Birthday Wishes

Time and energy has been in short supply for me this week. But I couldn't let this day go past without digging deep into my reserves to wish one of my best friends, next to my Mother,  a very Happy, Wonderful and Amazing Birthday.

"HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD."

Hope you had a great day and I'll see you in a few weeks. XO

Stripper $$1's

Many of us out there have change jars. You know, a big empty vessel of some sort where you can throw all you loose pennies and quarters? Well, I too have a change jar. It's an over sized, jumbo-tronic bottle, that use to be the proud holder of “Seagram’s. 100% American Style Whiskey”. Now before you start getting all judgmental and saying that that’s just typical of and Irish person to have a ridiculously animated size bottle of whiskey laying around her home, I would urge you to “STOP”. Stop right there people, cos this is NOT mine. No mams. This is Husband’s. I know, who’d a thunk it? He’s had the bottle forever. Long before I ever showed up and he swears he found it at an antique store somewhere. Sure ya did sweetie.

Anyway, for about a year now both Husband and I have been off-loading all our loose change into the whiskey jar. Its been accumulating steadily, turning our largely disrespected and forgotten change into totals of 200-300 dolla. Not bad. But about 4 months ago I had another idea. What if I did the same with my Dolla’bills? What if every time I had a dollar or 2 or 3, I put those aside too, just in a box somewhere? Let them accumulate in the same manner and once the box was to capacity, get a total. So I did. I spent the last few months not only unloading my change but also unloading all of my $1 bills.

What was the driving force behind this sudden obsession with hording funds? Was it the current state of our economy?? Was it fear that banks were on the verge of folding? That life’s necessities were about to reach black-market style prices and the only thing capable of keeping us afloat was our trusted whiskey bottle full of coins and our box full of dollars?? Hell no. No, the reason was my love affair with Mac and my desire to have one. Mac, as in the computer. For a long time now I’ve been hungry to make the switch from PC to Mac, but there was always something more pressing my money needed to be directed towards, so Mac and I had to wait, and wait, and wait some more. But finally the waiting was done. The whiskey jar and the box had come to fruition and produced not quite the total needed to make the purchase, but enough so that the remainder could be met with minimum damage to our current financial quality of life. Yippe. I know the technique is very child and piggybank’ish, but whatever, goal achieved, Mac purchased.

I will mention that the trip to the bank to cash in not just my coins, but my piles of $1 bills was nothing short of majorly embarrassing. I know the bank teller lady was thinking “stripper” as soon as I flashed my cash and I knew nothing I could say would change her opinion. So I was ready. Ready to own it, “Heellll yeah I can shake what my momma gave me and live off it, don’t hate.... shoot. You don’t even know the damage I can do to a pole”. Lucky for her she remained tight lipped about the situation, so my inner Bon Qui Qui was disarmed.

Anyway, the point is, now I have my Mac. And I got it as a result of my patient commitment to saving. At least that’s the story I’m sticking with ; )

+ (Plus)

= (equals)

Prom, Paula & Perry Style

Prom season has kicked off here in the United States. WaaaaHoooo. A huge and exciting time in the life of every teenager and their family. And this past Friday I had the absolute pleasure of capturing a few Pre-Prom moments for the stunning Paula and her handsome date Perry.

Paula is the daughter of Nancy, a good friend of my good friend Mike (I know, a tad confusing, re-read it again, slowly) who booked me to help provide Paula and her family with some long term, cherished memories of this, her first Prom.

The Pre-Prom gathering was happening at Marietta Gardens and once I arrived and saw Paula and Perry, I was pumped. She looked amazing in her hot pink dress. A dress that was reminiscent of old Hollywood glam, that matched her skin tone impeccably and one that I knew would look completely fierce in all the photos. Perry’s James Bond with a twist tux had him looking very suave and demure and his handsomeness popped fabulously against his solid white jacket.

I would have loved to spend a couple hours getting some bold and fabulous shots of these young Prom’sters, but time was limited and understandably both Paula and Perry were anxious to meet up with their friends and get the party started already.

But I have put together a slide show of some of my favorites. So click below if your curious.

Love this photo of Paula. It shows off her killer accessories and hair.

http://kshinkins.smugmug.com/gallery/7939358_amneL/4/515230781_revpq

Confessions

The great Oprah always says “the truth will set you free”. Yes, she stole it from God, but as far as some people are concerned, Oprah is God and as long as people are getting the memo, then the source is irrelevant.

