Bookworm

My husband takes my daughter to the library a few times a week when my son naps so I have at least a good 2 to 3 hours to myself. My daughter always comes home and shows me all the books she gets and movies. This morning when he was at the gym I was picking up our room and saw this on the floor by our bed. Dude, how many books can you read at a time?! ? He is always reading but I never really paid attention to how much! Granted most are baseball or fiction books. Don't let the tattoos fool you, he is a bonafide N-E-R-D! And I heart him. Big muscles, big brain, but especially his big heart =)

Tomkat Studio Cupcake toppers!

One of my dearest friends makes the cutest party decor and invitations. Luckily I get to photograph many of these fun party items at various birthday parties and showers we go to. Recently Taryn of Serendipity Videography had a ice cream party for her little girl and Kim made these adorable cupcake toppers! For more party planning ideas, decor, and invitations visit here!

I wear my sunglasses at night......

Here are some more shots I took a few weekends ago while on a road trip with the hubs. It wasn't a romantic getaway to a tropical island or anything, but probably a trip I will always remember. We drove through Seattle to Phoenix to transport a vehicle for someone. I was on the trucker diet. Not a fan of the trucker diet. The coffee was good but I ate enough convience store food. One can only have so much trailmix, jerky, and cracker jack! We ate at random restaurants and unfortunately I didn't get to experience any Waffle houses which I was hoping to do. I love greasy breakfast, especially in a random city!

My husband is the best at finding his way. People never believe him when he tells them he doesn't use a GPS. He is old skool and reads a map. And I am always confident (well, almost always) that he will get us to where we need to go. He thinks some technology instead of advancing people, are making people lazier and dumber. He has driven to so many places by using a map, he now remembers how to get to there by heart and memory. If he relied on a GPS he would just listen and never really pay attention to where he was going. It's kind of like your cell phone. Do you know any of your friends' phone numbers by heart??? I am so guilty of this............I think I am getting dumber.......

We drove a little over 1500 miles.......stayed in small hotels off the highway..... and talked for hours and hours about so many wonderful things. We got up at like 4am every morning to catch the worm! We didn't get to see much, which was fine with me, just what we saw while passing through. I took this picture somewhere in Oregan I think. It is rare to see mountains like that with snow on it and trees like that in Phoenix unless you go up north, which I rarely do. So I took a picture. I took it through the windshield, hence the dirty spots and the bug splats! I didn't want to remove them when I edited it cause I wanted to remember I was in the car when I took it! The drive was Amazing!! So beautiful. And NOT a hundred degrees outside. And it was so weird I had my sunglasses on until like 8pm. It didn't get dark until like 9:30!!

My Husband is a huge basefall fan. One of these days he wants to travel the country and go to a game at each of the major fields. So when we were in Seattle and Portland he made me snap pictures of Safeco and Qwest fields. They aren't great cause I was in the car but he was happy! One of these days he will be able to take his trip and get better pictures!

The view driving into downtown Seattle, reminded me of San Fransico cause of the hills................

Reading his directions and map! He thinks he looks mad in this picture! I think he was just concentrating. But seriously look at his arm?? Looks funny, like Popeye!

It was such a fun trip and we decided we are going to start saving for a motorhome once we have some money!! Ha! Boy do I sound old! We loved driving together and thought how much fun it would be to take the kids..........or better yet our grandchildren one day!

Roller Derby!

So yesterday the family got together and celebrated my niece's 7th birthday at the local roller skating rink. It was so much fun and a workout! I could totally feel myself tightening my whole body just so I wouldn't fall. It reminded me of cheer practice and when I would be high up in the sky standing like a flamingo perched on someone's scrawny teenage arms. They would scream up at me from the ground to squeeze every muscle in my body, pretend you have a quarter between your cheeks and you can't drop it! Really people?? How about I just let it rain money?? HeHe!

Anyway my skating ability came back quickly and I was rollin' around that rink pretty smooth to the beats of Lady Gaga and the Black Eyed Peas. Then this guy shows up. You can call him Mr. Michelle Kwan but on roller skates instead of ice skates. He was crazy awesome! Maybe a little over the top for a Sunday afternoon full of kids but nonetheless, pretty cool to watch!! It was hard for me to take pictures because the lighting in there wasn't the best but here are some of him. He was doin' those crazy ice skating spins.............




He did some fancy dancing footwork. I think he did some double axles too! Jumpin' and spinning in the air! Then he does this thing and looks like a pretzel and gets himself fully parallel with the ground as he takes the rink's turn..........

