personality that goes with them. I also have a passion for our church. It is going through some major changes and I feel the desire to be part of it. I am not sure what this looks like, but I will trust God to lead me.

So as of May 1st, I will no longer be shooting maternity, newborns, events, head shots, and a very limited number of families. I want to focus on children between the ages of 6 months and 18yrs, for that is what I love.

I also want to free up more time for ministry in our church, whatever that may look like.

I am thinking of combining this blog with my business blog, as I want my business blog to be about my whole life, not just the "business" end of it. I want to be real with my clients and readers and have them choose me as a photographer because they feel like the actually "know" me a bit.

Thank you for following this blog and all the blog love I've received!

Much love,

Larajane

Photography Blog

Salt, Lemons, Vinegar, and Baking Soda

Oh can you feel it? Can you smell it? Spring is finally here! My little crocus's are in full bloom with my brilliantly yellow daffodils just about to blossom into a bright and cheery array of colour.

This last week I've been doing a lot of spring cleaning. It feels so great to open the windows, hang out the floor mats and get rid of all the stuff that has somehow found it's way into the corners of my house.

I've taken on a few small painting projects that include a mirror, end table, and my big kitchen table. Joel was cool with all of it except the big table, oops, he thinks it's too contrasty, I think he'll get used to it!

So today I was in Chapters and I stumbled upon this gem of a book called Salt, Lemons, Vinegar, and Baking Soda. This book is filled with ways to use these products to clean our houses! So I though it would be fun for me to post everyday for the next two weeks, different ways to use these fab four products!

So for today I thought I would start with

Long Life Flower Water

1 quart of warm water

3 TBSP sugar

2 TBSP vinegar

This little recipe will keep your flowers beautiful and healthy for longer!

much love

larajane

Back to reality

Well not quite I suppose since we are only half way through spring break.

I spent a lovely time over on Pender Island last week with my mom, the kiddos and my sister-in- law-to-be! Unfortunately I came home sick and haven't slept much, but I'm holding out hope for tonight!

I am loving the longer days and can't wait to get out in my garden. Next week my mom and I have planned a trip to Devon Nursery to stock up on some plants and flowers. I am craving colour in my yard!

Here are some pics from last week on the island.

Connor ready for the beach!

Mom doing the limbo during the "party" in the cottage.

Dominika and I
Time for mani's and pedi's!
El on the beach

Connor relaxing with Boo.

Confession time...again

I like to think of myself as somewhat of an ecoholic.

I plant my own vegetable garden, I try to buy organically and locally as much as possible. I use cloth shopping bags often, okay, when I remember them, I compost, as well as a few other eco friendly things. But when it comes to laundry, I just can't seem to go green.

I have a love/hate relationship with laundry. Mostly hate, but I do love fresh smelling, warm out of the dryer clothes. I also love Tide laundry detergent. I've tried the Eco friendly stuff from Costco, but nothing beats the fresh scent of Tide. I am also in love with Downy fabric softener. I've bought the dryer balls, but it's just not the same! My kiddos now play games with them. I also love washing my clothes in warm water, not cold. Sometimes, even hot water.

I did however, purchase a new high efficiency washer and dryer this past fall. And I. love. them.

When the weather warms up I do plan on putting up my clothes line again, despite what my neighbours think. There, I feel better already.

Happy spring break!

There is something special

about this guy.

He caught my eye when I was in grade eight. We were at the Aldergrove ice rink. He had a Minnesota North Stars hockey jersey on , I donned a Chicago Blackhawks jersey. He was tall and had the cutest dimple when he smiled. He was also much older than I, or at least that is how it seemed to a 13 year old. I remember him skating up to me

and questioning my choice of jersey. I questioned his.

Four years later, after he had graduated high school, he asked me out while we were sitting in his '76 Mustang in my driveway. I was elated.

We have been married for nearly 13 years now, and although we have had our bumps along the way, my love for him grows a little bit more with each passing day. He gets me. He gets my quirks. We laugh a lot and come up with crazy little nicknames for each other.

He is also an amazing father, a strong leader in our

church, and I can now say the top consulting engineer in BC. He is so hard working and dedicated to all that he does.

I am so blessed.

what have I done?

This thought process all began around two months ago when Joel and I were very seriously considering putting our house up for sale. What we thought at the time was a great opportunity, turned out to be something that in the end, really wasn't our dream. It's all good. We are very happy to be staying where we are. For now.

With that being said, I began to think of the possibility of "what if"? What if our dream house happens to go up for sale and we want it? Is our house ready to go on the market? For the most part it is. But as we began to think about this we realized there were a few things that needed to be done. One of which, is filling the dings in our walls on the main floor and touching up the paint. Last week I filled everything in, sanded down, and yesterday proceeded to go ahead and buy the same colour paint (straw hat from Benjamin Moore, if anyone is interested) as I had 6 years ago.

