Blog a la Cart

Turkey Day

Happy Happy Turkey Day!

While the power went out last night mid-bourbon pumpkin cheesecake bake, we had the benefit of wood stove heating and Canadian refrigeration (a large cooler in the piles of snow that accumulated yesterday). The power came back on in the middle of the night, so we’re back to cooking and playing and chatting and drinking. I’m grateful for so many things, sausage stuffing among them. And my family, and this home, and our health and safety and full bellies. Wishing you all these things and more this Thanksgiving. xoxo Ash

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“A portrait of my children, once a week, every week, in 2014.”

Sunny: First proper snow day of Winter 2014-15! What a way to kick off our Thanksgiving holiday. Auntie Kimmy made the trip west a day early, whereas Momar and Doda won’t be able to make the drive until Thursday morning. It may be a soggy snow, but we sure made the most of it!

Kaki: Rocking new purple snow boots, because she and Sunny are now essentially the same shoe size. She’s going to be such a badass Amazon when she’s full grown.

More details about The 52 Project here. To view all the portraits in the series visit here.

Related

Heavy Boots

We need enormous pockets, pockets big enough for our families and our friends, and even the people who aren’t on our lists, people we’ve never met but still want to protect. We need pockets for boroughs and for cities, a pocket that could hold the universe.

– Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer

Today, I wear heavy boots.

White privilege is me feeling enraged and disappointed at the news from Ferguson rather than utterly terrified. White privilege is me being able to parent my children without fear that they will be hurt or killed due to the color of their skin while many loved ones and fellow parents don’t have such a privilege. We deserve freedom from violence. ALL OF US.

Related: This is a useful, accessible way to understand privilege for those that may question my use of that word.

I am raising my voice because I refuse to reinforce this epidemic of silence that keeps our society functioning under these racist, patriarchal structures. Please raise yours, too.

Welcoming Oliver

Song is “Lullaby” by The Dixie Chicks. And it’s just so perfect for this. Love these collaborations with my sweet, talented husband. I shot and edited the photos, James told the story, Deanna, Dennis and Oliver brought the love.

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Kali & Mitchell

A few of my favorite images from my final wedding of 2014. I feel so fortunate to have been trusted to capture these incredible moments for four kind, loving, amazing couples this year. Each wedding had its own style and atmosphere, and yet all of them were equally inspiring and enjoyable. I’ll forever feel connected to these people, and grateful for the trust they put in me with these expressions of love and commitment.

Without further ado, Kali & Mitchell, another Eph/Eph couple that overlapped with me and James while at Williams but whom we didn’t really know until this evening of magic and strength and love.

Life Lately

It’s been relatively quiet around these parts, what with our back-to-back travel schedules, a few coughs and sniffles thrown in for good measure, a clogged ear (yes, I’m complaining about an earful of gunk, because hot dang it has nearly derailed my whole week. So distracting and irritating and WAH WAH, Woe, Is me), a car that has bit the dust and is forcing conversations about new transportation a few months earlier than we wanted and at a terrible time of year *ahemhellochristmashoppingahem*, frigid temperatures, and a back log of photography work.

So James and I have spent our evenings (post general bedtime routine for all Cartwheel Farm dependents), hunkered down in front of the wood stove, each glued to our respective computers, editing and processing and tweaking and guzzling tea and editing some more. We wanted two projects in particular (a birth video and my final wedding shoot of 2014) put to bed before we focus all attention on the cleaning and the shopping and the cooking and the table setting and the gobbling and the eating, eating, eating that’s about to go down chez Cart.

I am preparing my stomach accordingly.

This weekend will involve a great deal of prep work, including retrieval of our turkey immediately post-processing at a neighborhood farm, and a jaunt to the community wide farmer’s market. Many of the local farmers and crafters band together in to one big space exploding in locavore love. I’ve got another family holiday card shoot on the agenda, but compared to a birth or wedding, that is a walk in a park.

And Life plows ahead, in all of its harried yet wonderful ways. Kaki delights me more and more every day as her ability to communicate continues to explode, while Sunny humbles me with her adaptability and flexablity as she tackles life in a new school with an entirely new community. My children are my gravity. They keep me grounded and honest. And I wish that kind of perspective for always. xo Ash

“The Uncle Ben”

James’ baby brother (the youngest of four boys) is pure magic. Love this kid. He’s got his own style and does his own thing and is the best party trick in the world with those flips and twirls. You should see the way preschool jaws hit the floor when Uncle Ben starts tricking.

He made this video in hopes of winning tickets to this music festival and could use a little love to help him seal the deal. Give him some props, eh? And if nothing else, enjoy the dance moves.

Sunny and Kaki are currently trying to master the “Uncle Ben” which involves gangly limbs and swirling hips (which, admittedly, they do not (yet) have). Big aspirations – and if they wind up half as fun, with half the ups of this guy, life will be pretty grand indeed.