Wines and Brides

In April I attended a lovely bridal shower in honor of a good friend of mine. The maid of honor hosted the party, which was a wine tasting bridal shower. She did a wonderful job with delicious foods and party games.  It was refreshing to sip cool wines while it was close to 100 degrees outside. Part of the tasting included trying to figure out which wine was from which winery based only on the description from the bottle. I’ll admit I wasn’t great at guessing the reds, did really well with the whites, but still got to pick my favorite wine  to take home with me. This was great because I never win any type of shower games. I’m just not cutthroat enough because I get distracted taking pictures.

I have to say when it was time to make wedding dresses out of toilet paper both of the dresses were pretty cool. My team wrapped the bride to be in a form fitting modern one sleeve number. Good looking but totally not functional for anyone but Peg Bundy who rocked the mincing high heal shuffle.

One of the games we played involved questions the maid of honor researched about the groom, which she then rolled up and placed inside a balloon. We then had to pop the ballon with a pin to get to the question out for the game to progress. It was actually pretty hard to pop the balloons and I got a lot of wincing and grimacing on camera. The bride did great answering the questions and like usual I didn’t guess the correct number she’d miss. Foiled again! For those of you who want to try this maybe some sort of goggle or Jackie O. style sunglasses could be worn by the popper. You know, the whole high velocity objects hurling themselves at your eyes thingy. Happily we all survived without an ocular injury.

What do you think, will you be planning a wine tasting anytime soon?

Wild Rumpus

This past weekend I created a photo booth, for a very special baby shower. I made photo props inspired by Maurice Sendak’s “Where the Wild Things Are.”  Looking back as a tyke I remember reading and re-reading his books just so I could stare at the illustrations. Even today I still draw inspiration from many of his his books. I wanted to share some of the magic I felt and still do from Sendak’s, “Wild Things” with my future niece.  Celebrating Sendak’s monsters was a perfect fit with my brother and sister inlaw’s UglyDoll baby shower and nursery. I was planning on posting some photos later this month but yesterday was accompanied with sad news. Maurice Sendak passed away at 83 years of age. The passing of someone is always sad, but I believe celebrateing the beautiful and positive things they brought to this world is the best way to memorialize them. Even though his creative pen is forever at rest, his inspiration will continue to live on in future generations, my niece included now.

The day before the shower I snapped a few early images of the mom and dad to be. The next day I posted some of the images by the photo props so guests would get inspired.

Having a mini test run turned out advantageous. I tweaked the back ground and location of the photo area from a alcove on the deck because of how hot and humid it was. I had forgotten what Texas was like in the spring/summer. Sometimes is all about location, location, location. Even though the light and space was perfect we needed more of an breeze. Then the rumpus began once the guests started  arriving.

What children’s books inspired you growing up?

Rock On

I know I’ve mentioned that I have fabulous grandmothers but each time I see them there are always more treasures to see and stories behind them. My Grandmother K has an awesome collection of geodes, rock fossils, and minerals. She collected many “in the wild.” As she told me,”It’s addicting and once you start looking down you don’t look back up.” Kind of like teenagers texting but without the running into light posts part. Now with spring here you may think only of blooms but why not think of what lies in the earth below them. the varied textures and color patterns can be beautiful. Then there are the few that sparkle. We as primates just love shinny objects. Well us, birds, raccoons, and sharks.  Yes sharks, so put that rhinestone bikini back in the drawer, but I digress. Let’s rock on.

I hope you are inspired to try rocking out yourselves.

Pretties with Pitties ❤ Puppy Love 5K

Running 5Ks and cute goofy puppies, what better combination is out there? Maybe cuddling and cute goofy puppies but I got to do that as well at the Helen Woodward Puppy Love 5k/walk. I heard about the event from Pretties with Pitties, a wonderful San Diego organization that strives to improve the image of the Pit bull and help get rescue animals adopted. They were a supporter of our adopted foster dog Jessie. She was a favorite with these ladies which is how I got to know about them. This time around I volunteered to handle/walk one of the dogs at this event. All of pups were from Pit Bull Rescue San Diego and I have met a few of these pups before. Even better the hub said he would take our own Verbena for the event so the whole family could participate.

