Canada: Part Three

The cute Barteski-Kostenchuks!  :)

love this one... :)

Penn's expression cracks me up!
Thanks Kal, Dan, Pilot, Penn, Crash, and Norman the Frenchie.  :)

Intermission: Emily and Charles

My day took a crazy turn yesterday and so much slipped through the cracks...(including my Shutter Sisters post...SORRY TRACEY! The Kostenchuck fam is not ready to post yet either.

However, I did look at my files and realize that I have a BAZILLION sessions that I haven't blogged yet. I had no idea how much they'd been stacking up. So here we go...time out from Canada to meet cute Emily and her adorably grown-up little man Charles. So, she found me online (which sounds weird when you put it that way). But their shoot was so much fun that we ended up having lunch afterwards. She's really smart and animated, and tells the best stories. In fact posting this is reminding me that we really need to get together for sushi again, soon!

The only bad thing about her is that she looks like a super model, which always makes me feel like I need to lose 20 pounds, and spray tan, and get my roots done, and also get braces, botox, and a tummy tuck and before we get together.   :)

This is only a partial sampling of Emily's shoe collection which should be displayed in a museum, or at least an art gallery. If it was possible, I would have had her put them all on at the same time. This was the closest I could get. Love little Charles' feet in there too.

More from Canada tomorrow (hopefully).  

Canada: Part Two

I'm calling it her "Glam Session", but it was really a hmmm...what should we do? How bout we roll through a few thrift stores, slap on some lashes and see what happens kind of shoot. The best kind.

We started in her studio. Which when I think about it, was very surreal. I think I've probably written about this before, but I'm going to again. I found Kal's art, before I ever knew anything about her. It was like 6 years ago. We'd just moved, and I was feeling isolated, lonely, homesick. I'd just had a baby, hadn't made friends, wasn't working. So I had lots of time to surf the web. Somehow I stumbled on her Love Life site, and completely fell in love with her work. I think it's because I have a crush on graphic design. And the way she paints feels very graphic to me, in terms of how she crops things and incorporates words with her images. Her WORDS are like an extra dose of magic sprinkled into everything. So I was really taken by her art way before I even knew what a blog was. It was later, maybe two or three years, that I happened onto her blog and found out that the person behind the art was just as amazing. And really, how could you write like that if you weren't? 

So here are a couple we took in her studio.

 And we took these I think before she even knew about her new Wings Gallery Show...how cool is that?

Lashes make the world go round.

I swear, there is never a time that I feel more at home than when I'm playing dress up. Which totally doesn't make sense because I could live in sweats. And I think it's such a chore to even blow dry my hair. But when it comes to shoots like this, I morph straight into a 12 year old. Pink? Yes please.

This one is for my mom because she loves Norman. She calls him "the Frenchy", which goes perfect with his Glam Shot. Go Norman, work it. 

We tried to get one of Norman in my camera bag, but it wasn't quite happening. Next time.

Then we hit the streets. I swear, you Winnipeg photographers are so lucky. There is SUCH great shooting in that city. My camera would be on permanent overload.

There are two new loves that I took away from The Peg:

CANNED CHARDONNAY. Can I get a what what? Perfect for pedicures.

And ETHIPIAN FOOD. It was my first time, and now I'm hooked. I mean what is better than eating dinner with your hands? Anyone know of a place in San Antonio?

Part Three tomorrow: The Kostenchuck Fam

See you then! :)

Canada: Part One

There's so much to say about everything...Winnipeg, Oregon...why I decided to cut the trip short. How excited I am about the new business. How long my work days have had to be in order to make stuff happen. There's so much, I'm not sure where to start.  

I'd originally booked my ticket for this whirlwind trip. I had this idea that I wanted to put together some sort of online publication about artists and designers and photographers. At the time it all sounded fun and great. I'd lined up a bunch of really amazing people to interview and photograph. But by the time the trip had arrived, my life was swallowed up by BAGS, and new websites, and the major learning curve that is associated with doing stuff that you've never done. Consequently, my little artsy project had been shoved into the backseat of my priority list.

And that left me in Winnipeg: "Knock knock!" "Who's there?" "Oh, just a random girl from Texas without a purpose". 