Then my daughter turns in her game tickets for a prize and chooses this rubber stretchy hand. While she is playing with it and whips it around it goes really long and gets caught in the wheels of a young teen skating by......Oye! Poor kid! He didn't get hurt but I think he was more embarassed cause he fell and I didn't make it any better and kept asking him if he was okay. I think he just wanted to get the heck out of the eating area where everyone was looking at him. But then he couldn't get the rubber thing out of his wheels and so my husband had to help him. My daughter felt really bad and this is what my daughter does when she think she is in trouble or hurts someone.........

But it ended up a great and entertaining family Sunday afternoon!

Ewwww Scary!

My mother-n-law took this photo the other week. I didn't know there were owls in Arizona. When my husband and I were on our honeymoon cruise we had a balcony room. While my husband was out there pretending he was the ship captain, an owl flew and perched on the railing. We were in the middle of the ocean too! Weird. About freaked him out......... Tina come checkout my firstmate! He had been trying to get me to be his firstmate the whole trip. I was glad when he found one. HaHa.

Then recently I saw one on another blog. It was a baby one and it was sooooo cute with fluffy white feathers. So then she sent me this and I just get chills! It was in her backyard tree. My husband thinks it looks so cool and WISE. Look at his eyes!! Gives me the creeps! To me it just looks scary like it is thinking..............you better run..........cause I am gonna go crazy on you, shrieking and hootin' in about T-100 seconds...........

Feeling like an Arse: The Sequel

So now that I have Google Analytics installed and working. I was thinking about all the things it tracks and stuff. It tells you what sites are referring you and you can go to the site. Sometimes that person will have wrote a post on you or linked you somehow. Then it dawned on me. Back when I first started this whole journey I wrote this post. And he commented! And I thought I was so cool because I got David Jay to comment on my blog! At the time I didn't know how he knew I wrote about him. I was thinking.........Does he read my blog?? Does someone he knows read my blog and told him??? Are the big ballers of the photography world wanting to know what I am up to ??? Hehehe............ Yeah right! Hahaha! Now do I feel stupid! He probably has Google Analytics! So I didn't link him this time. I don't want him coming here and laughing at me! I will assure you the Feeling like an Arse installments might quickly become a monthly post since my Friday Firsts seemed to fizzle.


I have a real doozy of a feeling like an arse when I went here the other weekend. Not quite ready to talk about it............

So I finally did it.

I installed Google Analytics. I know I said I didn't want to know. But I do. And I didn't mess up my blog this time. It is tracking info as we speak. The first day I was scared. I was scared to check the numbers. I was scared it would say 1 vistor. 1 vistor in Arizona. That, 1, vistor being ME. But it didn't say 1. So I was relieved :). I either 1) am a decent photographer that people like seeing my pictures 2) I have scary stalkers 3) I am an internet reality hot mess like Speidi or something and people just read for entertainment. Good Lord I hope not!

But it is kinda cool cause it breaks things all down and lets you know who is new and who isn't. Where people are visiting from. How many times. So I am just getting the hang of all this. I am just learning how the "internet" really works. I have heard of SEO but still not sure what it means. I know it is search engine something. I started putting {blah blah photographer} next to my posts because all the other photographers I follow do it, so I did. Yeah didn't know those are key words for those search engines. So I googled my company name and it came up first which is good. I even googled my name and my site came first too. So I guess those {blah blah} is working. Then when I was on that first Google page I scrolled down a little and something caught my eye. There was a site that said CraziesForum. Love. Live. Photography. Did someone start a forum about me and my photography and name it CrazyForum???? Hahaha. The fact that I even thought that should warrant someone starting a forum about me and calling it Crazy Forum. Then I looked at it and it said LOVE. LIVE not LIVE. LOVE. Whew! But it was funny! But I must admit I do have a little nutty in my blood but hopefully not crazy! My sisters' and I all have it. We call it the Le Girl Syndrome, everyone else (ie: husbands) would probably call it just stubborn :).

But don't all artists have a little something missing???? It is so weird being an "artist". You are your own worse critic, nitpicking yourself to death, feeling insecure about your work and talent. But yet then you also have to have that hard skin and inner motivation to keep perfecting your craft and learning more when you feel like you just suck. Some days you are feelin' it and ready to rock it with ideas coming out of your eyeballs and the next you are scrambling for inspiration. That constant battle within yourself is enough to make you crazy don't you think?

