Have a Lovely Weekend!

My dears, I'm so sorry I've been M.I.A. Sometimes life gets in the way and I've been overwhelmed recently.. Anyway, I hope you're all doing well. Happy Friday! Wishing you a great weekend!

Lots of love. xx

Cozy Tray Table

My lovelies, Happy Friday! So I've always enjoyed eating dinner in the living room. Of course, Sunday dinners around the table were a family tradition and a staple of my childhood - but it's all about how you shift to what works for you now. You see, I tend to live in and inhabit my space in a more flexible way.

How cozy this folding tray table is!

Hope you have a wonderful weekend! xx 

(Photo via IKEA .)

Last Days of Summer

Okay, summertime is coming to a close. Am I the only one who...

Be Someone's Hero for the Day

A utility worker giving mouth-to-mouth to a co-worker after he contacted a high voltage wire, in 1967.

This emotional photo reminds me of  the Dalai Lama's inspirational quote: "Our prime purpose in this life is to help others. And if you can't help them, at least don't hurt them." Being a volunteer myself, my heart can't help but be touched by people living in poverty.
Treat all people with love and compassion; even though the people have different skin colors, they are all still human beings.
There are a lot of people who will donate money but those who donate themselves are the real savors.

*Take just a few minutes, and do a kindness for another person.

*Put a smile on someone's face.

* Help a fellow human being today.

*Be someone's hero for the day; it will make the world a better place, one little step at a time.

Remember, every tiny bit of love for the society helps raise the quality of life for everyone!

Hope you have a lovely weekend. xx

(Historical photo via.)

Project: Ballet Dancer + A Note on Protecting Your Blogger Blog

A few weeks ago, I had the opportunity to photograph beautiful portraits of this lovely ballerina...

Life Lately

It's finally Friday! These past few weeks have been just so crazy. I mean, crazy busy, crazy full, crazy hectic...
So I've decided to really focus on optimizing my life (my mind, my body, and my time). I suppose I'm always optimizing in some way. I'm going to write a post about the powerful ways that have helped me improve my life soon.

In the meantime, here are some of my images which are stored on my computer begging me to share them.

Hope you have a relaxing weekend! xx

This article is especially interesting and informative The five aspects of optimizing life.

Gelato + Have a Beautiful Weekend

With the weather warming up, there's almost nothing better than a nice big bowl of ice cream, especially gelato to help cool you down. Yum!

Gelato, that Italian dessert staple, is ice cream made in the Italian style. Gelato is simply the Italian word for ice cream, but in English, it has come to mean specifically Italian or Italian-style ice cream. (Wikipedia)

I was introduced to gelato on a vacation trip to Italy (ages ago) and I've loved it ever since!

Here's how to make a delicious homemade gelato (Basic Gelato Recipe).

Hope you have a wonderful weekend! xx

These gelato recipes look so scrumptious!

Why Gelato.

What's the difference between ice cream and gelato.

10 Good Things About Winter

Today it is cold and rainy out.This day just begs for an inspiring wintery photo to be viewed along with a nice cup of tea. Winter is upon us. And while it is not typically my most beloved season, there are plenty of good things that make the season bearable - even enjoyable for me. Ah, the beauty of the wintery snow-filled landscape. There's a silence to a winter day that you will never experience in summer.

10 Good Things About Winter

 1. Hot Chocolate.

 2. Staying in with a good book.

 3. Soup.

 4. Big cozy sweaters.

 5. Fuzzy socks.

 6. Scarves and mittens.

 7. Snuggling in front of a fire.

 8. The smell of other people's fireplaces when you're walking through your neighborhood.

  9. Trees covered in snow.

10. Pajama days.

The more I look at this picture, the more I realize that winter isn't that bad! ;)

Hope you have a great weekend! xx

(Top photo by Tara Milk Tea. Bottom photo via)

Have a Wonderful Weekend

Life lately...
Capturing ordinary, everyday life in public spaces or life as its happens...

