Category Archives: Cool Stuff

Straight From Santa

I arrived safe and sound to Los Angeles and I’m caught in a little bit of a time warp gaining three hours of time and from being up all night last night since I had to get to the air port so early I just stayed up!  Phew I am tired!  I can’t wait to see some of my LA clients & friends this week!

I just have to tell you about this wonderful website that my friends Pete & Charlaine created.  It’s called Straight From Santa and what they do is send your child a letter from Santa just before Christmas.  Now the super cool thing about it is that Charlaine is up in Alaska and the postmark will say North Pole.  How cool is that?  My son is going to love this and will notice the post mark right away.  The best thing about it, the price!  It’s only $10 a letter, which very reasonable and they have several letter designs to choose from.  So head on over and check it out and get a letter sent to your little ones!

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Lauren - November 11, 2008 - 1:26 pm

Love this idea! I ordered 3 today… whoo hoo! Thanks for the tip!

Sharon - November 11, 2008 - 7:42 pm

Glad you arrived safe & sound.Have fun in L.A.,&have a safe trip home.

allie - November 14, 2008 - 6:40 pm

awesome website- thanks for sharing it!

Life imitating Art

Korean photographer Yeondoo Jung created a brilliant set of photographs called Wonderland back in 2005.  The photographs are inspired by drawings from Kindergartners in Seoul Korea.  He recruited high school students to help him recreate the drawings in to photographic form.  They are creative, beautiful, amazing and inspiring.  Be sure to click on his name above and check them out.

My friend Keet is a fantastic children’s artist and I asked her to create a new piece of work for my kids.  She just finished the one for my daughter Morgan, and I just had to share it with you.  Morgan is in love with Disney Princesses (as most little girls her age) and cats.  I asked Keet to create something that combined Snow White and cats.  She came up with this super cute combination of Snow White & The Seven Cats.  Of course Snow White is my daughter, who also happens to resemble Snow White so it’s a perfect fit.  When I showed Morgan she said “I want to do that”, so outside we went with her seven cats and her Snow White costume.   Now she’s a feisty one and was already done with the idea within 30 seconds of going outside, so we didn’t really get to recreate the image, but oh well it was fun for the minute that she was willing to participate (hey wasn’t this her idea anyway).

Here’s what Keet created for Morgan:

My shot is not quite as wonderful as Yeondoo’s work, but a mini tribute to him, here is my semi co-operative Morgan aka Snow White with her seven “kitties”.

Hope you are all having a great Labor Day! Don’t forget if you know someone having a baby today email me to win a complimentary portrait session & 11×14 photograph.

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Melissa M - September 1, 2008 - 5:29 pm

Now how cool is that!!

Keet - September 1, 2008 - 5:53 pm

How totally wonderful that she wanted (for a fleeting moment, at least) to re-create the scene! I am honored. Thanks as always for the very kind compliments, too.

jen wilson - September 1, 2008 - 6:35 pm

That is an amazing piece of art – so so cute! You always find the best stuff :) Morgan looks adorable with her kitties = I hope y’all are loving your new home…

jen :)

lroah - September 1, 2008 - 11:57 pm

That is absolutely adorable.

Lisa Kelly - September 2, 2008 - 12:58 am

Wow Angela, that is so an amazing resemblance of your daughter. Your friend is so talented. Does she hire our her services to other’s or is this just a hobby? I’d be interested in hearing more if she does.

abbey - September 2, 2008 - 6:43 am

that is too cool!!!!!

Daveen - September 2, 2008 - 6:54 am

Wow! What an amazing piece of artwork. It’s unique and so funky and fun. Kudos to both you, Angela, and the artist, for creating such a cool piece!

Susan Braswell - September 2, 2008 - 6:17 pm

How sweet!! Her kitties would be the equivalent to my daughter and her horse & pony stuffed collection.

meggan - September 2, 2008 - 9:32 pm

Adorable! :)

Carol - September 3, 2008 - 10:46 am

beautiful photo !!!
i love this….

Joyce - September 3, 2008 - 5:09 pm

Love love love! I have always loved Keet’s work. Perfect.

kathy wolfe - September 4, 2008 - 9:48 am

how cool is this????!!!!! love love love it!!!!!!!

Carrie Steffe - September 4, 2008 - 4:06 pm

oh my word…she is soooo cute!!! My girls would LOVE that replica of themselves!

Danna Bowes - September 5, 2008 - 6:46 am

this is so so sweet…..Love the artwork and your daughter is so cute.

