L-R: Little Sister (Fuji), Big Sister (Nikon)

In Missouri, I did a significant amount of freelance writing and photography work for other blogs, and also for local and state-wide print publications. While my eye was strong enough to be hired as a second shooter on professional magazine shoots, I quickly learned that my camera was not.

I found that while my Fuji technically had the capability to the basics I needed it to, it was too slow to shoot RAW images quickly, and that its low-light capabilities (it didn’t have the ability to add external flash) were rotten. I realized then that if I wanted to continue to improve my photography, I would need to invest in better equipment — beginning with a better camera.

Smalltowngirl's Growing Family

The old Fuji has sentimental value to me: I bought the Fuji in 2006 on Camera Street in Hong Kong while participating in a year-long Asian fellowship program, and it was my first big purchase after finishing graduate school. I’ll hold onto it for the sentiment and as a backup camera, but the Nikon is my new baby. I can’t wait to start taking photo walks with it, but I admit – the new camera makes me miss my old favorite subject matters; St. Louis and rural Missouri.

Sometimes being a blogger is a lonely experience. After all, a lot of us blog from the privacy of our homes. That is why I jumped on the opportunity to attend the Show Me the Blog conference in St. Louis in 2010.

Photo by Kim Wolterman

Blogging conferences might not be new around the United States, but there had not been one in St. Louis before. So I went to the meeting with no expectations, and came away from the day-long event much richer for the experience.

While at first blush some of the panel discussions did not resonate with me (I am not a food blogger, for example), the tips and experiences of all of the speakers were helpful no matter what you personally blog about.

A crowd favorite was the presentation by Melissa Gilliam (@milligfunk). Melissa was discussing blogging for a non-profit, but honestly she had on the most awesome boots! Everyone was talking about them (well, maybe not the guys in the audience), and the boots became the focus of many camera lenses as well.

In fact, for a while the boots were trending on Twitter in St. Louis! I think Melissa was concerned that her boots were more memorable than her presentation, but we reassured her that her content was just as fun and interesting as her footwear.

MilliGFunk's Boots, photo by Kim Wolterman

I began to follow Melissa and many of the other attendees on Twitter, and also Melissa’s A Small Town Girl’s Guide blog. Through the blog I have traveled with her throughout rural Missouri, run along side her as she trained for races, and viewed Colorado through her eyes.

And her blog is where I also learned that our small town Missouri gal was going to become a Rocky Mountain high girl. While sad that she was leaving the Show Me state, I celebrated her new job opportunity and her engagement to the man she loves.

Fast forward to 2011 and the second Show Me the Blog gathering, this time a two day event covering social media on day one and blogging on day two. Melissa was not able to attend due to the distance, but she was never far from our thoughts or conversation.

In fact at the pre-conference mixer on Thursday night, the trivia question was “Who wore the super cute boots at Show Me the Blog in 2010?” We had to tweet the answer and a winner was randomly selected. I am now the proud owner of a new MP3 player, and I will think of Melissa and The Funk’s Boots every time I use it.

Blogging and social media enable us to meet people we would never come into contact with in everyday life. How much our lives are broadened and enriched through this experience!

Kim Wolterman, author of Who’s Been Sleeping in My Bed(room)? Researching a St. Louis County, Missouri Home; Keys to Unlocking House History; and From Buckeye to G.I. LeRoy C. Kubler The War Years 1942-1945.

Please visit Kim’s blog at http://writeformation.blogspot.com.

You can also read her write-up about Show Me The Blog 2011 here.

Grace in Small Things

It’s Monday morning at 8:30 a.m., and I’ve been baking cookies for hours now – beginning last night, and resuming my baking agenda at 7 this morning.

Know what I’m baking? Christmas cookies.

Sound random? It is.

Why am I doing it? Because my company is going to be doing a cookie photo shoot for a client.

What does this have to do with Grace in Small Things (GiST)? Everything.

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1.  Cookies = Normalcy

This weekend was one of my first weekends of normalcy since moving to Colorado. There were no boxes to be unpacked and no moving-related shopping trips or errands on our to-do list. We rested, we explored a small Colorado town, we took a scenic drive, and we crashed a small town Colorado Oktoberfest celebration.

It was fantastic.

And at the end of the weekend, Nick – donning his Army hoodie – and I stood around the island in our kitchen, baking cookies together. There were 1,001 moments of grace in my weekend, and the grand finale were those moments of grace and togetherness shared in the kitchen late last night.

It was while baking cookies that I realized I needed to make a promise to myself…

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2. No More Fear

There’ll come a time, you’ll see, with no more tears
And love will not break your hear, but release your fears
Get over your hill and see what you find there
With grace in your heart and flowers in your hair
-Song lyrics from Mumford & Sons’ “After the Storm”

Man, I like that song. Do you know it? It’s really nice. It makes my soul sigh relief.

