Karen Jacot / the blog

closeups

Karen — Sun, 02 May 2010 02:04:14 +0000

Having flowers on the back deck makes such a difference in how it feels there. I love all the bright colors–both of the flowers and leaves and the flowerpots. Lyle waters them with a watering can that’s almost too heavy for him to carry.

gardening

Karen — Sat, 01 May 2010 05:07:48 +0000

I know it seems like I’ve forgotten about this blog, but I actually think about it quite often. It’s just that that’s all I do–think.

A couple weekends ago, we planted some flowers and herbs and cantaloupes in all the pots we have had sitting around empty all fall & winter. The cantaloupes were Lyle’s idea. I have no idea if these seedlings will manage to produce fruit for us or not. The day after we planted them, Lyle woke up and bounded out of bed saying, “I want to go check and see if there are any cantaloupes yet!”

vegas 2010

Karen — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 15:59:26 +0000

A couple weeks ago Jeff and I went to Vegas for a few days of playing. We try to go every year…it’s the only place I vacation that I keep going back to regularly. What I love about Vegas is that everyone (on the Strip, anyway) is on vacation, so you’re always surrounded by people who are just having fun. And I love how over-the-top it all is. It’s a surreal week in some ways but it’s so much fun.

another new baby

Karen — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 19:15:10 +0000

This is the baby of one of my best friends from high school. I did a session with them while I was in Dallas last month. We spent more time catching up than we did taking pictures. Here are a few that I liked from her session. Baby Andrew was 12 days old in these.

mommune 2010

Karen — Sun, 21 Mar 2010 02:27:38 +0000

I’m late with this post (what’s new?). Two weeks ago I took Lyle to upstate New York to hang out with friends for a week. Not just a few friends, but a LOT of friends, from all over the U.S. (and one who came from London). Mostly moms and kids, with a few husbands thrown into the mix, too. At the highest point I think there were 17 kids and nearly as many adults. We slept in various spots in two big houses–the host’s and her mother-in-law’s house next door. We spent the days hanging out and talking. We cooked together and ate together–there was always something happening in the kitchen. The kids played together and loved it–the house full of toys, all the other kids, the snow outside.

Lyle was particularly enamored of a 6-month-old baby who laughed with him the very first night we arrived–Lyle referred to him the rest of the week as “that baby I make laugh.” He also really liked “the boy in the orange shirt,” even on the subsequent days when the boy was no longer wearing an orange shirt.

album

Karen — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 05:07:58 +0000

Quick post just to show off a session album I delivered to a client this week. The album contains 30 matted 5×7 prints and has a beautiful blue/gold Japanese cloth cover.

on nighttime insights and clementines

Karen — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 04:29:04 +0000

Hi, people. I’m having issues. I lie in bed at night thinking of great blog posts in my head (for real) but then when I’m sitting at the computer the next morning…nothing. Not a single thing seems worth writing about.

I remember my dad telling me once that as he fell asleep, he would have brilliant insights to computer programming problems he was working on. But he could never remember them the next day. He started keeping a notepad next to his bed so he could write down the solutions that he was coming up with in these moments. Only instead of waking up to clever solutions he’d brainstormed the night before, he woke up to notes that were complete gibberish. It was like his mind needed to *think* it had solved these problems before it could rest enough for him to get to sleep, so it tricked him to thinking he’d solved them.

I guess my mind needs to trick me into thinking I’m a good writer so I can sleep at night.

I love these two pictures that I took at the park last week. Lyle rode his tricycle to the playground and I brought along snacks because he always gets hungry playing outside. (So do I.) We’ve been going through a lot of clementines lately.

And this one from today…I love how hard he’s laughing as he’s yelling for me to push him “higher, higher, highest!”

oh hi it’s another test

Karen — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 15:46:24 +0000

because i can’t make decisions and am not a graphic designer, i still don’t know what i want this blog to look like. so i’m playing around with it some more. smaller pictures, because i just can’t get into the bigger ones.

600px wide. how does this look?

i think i’m going with 600px, people. now there are are only, like, 100 or so other decisions still left to make.

snow + spa

Karen — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 15:17:01 +0000

This weekend I went to Dallas to sit in a 170-degree sauna. It’s the fire sudatorium at the Korean spa, and it’s totally amazing. They have several other saunas that are not as hot but that all claim to be good for your health in various ways. I just know that after spending all day sweating and soaking and napping and eating Korean food, I feel the most relaxed I’ve been in a long time. And if I get a body scrub? Where you lay on a table and get scrubbed by a woman with scrubby mitts over and over and over until you have no more dead skin left anywhere on your entire body? Then I feel the cleanest I’ve ever been. Love this place.

The building itself is set back off the road behind some self-storage units, and you drive underneath some giraffe statues to get there. (So random.) My favorite is the sign that says, “RIGHT ON.” Korean spa…right on.

Also, Dallas got 12 inches of snow last Thursday, which is a record and a crazy amount of snow for Dallas. It doesn’t usually last long once it’s on the ground there, but there were still a couple inches on the ground when we got there Friday night. Lyle spent Saturday morning playing in it.

happy valentine’s day

Karen — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 11:08:22 +0000

May your days all be filled with love….