Scavenger Hunt # 14 – Hero

Let me remind you of the hunt this week… Heroes – Remarkably brave person: somebody who commits an act of remarkable bravery or who has shown an admirable quality such as a great courage or strength of character or Somebody admired: somebody who is admired for outstanding qualities or achievements.

I picked M.O.M – My Other Mother. So lovingly referred to as Nani by all her grandkids.

Lou is my mother-in-law, but from the very beginning, when I first met her, 28 years ago at just barely 16, I have called her Mom. She embraced me as her own immediately, as did Joe’s dad, Nick. They are both very special people to me. Note: Dad passed away 2 years ago and my own Mom passed away in 1993.

It was the anniversary of Dad’s death on April 16 and we visited his grave that day. I love how Joe loves his Mom.

What a beautiful night at the cemetery.

Mom doesn’t like her picture taken… just like many of us, but she finally gave in and we spent an entire day together, just enjoying one another. She made sure she looked her best. She always does.

I love to see her smile.

One of Mom’s daily activities is doing word searches in front of the TV. So I captured that before leaving on our date.

Our first stop was Anthony’s for lunch. I really tried to capture those things that make her who she is… like ALWAYS remembering to put her lipstick on after eating… notice the leopard skin lipstick holder and manicured nails.

Mom’s favorite coin purse. Reminiscent of Hawaii, one of her favorite places.

I love how she loves everyone and until recently I had the ignorant thought that I was loved conditionally, that her love for me was based on the love she had for her son… but I found out that was not true. She loves me for me and unconditionally. I can’t tell you how that feels. Not only does she love me in this way, so does the rest of her family – my family. I wish I could convey what it feels like to be loved this way. It makes me speechless and I don’t know what I would do without her.

To have such beauty in your heart… it is a gift and a gift to be shared with all who have the pleasure of meeting her.

She loves flowers, so I took her to the Wright Park solarium.

It was a beautiful day and I could tell that she started to like being captured in this way. I think it was because she could feel that it was only out of love and admiration. There was no expectation to be perfect or be someone she was not and there was no other hidden agenda. I love her for who she is, as she is.

Hilltop Artisans (Chihuly students) adorned the solarium with beautiful art glass and all was for sale. She appreciates it like I do.

The sunshine was glorious!

She held my hand, kissed my face, rubbed my arm at just the right time and said the sweetest words to me.

We had to end our day a little short, since I had a photo shoot to run to, but we met up again later to continue. I wanted to really capture her life… a lifestyle portrait session. How many of us really have that of the ones we love? Very few!

Mom was wearing her favorite shirt when I arrived.

You are guaranteed chocolate in the chocolate drawer when you visit Mom! Everything has almonds of course.

And something home baked.

Afterwards you are welcome to just sit and chat. I love how Mom keeps a kleenex up her sleeve at all times. Too cute! You will also notice her striped cup that she has had since I can remember and her catalogs… she gets more junk mail than any person I know!

The best gift is her laughter. I don’t think I have ever seen a picture of her laughing and this will be something I treasure forever. She is the most beautiful when she is laughing with family. I think it is her most peaceful time. I love her… always. She is my hero, my M.O.M.

Next Challenge: In the corner – meaning frame the subject in the corner of your image.

Have a great Sunday night everyone. xoxoxo to you all and especially to you M.O.M. Thank you for letting me do this. I am grateful to have these pictures of you being YOU. The person we all love. You are beautiful!

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Scavenger Hunt #12 – Growing Up

On Wednesday our family drove to Sequim to visit the Olympic Game Farm. This was our second visit and a place we have decided will be an annual trip for us. One thing that has stayed constant in my life is my love for animals. Growing up I dreamed of being a vet and even though that dream changed as I got older, I still have a very strong love for all animals.

I never really thought about how many we had growing up… we had a lot and that was just normal to me.

At the game farm the animals are very friendly and stick their entire heads in the car waiting for more bread.

I don’t just mean a lot throughout my life, I mean a lot at all times!

These Fallow Deer are so, so sweet and they roam with the Bison... amazing.

We had dogs, cats, ducks, chickens…

Waddling Geese, they want bread from us too!

Free roaming rabbits in the back yard… I used to wait above the den holes and try to catch the babies as they popped out.

Free roaming rabbit at the game farm... they had lots of different colors, breeds and sizes.

We had a squirrel named Mike (yes a pet squirrel, but he was mean) and a chipmunk named Joe… both purchased at the B&I when it still housed Ivan the gorilla.

Kodiak Bear - many of these bears have been in movies... fun to watch.

