55/365

in case you wondered what was on my bathroom counter...



scope, make-up, etc

54/365

i LOVE this shoot.

got to do another from my circus theme.

this time it was the gypsies.

so i've danced with both tegan and erika

and when i thought about the circus gypsies

i immediately thought of them.

ammon was the tiger in my last shoot

and he made a perfect romany man.

i'm beginning to think there isn't any

character that he can't embody!

this shoot was super fun with some amazing people.

circus gypsies

53/365

so, during my first class today i was feeling kind of sluggish. i chalked it up to not having any caffeine. so i went and got a coffee (mmmm, white chocolate mocha....). i've limited it to one cup a week or else i'd be getting it everyday i'm on campus, which is no bueno. i dont need to become addicted. really, i dont.

by my next class, i figured out it wasn't the caffeine i needed. rather, it was sickness coming on. i had a shoot immediately after that class down by the river. during the shoot, i forgot all about feeling sick as i was occupied with the family i was taking pics of.

headed back to campus afterwards and it really started to hit me. my last class is usually from 3:30-5:30 and i have dance from 8-9 that night. but i was meeting with my professor and my group to discuss our senior sem project at 3:30. we got done at about 4 and we were done for the day.

my original plan was to stick around campus and do homework the entire time until my dance rehearsal started. i wanted to get all the stupid homework out of the day cuz it was looking like it was gonna be a very busy weekend. BUT of course, none of that worked out. i was feeling really poorly by the time my group got done that i just headed home. got home and took a hot shower to try to warm up. i was running a fever but i was so cold and my body ached. usual sickness type stuff.

went to bed at 5 that evening. didn't find out later that i was suppose to take a quiz online and i didn't. so i now have a zero for one of my quiz grades. :(

anyway, here's a pic of brothers before it all went downhill...

brothers

52/365

i was finally able to have another shoot for my circus theme.

like the cupid shoot,

my circus shoots had to be put on hold

for a bit until the weather decided to cooperate.

anyway,

here's the tiger and animal tamer.

i couldn't have asked for a better tiger than ammon.

he really got into and i got excellent photos.

i love having him in my shoots!!



the tiger and animal tamer

51/365

so two girlies from my circle of favorite people are choreographing again this semester and asked me to be in their dance. it's a chair dance to grace potter and the nocturnal's "paris (ooh la la)"

click here to listen

i love it. i love it. i love it. i really love it.

it's my favorite dance this semester. although, i question why i was chosen to be in it.. and i'm not fishing for compliments, really i'm not. but the other dancers are amazing dancers! like, they've had ballet training and they're so flexible! there's a part where we grab our leg and bring it straight up our side pretty much then turn around and go straight into the splits on the floor! after we found out what was what, they all stretched really quick then did it! (yeah, i'm gonna have to work on that...)

so it looks like daily stretching for me. i don't wanna be the one who... well... i cant quite find the word right now but i dont wanna embarrass. although, "embarrass" isn't right either, perhaps too strong a word.. oh gosh! you know what i mean!

ps: i forgot to stretch today. and i really MUST get back into shape...



paris dancers

50/365

so i've had this idea for a shoot that i've been wanting to do for a while now. since the beginning of january to be exact. i had all my models lined up and i wanted to do this shoot the sunday before valentine's day but the weather just would not cooperate!

finally, we were able to go ahead with the shoot cuz it wasn't suppose to snow until later in the day. it was a little nippy out and it was overcast which i LOOOOVE since that provides the best lighting. i started out early with gabby who played cupid and about an hour later my couple came into the picture.

i love the pics i got from this shoot. it started snowing shortly after the couple came into play. at first it was just light flurries like in this pic. then it started to get worse and worse and within 15 minutes of when this pic was taken, we couldn't do anymore because it was so bad!

anyway, if you couldn't tell, it's a cupid shoot. i love gabby's red hair and she was perfect for the shoot! i made the dress she's in and i borrowed john's bow. actually, i wanted him to make me one cuz i didnt think he'd want me playing with the ones he has. but he suggested i use one of his. honestly, i think he only let me cuz he was too lazy to make me one... and i made the arrow myself. it actually worked! i bought a dowel, some white feathers, and a heart ornament from hobby lobby for under five bucks and voila! the arrow was made with some hot glue. i wrapped some white ribbon around the buckskin handle on the bow and it was perfectly usable for cupid. borrowed the white wings from linzie, the girl half of the couple. ♥

cupid

49/365

omigosh!

