I just got off the phone with Justin and he’s at a beach party for work. On Laguna Beach.

I, on the other hand, am about to walk Rolo in the pouring rain. In my soggy gym shoes that I walked home in, also in the pouring rain.

Well, to cheer myself up, first, I bought a really awesome pair of rain boots on Zappos – because clearly, I need them right? (The appropriate response is to agree with me.) Next, I found some pictures I took last year that reminded me of what nice weather feels like, in good ol’ NOLA at ImageX 08. These were taken in October, on a gorgeous 75 degree day:

Now, this of course reminds me of the fabulous beignets that I had from Cafe Du Monde… having one of these on a night like tonight would really hit the spot! Mmmm <mouth watering>

The weather lady is saying that it’ll be mostly sunny on Saturday, so I’m hoping she’s right. I’m getting excited for the first full out wedding I’ll be shooting this weekend – it’s a major milestone for me. And I’m ready. So bring it.

A few shots of my buddies from Doctor this Virus is Silence… I did some of their album photography last year. They performed last Saturday at the Underground Lounge in Wrigleyville. Yes, I was in Wrigleyville. Voluntarily. But it’s only because these guys rock (see below).

BabbaCo has recently launched it’s new product (the Babba Burpie) - and a few of my photos are now up on their site! I said it last time and I’ll say it again… there is something really cool about seeing your work up on a professional site like this! Here are a few screen shots of what’s posted on their site. In this first one there’s a special guest appearance of my spiffy green laptop bag. Jessica was hoping to get a shot with a diaper bag, but my bag was just too cute and we had to go with that instead Note: on the next 2 screen shots, my photos are on the left, and their studio photographer Pat took the ones on the right.

This last one was my favorite shot that session… BabbaCo’s model Vanessa is such a natural in front of the camera (even though you can only see part of her face here – she’s gorgeous!) And her baby was pretty darn cute too!

Sunday morning we had some very rainy, not-so-fun-to-drive-in weather… But we got up early for a family celebration and headed to the burbs… I’m a little behind on the blogging (and it is the middle of the night right now!) so this will be a quick post. Just wanted to share one super cute shot of Valentina! Here she is watching the rain fall into the pond outside, contemplating life (or trying to figure out how to get outside without us noticing!)

Lots of cool stuff going on, hope to catch you all up soon

Spring… did I say something about spring? You’ll have to excuse me, I didn’t realize Chicago was in for a blizzard tonight!

Here are a few pics from my niece’s baptism earlier today:

I know spring technically started a few weeks ago, but it’s just now starting to feel like it in Chicago. While I normally equate this with endless rounds of Claritin and Kleenex, it’s also just undeniably gorgeous once the flowers start to bloom and there are vibrant colors everywhere! I start to feel like a kid in a candy store when I have the chance to roam around and experiment. For me that usually involves lots of crawling around on the ground trying to get that perfect shot. Here’s one I took last year. Hopefully, it won’t be too long before I can do shots like this again!

I’m having lots of fun learning all about Photoshop. A year ago I honestly didn’t know a thing about how to use Photoshop. It is a beast of an application to try to learn, with a million different ways to do any one thing… so it’s been fun (and sometimes frustrating!) digging in and figuring out ways to get what I’m picturing in my mind out on a ‘canvas’ (so to speak).

Here’s what I put together today:

It’s a work in progress, but I’m happy with it for now!

After my last quarter in school I was convinced I needed a quarter off, but signed up for a couple classes anyway, just in case I changed my mind. Writing 4 unnecessarily l-e-n-g-t-h-y papers on cases that I wasn’t particularly interested in just seemed to suck the life out of me! That, combined with a killer midterm and final, and I was starting to pull my hair out, wondering how I was going to pull through with this whole MBA thing (and not understanding how I was so gung ho over this program just 2 years ago).

Well, I am thrilled that I hung in there – I’m finally getting out of that funk I’ve been in and am in two classes are ABSOLUTELY what I’ve been looking for. I think it has just as much to do with the professors teaching the classes; they are seriously amazing! After listening to their lectures the past week, I understand why DePaul is so highly ranked in the Entrepreneurship concentration.

In my Creativity in Business class, we are all keeping a daily ‘idea log’ of any creative ideas we have throughout the day. Dr. Simpson discussed how so many ideas are squashed before they are thoroughly considered, and she’s encouraging us to push through and allow those ideas to percolate and perhaps grow into something more. As one of our books is so aptly titled “A Whole New Mind: Why Right Brainers will Rule the Future” – I believe that to be true!! I am so glad I’m in a space where I’m being encouraged to fully explore my creative side and to apply these things to my business and work life today.

Here’s something I created tonight to give me a little inspiration. I’m going to print this out and paste it into my idea log. Here’s to dreaming!