A couple of weeks ago I had the opportunity to attend the first communal dinner and cooking class at Aran Goyoaga's studio space. I had long anticipated this evening when I signed up for the class last year. But when the day of the actual event came around I woke up with a head cold. Determined to attend despite feeling under the weather I showed up promptly at four, to watch, learn and be immersed in Aran's presence. Aran possesses the unique combination of skill, humility and the ability to engage herself with a broad audience.

The cooking class quickly turned into more of communal dinner when we were broken up into groups to prepare different parts of the five course meal. I was paired up with Shannon from Happiness Is Blog. Although we had never met before, we had already formed an online friendship and this was our first face to face meeting. I can think of no better way to rub elbows with someone new than in the kitchen. The act of collectively preparing a meal and then sitting down to enjoy it is an inherently welcoming environment to foster friendship. While we worked side by side on our salad of bitter greens, lentils, beets and prosciutto we quickly bounced from discussing blogs to husbands, careers, travel and everything in between.

The theme of the dinner was hygge, it is a Danish term which means, "the art of building sanctuary and community, of inviting closeness and paying attention to what makes us feel open hearted and alive”. Hygge is the perfect world to sum up my experience with blogging. Bloggers have worked hard to develop a community in which as we share of ourselves we develop a closeness to each other. This closeness often turns online friendships into real life friendships which make us feel feel both open hearted and alive. I am grateful for the blogging community, for the people who devote their time and talents to the greater good of building this community. From the hand sewn leather menu pouches and hand dyed napkins created by Jenn Elliott Blake to the hand painted menus created by Julia Manchik and the spectacular dinner created by Aran the dinner was an excellent representation of how collectively we are better than our individual talents.

The menu consisted of the following:

Cranberry and ginger beer (non-alcoholic)

Mushrooms and eggs tartine on hazelnut pastry

Salad of bitter greens, beets, lentils, speck and local cheese

PNW melange of fish over roasted cauliflower cream with garlic aioli

Apple and Oregon cheddar scones

Candied-apple île flottante with pistachios and vanilla bean

Coffee and tea

It was so inspiring being able to spend time in Aran's creative space and take note of all the little personal touches she has added. It was also a good reminder of the importance of turning digital images into tangible prints. This light filled space is every photographer's dream space.

On a side note: I am excited to announce my fellow blogger and friend, Lyndsey and I will be hosting an event in Aran's gorgeous studio space on March 20th, mark your calendars! More details to follow in the coming weeks.