KITTIES!!!!!!!!

cardo's cat had kittens.

seven of the cutest kitties ever.

and i get one in a few more weeks.

yay!

and if you can't tell by all the exclamation marks,

i'm pretty stoked about it.

here's cardo holding all the kitties.

john picked out which one we'd take.

we're getting the third one over from the left

he has a white face with darker stripes

looking left.

so,

the really weird thing is

this morning when i got up

to take the dogs out

there was this cat sitting outside the door

and it looked exactly like the one we're suppose to get.

only it was a teenager and not a baby.

anyway,

it was crying and wanting to be petted.

the dogs were wagging around it

sniffing and licking

and the cat just kept purring.

i picked it up and it sounded like a damn motor

it was purring so hard!

then it wanted to come into the house!

i almost just let it so we could claim it

but i dont know who's cat it was.

i can't wait until we can get our kitty.

bouquet of kitties

48/365

i love doing boudior shoots.

i really do.

but i've yet to find someone in the area

who does them the way i like them done

based on the work i've seen.

if you don't know what boudior photography is

think of it as being sensual and sexually suggestive.

i'm not talking about hustler magazine

but classy art that's elegant

not trashy.

nudity is implied but not explicit.

and the human form & the lingerie that covers it

is viewed as art.

i had a gorgeous model

and ended with gorgeous photos.



intimate art

47/365

oh hai!

what's your name?

nice to meet you,

i'm "procrastinator".

uuuughh!

seriously. need. to. get. butt. in. gear!!!

i waited, of course, until the very last minute to do

a paper that i knew i had to do weeks ago.

seriously.

last. minute.

i was up until 2:30 in the morning typing the damn thing out

whilst doing research for the damn thing

and trying to learn how to do APA style citations for the damn thing.

i've never had to do APA before,

only MLA.

what a hassle.

bleh.

late night paper

46/365

i was looking for an excuse to buy these shooes. love love love them as soon as i saw them but i couldn't justify buying them until dance comotion started.

thank you dance comotion!! i'm in a hip hop piece that these would be awesome for... and voila! my new shoes. :)



pink and black chucks

45/365

the card and roses that john got me for valentines day.

ooh la la

44/365

so, valentines day fell on a tuesday this year.

and john leaves tuesday mornings for work and isn't back until friday.

so we were gonna do something on monday evening for valentines.

that is until i remembered that i had school then dance all evening

and wouldn't get home until ten at night.

we kind of just shrugged out shoulders about it.

this month has kind of been sucky so far.

my birthday wasn't noteworthy and i figured valentines wouldn't be either.

i've had some rough days already this month and it sucks.

oh yes,

and i pulled a muscle in my back/shoulder the week of my birthday.

so i was dealing with that this whole time.

anyway,

i went to my first practice

and i did try really hard to just baby my shoulder

but i must have tweaked it

cuz it started burning really bad

that i ended up missing the rest of my rehearsals that night.

i came home to flowers and a card from johnathan.

we took a hot shower to loosen up my muscle

and relaxed watching tv for a while before heading to bed.

before we went to bed

we took this pic.

i really really like it and i'm kind of surprised that no one has

really said anything about it.

our valentine

43/365

so we actually went to the theaters over the weekend.

we haven't gone to a movie in so long

that it almost felt alien sitting in the theater.

anyway,

we watched "the grey".

it was pretty good.

about a handful of guys that survive

a plane crash and have to survive

in the wilds of alaska

while being hunted by wolves.

i like those kinds of survivalist movies.

almost as good as the CIA movies.

afterwards,

we went to walmart for some

late night grocery shopping.

normally,

we wouldn't bother on a sunday night

since john usually has to work the next morning.

but since he's working in arizona,

his schedule is tuesday-friday.

i like that he's home an extra day

but i wish he was home on friday instead of monday

since fridays are my half days

and mondays i don't get home until 10 at night

so i dont get to spend hardly anytime with him then.

anyway,

this pic was from the walmart parking lot.

i got a street light behind the sign.

this is straight out of the camera.



power of walmart

42/365

i had a shoot with a little guy named landyn who was barely a week old.

he was so little and so cute!

like i said before, i made some little hats for him for the shoot

but they were too big on him.

but it was okay

because i had so many ideas for this shoot

and i got so many good pictures!

baby landyn

41/365

i know, i know! i'm so behind on my blog.

i had a baby shoot the day after this photo was taken so i was making some baby hats for the shoot.

i wasn't able to use this little "jester" hat cuz it was too big for the baby. but i'll use it some time or another. there'll come a baby that this hat fits.

40/365

so, i'm gonna start with a confession...

i didn't take this pic today!

