That Takes the Cake

A while back, Maria and I set off on a huge undertaking- The Union Street Wedding Ring, which I'll write more about later when the website is finally finished (one of the many items on our ever-growing to-do list . . . why doesn't that thing ever get shorter?!) But in short, we've been taking images of all the different wedding-related merchants on our street to create the website, and I just got to thinking I should start posting all of the ones I've done on my blog. So here's the first- I did these for That Takes the Cake the other day. I was first introduced to these cupcakes by Courtney, and am now a regular connoisseur. Along with my frequent trips to CocoaBella (hmmm- second post in a row about all the desserts I eat) Maria and I often treat ourselves to a little mid-afternoon Strawberry Cupcake. So so good. Period. Anyway, Keisha is the new owner and she's absolutely adorable and laughs in every other sentence- it's quite endearing! Her and her husband Brian were just interviewed by Malou so their spotlight is scheduled to air on Jan 4th I think! So exciting, I mean it's no "feature in Modern Dog", so to speak, :) but still great for them!

Sorry Maria

So a few days ago our landlords, Angela and Maria, who, by the way, are as wonderful as they are pretty, brought Maria and I a box of CocoaBella chocolates as a little holiday gift. . . . . I love chocolates, and I really love CocoaBella chocolates. The store is right down the block from our studio and I go there at least once a week because I often deserve a little treat for working so hard. But anyway, here's the problem- the gift was actually for both Maria and I but Maria has been working from home most days so I've been here at the studio alone with this box of chocolates. I know I should have waited for you Maria, but I didn't know when you'd be back so I went ahead and started in on them. But I was very considerate to only eat half of everything.



So I'm sorry that they aren't as pretty as they were a few days ago, and if it's too gross for you to eat the remaining halves that my teeth and saliva have touched, no worries- I understand I will have to finish them, and I apologize.

Susan and Muggsy

When Susan came in for her planning session she tried to warn me that Muggsy was a really nervous dog; she told me how he is most comfortable hiding behind her knees, and acts as her second shadow most of the time. Well, she couldn't have emphasized that enough! Muggsy was by far the most shy/nervous dog I have ever photographed! I was kinda concerned there for a while that I wouldn't get enough of him, but in the end, I think what we got was exactly him!















I'm not sure how a dog who's person has personalized their car license plate in his honor could lack confidence, but that was Muggsy :)

remembering last year

So after I made that post last week about cutting down our Christmas Tree, I remembered that I never posted any of my tree-cutting stuff from last year, which I probably should have just let pass, but I kept thinking of this silly video from the day so I had to go dig it out. So a little out of order but here's tree-chopping trip 2007.



. . . . I remembered it being funnier :)

Anyway, here we were last year- a little better than the pose I managed to pull off this year.

Little Mira

I've been meaning to post these ones of Mira for a while now. They were taken when she was just two weeks old back in August, and her life is drastically different now. For starters, she's 4 months older now :) I was with her at my mom's on Thanksgiving and she looks nothing like this! And secondly, she now has a big sister! The day after Thanksgiving Brad left for Vietnam to pick up their almost 8-month old daughter Sydney who they've been waiting on for what seems like ages. But as of Saturday Brad and Sydney are back at home safe and sound, if a bit exhausted, and they are officially a family of 4- Crazy how things turn out sometimes!! Anyway, I can't wait to meet her next week! And in the meantime, here's Mira:

From Thanksgiving weekend

Man, I can't believe Thanksgiving was already 2 weeks ago! I'm going a little bit crazy trying to get everything done before Christmas- all my work, that is; I haven't even begun to think about preparations for the actual Holiday. . . . I have this goal to one day be in a place where I can just take the month of December off- the whole month!! I love the month more than any other month, yet it always ends up being my busiest with work and deadlines and all, so I don't ever get to do all of the fun December activities, so yeah- someday . . .
Anyway, the point here is that Thanksgiving happened two weeks ago and here are some pictures from the weekend. It was such a fabulous weekend. I had two photo shoots, but other than that I pretty much took the whole weekend off- I was away from the studio for 4 days- which I think is the longest time since getting it! We had Wayne visiting, which just makes me miss him more now, but it was so fun to have him here for 4 days.

So Thanksgiving Day was at my mom's. This is a self-portrait of my profile on the drive over there in my cute fall outfit- those yellow leggings are my new favorite accessory I own.
I didn't really take any pictures of Thanksgiving other than of the twins. They showed up in the cutest little matching cowboy hats and kept wanting to dance for the camera; it was A-dorable!
Brad took a video of the dance, which was apparently much more interesting for them than my blurry stills.
This one was taken right before Tyler got in trouble for doing this very thing :)
So yeah, that was Thanksgiving. I wanted to write a list in my journal that night of the first 100 things I could think of that I was thankful for, but my gratitude failed me at 29 when I fell asleep:) But here's what I came up with before the pen fell out of my hand:
Shawn (always always always Shawn)
My VitaMix
Red Robin night with the Grovers
Tatanka chasing his tail
songs that make people cry every time they hear them
people who write poetry, even though I rarely get it
fabulous California
the word "gremlin"
first loves
lasting loves
hamsters
silly movies
kindness, meekness, gentleness
straws, specifically for drinking my VitaMix drinks through
Peonies
old photo albums that remind me what a blessed life I have
Anthropologie and the girly-girl it makes me.
laughter- the sound of it, the feel of it, the look of it
that I'm always warm at night
the smell of Christmas
that I learned to read
for an extra bedroom so people can visit us
a husband who constantly reminds me how loved I am
that I live in SF and can have any food my heart desires
people who share
the person who invented the lint brush
angels
movements
people who live passionately
. . . . .

The day after Thanksgiving I had a photo shoot up in Tiburon with Heddy and Daniel and Mr. Oliver. And those pictures won't be ready for a while, but here is a sneak preview of one they used in their Christmas card.


Then, since I was only one exit away from Corté Madera, I obviously had to go to Anthropologie (god help me, I love that store). I'm not a believer in Black Friday shopping at all, but due to the current state of the economy, I felt I had to do my part :) Then after a really long time in traffic, I was finally back in the city for Pie Friday at Casa de Santos with all the friends.

Saturday was our annual tree-chopping trip, which the last two years now, has been accompanied by a trip to the Lobster Shack:
(I'm not really sure why Alex looks likes he's 2/3 the size of a normal man in that picture)
But whatever, he does such a good job playing the role of lumberjack, it doesn't really matter. Plus, he's back to looking like a normal-sized man in this one, if a bit messy.
And speaking of manly things, here is Shawn chopping down our tree. I would even go so far as to say he looks borderline macho . . .

This next picture cracks me up. It makes me really embarrassed that I'm a photographer but still have pretty much zero clue how to pose myself- seriously- what am I even doing there?!?

Sunday I wanted to take some pictures of my terribly handsome husband because he and Wayne went shopping on Saturday and Shawn bought the cleverest little vest ensemble:
He insisted on posing with his new iphone :)

Then I headed to the beach to finish my photo shoot with the Harris-Boundys. Those pictures also won't be ready for a while, but again- here's one from their Christmas card.


And there we have it- Thanksgiving weekend 2008