Thursday, June 30, 2011

Blast from the not too distant past.

After Matt and I had gotten engaged on Catalina Island (a story that I'll save for another time) it was time for us to get the ball rolling on this wedding business. One obvious and most important thing that must be done when you become engaged (all ladies, you know what I'm talking about) is to get ENGAGEMENT PHOTOS. It is an absolute must! We had planned on getting our photos taken by a friend of mine but then I later found out that Matt wouldn't be able to make it down in time for us to do the shoot. By the way, the weekend that I had planned the shoot was the only weekend Matt would be able to visit me before the wedding. A bit of important information right there for ya. So I had to cancel the shoot, but this wasn't over, oh no no no. We had to get this done. So I hatched a plan with my mom that she would have to take our pictures with my camera instead of having them done by someone else.

We had one whole day to take as many photos as we could before Matt left. Long story short we decided to drive to the beach in the morning and then drive to the
LACMA later for evening photos. Bottom line, it was a lot of driving. So we started our day off at the beach and after taking photo after photo we ended up going home happy with only 2 or 3 shots. Here's one of them:




(Side note: I don't like having pictures taken of me, so this whole process was a bit rough. I like to be behind the camera instead of in front of it. But having you're own mom take pictures of you was a BIG comfort to me and I'm so glad she helped me through the whole thing.)

We went back home thinking on how we were going to nail the evening shoot. I was nervous on what I had picked to wear and wondering if my hair would actually cooperate for me for once. I had picked out my sister's old dress that I had worn to my junior prom in high school. The dress was long and elegant, (just like every evening gown should be) a dark navy blue which matched our color theme. After spending over an hour trying to curl my hair I slipped into my dress, ready for action. We arrived within an hour's time and scoped out our set. Many other people were there taking pictures as well so it was hard to maneuver the camera from getting others in the background of our shots, but after spending 2 or 3 hours at the museum we were ready to head home and look at my moms shots. And of course she did not fail us! The pictures turned out great!






All that needed to be done was the editing and framing, which I left up to my husband to do since he had more experience in photoshop than I did. All in all my worries were over for our engagement photos. It was a lot of work but we got it done! And this is just one key part of planning a wedding. That's why they have "wedding planners." Pllllease! My husband and I planned our wedding with less than 3 months time. So move aside Jennifer Lopez! I don't need your extra expensive planning advice.

Wednesday, June 29, 2011

Gumbo, a portfolio, and a new blog.

Well we meet again blogger! It feels good to be back. One of the reasons why I've decided to start blogging again, is because it feels like I have so much to share in my life right now and I want to share it with my family and friends. I want to share my life from behind the lens (even though it may seem like everyday "boring" stuff that I do, I enjoy it just the same). So let's kick-off this blog with a grand first post!


Let's start with my incredible husband (he'll be featured here much) Matthew. Where do I begin with this guy? We met sometime in 2000 or 2001 and didn't reconnect until 2010 which then led to us getting married in 2011. He's a intermediate architect that specializes in BIM (building information modeling) which basically is digitally designing a building on a computer, to put it simply. Matt has currently been working on his portfolio to show to potential employers and has been working so hard on it! I can't wait to see it bound! Ready for showing-off.




As for me, I'm a housewife. And I love being one! You'll learn more about me in future posts. I do hate to go on and on about myself. I'll let my pictures speak for themselves. Anywho, today I spent a great portion of time working on dinner. That's right I said it! It almost took the whole day to make! It still has about an hour of cooking to do. Today I tried my hand at gumbo. Now I had never had real gumbo before (only the stuff from a can) and I've always wanted to make it. Now gumbo is a southern dish (or bowl) and I'm no southern gal. So I went to the most reliable southern cook I knew to get a recipe. You guessed it! Paula Deen! I know the lady is known to put a stick of butter in just about everything, but I still love her. This recipe was a process but with only an hour left of cooking, and with much taste testing, I can say I am very pleased and surprised with the great flavor! I only had to add some rosemary, thyme, and red pepper flakes to spice it up a bit and it is lookin' "peachy keen."



Here's the Gumbo recipe if ya'll would like to try if for yourselves.


And last but not least on the introductions today.... our cat; Gus! Matt and I had searched at animal clinics and pet stores until we finally found the type of cat we were looking for. We found Gus at a local Petsmart when he was about 3 months old. He was just a little guy, ripe to be plucked into mamma's arms (which is me of course). Gus is a very playful, loving, and mischievous little guy. He loves spying on the outside neighbors and taking long naps between the hours of 1:30 pm & 6:00 pm. You'll learn a lot about this little kitty in the future too. He's one of my camera's many shooting victims... I mean subjects...



Well I'll wrap it up with a quick cherrio! Hope you enjoyed my first post. Come back soon!