*GASP*

i took it yesterday when we were in albs.

we went to the mall after mom's appt

and there were all these crows.

my mom was like

"they must have just hatched."

i said, "they hatched on the day i was hatched!"

anyway,

there were soooo many of them

and they were so loud!

something happened with my shoulder yesterday though.

it started to ache, almost like i had to pop it.

but the ache got a more and more worse.

by the time we got home last night,

i could hardly steer the car!

i must have pulled a muscle in my shoulder/back.

it hurts a lot right around my shoulder blade.

last night was horrible

cuz by the time i crawled into bed

i could hardly move without hurting.

couldn't take a deep breath or even turn my head.

the only thing that didn't hurt it when i moved was my legs.

horrible night.

woke up this morning and it was still hurting.

so that's my excuse for not taking my pic today.

it's a legitimate excuse.

at least, i think so.

but i got to spend all day with little girl.

and just my luck that it's today of all days

that she constantly was running to me

and flinging herself into my arms for hugs and kisses.

and i could barely even hug her,

let alone pull her into my arms.

but back to the pic...

very cool if i do say so myself. 

gossipy birds

39/365

so yesterday was my birthday.

took my mom to albuquerque for her doctor's appt.

we had verity with us since toni

has a staph infection that's contagious

and the docs told her to not have little ones

around her.

anyway,

her appt was late in the afternoon

so we left fairly early

and got to eat at johnny rockets

where i finally got my dreamsicle milk shake.

been dreaming about that sucker for a few months now.

and i gotta say

it was delicous!

got to look around a little bit

then headed to unm hospital

where little girl and i played in the courtyard

pretty much the entire time.

we were gonna see the duck pond on unm campus

but i could not find parking anywhere!!and those that i found,

the stupid parking thing wouldn't work.

and i didn't want to see the duck pond

that much to risk getting towed.

anyway,

this pic was taken on the way home.

we headed out of albs pretty late,

and made it as far as cuba

before i had to stop.

mom was crashed out in the passenger seat

and little girl was conked out in her carseat.

so i quickly ran into the store and right back out.

when i got back into the car,

mom was trying to take her seatbelt off.

this is probably a good time to interject that

she had taken her medication

(specifically the one that knocks her out).

anyway,

i'm waiting in the car for like 15 minutes!

turns out she went to get a candy bar

and fell asleep standing up in the aisle!

omg.

so, i took a pic with my camera phone

to send to john since he was working outta town.

no... not that kind of pic, sickos!

then i started messing with my camera.

so this is me turning 26.

birthday girl

38/365

so i got a lovely surprise in the mail the day before my birthday from john's grandparents and aunt!

this will definitely be getting tons of wear, for sure! ♥

birthday cameo

37/365

dinner at the rocket grill upstairs in the student union building after dance.
i wish there were more choices up there...

rocket grill

36/365

so john is having to work in paige, arizona for the next 1-3 months.

it already sucks and he just started this week.

when we first got together,

he was working in tuba city.

that meant that he was gone monday-thursday

and he'd come home on the weekends.

it was like this for probably the first two months of our relationship.

now we whine and cry anytime he has to go out of town for work.

anyway,

what that means for right now is that he's gonna be missing out

on my birthday which is this week on wednesday.

so sunday, before he left, he made me my birthday cake-

strawberry shortcake.

we didn't have any candles and he sang happy birthday lazily to me

but the cake was delicious!

so now it's sititng in our fridge because i'm the only one eating it

since john doesn't like cake

and my dad can't have it because of his diabetes.

birthday cake

35/365

this shoot was super fun to be on.

i tagged along with bree today to her rumpelstiltskin shoot.

this is the girl in the story.

if you're not familiar with the story

or don't remember it,

here it goes...

a peasant lied to the king about his daughter being able to spin straw into gold. (why the hell would someone do that?! did he not think that maybe the king would want to see this miraculous process with his own eyes?) the king takes her and locks her away in a tower and orders her to spin all the straw into gold by morning or face death (i don't get why he wouldn't wanna witness it! if i were king and someone said they could spin hay into gold, hell, i'd be pulling up a recliner!). then rumpelstiltskin comes and, in exchange for her ring, spins the straw into gold. the next time he does it again in exchange for her necklace. the third night, with nothing left to give him, the girl offers him her firstborn child. he accepts the deal (shady much? what's he gonna do with a baby anyway? from the sound of the story, he's a heinous little toad. i'm thinking black market.)

