French Pastry Workshop

A weekend of French pastry workshop by pastry chef Molly Wilkinson at Kate Hill‘s 18th century Gascony farm house, Kitchen at Camont, in the South West of France complete with chickens where we learned how to make all kinds of treats from French Macarons to Lemon Tarts! Workshops are on going in both savory and sweet classes so please check out both Molly and Kate’s websites for upcoming dates. 

Some of Kate Hill’s favorite books on French food:

Pierre Koffman Memories of Gascony // Auberge of the Flowering Hearth // The Taste of France by Robert Freson // A Culinary Journey in Gascony: Recipes and Stories from my French Canal Boat // Cassoulet, A French Obsession // Honey from a Weed // When French Women Cook 

August Still Life

I was in a bit of a creative block today.

I have so many things I want to photograph and create that at times I find it overwhelming. On top of that, when I do create work that I feel really satisfied with I have this moment of pride and joy and then the terror of oh God, what am I going to do next? To take a photograph is one aspect of photography, to make a photograph is another. Making a photograph, a process I have been sharing in more and more detail on my Instagram stories, requires a harmony of light, technical knowledge, talent and what feels like a billion…painful…gut wrenching decisions. Sometimes when I’m starting out my day setting up the camera I can feel paralyzed with the daunting amount of decisions that are ahead. Internal monolog: “What’s the theme today, what do I want to communicate, what prop do I want to use, what do I have lying around, what is missing, what does it need, where should the shadows fall, which lens, which aperture, should their be one petal…two… five… ten?… maybe turned a hair to the left, no get rid of them all. God, what I did yesterday was so much better. Did I just peak?…” For example.

A few times the past few months I’ve given in and continued my series on the history of Versailles in an attempt to bury my head in a pillow. But most days I just take a deep breathe and try to quiet my mind down to one thing. Just start with one thing. That’s my best advice for anyone stuck with where to begin, with what to photograph. I have found that once I get my camera set up, choose that one thing (today I started with plums) the wheels start turning and one thing leads to another, as it does in life, and voila! You are on the move making the decisions that were so crippling moments before. The one thing doesn’t have to be a prop either, or subject matter, you can start with just say a lens. I’m going to shoot with my macro lens. You make that first decision and then that leads to the next and so on. Other times I have just started with a spot of beautiful light raking across the floor, well the floor was dirty so I covered it, then I found something I had lying around that could play in the light and I was off to the races.

This still life started with plums and ended with a concept around an Autumn harvest, a sort of chaotic cornucopia which is a pretty accurate representation of where my mind was today. I raided my fruit bowls, tore apart my bouquets and foraged for more figs from the garden. Then, in one of the ways photography can truly become magical, a bee flew in the windows and landed right in my still life and I was once again, satisfied. 

Dear Ophelia

Moving to France I had to face a lot of fears. The fear of leaving New York, fear of failing in France, fear of discovering the limits of my potential, fear of becoming irrelevant, fear of being homesick. For those of you who follow along with my creative adventures in France, you know with the making of this Cinemagraph I had to face a fear of water to get the shot. The funny thing about photography, and any art form, is that when you get an idea in your head you become obsessed with it until you create it. I didn’t care that I knew I would going to have mini freak-outs to do this, my imagination was certain snakes and toothy creatures would devour me in a heartbeat…. BUT creating the thing was more important. What it means to me, what it represents, what it communicates about my human experience is more valuable than being afraid. Which is exactly why I got on the plane through a stream of tears and came to France. 

This cinemagraph is a bit of a French baptism, a creative cleansing. I am no longer who I was before France. I have let myself wash away all my preconceived notions, and now, no matter where I end up on this earth, I will always be able to remember this version of me fearlessly floating weightless in the water that summer evening in the South of France where I met and drowned so many of those fears.

Where the currents will take me I’m not sure of, but the view looking up is lovely and the creatures out to get me are now just friends…

If you’d like to leave a comment, please join the conversation on Instagram here.

CHANEL N°5 L’EAU

When I think of CHANEL, naturally I think of France and, more specifically, I think of Paris with her white walls and perfectly designed boulevards. But CHANEL is more than one place. It’s more than a fashion house, it’s a lifestyle. If you could live CHANEL, what kind of woman would you be?

You’d probably be the kind of woman who understands heritage, craftsmanship, quality, and artistry. You are confident and current, timeless and unforgettable, you possess a certain ‘je ne sais quoi’… You definitely possess a bottle of CHANEL N° 5 (and so did your mother, and possibly her mother). Perfume, like memories, can thread together our lives, taking us to places like a mystical time traveling fairy. I know, one day, the smell of fresh garden roses will remind my children and my grandchildren of me long after I’m gone. I hope those memories bring back love.