We woke up Sunday to drizzle and rain clouds and set off for Solana Beach. I was packing a small light camera set up, of course lots of training treats, and clicker. Pups always have a great time with some positive reinforcement. The “watch me” command is great for picture taking.

I got to handle this little ball of happiness named Martha. She is from a litter named after the U.S. presidents and their wives.

We took the walking route since most of the dogs are under 1. You have to be care full not to push puppies to far at their age to prevent ligament and joint damage.

After we finished we had the dogs out to meet people and they had a nice break from their walk by the ocean. They played and met some new people for pets and kisses.

This little guy was a cuddle bug the whole time. This couple seemed to fall in love him and they took his puppy card I had whipped up a couple days before for each adoptable dog.

He even tried to give my camera a little love.

You’ve met Martha already and here are all the other fur babies available from Pit Bull Rescue San Diego who were at the event.

Carter (The sweetest cuddle baby ever)

Pippin

Sugar (Mama to a few of the pups)

Cleveland

Peppermint Patty (Soon to be going to a forever home, hooray!)

You can check out Pit Bull Rescue San Diego’s adoptables page here.

It was a great event with lots of puppy friendly vendors and gorgeous K9s. They had a doggy pet costume contest, and puppy yoga! We had a great time and are going to do it again next year. The Hub, Verbena, and I got coffee and crepes after the event to refuel and cap off what turned out to be a lovely day.

For more about the Pretties with Pitties visit their Facebook page here.

Mr. C ❤ San Diego Baby Photography

Meet the oh so handsome Mr. C, I did a special photo session for Valentines Day with this little man. The plan was to make this very girlie holiday work for this little guy. This meant no pinks or purples but a white, red, brown, and blue color scheme.  He was a wonderful little model smiling and laughing for the camera. Those cheeks, those eyes, this little boy will never be without a Valentine, prepare to fall in love ladies.

ADKPhotography is offering some new Valentines Day card designs this year. Who better to show them off with than this little guy. I think he makes them even cuter, I’m sure his beautiful mother would agree. They can be personalized to fit your Valentine. Please contact me for ordering information.

Leila ❤ San Diego Pet Portraits

I’ve gotten the pleasure of meeting another adoptable pup from Pit Bull Rescue San Diego. This little lady needed some walk time during the weekdays so I volunteered to take her out. Leila is her name and puppy energy is her game. She was so much fun to walk and play with like a little ball of happiness. She is still working on loose leash walking but for her age she is doing awesome. She is such a good girl and had a blast with our Verbena on a short walk and play session at our park. She is people friendly and very doggy friendly. She is up for adoption and looking for her forever family. Without further ado meet Leila!

She comes in a cute cuddly petite package. Check out her page with the rescue. Maybe put in an application for adoption, just saying.

Little Mr. O and Miss. V ❤ Family Photography

I got a chance to finally meet some new additions to my family and of course I took my camera along. Mr. O was a bit shy at first but soon his energetic personality came right out. And let me tell you this little guy has a whole lotta of personality. He was impressed when I showed him his picture on my camera’s view screen. After that it was little male model mode for him. We popped out back so we could check out his gardening skills which I’ve heard stories about. He spends lots of his time helping out his grandpa garden with his own lawn mower and rake set. I think we have a future landscaper in the family. Miss. V is the newest addition, though not as active was as sweet as could be. As long as she was bouncing along she didn’t fuss while I was snapping away. I love her big blue eyes and chubby cheeks. Here are just a few of the pictures I took of this adorable duo.

I can’t forget their beautiful mom. Thanks for the lovely visit!

Drip Drops

I love the rain. Not to say that I don’t love the almost 12 months of perfect weather we get in San Diego but something about the occasional shower makes me happy. I love that I get to wear a rain coat, boots, and tote around an umbrella. When I grew up in southern Arizona it was the fact that the monsoons accompanied the rain and made the air smell like creosote. When I lived in Virginia it was the cups of tea and comfy sweaters I wore. I love the sound of it pouring down or patterning against the windows. Here we get very little of it annually. I don’t tap dance around in puddles but I really don’t mind getting wet.

