diablo dimes blues.

i haven't been to a great local show in a really long time. and i think that that has helped cause my diablo dimes blues. i miss my friend gio. his one of a kind quirkiness, his amazing musical talent, and shoot, just his dang personality. anyways. in honor of him, mr diablo dimes himself, i wanted to post a few pictures, more than the usual, of his last show i had the pleasure to go to. by the way, he is down in miami currently so if you happen to see his name on a playbill, be sure to check him out. its an experience you will never forget. in fact, take a listen on his myspace page.......

http://www.myspace.com/diablodimes

 

 

 

 

xoxo.

skating on thin ice.

  today, i am not so much in the mood to write. but i do want to show. here is the oddest thing. at the hotel del coronado, not only can you not where open toe shoes on the beach (see previous post), but, you can ice skate. now the ridiculous part about this is, well, its san diego. and it is NOT COLD. the day i came here it was over 60 degrees and surprise, the rink had puddles. now mind you, i kinda dig the juxtaposition of the frozen water and the ocean but.... i don't know. just odd. but, pretty to photograph.

 

 

 

xoxo.

they're talking about a revolution....

ok. i rarely question authority. ok. that's not true. lets start over. ok. i often, but respectfully, question authority. i believe that rules need to be in place, to keep chaos organized. i also think that we need to question that authority when we have doubts. well. i have doubts. and hotel del authority, i here by, officially question you! what on earth, do you have against open-toe shoes on the beach. hit me with your logic oh mighty one. i triple dog dare you. otherwise, REVOLUTION!

xoxo.

time to get merry-ed.

 two of my oldest and dearest friends got engaged (to each other) on christmas morning! yippee!!!! i love them both dearly and am so excited for them. with that being said,and because i am me and this is how i roll....

i love you both and in the best mockery spirit intended only.......

OH MY GOD, HE WENT TO JARED! :)

 

 

xoxo.

holy merriment.

for his sons birthday, god threw up on a little house in north park. and as far as i can tell, he must have been eating and drinking LOTS of holiday cheer and merriment! enough for all to hear, feel, and see. probably even from space.  feeling quite festivis, me and a gaggle of very merry besties, hit the streets of san diego in order to find the spirit of merriment. and well, as indicated above, we found it. a beautiful pile of unearthly, definitely somewhere near godly, amazing, chaotic, noisy, house o' cheer. please enjoy.

 

 

xoxo.

eye see you.

i've been asked before why it is that i choose photography as a medium to express myself. the truth of the matter is, i didn't choose it, it chose me. i dont have a choice. i just see things differently. when asked to explain that into further detail, the only way i can describe it is, i tend to see pictures with in pictures. while looking at something as a whole, i see a lot of little things happen with in that"bigger picture". (fitting i suppose that i ended up with a degree in sociology).  i have a couple of pictures that i think capture this idea of a picture with in a picture.

at a dance recital, with over 30 acts, and only 2 including family, my nephew and i found ourselves a little ADD driven. in an effort to entertain our selves, out came the camera, in came the fun.

so here is where the picture within a picture comes in......... if ya look with in the rolled up program, you get this.......

xoxo.

discovering hidden moments.

i wanted to take a second and share just a couple of moments from another amazing wedding that i had the honor to shoot this year. as i am sitting here going through the photos, i can't help but smile. i think that my favorite part of photographing weddings is to capture the emotions that run high and rampant. whether its family or friends, weddings always seem to bring out the best in people. well, that is until the open bars get the best of peoples! :) hee hee hee. anyways, today i want to only share three of these moments. all un-staged and merely "captured".

my absolute favorite thing of this photo is the background scene in the right hand corner.

although recognizable blurry, i think with a biased opinion that the emotions occurring right then and there can be read like an open book, or should i say, live blog? :)

 

need i say more?

xoxo.

riding baldy.

as winter approaches, my body and heart crave the snow. after having spent a few years living in mammoth lakes, winter just doesn't feel right without riding. last year, i spent the entire snow season MIA. it's so easy to forget that it's cold and snowing somewhere else when it's blue skies and 50 degrees here in san diego. but this year, i am boycotting the whole not going to the snow thing. this year i will ride. and this year i will ride a lot. on a "crap shoot" some friends and myself bought these insanely low priced season passes to mt. baldy. having never been there, i was a little surprised at how little it was. but, at the same time i was completely delighted by how insanely beautiful it was! as you drive up the mountain, you notice that there is this incredible layer of clouds that just sits at the base of this valley. once you are actually at mtn baldy, you realize that you are sitting on top of this crazy cloud coverage. i can't explain it, so instead, i will show it.