As all things CHANEL does, its perfume is created to perfection, with the highest quality ingredients, and is, of course, made in France. There is no place better in the world to manufacture perfume than on the beautiful French Riviera in Grasse, the cradle of French Perfumery since the 17th century. For over 170 years the fields you see depicted in this story have been owned by the same family, who have passed down knowledge from generation to generation; grandfathers working side by side with sons and grandsons. You can feel the heritage and deep rooted love walking the lanes of endless roses. For the past 30 years CHANEL has had a sole partnership with this family estate. It is here where they recently brought us to experience the 5th interpretation of CHANEL N° 5 called L’EAU, or water in French. According to CHANEL,N°5 L’EAU is not a cologne. Nor is it a diluted version of the original fragrance for, at CHANEL, each variation is a genuine olfactory creation. N°5 L’EAU is the N°5 of today. A composition under the banner of modernity, with freshness as its leitmotif. L’EAU, for water is essential. L’EAU, in praise of simplicity.”

When I arrived to the property I was struck with the overwhelming scent of roses. It was truly the most intoxicating smell I’ve ever experienced. Pure, intense, lovely; it completely wrapped around you, like being covered in nature’s kisses. Nothing will ever compare to the scent of those fields. I walked for hours among the rows of pink roses at different stages in their delicately blooming life span, the perfectly French light dancing warm and golden set against a blue sky. It was ideal bliss. Off in the distance, the chateau sits, proud and historic, like a fairytale from my childhood storybooks. I was, to put it simply, in heaven… even the photos can’t do it justice this time.

The new fragrance is wonderful. It’s timeless like the original N° 5 but modernized perfectly. Less musky, more vibrant. Less suited, more feminine. It’s all I wore while on my journey through Provence, and what I wear at home to travel back to this place… my heaven on earth.

Something that my friend, artist, and archaeologist Jean Pierre Soalhat said to me on my recent visit to Provence, “Our future is inside of our past.”  I believe this quote truly represents the heritage of Chanel’s brand, their perfumes, and certainly the driving force behind behind L’EAU, modernity guided by tradition. The memories that a perfect scent creates, reflect moments in our lives, the lives of our loved ones, memories that lead into our future and last forever.

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The May Bloom: Rose de Mai

40-50 tons of roses are produced in a season, handpicked by farmers. The blooms begin the last week of April and throughout the month of May.  At first light, every morning at 7am the buds will begin to bloom, two days after they have opened up their beautiful petals, they must be picked. The lifespan of one rose bush is 15-20 years.

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“And then, like a second wind, you can already hear the rustle of flowers. It sounds like the whisper of trembling tulle. Rose melds with oxygenated jasmine and a new fraction of ylang ylang, more modern than ever. You are plunged into the heart of the bouquet with a delectable dizziness that gives the impression of contact with each petal, its velvety touch, its fleshiness, its delicate lace, its changing shape.” -The house of CHANELCHANEL_No_5_LEAU_05 Continue reading “CHANEL N°5 L’EAU”

Spring Time

I keep hearing spring is just around the corner, but with the weather in NYC lately it’s been harder and harder to believe… so I decided to make my own springtime by visiting the archives and remembering the gorgeousness of warmer times in the city.

I can’t wait to bike along here, stopping for a sunset drink here. I can’t wait to see the lineup for this and I’m really looking forward to THIS…. We always hit this up multiple times a season and I hope to be inspired here, here, and here and this should be a lot of fun!

Now if only it were spring.

Continue reading “Spring Time”

Where have you been and when are you coming back?

A month ago my creative partner Kevin Burg and I were married in New York City. Then, just for fun, we took a honeymoon trip around the world as captured through instagram (@_Frommetoyou). So we put story telling on pause here to take some time to just live with each other. 

Now what?

We are redesigning the blog and launch (hopefully) in one week. I have so many picture stories burning holes in my back pocket I can’t wait to share with you all. New cinemagraphs, fashion editorals, a personal journey and a whole new world.

Thanks for all the emails and well wishes and I’ll see you very soon,

xo

Jamie

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Old Hollywood

Tonight I will be covering the red carpet of the Met Gala as the world arrives to the exhibition of Schiaparelli and Prada: Impossible Conversations.

For the first time, the Costume Institute Gala at the Met will be live streaming the red carpet so you can watch along as fashion’s elite, celebrities, models and artists ascend their way up to this magnificent exhibition.

Please join along with @voguemagazine, #MetGala, and @_FromMeToYou this evening!

PS: For a taste of what’s to come, check out this!

Above: Caroline in Katie Ermilio 

I SPY DIY

My beautiful friend Jenni Radosevich is a DIY guru (remember her amazing monthly DIY column for InStyle Magazine?) and she has just published a genius book for the fashionista meets craft maven. I was so thrilled when Jenni invited me to shoot some of the beauty images and cover for her book, I grew up doing DIY projects with my Grandma in Texas so it was a lot of fun seeing how home projects have come along the past 20 years!

Below are some outtakes from the shoot and if you have some time to kill this summer, why not make something?!

Continue reading “I SPY DIY”