Speaking of artists , here is my budding lil one. Her cousin recently just went to Disneyland and she was so excited looking through his pictures and wanted to go too. So I told her to start saving her dollars. This is her Disneyland bucket she
drew and colored it by herself to put her money in.................so I can see at 4 years old she definately has got the artistic gene, lets pray she doesn't get the Le Girl Syndrome!

Testing Again :)

So like I said, I am NOT a computer person and I am playing around today. So Testing again! I accidentally made another account so it wasn't showing stats yada yada, so you might want to resubscribe.............Let me try again..........

Testing.........

I am not a computer or marketing person at all and I find myself having to redo things a lot!! I tried to install a subscription by email link per request from one of my friends. I did it but I don't think it is working??? If it shows up and you got the email update let me know! I am going to be posting little things to see if they show up in my email as an update.........

Happy Monday!

Those of you who are in the wedding industry or just like to eat cake, have you ever watched Cake Boss??? I caught an episode last week by accident and I loved it! So amazing to see how the cake comes together. It is a reality show about a bakery in the the east coast. Those guys are true artists!!

The Sweetest Gift

Literally. A fellow photographer who I met last month at a GTG gave me the sweetest, juiciest, most fantastic little peaches off her tree!! I love LOVE peaches and have been waiting for Costco to get some in. I read this other blog sometimes and I think she has a peach obsession too and last year she would post the most delioucous sounding recipes. And yesterday at the salon I was talking to one of my clients and she told me about this that I want to totally try out. One thing my husband and I have been talking about for like a year is growing a garden. We just haven't got around to doing it. But I love fresh fruits and veggies. Another photographer friend talks about his homegrown potatoes all the time on his facebook updates and they sound soooo yummy!

So anyway the other day I was on her blog and she had taken a picture of the moon and the peaches. I left her a comment totally joking, saying something like Yum! Is that your tree? You should bring me some! So last night I see her again, and from across the room I wave. I did notice she is carrying a brown little sack. She stopped and was talking to some other people. When I finally make my way to her I said again totally joking Are those my peaches? I never even thought it really was her tree because it looked like a wild field not a yard in the picture. Nor did I truly think there were really peaches in her bag, let alone for me! And when she said Yes! These are for you I literally squealed and gave her 15 million hugs! Gifts like this are the truly the best EVER!! Ones that are such a simple gesture and totally unexpected. I know I hugged you so much last night, but Thank You so much Brenda!!! You are so sweet I am going to nickname you Peaches! My daughter and I enjoyed them on the patio this morning along with the rain. Here are some pics of a few of the juicy little fellas before they had a party in my belly........................

One thing about homegrown organic stuff is they are TINY!!! But sooooooo flavorful. These guys are in one of those small snack pack baggies.............

See itty bitty! So cute! And so yummy! Who ever said bigger was better???

Happy Monday!

The other day after my husband put my son down for his nap he went back to check on him. Apparently he was not sleeping and instead shoving little socks under his door! Such a lil' stinker!

Happy Monday! Have a great week!

Eeeebie Jeebies!

So we went to San Diego last weekend for my friends wedding. On the way along I-5 we stopped at a viewpoint and got ambushed by squirrels!! I still get the eeebie jeebies looking at the pics! And I am a bad mom I let my kids touch them......and had no hand sanitizer! But luckily I had some baby shampoo and water.........

Kinda cheesy 80's

So this picture kinda makes me giggle a little......I was practicing some flash stuff and trying to focus on the sunset and get the pretty colors in it. Eighties slow rock album was not quite the look I was going for! Doesn't it look like it should be on a Saturday Night Live sketch with one of Stuart Smalley's inspirational quotes scrolling over it ??



"I'm good enough, I'm smart enough, and dog-gone it, people like me." Inspirational quotes"
By Al Franken, Stuart Smalley in Saturday Night Live, catchphrase

I am sad

I was at Costco today picking up some items for a bridal shower I am hosting and I overheard the cash attendant say they are closing the Home Stores. I love Costco and everything about it. I remember when I was little and it was called Price Club and they used to rattle of the numbers and punch them in instead of scanning. I would play "supermarket" and rattle numbers off like them.....5..6...9..2...1.. I used to want to get locked at Costco overnight like on the 80's movie Mannequin. Cause it had beds and food and tvs. As an adult and business owner I buy everything there. So when the HOME store opened I bought a ton of stuff there. So I am sad to hear the HOME store is closing in July :( But at least we still have the warehouse.