We had fish, a ferret (love, love, love ferrets, but they stink!), gerbils and hamsters.

An Arabian horse named Wun Knight (I didn’t name it!), but didn’t live on our property.

Aren't I cute?

And all this in a normal city lot! Nope, not on a farm.

Even Seagulls can be cute!

During college, I worked at the Point Defiance Zoo and Aquarium; occasionally the thought of killing the rabbits for the snakes got to me and I rescued a few adding them to the rabbit family already in the backyard.

I rescued a few chickens too… just stuck them in my backpack and brought them home! It was during my vegetarian days where I was careful to only buy products not tested on animals and placed stickers on meat in the stores urging to not eat it (I’ve changed a bit, since now I do eat meat, but pretty picky about it still).

What are you looking at?

I didn’t have birds until later in my life after I was married, but before children. I love birds, love watching them, hearing them and having them as pets… but they are a lot of work and I gave them up years ago.

We were awe struck to see so many Bald Eagles and Golden Eagles in one place! Spectacular!

Today we only have a cat, but I still love animals… they are part of who I am… can’t help but point out every one I see as I drive – dog’s heads sticking out of windows, squirrels running across the streets, opossums and raccoons, hawks sitting on the light poles and occasionally a mouse or rat scurrying in the grass.

Bye! See you next year.

If you have not gone before I strongly recommend it… we laughed so much and the most fun for me has to be that Joe makes up voices for the animals. Cracks me up!

Next Challenge: Items we carry – This doesn’t necessary need to be what YOU carry but items people, in general, carry.

Have fun!

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Enjoying My Coffee

For many years I took the commute to Kent from Tacoma, drinking my latte at my vanity while rushing to get ready or in the car on the way to work. I watched all the cars around me, with people already starting their work day on the phone, drinking their morning comfort, applying makeup and eating breakfast, most carried the look of stress on their face. There are a few things I miss about not working at the company I dedicated myself to for so many years, but that is not one of them. I do miss the wonderful people… but many are still in my life and with Facebook and email, we are only a fingertip away. I do miss the money…

But what I have gained is priceless… I now enjoy my coffee.

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My Gallery Wall

It’s done… my gallery wall is done! I call it a gallery wall, but really it is not in a real gallery, it’s just in my parlor office :)… and since I have limited wall space with all the built-ins and windows, I had to limit the size of the images. Amanda is the star – she is not too happy about that, but it is one of my favs! The before pictures are here.

Surrounding her are some of my favorite images of seniors, families, kids, weddings, etc…

I had a great time doing it and secured them all with 3M velcro frame strips to make easy access for image changes and to save my plaster walls. My house has a tendency to be dark and on these dark rainy days, it is even darker, but that makes it cozy and perfect for cuddling in my velvet purple chair (hard to see in this pic) as I read with my tea. This is my favorite corner of the house.

I had to work around the built-in sconce and love the glow it gives the pictures around it.

With the left over images that did not find a place on my wall gallery, I created a collage by my desk…

And added some to a photo album…

A few of the images are printed on metallic paper, cool stuff! Makes the colors pop even more. I want to help my clients get a high quality product with less expense, so have tried different print services to find the one I like the best and that my clients have access to without having to go through me each time they want a print.

Some day I will have samples of all the products that can be ordered… but this is a great start. Hope you enjoyed it :D.

Have a great day on this cold rainy Northwest day… I am one of the weird ones who actually likes days like this (granted they are not EVERY day).
xoxoxo

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Graffiti Wall – Alice in Wonderland Update

Our family saw Alice in Wonderland this past weekend… favorite line: “I think I must be bonkers”… the response “all the best people are”.

On Tuesday, March 6, the Alice in Wonderland graffiti wall on Market Street, downtown Tacoma was finally completed! I was able to capture pictures of their progress and then the final masterpiece. You can see the first stage here, if you missed it.

As far as I could tell there was a total of 4 working on this wall at various times.

They have amazing talent and we are blessed to have them share it with us.

I have enjoyed watching the images develop and transform.

Just when I think they are done with a section, I come back the next day to find more detail added.

Up close and personal with art…

… the last time we saw these guys they had light green clothing on…

And drum roll please… it’s finally done and it’s AMAZING!!!  Grab some coffee next door at Satellite or a smoothy at Smooth&Juicey… Joe says the PB&J smoothy is to die for!

The detail is just incredible.

… so cool! What a masterpiece, don’t you think?

Some of the same artists painted the characters from the movie UP on the graffiti garages down on Broadway … you might want to check those out too, but they are filled with cars during the week, so wait for the weekend and maybe you will catch some new pieces as the artists are developing them.

