How To Tell When It's Spring

As I write this I'm sitting in a quaint cafe, gazing into soft, muted wallpaper while a marble counter shines with macarons and perfect buckwheat madeleines, snacking on an almond croissant and sipping floral tea. The feeling of spring is all around me. 

To me, spring is many things. It's light, air, a freshness after a season that keeps the windows closed and the doors shut. It's new life and rejuvenation- ballsy buds busting through the impenetrable ground, demanding a spot in the sunshine. Tea parties and garden parties and getting things in the garden. Spring is about new life and, more than anything, it's about flowers. 

This season used to get me down. It rains here heavily in the spring, more in the mountainous area where I live than in most of the rest of the Pacific Northwest- an already rainy part of the world- but with that rains comes an all-encompassing lushness. The fertile nook we live in turns into Fern Gully (or, as some of our friends like to say, The Shire), and every drop, every soaking-wet run, every sopping wet pair of shoes and muddy day spent in the garden is worth it.

So a few thoughts, a few signs & a few things to notice, to let you know spring is here.  

Ten Signs of Spring

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Swanky New Site

Hi there,

I'm Shannon and I create and publish Honest magazine, from developing recipes, to photography, to writing. Honest is a project I started when I first launched my career into food and travel photography in the Pacific Northwest where I live and work in a small mountain town at the foot of the cascade mountains.

In the last year, things have been changing. Since 2013, Honest Magazine has been a small quarterly food and lifestyle magazine with a varied and interesting collection of readers from Norway, to Poland, to Brazil. For the last five and a half years I've put all of my focus into the print magazine- finessing ideas, words and photographs. Long have I ached to build a hub to house and share all that I've had the pleasure of learning through the issues. Honest's little black book of world-class restaurants- some highly regarded, some in crumbling brick buildings in the side of a remote mountain. 

The Journal is a wonderful new place to express thoughts and ideas and share the volumes of tips, tricks and tutorials that have been filed away. Having a strict theme for each issue is an excellent exercise in creating freedom and beauty within restraint, but it often means tucking away so many unique and creative ideas that don't fit the mold. The Journal is the place for all of those things to flow freely. 

One of my long term goals has been to share more with the community through workshops. Last June I finally took the plunge for the Sweet & Honest Food Photography and Styling workshop with Sweetgrass Food Co. With food and drinks provided by Sweetgrass, the workshop took place in their beautiful, whitewashed building in Downtown Seattle. Students who work in creative fields, to aspiring bloggers, to hobbyists looking to have fun all came together to learn and explore. The class turned out to be a huge success and with positive feedback I've decided to add more! Pulling out ideas and curriculums I've had tucked away for years, I'm looking forward to brushing the dust off those papers and joining together for more fun and explorations of rustic crafts (woodcrafts, jewelry making, prints), cooking (cooking intuitively, edible flowers, garden to table harvest), gardening (expanded uses for your garden harvest), and foraging (there is no such thing as a weed). 

One of the greatest influencers of perspective is travel. Food. Culture. Recreation. Style. Everywhere you go, everything you see- affects you. The places shared here aren't focused on the new or the most happening- they're focused on the story of the place. What makes it romantic, sensual, vibrant. Streets to stroll and meals to have for certain moods are included. 

A cookbook roundup spread from the "CURE" issue.

Philosophical author Charlie Jones once said, "You will be the same person in five years as you are today except for the places you go, people you meet and the books you read.” There are books in this world that reach deep down to your very core. They are few and far between and worth sharing. Ernest Hemingway, James Jones, J.D. Salinger. Included in the classics are those cookbooks that feed the soul. Julia Child, Marcella Hazan, Yvette Van Bowen and numerous other paper-bound treasures.

And last but not least, perhaps my most favorite soon-to-be added is the Community section. Blogs, Resources, Publications and Groups you can visit, join and turn to for help and inspiration. Because after all, what are we without each other? 

So check back soon for these brimming additions and sign up for the mailing list at the bottom of the page to get updates on blog posts, new issues, workshops and join the Honest community. 

Cheers,

Shannon