Ok. Let’s face it. These don’t really look like pinwheels. More like flat tires. Or slices of Potica. But this was my first time making them. Next time, I will get the shape right (I think I didn’t refrigerate them long enough before slicing, which caused the roll to sag a bit). At any rate, they are delicious. Date Pinwheel Cookies Ingredients 2 1/4 c chopped pitted dates 1 c granulated sugar 1 c water 1 c chopped walnuts 1 c butter 2 c brown sugar 3 eggs (well-beaten) 4 c sifted flour 1/2 t salt 1/2 t baking soda Directions Combine dates, granulated ..read more

I’ve always been a solo traveler – in many ways. I’ve lived alone, worked alone, and have previously traveled outside the US alone. So why am I hedging at solo travel to Paris? I keep catching myself backing away from it. Looking for excuses why I shouldn’t go. The fear isn’t entirely unwarranted. It’s a big trip. Getting on a big plane, crossing the big expanse of 3/4 of the United States. Crossing the big pond. France is a foreign country where I know absolutely no one, and am not fluent in the language. These are reasons enough, I suppose. Common sense grows more robust with age. It’s natur ..read more

Just starting out with your family history research? Geneaology for beginners can be overwhelming, but these 5 easy tips will help you get and stay organized as you delve into all that fascinating past. Copy primary documents. Think of this as a basic form of insurance. Primary documents are original marriage, birth, or death certificates. Draft registration cards. Baptismal records. Letters, journals, and diaries that tell our ancestor’s stories. They are irreplaceable. Copy the originals, then store them in acid-free sleeves and/or archival boxes. Consider keeping originals and their cop ..read more

I continue my quest to improve my photography, most days. It’s Not Always Possible Take yesterday. Where I live, we had hurricane force winds blowing the snow into drifts around the house. At one point I realized my furnace was no longer working due to the intake/exhaust being buried in a drift. Like some pioneer woman I was out there, my Go-Pro strapped to my head for light, hacking away at a crusty, dense drift to find and clear that exhaust. The wind blew the snow I cleared into my face, as the dogs sat shivering at the front door. Suffice it to say I did not do any shooting with al ..read more

If you are an artist – any kind of artist – don’t ever stop practicing art. Artists who don’t do art are cranky, crunched up souls peering with bloodshot eyes from their caves of self-imposed destitution. Further, if you do stop, breathing life back into your art is a bitch. Plain and simple. You’ve grown lazy. Your eyes have glazed over from too much television. You forgot what color complimented which, you use passive voice – even when you speak – and you have no idea what ISO means on your camera. 15 years ago, I stopped. In my last post, I wrote about being a failed fiction wri ..read more

1929 – Virginia Woolf – A Room of One’s Own: “Therefore I would ask you to write all kinds of books, hesitating at no subject however trivial or vast. By hook or by crook, I hope that you will possess yourselves of money enough to travel and to idle, to contemplate the future or the past of the world, to dream over books and loiter at street corners and let the line of thought dip deep into the stream.” This little book resonated with me from the first (if you’re a woman writer and haven’t read it I encourage you to do so). As an intensely creative woman, (and we are all creative women ..read more

I continue my quest to improve my photography, most days. It’s Not Always Possible Take yesterday. Where I live, we had hurricane force winds blowing the snow into drifts around the house. At one point I realized my furnace was no longer working due to the intake/exhaust being buried in a drift. Like some pioneer woman I was out there, my Go-Pro strapped to my head for light, hacking away at a crusty, dense drift to find and clear that exhaust. The wind blew the snow I cleared into my face, as the dogs sat shivering at the front door. Suffice it to say I did not do any shooting with al ..read more

Want to improve your photography but don’t have a lot of time? This is why the One Camera, One Lens, One Year challenge appealed to me. It’s a daily photo challenge I actually have time for, and that will yield results. It also reminds me you don’t have to spend half a day shooting every day to become a better photographer. The Benefits Discipline. If you want to get better at anything, consistent practice is key. Plain and simple. Distance from the work. When you create, it’s often difficult to see the creation’s value immediately. I find this true with writing, and my visual projects ..read more

In a previous post I started a photography challenge that requires me to spend 3-5 minutes each day improving my photography. This week, I’m ready to share the first results. My photography practice week runs Saturday – Friday, so the images here represent the “best” photos I took each of those days last week (I missed a day, that’s why there are only 6). Overall, I am pleased with the results (clicking on any photo opens up the gallery so you can see each photo in full): my cat…Victoria I love antique books. I love my dog, Stella. Week 1 of my Photography ChallengeSome Takeaways: Do ..read more

Stopping time. Photography is the only way to do that. And on a blog about memoir – which at its core is about time and things that once were – photography is relevant. In my own pursuit of the past, I’ve realized I’ve got to bring my photography skills up to snuff. And for me that means creating a consistent habit using a personal photography challenge. Is Visual Memoir Even a Thing? When people think of memoirs, I’m certain most of them think about written stories. But can we create photo, or visual memoir? A quick Google search told me yes. The search returned several links to not ..read more