This morning, we find ourselves safe from Sandy and incredibly grateful for everything! Seriously, everything.  (BIG and small!)  On Sunday, we set out for a little adventure.  We had an engagement session planned for Mystic, CT and Watch Hill, Rhode Island on Monday. Obviously, Sandy had other plans for us- so we moved it up and made the trip early.  As we pulled into Mystic (a completely empty Mystic), we were greeted by a police officer telling us that there was a mandatory evacuation in effect as of 7:00 p.m. that evening. Ohh gees… what in the world were we doing?! lol.

Sandy was gentle with us and we had an engagement session of our dreams that day! A gorgeous gorgeous location and a couple with such beautiful hearts! Much more to share on that soon.  Seriously- can’t wait!

Amongst the wind, wondering if we are crazy, and a beautiful engagement session that reminded us that there is so much joy in our lives just by the people we are surrounded by, we came accross a special surprise that reminded us of the little things that make us smile and make us break out into a dance party! ;)

On Sunday, our Pumpkin Spice Latte Recipe was chosen by Style Me Pretty in their Top 10 for their Fall Recipe Contest! WAHOO! That, my friends, was the perfect reminder that there are little things in life that can certainly bring an unexpected dance party into your lives.

We know that Sandy has caused havoc in millions of people’s lives over the last few days (and continues to do so! :( ). Our hearts go out to every single one of you all who have been affected in anyway. Please stay strong and remember that there are people surrounding you who are there to remind you of the things in life that can certainly bring an unexpected dance party into your lives. We are sending you all PSL dance parties!

For those of you who may need a break from the devastating news, we encourage you to check out all of the amazing Fall recipes that Style Me Pretty compiled.  (Most especially our Pumpkin Spiced Latte!) ;) And when you check the PSL out, please leave a comment… because the recipe with the most comments wins a prize! ;) WAHOO!

Sending you all great big hugs and a lot of love!… Ohh and BTW, Happy Halloween!!

If you read our recent Friday Favorites post, then you already know my love of soft shell crabs.  Recently, while at our local farmers market, we saw a stand for soft-shell crabs.  Although we didn’t purchase the crabs for this post at the market, it did inspire me to try my hand at cooking my very own soft shell crab sandwiches.  Check out the recipe below to learn how to make your very own! Enjoy!

RECIPE: Soft Shell Crabs with Pancetta Sandwiches

SERVES: 2

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 tablespoon minced red onion
• 1 teaspoon dried tarragon
• 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
• Salt and freshly ground pepper
• 4 slices of pancetta (or bacon if pancetta is not available)
• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
• 2 jumbo soft-shell crabs
• Approximately 2 cups of all-purpose flour, for dusting
• 2 buns, preferably brioche, but any sandwich bun will do
• One small bunch of arugula, washed
• 1 large tomato, thinly sliced

PREPARATION:

Step 1: In a small bowl, combine red onion, tarragon, and mustard. Season with salt and pepper. Set aside for later.

Step 2: Arrange pancetta slices in a single layer in a large pan.  Place a smaller pan on top of the pancetta to weight it down to prevent the pancetta from curling.  Cook pancetta over medium-high heat until crisp and browned, turning once, approximately 3 minutes per side.  Remove pancetta and dry on paper towels.

Step 3: Wipe out any leftover juices from the pan.  Over high heat, melt butter with the olive oil in the pan.  While the butter and olive oil heat, season the soft shell crabs with salt and pepper than cover both sides generously with flour.  Place the crabs in the pan and cook on high heat.  Turn once after 3-4 minutes and continue to cook until crisp and brown, an additional 3-4 minutes.

Step 4: While the crabs are frying, prepare your buns by adding argulua, tomato, and 2 slices of pancetta to the bottom half of each bun.  Spread the mustard on the top half of the bun.

Step 5: Once crabs are done cooking, gently place one on top of pancetta.  Add the top half of the bun and enjoy!

Prepare the mustard.

Thinly slice the tomato and set aside.

Cook pancetta over medium high heat for 3 minutes per side until crisp.

Season crabs with salt and pepper and coat generously with flour.

Once butter and olive oil have heated over high heat, add the crabs.

Cook each crab 3-4 minutes per side until crisp and brown.

While crabs are frying, prepare your buns with arugula, tomato, and pancetta.

Spread mustard on the top half of each bun.

Gently place one crab on each bun.

Add top of bun and enjoy!

So often we go through life doing everything that we are suppose to do…. or everything that society tells us we are to do. We wear the clothes that we wear because they are what the fads tell us to wear. We say the things that we say because that is what “everyone” else says. We go to college because the overwhelming majority tells us that is what we have to do to get the corporate job that everyone sees as successful. We go to school to be a doctor, or a lawyer, or teacher because that is what we know and have aspired to be since we were kids.

We are all unique. We all have different DNA. Our family background and dynamics are different. Yet, we grow up trying to fit into a mold that society tells us to fit into. We often try to be like other people and do what makes them successful.

We are here today to say “Take delight in who you are and what makes you unique.” Take the path of the road less traveled. Think about what makes you unique and celebrate that! You are never going to be successful if you are constantly trying to be someone else.

In our business, it is so easy to look around at what everyone else is doing and think we should be doing the same thing! When we started our business we did just that. We built our website and our brand around what we thought everyone else would think was elegant and professional looking. We constantly made decisions based on what everyone else was doing. When we rebranded earlier this year… we focused on what made us unique. We no longer look at other photographers and think, “ohh man, everyone else is doing that so we should too.” We have learned to be confident in ourselves and take delight in who we are… not what others think we should be.

