There is a really good story here, I promise . Part of our team project in our Creativity in Business class last week was to teach a chapter from our book… We had an hour and a bunch of legos, clay, post-its, and markers for inspiration. And of course, my camera. We decided on a story board. Our topic: The lone inventor – and we debunked the myth…

Taking a couple steps back, we started off with our lone inventor – “The Hoff” who invented his Superfly Thing a Ma Jig (seemingly all on his own), becoming an overnight success. (Note how “The Hoff” used Bush-Head’s tree.)

Well, I think you get the point. There is no lone inventor (duh). But we had fun using our legos to prove it!

Ahhhh… this MBA is going to pay off big Really. And, I love this class.

On other news, be on the lookout for Jelena & Pat’s wedding post – I’m shooting my very first wedding tomorrow and am stoked! It’s going to be great! And, THANK YOU JUSTIN for supporting me and being my assistant and 2nd shooter! You are the best husband in the world!

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.

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!

I’m what you might call a workaholic. Justin’s been out of town the past few days, and while I’ve been missing him like crazy (it’s usually me who is out of town, so I’m not used to being the one left behind!), I promptly put together my checklist of things to do. I love checklists. I love the satisfaction of marking things off things as I do them – gives me such a charge each time I check an item off. Bills - check. Post client photos - check. Stop by the office – check. BTW laundry is on that list. At the very bottom. I will get to it. Really.

Anyway I’ve spent my entire morning and afternoon working pictures and ran across a few gems. Gah – Logan is just so precious in this one! Don’t you agree?

And then there’s my gorgeous friend Emily, whose ivory skin is so unbelieveably perfect:

It’s always a nice feeling to look at my list of things to do shrinking. Still several items left but I’ll give myself until tomorrow to finish them all… Figure out a few things in Photoshop and Lightroom, hit the gym, vaccuum, head to a friends house tonight for a get together.

Well internet people, you’ve distracted me from way too much already today But I blogged, so I can check this off the list.

I’ve been meaning to post a few cool pics from our trip to Vegas earlier this month. Being in Vegas for 4 days you’d think we would have had some time to gamble, but with all the fun things Justin had planned for us there really wasn’t much time at all! We watched a David Copperfield show, then a Kevin James’ standup show, and finally Mystere… between all that and hanging out with our friends our days were filled from morning till night!

One of the things I’ve had on my “To Do in my lifetime” list was to learn how to shoot a gun.  We organized a little field trip for ourselves and a few friends while we were out there to do just that. Now I’ll be honest, as soon as it was my turn to shoot, I kind of panicked, looking at Justin to tell me what to do. I had this sinking feeling that I’d get it all wrong and shoot my own fingers off!  But as soon as one of the supervisors at the range gave me a quick review of what I need to do and I took my first shot, I was hooked. My first shot went straight through the middle of the target (i.e. if you know what’s good for you, do not mess with me!).  By the end, I was loading my own bullets and asking Justin if I could shoot a few more

Here’s me at the range, practicing my new found skills!

Here’s Justin wishing he was as good a shooter as me! I joke! (sort of!).

I don’t know why I am so delighted with this next pic, but I just thought it was adorable that our friends Marie and Fernald (a ridiculously cute couple) had matching shoes.

The following night, Justin and I walked around the Bellagio before meeting some of our friends at a lounge for some drinks. Here’s my favorite shot of the evening:

the sky is so much more gorgeous in Vegas… The open road and the blue sky made it easy to drift away and enjoy our mini road trip… Truth be told, we were driving the WRONG way to our friend’s house for about 30-40 minutes when Justin realized we were heading to Arizona Well, at least we got to enjoy the beautiful scenery!