pictures of me & you & everyone we know

#74

Every summer I attempt a garden. It’s always a feeble attempt as I don’t really have the confidence in my plant growing skills, but I try. I salvage empty drawers from the street, lug them into the backyard, paint them bright colors, fill them with soil, and plant some seeds. I know what you’re thinking, I’ve skipped a step somewhere, maybe, I don’t know, who cares.

So far I have been able to grow about 2/3 of what I planted into almost viable food, which isn’t too bad in my book. But there is a set back, every year, every summer, every June/July that FUCKS EVERYTHING UP. Just when I’m getting really excited and I might actually have a real head of lettuce in my garden or a real tomato - all plant life vanishes overnight. It’s not a slow process. Just bam, gone, done, like it was never there. And it is all the handiwork of these harmless looking fuzzy caterpillars that I don’t have the heart to kill.

#73 - The daring young girl on the flying trapeze… At a party hosted by the Danger.

#72 - Vaudeville-themed party on an abandoned boat in the middle of summer, one of the kajillion reasons why I love you Bushwick.

#71 - Soft lighting makes me :)

The summer solstice is just 5 days away. On an actually important date for me this year. The 21st will be a big day, with a decision made that will effect the next few months of my life. I’m excited for whatever happens. I plan on celebrating the day and night for sure, staying outside for as long as the sun will grace me with its presence.

#70 - When we first started We Less Than Three I was so excited I didn’t have time to be scared. It was such a big adventure, moving to a new city, moving in together, launching a business we had no idea would succeed. We were just winging it. I still had a kind of flexible job going on on the side, which I think helped make everything feel like it was OK, but when that finally fell through it was real. It was all or nothing. And we here are today. Going on our two year anniversary and I’m still excited for what’s going to happen next :)

#69 - Mishaps of self-timers and haphazard boyfriends <3

We took this together on my 25th birthday before a night of drinking and dancing. I think it’s kind of weird that I’m 26 now… I remember being a teenager and not being able to fathom what my life would be like at an age like this or even if I would still be around to experience it. I don’t know why, I just couldn’t imagine it. Maybe the present was just enough for me, it was overwhelming in itself.

I guess my 16 year old self would be happy with me though. I think… I do have my own apartment which 16 year old me would be so jealous about, I got a tattoo, which at the time my mom threatened to disown me if I ever did. I’d probably be surprised that I decided to take out my beloved belly ring (haha) and stop bleaching my hair (why did I ever do that?). I think I’d be pretty stoked that I’m finally pretty comfortable in my skin, albeit a few ‘I’m fat’ freakouts now and again, I actually am happy with me. And I run my own business! I don’t think younger me ever ever thought about that as an option in life… I was mostly concerned about how I was going to squeeze in a nap in the storeroom of the Dairy Queen I worked at.

I wonder what 36 year old me will think about all of this…

#68 - Exploring new cities is awesome and when we first moved to New York we did LOTS of it. The best way to explore is obviously by having adventures with a gang of friends. Thus one balmy summer day, with besties in tow, we checked out Governors Island for the first time.

There are always mistakes when adventuring somewhere for the first time and this trip was no exception. We took an extremely long route to get to one of the ferry access points that led us through our neighborhood on a picnic food hunt first, and then on a bunch of trains finally dumping us off in DUMBO. While picking up food we saw these really cute bottles of beer from a brewery called St. Peter’s and being the design whores we are, we had to buy them. We sampled four of their beers - each one in a different shaped bottle. It would be great if the shape of the bottle correlated to the each type of beer for a reason - like a stout needs to be in a big fat bottle to keep the flavor rich whereas a lager can be in a thinner flask type bottle in order to keep it fresh - but I don’t think that is the case. lol. I’ll just keep dreaming and making up reasons behind arbitrary design to settle my occasional ‘form follows function’ needs.

The ferry takes you from Brooklyn southwest to Governors Island, giving you a great view of FiDi and Manhattan. The island has some interesting history you can read about here, including once being a military base. There are still barracks and odd buildings scattered about the park, some of them a bit ominous looking. Finding a nice spot to relax is fairly easy, there’s lots of green open space to lay out in and pretend you’re far from the city. Which is what we did. With friends. And good food. And good beer. It was pure magic <3

#67 - Today has been so beautiful. We’ve had the windows open all day. Listening to Joanna Newsom. Drinking lemonade. Getting work done. Happiness <3

#66 - Macro

We’re about to start that arduous task of looking for a new apartment in NYC. When we first moved here we ended up finding our current residence within a week, mostly out of a necessity to stop sleeping on my friend’s couch in Queens. We hunted everyday and ended up settling on a place for it’s convenient location and the idea that we might make it better than what it was… Which turned out to be an almost empty promise to ourselves.

Sure, we filled it with stuff. New stuff, old stuff. Ikea stuff. Vintage stuff. But after two years, it still doesn’t quite feel like ‘home’. One plus is that we have a backyard. The picture above was taken in that first summer. Exploring our backyard and the plethora of odd nature that has found a way to exist in this concrete jungle. Spider webs, berry trees, caterpillars, birds. All in our little 100sf backyard. Now that we’re starting to look for a new place I wonder how much we’ll miss having a yard, since the odds of finding another place with one that is also ideal in so many other ways, are probably pretty slim.

#65 - I don’t know if this is such a great picture… but this is a butterfly I raised from a cocoon! It was really cool and made me feel like I was in kindergarten again. Watching them break free of their cocoons was really exciting and seeing them get stronger and big enough to fly free was rad. This one landed in my front yard for a moment before officially leaving the roost <3

Oh and they ate watermelon! Which was really cool. They would suck out all the juice from it. Ok, yea, enough nerding out about butterflies.

#64 - I’m not much of a ‘people’ photographer… I think because I don’t really know much in the way of techniques, humans just make it so much more difficult. They’re unpredictable. They move. They have so many shadows and details, and unfortunately, lots of bad angles. lol

You can’t make a mountain look ugly or fat but you can do that to a person, even if the person is actually quite attractive/thin/whatever. So for the most part, I stay away. Although I’d love to learn more about it and get good at it someday. 

Oh and this is Andy, after we left LA and he came to Miami to visit before our big move to NYC. That was a magical time, full of excitement and change and uncertainty. It’s worked out pretty well, if I do say so myself :)

#63 - Cotton Candy Skies… Only in Miami <3

I’m planning a week-long trip at the end of May to visit my hometown. I was just there for Christmas but for some reason it feels like years. I’m happy to be coming home for a little R&R and family time.