time to change your bookmarks!

here it is, my new site. there is a link to the blog off the new website.  i guess you could say i feel grown up now, having my very first website. grown up from having just a blog to a website, a proper shopping/viewing site and a new blog. i love it. i love the way it turned out and most of all i have loved the process. richard and amy of red leaf studios, have managed to keep the whole process stress free, and even on the days that i wanted to pull my hair out setting new things up, i was laughing along the way not crying. i also love the wonderful customer service of all the companies i am now dealing with AMAZING!

so thank you, 

Red Leaf Studios

Redcart

Clickbooq

and 

Prophotoblog

and my new site

www.michelleloewen.com

and my new email is info@michelleloewen.com

michelle loewen photography

ok ok, enough build up, i know i got a bit carried away with the countdown, but it was so fun and so enjoyable. but now its time, time for you to see... my FAVORITE recipe. no i am not kidding, i am just getting ready to make it tonight for our fabulous new years eve dinner.  my blue cheese and cheddar scalloped potatoes. i love these so much. and they are so easy...

so 

1 clove of garlic

3tablespoons butter

2 cups of whipped cream (just close your eyes and pour its not really that fattening)

2 cups of milk

1 tsp of nutmeg

3 1/2 pounds of russet potatoes (don't get fancy and buy the pretty organic ones) that backfired on me the year i did that... go cheap i promise they will turn out better.

thin slivered onions to layer with potatoes

1/2c crumbled blue cheese

1/2c shredded sharp cheddar cheese

preheat oven to 375 and rub garlic and butter over inside of 13X9 inch baking dish.

add cream, milk and nutmeg to saucepan and bring to simmer.

arrange potatoes and onions in single layer and season with salt and pepper, repeat layering with remaining potatoes, seasoning each layer.

pour hot cream mixture over potatoes and sprinkle with both kinds of cheese.

bake until potatoes are tender and top is deep golden brown. about 1 hour and 45 minutes. cool slightly before serving.

i sometimes make these a few hours prior to dinner parties and cook only for one hour. then just before company comes, i throw them in the oven for the last hour to finish cooking.

i wish i could credit the person for the recipe, but its hand written in my book and i have no idea where i got it from, i remember finding it on the internet a long time ago when i had some blue cheese going moldy in my refrigerator. so i googled blue cheese and voila there it was. i have made it dozens of times and its always amazing, except for the time i used organic local potatoes. and i am still apologizing to those guests... for serving them potatoes that just refused to cook after 3 hours in the oven.

and a post with out a photo is just wrong, so here is my mommy on christmas day and my family on the swing we found on the beach during our walk. we found four heart rocks too!

one more day

so when i started my "new website" countdown, i had no idea what the next day would bring. i would wander around the house until i became inspired and i would grab my stuff and run into the forest in my christmas pj's. i would take a few photos, download them and then pop them up. 

but now i am down to one. i thought one had to be special, it had to top the rest. i looked and looked and looked. nothing jumped out at me. i wandered around downtown hoping something spoke to me. what was special enough to be number one?

was it a special photo of my children, was it my engagement ring. because that was pretty special. was it the recipe tim first made me on our first date at his house? turns out that was a pretty special meal too. i still love that recipe, one of my favorites even if i do make it better than him now.

was it a special card, my childrens hospital bracelets from when they were born, yes special and then it hit me. it was my journal. the one i wrote in for three months sometimes a few times a day and then still to this day have never opened it to re read what i wrote. yes. my journal i started when our children were born. they were born three months too early. at 27 weeks. it was scary. two days after they were born tim and i drove away from the hospital alone, without our children. it would be months before they came home with us. it was heartbreaking.

i wrote daily in my journal. honestly i have no idea what i wrote. we were newly weds, we became so so close during that time. we made important life decisions and along the way we realized that some things in life are important and others, they just are not. i feel those months prepared us for a lot. prepared us for dealing with stuff that might, had none of this really serious stuff happened, actually be a major issues. 

so my one thing, my one special thing for today is my little journal. it contains raw, real and true thoughts. one day i will read it again. i am not sure when. i know it helped me a lot during that time, just as photography and writing in my blog has helped me the past few years.  

and on a lighter note... it seems i counted wrong on my countdown, i know not too good at math. i intended to start my new blog on January 1st, but it would seem tomorrow is Dec 31st. So instead of a new years day start to my new everything, i think it is going to end up a new years eve start. 

two more days

and two home made sock monkeys. those who know me know i love sock monkeys, i always have, i have a few at home, but these two i made. years and years ago. one is missing an arm. i read the pattern wrong and cut the tail way too long, and didn't have enough for the second arm. a bit sad, but i loved her just the same. my one armed sock monkey. its funny to think when i made them i had no children, i didn't know tim, i lived alone and now they are part of our life, floating around in our house day after day. i like that. it makes me smile.

today they get engaged, in the forest. my forest. where all these count down photos have been taken. i would be lost if we ever moved away from here. i love the space we have, the secret places my kids have to play. our rope swing, our tire swing, the small clearings where the kids hide and the deer sleep. all these special places in my special forest are just that, special. and as the years go by they become even more special to me.

three more days

and three blind mice. i love cheese, i love cheese platters, i have eaten too much cheese the past two weeks. way too much. too much sugar, too much wine, a bit too much eggnog and other things. but really i have no regrets all wonderful and in wonderful company. so today three days before new years eve, three days before my new website launches and three days before i prepare my wonderful beef wellington all is well in our house and not a creature is stirring except my three blind mice.