Thursday, January 29, 2009

Like the facelift???

Speaking of faces...mine is happy!  I'm still working through some kinks with the banner being pixelated but other than that, I'm very happy with how everything's looking...now I can hardly wait to get some other faces on here other than mine...I do have something really cool coming up.  Here's a hint:  super dirty alleys and a beautiful ballerina...with a splash of FUNK!  Until then...here's my happy face...and super squinty eyes :)

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Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Thanks Ann!

so because we are changin' some stuff around here...i needed some pics of Dave and I...since he's apart of my business as my second shooter...SOOOO...we asked my amazing friend Ann to take some pictures of us.  she is obsessed with photography now too...i'm such an influence...we had fun and she was like a sponge wanting to take in any piece of advice.  you did good Ann!!!  here's one of my favorites...so excited about the new stuff coming!!!!

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Monday, January 26, 2009

Birthdays & Books

There has been a little birthday confusion as I kind of took over the facebook profile Dave created awhile ago.  He never got on so naturally I wanted to check it out.  Anyhoo, I got some very sweet birthday messages yesterday that rightfully belonged to my hubby.  Thanks to all who took the time to bless us on Dave's birthday.  It was kind of a weird day to be honest...but I did give him lots of reminders that he was born and tried to make it somewhat special.  Between church, his frustrating statistics homework and me working on a project almost all day...it was like we didn't see each other much.  We gotta do something fun today...

So...the book.  Fast Track Photographer by Dane Sanders.  It was lent to me by John Mayer who also has some mad camera skills BTW.  This book was and is eye opening and liberating!  I encourage anyone who is remotely thinking about pursuing a career in this industry to read it.  He really puts an emphasis on branding yourself.  Before, when Jasmine* would mention how important branding was, I was like, "Cool...I'm down with that."  Then I kind of just stared into space not knowing how to brand myself.  Dane explained it more clearly for me in his book and I know there are many other workshops and forums I could gain valuable information from on the fine tuning of my brand....seriously ya'll just read it.  It's awesome!  

Friday, January 23, 2009

Speaking of monkeys...

I found these little baby bananas at the store.  Anything that is remotely miniature is automatically awesome to me.  So, I HAD to buy them.  It was funny how the normal sized banana looked like a "mamma" to me and the kids.  Mamma Banana.  Here's some funny Mamma B images:

Mamma "Hen Banana"

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Mamma "Dog Banana" (nursing the babies)

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Now these next images might be disturbing...as I was crazy enough to create any kind of attachment to bananas...my son then enjoyed a baby banana...I swear I'm not a sicko...he's just too cute not to post:

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Wednesday, January 21, 2009

because you need a laugh :)

i don't know if ya'll have seen this yet...it makes me laugh every time :)

note: make sure your speakers are on...the more times you replay it,  the funnier it gets,  thus increasing the volume of your laugh...just ask my husband.


Monday, January 19, 2009

Puppy Love...

pI was working in my office and went off for another cup of coffee in the kitchen when I about stumbled over these two...now Sam wasn't very fond of the ankle biter at first.  Probably because she was only biting HIS ankles...but now I think he's warming up to Miss Roxy:

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This one's goin' in my office:

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Saturday, January 17, 2009

I can't believe he's 5 !!!

It seems like not too long ago I was staring at this chubby little face...listening to the rubber-squeaking sound as slobbery gums munched  away at the helpless balloon animal:

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Now my little punk is 5 years old!!!  He will be in school this year.  Wow.  Though I have impatiently waited for the day to come when I would celebrate my kid going off to school (totally selfish in thinking that I would be happier with one less kids needing me for everything), the reality is getting closer and a small hole is forming in my heart.  I might as well accept that I will not cope very well when my buddy goes to off to school.  He eventually won't need me to tie his shoes...but my hope is that he will still want my hugs and kisses when he can do everything else by himself.

He is so excited about his birthday and this is the year that we all will spend his birthday together with our little family.  No big party.  No crazy kids running 'round.  Just us four, telling Ashton about the day he was born and how thankful we are to have him in our lives.  

Happy Birthday Ash!  I love you so stinkin' much!!!  Love, your Mommy

Monday, January 12, 2009

She took the words right out of my mouth...

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This is what I want to do...only I wish I could get away with it like this cutie can. I am so overwhelmed I want to ball my fists up and just scream...then I will get back to reality...which is that I really can get through this crunch in my life right now. I will make it through this computer crises.

So here's my story...we purchased a Mac because they are supposed to be indestructible...but unfortunately we purchased a mac with a faulty hard drive that inevitably was going to die. A hard drive with cancer if you will. So for the past year our computer has been getting slower and slower with my husband blaming me for having "too many pictures" on the computer. Um..hello! Movies and I Tunes take up just as much space Mr. Music Man.  

I'm gonna trim the fat on this one and just say, my original hard drive died December 27th, 2008 - ON MY ANNIVERSARY! The Apple Geniuses from Apple Care told us that all we could, do based on the error message that came back from disc utility, was to erase everything and start over. Yeah...I was like...WHAT!?!?!

Of course this was NOT an option for me because my whole business is on this thing. I know your asking, "Didn't you have everything backed up?" Well, I DID have an external hard drive that I bought and was not compatible with my mac. I took it back right before the holidays and the store didn't have anymore that would be compatible. With the busyness of the holidays I never got another, completely INTENDING to get an external hard drive right after the bustle of Christmas. Thinking, "Ooooh...I'll get one on SALE!" How funny that it crashed two days after Christmas.  

Anyway, my options were to pay a couple grand to Drive Savers, reshoot everybody, or try out my local Apple Care Technician. We went with the third and THANK GOD he was able to get all my files from the dead hard drive to a shiny new hard drive that Apple gave us. I guess the guys at Home Technologies said they had never seen anything like this situation and they only had one shot to get my files. They had to be in a clean room that was basically a freezer...I guess the hard drive was overheating too. If it overheated and shut off, then that was it. That was the only chance they got. They also had to buy a $1,000 software to get all my files transferred.  They were cheaper than Drive Savers too.

I still LOVE my mac...I'm not going back to the other side...but I just learned the lesson that alot of folks haven't yet. BACK UP BACK UP BACK UP!!! Please do it. I know it's a pain in the butt and it takes more time...but I can't tell you how many times I puked thinking I had lost everything.

So there's my adventure that happened during the holidays. I hope you will take my word and back up everything...right now...stop reading and back up your images...yes you! But seriously...I would never want that to happen to anyone. Especially if they are photographers with businesses. So, more fun and merrier images up ahead...I promise :)

Saturday, January 10, 2009

She's alive!!!

After lots of prayer, patience and money, I finally have my computer back and all my files were retrieved!!!  I am WAY behind on orders and galleries so please bear with me as I try to get some photos on here from Christmas.  

I didn't take a single shot in Canada...that's right...it was my vacation remember?  My sis took some fun point and shoot pictures though so maybe she'll be nice to me and send me some :)  

In the meantime, I would love it if everyone could take a little time and mosey on over to MeRa Koh's blog and vote for the Inspirational Objects Contest...woohoo!  My awesome friend Yvonne was chosen as one of the finalists for her ruby red slippers image.  I loved this image from the first time she posted it on her blog...the flare is so yummy!  Show her some love and vote.  

Thanks to everyone for your prayers during my computer's breakdown...I really needed peace because I about had a breakdown myself...hahaha.  Lesson learned..back up, then back up again...then back up one more time and keep those back ups at a different premise.  I will write more on what happened a little later...until then, have a great weekend!!!