I don’t know about the rest of you artkids, but I really miss having deadlines. Nothing beats an impromptu last minute project or pulling an all nighter to complete a final. I miss that drive (and desperation) to complete something within a limited amount of time.

Last week, I decided that I would make a present for my good friend Kyle McCord. He is currently on book tour with Dream Horse Press reading from his newly published poetry book!

Of course, my week got away from me and I finally sat down to work on this piece last night around 9:30pm. My deadline was by 5pm today.

I opened up this deadline to anyone else who would like to participate. No restrictions, any medium. Doesn’t have to be serious. Just MAKE. Submit to me by 5pm on the 22nd. Roughly 20 hours notice.

9 people submitted! NINE! Here they are in no particular order:

Adrienne snapped this while on the way to Indiana for a family reunion. She felt that traveling imposed some restrictions, but was up for the challenge!

Aaron sent this to me today, first submission actually!

Darby, a master cupcaker, sketched this on herself as a possible tattoo idea. It reads ” Om Mani Padme Hum”, a prayer to bodhisattva of compassion.

A sketch by Jennifer Mitchard. She recently completed 100 days of art, and moved back to the midwest this week with her husband Tim! HOORAY!

A snapshot of Jon’s new workplace, Sourpuss Clothing.

This is a work in progress, but Jessica BB tells me that socks take something like 100 hours. I believe her!

Natalie writes: “I made this while cooking some pepper chicken with hummus… Actually, the chicken is probably better. ” Whatever, Natalie! I like it. I’m pretty sure I see a few mustaches in there…

Sarah of SewZinski completed this fantastic wallet! View her Etsy listing for more detail shots.

Trevor gave me this piece tonight and I get to KEEP IT! Yay! He was the first to agree to this deadline business.

Oh yeah, and here’s what I made for Kyle.

Dogcrime. White collar dogcrime, really. He has a teardrop tattoo from his time in the clink. Spectacles because this Corgi is probably an accountant gone bad. :]

Kyle liked it!

I think Parker liked it too.

Let me just say, I am amazed by the response and variety! I’m thinking this should be a weekly thing. What do you all think?

Yesterday was a lot of fun! We did a photo shoot for Mackenzie turning two. I love the dress that Stephanie made and Zee is always a lot of fun to work/play with.

Her birthday party theme is the alphabet, so this photo is perfect:

Later that evening, I got my second bee tattoo:

When I was little, I was stung by a bee on the back of my right knee. I also see myself as a worker bee. I decided to get these one at a time to symbolize goals that I’ve recently met–which works well for me as an incentive and reward. The first bee I got when I met my ultimate goal weight. The second bee is my reward for finishing the Dam to Dam. They remind me that if I work hard, I can accomplish a lot!

Josh Bowers from Iron Heart uses the bee as part of his logo, so he was perfect for these tattoos. Next month we’re adding honey dippers as crossbones!

One thing my mom and I do when she’s in town is this: we have a delicious salad at La Mie, go next door to Juice Co. for a smoothie, and then head to either Campbells or New City Market to shop for new, healthy foods. Yesterday, we did this (Quinoa salad at La Mie is amazing!) and picked up some Teeccino Tea from Campbells to try. This is a tea that tastes very similar to coffee, but without the caffeine or acidity. You brew it in your coffee maker, too! We got the chocolate mint flavor and it’s pretty delicious.

I’m off to edit more of Zee’s photos, enjoy your day!

“Chai!”, 2009

I looove my chai lattes, and I’m very particular about where I get them from. Some coffee shops around town simply use Tazo’s pre-made mix, which is tasty, yes, but I could easily do that myself!

Friedrich’s is one of my favorite places for a soy chai. They make their own recipe and it’s not overly sweet. I do treat myself to these on occasion, but my budget argues otherwise. I’ve tried brewing my own from tea, but it just doesn’t taste as good.

I picked up this Oregon Original Chai concentrate from the store the other day. It’s all natural ingredients and you can get a vegan option, which omits the honey.

I mixed this with Vanilla Almond Milk to make an iced dairy-free version. (I’m still a bit too lazy to make my own almond milk, even though I’ve heard it’s SUPER easy.)

The verdict? Yummy, but wayyyy too much sugar for me. I think next time I’ll try the Slightly Sweet version that Oregon provides, and make my own almond milk. I’m getting close to semisweet chai victory!

What are your favorite specialty drinks that you make at home?

I have never been into running or consider myself a runner. I love a challenge, though, and wanted to push myself to give it a chance. I decided to train for the Dam to Dam and participated in my first race ever this last Saturday. 5k? pssht. I went all the way for the 20k, which is 12.4 miles. Since Robert had never run a 20k before either, he decided to do it too.

Training consisted of four days of running/walking, and a day of cross training. It was a schedule made for beginners, so it started at pretty low distances and then worked its way up. Let me just say now, I run embarrassingly slow. Like…a slow jog, haha. I was more concerned with consistency than my speed, so my only goal was to finish in time to get a finisher’s medal. The cutoff for that is 3 hours and 30 minutes.