anyhow,

the king (greedy bastard that he is) marries the girl. (and i guess stops making her make gold. why? i have no idea? i mean, you can't have too much gold, right? i think not.) anyway, they get on with the baby making and nine months later have a bouncing bundle of joy. rumpelstiltskin comes a-calling and the girl (now queen, though why anyone would wanna be queen is beyond me! have you seen how much weight kate middleton has lost due to stress? yikes. even the president for that manner. look at obama and all the white hair he's gotten in the past 3 years. looks good on him, but still!) anyway, she offers him all her riches and wealth but rumpelstiltskin will only be satisfied with the baby. but he makes a deal- if she can guess his name, the deal's off and gives her 3 days to figure it out.

long story short- she sends her servant to find out but she's wrong the first two days. the night before the last day, the servant finds rumpelstiltskin's cottage and sees him dancing around the fire singing his name. the next day, the queen guesses right and gets to keep her baby. (where's the king in all this, by the way? jeez, absent father- kid's gonna grow up with a complex.)

this is where the story gets weird(er?) and everyone disagrees on what happened to old rumply. he threw a fit and stomped his foot. this is where people disagree- some say he opened up a chasm and fell into it never to be found. some say that he sunk his whole leg into the ground then proceeded to grab his other leg and tear himself into two. (gross, who comes up with this shit?)

anywaaaay!

bleh.  

but the girl bree found to be our model was,

of course,

beautiful.

and here she is...

the girl who spun gold

34/465

i haven't shot with bree in so long

i almost forgot how much fun it is!

she invited me along

on an idea that she had to do

a girl with a bunch of balloons.

we went to this abandoned building

right on main street in farmington.

very cool location

except for all the honking people did.

i mean,

i know she was a beautiful girl

in high heels,

but jeezo!

it's so disrespectful.

anyway,

there were two photos that

i couldn't decide between today.

here's the one that won out for my 365.



whimsical

33/365

took the doggies for a walk. i need to start walking more again. i've kinda been slacking since school started. they're so much calmer when i walk them a couple miles. plus the benefits for me are outrageous since walking is the best exercise. and it's not a hardship- i just plug in my headphones and listen to my audiobooks.

i got a bunch of good photos on this walk right before it started snowing and we headed for home.

this one is some iron flowers that are in front of the senior center.

i was watching harry potter all day. i've become a huge fan over the past few months. i finally watched all the movies and i got them for a great deal used at hastings.

i've got one of the scenes stuck in head since then. can't stop thinking about it actually. it's when harry and hermione are dancing in "the deathly hallows pt 1".

check it out here!

such a sweet sweet scene. love it. the name of the song is "o children" by nick cave. everything about the scene is simply perfect- the music, the feel, everything. since i can't stop thinking about it, naturally that's what my picture is titled today...

o children

32/365

february 1.

so i figured with this year's 365 project

that i would take a self portrait

on the first of every month.

the last 365 i did,

it was kind of sporadic.

i thought for february

that i'd wear my new red dress.

red, valentines, etc.

but it didn't end up happening

cuz i was in class all day.

then i was running around farmington

trying to find john some long underwear

since he's been freezing his tushy off

at work.

i don't want my man cold.

anyway,

the red dress didn't happen.

but i was wearing a red sweater...

february self portrait

31/365

the second in my circus theme shoot!

i chose very carefully who i wanted to be the ringmaster.

she needed to be someone with a strong personality

since that's what a ringmaster would have.

but it needed to come across in the pictures as such

with tons of arrogance as well as beauty

but still able to pull off the nitty gritty stuff.

i immediately thought of a girl i know from dance-

chloe.

she is an amamamazing dancer.

a ballerina which only added to the shoot

since i thought that would be awesome to shoot.

anyway,

here is one of hundreds of amazing shots.

the ringmaster

30/365

so i'm doing a whole circus theme

here over the next couple of weeks.

i'm super excited about it!

usually,

around this time of year

my creative juices start flowing.

and without fail

they're a-flowing!

so the first in the series is the acrobat.

i got one of my dancers from last semester

to be the model for me.

and holy shit!

she is SO photogenic!!

i say that about a lot of the people i use.

but in this case there is no room for exaggeration.

i got home and started editing

and my mind was blown!

seriously,

i can't get over how absolutely gorgeous

she looks in these pics!

the acrobat

29/365

john has a box full of old toys that he used to play with.
thought i'd play with his star wars ones.
he did the whole set up for me cuz he was looking
at me weird the way i had it set up the first time.
so i gestured for him to do it,
since obviously from the way he was looking at me
i was an idiot and didn't know what i was doing.

so techy about his star wars toys.
sorry!
ahem...
"collectibles."

