things that happened to me

Cross this off my bucket list.

~ Katy Kelleher ~ 1 Comment

IMG_2158I spent my entire day styling a photo shoot in Boston and assisting my coworker Nick (who is a fantastic photographer) with all the things that go into making a really good picture (like holding up my jacket to block the harsh sun, and brushing our models hair every three minutes to make sure it looked okay). It was surprisingly exhausting.

In order to create the picture, we had to buy around $100 worth of flowers, a task I loved. Ever since I was a kid, annoying my mom by picking yucca blooms of the neighbor’s plants, I’ve wanted to pick all of the flowers. When I was little, I would make “perfume” out of lilac blossoms by boiling them down in water and adding mint leaves. It eventually rotted and smelled terrible, but for a few sweet hours I felt like I had figured out the secret of being a lady. (I didn’t know then that there are so, so many secrets to being a lady that I will never figure them all out).

It’s probably because I have seen one too many pictures of Ophelia, floating around all romantic and dead and tragic, but I have always wanted to swim in flowers. So tonight, when I was finally done with work, I took all the beheaded flowers and threw them in the bathtub. It was weird, impractical, messy, and absurdly satisfying. When you’re a kid, you think the oddest things are just so cool. Like braces on the pretty girls, or the only boy in your neighborhood who can throw up on command, or even more questionable things, like Pogs or Tamagotchis. I always thought excessively long hair was so, so cool. And flowers. As a result, I had hair down to my butt and annoyed the neighbors.

My hair is a lot shorter now (I can’t sustain long hair) but I still want to be covered in petals.

Portland Pillow Fight Day.

~ Katy Kelleher ~ Leave a comment

I don’t often post about work on here, but I am particularly excited about the success of our first ever Portland Pillow Fight Day! For the past few months, I’ve been working on organizing and promoting the event (along with my awesome coworkers) and it was really satisfying to see it go off so well. I’m still really new to Maine, but I love it here so much—it’s the kind of place where Pillow Fight Day seems natural, a perfect fit for the community. Anyway, I was really happy to be part of it, and super proud of everyone who helped out. I was also REALLY psyched to see myself on camera being normal (and not a sweaty pile of nerves). Watch me talk about Pillow Fight Day at The Portland Press Herald.

Late winter storm superfood salad.

~ Katy Kelleher ~ Leave a comment

IMG_1867My boyfriend has been walking around the house singing “Let It Snow” all day, because here in Portland it’s snowing like nuts. Maine, you drive me crazy. It’s almost spring, and yet here I am, sitting at home when I should be working, all because of the snow day. Just kidding, that’s actually pretty awesome.

Anyway, I decided to use some of the vegetables in my refrigerator to make a winter-inspired superfood salad for lunch. I over-indulged last night at Moxy, a new restaurant down in Portsmouth (pate and fried clams and pork belly, oh my!) and I’m atoning for it today with healthy foods and shoveling snow.

Winter Super Food Super Salad

Ingredients:
– 2 cups raw kale, washed and shredded into bite-sized pieces (stems removed)
– 2 cups chopped sweet potatoes (I like 1/2 inch cubes)
– 1 cup wild rice, cooked

Dressing:
– Whole-grain dijon mustard
– Honey
– Apple cider vinegar
– Olive oil
– Salt & pepper

1. Toss the sweet potatoes with olive oil, garlic salt, and lemon pepper—or whatever spices you like to use when roasting veggies. Put them in an oven at 350 and roast for 30 minutes or until the outsides are beginning to brown, turning once to get an even roast.
2. While the tubers are cooking, massage the kale. In order for kale to be tasty while raw, you have to like, rub it. It’s a very high maintenance vegetable, but it’s also insanely healthy, so just do it. Squeeze the kale roughly while rinsing it in warm water for a few minutes and it should be good to go.
3. Mix your dressing! I know I should be more precise here, but I pretty much just mix it to taste. I use twice as much mustard as honey, about the same amount of oil, and a big splash of vinegar. I like my dressing really tangy, and I think Bragg’s Apple Cider is the best.
4. Toss the kale with the cooked wild rice (cheat and use Trader Joe’s frozen wild rice if you’re lazy) and add the dressing while the rice is still warm. Let sit for a few minutes. The vinegar will help the kale tenderize.
5. Take out your sweet potatoes, drop them on top, and eat. Feel less guilty about consuming roughly your own weight in fried pork trotter patties and other meaty items. Pretend you care about Lent and eating right. Then have some 1 p.m. wine for dessert.