I’ve been lost in fear and anxiety over the last few weeks. I could give you the laundry list of explanations, but at the end of the day, what matters is that I’ve not known myself.

That confident, adventurous Small Town Girl was proverbially curled up in a ball in the closet floor cuddling an old teddy bear while this shell of an anxious, scared, edgy, high-strung woman I barely recognized walked around using Small Town Girl’s name.

I’m thankful this week for someone who loves and supports me. I don’t know how to make the fears go away, but I’m going to start by removing “I’m afraid of…”, “I’m scared that…” and other equivalent phrases from my vocabulary this week. It can’t hurt, right?

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 3. No More Worry

Have you ever noticed that worry is contagious? Over the last few weeks of transition in my world, I’ve noticed that my stress and worry is wearing off onto people I care very much about.

I don’t know if you’re a religious person. If you’re not, please stick with me here. I have to remind myself of this Bible verse sometimes:

Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.
-Matthew 6:34

Who would have thought that it would be my fiance, who was not raised in a religious home, who would have inspired me – over Christmas cookies in October, and without realizing it – to do something I’ve been taught since I was a child to do — hand over my worry.

As with my vow to remove “I’m afraid of…” and like phrases from my language this week, I’m also making myself a promise to remove, “I’m worried that…” and “I’m worried about…” from my speak.

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I usually try to list 5 things in my GiST posts, but this week I’m perfectly content with 3. I’m not perfect, but I’m going to try to be graceful enough this week to focus on those small things that bring me joy instead of allowing the big things to overwhelm me, wring my mind with worry, and weigh me down with fear.

Seriously.

I’m not trying to hate on romance. I envy girls who day dream about white chiffon, bridal bouquets and multi-tiered wedding cakes. I wish I were the kind of woman who couldn’t wait to plan my big day.

Instead, I find myself self-identifying as the tomboy who’s spending her engagement contemplating paths of least resistance, daydreaming about civil ceremonies, trying to convince herself that she won’t look ridiculous in a wedding gown, and withdrawing into herself each time someone asks if she and her fiance have set a wedding date yet. I love the idea of marrying my best friend, but I simply haven’t found myself feeling energized yet about planning the event itself.

I’ve scoured the Internet for non-traditional wedding blogs and ideas in hopes that I’ll find other women whose wedding ideas I can relate to or who might inspire me to love wedding planning. I’ve started a Pinterest board to capture wedding ideas that I think could provide the nugget of creativity from which my enthusiasm about wedding planning will be born.

So far, though I’m coming up near-empty. All I’ve got so far is that Garden of the Gods is nice, and that it could be a good ceremony location. That’s something, right?

Are there any other women out there who struggled to get excited about planning their wedding? Do you love the idea of planning a wedding, and maybe you could share some of your perspective with me?

I’d love your comments. We’ve been engaged for a month already, and I feel like I should be more inspired than I am about the wedding. Please, help a Small Town Girl out, and leave a comment!

As many times as I’ve moved in my adult life (Colorado Springs is city #8, and Colorado is state #6…I think), you’d think I’d be an old pro at making new friends and finding my niche in a new community. I wish that were the case!

I’ve become a little bit desensitized to a concrete sense of “home” as a result of my many moves, but that doesn’t mean it’s any easier to move somewhere new, where I don’t know many people, and where I don’t know how my skills, my personality, or my life experiences fit in. That’s why, as excited as I am about attending my first Community Dinner, I’m also a little bit nervous.

Despite my anxieties about fixing a recipe for 15 (I usually cook for 1 or for 2), and despite not having decided yet what I’m going to cook… Despite the fact that this event is designed to highlight local foods, and I don’t even know what foods are native to Colorado besides game meats like Elk and Bison… Despite only knowing two women at this big dinner… and despite being scared I’ll spend the whole evening sitting awkwardly by myself… I’m going to give it a shot.

Wish me luck on my recipe, and on meeting new people. Hopefully an even like this one will draw like-minded people who are just as hungry (nerdy pun fully intended) as I am to build a sense of community around them here in Colorado Springs. After going for a short run this morning, I’m going to visit Mountain Mama Natural Foods in search of cooking inspiration in the form of a locally-grown key ingredient.

When’s the last time you tried something new, went somewhere alone, or put yourself far outside of an existing comfort zone? How did it work our for you when you did? Maybe your comments will inspire me as I continue to explore my own sense of “home” and community here in Colorado Springs.

Even though I’ve moved to Colorado, I’ve remained subscribed to the Missouri Arts Council email marketing list. I like hearing about creative, artistic and cultural events in my home state, and MAC is good about providing regular updates.

