Super Deliciousnous!

He just could stop himself. The moment the sweet deliciousness touched his tongue, he was addicted! No one thought they looked like anything special, including me. It was a simple, mostly pre-packaged recipe, but oh so freaking fabulous!

For the 4th of July, my fam went to our daughter Aurora's best friend's house. Aurora and Lilia were smitten with each other since day one of preschool, and they had a BLAST watching fireworks and playing with glow necklaces! It was Lilia's brother Ren who was smitten with the dessert we brought.

The cookies we brought were Aurora's creation. She drew a picture of what she wanted them to look like:

What a creative mind! She's simply amazing!

Here's Aurora's recipe, which is not from scratch (my favorable method, but we were limited on time)...

Ingredients

Sugar Cookie Mix (plus all the necessary additions)

Pre-made CREAM CHEESE frosting (again, I would have preferred making my own, chemistry set-free :-P )

Blueberries

Strawberries

Powdered Sugar (granulated would work too)

Directions

Follow Sugar Cookie Mix Directions

If you wish, roll out dough and cut into fun shapes. We did stars for the 4th of July!

Bake, then let cool

Place Strawberries and Blueberries in a bowl and coat lightly with sugar

Spread a thin layer (or thick, as my hubby prefers) on each cookie

Top cookies with blueberries and strawberries, and voila!

Now try this and tell me you could resist it...I think it's pretty impossible!

xo
jbnewcomb<3

What a Beaut!

Gosh, she's a beauty...

How lucky I am to have a gorgeous muse for my photographic journey! I'm so enjoying learning my camera settings, lighting, and composition with Aurora. Her energy is intense, which also helps me to practice getting the shot! lol

More kids coming soon!

xo

jbnewcomb<3

LOVIN' it!

This is IT! The moment I feel truly confident about calling myself a photographer....

It feels so good to finally declare my passion to the world! It takes a lot of courage for me to put myself out there, but I'm all out there, baby!

Have you taken a risk today?

xo

jbnewcomb<3

Life-changer

Cough, cough, sneeze, sneeze, it's gotta stop sometime, PLEASE!

Ok, I'm pretty playful at this moment, but for seven whole weeks, I'd been an utter biatch. And all because of a life-sucking cold or flu. The diagnosis doesn't matter. It freaking sucked out of me all the life and motivation to do anything productive.

I got so mad at myself. The business-savvy part of me had formed an extremely detailed goal spreadsheet, complete with mini-goals for each of my major goals with dates and details. The moment I proclaimed to the world that I wanted to learn photography, I poured much of my energy into it, gung-ho, like I always do when the flame of passion ignites. But then WHAM, my passion fizzled out, and all because of the sniffles.

But it wasn't just the sniffles. I'll spare you of the play-by-play of every ache and pain. What I really want to talk about is the life-changing realization I had, facilitated by Gay Hendricks, a self-help-type of guru.

In his book, The Big Leap, he explains that when we get really excited about something, when we feel elated, we tend to quickly squash that feeling with any number of downers. He calls this "upper-limiting". It's an awkward term, but he explains that we a have a limit on the amount of good feelings we can tolerate. Pretty bizarre sounding at first, right? But the more he explains it, the more it makes sense.

This brings me to the realization I had.

I have this pattern of feeling good and then feeling bummed. It's not manic-depressive disorder. My swings aren't dramatic, but they're noticeable. By the way, Gay Hendricks is a psychologist, and I just love his way of looking at these swings. His insight is refreshing and empowering!

Basically, if you want to stop the pattern of feeling great and then sabotaging yourself subconsciously, you have to first recognize the thing you've done to bring yourself down. For me, this was getting sick. Really sick. As soon as I recognized this, the sickness began to subside. And I couldn't be more thankful.

I feel like I am in control of my future. Really, for the first time, I am clearly aware of my self-sabotage. I don't feel like a slave to what-ifs anymore. I'm determined to stay focused and happy, and I'm going to blog about my experiences.

It feels good to be honest because I know everyone has this issue. Some more than others, and I'm definitely one of the "some". It's cliche, but I'm my own worst enemy. But I can also be my biggest ally. Here's another cliche, but it's so true....

This journey we call life is truly what we make it. :-)

i <3 

xo
jbnewcomb<3

Summer of Love

He was finishing his second contracted book, staying in a city he wasn't from and knew no one.

She was home from college for the summer.

Both were lonely and curious to see what would happen if they looked for love on Yahoo! Personals.

He wrote her. She liked what she saw. Artistic. Gorgeous, friendly eyes. A cool air to him. So, she gave him her phone number, and no one else.

She liked to sleep in, so when he called at noon, he woke her. They talked for a long time. Laughed. Hit it off. They were anxious to meet right away.

They went to the beach to walk and talk. Both didn't wear sunglasses, but somehow that made it more magical. Being bathed in light, their instant attraction grew as intense as the sun that blinded them.

She went to his vacation home where he had been writing and painting. A gorgeous painting he'd started looked eerily like her. She loved it and he promised she could have it. And he painted many more paintings of her that summer, their Summer of Love.

He captured her eyes best in this one.

Painting by Jason Augustus Newcomb

{How could I resist a man that worshipped me with his paintbrush?!}

xo

jbnewcomb<3