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***Warning***The following photos are so cute they may lead to pregnancy (not for me, for you).

This past weekend was “Girls Gone Wild 2007.” My mom, sister, 18 month old niece, two female golden retrievers and I lived it up in Boulder and yes, we were wild. There was pole dancing, topless cruising, crazy nights in the hot tub, and drinking in the afternoon. Well, sort of… Amelia (18 months) did “ring around the rosie” on a pole in a restaurant, we went for a jaunt in a new convertible with the top down, Amelia took a bath (while eating ice cream), and we shared one passionfruit/mango beer at noon between three lightweight ladies.

Of course, the only record I have of our Girls Gone Wild Adventure involve Amelia…

Thai iced tea with tapioca

What does a girl do when she goes shopping and then gets to the parking lot and decides that she needs to save her money so she goes back into the store to return a few items? She rewards herself with a bubble tea. Not only did I return some unnecessary items, but I sold a great pile of used books to a local bookstore. In a way, I almost came out ahead. While drinking my sweet bubble tea and chewing on the gelatinous tapioca, I realized how cool the oranges and blues were together. I loved the orange of the cup with the orange-ish drink with the orange straw, complemented by the baby blues. So, I said, “Assi, don’t chug it down…take a photo!” And that is what I did. And here is the photo. I LOVE THIS PHOTO! I never imagined that a boba drink could look so dramatic or sharp. Oh, the wonders of photography.

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I will probably talk a little more about this later, but lately at work I have been doing a lot of posting on some social networking and shopping sites. If anyone is a fan of kaboodle or thisnext, or stylehive or flickr or wists.com…look up Design Public and see what I have posted! Comments are always appreciated especially if you see something you really enjoy.

W. Buckland visit

Yes, Wade. You knew it was going to happen. Your photo is on my blog. You may be mad or you may be embarrassed, but I think you will get over it. I am sorry for cropping myself out of the photo…I looked like crap. You, on the other hand, look fantastic and having me in the frame took away from your good looks. Thanks for stopping by for beerz and burritoz. We can’t wait to have you come back!

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My dad stopped through Oakland last Sunday before he had to drive back to SoCal. We had a very special father/daughter moment. We went out for brunch and had pumpkin pancakes and crepes, then headed back to my apartment to do the one thing I had been dying to do: watch the Raider/Bronco game together. I don’t know what my problem is this year, but I have really been into football. While Cooper edits photos of pretty ladies in bridal gowns, I am watching football, burping, eating chips, and drinking beer (not all the time, just on occasion). It was really a treat to get to watch the game with my papa because he is a football genius and knows how tall every player is, how much they weigh, when they were signed to play for each team, what their special skills are…and he calls an event before it happens. At one point during a commercial we were watching two other teams play and he said, “Watch this guy. He will receive the kickoff and run it all the way back.” And he did. It was a beautiful day outside and we could have been out walking or something, but the time spent watching the game with my dad is a moment I will remember forever. Thanks, papa.

Cooper taking a bubble bath

I decided that since Cooper now uses this as his main MySpace image, I am allowed to post my photo. Bubble baths are not a typical occurence in our little apartment. Only when we come home from 12 hours of non-stop and action packed shooting and our muscles ache like none other does Cooper feel the need to take a bath (because standing in the shower requires too much effort). You wouldn’t believe how hard wedding photography can be on your body! At the last wedding I had to sprint to the top of a hill during the ceremony to get a shot of the entire setting with the bride and groom at the alter and then sprint back down before they exchanged vows/rings/kiss, etc. This is exceptionally difficult when the ceremony is 10-15 minutes and I am wearing a dress and sandals and carrying a 15 lb camera. I am not complaining, just explaining. Anyhow, the day ended with a big little boy taking a bubble bath. It was such a funny scene that I had to take some photos. I love the simple color tones in this photo…they really make his face look sharp and crisp. I think it was my favorite photo of the day! (Just kidding, the wedding was very nice).

We have wedding number 5 for this month tomorrow. It has been one heck of a busy month, but soon we will have a minor lull before the 3 Mexico weddings hit us like a brick. Aye carumba!

p.s. Cooper was covered with bubbles so I didn’t see or take any pictures of anything other than his face. 

Well, Cooper and I finally did it. We had a semi-real dinner party.  It was semi-real because we had to eat off our coffee table since we don’t have a real table table, but real because the food that Cooper made (I did the dishes) was amazing, the company was fantastic, and the apartment was relatively clean. The meal was Thai inspired and interactive, beginning with “make your own spring rolls” followed by a pad thai demonstration while masaman curry bubbled in the background and mangoes and sticky rice sweetened with time. We all had to loosen our waistlines after the main course, but it was worth it. 

The monster pile of pad thai and masaman curry

This past weekend Cooper and I shot a wedding for a really creative couple who added a lot of personal touch to their special day in ways I have never seen before.  The highlight: framed centerpieces of the couple with an image of the bride on one side and the groom on the other.  Their body positions were similar on both sides so you could “interact” with the frame and put her head on his body and his feet on her body, etc.  This certainly takes the cake over the traditional flower arrangements!   

