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You can either cook or bake, but you can't do both!

Or so I was told...
Yes, its 5:41 a.m. in Texas and I am blogging about cookies! But its cookies! How can you not want to read about cookies at 5:41 a.m ???? I blame a photog friend of mine for this early morning post. It all started when she invited me to help her out on one of her shoots and at the lunch table she and her client got into a conversation about cooking. They insisted that if you can bake then you can't cook or vice verse, and that it takes a very special person to do both, well... I guess I am special, because I believe I can do both! Actually, I know I can do both!!! Although, I really don't think it means I am special, it just means that I watch too much of the Food Network channel. Well that and I practically lived in the kitchen during the holidays when my mom would make baskets full of sweets to pass out to the neighbors and family. ANYWAY, it just so happens I have been on a cookie kick and trying to figure out how to make a Reese's pieces cookie. Yes I am a dork, I do try and invent new baking recipes. Its almost an obsession, so much so that I wake up in the middle of the night with dreams I had about recipes! So a few nights ago, I was struck with another food insomnia episode and started going over ideas on how to make this cookie (you don't have to burst my bubble, I am sure it has been done before), but this is what I came up with...











They are still not perfected yet, but I think I am getting close. The only bad thing is that now I have a kitchen full of cookies and I don't know what to do with them. Know anyone that is interested?








(Oh, and your probably wondering where the cooking comes into play, well in this post it doesn't. I didn't cook anything last night, I was too lazy and made Terry take me out for dinner. But I promise you I can be on an episode of "Throwdown" with Bobby Flay! Ok, I am not that good, but I know I can whip up some mean ham and cheese sandwiches! And my cereal is to die for!)

Californication Part II

It's 5 a.m and I can't sleep (typical), so I thought I would share more of my trip to California. Sound like fun? I thought so :p

We were suppose to do a bridal session as well, but unfortunately the dress wasn't ready when I arrived. So we all got to spend Sunday doing more sightseeing! I saw the famous Hollywood sign and even went down to Hollywood Blvd. It was different, not really what I expected, but I did find some things that interested me.

Amber told me that there would be street performers there, so my mind immediately went back to a college trip I took to New Orleans, L.A. and the street performers that worked on the streets there -mines, trumpet players, tap dancers, ect. I thought, "ok cool, nothing I haven't seen before." Ha! So we get there and there is Tinkerbell prancing in the street and I am like "whoa, seriously??" Next to her is Peter Pan with Cat Women not far behind, yes Cat Women (she was a real witch by the way). Anyway, Amber looks at me and said "see, I told you." And then I thought, "Duh, this is Hollywood." And in all Hollywood style, you have to pay for EVERYTHING, which this wasn't any different. You have to pay about 5 bucks just to take a picture of them (going back to why Cat Women was such a witch). And since I don't have 5 bucks to spear on wannabe actors in Halloween costumes they bought from Wal-Mart, I just threw on my wide angle and shot at the waist. They never knew what hit'em...













Ok, well these guys costumes were a little better than what you could of gotten at wally world, but still.

The next two weren't street performers, but still caught my interest...

See the sign? Crazy huh!?! And they probably cost as much a $200,000 house mortgage here in Texas!

At the end of the day I have to say I enjoyed California. And really really appreciate the generosity of Amber and Jonathan for flying me out there and showing me around. Thanks guys, you were awesome! See you October12th!

Californication

I'm back and so is the power! Although it decided to come back thirty minutes before I left for the airport to fly out to Los Angeles. Yes, Los Angeles! Awesome huh?!? I am lucky enough to have clients who live there, but are getting married in Houston. They have been wanting to do an engagement session, but weren't going to be back in town in time for it to happen. So we thought, if they can't come to me, then I can go to them! And so I did!

California was nice, beautiful weather, beautiful beaches, and beautiful people, just as expected. My mom even came with me; it was her birthday weekend, so I thought it would be nice to have her tag along and show her a good time. I was kind of nervous with this session, especially since I have just gone full time, and even though photography is not new to me, getting flown places to photograph is.

My mom and I flew in on Thursday night and met up with Amber and Johnathan, my amazing clients, to have a nice dinner at Don Antonio's. I do catch an episode every now and then, but was informed that this is the hot spot for Spencer and Heidi, from the MTV "reality" series, The Hills. The food was good, the chips and salsa was awesome. However, I really wish they served drinks Texas style. Diet coke is my beverage of choice (not like it helps since I am one of those that will order a double meat cheese burger with large fries and then try to save calories by drinking a diet coke, haha) and I am use to getting at least 12oz or more served to me at a time so I guess my waiter wanted to really work that night, because when he brought me my drink it was in what could of passed as a shot glass! I think I could of gone through four of them before our meal was even served! And I say "could of" because apparently waiters do not WAIT on you in California. They get your drinks, your meal order, and then serve it, and you never see them again until its time to pay. Crazy, I know. Anyway, after all was said and done, no Spencer and Heidi or any other celebrity for that matter. Amber said that they once saw Lindsay Lohan and her new girlfriend chowing down a few tables over, not that Lindsay Lohan is someone I really care about, but it would be interesting to see someone of the Hollywood world.

