You’d think if one saw clouds like this on the horizon and bothered to shoot them that you may deduce that a storm was a brewing. Everyone else on God’s green earth might, but Miss Oblivious B. may not put two and two together.  Wha?  I, (the aforementioned Miss B.,) had furniture in the backyard for a garage sale that shouldn’t have gotten drenched and now may suffer from wood rot and stupidity (on my part not the furniture).  Heck I can’t explain how my mind works (or doesn’t), I just know I thought this was a tremendous photo-op and then I called it a night. I still stand by my decision to shoot but have to mentally flog myself for being such an air-head. Welcome to my world.

A few weeks ago I was contracted to do some freelance work for a potential client in Malibu.  It was supposed to be a one-off job and the day I went to meet them I didn’t bring a camera to document the drive.  Fast forward to the present and I was invited back to Malibu but this time with the intention of working with these lovely folks for a a few glorious months.  I am thrilled (and relieved) that they hired my firm (me) to take over their new branding project. I have always wanted to be able to work with a brand that took my sage advice and thought that all my ideas were fabulous.  Bonus, when I visit them I will be driving down a highway with coastal views that are so breathtakingly beautiful that I have to pinch myself that it’s not a scene from a movie. I am feeling rather fortunate. Get ready for a lot more ocean photo’s in the coming months because unlike the first trip I will not be forgetting my camera.

I know it’s Mother’s Day this Sunday in the states but I want to wish all the Mother’s (fur baby ‘mom’s’ included) the greatest day ever this weekend!

I came across this perfect package of what looked like my Bella, whilst looking for something totally unrelated, which I would tell you what it was if I could remember but like so many of my futile internet searches I got easily sidetracked, saw something shiny and that was that.  The photo’s that I found of the Laduree truffle package were a little too small for my blog so I decided to try my hand at rendering a digital oil painting. I am not great with the Wacom tablet which is what I use when I am trying to ‘paint’ in Photoshop (or clean up some of my photo mishaps.) The Fancy didn’t think it looked like a painting at all so I added the canvas texture in hopes that it would look more realistic. Painting in Photoshop beats cleaning up a mess of oil-based paints any day, bonus I didn’t kill any of my already rapidly depleting brain cells!  Truth be told when I was done I felt very Janet Hill-esque minus the enormous talent of course.

 I have been wanting to get a shot of clouds like this, for like forever, I am glad I was finally able to. If you are reading this on Wednesday morning I am on a plane headed back to San Francisco.  This trip I won’t be able to play tourist, I looked at the schedule and I am booked solid from the time I land until the time I leave.  Last trip I had to stay an impromptu evening in the city because my photographer never showed up. I had no change of clothes, or other sundries and had to procure sub-supplies at the local Walgreen’s–yes, I did buy an ‘I love SF’ t-shirt, it was $3.99 and clearly in my budget.  I couldn’t go to the shoot the following morning without makeup (scare the clients), so I had to make ‘if you were stuck on deserted island’ cosmetic buying decisions.  I bought foundation (with SPF), mascara (of course, I never leave the house without it), and blush. I wasn’t sure if this was going to be a complete disaster but as fortune would have it the foundation is my new most favorite ever, a drop goes a long way, it’s light but covers everything, just fabulous!  I love it and want to marry it.  At $12.99 I hope it says yes. The blush was also the greatest color, very light. It was a powder and I am more a cream blush girl but I got compliments all day.  L’oreal always makes the best mascara, you really can’t go wrong with any of their formulas but I bought their new natural.  Just like that I have new budget make-up that I adore and will be happy to use as long as they make it (or I fall out of love with it, whichever comes first).