My Czech Family

As much as I love Christmas time....in all its glittery, sugary, shiny wonder there's something I always miss this time of year.

It's my czech family at KSOP. This year is no different as I am wishing for one thing that I know will not fit under my tree, which is an airplane to fly me across the world so that I can see them. I imagine sitting by the fire with Katrin & Martina... and how lovely tha would be. But its the socal girl in me that has never experienced a white christmas that would utterly disoriented by the bitter cold snow of a Czech winter. It's okay though....a girl can dream. :)

I realized that I never never introduced you to my host Czech family. The Kuklinikovi have been my host family for the past two years that I stayed in Ostrava.
I had an impromptu :session: with them the day before we left.


Nada, Miriam, Nela & Honza have shown so much love and hospitality to me and Cindy...and i'm so encouraged to see a family that desires to honor Christ with their lives.


Miriam & Nela...our czech little sisters. :) Growing up to be such beautiful women!

I miss them and the rest of our KSOP church family. A ton. But I'm praying that they celebrate the joy of Christ and Christmas alongside the LBC family.

sugar & spice and everything nice

While at Steph's graduation, I very politely asked Olivia if I could take her photo.

Having manners certainly paid off. :)

runs in the family//sacramento

At thanksgiving dinner my grandma discovered the one mochi that looked like a persimmon... she was so amused by its likeness to an actual persimmon, which I actually can atest to. She eventually decided that if i took a picture of it, she could just actually eat it. Whatever she says goes. Our whole family knows that she's the boss. But isn't she cute?


Prior to thanksgiving dinner though, my mom was actually running the kitchen. This is the one photo I got of her from the whole weekend - and it while I was taking a break from my enslavement over chopping the chestnuts. Everyone in Sac says that I look like her....and while my mom is beautiful, i don't see the resemblance. But maybe i would be incredibly vain if i did.:P


And for good measure, we are the fiery trio of granddaughters.... we come after a long line of take-charge women in our family. :) My grandma, sister and cousin are the most similar - little balls of energy that have enough sass for the rest of us combined. :)

two sisters, two perspectives//sacramento

Thankful for thanksgiving...It was so beautiful! I got to spend 3 whole days with my family and my sister and I were thoroughly enjoying the parade of autumn leaves, which sadly is not present in socal. Our favorite tree was this giant one on S.Land Park drive that had cascades of red leaves. It's been awhile since we shot together, but my sister and I had some photo fun in our grandma's backyard over thanksgiving. I was standing, she was sitting.


{kristen's perspective}


{my perspective}.


I love my sister. She makes everything more fun. :)

My talented younger sis

I know that I talk a lot about how amazing of a photographer Kristen (my sister) is, but I feel like she's definitely not limited to being ONLY a photographer. She is definitely an artists tinside and out.

And here's proof. When she took this photo of me it was during a quick hour that I was home on Veteran's day - I had just thrown on this trench coat that she recently got me. No make up. Greasy hair. NOT a good photo day. But still there's such a classic feeling I get from this. Man, she's preeeeeeeeettty amazing.

(her edits)

(my edits)

cathie & steven's DIY wedding {orange, CA}

With their wedding taking place in June, I was slow on the recap of this.

Never the less, I was a VERY happy guest at their VERY beautiful handmade wedding.
A celebration so full of the things that are characteristically them (scrabble tiles, buttons, yarn balls) and a palette happy colors, yet so centered upon the God who brought them together.

LOVED their epics.

We had a LOT of morning mist that looked like it was going to dampen the happy affair...but it cleared up to be warm June afternoon.

Even from my seat, I knew this would be a great shot...simply because of the clock. The clock that tells us the exact moment that Cathie started walking down the aisle.

Their first first kiss.

Mr. & Mrs. STEVEN HONG!

Yarnballs & rose petals = the most lovely centerpieces.

They're getting married in 2010. :)

Favors were handmade candies shaped into buttons

Me & my famous mustard colored dress.

David's bestman speech was probably one of my most favorite ones I'd ever heard.

Having done hair for bridesmaids in another wedding, I have mad props for the person who did the hair for these gals. And I love the simple carnation in their hair.

A lovely tradition is when married couples have to model a kiss for the bride & groom to imitate every time the glasses are tapped. This was Christine & Patrick's reaction to their names getting called to participate.


Red velvet cupcakes were the perfect way to end the day!

All I know, I learned from...BOOKS!

Already jumping in on my holiday shopping - I am the kind of person who wants to find the PERFECT gift for someone... especially in a day of age when its really easy to just have a lot of junk, especially "keepsakes" that you can't throw away because they were gift, I want to bless people with things that are useful, practical and affordable.

While perusing one of my favorite blogs, http://blackeiffel.blogspot.com/, I found a 35% coupon for http://www.chroniclebooks.com. They so many cool books, that I couldn't help but start to form a little wishlist of my own.: :)




It's knitting season again! With all the handmade gifts that I love to make, book on speed knitting would sure be handy. And i'd finally be able to get rid of that yarn i've been hording!








I LOVE LOVE LOVE cake and I love NPR's radio show. {Secret: I really enjoy listening to PBS in the car when I'm driving, especialy NPR & The BBC world news report}. Just even reading the list of some of the recipes in here (Brown Sugar Pound Cake, Peppermint and Chocolate Rum Marble Cake, Lord and Lady Baltimore Cakes, Dark-Chocolate Red Velvet Cake, and Honey Buttercream and Apricot Jam Cake) has me goin' a littttle crazy. Maybe I'm better off without this one though - I would probably drool all over the pages. :P






French General Handmade Soirees -
http://www.chroniclebooks.com/index/main,book-info/store,books/products_id,8139/


With all thethe DIY projects on the internet that I have saved to my desktop, I can only imagine how much fun it would be to have this book in my library, especially with the MANY MANY bridal showers/weddings that are coming up.