mother's day again

so some musings are due. It's May 26 and that means it's "Dzień Matki" or Mother's Day in Poland, my home country. It brings back a lot of memories from my childhood and a lot of reflections, again:).
I miss my mom - she died of Alzheimer's 3 years ago at the age of 63. Too soon...I only have some pictures of her from my childhood - she always shooed my father with his camera away. But how I wish I had more. Especially of us together. Hugging, kissing, walking, skating, hanging out in our pajamas the whole day - just together.... I cannot bring back time so now it's time to think of my own kids, and it's even more challenging since I'm the house photographer. I want them to have fond memories of our time together and photos will refresh their memory every so often. I feel like I'm running out of time though - they are growing so fast, not so snugly and cuddly any more, so it's a little testing to show the love when there is so many other emotions mixed in. But those are good, too. I wish I had an unposed picture to illustrate but I don't - I'll be better this year, I promise:) But here I am with my lovely not so little ones.

And here is my call to all the moms out there! Don't wait till you lose weight, be well rested, have a good-hair-day etc. - have a picture taken - of YOU! alone or with kids! Your parents are going to love it and your kids will cherish it for ever. The picture of  the most beautiful mom in the world - you!

And you can win a free session to do just that!

 Please go to http://www.facebook.com/malinaphotography and "like" my page and then send me an e-mail to malina@malinaphotography.com saying why you would like to win this "mom session" ( just for you or you and your babies) - less than 500 words please;). 3 contenders will be chosen by June 15th and than we will do a fb voting part. Have fun! Can't wait to read your stories! Malina

wonderful years

I was working on a personal project recently. My father's birthday was coming.70th. I had ideas and projects piling up for years (yes, you read it right - years!!) and I finally found motivation to tackle one of them.
My dad was our family photographer and he was following us with his camera a lot. And you know what it means - lots of photos,  actually slides, taken on different occasions like vacations, holidays and walks in a park. How priceless is it to have at least some memories preserved like that? I had all the slides scanned for several years already, but never found time to go about fixing them - yes, a lot of time had passed since they were new :) but finally I couldn't find any more excuses - after some work on some of them, lots on others and none on the rest I sent them to print. I was in awe when I saw them on paper- beautiful, just beautiful and so , so moving…after shedding a couple of tears and promising myself that soon I'll print them all for my own use I put them in a box and sent them to my dad. Happy Birthday!

More pictures/scans coming soon!

birthdays

and birthday parties - a lot of preparations and a bit of fun ;). I cannot believe it's been 12 years already. What now? Middle school, choices, decisions, independence *sniffle*... growing up...it's happening too fast... I'm not ready!!
Happy Birthday żabko!(transl: froggie :)) - hope you still need me from time to time...

cream puffs plus girl talk

equals perfectly spent Friday afternoon! Thank you Ms. Connie! Here is the recipe for you. They are so easy to make and oh-so-yummy!

Puffs:
1 cup of flour
1 cup of water ( I use a tiny bit less)
100 g of butter (a little less than one stick for those metric-system-impaired)
4 eggs
a pinch of salt

Filling:
heavy whipping cream
sugar to taste

Place a rack in the middle of the oven and preheat to 390 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or butter it and rinse with water (my method).

In a medium saucepan, combine the water, butter, sugar, and salt. Bring to a boil over medium heat. Remove the pan from the heat and sift the flour directly into the pan. Stir the mixture into a paste with a wooden spoon. Return the pan to a medium heat. Stir the mixture until it pulls away from the sides of the pan and is slightly shiny, about 3 minutes.

Transfer the paste to a medium bowl, and beat with a wooden spoon until slightly cooled, about 2 to 3 minutes. Add the eggs, one at a time, incorporating each one thoroughly before adding the next. Before adding the last egg, beat it in a small bowl. Adding it by tablespoons to the mixture, just until the batter is smooth and tight. If the batter starts to get loose, do not add all of the last egg.
Using a large spoon  form the dough into the mounds on prepared baking sheet. You can use a pastry bag to do it to - I prefer a rustic, spoon method - less to clean :).
Bake in the middle of the oven for about 25 minutes until golden brown and the puffs are light, airy, and crisp. It may take a little longer (up to 40 min) depending on the size of your spoon :D and thickness of the dough. Cool on a rack.
In the meantime beat the whipping cream on high with your mixer. When almost done add a little bit of sugar ( I add about a teaspoon per pint of cream). Ready.
Cut the puffs and fill with cream. Sprinkle with a little bit of powdered sugar and voilà!

I make about 25 puffs from this recipe and they disappear the same day!

Enjoy!

breakfast in bed and mother's day reflections

10:56 a.m.... knock knock...room service - isn't that the sweetest thing?… the breakfast was yummy, and Marysia said she hadn't had hers yet (at 11a.m.!!) because she'd been making mine all morning...awwww….how lovely - maybe even sweeter than her mango-strawberry-watermelon salad- yum.

  I don't celebrate mother's day usually - just awkward to celebrate your own holiday. Usually I spend my day in my garden, contemplating herbal aromas and beautiful flowers yet to be planted, cook something simple or go out to early dinner. But this year is different, it really feels like I deserve a day off - after 2 weekends of sleepless, kid's-stomach-ache-filled, nights, I find myself succumb to a not-a-kind-of mom-I-strive-to-be - a sensation I'm not too proud of :(. So I let myself reflect a little on my "behavior", and other stuff, too, and it feels like mother's day is a perfect opportunity to do just that.

  But for those of you who want this blog post to be about my "new years resolutions on how to be a better mom/person" - you don't have to read any further since my musings are mostly photographic in nature this year. I spent a lot of time recently on a personal project, photographic one, too ( stay tuned - soon will write about that one) and was lucky enough to have found several pictures of my mom, some of them with little me!! Such a rush of memories and feelings and…… regret of having only a handful…There is no redo on all those years that we are not in the pictures with the rest of our family…unfortunately.  I know those endless excuses of bad-hair-days, sleepless nights, pounds to shed etc. before we even let ourselves in front of a camera but I also know this - it all doesn't matter because for our kids we are still the most beautiful moms, make-up or no. I know because my mom, on those several rediscovered pictures, is just that - the most beautiful mom in the world. I 'm so happy to have those memories preserved. I miss you, Mom…

And I have some ideas how to turn us - invisible moms - into award nominated best or best supporting ones at least. I'll keep you posted. Malina

my Mom and I, Baltic Sea circa '77
photo by my father

up close and ...

I usually don't share too much personal work, or life here on my blog. This year I decided to change it and start showing you more of what I really love or …hate. Yes, those small little pesky things that gnaw at you and cause that itch to write about them on your blog. But let's start with nice.
It's easy to take pictures and I can take a nice portrait of anyone at any time. It's very much different with your loved ones, especially the kids. Yes you have access to them at almost all times and they should be comfortable in front of a lens by now (well after over 10 years of being followed by an odd person with a camera in hand)- sounds easy but is it? Well, the first problem encountered is making them sit for you - how do I ask/bribe/threaten them to comply? Once they actually sit, or stand or lie down for me to take the picture how do I make them stay for longer than 3 seconds without falling into a weird, silly, ugly face mode? Once that is solved how do I capture true them?
An honest, sincere, real portrait - that's what I'm striving for and I still hope it's doable. I'm still trying to get that natural genuine expression, that unposed posed portrait that when you look at it you feel like you have an immediate connection with that person, that vulnerable state in between poses… still trying and won't stop till I get it right. Not easy but nobody said it would be…And to illustrate - lucky to capture this genuine serene joy.