Hello beloved friends! I’m so excited about this and I’ve been dying to share it with you but I’ve been waiting until it was completely finished. (And if you know me at all, you know patience is not one of my attributes.) Welcome to my new personal blog: Musings from Wonderland. Nate and I have had the idea of having a hybrid blog for some time now and you may remember we did a similar thing when we first launched this current blogsite by having categories of posts like work, life, etc. Needless to say, the perfectionist in me wanted more. I loved being able to add personal posts about design, inspiration, travel, gardening, running, etc, but I didn’t like that it all fed into our main page. I want brides to be able to see tons of posts full of lovely images of other brides when they come to our photography blog. So… our amazing web designer worked out a way for me to have this little space all to myself! It’s hosted in our photography blog, yes. But… you can subscribe to it like a whole new blog just on it’s own. And, when I post my own personal posts they won’t show up on our main page anymore, they’ll show up here in our new MUSINGS page. I’m thrilled! I’ve been storing up posts for a while now waiting for this little creative space to be ready and I’m so happy now to begin sharing them with you.

I’ve organized this mini-blog (I’m still not sure what to call it) into my favorite topics which you can see as buttons on the right. If you ever want to see just posts on a specific topic, you can click on the button.

• Be inspired is for inspiration boards, ideas, amazing artists, and more that will lift you up, make you smile, and inspire you.
• Get cooking will dive into one of Nate’s and my favorite hobbies. We’re not ashamed to admit that we’re foodies and as a vegetarian, that presents a fair amount of challenges for us. I’m so excited to share some of our favorite recipes with you.
• Welcome home is for interior design inspiration, gardening, and everything home-sweet-home related.
• Namaste is for healthy inspirations. It’s no secret that I’m training for my first half marathon and that I adore yoga. I’m excited to share my journey with you.

This personal blog is a journal, and it’s also a notebook where I can chronicle my favorite things in one place. I can’t wait and I’m so excited to be back writing for myself and for you. If you knew me pre-photography you knew that I adored writing like this. I hope you’re as excited as I am. Please take a minute to subscribe as I may not always be able to twitter or share when posts go live here. And if you have a blog and you’d like to share the love, feel free to take one of my little badges. And please, as always, share with me via the comments. I’ll always do my best to reply to everyone as best I can.

If you’re confused, and just want to be back where all the photography is, Click here or click on the HOME button at the top of the page. :)

Check back in soon! I’ve got a sweet inspiration board coming your way!

For those that follow me on twitter, you may recall me babbling a bit more than normal (what? me? babble? inconceivable!) about running or training or other various exercise related 140 character quotes. Well, it’s because I’m training for a half marathon. (And no, not in a metaphorical sense, thanks for asking though.) The Disney Half Marathon, to be precise. It started as innocently as butterflies and ice cream cones and daily walks with my friend Stefanie…who just had an adorable baby btw. (“BTW means “by the way”. Pay attention.) Then it turned into the idea to run a 5K. Which then turned into the idea to try a 10K. And then, naturally, the idea to tackle the Disney Half in January. (That’s a natural thing to want to do right? Don’t you wake up in the morning and think… “I’d really like some coffee, and to run till I throw up.”? No? Maybe I need therapy. Or to look at this photo a bit more. Thanks a lot Pioneer Woman for fully throttling my baby fever from ‘normal levels of crazy’ to full fledge ‘ovary overload’. I’ll tell Nate to direct his correspondence directly to you. Expect a strongly worded letter.)

Technically we’re training for the 5K right now. It’s at the end of this month. The 10K is in August. Yes, August. Yes, in Florida. Oh, and it’s a trail run. Clearly I’m a masochist. (Notice how I said “trail” not “trial”. As in running over logs and rocks. As in me falling on my face at some point.) I’ll be writing updates on my training and such every now and then and probably tweeting about it a bit so if you’d like to join in, please do.

Yoga makes my soul happy. And that photo of Christy makes me swoon. She’s perfection. |  My all time favorite water bottle by Camelbak. Best in the world.| Track Shack’s Asics running shoes. I worn Asics since high school volleyball…love them. | My 2 favorite Lululemon crops | The HALF map at Disney.

In case you’re interested in some background… I used to run. (Not like all my life, just for a few years in college.) Then I took a two year break. My personal distance record (Or PDR for all you serious running bloggers. Can someone be a serious blogger? Maybe if they blog about serious things. But would that be a blog you seriously want to read? Let’s ponder this. Ponder while you look at this photo. I’ll wait.) was 8 miles. Without stopping. (But almost dying, let’s just be honest here.) I’m up to 4 now. That’s a new record since a month ago I was struggling at 1 mile. And, to be fair, training outdoors in Florida in 95 degree heat isn’t easy. (READ: I’m a machine!) Luckily, the HALF is in January which is usually a bit chillier. It snowed last year. That was the one morning it snowed. Remember? The news was showing photos of palm trees covered in icicles? (Because that’s the most cliched way in the world to show Floridians that snow is kind of a big deal.) Well… crazy people were running 13 miles at 7am that morning. And next year, I am going to be one of those crazy people. (Next year? Who are we kidding here?) Stef and I have decided to set up prizes for ourselves along the way. Which, as far as I’m concerned, is the best way to go. For completing the 5K we get to buy running pants from Lululemon (my two favorites are shown above). If we complete it in 30 minutes or less, we get to buy something else from Lululemon too. For finishing the HALF we’re thinking of booking an all day spa day the day after. We still need something as a prize for the 10K so if you have any ideas, let me know! :) Happy weekend!

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*Disclaimer for mothers, and other various family members… I’m only about 1/2 as baby crazy as I sound. Promise. Really. Trust me. ;)