Archive for Photos
A Very Merry Un-Birthday Party
Even though I’d just had that big ol’ party the previous weekend, followed by lots of cleaning, I suddenly decided on Friday I wanted an excuse to make vanilla cupcakes and have some friends over. So, I decided on a Very Merry Un-Birthday Tea Party for Sunday and began letting folks know they could come by to share some treats and have some genteel chit chat. I think I wanted to have another party because I enjoyed the first one so much. I realized how much I’d been living in the future. How much I’d been planning and not DOING things. Always preparing! Not that preparing for things is bad, it’s just no fun if all you ever do is prepare. Plus, I would sometimes get hung up on stuff like needing new carpet or hating my couch. Now, I just want to have fun and try to remember that the square footage of my home would be huge by New York City real estate standards! So there!
I am hunting down old top hats for the next one – for Will to wear. And I would like something in linen, cotton and silk. The party was small, but it was just enough people to stuff my living room up. We were going to have it in the yard under the canopy and if it hadn’t been over a hundred degrees with the heat index, it woulda been perfect! We still had fun and were a bit cooler, though I could only manage to get my house temperature down to about 79 degrees! This way we could talk and eat comfortably and also play Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland in the background on the television.
Jade had tried on several outfits and finally found the perfect ensemble which was merely layers from the studio closet. She’s quite clever and theatrical, that girl. Amber is too and I think not only would they both have come up with something wonderful, they probably would have put on a little show for us. Amber would have had fun. I miss you Bertie!
My friends Heather, Shelia, Angela and Leslie all came over. We had plenty of treats and ICED tea and lemonade. At some point I had whispered to Will that perhaps he should read us some Alice in Wonderland (he does great voices for stories!) and so at the table I announced, “Who wants some entertainment?” Angela said, “Will! Take it off!” Well, Shelia decided that was not very tea-party appropriate so we put up our pinkies and asked him to “disrobe” by chanting it very politely. At this time, Jade exited the room, but returned quickly as we were only teasing and Will stayed…um, robed. Will didn’t end up reading as the party had already gone on for some time. Maybe next tea party!
A Midsummer Arabian Night’s Dream
Hello friends! I am way behind on my blogging. Sorry about that! I have been so busy I’ve barely phoned friends and relatives that were long overdue for conversation and plan discussions.
I’m on my damned cycle, so I am sipping on fruit smoothie in nice stretchy yoga pants and am going to catch up on blogging and photos.
My sister came up for a visit the weekend before this past one and helped me set up for my “Faerie Party” (co-hosted by my long-time friend Jackie). Jackie and I have hosted faerie parties in the past. We had a gap of about four or five years where we didn’t have one and this party was to test things out. To get our feet wet and see how it went. It was much less structured than our past parties – which all had contests for costumes, food, drink and wooing. We decided that the party went well and that we will have another one next year, but we will also be returning to our previous format of contests. We did give out awards, including a big beautiful book of fairy art, some bellydance DVDs, notecards and also author Keith Donohue most generously sent me a signed copy of The Stolen Child to give out as an award.
The evening was full of all sorts of fun and not much mayhem, which was great. Not that I’m against a little mayhem from time to time, but in the case of this hot day of fun and costumes, less mayhem suited the occasion.
It was opening weekend of a show Jade was cast in – her first role where she “has a name” as she puts it. The first show where, “I’m not dancer number three or kangaroo number two.” It had been so busy in part because also Will volunteered to be in the show, in rather large role. The Diviners was out at a theatre I used to do a little work at; Hard Bargain Players in Accokeek. Our friend Brian Donohue (brother of Keith mentioned above) had been cast as C.C. Showers, but fell ill (and is on the mend now) a week before opening. Will stepped in to help the show go on. After all, some of his favorite people were in the show, including Jade and his pal Sean was directing – his directorial debut – how could he let the folks down? I think he did amazingly, though I didn’t see much of him for two weeks as every possible moment was spent memorizing lines, then blocking. Everybody did an amazing job and I was so proud of Jade and Will. As a result though, Will was late to the party, so it was really great that I had friends and family come and help put things together. I saw the show every night except that night. And Brian and I sat next to each other closing night and watched it. Other very supportive friends came out to see Jade and Will and all the others, as well.
For a couple of weeks we’d been prepping the yard. Even Robert and his girlfriend Rachelle and her sons came over to help get the yard tidied up. Jackie did her fair share as co-hostess with painting and melting in the hot sun. Bless her heart, he face gets all red, just like Jade’s. Man it was hot those weeks! My friends Leslie and Natalie came over and helped decorate, make star garlands, sew pillows (which my friend Amy also helped with) and of course my sister Brandi and her friend Janice helped with some of the unglamorous stuff like scooping doggie poop and hanging up costumes and lights.
Christiana and her boy Jason loaned us their gorgeous renaissance tent – it was awful nice to watch Jason set that tent up by himself – I think the ladies helping in the yard were hotter from watching him than from the 95 degree weather. And boy does Christiana and Jason make a good looking couple!