The bride creates the most amazingly detailed handcrafted clothes for dolls as seen below.  The dolls themselves have so much character, but the clothes she makes take the hobby/collection to another level altogether. Impressive! 

 

Yeah, so…Labor Day is overrated.  Why not labor your heart out on Labor Day just like you thank your heart out on Thanksgiving?  At least that is what Cooper and I did two weekends ago…we labored.  Boy did it hurt on Monday!  I felt so darn hung over but all I had to drink was water and gatorade.  At least we had one moment of fun on that long weekend…our friend Greg was in the area and we met for lunch.  Lunch turned into talking shop about cameras which turned into Cooper selling his old Canon 10D to our friend with an amazing talent.  I actually think Greg might make for a better assistant than I am for two reasons:

1.) He looks better in a black shirt with a monkey head on it than I do

and

2.) He has a real creative eye.  I love, love, love the way his photos have such a vintage look to them.  He has mastered the art of the polaroid and tilt shift lens.  This guy has come so far with his photography and it has only been less than a year since he started taking photos as a real hobby.  I would highly recommend checking out his flickr site.  He really could take over my job. 

I gave Cooper a piggy bank for his birthday in June and now I am obsessed with piggy banks and want to start a collection.  No, Allison.  Don’t do it.  You don’t have the space and you don’t have enough money to fill them!  Maybe I should just get a real pot bellied pig and call it good.

Cooper and I have started to collect old skool glasses.  I can’t say why at this point in time, please hold on to yourself and wait.

So here I was, on a Saturday morning…thinking about my day and making plans to go to a Jug Band Festival in San Francisco, when I got caught up in a project and couldn’t stop.

It all started when I began taking photos of my recently completed felted bag:

I decided that while I was taking photos of this bag, I might as well take photos of the 293875923875 other bags that I have made that are just sitting in my apartment.  So I took 12908501985098209359283749827395872375 photos of the 293875923875 bags…

and created an account with Etsy, an online crafter/artist buying and selling community! My site is here: http://www.aszichild.etsy.com.  It was always a life goal to try and do something with my 293875923875 bags.  How rewarding it is to knock off a goal on the list.  Perhaps next I will try my hand at investing.

Oh, and because of my major detour with my project, we never made it to the Jug Band Festival. If anyone know of a good Jug Band album, please pass the info my way.

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Cooper and I finally named our fish (it has only been a year since we first got them): Dr. Beckord and Carpenter Carras…named after our fathers.

Isn’t it always the way when you are trying to eat less or attempting not to spend $$ that you end up eating twice as much or blowing your entire wad?  Yup, it happens, and it happened to me last week big time!  I don’t know what came over me but all of a sudden I couldn’t stop buying.  I am not really a consumer, but I guess there are times when the body finds a void that needs feeding.  It all began with my first purchase from Design Public: a Matteo Due Stitch duvet in brine.  Yes, it was a bit of a splurge, but my gut just said “Do it, Allison, Do it!”  Oh boy do I love this duvet.  Then later that week I had a conversation with my pappa and he said he had just written his last tuition check ever (assuming my little bro graduates on time).  In honor of this momentous occasion, I thought I needed to treat my hard working father to the one thing from Design Public that tickles his fancy: a Fatboy Headdemock.  I figured the cost of a headdemock was a drop in the bucket compared to college tuition for four kids.  Thank you, daddy bruce, for edumacting all of us!  By Friday evening I made a pact with myself to not spend a dime over the weekend.  But Allison, you are weak! I headed out on Saturday morning to try and find something for my niece to sleep on when she comes to visit, but I never made it to the kid store.  I got side tracked and went into a used clothing store and loaded my arms.  My mind was smart enough to say, “Allison, go home and find some clothes to sell and maybe you will break even if you buy a couple of things.”  My plan failed.  I guess my clothes are too outdated and they only took a pair of jeans.  Maybe I should sell a kidney in order to pay for my extensive shopping spree.  Man alive. 

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Sunday Cooper and I shot a wedding for Cooper’s friend Colin and his now wife Joan.  As always, I love the photographing the “getting ready photos” simply because there are so many crazy tricks us ladies use to get all dolled up.  I learn a lot from this time of mass estrogen and hairspray high, but unfortunately I am too much of a minimalist when it comes to makeup and hair that I rarely actually apply any of my new found knowledge.  In Mexico, one set of girls curled their eyelashes with the back of a spoon…ingenious! (if only I curled my eyelashes).   The one trick I am consistently dumbfounded by is the technique of making extremely big and curly hair, then brushing it all out to make it smooth and sleek.  I don’t get it, but it always produces a great end result that I trust it as necessary in some way.

Perhaps the cutest ring bearer I have see yet:

The Mission at Santa Clara University.  Oh, the memories from my college days.

Joan and Colin own a dog named Gus, seen below.  This is a first for us to have a dog at a wedding, but being the dog lover that I am having him around couldn’t have made me any happier.