My goal was to go around and touch up all the areas that needed it. So that is what I spent my afternoon doing. By dinner, it became glaringly obvious that the straw hat I was using to touch up, was a bit darker than the straw hat I had painted 6 years ago. My little touch up job has turned into something much larger.

So as I sit here, looking over my main floor that has been turned upside down with drop cloths, pictures that have been taken off the walls, and a ladder, I am left feeling a little overwhelmed. I never thought being in a bit of a mess would bother me, since I lived liked that when my kids were younger, but it does seem to cause me a bit of distress. I suppose I am much more like my mom in that way than I thought :-)

Happy Wednesday.

much love,

larajane

done

My race is done.

My sweet children again have a mother who will help with homework in the evenings and my dear husband has a wife who will sit with him and enjoy a glass of wine as he shares about his day.

Life is good.

Thank you for all of your support and encouraging words. They have meant so much to me!

Here I am crossing the finish line.

Sock Woes

Wow! It's been a while! Life has been chugging along a good pace. So what exactly is it I've been doing you may ask. Well in point form, let me tell you!

* a few personal photography projects

* meeting with brides and booking weddings

* working on my website

* having a lot of super fun coffee dates with new and old friends

* aaaaaand running - a lot of running

My race is in 13 short little days! I have run my longest training run I will run between now and then. For the next two weeks I'm tapering it down.

Yesterday I ran just shy of 21 kms. It was raining. I knew it was going to rain. I was prepared. Or at least I thought I was. A couple of months ago I ran 13kms in torrential rain. I literally felt like I had been thrown in a cold lake and left to climb out and run 13kms home. Drenched I was. Since then, I have received a new running jacket, one that is a wee bit more water resistant. I also had heard of these amazing wool running socks that "wicks" the wetness away and keeps your feet toasty warm and dry. Oh, and it also featured anti-blister technology. All for the price of $20. For one pair.

So, yesterday as I stared out my window into the falling rain, I knew I was prepared. A jacket that will keep me dry, a pair of winter running pants that deflect rain, and my new woolly socks.

Out I went. I felt good. Everything was going well, until around the 16th km mark. I was sensing a bit of rubbing on my foot. The pain worsened. I could feel a blister coming on. I made it back feeling good, but after running for two years in numerous pairs of new shoes and never getter a blister (aside from the little ones on my toes, but those don't really count) I had one. I ginormous gross blister.

Anyway. No more woolly socks on long runs for me. I bought a pair of the Running Room double layered sock and some pretty sweet bandaids. Out I will go tomorrow and test it out.

smart wool socks

Baked Doughnuts

I found this recipe on a new blog that I have fallen in love with.

A Day in the Country

I tried it out and loved it, so I thought I would share with you all!

Baked Doughnuts

Cream together 1/4 cup soft butter with 6 TBSP sugar

Add one egg and 1/2 tsp vanilla to the mix

Mix dry ingredients in separate bowl:

1 1/4 cup flour

2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp nutmeg

1/4 tsp salt

Alternate between 1/3 cup of milk & dry ingredients - adding them to egg and butter batter

You need a mini muffin tin (I didn't have one so I used a regular one)

Drop in a TBSP of batter

Bake at 350 for 10-12 minutes

While they are baking...

Mix 1/4 c sugar and 1 TBSP cinnamon

Melt 1/4 cup of butterin a bowl

When they come out, roll in butter then suagr mixture

They are the best warm, but I'll eat them cold too!

Enjoy!

doing what I love

As January drags on, and the dreary weather sets in, I find comfort in doing the little things that I don't always get to do the rest of the year.

I have always loved fabric. The texture, the colours, the patterns, and all the creative things you can do with it. Before Christmas, my mom and I were in a lovely fabric store in Fort Langley. We were oooh and ahhhing over all of the amazing quilts and all of the beautiful fabrics, trying to imagine what we could possibly do with them. The lady at the store kindly showed us this gorgeous quilt on display and said it was a perfect one for beginners. It was called a "disappearing nines" quilt. All it involved was 9 fat quarters, some backing, binding and batting. I thought I could handle it. So I went home and went online to my favourite little fabric store, and ordered a 9 fat quarters.

The fat quarters arrived. I was blissful. I took them and mom to to the local fabric store to choose a backing. While were there trying to match things up, we realized that my online store had sent me a larger piece of fabric that didn't really go with the fat quarters. I thought perhaps i should try something with that first. So I ended up with backing, binding, and batting...as well as a new sewing machine..yay!

I had so much fun making this little quilt! I love having the time to putz around and be creative. This isn't the finished product, but I will post another picture of it in it's complete state.

