The party of all parties!

I am planning one huge graduation party. After I sent the invitations, I started thinking "aw crap, where is everyone gonna park?!" Oh well...we shall figure it out! I have rented a bouncy house for the adults and we might let the kids play in it. I have the ice cream truck coming as well. There will be face painting & fortune telling. I have a photo booth with the cheesiest of props and backdrop for the ultimate cheesetastic photos! I have a huge Mexican food buffet and margaritas that will be served. I keep thinking I have forgotten something. My invitations are the cheesiest invites you have ever seen! I can't wait! Doug is also celebrating 5 years of being cancer free. He will offically be in remission! We are thrilled! Healthy, happy and graduated!

I am happy to move on to the next adventure in life. I am moving my studio into a cool place in Little Rock, right off of University avenue, near the Heights. WAY excited. Glam Girl Boudoir Studios. I'm more than excited! I can't wait to girl-ify it. It will be the epitomy of GIRLY! Boudoir all the time!

I am waiting until December to make a decision on whether I want to go to grad school or wait another year after December. Right now I could barf up school. I've had enough to last awhile but there's still that itch for a masters degree. I know I can do it but I think I need the break. It's been a wild ride going to school and well...I want to spend time with my lovely family and school sure does put a damper on it at times!

California!

I flew to LA to meet up with Sharon Dawson. We helped out the cool Robert Cavalli with his studio. He is a brilliant dark room guru and I was honored to see some of his works! I got to see prints of Elvis no one has ever seen! How cool is that? His work just blows my mind. I can't wait to send him negatives of my grandmother to print for me. After helping him in his studio/darkroom we went to Hunington Beach to get Sharon's mom for a Disneyland adventure. Her mom scored us free entrance and we had a blast! After our Disney fun, we headed to Hollywood to the Moun of Tunis. It was Princess Farhana's birthday but not only did she celebrate her birthday she also threw a party for me and another birthday girl. It was a dream! She even got us a purple yam cake that was so fabulous!
After all that fun we headed to San Diego for a traditional Asian wedding. That was really fun and neat. I got to experience a full 10 course Asian dinner. What a neat experience. We also headed down to the gaslamp district....20 blocks of clubs and bars. Sharon sure can go like the energizer bunny! After our stay in San Diego we headed back up to the Hollywood hills & stayed with her sister in this amazing 20's style bungalow. It was awesome! We got to shop at the Hollywood makeup shop and that was great. I spent a pretty penny on body paints.
We then headed to San Francisco....long, LONG drive up but we made several stops. We ate at this amazing Mexican restaurant in Santa Barbara. She even took me to shell beach which was breathtaking! We finally crossed the San Fran bridge at around 9pm and then headed up the mountain for our 2 hour drive to her house.
Sharon lives in this little town that reminds me of the town I grew up - Gentry. She is about 20 minutes from Napa Valley and took me down there to see some of the winery's and the grape farms. Very cool stuff indeed!
It was a trip not to be forgotten!

Random ramblings

I love makeup and costumes! It's something I adore. I am hoping to go to the big body painting convention coming up in May! They have classes on prosthetics, airbrush, face painting and wild hair!! I so want to learn to do body painting better!
I leave next week for my big California adventure! Going to Disneyland for 2 days with Sharon, belly dancing at Princess Farhana's big birthday bash in Hollywood and shooting a wedding in San Diego. Then a drive back up to San Francisco! I can't wait for the big adventure!
Aladdin Jr. is over. Amelia was the genie. I need to size photos for my blog. She was painted blue. I posted a pic of her in practice and then a pic of Princess Jasmine with Aladdin. I did the costuming and props for the play. I'm proud! Proud of the kids and of my work!
I can't believe it's March already! I have a birthday in like 7 days. The years are flying by. I will be the big 3-6. Graduating in 2 months. I can taste it - seriously! I want to have a huge graduation party!
We have been remodeling the house. The bathroom just had cabinets torn out, wallpaper taken down, texture on the walls, and the popcorn ceiling is gone. Next phase is a new door, tiles put in and a new sink. It already doesn't look like the 80's bathroom we had. Owning a house is fun but it's hard work! Next week 12 pine trees are being cut down out of the yard. Silver is building us a big front porch since we already have 3 decks out back, figured we'd add one to the front. Love sitting outside and just listening to the birds. It's really nice. Plus I love sitting in the front yard because you can yell back & forth to the neighbors. You would think we'd go sit at each others house but it seems more fun to sit & yell/talk back and forth at each other. I'm so ready for spring and summer!
This weekend Doug, Amelia & I are going over to the Csege's house for pizza and board games. This is Amelia's first babysitting gig (observed of course) but she is being paid to keep the Csege's kids busy while the adults play games and talk adult! ha ha ...she is way excited. As soon as she can enroll in babysitting classes, she will be there so she can start babysitting. She's such an entrepreneur. She makes flowers and sells them at school! So babysitting is a job she cane make more money at! I'm currently teaching her photoshop as I told her I'd pay her $1 per photo for editing. She's eager to learn!

