You have waited patiently for these, and gosh, I think it will be worth it. When Chase and Aaron, the cutest, laughter-ridden creatives contacted me, I knew I was on-board with their wedding plans immediately. Later this summer, it’s going to be what I’d formally refer to as a mega-blast. What I was unprepared for was their delightful engagement session ideas, foolishly, of course, because these two are talented design thinkers in their own right. A graphic design creative and architect (and handyman)-turned-entrepreneur, I should have known how utterly charming their notions would be. Chase decided to take up the banjo recently. YES. That’s right, folks. We went all DUELING BANJOS on you. They also were armed with the most delicious picnicking equipment, delightful maps, and vintage cratey goodness. And I might just have brought a few pieces of my own. I’d also like to point out that Aaron brought a good five or six possible alternate shirts to change into and yes, THEY WERE ALL PLAID. These two are just the most high-fivable, fun, silly, happy charmers, and though we have known each other for only a few weeks, I truly felt like we were old friends on an epic road trip. They laugh with reckless abandon and are full of love and joy. And man—that is what it’s all about.

A brief run-down of our fun: Chase and Aaron met for the first time at Rebecca’s coffeeshop in South Park. She was playing chess, and they oggled each other until she sent a friend after him to insist he ring her up. Of course we had to start our journey there. Then we packed up the car and headed out east for an hour to dig up a great picnicking spot. Keep your eyes peeled for our singing-dancing jam session in the car. To Tom Petty, on casette. ROCK AND ROLL!

I’m sure you noticed that this is only part one. I could not narrow these photos down, they were all too full of awesome. So, instead, I’ve broken this into two posts. The following one will feature all sorts of bohemian-vintage charm. We put up a tent and let camping inspire us. With cuddling and exploration over giant tree trunks and piggybacking down secret paths and canoodling in the trees (yeah!) and carving things into bark, too. Stay tuned, folks, it’s going to be just as totally awesome.

Hello, all you charmers and friends! My absenteeism as of late is appalling. Much has been going on, behind the scenes, however, and I think you’ll be just as over-the-moon as I was when you see the most recent frolic sesh I have to share. Chase and Aaron are just about the cutest things of all time: full of laughter, love, soul, and adventure. I love so many images from this shoot that it will be epically challenging to narrow them. For now, I leave you with a plethora of what’s to come—a much larger sneak peek than usual, but that’s reflective of how much delightful stuff we got. I can’t wait to share the full enchilada and tell you all the glorious stories of our silliness!

Jack and Ayelet are two of the sweetest people ever. They’re just so darn easy to like. I first met Jack out swing dancing when I’d just moved to San Diego. At the time, Ayelet and he were living thousands of miles apart while she was at school in Seattle. I used to think Scott and I had faced challenges in the several instances where we’ve lived far away from one another for long stretches, but Jack and Ayelet had us beat. Well, Ayelet finally made her way back here and San Diego is the better for it. Together, these two are the kind of friends everybody wants to have. They love to laugh, are always up for a fun adventure (um, sometimes tooooooo intense, I’m looking at you, Jack!), and they appreciate silliness just as much as me, which is a feat. Jack proposed while they were visiting Canada (YEAH! Canada, represent!) and in just a few months, these two will be bringing their cultures and eclectic families together for a seriously lovely bash. I can’t wait!

We headed to UCSD campus for a tour of the school at which they met. It was full of charming art and installations to my surprise, and we made good use of all of the loveliness the campus had to offer. Get ready for a crazy plethora of photographs that I just couldn’t bring myself to cut down any further: too much goodnessthat  I felt compelled to share!

This is probably another excessive number of images for one little morning at the lake. But the day was worth sharing, I thought. And, as you know—when I share, I SHARE. This weighted, gentle quietness is very hopefully worthy of your time. I hope it encourages you to both a) go out and explore local delights and b) return to places you have already explored. There is always something new to discover and magic to embrace. Tell me of the most magical of your local spots. One day I hope to discover them!

So, the follow-up to my previous post is finally here—wrapping up our Austin travels, we get a little more urban. This post has fewer words, but possibly more photographs. In brief, below you shall find our delicious café experiences, lots of weird art in weird places, our trip to Ginny’s Little Longhorn Saloon for chickenshit bingo (which is a VERY LITERAL kind of experience!), Airstream cupcake heaven, Zilker Park’s Barton Springs Pool (which is a largely natural giant pool in the center of the city and is totally radical), retro vintage bowling at The Highball (Scotty kicked my ass), drinks at the continental club (where we watched an übercowboy in big hat, jeans and jean jacket, boot and spurs strut in and begin to play some wickedly good jazz)walking the dogs around the prairie homes of the South Congress region, exploring the hipster mecca that is the South Congress neighborhood, spectacular signage galore (forgive me, I’m a graphic designer and I am addicted) and generally having a truly wonderful time.

Just jump in and enjoy the (more urban) wonders of Austin below. How can you resist, really?

So, while I have been admittedly quite woefully inattentive to my blog most recently, I am pleased as punch to say that’s not for want of inspired adventure nor for want of a plethora of photos to share. I have had ample of both, but this is in addition to a rather hefty workload as of late.

Well, I am utterly compelled to share some of my adventuring . I’m so enthusiastic about it that I find it rather daunting to imagine editing any other photographs out of my post. The unreasonable amount of photographs that I intend to share means that I’ll be breaking this post into two. This week will be all-Austin, baby!

Austin is, as everyone knows, delightfully eccentric. Keep Austin Weird is a motto I can get behind. But I’m not sure that we had a concrete sense of what to expect based on that. As such, we were quite surprised by some of our findings. For example, we have always pictured Texas as a bit of a tumbleweed wasteland. Turns out, Austin is incredibly lush. Moreso than San Diego, certainly. So below, you will find elements of our excursion to Hamilton pool, a spectacular swimming hole fed by a waterfall that’s just 45 minutes outside of the city. We also had our first Airbnb experience, and it was a truly wonderful one. We stayed with a woman named Robin who has a marvelous old historic prairie home that’s just blocks from the hipsterfest that is the South Congress area. She also has two rescue dogs that proved to be an absolute delight, and she fed us a lovely breakfast daily. All for half the price it would have cost us to stay in a nearby motel. No kidding, Airbnb is where it’s at! Her property was so enchanting that half of the images below were probably taken around it.

Because Scott knew I’d had a difficult week at work, that charming husband of mine surprised me with a trip to the spa for a massage, so a couple of these photos feature there. And what else could we follow a trip to the spa with other than a trek through Texas’ oldest cemetery. Forgive me if you feel it’s morbid, but as a graphic designer, I was enthralled with all the beautiful stonework from the 19th century.

Oh, another wildly intriguing aspect of Austin is the food truck culture. We thought it to be not bad here in San Diego and pretty intense in Portland, but Austin blows ‘em all out of the water—every three or four blocks is another parking lot filled with permanent food trucks doling out every manner of delight you can think of. We also went out for live music and lindyhop  (our swing dance of choice) one evening, and if you notice there’s a dude in a pink bunny suit at one of the spots we bar-hopped through… well, that’s just classic Austin.

Yep, our first couple of days out there were utterly charming. We are officially both Austin fans. To come later this week? A natural swiming pool in the center of the city, truly retro bowling, the awesomeness that is a cinema and drafthouse in one, exploring the South Congress shops, cocktails galore and more.