So the view from my hotel room which should have made me feel excited about a new adventure, really just made me feel small and embarrassed.

And then this really sweet package was delivered to my room. I'd been so wrapped up in what was going on inside my head. It hadn't even occurred to me that someone might be glad to have me there. 

There were all kinds of Canadian treats inside...even Faux Smarties! I realized that when you're feeling vulnerable, a little welcome goes a long way. Thank you Kal. :)

And we ended up having such a great time. Kal took me all over her adorable neighborhood, which made me a little bit homesick for Sebastopol and the days when we could walk to everything. The bakery, the post office, the pub, the movies. Winnipeg just like that... a really sweet city with so much character. 

We didn't know what to do with our lunch at first. It was tuna fish, surrounded by rice, wrapped up in seaweed. Sounds weird, but it was so good. And I know my mom will read this and make it today, since she pretty much keeps Nori in stock as a staple. I wish I was more like that. I'm lucky to have bread or milk, let alone seaweed in the cabinets.

Kal organized this amazing spa appointment. She wouldn't admit this, but if you ever suspected that she is a total celebrity in Winnipeg, you would be CORRECT. One of the girls that worked in the salon reads her blog (really, who doesn't) and they stayed open just for us (her). I was also lucky enough to meet her super sweet friend Tammy, who came along with us. My only regret was that I was SO TIRED that day. We had just finished doing Kal's shoot, which meant that we'd started drinking wine around...oh maybe noon. I really have no idea but it was too early for my non-day-drinking self. Even in Mexico when people are sipping margaritas all day. If I do that, I want to be in bed by 5. Of course the pedicures didn't help. So it was all I could do to string together a full sentence at dinner.  

Here's what it looked like from her side of the camera. She wrote what might have been the sweetest thing that anyone's ever said about me as a photographer. I feel like if I live up to even half of that, then I was a success at this work.

And there's so much more, no way I could post it all today. So here is a little tease for tomorrow when I post Kal's Studio Tour, and Glam Session (you know I had to bring a little bit of Texas?!), and yes I did get her to agree to HOT PINK lipstick! Stay tuned.  :)

Austin...under the category of "stuff I meant to blog" :)

So my Mom and Bill (Nana and Papa) were coming from Oregon to celebrate my birthday. The kids had been sitting in the living room like anxious birds in a window sill. When they finally drove up, the house erupted with happiness. Only to top itself again when we realized my SISTER was standing there too! Her mother in law (sweet Bebe) had flown her out as a surprise. It felt like magic...as if someone had plucked her out of California and beamed her to my doorstep.

Then moments later, we were around the dinner table, discussing plane rides and wiping macaroni and cheese off the floor. The contrast made me realize again that life is mostly made up of what's ordinary. When you're in vacation mode, there's an inclination to feel like every second must be infused with something amazing. I want to tell you and show you and hear you and see everything about you NOW. Hurry and find the punctuation marks before you have to leave. But mountain tops are a relatively small part of the whole mountain. And when you realize that even vacations are made up of traffic and grocery store runs, you end up having more fun. So that's what I tried to do during their visit...just be present so even the ordinary minutes wouldn't be wasted. 

Like this one of my mom teaching Chance how to make chow fun. Any Hawaiians in the house? :)

Papa is forever pulling pennies out of ears. He's magical that way. And he taught the kids how to do a trick with a dollar that I still can't figure out.

happy birthday to me.  :)

So every night in Austin a million trillion bats fly out of this bridge right at sunset. The tour guide gave us all kinds of interesting info about them. Of course, now all I remember is that they're females. Yep. They kick out all the boy bats. But I don't know why. I wouldn't be a great tour guide.

Here are the peeps waiting...

My little thinker. I think he was looking for turtles. 

My gorgeous (completely flashed out) sister on the boat.

 It really was spectacular. Bet it's fun around halloween time, too.

K. Time to tackle the to-do list. I'm leaving for Winnipeg tomorrow to meet my favorite artist and her cute family for a photo shoot, and wine, and pedicures, and for just general fun. And I know I say this every time and then get too busy. But I'm going to try to blog the whole trip. 

See you in Canada, eh?  :)