Amelia!

Amelia and I did our own rendition of the Toddlers and Tiaras show. We were snowed in today and decided to poke fun at the show. Whitened her teeth and made her skin really smooth. Maybe I should have done more of a plastic skin. I should have done a sequined backdrop but either way we had fun! We are always doing something silly.

Next weekend she will debut her acting skills in Aladdin Jr. She will be the amazing Genie. I'm super excited. All the family is coming down to see her. Both sets of grandparents and other relatives of hers. I know all of us are super proud of her. I just can't believe how quickly she is growing up. Part of me is sad and part of me is happy to see her grow into a young adult.

Hello 2011!

Well.....looks like Egypt will not be happening this year. Probably not even next year. Just have to wait and see what happens there. Oh well....at least I got to see Egypt in June last year. I won't ever forget it.

Mom and I are talking about a 2 week trip to Germany in late May/early June. I think that sounds like a fun and interesting trip for sure. So I'll be saving my money for that.

2011 has started in full swing. I'm shooting so much boudoir and pin-up. It's been a blast!!!

I'm enrolled in 9 hours of school. This is my last semester. I am taking photo 2 which has been interesting thus far. Religions and culture and I'm taking jewlery and metalsmithing. I had to fire up a blow torch which I am so scared of!!! I'll get over it soon as we have to use it a lot. I'm working on 2 brooches for the class. He'll assign 2 more. I never knew you could do so much with metal!! The only bad thing is....I think I'm allergic to copper. My hands itch like crazy everytime I handle copper.

Reflecting on 2010

What a year! I know it's probably too early to write this but I have a few free minutes so why not?

Amelia turned 11 this year (well....she will on Dec 22nd) - I have a tweeeen! Amelia is truly gifted. I am so proud I could literally burst with pride. She is growing up to be such a lovely young lady. I love her to pieces!

Doug and I celebrated 4 years of marriage and I am truly blessed to have him. He is very supportive and loving. He keeps us laughing, he spends time with us and put us first. He says & does the sweetest things. Blessed is the only words I have for that! God heard my prayers and sent me my dream husband. I'm a firm believer of prayer. It works.

I had the most amazing gift of the Princess Farhana Egyptian tour gifted to me by my husband. I was able to save money to pay for all the extras like shopping, etc. 21 days of PURE bliss in Egypt. I have no words for the feeling except elated. Doug said he wanted to make all my dreams come true and well Egypt was my biggest dream, ever.

Boudoir photography has been AMAZING this year! It's my true passion. I love it. I love meeting all kinds of women & making them feel & look like a million bucks!

I did a couple of weddings in 2010. Is it bad of me to say I didn't really miss the wedding scene? I love brides, love the whole aspect of weddings but I'm addicted to photographing boudoir instead.

I hosted my first charity event since our move to Little Rock. Raised money and goods for the food pantry in our little town. I volunteer there when I get the chance. I will host my 2nd event in April 2011.

I am so close to college graduation, I can taste it. Graduation -May 2011. 5 hours left to graduate. Happiness is finally receiving my degree. I have worked my butt off to obtain this. One major goal completed. I believe I will graduate Cum Laude. I'm cool. HA! Now I just need to decide on grad school.

I went to Dallas and got fitness certified. I'm teaching fitness class and belly dance class on the UALR campus. I'm a part-time employee on campus which is cool! Total excitement for me since I turn 36 years old next year and well....knees, hips, joints, etc. are starting to 'creak' and well...I need the workouts.

I stopped drinking soda pop on January 1st of this year and I stuck with it. I'm gonna continue the trend for 2011. It was my only new years resolution and I stuck with it. Not sure what my resolution for 2011 will be but it needs to be real and obtainable.

2011 will see another trip to Egypt in March. 10 days with Christine in Cairo. TRUE excitement as I am ADDICTED to Egypt. Insanely addicted to that awesome country. I will also go to Chicago in 2011 with Amelia and Doug. We want to take the train up to Chicago and visit family, friends and see the sites which both of them have never seen! Josie, here I come!!