 

 

xoxo.

things i love to do.

one of my very most favorite things to do is throw parties. no surprise then that i am currently in the business of parties. but, i really love to throw small intimate parties. like for friends and families. i love the cooking, i love the decorating, but most of all, i love turning a space that is used for one thing, into something completely different. for one of my besties 30th birthdays, we decided to have a small intimate dinner. i absolutely adore how we were able to capture her in the redecorating of a wood shop, into an intimate garden party. the next morning, it was all to evident that indeed this party was not only tasty and fun, it was a huge success.

the canvass we had to work with.

 

what we turned the space into.

what it felt like to be there.

 the after math.

xoxo.

palm frond brown.

there are two colors that represent san diego when it rains. red and brown. the red is for all of the gazillion break lights that suddenly appear with the first smell of a drizzle coming. the brown is for the color of, blown out of the trees, palm fronds that litter our streets, yards, and walkways. i love the rain. i love how it snows dead pine needles in san diego. i love how all hell breaks loose here in our desert by the sea at the first clap of thunder. everything about today, a rainy, cold, wet, dreary, fantastic day, i love.

xoxo.

tryptophaining.

on thanksgiving, somewhere around, oh say, nine-thirty p.m., this television show was stumbled upon. convinced that it was the turkey talking, i took pictures to validate the existence of this show for a later date, when said picture would be relevant. well, relevant! ok, so i am a self professed, "anti photoshop alter photos" type of gal, although i also must confess that i don't know photoshop, but anywho, trying to stay focused, i thought of a nifty way to put the photos to use. i think its fun. i still can't believe that this  is a real show but, hey, maybe now it just means there is hope for us all! ahhhhh hope, like a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, and this is most certainly a rainbow.........

xoxo.

simple pleasures.

so christmas has sprung and this week kicks off a busy banquet holiday season. while at work today, i had to stop and pull my camera out which, ironically was in my pocket at the exact perfect moment, something i don't carry with me. soooooooooooooooo, as fate would have it, in the middle of 400+ people attending parties on property at that very moment, this little boy and his father, stopped to watch a group of gathered christmas carolers. this is only one of the many reasons why i love the holiday season.

xoxo.

toilet talk.

warning, check.

A couple of years ago, i left everything that i know and understand behind and took an amazing adventure to japan. there are SO many brilliant stories that i could tell, many of them involving misadventures involving buttons and kanji (japaneese characters). well, i want to share one of those misadventures, involving, yup, a toilet. but in my defense, this toilet was a very rude and high tech toilet. ok, toilet isn't even appropriate. the thing was a freaking throne. arm rests, check. ambient sound, check. pleasant aromas that come from, who knows where, check. buttons with images of gentle water spritzing, check. having a couple of saki's and having curiosity peaked, check. and then comes the button pressing..... lovely gentle spritz, NOT CHECK! full high pressured assault, check. easy gentle drying breeze, NOT CHECK! high powered air pressurized dryer, check. exiting restroom at a full sprint, out of breath, completely traumatized, vowing to never touch a button again, check. returning to scene of crime to photograph said perpetrator, check. pushing more buttons along the adventure, (head bowed in shame), check.

xoxo.

obsession.

i am currently obsessed with this photo. the more i look at it, the more i like it. i'm going to say nothing more, but just sit, enjoy, examine.

xoxo.

thanksgiving.

through this blog, you will get to learn a lot about me. this thanksgiving, i want you to meet who it is that has shaped me to become this person. these are just some of the many people who i am thankful for.

here we are, mi familia. if you don't know us, then its hard to understand how hard it was to get us all to "pose" like this. "normal" i venture to say. but if you know me, then you know, that "normal" just ain't so!

this is who we are (well most of us) "normally". and it is for moments like these, i am so thankful for my family.

there are also a couple of little ladies that make my life interesting on a day to day basis. i have always fancied myself to be a "dog person" and when i first adopted saki, i thought i had lost my mind. and then a year later when i wanted to "gift" her with a sister, i knew it had happened. marbles, dropped and rolling across the table, to the floor, and out the door. these two little ladies are part of everything i do. whether it's, chewing on my yarn as i knit, attacking the printer as i print, or crying at my feet as i cook, they are 100% my heart and soul. and i am ever so thankful that they have entered my life, taught me patience and control. without them, well, there is no with out them. they are here to stay, and i will never have it any other way.

without further adue, meet the culprits behind all the cat hair in my projects.....

sakura mochi and kiryoku naru.

and yes, those are cats on my pjs. get used to it. :)

i am also incredibly thankful, amongst many other things, to have been supported and encouraged to go on my many adventures. without that support, i wouldn't find myself in places, that i can capture things like this.

happy thanksgiving everyone!

xoxo.

weddings schmedings.