What I’m trying to say is that I had plenty of help and generosity from all over the place. It made for a nice mood for the party.
Here are some photos from the event.
Boudoir Photos & Erotica Portraits
I enjoy boudoir and erotica photography. I love to honor women and find their goddessy self. One of the things I most want to do is make every woman feel beautiful, sexy and desireable. In my opinion, it’s a vital part of being a woman.
I plan on selling prints of some of my erotica in the very near future and hope you will find the beauty in each subject who has ventured into this bit of my realm…and yours.
Also, I offer boudoir photography as a service. You could have your own boudior photos taken as a gift for somebody, or simply for yourself to celebrate the wonderful goddessy YOU!
Photos from private sessions are confidental unless approved for release by the client. No worries!
This is Amy, and there is more of her to come.
More Fairy Fun
I am having a lot of fun with my fairy photos and my fairytale storybook classics.
Last year was rough for me, emotionally. It’s nice to be bringing some of the magic and wonder back into my world. It’s also nice to remember, and be reminded by those who love and appreciate me, that I have something to offer.
Here is another image of Kyle. I did her senior portraits. You need only look a few blog posts back to see a few of them. I also have used a couple of photos from that session to turn into fairy portraits.
I hope to have a very busy little studio this year. Call me.
Fairytale Fun
I would like to recreate some of the magic of classic fairytales with my photography. I had Ariel in my studio recently posing as Sleeping Beauty. I am waiting on another model this afternoon – who I have to take photos of to collage and layer into the Sleeping Beauty photos, but I wanted to just play with one of the images from Ariel’s session.
I am planning on making prints and posters with the character’s name in beautiful lettering. Postcards, stationary and other items as well. Maybe a book of all of them together. I have often thought of doing my own version of the classic tales and including photos for the illustrations of the story.
Anyway, I did very little to this image – the model is lovely and her dress was well suited to the character. She and her sister designed and made the dress, which is amazing in itself!
I hope to download a number of more elaborate fonts that have a bit more flourish. I don’t always like fancy fonts, but I think some fancy fonts for this is important. Something castle-ee. Something princess-ee.
I have several other characters in mind that I would like to shoot as soon as possible. I’d like to have some of this stuff ready for the fairy festival if I jury in.
Change is Good
I can report to you, my friends, that I am having a happy day. Those were harder to come by during all of my turmoil months back in trying to figure things out, but as with any real change and growth there is some fire, some shaking, some opening of the earth. But at some point, that all settles back down and cools and we are left with a new landscape. It’s different than the old one, but that’s not all bad and even exciting sometimes as you have new places to explore.
I wanted to share with you some of the photos from a recent “Senior Portraits” shoot I did in my little home studio. The model is named Kyle, and she is a senior at McDonough High School. She has long loved old movies, so some of her more personality-driven photos included that theme.
I am working on a page with price schedules for portraits, headshots and fantasy collages, like the one at the bottom, I made from Kyle’s shoot. That page will have all of the pricing and scheduling information on it. I will post a link to it as soon as it’s done. Thanks so much for looking at my photos!
The Sexy Writer Type
My Billy Boy got one of his poems published- again! YAY BILLY!
You can read his poem “Moving Again” at Perigee.
Also, I’m fairly certain you will love “Flowers” by Michelle Webster-Hein. A lovely morsel of erotic tension thick and heavy behind a veil of innocence.
I’m not sure if I mentioned this before, but Will wrote me a story for my holiday gift. A story just for me. “The Hound and the Hedgehog.” He bound it in a Harry Potter cover that had fallen off of the book and was in with my altered art supplies. He printed it out and sewed it into the hardcover himself. He has read it out loud to me no less than three times. I just adore it. It’s just long enough for a bedtime story. I hope dearly that he will submit it to someplace that will publish it because it’s just too adorable to keep all to ourselves.
Studio Inspiration
I mentioned in a previous blog how part of the appeal of the HGTV show That’s Clever, for me, is that I get to see inside the studio of other artists. I have seen many tenacious artists carve out space for themselves in the kitchen or the garage. I had no idea how many American (and Canadian) households have dining-room art studios! In the house we previously rented, my studio was in the dining-room. That was about six years ago. It was my first real dedicated art space.
I would love to peek inside of your studio, no matter how small – or big – at the parts you keep around for inspiration. There are lots of wonderful resources for organizing, but this post is about inspiration. Do you keep shards of your own broken projects on display? Do you display work you just couldn’t let go of? How about art your kids have given you? Inspirational quotes? I am asking folks to post photos of the bits of their studio that are for the simple purpose of sentimentality and inspiration.
If you have a couple of photos of the first art space you made for yourself – all the better!
Please post your blog and photos then come here and leave a link in my comments of this posting so I can come see your studio!
Here are my photos to start things off!
These first three photos are of my dining room “studio” at the house we used to rent.
You can tell this is my dining room because you can see my living room behind me. The dining room table ended up in the living room. I loved that my family was happy to give up the space. They have always been great cheerleaders!
This little chest of drawers was my first supply cabinet. The chest was my baby wardrobe – which makes it “vintage” – lol!
