Getting settled in a New Place

The view from the balcony at my new apartment.

I have relocated to Merrillville, Indiana, just outside of Chicago!

I started a new full-time job as a designer for Lee Enterprises at their newspaper design hub located in the building that houses The Times of Munster, a Lee publication. After 218 weekly-visual-food-columns and more than 300 recipes documented, I felt that it was time to return to a full-time journalism gig. I wasn't planning on it, in fact, I had thought that my days in a newsroom were over. But, as the details of the job emerged, so did my interest. After much thought, I decided to give it a shot.

I hope to use my food talents at my new place of employment and I'm sure that will happen in some way, shape or form once I've built good relationships with editors and find the right opportunities to showcase my skills. As I get up to speed with the new job I find myself pretty excited about having to get my hands dirty assembling news and information on a daily basis again.

My food creations have re-ignited my passion for news design and information graphics. To me, the last four years was like getting a masters or phd in visual storytelling and I'm looking forward to see how I can apply some of what I have learned to my new job.

I'm happy to finally be settling into my new place and finding other things to do besides stuff related to moving in.

I've been cooking a lot in my new kitchen and I'm in the process of turning my dinning room into a food photography studio like the one at my old place – only this one will be much nicer and better organized. (Not to mention the new studio has running water! No more filling a tub with dirty dishes and hauling them down a flight of steps to be cleaned. Wahooo!)

Also, I have a gorgeous balcony that faces North (the view from which is pictured above, and will be the perfect place for using natural sunlight to illuminate my styled food shots and hopefully add another dimension to my photography in general.

Thought it was time for an update, look for more recipes here in the very near future.

Eat well, cook often ...