2011 will see 2 bathroom re-models and a garage re-model. I need to expand my studio as I am truly outgrowing my space. I want to create about 6 shooting spaces with amazing sets. One MUST be a theatrical stage with the works. I also want a stripper pole and stage with mirrors. I want a vintage set for pin-ups. I SO want an old bathtub. I want to have scenes to appease all the tastes of my clients! I have been collecting props like crazy.

I have made some friends here in the Rock and I am happy to have them! Ebony my silly belly dancing photographer friend whom I adore. Corey (who we call CiCi)I met her in an Anthropology class and well.....we made it thru that class. Barely. HA! She is an inspiration! Silver who is one of the most intriguiging people I have met and brilliant! Justin. Ummm....what do I say about him cause there are no words. I'll just say a-hem Justella. Love him. Shelia who is a complete nutcase but in a good way. Patrick and Beth Fulks who live behind me! Patrick is a photographer I knew from years ago! Crystal, my all-time favorite model and yard sale buddy. She is just super cool. Josh Barron whose brain confuses me but he is truly good people. I also have met a lot of other neat people. If it weren't for the friends I have made in the Rock, I'd be so, so sad. I miss my peeps in Fayetteville. Truly miss them so much but my Rock peeps make it not so bad! ;-)

Here's to an awesome 2011!

It has been a truly amazing year.

My family.

I love my family. They are so awesome. My Amelia and Doug keep me smiling. I thank God for them everyday.

Cairo at night. Call to prayer. Traffic

This was a typical evening in Cairo. Stuck in traffic. Call to prayer in the background. I really miss Egypt!

The amazing Randa Kamal on the Nile Maxim - Cairo 2010

This was on the Maxim Nile cruise! Amazing time!

At the market...wanting to buy watermelon. yum! Cairo

Driving down a street in Cairo. Looking to buy a watermelon!

Felucca Rides - Nile River - Cairo 2010

Getting onto one of the Felucca boats in Cairo. Nile River! Loud music, cheesy lights and fun!

Various Happenings....

Busy Busy Busy. Life would be boring if I wasn't busy! School is literally kicking my booty. I keep repeating "6 more hours and you'll be done!"

Pics are from the diamond mine, at the fair, Amelia's pink out day for school. Pics have my friends Ebony & Crystal in them!

The sun has gotten to my head! Cairo 2010

I have lots of videos up from my trip to Egypt! Here's my favorite one in front of the pyramids. Everytime I watch it I laugh and smile. My heart is happy because my husband helped make my dream become a reality! I want to go back so badly but who knows....maybe I'll find another place to visit!

Stuff I've been up to lately!

I've been shooting zombies in old school buildings and going to the fair - of course!! I'm going again tomorrow for more shooting excitement. I can't seem to stop creating photos. I'm addicted.

Doug and I celebrated our 4 year anniversary! We can't believe how quickly time is flying. He got me a massage and a dozen roses. He knows what I like!!! We also went to the diamond mine with Amelia and dug around in the dirt. I found a diamond....sorta. The lady who identified it was thinking it was a diamond so they put it under their powerful magnifier. Well.....found out it was actually a fossilized insect head! Cool!

Classes are going well. I'm soooooooo ready to be done this semester. I need 6 more hours to graduate!!!!!!!!!

Can we say busy?

I made this dress on Saturday out of plastic grocery sacks and put a model in it. TOO MUCH FUN!

My poor blog is lacking. To say the word "busy" would be an understatement! Geeeeez!

I have meant to update this blog with more photos of Egypt but at least my facebook page is crammed full of photos from the trip. I have uploaded one card to a website and need to do the rest to back it up.

School is back in full swing and that keeps me uber busy. After this semester I am a mere SIX hours away from graduation! Holy wow! I won the Arkansas Lottery Scholarship - Amelia & I had a dream that I won the lottery (not millions but it was substantial) and so I bought a lottery ticket and lost - of course. But then the following day I got an email saying "you won $5,000 in the AR scholarship!" WOWZERS! How cool is that???? I'm glad because I need a new desktop PC. Trying to do homework and edit photos on an aging computer is frustrating and so it is time to upgrade. Yay for scholarship money! I now support the scholarship and vow to buy a lottery ticket at least once a week. Now that I know money actually gets distributed, I'm a supporter. :-)

Amelia started the 5th grade which is soooooooo hard to believe. She's becoming a young "lady" and that just makes me wanna cry. My baby is growing up but I'm so SO proud of her. Right now she is working on a petition to bring back sillbandz to school. She wrote the most amazing petition and is going to get 100 signatures and present it to her principal. I have a feeling I may get called to the office but I'm glad and proud that she is trying to fight for something she believes she has a right to share and trade during recess. Good for her and I told her I hoped she was successful and just something this small can lead into even bigger projects. This could be a stepping block into bigger agendas.