OH! And I was also informed that California doesn't know that Rotel and Velveeta do date occasionally and make an awesome thing called Chile Con Queso. Or what a breakfast burrito is either, wtf?!?

Anyway, Friday was spent scouting out locations and sightseeing. Amber and Jonathan were awesome and took the time to show my mom and me around. LA actually reminds me of New Mexico, but then they are all desert so I guess that’s why. The only thing that really made me see that I was several hundred miles away from home was the beaches!

I really wanted some awesome sunset shots over the water since you can't get that at Surfside, so Amber and Jonathan scouted for a beach that would allow some privacy and awesome photos. They said they found one and so we decided to go on Friday just to see the light and well just to see. After dealing with L.A. traffic for awhile, we finally turned in to this dirt parking lot that only had a few cars and a portal potty. I'll be honest, I was a little skeptical since we just passed up several beaches with nice creamy sand and blue-green water that had nice paved parking lots and real restrooms. But I saw the excitement on their faces when we finally arrived, like a small child showing off their prized art work, so I went with it… I got out of the car and saw that we were on a huge cliff. I am terrible with measuring distances, so just trust me when I say HUGE! They took me to the edge and my mouth just dropped. The view was crazy beautiful! I barely got my breath back before they told me to start walking down hill on a dirt path. The climb down wasn’t a walk in the park, but was soooooooo worth it! I got half way down and decided to stop watching my feet and actually look at where I was headed, O M G, amazing. There wasn’t just creamy sand, or blue green water, but gorgeous gigantic rocks that made a landscape that made me feel like I was in a different world. My mouth dropped for a second time.

I felt like a little girl again, I tried my best to runwalk the rest of the way with my mother shouting behind me “BECAREFUL” “WATCH YOUR STEP” “DON’T RUN, WALK.” I finally made it to the beach and finally just stopped and stood there trying to take it all in, the feeling of the wind coming off the water, the sound of the waves crashing up against the rocks, and the feeling of the sand between my toes. And just when I thought it couldn’t get any better, we found starfish! Yes, real live starfish! Several of them, all anchored down on the rocks waiting for the tied to come in. I don’t think I have ever had a day end so perfectly.

But that feeling only lasted for a few minutes. As I was trying to act out my fantasy of being a marine biologist, I ended up in almost calf deep in recently ice melted water or at least that’s what it felt like! It was so cold you could probably get frostbite from it! I didn’t know beach water could be so cold! Of course Amber and Jonathan had a good laugh from my reaction, but a warning would have been nice, hahaha.

Saturday was the actual session day. We decided to shoot a little at Rodeo drive; that was an experience! I never knew a camera with a big lens could bring soo much attention. I even had one lady ask if I was with the press. If she was Jewel (my favorite musician) or anyone else I knew I would of said yes. I had people stop me just to talk about my equipment. Poor Amber and Jonathan kept getting stared at with people trying to figure out if they were famous or not. We even had people take pictures of us taking pictures; it was crazy!

Anyway, I think the session really went well. I wish we had more time to shoot, since California does offer some pretty scenery, but all things good do have to come to an end. So with that being said, I will stop my boring chatter and show you some of my favs from that weekend…

The Path

The Beach

The Starfish!

And my beautiful mother!

Amber and Jonathan

Rodeo Drive

The beach (again)

Dancing as the sun set

Probably what I looked like when I felt California beach water for the first time

A very sincere moment

more dancing

The one shot I didn't think we were going to pull off since people didn't want to walk in front of the lens!
If you look to your right you will see the legs of the very gorgeous Jessica Griffin! She is a friend I went to school with and who also moved out to L.A. She was a awesome street walker for us that night, hahahaha.

Wow this was a long post, hopefully if you are reading this you actually read some and just didn't skip to the pictures. If not, I don't blame you! I wouldn't of read it either!

Hurricane Ike

We survived! Although, we don't have electricity and are trying to survive on peanut butter and goldfish. Pearland has some stores open, we got to eat at Friday's the other day thankfully, it was nice to feel normal, if it was only 30 minutes.

Anyway, I just wanted to touch base with the rest of the world and let you know that I hope everyone that was effected by Ike is doing well and is ok.

Since I don't have power, I had to hunt down a wireless signal just to post this update. So please be patience while I work on getting up and running again. I am at the mercy of Centerpoint, but I know they are working hard and around the clock to get power restored to all of us.

For my clients, because of this little bump, please understand that orders placed or deadlines for pictures that needed to be posted will be delayed until things are restored and normal around here. And please note, that yes, your photographs are safe and sound :)

Again, I hope you all are doing well. I hope to be in touch soon. If you do have a question, please do not hesitate to text me. My phone seems to only be doing well when it comes to texting.

I'll be in touch soon!