CarmenM - September 6, 2008 - 12:58 pm

That is tooo cute! Wonderful art she did and your photo is adorable as well.

Risking my life…

When I was young my uncle would take my cousin and I to the skating rink at least 1x a week. In fact I was *sooo* super cool that I had my own shiny white roller skates all decked out with colored wheels topped off with the biggest pom poms ever attached to my laces. I would wear my hair in one pony tail TO THE SIDE (who in the world ever thought that was a good idea was clearly out of their head). I could roller skate with the best of them, I could even truck (which is a cool word for being able to do fancy moves with your feet while skating). I was the ultimate roller diva, school skating parties I was so there, church skating parties – yep, slumber skating parties – yep. I remember the skating rink we used to go to loved to play Dirty Laundry by Don Henley over and over.

Fast forward to oh about 25 years later (I’m guessing the last time I roller skated was when I was 10) and my son’s school is having a roller skating night to promote the PTA. Now I think in my entire time in California I only saw one roller skating rink and that was when I worked for Special Olympics and they had a competition there. I guess it’s not a cool thing there, but there are tons of ice skating rinks. So we head over to the skating rink, my kids skated for the first time (more like attempted). “Mommy Mommy skate with us like you did when you were a kid.” Really? Oh man, Mommy is old, tired and well, when grown ups fall on their hiney it’s kinda painful. Ouch, I was having visions of the ambulance carrying me away with a broken leg.

Well I’m a push over so I ended up renting a pair of skates and skating with the kids. I’ll admit I’m very shaky, but I didn’t fall and some of it came back to me, in no time I should be back to roller diva status. Now this is the cool thing, the skating rink has Monday afternoon skating that is .99 and that is admission, skate rental, pizza and one other thing that I can’t remember. What a deal! So I’ve now been talked in to taking the kids back again soon so they can learn and be able to “skate real fast and be cool”.

For all you peeps here in Metro Atlanta, check out Sparkles Skating Rink for a good time with your kids, they have four locations – Hiram, Kennesaw, Smyrna & Gwinnett. My kids loved the playground and next time my son said he wants to play laser tag!

So today, I risked my life… and it was fun.

PS – Happy 40th birthday to my husband, who by the way chose not to try to roller skate tonight, he’s never ever roller skated before and he didn’t want to push his luck on his birthday

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Kristina Whitman - August 26, 2008 - 8:46 pm

What a blast from the past! I took my kids to a skating party a few weeks ago and it was like a time warp. The skating rink looks, sounds, and smells exactly as it did 25 years ago! It was wild. Kudos to you on the skating. I wasn’t brave enough! Now post pictures of you skating, ha, ha! :-)

Olivia - August 26, 2008 - 9:55 pm

Ahhh yes, the roller rink. I used to have good memories–until this 31 year old tried to bring back the glory days of her youth and paid dearly for it. A broken tailbone was not what I had in mind that day.

Season Moore - August 27, 2008 - 5:13 am

Oh.My.Gosh. I spent my CHILDHOOD at Sparkles!! SO FUNNY! I was a backwards skating DIVA!! :-p Gosh, I can’t even tell you how many birthday parties I spent at that place…

Stacy - August 27, 2008 - 6:13 am

I love roller skating….at least when I was younger and I was good too…ask me if I can do those turns and skate back-wards now? LOL

Julie - August 27, 2008 - 7:06 am

Good for you. I used to skate a lot as a kid, too. My hubby and I tried to do it again a few years ago and we fell so much I don’t think I will ever go back. We are so not cool anymore. :(

Charlaine - August 27, 2008 - 2:45 pm

you know what I loved? Roller limbo! Oh yeah!

Kimberly Hill - August 27, 2008 - 7:16 pm

Look out XANADU, here comes Angela! I used to roller skate competitively in California. Yeah, I was a roller diva too.

Anna-Karin - August 27, 2008 - 7:47 pm

How much fun!
I wish we could have seen you in action, that would have been a hoot!
Our boys actually loves to rollers skate and when they were in preschool (now they are in real school….)they had roller skating once a week.
It was a great skill to have and when they would be invited to roller skate parties you could totally tell who the kids from their preschool was as they could skate so well compared to others.

Looks like you are adjusting just fine and well to your new surroundings.

Photographers…do yourself a favor!

