Happy Holidays!

Happy Holidays everyone!! I'm happy to see 2008 come in and I can't wait to see what is in store! I booked another wedding through Janet Hudson-Shcroeder today! She is keeping me extremely busy with weddings! I'm excited because she is so busy! She has almost my entire spring/summer/fall booked for me....the dates are filling up so quickly!

Have a great holiday and be safe!

discombobulated

Discombobulated.

This describes how I feel today.

This photo of Melanie says it all.

I know a lot of "discombobulated" folks this week.

Is it the weather? The upcoming holidays?

I'm ready for 2008. I'm ready for the warm weather. I'm ready for changes.

I'm ready for communication. I'm ready for open minds. I am tired of excuses. I'm tired of control. I'm tired of being tired. Why can't people get along? Why are some people so petty? Why do some people not care about others? Why are people selfish? I have too many questions. I have to keep my faith in God and know that He has all those answers and in the end....we end up answering to Him when we stand before Him.

Sigh.....2007 was good and it was bad. It was a mixed year of goodness and crap. Why is it that being an adult is so danged hard?

Life is too short. WAY too short. Too many people I know passed away in 2007. Life is too short to hate, to be angry, to hold grudges. The past is gone. LONG gone. You can't change it, you can't bring it back and I want to tell some people I know "LET IT GO!" There are no personal vendettas, there are no pointing of fingers.

Sometimes I daydream about moving to Hawaii or Florida. I love daydreams. Daydreams are miniature escapes from the realities we all face on a daily basis.

My hope for 2008 is that everyone makes an effort to let go of the past. To figure out what is the most important in their lives. To learn respect for one another. Peace. Love. Happiness. I know it's not a perfect world, but trying to bring about the peace and harmony is a step forward. Be a good example to show others ...

Peace. Love. Happiness. 2008.

The talent show and headshots

So I entered the roller girls talent contest. I belly danced with my sword and wings. I tied for 1st place ;-) I don't care for my "pose" in this picture but it was the only one I took with my camera. I did get some of my dancing on video and now I just need to figure out how to do a youtube video! HA!



From the roller girls talent show. Yes, that is a wig! It's actually really long...goes to my butt!




I went thru some boxes of CD's and ran across this CD of pictures of my performance in Chicago from a couple of years ago. I forgot all about this!



Heather is casting a national commercial and I submitted my headshot along with Amelia's. They are casting 19 talent for the commercial and it will be filmed here in Fayetteville.

Masquerade Ball

I'm going to the masquerade ball that art amiss is hosting. Colleen & her hubby, Sara, my sister, Doug, Duane and Terra & her hubby are all going. I got to find Doug a blazer and I'm going to paint skulls on it. I am painting my mask on as well! Wooo!

http://www.artamiss.org/blue/index.html?PHPSESSID=c37349da5c3497ed4c0521332123204d
That is the link to the "ball"


The start of my costume.....I can't wait until I complete it. This is just the base of what I have started.


All of my rhinestone jewelry. Yeah, I'll take the price tag off! HA!

Wii !!!!!!!!!

We had Christmas early. Sunday was the only day the entire family could get together for Christmas. We also had Amelia's bday party that afternoon, too.





Amelia's bday party .... we went to the bowling alley.




Santa asked me to come sit on his lap! How could I resist?


Santa asked me if I was good or bad.


And my answer! HA!!!


Antonio's look says it all!


All of the excitement.


One of Amelia's Christmas presents.


Antonio got a foosball table.

RIP Jason

My brothers best friend Jason passed away last week. He passed from a long hard struggle with cancer. I considered Jason a brother to me since he was my brothers best friend. I remember always giving him a hard time and he dished right back at me. I feel so bad for my brother because I know what a good friend Jason was to him. He was too young, 34 and has a son around the same age as my little girl. Cancer is so real and so awful. It hits so close to home for me.

My thoughts and prayers are with Jason's family and with my brother.

Rest in peace.