The rain increased as the day wore on and I noticed this evening it had filled to over flowing my tin watering can. Some how a small rose leaf had ended up on top of the can without being knocked around by the large rain drops.  It had collected water like a little pearl in a oyster. I know super riveting stuff, but when is the last time you really looked around you at everything going on in your environment. Do you pass by a tableau of a sunset, think oh that’s pretty, but don’t stop to really “see” everything. How the grass becomes glossy and saturated with the pinks and oranges of the sky. The way the sidewalks turn a shade of purple transforming them from utilitarian to streamers of color. It really comes down to not what your see but how you experience what you see. This is how I felt about this little rose leaf cradling its water drops.  So no shocker but guess what I did…  Brush the leaf off and use the rain water on the one plant tucked under the eves not getting water. Heck no! I went and got my camera and started taking pictures as my hub looked at me getting rained on like I was crazy. Ok, maybe just a tiny bit nutty but remember I do like the rain and all. I did take a moment to rain proof the camera AND put on my rain boots so there was method to my madness.

Then I got just a tiny over excited and got the speedlight out.

Why not see the mundane as extraordinary. What pearl did you see today?

Happy Halloween!

This year with two pups I wanted to make theme costumes The only one not participating with the theme was the Hub. He just used an old costume to scare the trick or treaters. He’s more into the tick part of Halloween while I like the costume making and decorating. I went though a couple of ideas before deciding on what we did. I wanted the costumes to be puppy friendly, made out of material I already had, and simple enough to put together quickly. The theme I settled on was, Entomologist (bug biologist) and bug specimens. Verbena would go as a bee while Jessie as a beautiful butterfly. I cheated a little bit with Verbenas costume. It was a old store bought one I made fabulous with pearls. I thought they would look like pollen all over her. The only thing I bought new this year were the wings for Jessies butterfly costume. It was a green Halloween for us. Of course when we got all dressed up I wanted to take a few pics in character.

“Crikey the elusive Redbone Queen Bee!”

“I’ll need this one for further study.”

We had a lot of puppy visitors in costume this year so I snapped a few cute ones of course. I can never resist a cute doggy mug.

We actually went to a trick or treat event near by all in costume. Check out Jessies blog for all the fun pictures. After that it was candy and scary movies for us. We had quite a few trick or treaters in our neighborhood. I’m so glad I busted out the outdoor decorations this year. I hope your Halloween was just as fun as mine.

Photo Ghosts

In the usual tradition of my family I wanted to make something for Halloween this year. Last year I made pillow covers with personalized vampire silhouettes and wanted to continue the handmade fiendish take on family portraits. The hub suggested that I pick a project that wouldn’t take up a lot of space since I’m really trying hard not to amass more stuff. I  decided to create spooky photo portraits to display in the house similar to this. Though mine won’t have glowing eyes or satanic image materializing unexpectedly (ok, ok, I think we can all spot a hologram picture right), they will make people take a second look. I imagine it going like this, “Hey, are these antique photos of your family?…. wait somethings odd here…. is this YOU in the photograph!? Creepy,” says random guest in our house.

I’d love to say I found all my vintage material in out of the way antique shops but I really just did some internet shopping. Not as fun but so much quicker in this hectic month for me. I made everyone pose for new head shots to match the lighting so it would look more seamless. Then the digital magic began attaching our faces to our previous life backgrounds. Sometimes photo shop can be to much fun. I limited my self to only a few so I didn’t go over board. Here they are for your scary Halloweeny pleasure.

The hub picked out his first past life photograph, no surprise it was from the old west.

I wanted a more debonair dearly departed pic of him so I choose this one.

Who knew a Dorian Gery all my own. His hair is neither long nor straight in real life but you never know past life and all. I couldn’t leave out our fur children from he fun. I actually think these would make some awesome greeting cards. First off, the serious faced Victorians. I know Jessie is a girl and that’s a mans body but she doesn’t ascribe to traditional gender roles. She told me, really she did.

Ok, no suit for Jessie so how about two cute little dead girls right.

This last one is really what my dogs would look like if they were my children, blond curls and fancy dresses. Though they have faces only a mother could love. And there you have it. I know I have some old frames hanging around that would make these puppies look spooktactular.