Nene + Omar | engaged

After a few days in vegas I jetted up to San Fran to shoot a few more sessions... one being Nene and Omar's engagement session.
All I have to say is that every woman deserved to be loved this way and every man as well. Over dinner the other night we were all in tears at different points of the conversation. Omar over the amazing gift he found in Nene, and Nene over the beautiful story and hand that God played in the formation of their relationship. Then there was me who just got emotional watching their love. It all sounds cheesy I know but at least it's true.
Nene and her family are from Afghanistan so I was in heaven hearing the familiar spoken Farsi. It reminded me of my house as a small child. And even better was the yummy food her family cooked for me the night before our shoot..... (key to my heart: middle eastern food).

I'm about to board the plane home to Boston so I have to hustle but here are a few to entertain until I can get to the real editing.

Nene and Omar: I adore you two... thank you for everything! I can't wait to shoot your wedding in Cabo this June!
xoxo

Abigail... revisited.

I headed out to Vegas to attend WPPI this week and it was a whirlwind of awesomeness... I got my love tank filled with all the amazing hugs I received, worked with the Marantz's on video for Portrait House (filmed by the super-stud Ron Dawson), and even squeezed in a quick photoshoot with Abby (the fabulous red-head from my favorite shoot last summer).
I couldnt help but edit a few for the blog simply because they made me smile. We shot a few photos inside the MGM grand casino and rest were outside the elevators on the 28th floor. Quick, short, and sweet... but oh-so-fabulous was Lil' Miss Abigail.

This first one was one of my favs...

and these last two totally won my heart as well...

somebody convince this girl to go into modeling.... please?

Love Disasters

I never drank the kool-aid with Valentine's Day.....I'm talkin' cards, candy, flowers etc.... [God knows that I would have DEFINITELY drank actual Kool-Aid if my mom allowed us to drink those little packets of colored powder mixed with 2 whole cups of refined white sugar (oh and a little water for healthy-sake), but alas we drank stuff like Chlorophyll with our water...yeah, you think I'm kidding?]
So anyway, back to Valentines day. Amidst the insane amount of activities I packed into yesterday, I thought back to what I used to do for Valentines as a kid... I remember My mom picking me up from school and giving me books as valentines. I have all these wonderful children's books that I still have... like "Love You Forever" (seriously beautiful children's story) or "the Kissing Hand" and then I was thinking about what I did for my mom on Valentine's days past. It was at this point that I realized that, more often than not, what I thought were symbols of love ended up being disasters...

Exhibit A:

Our family owned a classic car at one point. Red Dodge Dart. One VDay I was going to "surprise" my mom by waxing the car. I'd seen Karate Kid enough to know what I was doing... Wax on, Wax off, right?
**chuckle**
Well it was a warm day and apparently if you WAX ON and don't WAX OFF before the sun bakes it onto your car, then it isn't coming off. Sooo... the hood of the car was a constant- albeit cloudy- reminder of my love notes to my mom. (note: don't ever try to wax someone's classic car unless you know what you are doing... If you are a parent, just do yourself a favor and hide the car wax)

Exhibit B:


One Vday I decided to again 'surprise' my mom by shampooing the carpets. I was too young to drive so renting a machine was out of the question. I simply filled up pitchers of water, dumped them on the floor, squeezed out dish soap and started scrubbing... and scrubbing...and scrubbing. Um, lots of bubbles everywhere and very wet carpet. All was fine and dandy until our carpet was stiff from not getting all the soap out and the entire house smelled like mildew because I never knew you had to EXRACT the water from the carpet to keep it from mildewing the padding. Lets just say we had to get new carpet.
haha... oops.

So happy Valentine's day... thanks to everyone for all the sweet letters and valentines, you all make me smile. I hope no-one had any 'love disasters' but I'd love to hear awesome stories from yesterday so share away!

xoxo

(ps) And keeping with tradition, I got a new children's book. Life is wonderful 'eh? :)

Chronicles of a New England winter

Dear Diary,

Saturday marked the one year anniversary of living in New England. I can't believe how fast this year flew... but I have officially survived (or am surviving) a New England winter. Today I spent a few hours chiseling the driveway out from under 5 inches of ice. A few storms blew through and with consistent sub freezing temps, the ice has became too thick to melt (even in today's 50 degree weather). Stepping out of the car called for strapping on your ice skates to ensure a safe transfer to the house. So, armed with an edger and shovel I attacked that ice like Carrie Underwood on her cheating boyfriend's truck. I felt like Superwoman and wanted to chant "I am woman hear me roar"... but that died quickly as I got a splinter and blister from not wearing gloves. Then I just felt weak and pathetic.




Most would think it was moments like this that make me miss Southern California and the perpetual 70 degree weather.
On the contrary... days like this make me feel proud to live in a world I cannot control... a world that I exist in, am blessed to be apart of, and love... cheerfully adapting to rather than running from circumstances and realizing that days like this offer a free workout. I threw on my snow boots, plugged in my headphones and blasted my Boston playlist (just for fun's sake). Then piece by piece the driveway was cleared. Thank God no one has to know about the time I got the car stuck in the driveway last week... no one except the 5 men who dug my car out.
Luckily my secret is safe with you Diary.

xo,
Shy

(ps) apparently new englanders don't just mow their lawn... they mow their snow too. Below is a what I thought was an anemic lawnmower but apparently is a snow blower. ok. cool. whatever.