Awesome work!!!! Can’t wait to see more.

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Scavenger Hunt #7 – Nostalgia

Does anyone else remember getting a pair of animals with each Arco gas fill up? I used to love getting these and I’m sure I owned several arks and coordinating animals.

I actually didn’t give a huge amount of thought to this week’s theme: nostalgia.  I think I was so exhausted from thinking of the last one, that I just couldn’t bring myself to go too deep on this one… I didn’t know what I was going to do until Saturday, when I was putting some stuff away in a closet and came across a box from my childhood.  Anyone who knows me well, knows that I am a collector.  I have many collections – Fenton glass shoes and boots, floaty pens, Wilton trivets, glass Christmas ornaments, glass baskets, Rainbow art glass fruit, old cameras, Fiesta Ware, and the list goes on….  I started collecting as a child… but back then I collected some strange stuff, the victim of being a kid without money I guess :)… I collected junk mail, medicine bottles and the toys I got from products like cereal, cracker jacks and Arco gas.  Well, as I got older the junk mail got thrown out along with the pill bottles, but I managed to keep the box of cereal toys.  Why I keep this stuff I don’t know.  It’s just how I am.  I have many things around my house that could fit this photo challenge.  I am sentimental and most of the things in my house have a story behind them.  I can tell you when and where we bought it or who owned it before me.  I have thought many times that I need to write this all down for my kids… they will never know that I have the first ring my Nana was ever given by a boy along with a picture of the two of them sitting on a rock together.  They need to know that kind of stuff don’t you think? My collections are neatly displayed around our house, but the box of toys was just tucked away and forgotten until I found them on Saturday… it really isn’t the kind of collection to display, but I will share it with you.

Over the years I have managed to lose the top of the ark and the ramp… must be up in the attic somewhere and some of the animals have their legs chewed off (hmmm….) but when I set them all up I remembered how much I played with them. I had purple shag carpet in my room, so these had to be set up in the kitchen where the floor was smooth.  I can picture my mom at the gas station while the attendant cleaned our windshield and filled the tank (the good ol’ days).  I remember them handing the bag of animals to me and the excitement I felt to get a set I didn’t have already.

I know I collected them long enough to see some variations in the way they made Noah and his wife and even some of the animal poses.

Along with the Arco animals I also had the dolls of the world – wonder where they are now and the glass animals from Red Rose Tea and cereal toys….
When opening a new box of cereal I would quickly puff the box up and look down the side to see if I could find the toy.

I must have spent an hour going through them all as I set them up on the living room floor. Then, as I was preparing this post, we spent another hour looking up vintage cereal toys on the internet… fun stuff I tell ya! These are from the R&L company called Daffy Dawgs – Corny Canines. They took a while to find, but we finally did! They came in Kellogg’s Corn Flakes in the 70’s (wow, that dates me). We found them on eBay for about $10 a piece… you might be seeing my collection on there soon :D.

Some are still in packages… and some are just little scraps of paper that normal people would not keep… My name is Connie Riggio and I have a problem…

Remember Grins & Smiles & Giggles & Laughs cereal? I must have liked it, I have a ton of these magnets. This was made by Ralston – isn’t that a pet food company?

My mom’s favorite cereal was called Sugar Pops, but for “some” reason it no longer has the word Sugar as part of the title… it’s now just called Pops. Can’t advertise that it is made with sugar. Times have changed!

Do you remember the scrubbing bubbles? I wonder where I picked those up?

Look, it’s an Olympic figure skater card from 1980 and do you see Frankenberry? Loved that cereal… along with Boo Berry, but I never liked Count Chocula.

Hope you enjoyed my walk down memory lane… I know I had fun preparing it for you.

Visit Sara’s blog for another example of Nostalgia!

Next Challenge: Reflections – Reflected image: the image of somebody or something that appears in a mirror or other reflecting surface or Considered idea: an idea or thought, especially one produced by careful consideration.

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Graffiti – It’s My Favorite!

I know I have told you this before, but I will tell you again, I have always loved art. It’s just in my blood. As a child I remember wanting to take painting classes down by Titlow Beach, but that just never happened. I continued my love through the years in the form of pencil drawings, charcoals and pastels. I quit for a long time, but that changed when my kids were young and I saw that they enjoyed watching me draw cartoons for them. It became a tradition while on vacations for me to draw cartoons and have them color them. I enjoyed doing it and they loved getting them. I have not looked at an art book or picked up a pencil to draw in over a year now, but I have admired other’s art and I could sit and watch artists paint all day. I would probably freak them out, the weird lady that is always watching… so I don’t linger long :)…

This past weekend I got word that the Market Street Graffiti wall was being revamped. This is just one of the walls I use for my portraits. I love the colors and admire the artist’s pieces.