When I saw this email from them today about the StoryLine Short Story Competition, the writer in me got excited. I’m no longer a Missouri resident, so I can’t enter the competition. If you’re a writer and a Missouri resident though, I encourage you to submit a 40-line story to the Missouri Arts Council StoryLine Short Story Competition.

From the Missouri Arts Council:

Can you bring a creative tale to life through writing? In exactly 40 lines? If you are up to the challenge enter the Missouri Arts Council StoryLine short story competition.

Submit an original fiction or non-fiction story exactly 40 lines, 6.5 inches wide @ 11pt Times. The story does not have to revolve around the arts or MAC, it just needs to be interesting and original to be considered. Stories will be judged based on originality and formatting needs. The chosen story will be published in the MAC FY11 annual report, as a line by page story from the beginning to the end of the report, and may also be presented on the MAC web site. The winning writer will also receive $100. If you are a Missouri resident send us your unique and engaging story by October 5th.

Send entries to:
Alexis Nugent
Missouri Arts Council
815 Olive Street, Suite 16
St. Louis, MO 63101
Toll free: 866-407-4752
alexis.nugent@ded.mo.gov

Small Town Girl on the Pikes Peak Greenway Trail, photo by MilliGFunk

This weekend, I took my mountain bike out for the first time since moving to Colorado Springs, Colorado two weeks ago.

Having just purchased clipless pedals on Saturday, I wanted an easy trail to start with. Still compensating for my foot injury, I was also looking for a long enough trail to get my heart rate up. My aerobic conditioning has fallen significantly over the last several months of injury recovery, and I’m determined to find endurance sports other than running that will keep me in shape as the weather cools off.

Pikes Peak Greenway, photo by MilliGFunk

In Small Town Missouri, there were enough trails to keep me busy, but not so many that I ever struggled to choose a trail. In Colorado Springs, there are so many trails that I wasn’t sure where to start. There are urban trails, mountain trails, multi-surface trails, multi-purpose trails, single track trails, 12′-wide asphalt trails, and trails marked on streets for road bikers. I’m curious to know how many total miles of biking trails exist in Colorado Springs – it seems like there are hundreds of miles of them here.

Pikes Peak Greenway, photo by MilliGFunk

The Pikes Peak Greenway trail runs 16 miles, North and South, more or less along Intertate 25. I started riding at a southern trail head, making it roughly 7.5 miles before turning to head south again. I totaled 13.77 miles, and saw relative success with my new shoes and pedals. There was no pain in my injured foot, and I only fell once trying to get used to the way the shoes clip into and out of the pedals.

MilliGFunk on the Pikes Peak Greenway

I’m excited to get out on my bike more often over the next couple of months before Colorado’s weather turns cooler. What did you do outside this weekend? BBQs? Bike rides? Picnics? Trips to the zoo or botanic gardens? Leave a comment!

As a work at home Mom, I love to cook healthy meals for my family, but I also love convenience. This is why I absolutely LOVE shopping at the Dardenne Prairie Produce Market.

The market sits on the corner of Highway N, right outside of my lovely little community of Winghaven. I frequent this place quite a bit, in fact, I walk in and they know me!

Dardenne Prairie Produce Market, photo by Elisabeth Cutshall

The two owners, Shannon Yates and Jean-Paul Doyen, are helpful and approachable. Every time I am there, they are quick to show every customer how to pick out the perfect fruit or veggie, and they’ll even carry it to the customer’s car if it’s too heavy.

Besides all of their wonderful produce, Shannon and Jean-Paul also carry some fantastic local products (coffee, bread, spices, jams…). Both Shannon and Jean-Paul pride themselves on the quality of their products.

Dardenne Prairie Pineapple, photo by Elisabeth Cutshall

On more than one occasion I have heard them tell customers (myself included) that if we are not happy with our purchase, they would be more than happy to refund our money. They’re also more than happy to peel and core your pineapple, free of charge!

On the Dardenne Prairie Produce Market Facebook page, they update what new produce has arrived and also what is on special for the week. Since I am there so much, and since I’m such a social media dork, I always make sure to check in and tease them in some way or another…like requesting bloody mary’s or mimosas!

Dardenne Prairie Produce Market, photo by Elisabeth Cutshall

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The Dardenne Praire Produce Market is located at 7397 Hwy N in O’Fallon, Missouri. You can find Dardenne Prairie Produce Market on Facebook, and you can reach them by phone at 636-240-3990. The stand’s hours are Monday – Friday from 9:00 a.m. – 6:00 p.m., Saturday from 9:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. and Sunday from 9:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m.

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Elisabeth Kuebel Cutshall is a work at home mom, freelace makeup artist & fashionista, & former Fashion Editor.  For more by Elisabeth, visit her blog, follow her on twitter, and like her Facebook Business Page; Makeup By Elisabeth. You can also subscribe to her website here!