That's R. Simpson to you!

Jess and Dave have introduced me to the wonderful world of Simpsonizing myself. You should try it too. I'm a hotty, eh?

Save Venice!

Having lived here in beautiful Venice for 10 years (minus about a year in Mammoth, CA rotting brain cells), I have seen the changes that my home has gone through. Some for the best, most for the worst, but that is only my opinion. Venice has become the "trendy" place to live and with "trend" comes "corporate." My little neighborhood stores are being bought out by large corporations and we are becoming gentrified by the standards of every other "cool" place to live. There is something we can do to help this process. There are people in this city by the sea that care about it's future. They are Venice Unchained Check it out.

I love my neighbors...

...really I DO!! Had the idiots next door not left the pile of garbage at our dumpster, Jess would not have had the opportunity to get to know Eric better (who lives in front of our building) as they both shoveled the garbage back into the dumpster, and Eric may not have offered the "if you guys ever need anything, just knock" favor. Why is this story important? The couch I am sitting on is our wedding gift to ourselves courtesy of Sofa Company. If you can't tell, it is MASSIVE. The side to my right is 10ft long and if you have ever been to our apartment, you can understand how impossible this would be to get in the conventional way... through the front door. We had crossed our fingers in hopes that at least the other side of the couch would fit and the movers could do that part and we would deal with getting the long side in. Needless to say, neither side went in and we called on our good friend Rick (who had just helped us that morning to move our old couches into his and Robin's apartment) to come over and help. "Help" meant, heave the couch up the front of the rental Uhaul truck we got, onto the roof of the rental truck, let Rachel hold the couch upright as it balanced on the edge of our railing (which is 20ft up from the ground), then have Rick and Jess pull it into the apartment through the balcony sliding glass doors. SUCCESS! That worked for the first one. The second one was way too heavy for me to push from the bottom as they pulled it through the slider. We tried, but no luck. In comes the Eric favor. We needed him... he came with bells on! Jess and I heaved from the bottom (which was the top of the truck) and Eric and Rick pulled from the top. I do not recommend anyone do this! If our mothers would have seen this, they would have all stopped breathing. To make a long story short, we now have our couches, Rick and Robin have their couches, we have a better friendship with our neighbor and spending $14.00 for the Uhaul insurance was the best $14.00 we ever spent!

I Love My Neighbors!

Not really!

After & Before... YIKES!

So I am just sitting at home doing some research for a shoot this weekend and I run across this picture. WOW! That's a pretty amazing diet she's got going on there. The image came courtesy of Daily Mail (a UK newspaper) but it can be found all over the internet now with a new story saying that she wants to get pregnant. Again, I say WOW! I have to admit that I love her music; I mean she truly is an old soul with a fantastic voice but for God sake woman, please eat something!!

How Responsible

After a wonderful visit to the new addition of our extended family (who came into the world 5 days early), I remembered that I had shot this in the postpartum room. Not having ever given birth, it never occurred to me that you would need to be reminded to call someone to watch the baby while you go pee or take a much needed shower. I learned that you shouldn't wait until you can't hold it anymore because it takes about 10 minutes for the nurse to show up. But you can call her and ask for her by name since there is a dry erase board next to your bathroom that shows you who your nurse happens to be at that point. Good to know. I feel more prepared now for when it is my turn.