Treasures.

I spent my Saturday morning and afternoon perusing the aisles of my hometown flea market. Side by side, I walked the unpaved pathways alongside hundreds of Winter Texans. Some Americans and some French Canadians. I heard country and folk music and almost boogied on down with my boots ; ). The best part, listening in on some french conversations... bwahahaha!

I saw new things and I saw vintage items. I found treasures, lovely ones! The best part, I found exactly what I was looking for... 

These blue mason jars will grace the white shelves of my dream kitchen, some day ;)




Key...


Some random updates:
1.  I want to be a Winter Texan when I have white hair and officially become an old granny.
2.  I should not be allowed to have cash at a flea market. Unsupervised!
3.  I have a brand-spanking-new haircut. A major one!

Have a lovely Sunday friends!!!

Cool Vendors

Please note this is merely a list of some of my favorite vendors for a variety of items ranging from photography related to just really cool stuff.


Wedding & Event Planning



Bridal Trends Weddings by Valerie Vance-Alaniz
Valerie is a lovely woman with an impeccable talent for wedding planning :) I worked with her for a Fall 2011 wedding and I am amazed to see her execution of my bride's dream weddings. Eeek! We have consequentially worked together during a bridal session earlier this year and I can completely say that a wedding planner is an amazing addition to a bride's box of tools... Valerie, in particular, definitely makes a positive difference. Plus, she makes my job a little easier. Can you imagine the bride's?! If  you're looking for someone devoted to their job and in love with planning amazing weddings, I'd definitely recommend you visit her site. 



Cakes {Yummm!}
Honey's Cakes
http://honeyscakes.com/
Nancy, the owner of Honey's Cakes, is an amazing baker! I worked briefly with her at a bakery a long time ago before she opened her own shop. My family has been ordering cakes from her ever since and her cake shop holds a special place in my heart because she taught me some neat decorating skills back in the day :) She baked an amazing cupcake cake for one of my most recent weddings... it was delicious AND beautiful. 




Forward ;)

Please forgive me... it has been a whole week since I last blogged. Yikes! I have become a little, umm... preoccupied with my personal life attempting to balance it with legal assistant work and with photography. I have yet to catch up on my sleep but I have finally caught up on all the Boudoir mini-session editing that I needed to accomplish. Whew... big sigh or relief :)

Unfortunately, I cannot yet share those with you... but soon I hope. I also cannot share with you a beautiful bridal session and have not yet finished some portraits. Thus, here I am tonight sharing with you a snippet into my personal thoughts, the random stuff. 

The past few days have taught me to let go and jump head first into new opportunities. I told myself that 2012 would be the year of yes for me... What?! You read correctly, ever since last year I have had an open mind for many things. I do not want to hold any regrets so I want to make sure I give everything and everyone an opportunity. If you ask me to jump off an airplane with you I may just do it. 

Gaahh! Okay, so it's not that drastic, but my point is that I am taking steps forward and not worrying about the ifs, ors, or buts. I am being me and looking forward to appreciating new things in life ;)

Last week flew by so quickly... whoah! The last I remember is it being January and this week is already February... my time-management skills have been slacking lately but I have been preoccupied. I had a great week and I hope that this week gets even better! I am desperately awaiting the arrival of the weekend so that I can get some sleep and watch some t.v.

So as I sit here on my kitchen table typing while the sound of rains plays loudly behind the door, I leave you with a metaphor... 

Step forward, don't look back.


Hugs and Kisses... Good night!

P.S. That is not my foot ;)

M s I t K u E d

I am the eldest in my family and the only girl... sometimes, well, many times, the boys forget that I am a girl and make me feel like I'm truly a part of the gang. I am just one of the guys for them... awkward? No! I am very close to all three of them and although they treat me like I am their little sister, I know that with a stern glance or a deep yell I can nonetheless always intimidate them. The best part of being their older sister is definitely disciplining them... Ohh the perks of having younger siblings. 

While the boys have grown up to be bigger than me and attempt to boss me around quite often, I can still see the little skinny boys they used to be running around the house chasing me. Just in the past two years they have suddenly grown from my little brothers to becoming my brothers. No minuscule adjective necessary. 

And they are also very, very talented. Each one of us in my family has been blessed with an artistic talent. I suppose we merely have the gene and we are very much thankful for it!

My brother Michael is a writer, like me. He is a really, really good writer. The both of us enjoy writing poetry and I think he is amazing at it. A few years ago he embarked on his "I want to be a rapper stage" and, quite frankly, I thought it was merely a stage. Let's preface... in middle school he went through many stages of what he wanted to be. At some point between 6th and 8th grade he was adamant about becoming a gardener. 

Did I make you giggle? Because it made our family giggle... we eventually realized what he meant was a landscape architect. The phase, like many before it and after, quickly faded. So when I realized he was writing his very first rap song two years ago I did not think the phase would last long. But it did. And it evolved. And it continues to evolve....

My brother Michael is an amazing lyricist. He makes me very proud to know that his English college courses are adequately implemented in his verses. Mike, make your professors proud!

It is Michael that helped me find my own niche in the rap industry... remember my rap video I made about my love for photography? It was all thanks to him. 

I am delighted to call him my brother. I am proud of the hard work he places into each word he notes. Most importantly, I am very proud of the dedication, devotion he has to succeed. The future has great things for him, I know it. 

Michael has entered, for the second year in a row, a contest where he writes lyrics and makes a video to a supplied beat. To win, he requires your help. I would like to please ask that you help me to help him by voting for his video. You can vote daily and I will love you forever if you can please vote for the next few days and spread the word with everyone you know. He needs all the votes out there!!!

Here's how...
Use the following link to cast your vote daily:
Vote daily until February 12, 2012.

We truly appreciate your help, thank you!

Please note, I do not like to curse and as much as I am hesitant to hear a bad word hear and there I am delighted to share with you my brother's video... please vote!!!!!!!!!!!



Go Michael!!!! Ahem, I mean M s I t K u E d
He wrote his lyrics, filmed the video with a digital camera (go Nikon!) and edited the video all by himself.


***I need to create a follow up to my rap video... ideas?***