Confession time

Okay, seriously I have this weird little addiction. I am in love with cookbooks. If you know me, you know I do not cook. Well, I cook, but not big fancy meals that are presented in cookbooks. I would love to cook, like the big fancy meals in the cookbooks, but for some reason, I just never make the time.

Every year I write on my "resolution" list that I am going to learn to cook, and every year I don't. So this year, I didn't set it as a resolution in hopes that perhaps maybe I will cook!

I took this cookbook out of the library yesterday, just to see if I liked it. I had been to friends house last week and noticed she had it in her kitchen all on display. She is an amazing cook, so I knew it had to be good if she used it! It's called The Barefoot Contessa at Home. I love it. The pictures, the writing, and the recipes look sooooo yummy! I was then at Costco today, low and behold, they have 3 more of her books there! Ohhh, I was tempted. I stood there poring over each one wondering which one would be the cookbook that will change my life and make me a fabulous cook. I realized it wasn't the actual cookbook that would make me wonderful, so I put them down. And walked away. Without one. I still have the one from the library that El and I spent nearly an hour this evening going through.

One day. I will cook you a fabulous meal.

Okay, maybe just a dessert, or fancy sandwich.

Much love
larajane

Motivation

In 44 days I will be running my first half marathon. 44 DAYS! Part of me wishes I could run it tomorrow, but realistically I know I still need to put in a bit more time training.

For the last couple of months I've been training 3 days a week with the Running Room, as well as squeezing in another 1-2 runs a week on my own. I have learned so much, but still feel I need to be more conditioned.

Every Thursday evening before we head out for our run, we have a half hour clinic. A professional comes in a talks with us about a different aspect of running. We've learned about the importance of proper nutrition while training, about stretching, how to run hills, and how to avoid injury to name a few. So tonight was another great night, with an incredible speaker. We listened to a sports psychologist who has run three Ironmans, numerous marathons (she just finished the New York Marathon) and oodles of Halfs. She was talking about motivation and what motivates us to run.

Interesting. I suppose I never really thought about why I want to run a half marathon, just that I do. She listed off a few reasons for what shouldn't motivate us to run, such as losing weight (you may lose weight at first, and then plateau, and if you don't keep up running the weight will creep up rather quickly, and you will feel like a failure)
She also said that running for someone else's approval, or trying to impress your spouse, family, friends etc. will only lead to failure and frustration, because really, they don't care! Her point being, is you have to run for YOU!

So, why do I run?

I run to:
* clear my head
* be out in nature (I cannot stand the treadmill!)
* push the limits of my body
* think through problems
* I enjoy the social aspect of running, but I also really enjoy being alone

She also asked how we would like to feel when we finished our race. This was a tough one for me.

I really just want to prove to myself that I can do it... and feel good.

Running is 95% mental. As our speaker said tonight, it's really not that hard, you're just putting one foot in front of the other :-)

I liked that. It's all about keeping a positive attitude and being okay with any possible outcome of the race.

Thanks for reading!

Much love,

larajane

Resolutions

I am sooo not a resolution girl. Only because I believe people say all these things on New Years Eve and feel all sentimental at the time and everyone knows your supposed to break them anyway...right? With that being said, I've made some goals for 2011, yes goals, not resolutions! I am feeling somewhat inclined to post then tonight only because I want to look back a year from now and see if I reached them. Okay here we go...

1. To run at least one half marathon. I would love to do one in 2:20 but we shall see.
2. To give only handmade creations as gifts. Obviously my kid's wouldn't be super thrilled if this was all they got as birthday presents, so they will be my exception :-)
3. To grow my business. I am so excited to be heading off to Chicago this spring to attend a workshop with one of my very favourite portrait photographers.

I was looking back at my goals last year and thought it would be fun to paste them into this post for comparison sake. It looks like my goals are fairly similar.

2010 Goals

I started running exactly one year ago. I hadn't run since Elissa was a baby, so I pretty much was starting from scratch. My first night out running I did 6 laps around our little park. I'm not sure how far that is, but I would venture to say it may be around 1 km. I did my first race, a 5km one in May. This year I plan on doing a 10 km race and maaaaybe a half marathon in the fall, but I may save that goal for 2011.

I also really want to cook. I want to try new recipes and really embrace good food. Although I got a juicer for Christmas, which I am loving, and it seems all to easy to throw in all my fresh fruit and veggies into this thing and just live on fresh juice.

Okay, another goal is my garden. I want a fabulous garden this year. Lots of fruit and veggies, beautiful flowers and just a really well maintained yard.

And my final goal is expanding my business. I did an all day websummit earlier this week where I learned soooo much about marketing. I am feeling very inspired to take my business up a notch.

I have a feeling 2010 will be a challenging but good year.