WOW! Edgar Cruz

Edgar Cruz - look at the passion in his face! wow!


This is the owner of ONDA OK magazine, JP & his wife Naomi.


This is our table singing along to the Bohemian Rhapsody and waving our arms in the air!

I was invited to a church in Rogers to photograph Edgar Cruz play guitar. I was shooting for ONDA OK magazine. They served a Mexican dinner and then Edgar came out to play. I was AMAZED. This guy can play guitar like I've never seen before! I was really impressed!

Here is a youtube video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3avSlilOzAQ

Check out his Bohemian Rhapsody. He really got the crowd to participate and had us sing along. It was great!

Another of beautiful Michelle

There were so many great images of Michelle. I swear I can't take a bad photo of her!

From tonight

Shaina's Wedding

My sister was a bridesmaid in Shaina's wedding. Shaina and her mom used to come to belly dance classes. Anyways, I did my sisters hair and makeup for the wedding and I of course went to Shaina's wedding. She didn't have an official photographer so it was a "free for all" and I got the chance to just shoot whatever I wanted. It was a neat wedding. It was all Renaissance. I love themed weddings! I wished more people did them!


Beautiful Shaina.

My dad and sis.

My sister. My mom made the outfit - all hand sewn!!

Self Portraits

This week in class we had to do self-portraits. I think that topic is fun!


I wanted to portray something Sarah Brightman-ish.

This is a shirt that I inherited from my grandmother after she passed away. It has a lot of meaning to me.

Poking fun at myself for majoring in art.

Ouch

Well .... dang it.....

I've been seeing a podiatrist and he's been giving me some injections in my feet to help with my pains. I have very flat feet so it causes my knees and ankles to hurt. Well the injections were soooooo great, I felt like I was 16 again. Apparently I did too much. I ruptured a ligament in my foot and it was herniated. Lucky me! So now I get to be in a boot for 2 weeks. Joy.
Next month I am planning on surgery. I'm getting imlants! OH baby! Yeah, ok.....not THOSE kind of implants. I'm getting implants for my feet. It will be screws that they put in my feet. I want to get this done while we are in the middle of SLOW wedding season. As soon as I get these implants I will be walking better and feeling better.....so it's the plan to get this done over Christmas.....So I'll be walking funny for about 15 weeks total but then I'll be as good as new for the wedding season. I'm really excited about getting my feet fixed.

It's been so busy lately. I don't have my computers set up yet. We moved into a house finally but unpacking is slow going due to school and photography. Doug's been working his butt off so we got the kitchen and living room unpacked. The rest is going 1 box at a time. I've been having a hard time accessing my email so please be patient on return emails! ;-) We love the new house. There's so much room. Amelia really really likes it. We are close to her new school, too.

School is almost out for the semester and I couldn't want it over any quicker! This semester has been awful. I took all the yucky classes that I've been dreading and now they are almost over......thank the good Lord!

My final project for my photo 1 class will be the 7 deadly sins. I'm working with Marcie on this project. I have 4 rolls of B&W film....I may shoot it at 1600 iso to give it a ton of grain. I haven't decided yet. I really want some of them to look really gritty.

Anyways, I posted a pic of me and Amelia at Racha Thai Restaurant. We are addicted to sweet & sour tofu and sate tofu. Oh man they make the BEST food ever!

Happy Halloween!

I went with my brother and his son trick or treating. Since I didn't get my girl, I went with him. We stopped at Sam's club to see Doug at work. We then went to the mall and it was fun to see the reactions of the people to my brother's costume! It was a fun night. I really missed my little girl.

Fun!

Having fun with wigs, make-up, photoshop, & attitude! Creating your alter ego is fun!!!

Wrapped in Ink

This image was created by Jennifer Branch (Branch Photography). Jennifer wanted an image she could show in competition and I wanted something so sensual of me & Dougie, something that showed our love. Jennifer named this "wrapped in ink"....I'm looking for just the right frame for it as we will hang it above our bed. Jennifer is an amazing artist!