petzval 58

Wow, it's been awhile! Life has been pretty busy ever since I started trying to simplify by getting rid of as many of our belongings as possible...so many things to sort, photograph, measure, list and send off to their new homes...it really eats up one's free time! Anyways, I got my Petzval 58 lens in the mail Friday and I couldn't be more thrilled with it! Had to share!! I had backed the project through Kickstarter and had been waiting about 7 months to receive my lens...so happy to finally have it in person!

First of all, as you can see in the photo above, the lens itself is just beautiful...solid brass! We visited our favorite botanical garden this weekend to try it out. It was easier to use than I expected and I just love the fact that I can control the level of bokeh in my photos. (If you're not familiar with what a petzval lens is or what it does, read about it here.) I didn't think I would want to use the strongest bokeh setting (level 7) very often if at all, but it turned out to be so dreamy, I love it. I'm excited to take this lens on my future adventures and try it in many different settings!  On to the photos: 

hot ginger pear cider

While we were in Canada, I got an amazing ginger pear cider in Calgary and wanted to duplicate it at home. A little experimentation in the kitchen happened, and this drink came out awesome! It's perfect for autumn too... (if only we had some cold weather here!) I had to share!!

what I wore // botanical gardens

vegan Moroccan-spiced red lentil, chick pea and kale soup

This soup was simply delicious and definitely something I will make again! 

Ingredients

3 tablespoons olive oil (coconut oil or avocado oil will work too)

1 large onion, diced

4 carrots, peeled and chopped

1 tablespoon turmeric

1 tablespoon cumin

1 teaspoon sea salt or more to taste

1 can coconut cream

1 cup red lentils, rinsed

4 cups chick peas (I used canned) 

2 large tomatoes, diced

4 or 5 cups vegetable stock, or according to your preference

2 cups roughly chopped lecanto kale

Instructions

In a large stock pot, sauté onion in oil. Add chopped carrots and spices and cook 5 minutes over medium low heat. Add vegetable stock all other remaining ingredients except the kale. Bring to a boil, then turn down the heat and simmer for 15 minutes. Stir in kale and continue simmering for another 5 minutes or until kale is barely tender. Remove from heat and serve. 

our Canadian adventure, part II: Jasper

our Canadian adventure, part I: Banff

Montessori style color mixing

Lately little A has been fascinated with transferring water between containers, so I came up with this project to let her practice transferring and mixing colors at the same time...and I loved how it turned out to be a colorful flower! 

You will need:

3 small bowls

Red, blue and yellow food coloring

Flower shaped tray (I got ours from Hobby Lobby for $2)

An eye dropper 

Water

What to do:

Put some water in each of the three small bowls and add 2-3 drops of food coloring to each one. Encourage your child to mix the colors using the eye dropper and make each petal a different color. 

This project kept my 3 1/2 year old busy for at least 40 minutes, we would dump one "flower" out and she would fill them again and again with different variations of each color. We added in some plain water at one point to make a more pastel looking flower. Have fun!