A....

i *heart* this girl so much that sometimes it hurts.




thats all for today!

the K family sneak peek

congratulations to K, who will be meeting a major milestone this weekend, as she'll be receiving her first communion! She was a trooper during our photo shoot, gracefully allowing me "one more shot, I promise!"

her brother was quite a ham, and even made some lady friends while he was off climbing a tree. he is a charmer...

thanks K gang, for a great afternoon at the park!

i took a bite of the big apple

....and it bit me back. for real.

Dave & I went into the city last weekend to celebrate my milestone birthday. it was a great 24 hours in NY and I felt a lot like I did when we were dating and living in the DC area...just the two of us, no real plans except to find new things and explore. we got there around 11 am and headed to soho and the village. after walking around a bit and grabbing some coffee, we did a little shopping and stopped at a bar to have a drink and some nachos. we largely repeated the pattern of walking - shopping - popping in for drinks... for the entire afternoon.

And, before I go any further, I will admit that i was a tad buzzed that afternoon. not drunk. not falling over myself (or anyone else). In control. But, yes, buzzed. The good kind of buzz when you are giddy and goofy and with your best friend, just the two of you tripping around the city streets.

It was this kind of buzz that made going through my photos of that day a total blast, because I have clear recollection of exactly what I was thinking at each click of my camera. and, it was silly and ridiculous and the reason why I had such an incredible day...and no real amazing shots. I can promise you, these photos will not be of any quality, as I was, well, buzzed :)

{thinking} why would anyone put a cat on his head? what would that guy do if the cat pooped on his head? this is utterly ridiculous.

{said to dave} that is so stupid, i must have a photo of it.

{thinking} It's a good thing I bought that ipod, even though dave thought we were spending money frivolously. Its really coming in handy now that he's trying to find out where we are.

{said to dave} It's a good thing I bought that ipod, even though you thought we were spending money frivously. Its really coming in handy now that we need a map.

We came across this group of men singing in front of Ralph Lauren. We stayed on this street corner for a while listening to them and I remember thinking that I had just seen something special. I love the look of the guy playing the bass...but I think he's giving me the finger.

{thinking} reality check

{said to dave} we really have no idea how good we have it

{thinking} that oil & vinegar store looks so cute, maybe we need some new oil or vinegar

{said to dave, after tasting several vinegars} we need the fig vinegar

{now thinking} I guess I'm doing a giveaway on the blog soon, because I'll never really use$38 fig vinegar.

{thinking} I wonder if anyone famous lives in that building. maybe joaquin phoenix? maybe he'd walk out of the door right now and i could finally cash in on my top 5 freebie

{said to dave} that building is beautiful!

{thinking} dang, I just saw on Fashion Police that colorblocking is in this year. I should take a picture of it

after spending the afternoon together, we went to our hotel to meet up with our friends who drove into the city for the night to celebrate with us (thanks E & W crews!). we ate a fantastic dinner at citrus and at one point, looked at the table and saw this...

and i decided to officially cut myself off from any and all alcohol for the remainder of the night. the time stamp on my camera said 8:13 pm.

the unfortunate thing is that even though I did this, apparently those nachos we ate earlier in the day were bad and Dave & I both woke up at 4 am...sick, achy and with the chills. We formally apologize to our dear & understanding friends D&E for the fiasco that ensued in the hotel bathroom early that morning. it could not have been fun for them.

cheers!

oy vey

this is the view outside of my kitchen window this morning...
so pretty...
but, where are the flowers? where is the green? WHY IS THERE SNOW???
I love winter, but I dont think that March should be considered a winter month.

have a great day!

outtakes

i have an older brother and remember, quite clearly, what it was like when we were little...


my brother and i fought, a lot. i remember when he would grab me and wrestle me to the ground, not unlike this:



but little Nick wasn't wrestling with his sister. he was just so happy to take his picture with her, that he wanted her to sit on his lap so he could hug her


she doesnt look too distressed, right?

saturday

saturday was a good day.

a good night's sleep, a good cup of coffee to start the day, then off to meet this sweet little guy.

and then I got to hang out with this crazy cat at a little tea party event




she even obliged me with a photo shoot afterwards {gasp!}, but I'll have to post those pictures later because I havent even started to go through them.

happy tuesday, wednesday and rest of the week!

the sibling bond

I'm not sure how many times I need to post about my 7 - almost 8- year old's lack of appreciation for me capturing her life in pictures.

i mean, really...i would think that somewhere inside of her she'd get that I was just trying to preserve some memories of her precious childhood so that when she's older she'll have have some photos to remember her glory days. right?

so, when I started to take pictures of the girls for valentines day cards, and this was the first one I got, I was more than a tad irritated, because really, can't she just throw me a bone and smile??? maybe show her little sister some love on the most important love day of the year???

so, this time I decided i was not going to play her little reindeer games. i decided to just go with it and let them do their thing and not worry about the 'perfect shot'. this is what i tell my clients, so i figured i should follow my own advice.

after we put some tuneage on the iPod, they started to relax and have fun.

and lo and behold....look who is smiling, and even showed her sister some serious love.

well, hello there

Big A relented and gave in to my request to do a photo shoot this past weekend. I bribed her with hot chocolate and fluffernutter (that delicious jarred marshmallow that I could potentially eat by the spoonful) and to my surprise, she agreed. i think i got off easy with just hot chocolate.



Its been awhile since she let me photograph her and I got a few in that I am pleased with.

and this was the shot where she let me know, without saying a word, that she was over taking pictures...

if you were hit by the storm...stay warm & safe!