battle of little endor

28/365

i had a shoot the other day with these two. the little guy is almost a year old and the girl is 3 years old. they're cousins.

her mother said that she doesn't like having her picture taken but she was so well behaved and did everything i told her to do. i got really good pictures of her. i wont have their disk ready for a few more days yet but i did post some sneak peeks on my facebook photography page and her mother was so surprised at how well they came out. :) makes me day.

anyway, for this photo, he would not leave her hat alone! she just let him do anything he wanted- grabbing her hat, her jewelry, hair, etc. but i thought this was such a cute pic!!

boys will be boys

27/365

these trees were on the eastside of

the center of southwest studies

on campus.

and since i drive by them every day

when i go up for class

i thought i'd stop and actually

take a picture

since i always think

"that'd be a cool picture."

(and yay for run on sentences!)

i added some texture to it.

it was beautiful the way it was

but i've seen so many like it

and i wanted to add something else to it.

i was sitting in the office with john

when i was editing this

and we had his music playing on the computer.

hence the name...

tuesdays gone with the wind

26/365

i had just had dinner in the rocket grill upstairs of the student union building. i was headed to my thursday night dance rehearsals after gobbling down some chili cheese fries (so healthy, i know!)

i'm headed down these stairs and i realize that halfway down, there was ice just caked over.

treacherous stairs

25/365

one last dinner with sami before she left for france. i'm seriously gonna miss that girl! she left yesterday but before she did, we got together for dinner one last time.

i have so much fun with her! i'm sad that she's gone for the next few months and may can't come soon enough.

anyway, this building is in downtown durango. it was down the street from where we had dinner but since you can never get parking where you're actually gonna be, you have to take it where you can. and it turned out that we had parked in the same vicinity. so we stood on the corner of that street, and kept saying "bye" and hugging, loathe to leave.

i can't wait until she comes back!!

downtown

24/365

so this was taken at si senors,

my favorite restuarant!

(now i'm wanting it...)

this is right behind the hostess station

when you first walk in.

i usually dont even look at it

anymore since i've seen it so many times.

but i hadn't taken my pic of the day yet

and so i was actually seeing things again.

this came out gorgeous.

i took several different pictures of it

but this one continues to be my favorite from it.

it makes me think of india.

there's a blog that i follow,

but i'm spacing on the name right now.

anyway,

the blog owner had gone to india for vacation.

her photos were amazing

and though i hadn't wanted to visit india,

i can't help but think of it

when i dream of vacation right now.

(which is pretty much all the time)

india

23/365

so it started snowing the other night

 when i was still in durango for dance.

i left there about 9pm.

it usually only takes me about 45 mins

to get home.

it took me over an hour and a half to get home.

for one thing,

the roads were horrible

and i was driving my car.

for another,

i'd rather drive slow and be safe

(and have a mile long line of cars behind me)

than end up in a ditch somewhere.

i sheepishly admit that it's happened before.

so scary!

but this was when i got back into aztec

and i was finally able to stop

without fear of running off the road.

snowy nights

22/365

so one of my favorite times of the year is easter.

more just because they have a lot of cute things

like chicks,

and lambs,

and rabbits.

i know that easter means something completely

different for most people

but this- and getting together with the family

is my reason for liking it.

so hobby lobby already has their easter stuff out.

john and i were walking through the store the other

day, checking things out.

he came up to me with this little lamb-y.

we bought it and i named him lambert.

he now sits above my sink in my bathroom.

lambert

21/365

my handsome hubby ♥

i love him so much.

and i love that he lets me

take all the pictures i want

of him.

we were out for dinner

and were waiting for our food

in this pic.

i love the lights from the resturaunt in the back

and i love that he's looking away from the camera.

city lights

20/365

so i know i've already been slacking on keeping up with this blog.

it's already been a super busy semester. i feel like i dont have enough days in the week!

school- which is mon, wed, and fridays- not bad at all, i know.

but compared to just two days a week- tues and thurs- like i usually do every semester...

waa,waaaa,waaaaaa!

and then there is (or rather was) dance. i'm in 7 dances for dance comotion this semester.

but this week, all rehearsals are cancelled because of some drama with the space we rent. and it STILL isn't resolved. i'm not a very happy camper about that right now.

anyway,

everyone knows i love sparrows. i finally found a few keychains at spencer's in the mall.

i spent what seemed like all day there with vanny just looking around.

i've been shopping by myself (john doesn't count when he only stands outside the store) for what seems like forever and it felt so good to have a shopping companion.

i usually just rush through cuz i hate having him wait outside for me.

oh, the relaxation!

and i scored some cool stuff in the process...

 pink sparrows