Is there a better time to celebrate the things that people do to cultivate joy than on that person's birthday? I think not.

Today is this is boss’s birthday!

“I still think food expresses my love and defines my life.”April Shine — “I still think food expresses my love and defines my life.”
*April Shine*

She is smart.

She is kind.

She is pretty and pretty important.

Interestingly enough, April has not always been April Shine of Shines Kitchen. The fun is in her story because Shines Kitchen is a far departure from the plan.

April has been inspiring me, endlessly, for the past couple of years that I've known her. She is one of those women who causes you to whisper to yourself, “how does she do it all?"

I was challenged to to channel a bit of my inner-April last November.

On November 24th, 2017, I was arriving fresh off a plane from Taiwan.

I had just filled the previous week with experimental food choices, rigorous stair climbs, a giant expansion to every history lesson I thought I knew, and a deepened desire to endlessly commune with citizens from every part of this beautiful world.

It was incredible.

I was also helplessly jet-lagged and, wow, what a struggle it was to show up to our session the next day.

But April and I had set a date to take some photographs for Shines Kitchen that Saturday— which just so happened to be Small Business Saturday!— and I was not missing out on the chance to see this lady in action and give her gorgeous shots to showing off her talents so off to work we went! (Did it help that she and her hubs also have ridiculously cute pups. My weakness? It's fiiine.)