This semester I am taking Liberal Arts Colloquim (part 2 from last semester), Relatives & Relations, Archaeology and Costume Design (which I LOVE!!!) ... next semester will be figure drawing and whatever I can find to fill in 3 hours! Then in the spring I will apply for grad school and I'm leaning towards a master in fine arts with photography or design as my emphasis. Not sure on the emphasis part, yet. I'd like to become a professor for a university. That is the goal.

Last week I got fitness certified and I am now teaching Flirty Girl Fitness and belly dance at the fitness center. I get paid to teach and I LOVE it!!! Now I can get into shape and have fun. Next month I should get my CPR training.

My little part time job at Allstate has ended as my boss sold the business. 2 years at that office, I'm going to miss it but the agent down the road will probably call me to work for her when she needs to leave town. So not all is lost. I enjoyed sitting in the office listening to the crickets chirp. HA!

My entire August & September are FULL of boudoir shoots. I am excited. I love shooting boudoir - I really enjoy the whole process!

A day at the pyramids

What is a trip to Egypt without pyramids? I was pretty stoked to see this amazing wonder of the world! I cannot believe how massive the pyramids are. It was truly breathtaking...it was everything I dreamt of as a kid. I could hardly keep my enthusiasm down. It was just entirely a dream come true. My sister and I practically cried tears of joy from the excitement of seeing the pyramids up close. Being able to actually touch it and say "I was here" was pretty amazing and worth every dollar I spent getting to Egypt! I have so many more photos but thought I'd post just a few of the snapshots I got! And what is a trip to Egypt without a shoot in front of the pyramids? The location was at the Mena House - an old palace which is very close to the pyramids.

The King and his family

For some reason Julie has seemed to avoid all my picture taking. I know my sister has 1 or 2 images of her. Next time....next time she is gonna be in photos with me!!!! These are photos of me and Yaz and his 2 kiddo's. Their hospitality was so wonderful and I thoroughly enjoyed hanging with them and staying with them when I wasn't at the Mena House. I have known Yaz since *I think* 2004. I have been "threatening" him with a visit to Egypt and I finally managed to go! I'm so glad that I did. His kids are just wonderful and I had an amazing time with both of them. Amerah is my little bargainer and I just loved that. She is a good dancer, too. I have some great memories with the King of the Nile family! I have so many more photos and videos to show. This may take days to tell all the stories!

Back from Egypt

One image of me in a custom made costume by Yaz at King of the Nile! This was taken at the Mena House in Egypt.

I didn't post to my blog because I couldn't understand the arabic and couldn't get logged in. I gave up. So I emailed my family & friends stories throughout the time I was there. I still cannot believe I was actually there!

I will have many stories to post. Losing my egyptian cell phone in the back of a taxi, my egyptian stalker, the marriage proposal and wedding certificate, eating, side trips, 2 cruises, 8 of us in a car, shoe shopping with Mostafa, temples, belly dancing, the pharmacy, orphanages, hantoor ride, "George", losing 20 lbs, Big Daddy and so much more. Too many stories to tell. 21 days of total insanity. What a fabulous time. I am still in shock that I got to go and I think that Egypt is now my favorite place!

