In Love

With Garance Dore's blog. She recently started an English version, and I'm SO glad she did. The woman is hysterical. Brutally honest about her own thoughts, insecurities and obsessions. Oh, and let's not forget she's a famous artist who occasionally takes photos, and is dating none other than Scott Schman, aka The Sartorialist.

I'd kill for mad photog skillz like this:

And a print of one of her gorgeous sketches, like this:

Yup, got a girl crush. For sure. So who's your girl crush? Don't be shy!

xo

October Roundup

I got really inspired by this post over at The Daily Digi, so hopefully I'll remember to keep doing it every month! I just love the idea of consolidating everything into one post. Helps my scattered brain. :)

What books and/or magazines did I read this month?

More of the Outlander series (which I finally finished last night), namely A Breath of Snow and Ashes and the latest release, An Echo in the Bone. Boo to catching up! Also read In Style, of course. I'm addicted. I also just read The Art of Racing in the Rain in two days. :)

What movies, television shows, plays, etc. did I watch this month?

Actually caught a few, saw Whip It and The Invention of Lying in theaters and finally rented Away We Go, which was SO good. Talk about poignant commentary on current American family culture! 

What fun things did I do with my family and/or friends?

Oh wow. It was my birthday this month, so I had an amazing sushi dinner with friends, yummy homecooked dinner with the fam and a trip to Vegas. I'm a lucky girl! Plus this month there were several trips to Disneyland to see the Halloween fireworks show and ride scary Space Mountain. This weekend we went to two different Halloween parties! And of course I've been taking a ton of photos along the way.

What gifts did I give and/or receive?

An awesome jacket from my parents, tons of hilarious birthday cards, a cookbook, scarf and earrings from Nancy and Kris, money to fix my poor iMac from Nikki, gorgeous embroidery from Mindy, Starbucks merch from Laura...again, I'm a lucky girl!

What special or unusual purchases did I make?

Books, of course, are always special. I'm gonna need a whole room devoted to them eventually. Also indulged myself with this lovely gocco print and this supercute coffee cup sleeve (I know it sounds frivolous, but it saves paper and the seller donates to sighthound rescue!). Also got costumes for me and Dante...to be revealed in photos later.

What illnesses or health concerns did I have?

None to speak of, knock on wood, except a few medium-scale migraines.

What were my accomplishments this month?

Edited and delivered an engagement/portrait session (technically shot in September), kept up with Project 365, attended an awesome photowalk, helped my mom rearranged the office and family room (still a work in progress, but we're getting there).

So what are you answers, dear readers? I love to know what people are up to...part of the reason I'm so obsessed with reading blogs and Facebook! :)

xo

Jennifer & Josh & Co.

I was lucky enough to have the chance to photograph Jennifer and Josh last month, in order for them to have some photos to mix in with their slideshow for their upcoming wedding (they're getting hitched on Halloween, how cool is that?). I met these two awesome people through Eirik and Roseann, and we bonded immediately over puppy love - they've had Pee Wee (short for Peter Weiner), a daschund, for several years now, and then brought home Philip (daschund mix) late last year. Such fun loving pups! Of course they had to be part of the session. :)

So we headed over to Fullerton one very hot afternoon and spent some time at Hillcrest Park and wandering around downtown. All they had to do to look good was smile, so they made it very easy on me.

Here's some of my favorites (to see more, go here):

Hooray for sunflare!

Pee Wee was a natural! And only a little bit of a scene stealer.

Stop. Cuddle time.

Like Jennifer said, totally 90210 right? But I still love it.

This is what happens when I ask people to give me Blue Steel:

He's got heart.

Fierce!!

I know, I'm jealous of her eyelashes too:

By that time the heat had taken its toll on us and the pups, so we called it a wrap.

J & J, I know everything is going to go perfectly for you guys this weekend, but I'm sending you happy thoughts anyways. And Jennifer, you're my hero for pulling off a wedding while finishing up your masters - good luck next week! Can't wait to see the wedding photos!

xo

Announcing: Nancy Orozco Photography!

I'm having a super-proud-best-friend moment right now. If you don't want to listen to gushing, I suggest you move along, because...

NANCY HAS LAUNCHED HER PHOTOGRAPHY BUSINESS!

Phew! I feel better.

