Birthday Fun at the Monterey Bay Aquarium.

It was Dorsey's birthday this past Saturday... hooray! Dorsey btw is my boyfriend's old roommate's (and one of his best friends) girlfriend and she is AWESOME and HILARIOUS! So we were very excited to get to spend her 28th with her and Ben (her boyfriend) at the Monterey Bay Aquarium! We had a great time. So much fun! I am so happy that my boyfriend has such amazing friends and that I got to meet these two and now be friends with them as well!

Again.. these were taken with the point and shoot and NOT photoshopped, so sorry for the crappy quality on many of them.

Meet the birthday girl:
Isn't she too cute? =)That's right... we made shirts! It was Shark Days at the aquarium and they said that if you made a shirt and wore it you got a prize. The prize ended up being a choice of a poster, stickers, or a keychain and a free ticked to see Sharks 3D at the IMAX theater next door. I personally think the real prize was how awesome we looked in the shirts! The employees were elated to see that someone actually did it haha.
Aw.. and here's my Schoener! =)
I love this boy SO much!
"Ahoy, yonder. Are you seeing what I'm seeing?" That's right it's more awesomeness on the horizon. Better prepare yo'self.
Ya, we're pretty cute. =)
The otters were our favorite part. They were ridiculously cute! Schoener named one Wombat. He's not pictured as he was further away and busy cleaning his rectum the majority of the time. (rectum I hardly knew her??... ugh I had to.. I hear this ALL the time with those boys haha)I loved these jelly fish! Such pretty colors!
Dorsey being scared before entering the 3D extravaganza that was Sharks 3D.
Apparently she was right to be scared because this large plush shark tried to eat her after the movie. Weird.
I bet you were saying to yourself when you saw us in our awesome shirts "Wow, there's no possible way a person can look much cooler than that. They've definitely reached the cool max with that one." Wrong my friends. Allow me to introduce into evidence Exhibit A. Shark Day shirts AND 3D glasses. 'Nough said. (feel free to take a break from reading at this point to let the jealousy run its course before moving on)
What's a birthday without a little bling? Even better when it is created out of sugary goodness. Looking like a bad ass AND having satisfying your belly at the same time. Pure genius!

Inspiration Journals.

(yes, the newly painted office wall was color matched to match the blog since I love the color SO much!)

My mom got me this set of monthly journals from Pottery Barn for Christmas and they are amazing. I used to keep several notebooks at a time and then I would lose track of them and forget where I wrote what down but not I have one notebook at a time and they are the perfect size.

I use them as inspiration journals and they really help me sort through my ideas and narrow down my likes and dislikes as an artist. This helps me to further define my style as a photographer. I cut out images from the magazines I get each month (JPG- my favorite, PDN, American Photo) that I feel inspired by and tape them in or I jot down my own ideas and draw little sketches of my ideas. The drawings are very quick and bad and I find myself chuckling at them regularly.

Some examples:

(sketches of the images in the new fairytale shadow series "The Shadow Tales")

(color meanings for the balloon series)

I would recommend that any of you get a journal whether you are an artist or not. Don't pressure yourself to write daily or be eloquent everytime you do. Simply write at the speed of your thoughts that day, whether that be short and sporadic or long and descriptive. I personally think it's so helpful in organize all of the randomness that is my mind... and trust me my thoughts are RaNdOm!! =)

Hope everyone has a wonderful Valentine's week! Feel free to tell me all about your journals or plans for Valentine's Day, or whatever you want really, in the comments section.

Alice in Anxietyland

So I got my dolly dress in the mail and donned it for an Alice in Wonderland shadow shoot for my series. Ugh.. it's super cute.

The final image:


Grad apps are due this Friday and I have a ton to do but despite that I can finally breathe a little easier. You see I realized on Thursday that I could not get my transcript from one of the schools I attended because there was a hold on my records. Apparently I had signed up for (which I really didn't) two classes in Fall there and hadn't paid for them yet. Oh and it gets better. Not only did they have me enrolled for classes I never signed up for but somehow I got an A in one (the other was a Withdraw). Can someone please explain to me how that happens??

Ugh.... so frustrating. Then I realized that my Sacramento State transcripts were still not there and they hadn't cashed the check yet so I freaked out. After letting the anxiety run its course for a night I took a deep breath and made a game plan. I paid to overnight another request to Sac State for a rush transcript, which was apparently unnecessary and a waste of money since the transcript arrived today. Hazzah!!

I ended up just paying the money for the two classes at the other school in order to get my transcript in time. Now I'm going to have to get both of the teachers to sign stuff saying I never took their class, which I imagine will be hard since one gave me an A and might get in trouble for that. We'll see. I'm just happy to have my transcripts!! One less thing to stress about.