Must Love Dogs

If you haven't noticed, I love dogs!

And anyone who know me or wants to be around me, must love dogs. 

My dog Jake (left) is loving his new "cousin" and latest addition to the family... his name is Cuba (right).

Love is in the air!

350 miles

This is my dog Jake.

He's all buckled in and snuggled up with his blanket.

He knows this ride all too well. It's our weekly commute from our home in Chicago to my work that currently takes me to Des Moines Iowa.

He goes where I go.

Let It Go

Lately I've been thinking a lot about "letting go" or should I say "holding on". I've been walking around holding on to things and people who don't deserve to be held on to. We all do it. 

Things are good, maybe great and then something happens that should be a warning to us it's time to LET GO!

Seriously, what do we need to make this happen? Do we need someone to smack us upside the head? What the hell are we waiting for?

My friends say, "life's too short". It's a cliche for a reason...it's TRUE! Life IS short.

I mean, can you remember what you did last Tuesday? What'd you do last month on the 18th? Wasn't it just New Years? We're almost to March and it just goes on like that. Before you know it, you look up and you're 20 years out of high school, 3 months past your 39th birthday and 8 months till your 40th!

When will you finally take that trip to Italy? Greece? Africa? 

When will you stop saying "yes" when you should say "no"?

When will you stop letting people hurt you?

When will you stop accepting behavior that's less than what you deserve?

When will you finally LET HIM GO?

Red Velvet Cupcakes

I'm celebrating with red velvet cupcakes, chocolate, wine & great friends.

Happy Valentines Day!

An Attitude of Mind

Lately I've been having a lot of discussion of about the word attitude all because of some girl named Miss Attitude. When I first heard the name, I didn't think too much of it. But a friend said, "I don't know if I like that." We couldn't figure out why. Why do we often think of "having an attitude" as a negative?

Isn't it possible to have an attitude and still be charming, fun and nice? I think so.

So, I've turned to my friend Kat Heyes who draws beautiful illustrations. Kat has a client list most would envy, she scratches illustrations for GUCCI, ELLE, VOGUE & Calvin Klein. They're charming, fun and nice...and mostly, they're full of attitude.

What I Want

I art direct shoots.

I design books.

I'd like to put the two together and design a book for Williams-Sonoma.

Lucky Girl

2 huge companies = KOHLS and Food Network

2 great photographers = Tyllie Barbosa and Robert Jacobs

1 lucky girl = me!

The above is exactly what happens when you add up the above equation.

 

You're looking at a recent project I completed. I art directed all the food photography for the complete line of kitchen product, sold exclusively at KOHLS...see the above packaging. We spent months going back and forth to NYC, living in the Hotel Gansevoort, walking to Chelsea Market, and working in the Food Network. 

I love my job. And yes, I know...I'm a lucky girl.

In The Middle Of Everything

I'm from Chicago and I thought I WAS in the middle of everything. But tonight, I realized...everything is right now. You hear people say, "let's find a party"...I've decided, "I AM the party". And tonight, it was at The Square.  

At Day's End

I Art Directed but would rather have been enjoying this.

(Photography by Steven McDonald, for Country Home Magazine.)

When Life Gives Me Lemons...

I art direct the shot.

That's what I do, Art Direct.

Lately, I've been shooting a lot of lemons. (The above shot was photographed by Steven McDonald)

Why do people refer to "Lemons" as something bad...maybe there's a gift and it can be the best thing that was given to you. 

She Used To Be My Best Friend

That's right, she used to. 

That's how I introduce her. It's a joke, we both know why, we both love it, we both laugh our ass off.

She gives me great advice, I take some, I leave some, but I always remember it.

Today she gave me advice about Backroads and I took it.

I just booked my first trip with the company and I can't wait. The above will be my view in September.

Thank you Lexie! 

Jodan's Not The Only One Who Has Air

The new MacBook Air looks great, feels great, operates just as great as a Mac alway has. I'm wondering...if you can pick up wireless internet signal, why can't you pick up a wireless charge? When will this be invented? 

I don't know about you, but I'm tired of unraveling cords!