Joe’s Stradivarius Replica

My brother is pretty much the most talented person I’ve ever known, period.

He’s only been studying music for a couple years, and already in that time he’s made more progress than most people make in a lifetime. And he makes it look so easy. He’s got a true passion for the art and his enthusiasm is absolutely contagious. He’d been working on his same starter violin for the last year and a half, but he’d outgrown it a LONG time ago. It was definitely time for an upgrade. After a few months of searching for a violin that would suit him, he finally stumbled upon this Stradivarius Replica made in 1880. Its gorgeous dark tone beautifully shows off his ever advancing technique and musical subtleties.

I couldn’t be happier for him. And he was just over the moon in love with his new instrument.

We had to do a photo shoot. 🙂

Picture Of The Day #1 Miso Soup for Breakfast

You know me, I’m always interested in starting a new project. A while back, Jordan and I took a picture every day and made a little journal entry to remember the moment. We started the project because life is precious and as our lives go on, it seems that we forget the little things. The fact is, a week from now I’m not going to remember exactly what I was doing or thinking today.

Not that every moment is worth remembering, but sometimes it’s sad to think about all the moments that are just lost forever. While sorting through our things during the move into our studio apartment, we ran across the little photo album that we kept from that project. It’s truly a glimpse into what our life was like then. After only a couple years later, seeing those pictures brought back those memories and it was special.

I started the project up again, but I’m really no good at printing out pictures and hand writing little journal entries. It never seems to get done. Perhaps in the coming days, I’ll pull out the recent pictures and post them for funsies, perhaps not. We shall see! However, I figured it would be appropriate to give it a try on the blog.

This is the Miso soup that I made this morning for breakfast/lunch. I didn’t do anything special to it, just followed the Basic Vegetarian Miso Soup recipe that I found from a Google search. It really is lovely though. The recipe makes 4 servings, but I’m having the whole thing for my breakfast and lunch. In total, it’s about 450 calories so I figure that’s a pretty good start to my day. The last time I made this recipe, I LOVED the leftovers. Tofu really does take on the flavor of what it’s cooked in, and the tofu from next day Miso Soup was delicious.

I managed to drag my butt to the gym this morning and feel pretty good about that. I seem to have better days when I work out a little. I guess man wasn’t meant to sit in a chair all day, every day huh? While at the gym, I watched a  couple of Amazon Originals pilots on Amazon Prime. I REALLY loved “Mozart in the Jungle”. It’s about time they made a decent show about the life of a classical musician! I hope they order a full season!

 

Winter Break with Hannah

Between the holiday festivities and work and moving, my winter break was jam-packed. Although I didn’t get to spend all the quality time with Hannah while she was home as I would have liked, I made sure to make some time for a Winter Break photo sesh with my baby sister. I just love taking pictures of her.

This girl has some serious style. I love how she puts together these adorable head to toe looks. Next time she’s home, I’ll have to make her go shopping with me! Miss you, Hannah! Keep kicking butt at school!

Charlie Time!

Oh my gosh… PHOTOSHOP!!!

Okay, so I’ve had this software on my computer for over a year now and I just discovered it last night. I’ve known forever that you can do great things with the program, but I’ve been so intimidated by the interface that I’ve shied away from it. After being disappointed by the options available to me on fotoflexer.com I made up my mind to just suffer through learning some basics on photoshop. 4 hours later… I’m never going back. I think I might be a little obsessed even! Oh the tutorials that are to come!!! I’m going to be a photoshop god, I swear it.

Here are some pictures I edited last night. 🙂

Oh yeah, we make our own Sushi!

Say hello to two emerging Sushi Artists!

Thanksgiving Pictures

I desperately need a new camera. I was so disappointed with my Thanksgiving pictures. I managed to get a few that weren’t blurry, but my camera is blurring soooo many of my pictures. AND no matter how many times I clean the lens I still manage to get these weird spots on my photos. Well, it’s going to have to do until I can afford a new one. It’s on the priority list for sure.

Unfortunately I wasn’t able to get good pictures of everyone, but here are the keepers.

And of course there was only ONE picture of me the whole night and Brooklyn isn’t even looking at the camera. Oh well, hopefully the Christmas pictures will be better.