Take some time this week to think about what it is that makes you who you are. What fires you up? What makes you tick? What does fun look like to you? Don’t think about how you “should” answer those questions… think about them honestly and then celebrate that! Be unique and forget about what everyone else thinks!

The temperature this past week has been almost 80 degrees everyday. Doesn’t Mother Nature know it is fall?  Speaking of Mother Nature, do we really need a hurricane this weekend?  Oh well, at least the warm weather gave us one last opportuntiy to enjoy the felling of summer and to reminisce about one of my favorite late summertime meals.

Friday Favorites: On the Menu – Soft Shell Crabs.

One of my favorite meals as summer draws to a close is definitely soft-shell crabs! Living in the heart of the Chesapeake Bay region gives us access to some amazing seafood! One of our favorite restaurants, Woodberry kitchen, makes one of the best soft-shell crab dishes, but being a chef at heart, I recently decided to try making my own with fresh crabs from our local market. If you are lucky, you might be able to pick up a few soft shell crabs for another week or two but get them quickly before they are gone.

Ok, Ok… I know it might seem crazy to eat a sandwich with claws hanging out from the bun, but trust me, the crispy fried flavor of a soft-shell crab is AMAZING.  Add some lettuce, tomato and a slice of pancetta and you are looking at a 5 star sandwich! If you are lucky enough to find a few crabs this weekend at the market or grocery store, hold onto them until Tuesday, when we will be sharing how I made this tasty little sandwich.

Until then. What is your favorite crab inspired dish?

As I sit at Starbucks, enjoying a tasty Pumpkin Spice Latte, I begin to think back on how we started our business.  It started with a crazy dream to run our own photography business and live life for us.  At the time we started our business, it was hard to imagine that in less than three years, both Liz and I would be working full time for our business!  Over those three, and now almost four years, we came to realize that the dreams we dream are often actually too small, because when you take the first step, no dream is to big to be turned into reality. Hopefully you all will be able to look back three years from now and think the same thing about your dreams.

If you followed along for our last two posts on Dream Storming by now you should have found your inspirational space and have a list of 3-5 BIG dreams.  Now it’s time to turn those dreams into reality.

1. Take the first step

Before any dream can become a reality, you must take action, face your fears, and take the first step.  Let’s start with the first dream on your list.  Write out three simple things you can do now that once accomplished, you will be one step closer to achieving your goal.  The key here is to start small.  We want to slowly build momentum and see progress quickly. Trying to accomplish your entire dream all at once will just make you frustrated and ready to give up.

I recently posted on our Facebook page that one of my dreams was to one day have a product or book we create sold in Williams-Sonoma.  This is obviously no simple task and will take a ton of work.  But first, let’s start small, simple and fun, because if you are not having fun then what’s the point?  The first step I am going to take as soon as I finsih this post is to go to Williams-Sonoma to really peruse the store to see what types of things sell well, how they are styled, and how we could create something that might one day sit alongside the same shelves.  We LOVE to entertain are always drawn to the cookbook section and fun little prepared food gifts. Who knows, maybe one day we will have our own book on entertaining for couples.  Although simple, even just the thought of taking the step to get out of the house, and envision a product we create being sold in Williams-Sonoma is invigorating.  And that’s the point, we want to start small, take a little step, and then a bigger step, and before we know it, we will have an avalanche of momentum behind us.  Not sure where to start?  Well, that brings us to part 2.

2. Ask for help 

When we started our business, we had absolutely no idea what we were doing.  We LOVED photography, capturing photos, and had a pretty good understanding of how to use our cameras, but after that, we were absolutely lost.  So we asked for help.  It was amazing to see how much people were willing to share when we simply asked for help.  At one point or another, every great idea, business, or product started at exactly the same point yours did.  Most people are extremely grateful and take great satisfaction in helping other’s achieve their goals.  As long as you are genuine, appreciative of their time, and grateful, more often than not, when you ask for help, someone will extend their hand to lift you up.

3. Surround yourself with people that will hold you accountable to your dreams

Accomplishing a huge goal and turning dreams into reality is tough work.  Along the journey, it is often easy to get discouraged.  You might hear “no” or “I’m sorry” a lot so it is extremely important to have someone that will hold you accountable to your dreams.

We recently posted about creating a Board of Life Directors.  One of the purposes of creating our Board was to surround ourselves by people that will hold us accountable.  You don’t have to create your own board but we’d love it if you did. Instead, start by simply telling a friend your dream and ask them check in with you at the end of each week.  Or, ask them if they would mind if you sent them an email once a month listing the progress you have made on your dreams.  Knowing that there is someone you can share your thoughts with is a huge motivation to turn your dream into a reality.

4. Make your dreams known

If there is just one piece of advice you take from this post and put into action then this is it.  Make your dreams known.  You would not image how much of an impact this has had on the success of our business.  The more you talk about your dreams to people the more opportunities that will present themselves.  You never ever know who someone might know or what someone might need.

Don’t be afraid to share you dreams.  We recently mentioned that we would LOVE to photograph a couple for a wedding or engagement session in Europe.  We let people know about our dreams and that we were traveling to Europe earlier in the year.  By doing so, the opportunity to photograph one of our Brides during her dress fitting in Barcelona and a couple for an anniversary session in Paris presented itself.  We are confident that this would have never happened had we not continually shared our love of travel and dream to shoot in Europe with the world.  Check out the photos from our Paris session here.  We would still love to photograph an actual wedding in Europe (Italy or France to be specific) so let us know if you know of anyone in need of an international wedding photographer! :)

If your still reading at this point, it’s time to take the first step.  Leave a comment below and let us know what your dreams are.  You never know who might be reading this post! Go make your dreams a reality!