A car windshield makes a great surface for reflection photography. Trees reflected in my car's windshield. (Captured with my iphone.)

I always make coffee before I leave home, but I like to have a cup in the middle of the day, too.

Pumpkin Spice Latte and chocolate donuts only at Starbucks.

Taking in the beauty of the autumn scenery.

I can definitely feel fall is in the air. The autumn leaves are gorgeous right now, and I am encouraging everyone I know to spend a little extra time outside before the trees are bare and those amazing autumn leaves are gone.

Having a nice glass of wine after a hard day.
Sometimes it can be relaxing as long as you don't drink too much;)

Enjoying the last of summer's tomato bounty.

Have a Great Weekend!

Hello out there! It's been  a very busy couple of weeks, but I do take time to enjoy some wonderful moments along the way.
Like this...

5 Things I am Planning to Do this Weekend

We  all have times in our lives when we just have too much stuff going on.
Last week was one of the most stressful weeks I've had to deal with in awhile. My schedule was insanely busy - not to mention the lack of sleep. So I am really grateful for the weekend to refuel...

Have a Great Weekend

Happy Friday! I do love springtime. If you're anything like me this time of year makes you want to reach for your camera and capture some great photos. I'm heading to the beach again. I was feeling very stressed and overwhelmed this week, so I'm looking forward to taking a breather.

Hope you have a wonderful weekend! xx

(Photo via Optical Illusions and Pictures.)

Family-friendly Meal Ideas

Well hello there! Life is too short to be spent sweating in the kitchen. And if you're anything like me you don't want to spend hours in the kitchen preparing food. Don't get me wrong. I don't hate cooking, but...

Weekend Flowers

Stop to smell the...

Easy Chocolate Cake

This cake is quick and easy to make and fun to eat. It's simple, yet utterly delicious. It is probably...

A Little Time-Off

I'm taking a little break from blogging for a while. Just for fun, though, I'll be posting some old blog posts that you may not have seen, so please still visit regularly. Thank you so much. I will continue to visit your blogs whenever possible...

Wish you all a beautiful Friday and a fabulous weekend ahead! Enjoy life...no matter how hard it may seem... xx

Love and Gratitude

If I had a flower for every time I thought of you...I could walk through my garden forever.
By Alfred Tennyson

I'd like to dedicate this post to all my fellow bloggers, followers and readers. I did not realize how fantastic the blogging community is when I first started out. I'm immensely grateful for the continued support and engagement of a loyal and wonderful readership. I haven't made useful acquaintances, I have made friends.

Just wanted to say thank you so much, truly, for reading Cut and Dry. I have enjoyed getting to know you through this blog so much! Thanks for understanding that I could never write a long enough post to say how much you all mean to me.

With love and gratitude.

Hope you have a great weekend, stay warm! xx

Google Image Search + Have a Great Weekend!

Hello, everybody! I hope you're having a nice week. I am sorry for having been a bit MIA the last week. I have had a really bad cold, but I'm feeling noticeably better today, thank goodness. 

Lately, I've been focusing on my images and I've found that photo optimization is one of the most important things of blog rank on search engines.

Have you ever wondered why is it that when I do a Google image search my photographs never show up?

So today I thought I'd share some information that will hopefully increase your blog traffic. Optimizing the images used in your blog's can make a huge difference to a blog being found in the search engines.

We all know that search engines do not see images. So in order to help Google bots "see" your photo, you need to add an "alt" tag to each picture. Alt tag plays a wonderful role because search engine cannot read the picture but it can read the text you read as the "alt" tag.

TUTORIAL: How to add an "alt" tag to images:

First, upload your image. Let's use this picture above as an example...

Hello, Gorgeous!

So I thought...yeah, a nice bouquet of roses would brighten up our cold and snowy days. Just to make you
smile.

Hope your pre-Christmas season is filled with wonderful days! Have a lovely weekend and do stay warm! xx

P.S. We heart Homemade Ornaments for Christmas

Linking to: Today's Flowers , From The Farm