Friday Firsts: Jenny and first PUG

So a lot of photographers do little installments and such on their blogs. I think it helps to have a revolving "category" each week or month or whatever to help you get ideas on what to blog about for your readers. Many do 101 goals in 1001 days. One does Kisses and Disses. Mine is going to be Friday Firsts. First anything! Pictures, places, experiences! I thought this was good since there will be many firsts for me since I am new in the industry. Also I love to try new things all the time too! I actually got my "installment" idea from Jenny Bishop.

Jenny was the first real photographer I met once I decided this as a business.(Now I know like 5! woohoo!) I met her at the first PUG meeting I went to. She was so nice to me at that meeting. I get a little intimidated in large groups and don't initiate conversation. But once you get me started I kinda don't shut up! But she was super sweet and very easy to talk to. She had just gone to a convention and was going to another one in Vegas, WPPI. I had no idea what that was or what it stood for. The whole PUG meeting they were talking about it and I was lost. Luckily Jenny filled me in. And I felt so dumb because they were talking about these cool new Animoto slideshows that came out ........and how they would be great for seniors. And then they kept talking about seniors. And how it is an amazing market niche. About how they had found these cute little photobooks that seniors would just love .......and be great for seniors. Who would have thought senior citizens would be a great market niche! Until they put up a slideshow of a "senior" session did I realize "senior" meant HIGH SCHOOL! .........Jeesh. Always feeling like an arse.

So I thank you Jenny for being so nice. Jenny does Friday Favorites and Sydney Sundays (Sydney is her cute lil' pup). So since she inspired my Friday Firsts, it is only natural that she be the first post! I've only met her twice now, both at meetings so I haven't had a chance to get to know her. But I follow her and her work on her blog. I am meeting so many who are amazing photographers and fabulous people! One thing I have learned in this business is other photographers are not your competition. However, I do not expect them to spill the magic beans either. Many are very willing to help me, but I definately have to do my share and homework too, especially since I am new. And other photographers can help me grow my business too. I had to turn down a destination wedding a few months ago because I wasn't available. Luckily I had just met Jenny, since I didn't know any other photographers, and knew she did amazing work and was able to give my client her website. My client was happy to have a referral and hopefully Jenny could book it! So now my client had 2 great photographers to refer to their friends and Jenny will have another person on her list to help her if she ever gets in a bind. See, Love always makes the world go round!.............and see how I don't shut up?



Happy Friday!

Now THIS is wrong.

I can only say this because I am a hairstylist.........

Ostrich hairdos do NOT belong on people.

Was that mean? Great, now I got to go back to church.............

How can something so wrong be so GOOD?!?!

This is my husband..........And No I am not talking about him.......... And Yes, I know, I married a New Kid on the Block.

We went to the Chandler Ostrich Festival for the first time on Saturday and he had to try this.............





This my friends is a fried TWINKIE! And was it so delish! My husband will seriously eat anything and made me have a bite. But this is so wrong. Twinkies have a shelf life of like 100 years and then to go and throw them in a deep fryer?!?! I need to go to church............

Hello Gorgeous, I'm Genius

I opened my inbox today to find an email from David Jay who is a big baller in the industry and is the founder of Showit Inc. the site that I got my slideshow program from. I am sure it is spam and because I purchased one of his products, but the first line was "Hey Gorgeous! Happy Saturday!......" with his handsome picture next to it. Then proceeded to list all the new things coming up at davidjay.com. All I have to say is, Okay what a marketing genius! Not only did I feel all sassy cause he called me gorgeous and silently wondering "did he really visit my website or blog? How does he know what I look like?". KNOWING very well he probably didn't, but MAYBE............ I then proceeded to click on every link there was on the email! I did exactly what he wanted. All he had to do was call me gorgeous. Genius. Just Genius. Now you guys can call me Sucker.

FREE! Courtesy of The Tomkat Studio and Live.Love. Photography

In this recession who doesn't love FREE! One of my dearest friends and talented mamacita has just opened her ETSY shop. Lots of cute stuff! She is the genius who created my logo for me! She is having a giveaway for 15 custom made birthday invitations or birth announcements. As an added bonus I included a "mini-shoot" with moi! Me..... for those who don't speak French :) You will have your choice of 5 edited images to be able to use in the photo invitation or birth annoucement! Only catch is you must live in the Valley to get the shoot, but you can live anywhere to get the invitations/announcements!! So hurry and visit her blog and comment away! You can leave comments on my blog if you like, but to be considered for the drawing you have to leave a comment on HER blog! The winner will be drawn on March 21st! Good Luck!