Well another birthday has come and went. Even though I'm 42 now I still feel stuck in a 30 yr mindset (ok some would probably say even younger). It always seems around my birthday I begin to reflect on my life and the choices I've made and where I am in life. Sometimes this can be a depressing thought process. I'm still single with no prospects of dating in my future. I'm still overweight and on the verge of diabetes. I'm still living in a house full of repairs. I'm still someone's assistant and having to do their expenses every other week thinking this is not what I went to college for. But on the flip side there is always positive. I'm not tied down to running around like a banshee chasing after kids. I own my own home and the market is finally going in an upward trend. I'm changing my diet to eat healthier, except with a few cheats of candy. I have a good paying job in this tough market.
While I still wish I could do photography on a more full time basis, I"m aware this is a choice I've made. And I know it's still never too late to start trying. I need to get over my fear of failing and not getting the "perfect" photo every time. I recently was having a conversation on why I'm not doing more photography on the side. I was asked to take a family portrait and initially said no, because I don't feel I'm professional level enough to do it. But after talking it out more - the underline issue is I don't like to take people's portraits because they are so critical of themselves and I feel it reflects on me as a photographer. Every time I do a family session I always look at the photos and look to see what I could have done better instead of looking at the great photos I created for my friends. So after thinking more about it and wondering why shouldn't I do more photography I lined up a day to take their family portrait.
In the meantime Charlie, Lulu and Jasmine are always great models to practice on. The day after my birthday I took the day off and headed up to Apple Hill to take some fall color photos. Unfortunately there wasn't a lot of change in the season yet, but it still was a great day out with the family and to start teaching Jasmine the basics of photography.
 |
| Perfect combination of grapes and fall colors at Kids Inc Farm |
 |
| Pretty fall colors beginning to show |
 |
| Found a bunch of rams and sheep when driving out of Apple Hill |
Also for my birthday I decided to finally get my tattoo redone. I was never really 100% happy with it as the guy didn't really discuss what I wanted. Instead he changed up the overall drawing I brought in and didn't even do the same colors in the drawing. I told him I wanted the middle section to be an orange ball of fire grading out to yellow. Instead he just splat some orange on and called it good. My sister said it best that it looked like someone spit an orange loogie on my tattoo and I've always seen it that way since.
In the last year the color in the center has started to disappear in spots (found out this was because the he didn't do it correctly and it scabbed over and took the color with it). So I figured my birthday gift to myself would be finding a great tattoo artist to work with and create something great. I didn't want to go back to Forever Tattoo or deal with a walk-in type of shop. Instead I looked online for the best tattoo artist in Sacramento and found several whose names kept coming up. I first contacted Liberty Tattoo in Folsom, but he has stopped taking new clients, my piece was too small and he was booked until Feb. Ok, I guess when you have been doing tattooing as long as he has you can be choosy about your work. So then I found Side Show Studio that only has a few artist working. My friend Sean recommended Shawn there and I called him up asking for a consultation. He was booked for another week so he asked me to email him my tattoo and ideas and he would work on it over email until we could met. Well I emailed off everything and got a response that he would get back to me on Tuesday. Well two weeks later still no response. So the search continued. I then found Nelson at Ink Bottle Studio on Yelp. He had nothing but 5 star reviews so I emailed him off my ideas and tattoo and he quickly responded saying he'll do it and we could meet that next week. We met and I really had no clear idea of what I wanted. Nelson was awesome at helping me weed through all the ideas I had and come up with a great new concept. We spent almost 2 hrs just talking over ideas and chatting like friends. I come in the day before to finalize the drawing. I still had plenty of changes as I wasn't really sure what I wanted in the end. But Nelson assured me he would do a great job and we'll draw it on me as it's truly a custom piece. I took the afternoon off from work and a few hour delays I was ready to get it done. We spent another hour or so drawing the sketch on my leg, tweaking it more and creating colors. I was nervous as hell, but Nelson is so nice and patient he just would talk like old friends while he pierced my skin with what seemed like needles on fire. My god did it hurt 100% more than I remembered. He warned me it would as before I didn't know what to expect and it really didn't seem to hurt as much, but this is a pain I'll remember for a long time. There were many times I thought I would have to cry or throw up, but luckily I did neither. Nelson would stop and ask if I wanted something else done to it and would make suggestions throughout the tattoo. 2 1/2 hours later we were all done and I felt like I would NEVER do this again. Overall he spent almost 8 hours meeting, creating and tattooing me. It was exactly the experience that I was looking for (aside from the burning tearing flesh pain) . I'm sooo happy I found him and once I forget about the pain during and after (it feels like a sunburn on top of a bruise for the first week and then starts to itch like mad which you can't scratch and then peels) I will definitely be going back to him for my next one or two or three tattoos...... in the words of Caitlin the new tattoo is BADASS!
 |
| The new tattoo vs. the old and the chair I sat in for hours |
Last weekend Jasmine went to her first Homecoming dance. She was asked by a friend of hers, Dalton, she met at Younglife. He asked her to the dance by having his friend hold signs along the driveway and gave her flowers. You know nowadays you can't just ask someone without a big production. It was super cute. So on the day of the dance I came over to take photos of them before the dance. I can't believe how grown up and beautiful my little 16 yr old niece looked. Ok, yes I knew she was a beautiful girl but when we saw her in a grown up dress and sparkly heels, she was gorgeous. They made an adorable couple as he shown up with suspenders, bow tie and black and white converse shoes. Very cute! Unfortunately the corsage he got her broke before he even got it on her wrists. With her looking this pretty at Homecoming I can't wait to see what she'll do for Prom, as I'm sure she'll have plenty of dates lining up for her.
 |
| Looking gorgeous as ever |
 |
| Trying to get the corsage on, but instead it broke |
 |
| How cute are they? |
Halloween was this last Thursday and I think it's my mom's favorite holiday. I came up the weekend before to help decorate the house (same day as Jasmine's homecoming dance) We tied ghosts in the trees, spread cobwebs all over the fence and bushes and hung up scary masks all around. I just mentioned oh too bad you don't have a coffin for the front. Well she created one that week out of an old pool box, black construction paper, a creepy masks and some body parts. She also added a bbq of body parts and a scary skeleton ghost. I came up after work on Thursday and was greeted by my mom in a black hoodie with creepy green face makeup. She doesn't think Halloween should be cute, it's meant to be scary. Jasmine and her friend McKenzie come by to have dinner and then pass out candy to the kids. They of course got bored quickly and went off trick or treating themselves and meeting up with friends. Meanwhile mom and I passed out candy to the kids brave enough to enter the yard. She scared a few little ones with the creepy coffin and now is thinking of new ways to scare them next year. I see a fog machine in her future!
 |
| Jasmine (Ladybug) and McKenzie (Devil) |
 |
| Mom and her skeleton friend making dinner |
 |
| My glamping safari look |
 |
| Charlie cute as ever as a clown |