When I arrived they were well on their way…

This wall looked like this the last time I saw it…

I have used it many, many times!

I love that I now have a new wall to work with…

I even got a chance to talk to a few of the artists. My question to them… how do you feel when another artist comes and covers over your piece? These same artists also worked on the graffiti garages (look here, here, here and here) I use and their work is covered much more often in those areas.

The answer… it’s hard to think about all the work that goes into a piece and then it simply gets painted over by the next person who comes along… it is ok with them as long as the replacement is another quality piece and they try to improve on it.

This wall is owned by Thane, so does not get changed until he arranges it. Nice to know this will not get ruined anytime soon.

I am always curious about the paint that they use, it is so bright!

Among the paint… another love of mine… coffee… Satellite coffee! Right on the other side of this wall is Satellite and Smooth ‘N Juicey (in this case that is the correct spelling). You should definitely check them out! Good stuff!

I will miss the old one…

but will look forward to using the new one!

I might run down later today and see if it’s finished yet… will post an update if it is :D.

P.S. I encourage you to find what YOU love and incorporate it into your photography! It’s a good way to bring out your originality and be different! Enjoy! 😉

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What’s New?

Ok, I haven’t just been lazy this week, I have been working on several projects…

The first is getting my gallery wall going in my Photography Office. We have an old house with a beautiful parlor, so I am transforming that room into my office, complete with gallery wall. I am sure it will have several revisions, but for now I am happy with the progress.

I staged the frames on the floor first to see how they worked together. I didn’t have to go out and buy even one! I found them all in closets or in other areas of my house. The wall to the right is where their new home will be… just waiting for all the prints to come back from the printers. So excited!

My office is so warm and inviting… a place you want to hang out, especially in the great weather we have been having the last few days. The blinds are new, the computer and monitor are new, the purple chair on the other side and ottoman (not shown) are all new for this room.

I will also be adding a canvas print above the fireplace, but haven’t gotten to that just yet.

My other project is a book cover (I was commissioned, not my book) … I can’t say specifics about it, but I can show you one of the ideas. It is not the final though. We are doing another shoot today. I love doing this kind of stuff! So fun!

Chris and Shannon are my models for the book, but I captured a few extras just for them to have as well.

Such a great couple! Shannon has strikingly beautiful blue eyes!

I loved their chemistry… and the sun, perfect!

Back to work, just wanted to share a little of what is going on with me… how about you?

[[hugs]]

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Happy Birthday to my Joe

I have been with this man for 28 years and through the years we have encountered many challenges and triumphs, but today on his 44th birthday after going through the most challenging of years we are more in love than we have ever been before.

I adore you Joe and just want to wish you a very happy birthday. God has blessed us beyond belief and we are whole through Him. Thank you for being my soulmate, for showing me such an incredible love that it leaves me breathless.

I LOVE you… xoxoxo

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Just for Fun – Random Photography

I used this black ice cream chair in Karly’s shoot. It used to be in my room growing up, but it was white back then. My sister has the matching one.  We shared  a room growing up, her side always clean, mine messy… it used to drive her nuts!  She would be proud of how clean I keep my room now :).

When I am on a portrait shoot there is no guessing on what else I might take a picture of.  Sometimes it is only the subject, but many times there are other things that catch my eye and I have to get a quick shot.  I have used many past images for cards and others, like these just sit on my computer and no one ever gets to see, so I thought I would share with you (and maybe make some more cards with some).

Beware, I take pictures of things that strike me as funny, even if it is on you! Hee hee

I love the look of rusted iron.

I know it’s just a traffic light, but I like it.

Joe doesn’t even know when I sneak a pic of him.  I captured this during the shoot of Joely and Steph.

And sometimes he does… I love the Canon 70-200 2.8L lens for these types of shots. I always use that lens when shooting railroad shots too.  I think Joe must be the only guy from high school that has MORE hair than he did back then!

Things like this just jump out at me.

I make anniversary cards from images like this one… the gum wall in Seattle’s Pike Place Market.

Amanda comes along occasionally… sometimes she lets me take a picture and sometimes not!

Abby had these great red shoes, so we had to get creative with them.

I thought this was funny while on a senior shoot with Kayla.

Sometimes it’s of people I don’t even know… just because… shhhh, we will just keep that between us, K?

I LOVE animals, so I have lots of images of dogs, cats, birds and squirrels.

Hope you have a great day!!
{{Hugs}}

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