as a young girl, i never envisioned my fairytale wedding, i never dreamed of my white dress, i never longed for the day that "my day" finally arrived. so ironically, at the age of, gasp, 30, i find myself having been in the wedding industry for the last 5 years. as a banquet captain, i ensure that someones life long dream, finally comes true. now it could be because i have heard the same speech, quote or saying hundreds of times. because i have listened to the same song, be countless of couples, special, only ours, first dance song. or any of the other things i have witnessed, experienced, and laughed at, that happens on such a repetitve basis, that weddings, to me, have lost all romance. i have become so desensitized to the beauty that i am part of that i almost never get moved. almost. that is until this week.  i shed a tear. i admit it. i can't believe it, but, i admit it.

on friday night, as the routine first dance was happening, the bride and groom suprised me. mid dance, the groom stops, and in a full embrace, grabs his bride and spins her as they kiss. the lights are bouncing, the crowd is cheering, glasses being clanked, elvis prestly is chroning in the backgound, and all the while, it is so evident, that to these two, nothing else in the world existed. it was just them. as he let her go, and slowly started to put her down, the most incredible thing happened. she took her hands, and gingerly wiped away the tears that were streaming down his face. and then gently, kissed each cheek. it took all of two seconds, but the love that radiated from these two, brought me to tears. now mind you, it wasn't gasping for air, deep hard sobbing tears, it was just a slow delicate trickle, that was quickly erased before anyone realized it, come on, i have a reputation to protect!

the reason i share this story is because suddenly, at age, gasp, 30, i realize that i am no different from those little girls. even though life has thrown a few curve balls, i will one day, be the reason, a perfect stranger, will shed a tear.

that very same day, these flowers moved me to do something else i never do. they were so beautiful that, i brought my camera out at work.

xoxo.

taco soup.

for wine and dinner night, bestie, ( a term you will hear(or read, if you will) often, lovingly, referring to any of my girl friends, or "besties", pronounced best - eeees) introduced me to a delightful, waist watcher friendly, soup. taco soup. i know right?! taco soup? what can that possibly be? delicious is what it is! the point is, i just couldn't let it go. i had to have it, and often. not only did i have to personally have it, but i also had to share it. and let me tell you, it has never been met with anything other than sheer joy! although, truth be told, most of my friends have never met a soup that they didn't like, we're just friendly like that, but that doesn't take away anything from the awesome power of yumminess this soup embodies!  after many demands for the recipe to be paid forward, i have decided to put it out there for everyone! it is delightful. and now, as it starts to get cold out, snuggling up with some hearty meat and beans, sounds like nothing other than, an awesome plan! so please, yoink the recipe, make it to your hearts content, and enjoy!

in order to get started, you're going to need the following ingredients:

 cans of : chili beans, pinto beans, black beans (i personally add these because i love them but not in original recipe), corn, regular tomatoes, mexican tomatoes, ground turkey, a large onion (or 2 little ones), a ranch packet, a taco seasoning packet, and some chips.

ok. i confess, i bought the wrong size tomato cans (should be the 8ozers) but, used it all anyways and it still tasted delicious!

the first step is to brown the meat and the onions in a skillet. once browned and drained (a lesson i learned after the spaghetti and meat sauce incident of '98), add the two powdery packets and mix.

when you finish mixing, take all of the canned foods and throw them into a giant pot, undrained. now i repeat, undrained! seems weird but all the canned juices make the soupy part, otherwise you'd just have beans, tomatoes, and meat in a pot.

mmmmmmm, can't you just smell it as it simmers!

now i warn you, for the next hour, you will have to patiently wait for it to simmer properly. avoid all temptation to jump in and start early! its like a patience building exercise! and good things come to those who wait! i promise!

it's important at this point to sit down, with a bottle of red, a full (been sipped on while opening cans) glass, already in hand, and surround yourself with good music, good conversation and wonderful friends, because before you know it...

ding! hours up!

now remember, like in life, presentation is everything, no point in making something delicious if it's just gonna look like slop... isn't there a saying like that?  if it looks like a slop, walks like a slop, talks like a slop....or was that a duck? anyways, you get the point! dress this soup up! make it so pretty, that its almost hard to eat!

so.........

hopefully while you were at the store you grabbed some extras like my favorites: cheese, sour cream and avocados. because if you did, and with the help of strategically placed chips......

voila!

now you try!

bon appetite!

xoxo.

sometimes, a light bulb, is just a light bulb.

one night, sitting on the porch, i looked up and suddenly saw something i hadn't noticed before. i ran inside grabbed my camera, and got all paparazzi on it! snap snap snap. so excited at what i had created i ran inside to show it off.

me: isn't it awesome?
him: what?
me: these pictures! aren't they cool!
him: its a lightbulb.

waah waah waah. sometimes a cool piece of linear lines and light, is someone elses lightbulb.


xoxo.