Nancy and I first met one early morning back in 2002 when I came in to interview for a position in her department, which was customer service/advertising for a local residential real estate company. I got the job, and we hit it off pretty much immediately. The oldest in the family, younger brothers (she has three, I have two), sarcastic sense of humor, love of food, love of history and learning...we had a lot in common. We grew close quickly, even though she was technically my supervisor (and the best one a girl could have!). The more I learned about her, the more I admired her.

When spots opened up in our little department for more people, my two best friends Nikki and Katie (aka the Glowin sisters) wound up getting hired and we soon became the tightest-knit group of employees you've ever seen! It was a perfect way to work through college, and I'm so thankful for the experiences we had. But most of all I'm thankful for the awesome best friend I gained. :)

So now we have a shared passion for photography, and in the past year she's been taking classes and racking up amazing photos for her portfolio like there's no tomorrow. Every time she adds to Flickr I'm in awe. The girl has the eye, there's no doubt. But she also has the drive, ambition and brains, which has led to the official launch of her website and blog today!

If you're looking for a photographer in the SoCal area, look no further than Nancy Orozco Photography! Why? Because you'll wind up looking this good:

So get yourself over to her blog, because she's giving away a photo session!

Nancy, you'll always be my Team Leader, and I can't thank my lucky stars enough for having a friend like you! Besos!

Gifting

You might remember that I happen to LOVE Christmas. For a million different reasons. But one of them is that I truly love finding awesome gifts for people. The shopping (which I love a little too much) or creating, the wrapping, seeing the look on their face. Love. It. All. And since I hate to just run to the mall and get whatever, I add things to online lists (I'm a big fan of Kaboodle) all year long so I'm not stuck come the holidays.

In that spirit, I've decided to share with you some pretty things I've had my eye on (friends and family, you might want to look away), so that my careful hoarding doesn't go to waste. :)

For the chef, how about a custom cake pan (sooo cool for when you bring a dish to a party) or a personalized cookbook from TasteBook? Mom and I have been trying to remember to get photos of her recipes so we can do this (eventually). So pretty, right? You can use your own recipes or get one already designed on a certain theme:

For the fellow bookworm, I'm in love with these stunning art printed book jackets:

and these adorable notebooks.

For a romantic, these mini diaries with questions already in them are genius (what a heirloom for your kids someday!), and pretty to boot:

This cameo vase is also lovely (and on sale), and I know a couple certain someones who happen to love cameos... ;

I really wish I knew more moms, because this shirt from ThinkGeek cracks me up every time I see it:

Plus I want like 40 other things from there, but I won't bore you with the details. :)

How adorable is this little Peggie family?

Love this artist - they're fully customizable, and they make cute wedding cake toppers too!

Don't even get me started on my Etsy wish list...you can take a peek by following the widget on the right.

Of course I have to give some options for my fellow dog lovers and owners...such as this hilarious shirt:

Or this one:

As for something to actually get for your dog, this seller makes the most awesome custom dog tags, I'm dying for this collar for my little criminal, and thin-skinned pups definitely need this hoodie for the colder months. And I'm dying for this camera so I can finally settle the question of guilt: kittens v. dogs. ;)

And finally, fellow photo enthusiasts, a few things I've had my eye on are the Fujifilm Instax camera, which seems to be all over teh interwebs these days, and the Diana lens adaptor - now you can get those awesome film effects on your usual dSLR! (Although I think I still want to play with actual film, but this would be a cool extra lens to play with.)

Of course, on my budget and with my mad digital scrapbooking skillz [insert laugh track here], I don't buy everything, I make quite a bit too. Last year I made desktop calendars for my parents and myself, plus Nikki and Katie using these adorable 5x7 calendars by the ever-amazing Penny Springmann:

That way I was able to print them at home on 5x7 photo paper from Costco and inserted them in plastic frames. Memorable, meaningful and budget friendly! :)

Also, two years ago I started a tradition of forcing asking everyone on the American side of the family (including aunts, uncles, cousins and significant others) a set of questions, then using their answers plus photos of them from that year to make an 8x8 scrapbook album. We all love seeing everyone else's answers and it was a huge hit! Last year I didn't even have to buy the albums, just gave them the pages and had them add them to the album from the year before. It takes a huge amount of time but it's totally worth it to make a family heirloom like that.

The cover (it actually says "shot of aquavit", somehow the cover insert got pushed a little to the left):

And some of last year's pages:

For 2008 I made an insert page as the cover, with a new funny title inspired by mom. You can see it here. As a digital scrapbooker it's also fun to see how my style has changed/progressed. :)

Are you still with me after that novel of an entry? What are your plans for gifting?

xo