Monday June 21

Today I went to King of the Nile costume shop which Yaz owns. He has amazing costumes and the craftmanship is amazing. He really has a lot of pride in his costumes. So today I went to work with him and boy...that was interesting!!! Before he went to work he took me down this alley way by his building. We turned the corner and there was a real market. Not the tourist thing you see. I stuck out like a sore thumb!!! All the ladies were completely covered with the majority looking out 2 peep holes for eyes. They were nice to me but you could tell some were giving me the up & down. The men stare but whatever. It's their culture. So my sis stayed at the apartment with Julie because che (my sis) was still pale from the day before. She had a bit of heat exhaustion. The temperature yesterday was 116 degrees and today was 120. OUCH. tomorrow it should be a tad cooler. Should be. So I went to the market and Yaz spent $4 for the following: 10 tomatoes, 2 pita breads, about 10 date filled breads, 2 croissants, jar of honey, 2 liters of water, coke, pineapple juice and 2 cheese boxes. No lie. $4. What an interesting combination of food. I ate all of it. OH yes and I forget the best part - falafel! He got like a lb of fresh deep fried falafel straight from the fryer. I can honestly say I have NEVER eaten anything SO good. The flavor was intense and amazing. Texture was perfect. Oh it was the best. That is what I ate for breakfast and then ate a cheese and tomato croissant sandwich for lunch. His employee also bought me a peach juice that is solid juice with big chunks of peach. I can't even describe it. The food is just fabulous. Yesterday I even tried pure cane juice. SO far so good....no stomach issues as of yet. Only some mild heartburn. I know this is TMI - but I am regular and let me tell you - I am happy about that - so far. We will knock on wood that it stays that way. No jet lag so far. We shall see.

Today I had a custom made Melaya Leff dress made - fiery red. Ruffles, pailletes, sequins, beads...oh my! Goregous! King of the Nile seamstress' are amazing. I got to watch them hand bead stuff.

So exciting!

Sunday, June 20

The trip to Egypt was rough. I will admit. Sitting in an airplane seat for hours upon hours while some idiot hits the back of your seat from tapping his foot is not enjoyable. My sister and I stayed up for approximately 30 hours. I would have slept had it not been for the person hitting my seat. ugh! BUT at least I was able to put my hoodie on, ear plugs in and a face mask on my eyes. Watched a few movies, too. When we landed in Cairo we didn't even go through customs, I think I batted my eyes enough and the guy said "go through, don't worry" ... we went through and all you could see was a sea of people with signs or waiting on their loved ones to arrive. It was pure and utter chaos but sooooo cool! We were asked at least 20 times "taxi?" I musta said "La, shukran" 60 times back! (no, thank you) I am so thankful that Yaz sent me an egyptian cell phone because he was at the wrong gate and I was able to tell him where to find us. We got everything loaded and headed for his office where there is a land line that is free for me to use to make calls to the usa. So I called Doug & mom to let them know I made it. We got to see Yaz's costume workshop and it is way cool!

The driving here is scary. You just hold your breath and say tons of prayers for safety. We saw one bad wreck and then just lots of pure chaos. "welcome to egypt." Julie had pizza hut waiting for us when we arrived at their apartment. Love it! Took showers and dropped "dead" into hard sleep. Woke up at 7am egyptian time. Went to sleep at 11pm so we didn't have that much sleep! I feel fine. Everyone keeps telling me I wont feel it yet - I'm waiting. I took jet lag pills and they seemed to work like a charm!

Got up this morning for a bowl of cereal and then we dressed to go to the museum but somehow ended up detouring to the Khan el Khalilli bazaar. It's closed on sundays but there were some shops open. We parked and walked over. I actually found a clean restroom with a toilet. No toilet paper but I have it in my purse. I think I drank like 8 bottles of water and made 2 into gatorade (brought powdered gatorade)and I ate some trail mix. My sister - not so much. I think she was afraid of getting ill so wouldn't really eat or drink which in turn - made her ill. She didn't want to admit she wasn't feeling well but when she turned 20 shades of red - we knew. Yaz told her to sit down and we cooled her off with pouring cold water on her head and I took my fan out and fanned her off. Yaz bought us some fruit named "teen" - sounds like teen. It's a cactus fruit. I'm not so sure I liked it but I ate it because it's an experience. My sis - she didn't like it. So we walked deeper into the bazaar and I ended up buying Terry some tiger print isis wings and a tiger print beaded scarf as well as more to sell at shimmyfest.We took a taxi back to the parking garage for a whole dollar and left. Yaz stopped and got us some koshary and fruit. We had cherries, grapes, mango, and watermelon. My sis and I ate mango on the side of the highway (literally) and it was so amazing that I couldn't believe it was mango! The flavor is just astounding.A bus of men blew kisses at me and d. I blew them back. I probably got 15 marriage proposals from the bus. My sister and I were laughing so hard. I got called all kinds of "hey sexy lady" to "hey baby or habibi" and one guy asked for a kiss from an American lady. I of course said "la, shukran"

Just finished the koshary and fruit and I'm off to bed for another amazing day tomorrow. yaz is going to take us to Mcdonald's for a veggie burger. They have that here!!! so cool!!!

BTW - I would post photos but this computer is in arabic and it took me forever to try to figure out how to log into my blog!!! HA HA