I’ve had one of those weeks where personal blogging just didn’t happen. A few professional blog posts made it to print though, and you should to go look at them, because they make me especially proud.

Here and Here

There was a problem with my work professionally – the photos coming out of my camera were good but not measuring up to the photos in my head – and I didn’t know how to fix it until it came to me in a dream that the camera settings could be different. When I woke up, I reconfigured my camera and immediately noticed a huge difference. Huge to me, anyway; no one else probably notices, but I’m so excited! How cool is it that my brain solved a problem for me in my sleep?

These photos are from several weeks ago (it takes a while for a shoot to make it to the blog), and I think I’ve gotten even better since I started using my new technique.

I love making art!

Phil let me crash with him during my on-a-whim trip to a few weeks ago; he picked this song from Nickle Creek member Sara Watkins for this week’s Monday Music, and this is why:

“I’d had a hellish summer when I went to see Nickle Creek in Central Park. I sent the band a message after and said it was the first time I really smiled since everything happened. She responded with a thoughtful thank you note. It means a lot to me.”

I love it – her voice is like a dream.

Swamplandia! is one of the best pieces of fiction I’ve ever read. I loved it so much, I broke the cardinal rule of New York City subway travel and butted into a conversation upon overhearing two people talking about it (thankfully they agreed with me on all its merits and we gushed about it until my stop at 14th street.) I loved it so much that I would stop reading mid-chapter, clutch my Kindle to my chest, and sigh.

I love it so much I don’t actually want to talk about it, because I can’t do it justice. You should just go read it, and then email me. We will sigh together, and you can then join me in feeling massively unaccomplished; Karen Russell published it at 29.

Last week when I was in LA I hopped into the studio with one of my favorite podcasts, The Because Show which was RIDICULOUSLY EXCITING as I spend most of the time I’m listening to them in my headphones wishing that I could pipe in.

We talked about Life Lists, music, and loosing my religion; listen here. (A word to the faint of heart, there is NORMAL swearing, and both sex and orgasms are acknowledged somewhere in there, too.)

Thanks Susan, Jerilyn and Amy for having me! I’ll see you guys in New York soon, ok? We’ll get crack pie at Momofuku.

I am honored and excited to announce that I am going to be a Community Leader in Photography at this year’s BlissDom conference! It’s in Nashville, 23-25 Februray.

Are you going? Come hug me, ok? I’m going to need one several.

Um, yeah. You can totally have a dollar. You are cute.

Laura overhears a mother telling her little girl she can’t have a cookie because of her weight, and does something brave. I was on Twitter when this happened, and her reaction gave me goosebumps. I am so glad she made a full blog post about it.

“We all have our things. And we’re all missing things. And we should all be easier on ourselves and each other.”

Full story here

I’m toying with the idea of a memoir eventually, just for myself. Rather than scratch little memories in notebooks that will get lost, they’re going here.

When I was a freshman in college I needed a special dress for something. I was going to go to the mall to look when my mother stopped me.

“You should go to Syms instead,” she said. “They have better prices.”

“Ugh. I hate shopping at Syms. It’s crowded and messy, and the communal changing room freaks me out.”

(If you don’t know, Syms was department warehouse store where they got last-season retail branded clothes and sold them at large discounts. Every day was new inventory and the longer something sat, the lower its price was. The whole store was two overwhelming floors, each the size of a city block.)

“I think you a fool, Amber. You’re wasting money.”

“No.” I said, feeling a confidence that surprised me, “I don’t think it’s foolish. I think the shopping experience at the mall is worth the money.”

I still wondered if she was right – when your mother tells you you are something, you tend to believe it at least partially, even if it’s false – but I was pretty sure I knew what I was talking about. And I did. To this day I don’t shop in large, poorly organized stores looking for a bargain. It’s unnecessarily taxing on my soul and not worth the dollars saved.

This was the first time I consciously remember “knowing thyself.”

I danced to this in my jammies with Tino in the crook of my arm, pressed against my cheek. He is a wonderful, tiny dance partner.

Via The Because Show, because they’re cool.

Valdobbiadene. Good luck pronouncing it.

Over the summer I helped throw an event and was tasked with picking a decent bottle of sparkling wine in the $15 range. I headed to my favorite wine shop where they quickly selected this as the best bottle for the money, declaring it better than a lot of bottles twice the price. They were right, and I’ve been buying it ever since, even though neither I, nor anyone I’ve spoken to, can say its name.

If you’re used to celebrating with champagne, try a good prosecco like this one. It’s lighter and is generally less alcoholic, it’s not too sweet or too dry, and it tastes like a celebration. Pairs well with vanilla cupcakes and excellent friends.

At $13 a bottle, I’ve declared it the Blatt’s “house bubbly for special occasions”, and we served it at midnight on New Years Eve. Have you tried prosecco?

Related: can you open a bottle of sparkling wine, or does the cork popping freak you out? I can do it, albeit quite nervously, but I have a lot of friends that simply cannot and pass the bottle off to me. If you’re not a really big resolution maker, “learn to open a bottle of prosecco” should be your 2012 task. (I stand behind any resolution that helps you party more.)

Once you can do that, try sabering it open with a big kitchen knife, Helen Jane style.

Happy weekend!