(click to see larger)
The above photo shows my inspiration wall loaded full of flowers and faeries. Mostly Brian Froud, Amy Brown, Jessica Galbreth and some kid art. I also see that the souvenir stuff for “Streetcar Named Desire” is behind me. I wonder where that is? When I had this studio space I only really did drawings and watercolors, so it was much simpler and neater!
I don’t really know what I will ever do with the many bottle caps and corks I have, but I love having them just to look at them. I leave them out in these clear containers, where Will put them.
(click for large image)
This is a cabinet I keep some of my supplies in. It is nearly covered in lots of little bits that I love, such as love notes and birthday cards, to photos, artwork, postcards, fairies, fortune-cookie papers and all manner of fun and shiny things. Sometimes I will just come across a photo in a magazine I love and tape it up there. In this photo you can see the “Deputante” ad – which I’ve had since the 11th grade! There is a napkin from my wedding, doodles I have found around the house, a sketch Will did of me and a picture of Robert kissing me back when he had his mullet a million years ago, and some Amy Brown, Jessica Galbreth and Julia Musengo art as well.
I love having some of my art supplies very visible just because it makes me want to use them all the more. There is something visually tasty about messy paint brushes just waiting to be used!
In this photo there is art by me – the two yonis, the blue woman’s head, horns and crowns as well as mermaid and blue face and goddess. The metal cat was a gift from my friend Sherry. there are art tiles I purchased from Tammy Vitale and Parran Collery – both Southern Maryland artists. I have several pieces by both of them. Also in the background you can see an Egyptian style plaque my daughter made and a mask she made many years ago. There is also a lovely little moon-shaped tin that used to have lavender candy in it. I never even thought you could eat lavender before I got that little treat at Coleman’s Nursery in Norfolk, VA many moons (hee) ago. Coleman’s Nursery was the place to visit around Christmas time because they had animated puppets and lots of cool decorations and stuff. We loved going there!
In this photo there is a sun suncatcher, a mermaid I got a a gift store (you can’t see her tail in the photo) a couple of tiles I made, a wall-hanging my friend Tracy gave me, some cards pressed in glass.
Fairy hanging in the corner with some stars that Will had tucked away from some community theatre production many years ago. Maybe he can fill us in on the details. Anyway, I like having things hanging from the ceiling. There’s something sort of magical about it.
Some origami cranes that my daughter Jade made and a stained glass dragonfly that I traded for at the Faerie Festival a few years ago.
Fairy wings that I never sold. Aren’t they pretty? 
And what can be more inspiring than a clean and organized studio – VIEW HERE.
Ok – you’re turn!
The Hallowed All Hallows Eve Bash at the Kleyle Manor
My friends Sweetie and Jim have a halloween party every year. It is the social event of the Waldorf/La Plata area for the year, I assure you – at least for all the COOL KIDS!
These are some photos from this year’s bash. You have to guess the costumes – I will give you some more details about mine:
My hair is purple, but I was going to change it into other color wigs throughout the evening (but I never did get to doing that). I have on patched jeans and a wand. My tee shirt says “The Weird Sisters” – who am I?
Sweetie, Jim and Heather »» The Hallowed All Hallows Eve Bash at the Kleyle Manor
Halloween at Tracy’s
Sit down boyz and ghouls and let me scare up a spooky tale of a haunted yard, devilishly beautiful corpses and carnival folks and maybe a fairy and a doll of girl…
Finally I have gotten a bunch of the Halloween photos edited and I am posting them here.
I have been unable to figure out how to use my gallery software, so I’m just going to stick the images right in the blog as thumbnails – just click the ones you’d like to see larger.
Jade, Will and I dressed up and went over to Tracy’s for Halloween and set up a little haunted yard thing – it was lots of fun and it’s the kind of thing that could take on a life of its own and get bigger each year.
This is the dead bride rising up from her grave. The dress is recycled from Jade’s Corpse Bride costume last year.
Eye-gore! Eye-gore! Back to your corner!!!
Igor and Sally – she’s poking him to make sure he’s dead.
Igor likes the fire gypsy Tracy is making.
If Igor keeps “bugging” the pretty gypsy, he’s going to be CURSED…well, more than he already is!
That’s IT, I think she’s gonna put the whammy on him!
Hope the Grass Fairy putting a little sparkle into the evening.
The Grass Fairy and Sally preparing to watch the Gypsy, Igor and Sarah Osborne make spooky fools of themselves!
The Grass Fairy getting one of her many wing adjustments from me…er…Sarah – the hanged suspected Salem Witch.
Grass and Sal again.
You can never have to many photos of pretty ghouls…I mean GIRLS!
Sally, Sarah and Gypsy
Our freaky scare-ing scary boys – Byron and Pete – scaring people since 2007.
Our spooky table, complete with lots of crazy treats like rats “for muffins” and don’t forget to eat an eyeball! Oh and some radioactive roaches right out of a Charles County well (just kidding).
This is my favorite photo of Tracy – she’s one smokin’ gypsy!