Here’s something I made: celery root soup.

~ Katy Kelleher ~ 1 Comment

IMG_1290Sometimes I do freelance work for the very lovely site Milkshake. This week, I shared a recipe I created with roasted carrots, celeriac, lots of garlic, and a little bit of white wine. It was really, really good! Here’s the recipe.

Also, I’ve been working on my food photography. I think I’m getting better (this looks infinitely more appetizing than the salad I shot a few months ago, trust).

Resolutions.

~ Katy Kelleher ~ Leave a comment

NYE2I have a lot of little resolutions (blog more, floss more, run a 5k, work on more projects I love, stress less, etc) but every year I have the same two big resolutions. Be braver. Be kinder. It’s a lot harder than it sounds.

Oh, and another resolution is to learn more about photography, photoshop, and typography. This is one of my early attempts to combine all three. I took this picture at Sebago Lake, created multiple layers for text in photoshop, blurred the background, and added fonts downloaded from fontsquirrel.com. I know I still have a LOT to learn, but my coworker/friend has agreed to teach me the basics of photoshop, so I have a little guidance. Here’s to the new year!

Two Nice Things.

~ Katy Kelleher ~ Leave a comment

 

1. A few months back, I was having trouble dealing with all the sudden changes in my life. I changed my job, my apartment, got into a new/old relationship, and even got a dog. They were all good changes, but man, it felt like a lot to process. I decided to start keeping a journal of all the positive things that were happening. I’m not really a self help, think positive, visualization board kind of person (not to insult those who are, it’s just not for me) but the daily reminder of how good I have it really helped get me grounded. I think of it now as my gratitude journal. Also, the journal itself is really freaking pretty (it’s from Rifle Paper Co. and you can buy one of your own here).

2. I forget whether I’ve linked to it yet, but since I’m on the subject of mental health, here’s another cool tool: Headspace, a daily guided meditation. They have 10 minute audio tracks that help you start meditating. I’m also normally not a meditation person—my head is full of bees, waspy thoughts that buzz and sting and won’t leave me alone–but Headspace was surprisingly easy to follow and not at all intimidating. And I guess I am a meditation person now, which I think is a very good thing. Maybe I’ll bump it up to a half hour a day. Maybe.

Dealer’s choice.

~ Katy Kelleher ~ Leave a comment

When I was in elementary school, I went through a pretty intense Wiccan period. It started with the book Wise Child by Monica Furlong, which is, to this day still one of my all time favorite novels. I adored the description of the dorans, these people who lived in harmony with nature, gaining power and wisdom from the land. I wanted to be like Juniper, Wise Child’s mentor and guardian. She was kind and brave. She was very powerful, but most importantly, she was a complete aesthete. Rereading it recently, I still wish I was more like Juniper—even though she is a fictional character in a children’s book, she still has a lot to teach me.

As I’ve gotten older, my obsession with fantasy has changed. There’s still a Mists of Avalon-esque hippy factor, but now I’m also really fascinated by the darker side of magic, the occult and the eerie and the ghostly and the strange. In college, I wrote my thesis on ghosts in American literature and I’ve never stopped reading (or writing) about horror movies. And that’s why these amazing Zombie Tarot Cards are right up my (creepy, abandoned) alley.

They’re campy and hilarious and wonderful. Made by Headcase Design and Quirk Books, they would be a super Christmas present for that zombie fiend nephew of yours (or, you know, me).

More here.

Inside Out.