With that said, I have a confession of my own. We all know today is Easter Sunday. The end of lent. The end of 40 days and 40 nights of sacrifice. And just in case you forgot, let give you a quick reminder of what my sacrifice was………CHOCOATE. Did I make it? Well, funny you should ask. It’s kind of a grey area. The short answer is “NO”, sadly, Shinks was a fallen soldier on this challenge. I know, I know, what a complete disappointment, but if you just hear me out you’ll see that it made perfect sense for me to jump ship somewhere around the 3 week.

I’m not a big dessert girl. Cake, pie, pastries, donuts and ice cream hold zero interest for me. I can take them or leave them and more often then not I choose to leave them. Chocolate is my Achilles heel. However, a very interesting thing happened once I made the decision to quit. All of a sudden I found myself eating, of all things, cake, pastries and even a donut, which I absolutely despise. Cold turkey had sent me insane. I had begun to replace my standard drug of choice, with a brand new drug and if there was an unguarded cake or pastry within feet of me, lookout, I could double fist it with the animal focus and aggression of Mike Tyson in his prime. Throw in the fact that now even the comfy jeans required a great big suck in of air just to get the button closed. Things had taken a rapid turn for the worse and as a result, a re-evaluation was necessary. The outcome of my evaluation? Get back on the chocolate, fast. For some reason, as much chocolate as I’m capable of eating, it still appeared to be considerably less than the desserts I’m able to put away. Who knew? Not I. But I’m happy to report that once I decided that chocolate was no longer the enemy, my craving stabilized. Once again dessert held zero interest and I actually began eating less chocolate, sometimes even no chocolate. Crazy.

Anyway, sadly on the day I should have been collecting my boarding pass, my golden ticket for a guaranteed place in heaven, I must instead settle back on the waitlist for a spot that is TMD (To Be Determined).

On a more upbeat note, I am currently in the throws of Easter dinner preparations. Last week we received a great big ham as a gift from Intern Jordy’s (formally Gordy) parents. Thank you so much Paul & Ellen. And cos this little piggy is way to big for just us, we invited a bunch of friends over to share in the feast.




And to add a slice of spring to our dinner table, I got my hands on some daffodils. Thats them reflected in my diningroom mirror. Yes, you can say it, I'm very creative.

Snap Happy

This past weekend, Shinks found herself on assignment, photo assignment that is. My mission? To capture the heads and faces of “willing” volunteers in an outdoors environment, paying close attention to all sources of natural light and shade. WOW, did you get all that?

As part of the photography class I’ve been taking, 15 classmates and myself were let loose into the parks of Atlanta to practice headshots. And obviously for an assignment like this, there needs to be heads to shoot. This is where our “willing” volunteers came into to play. Friends, family, fiancés, grandchildren and even a set of triplets all gave selflessly of their time so we could put into practice the hours spent learning. And let me just say, these guys, were nothing short of awesome.

The hours spent sitting, smiling, tilting and leaning were all handled with the poise and patience of a saint. Not easy when you have the lens of 16 photographers pointed in your face, all of them requesting your head, eyes or hands to be somewhere different from the suggestion of the previous photographer. Honestly, I would have lost my mind, but this group of models; they were troopers to the last and should have been awarded the Purple Heart for Tolerance.

For me, the opportunity was invaluable. I’ve been working on shooting full manual (thanks Matt & Kate Altmix for that push & I promise, RAW is coming), which has turned out to be less scary then I had allowed myself to believe, but it does require a lot of thinking and a lot more practice, so friends and family beware, I will come calling, that much is guaranteed.

And before I show you some results of my work, let me first say a BIG THANK YOU, to all our models. You were the best.

Here we all are, photographers and models getting ready to have some fun (I'm the one standing left of middle'sh, in the white shirt)

Just look at us and our enthusiastic selves.

Now we're into it. This is the fabulous Sydney.......

and her stunning eyes and smile.

Sarah had classic baby-blues, I want them.

I love this picture of Michelle. She was so shy but completely adorable and I wanted to find a way to capture that.

After spending some time chatting about school and how silly boys are, Michelle allowed me snap one last picture. This time she gave me a smile, a Mona Lisa smile :)

What can I say about this little guy, other than this is Bryce and I want to eat those cheeks.