No ribbons this year...

A little sad. I promised myself that I wouldn't even hope to win a ribbon. And broke that promise. Results this morning and my dear little jellies were not honored by the judges.

But we're having a party next weekend to celebrate jelly (among other things)!

Bo-Bo, and my first paying client!

Last weekend Justin and his friend Dani were down. We had some good, easy food - played Mario Cart - watched tornado warnings on TV - and had some camera fun too.

Saturday night - late late late - we set up some moody light. Justin's been asking for years for a "martini noir" picture - so we finally made it happen.

AND... AND... I've landed my first paying client. A portrait sessions with a trans-model from the modelmayhem site. I'm terribly nervous (haven't shot many women), and it's only $50 - but it's income! So I'll be setting that up for sometime in September - hopefully before we go on vacation.

Here are the pictures of Justin.
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Anitra

Anitra sat for some portraits yesterday. She was a good sport as I played with her hair and draped her in fabric (the beers helped...).

Here's my favorite!

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I'M OVERWEIGHT!! Wah hoo!

I've been consistently weighing in each morning at 208 to 209 lbs. 209 is my magic number for moving from "obese" to "overweight". Pretty exciting since I've been sort-of trying to get back down since ... about a year or two.

Doug also did the caliper body-fat pinchy thing this morning, so I'll know my new bodyfat percentage tomorrow or Monday. All of my fat pinchy numbers are down, so that's exciting.

It's the end of our 12-week fitness challenge and I lost 10.2 pounds.

No show

Mr. Bodybuilder bailed again.
I'm trying to be sympathetic, knowing he's going through alot personally - but I'm really tired to the constant scheduling/bailing. He mentioned something about getting into shape before a wedding in a month or so - I'm not going to hold my breath. And I'll probably just start telling him to contact me the day he's available - I'll decide then if I'm in the mood that day.

Spent the night making more tomato water and editing photos of Jeramey. He was very pleased with the results. I shoved a large bunch of lavender into the one batch of tomato water, hoping to infuse the flavor - we'll see. We're heading to the Trio's for dinner tonight, so I don't know if I'll have time for a test batch - but tomorrow night is currently wide open.

I keep thinking today is Thursday.

Dance Party This Weekend!

MGMT's Electric Feel:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UtUI5MC9tVM&feature=player_embedded

One of those days when I wish I could pull off the carefree, semi-waifish neo-hippie thing. Oh well. This video will have to suffice.

Tomato Jelly Take 2 Tonight. Found out I need to pre-register by August 11 and

Mr. Chad the bodybuilder is stopping by. He's got some paperwork he'd like reviewed - for weeks now on Monday he writes "what's your week like?" we schedule time, and then the day of, when I check in, I get the "I'm just not feeling it today..." thing. Tonight's the last straw.

Latest photo shoot

So last week I connected with a professional photographer who was cleaning through his equipment. For $60 I got a softbox, a boom stand, two additional stands, three strobe lights and an old Vivitar flash. Crazy.

Granted, most of the items are a bit shabby - eg. the spokes of the softbox (it's like a small tent) were poking through the fabric - but I fixed it by reinforcing those areas with pen caps! But seriously, most softboxes I see on CL or eBay go for at least $125. The Vivitar can be resold on eBay for $20-$40. The light stands (which, granted, aren't the sturdiest things out there) would cost at least $20-$30 each - and a boom stand (it lets you extend a flash above the model/subject) starts at $80 from B&H. The strobes, who knows - no less than $40.

I'm not saying it's all worth $300 - but for me to go out and get all of this equipment would surely have cost more than that. And now it's all mine!! Mwah mwah mwah...!! And now I can start to take truly kick-ass portraits with amazing lighting.

So another shoot with Jeramey. Such a relaxed and fun guy. I told him he should hit the MAC counter to get some light foundation - ok. I've sent him some expressions to practice in the mirror, which he sheepishly admitted haven't received adequate practice. But more than that is the familiarity - we've hung out for quite a few hours now and it shows in the photos.

Here's one from the latest shoot - I'd mentioned that we have this crystal garland from Christmas and he was totally game for playing around and draping. As a practical matter, the light should be softer in spots so he isn't shiney - but I think it works nonetheless...


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Spelt is my friend!

We hung out with E&T on Saturday night and brought over dinner (they had their first baby 4 months ago) - I wanted to make a summery pasta - bounty from the farmer's market, etc. - and decided it was time to try spelt pasta.

The dinner turned out lovely - roasted-then-sauted pattypan squash, grilled portabellos, fried mortadella, carmelized onions with garlic and spelt spaghetti. Cory made a dill vineagrette and tossed it with roasted beets.

The spelt wasn't as tasty as normal pasta (it also went from underdone to sort-of mushy in a second)(which I think often happens to some whole-grain pastas). But things went well!

And yesterday I picked up some spelt hamburger buns from the Wedge - added a bit of chicken salad. Again, things went well!

So hello spelt, my new wheaty friend!


Awesome second photo shoot with Jeramey yesterday. I got some portrait lights from craigslist - and they made for some kick-ass photos. Will post one later tonight...