She Got Married, Too: Justine

I love reading about other couples. I love getting a sneak peak into their lives and seeing how they make their situation work. Some would say that I'm nosy. Which I'm fine with. Because enough people were open enough to take me up on this guest poster series and answer with honesty, heart, and humor. Enjoy :)

Names: Justine & Nate Johnson
Ages: 23 and 26 (I'm the youngin!)
What do YOU do? I'm a wedding and portrait photographer! I just went full-time in August of 2010, and I photographed Emma's wedding in October of 2009! (see a few pictures from Emma's wedding here :) I do all kinds -- weddings, civil unions & commitment ceremonies; engagements; senior portraits, family portraits, maternity & newborn sessions, head shots, fashion, boudoir! You can find me here!

What does HE/SHE do? My husband is currently a freelance musician/composer. He's also in a band, The Baltic Sea -- you can find them  here!  He mostly hangs around here and composes music for his friend's short films, records music of his own, and helps me out a lot with my business. He's awesome. :)

We live in: Scarborough, Maine (For those of you who aren't familiar, it's about 10 minutes south of Portland!)

Do you blog? (Where can we find you?) About what? I do! I mostly blog about my photography business -- new gear I've acquired, weddings I've photographed, other various photo shoots I've done, etc!!

Justine's Blog

How long have you been married? A year and a half! Holy crap. 

What holds the two of you together? I'd say our undying nerdiness (we are HUGE Trekkies). And our two wonderful kitties -- they'd be orphans without us!

What do you argue about the most? Money, for sure. We've often said that if we had zero debt that we'd never argue. Plus Nate can sometimes be almost like that annoying younger brother... finding out what pushes your buttons and then pushing them. Often.

Do you have kids? If not, are you planning on them anytime soon? No kids, yet -- we're definitely "in talks" but we're really enjoying being ALONE right now. ;)

No kids? Dogs? Cats? They count. Names? Two maows! On paper, their names are Speckles and Hobbes -- Speckles is the tortoiseshell girl and Hobbes is the brown stripey boy. But we actually call them Maowbeams and The Bengal. He's not ACTUALLY a Bengal cat but he looks like one.

Who cooks the most? Currently, me! I pick out 3-4 recipes from my INSANELY HUGE AND OUT OF CONTROL recipe binder -- all recipes that I want to try -- and then we make 'em. Though I'd say we cook together most of the time.  :)

Who cleans the most? Him, for sure. I am glued to the computer 90% of the day for my job so I am very thankful that he's such a clean freak otherwise the apartment would be a wreck 24 hours a day.

Where do you see yourselves in five years? I see myself snapping photos on a daily basis like I am now! I hopefully see us in a house, somewhere around here or in Portland. I see Nate working full-time (for money!) doing something music-related, though I have no idea what that might be (and I don't think he does, either). And I might see a baby in that future........ ;)

If you could give an engaged couple any advice (assuming they asked for it), what would it be? I'd tell them to not listen to anyone's advice.  ;) Plan your wedding EXACTLY the way you want it. If you want the whole traditional shindig -- big fancy cake, bouquet toss, white dress, church -- go for it, with gusto. If you don't? Scratch it. All of it. If there's ANYTHING about what you envision when you think of a wedding that makes you uncomfortable or stressed, don't do it. Toss all of your preconceived notions and build your wedding from the ground up. As much as people might make you believe otherwise, that day is for YOU and your fiance and no one else. Do what makes you happy.

Justine is great. All photography included in this post is her doing, and if you like what you see, and you want to get in on it, be sure to check her out at www.justinejohnsonphotography.com. Unfortunately, she lives a few hours away from me, but if she didn't, I'd probably try and get her to hang out. Because as you can tell from the post, she's a good egg.

If you're interested in being a guest poster, get in touch!

The Need to Knead

Remember this post ?

Well. I don't mean to be a show off, but I've learned a little bit since then.

With a little help from watching Laura while I was sick (I love...love...Laura), a bit of Bernard Clayton, and some good old fashioned trial and error, I am now an intermediate kneader of dough.

Yes.

I searched google (probably not long enough) for a how-to-knead pictorial, and could not find one. So, I decided to make one. 

Bread making is exciting and wonderful, but it can leave you with a bit of a defeated spirit if your loaves aren't just as you hoped they would be. Kneading is one the most common reasons why homemade breads don't turn out just right, and it's a very easy problem to fix. So let's go.

1. Start with ball of dough. Table height is best for kneading:

(Make sure you have an apron on that's as fantastic as mine.)

2. Drive heel of your palm into the dough, with determination and gusto! ('Gusto' is a great word. I hope I'm using it correctly because I didn't bother to look it up. I'm stealing it from this super lady. The same super lady that just happens to be gracing us with a guest post tomorrow :) )

(This picture fails to demonstrate 'gusto'.)

3.Turn your dough a quarter turn to the right, and fold top portion of dough into the center:

(Big boned hands work best for the job of kneading.)

4.Repeat Step 2:

Continue steps 1-4 until the dough feels like a clammy (not sweaty) hand. Usually, this means about 10 to 15 minutes of kneading. It is quite the upper body workout, so ditch the fancy KitchenAid and opt to let your guns do the dirty work. It's quite rewarding and you'll feel rather accomplished when all is said and done.

I hope this helps if you've been experiencing less than stellar loaves. There are plenty of other reasons why your bread may not be rising to it's potential- but that's for another post on another day.

XO

thank you, brett, for the lovely photography on this post <3