~ Katy Kelleher ~ Leave a comment

I’ve started running outside for the first time in… years. When it comes to working out, I’ve always preferred the gym. I hate running on the road, and trails were always kind of frightening. In college, women were warned not to walk on the nature trails alone because of a horrible rape that occurred nearly two decades ago. Though it didn’t keep me out of the woods, it did keep me from spending too much time alone. And it definitely kept me from walking at dusk.

But having a dog has changed a lot of things. Deja forces me to go outside—she whines and fidgets until I take her for a walk. She also takes away much of my fear. Though not a fierce dog, she’s big enough and bold enough to make me feel a modicum of protection. Plus, nothing physically pushes you like running with a former sled dog.

All this time spent outside has given me a new perspective on the cold, quiet dark. I run either in the early morning, when the air is still, gray and thick with fog, or in the evening, when the trees start to turn purple and the sky above is the color of an old bruise. Instead of being lonely, I’ve started to enjoy the bleak solitude.

But I should explain these photos. These twilight images were taken by artist Thomas Jackson as part of his “Emergent Behavior” series. Fittingly, he describes these hovering sculptures as an “attempt to tap into the fear and fascination” causes by the phenomena of swarming. Though inspired by natural movements, like that of locusts, schools of fish, and flocking birds, Jackson uses manmade objects to create a sense of incongruity. Post-its gather at night and light-sticks form a glowing ball. It’s sinister and beautiful at once… which is kind of like how I feel about the woods.

For more on Jackson’s work, check out his website.

Rise

~ Katy Kelleher ~ Leave a comment

I recently listened to an episode of This American Life about superpowers. One of the three stories in the show was about a man who began asking all his friends and acquaintances a simple question: Would you rather be able to fly, or make yourself invisible? At the end of his segment, he theorized that maybe there is a fundamental difference between people who wish for flight and those who desire invisibility. Maybe some people have more to hide, which makes flying the more noble—more honest—option. Or maybe the people who choose invisibility are more honest. They recognize that creeping, insidious, universal desire to fade slowly away. To sneak off, quietly and without a trace.

This is a very long and roundabout way of introducing the work of Japanese artist Natsumi Hayashi. In her series, “The Girl Who Loves To Levitate,” she glides above the ground, seeming to float effortlessly through the air. Of course, this is pure illusion. Every image takes multiple shots, as she runs back and forth between the camera and the pose, where she must jump into the air at exactly the right time. I imagine it’s a tricky process, but the results are lovely.

In a lot of ways, I always figured myself as the invisibility type, but Natsumi’s pictures make me reconsider. Though I never really thought of it this way before, flying could feel an awful lot like swimming. The freedom of limbs suspended, the ease of motion, the simple fluidity of body in water—if that’s not like flying, I don’t know what is. Swimming has always felt so easy to me. I don’t need to fake nonchalance or push further (I’ll leave that to the Phelps of the world), it just is.

Maybe I would choose flight, after all.

{Via}

I’m Moving!

~ Katy Kelleher ~ 1 Comment

And so it is official: I’m moving to Maine.  It’s been in the works for a few weeks, I just signed a lease (and signed my first rent check) today. While it feels like it all happened with dizzying speed, I’m very excited about the change. I am going to be living outside Portland in a house with a huge yard and a big dog. This weekend I bought a couch from Ikea (it’s blue with beige flowers and very, very pretty) which is my first piece of big, brand new furniture. I’m leaving behind my friends and garden and Somerville and one of the best jobs I’ve ever had—so the change is bittersweet… but mostly sweet.

Starting in September, I’ll be working as the editor of Dispatch Magazine. It’s a really cool local publication, and I’m incredibly excited to be on board. New challenges, new house, new dog, new city. Fresh start (and I’ll keep the nostalgic pining to a minimum).

And I also plan to start blogging here more often. Hopefully, now that I’m moving more to the editorial side, I’ll have more interest in personal writing (when I’m not planting my new garden and playing house, that is).

Above Image: Corey Templeton/Flickr