Earlier this year I was lucky enough to attend The One Light Workshop in Phoenix. It is one of the best investments I’ve put back in to my business. Fellow Atlantananan(did I just make up a word) Zack Arias is like the Jimmy Hendrix of lighting. AMAZING. Because of the awesomeness of his workshops they sell out quickly. Well now he has just released a 2 disc One Light Workshop DVD. Seriously, do yourself a favor and buy this bad boy asap. He has poured his heart, soul and wallet it to producing it. I’ll also add in he is one of *the* nicest most real dudes you will ever meet. Also in the box were some sweet bonus items – a tshirt, a cd by his very talented girfriend Meghan Coffee and some discounts for other things. Oh and it comes with a book filled with great info to accompany the DVDs.

I love how the DVD is shot in a MTV type style, very contemporary. My favorite is the second DVD (it almost reminds me of a cribs episode with the music and editing style). I really like seeing other photographers shoot and hearing them talk about their process and what is going on in their heads. Also it’s funny to see Zack’s face when he gets kicked out of a few places, the look he gives the security officer is priceless.

So if you want to kick your lighting skills up a few notches you *need* this DVD.
http://www.onelightworkshop.com

*** No I have not been paid, solicited or asked to rave about this. No discounts, nothing, I just had to share how great it is and it will change the way you shoot.***

Here’s Zack getting kicked out of a parking lot… (I so dig the music he uses)
[youtube jm1puuyojiE]

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Debbie - August 16, 2008 - 12:19 pm

If you could see me now, you’d see me doing cart-wheels because I am SO THRILLED to read this post! I have wanted to go to his workshop more than any other workshop that’s out there, but I haven’t been able to. I’m buying this the minute it’s released. THANK YOU ANGELA!!!!

Susan Braswell - August 16, 2008 - 2:30 pm

I have heard nothing but good reviews on his workshops. Do you really believe you can do this without first hand -on hands experience?

Daveen - August 16, 2008 - 8:32 pm

So great to hear such a great review!

Brandy - August 16, 2008 - 8:54 pm

I missed out on the presale for the first batch of DVDs, and now am anxiously awaiting the second batch to be released!

Kylie Banks - August 16, 2008 - 11:47 pm

I just signed up to be on the mailing list for this.. I want this DVD!

Melissa M - August 18, 2008 - 7:58 pm

Thank you so much for posting this! Living out in the middle of nowhere, I never get the chance to go to stuff like that. I’m totally buying this disc set….just put my name on the mailing list.

~M

ashley mcnamara - August 19, 2008 - 4:05 pm

I have not had a chance to go to the workshop but I will be buying the DVD for sure.

Pam - August 19, 2008 - 10:04 pm

I agree with you Angela! Zack has some great info on the DVD and his workshop is hands down one of the best I have ever been to.

jenniferL - October 1, 2008 - 4:48 pm

i was always too late to sign up for one of his workshops. i’ve ordered the DVD and can’t wait!

This little light of mine…

I just had to share with you my latest find. The. best. nightlights. EVER!

They are Tyke Lights by Mobi. The best part about them is that they are portable. Depending on which model you get they sit on a little base to recharge, or have a little cord that charges them, and they hold a charge for about 10 hours. They are totally safe to sleep with, play with etc. They are very hard plastic and very durable.

Here is the description from Mobi’s website:

The world at night is a place of exploration and adventure for your child. The TykeLight casts the perfect glow of light for play under the covers, inside tents, in the back yard and outings down darkened hallways. The TykeLight lights the way and becomes the security friend for any wanderer. Parents can also check on little explorers without disturbing their sleep with the soft glow nightlight feature. Long lasting rechargeable batteries and kid-friendly design make the TykeLight the perfect playtime friend day or night. TykeLight is fully rechargeable and will deliver many adventures for your little tykes over the years.

Perfect for nightlight or playtime
Quick and safe rechargeable batteries
Illuminates up to 10 hours on a single charge. Charges while glowing
Easy to clean surface
Designed to easily fit children’s hands as the perfect glowing playmate
Impact resistant plastic – Safe and Durable

My kids LOVE these! Just a note, the pink looks really like freaky red, so for a girl I would recommend skipping the pink and choosing purple or another color. You can get them on Amazon.com and various other sites on the internet, Costco stores have them too (in a two pack!).  Here are the three that we have – blue, purple and pink.

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Nikki - August 12, 2008 - 10:25 pm

Those are the best little lights ever! Thanks for putting them up Angela!

chantelle bliss - August 13, 2008 - 5:59 am

they are so cute!!!!!

Jennifer - August 13, 2008 - 7:31 pm

oh wow those are cool, love them!

Christina - October 30, 2008 - 6:36 pm

so cool!

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