Peter, Piper, and new moms!

A few months ago, I had the immense pleasure of visiting my cousin Daphne, and her new baby, Peter, and my good friend Nicole and her new baby, Piper. Because the world is so small, it turns out that Daphne's other son and Nicole's stepdaughter met in at dance camp and are now friends, so we had a kind of playdate and baby party at Daphne's apartment in Oakland!



I was so excited and touched to meet both of these sweet babies. Peter is named after my and Daphne's uncle Peter, who died a few years ago, and baby Peter looks SO much like Daphne's dad and sister. Nicole and I have been good friends since high school (I think it's been something like 15 years already... oh my god!), so it was wonderful to see this sweet baby girl that she and her husband have created. What a love!



This little guy wasn't sure how he felt about the baby invasion - and was on the lookout for crumbs:



Daph had said, "I'm so sorry our apartment is in chaos, I'll make us some tea but it won't be anything fancy because we just moved" - but I should've known that she couldn't help herself. This fancy little teatime was probably nicer than anything I've done for guests, and I don't have two kids! Daphne is so awesome and lovely.





Cute little Peter!



I love it when babies get this totally-sacked-out sleeping thing going. They have no worries, no cares, and just give in completely to sleep.



Lovely touches in Daphne's apartment - this sweet dove and beautiful vase of flowers:



Piper is so small - but I saw her again a few weeks ago and she's growing like a wildflower. I bet she'll be walking before we know it!



I love my beautiful cousins!



And this little cutie pie too:



Peter just adores his mama. It was so fun and sweet to see him just grin and grin! He let me hold him lots, and seemed to love me too.





Love baby Piper's blue eyes! When I met her here, I thought she looked a lot like her dad (and older sister) - now I think she looks more like Nicole. Seeing her more recently was a joy, because now she is smiling and more involved in the world than she was at just two months here.





This isn't a picture of a baby, but I just loved the simple and elegant little touches in Daphne's apartment, like this corner with the laptop and antique little mirror.



I am just gushing about these two, but can you blame me? I also love that their names make up part of that tongue twister: "Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers..."





I got to hold the cute tiny girl while she slept - oh, her little sweet self was so fun to cuddle. Very young babies have a way of just relaxing so fully that they almost seem like jellyfish to me...



One more of baby Pete pushing himself up - I bet he's sitting up and crawling by now. I can't wait to see these guys again!! Thanks so much, Daphne and Nicole! I had a blast, and hope we can do it again soon. XOXOXO

the Bridal Guide, Alex and Rich's Napa Wedding

The editors at the print magazine The Bridal Guide loved Alex and Rich's August 2007 Napa wedding, and have featured it in the current (Jan/Feb 09) issue, on newsstands now!











I think that this wedding is such a hit because of all the details Alex and Rich incorporated to their wedding, and especially because of the lovely roller derby girls! You can check out more photos from the wedding on the blog here.

Besides all of Alex and Rich's hard work, the venue (The Villagio/ Vintage Inn) and the planner (Alicia Falango at AK Designs) made the wedding extra special, fun, and fabulous.

I've got some more published work, a brand new website, a new line of albums, and many photo shoots to share coming up soon!

the New Trust's Pool Party

Even though we live in California, and it is currently in the high 60s, winter can seem really long, cold, and dreary to me. Lately I have been daydreaming almost nonstop about dashing off to Hawaii or Mexico... but it's not looking likely anytime soon! So, until a magical benefactor presents us with time and money to whisk off to the tropics, I will wait patiently for the gorgeous Northern Californian weather to turn towards spring and summer.



In addition, one of my favorite things is the world is swimming, but I don't like swimming in indoor pools (too chloriney for me). To that end, I have these old pool party photos to share! In reality, most of them aren't that old - a few months ago, some good friends of ours in the band The New Trust had an amazing record release/ birthday party at the local outdoor public pool. I had lived less than a mile away for 3 and a half years, but never even noticed that this pool has a sweet slide and water fun! It was a mid-October, evening pool party, but everyone seemed warm enough, and we all had a blast. I brought my Lomo Frogeye underwater camera and passed it around for some fun, grainy underwater film shots.



















Here's Matthew supervising the swimming (and voter registration):



A couple of cuties!



























I hope that TNT makes this an annual thing! You guys are so awesome! Check out their music here. How many bands do you know not only rock, but have a talented photographer and graphic designer in the band, and release their album on CD, record AND cassette tape? I think we have all three versions in this house, hooray!



The cover of The New Trust's newest album (see the water theme?) taken by the lovely and talented Sara Sanger, who is not only the photographer here but the pretty lady in front. I think this shoot involved a kiddie pool, black cloth, and a lot of ziplocs on the camera remote control.



Here, from the same roll of underwater film, are shots from the late summer of 07 - my friend and Liza soaking in the sun at my aunt's pool. I can't wait to enjoy the hot sunshine again, hopefully soon!