The day of the race was rainy and cold. I was really nervous! Since parts of the entrance to the start were flooded, the shuttle bus from downtown dropped us off a mile away from the starting line. (I’m technically calling the D2D a half marathon since I had to walk that extra mile, haha.) Before the race even began, we were soaked and chilly! I was worried that I’d be too cold to run well. After the first mile or so, I warmed up and the rain felt really good. I’m glad it was a cool day and not too hot.

The first 5 miles went pretty smoothly, having to make stops only a couple times because I drank too much water. Haha. Right before the 5 mile mark my ankle started to hurt pretty bad. This was the the first time in all my training that it hurt, so I decided to get to mile 5 and then alternate walking and running. Robert was kind enough to jog alongside me for the first 5 before heading on to run the rest by himself at a much faster pace. The rest of the race I’d say I ran about 70% of it, and I finished in 3 hours and 11 minutes! Not bad for a newbie. Robert finished in 2 hours and 43 minutes!

Since I was slower, I was away from a lot of the other runners. The Dam to Dam was a big personal goal for me, and I liked that I could appreciate the experience without being crowded by too many people. After finishing I got my medal and my parents and I celebrated at La Mie with a big delicious lunch. I spent the rest of the weekend resting and relaxing. :]

This experience was a great way for me to get out of my comfort zone and try something totally new. I can say I gave running a good, honest try (two months of it!), and I’ve decided it’s not for me. I’m ready to get back to working out the way I like: pilates and spinning. I’ll probably still incorporate some jogging into the mix, but not nearly as often as I was for training. My mom and I have discussed walking the D2D together next year, which would be fantastic!

Though running is not really my thing, the benefits were great. Two months ago, I couldn’t even run a mile without getting winded and tired. Now I can run 5 miles easily. I learned how to clear my mind and enjoy the experience of running. I also lost a total of 6.75 inches and dropped from a size 10 to an 8! Training taught me I can put my  mind to something and realistically achieve my goal. I am Dam proud of myself. :]

Get out there and try something new today. Set a goal for yourself and plan how you can achieve it. You are never too ________ (insert excuse here) to accomplish what you really want to!

It’s finally here!

Stephanie has been working on my website. She designed all of it, and I absolutely adore it! Have a look around and let us know what you think.

Lately I’ve been keeping busy with my new job and with weddings! Robert and I had four in the last few months, a perfect number for us since we both have day jobs.

View more images in my portfolio if you’d like to see more.

Now that things are calming down, I’d like to start booking shoots again. I’m available for weddings, seniors, family portraits, fashion, and more. All proceeds of my photography will go towards funding my missions trip to South Africa in 2010. Along with medical missions, I’d be continuing my documentary photography for Blessman Ministries. A lot of my  photographs were used for their website.

For those of you wondering, I’m still trying to eat mostly raw foods. I say “mostly” because I try my best, but don’t like to restrict myself entirely. It’s been 74 days–almost three months. Woah. I’ve made quite a few recipes but I prefer keeping it simple–green smoothies, larabars, fruits and vegetables. I can’t quite give up popcorn and soy chai lattes yet, and once in a while I’ll have pizza.

Since raw I’ve felt like I have much more energy without coffee, and I haven’t gotten sick yet this fall–normally I would be by now. I’ve also lost a total of 10 pounds with hardly any exercise, woohoo! I’m getting a tattoo to celebrate soon.

That’s about all for now! Check out my website and let me know if you’d like to book a shoot.

I’m day 17 of doing the raw thing, usually I eat raw until dinner time. It’s only been a little over two weeks, but already I feel more vibrant and energetic. I mean WAY too much energy. It’s amazing. If you know me, you know I don’t feed into diet hype. I don’t diet, I hate the idea of it. I don’t see this as another fad, though. I see it as a lifestyle change.

This decision to go raw seems out of the blue for a lot of people, but to me it was a long process to get to this point. I don’t consider myself a health nut, but I am always concerned about my health. I’m constantly ill. In the past three years I’ve been in the ER twice, urgent care multiple times, on antibiotics at least twice a year if not more, and had a splenectomy in 2006, now putting me in the category of immunocompromised. I am not considered overweight, but I know I would feel a lot better if I were at a smaller size. My mom found out about raw a few years ago and introduced smoothies and fresh juice to the family, which gave us both energy and healed some of our chronic ailments when we kept up with it.

A year ago, I decided to cut out high fructose corn syrup and lost 20 pounds. After that I’ve been slowly cutting out processed food. I even signed up for a three month challenge at a local gym this last June that specializes in small group training.

With my new job, it’s been nearly impossible to get to the class more than once a week. So to make up for that, I decided to focus on my diet instead of exercise. I remembered my mom’s smoothies and went digging for the cute videos she showed me, and decided to give this a try starting Sept 1.

I can’t express how much I appreciate the enthusiasm from Robert, my mom, and my friends through this. I know raw isn’t normal, it’s not even close. But to me, when I look at the “normal” American standards of eating, and the obesity, diabetes, and slew of other health problems that come with it–it’s not worth it to me. It’s not normal to feel so sluggish and old at 23. It’s not normal to wake up and drag through the morning, regardless of how much caffeine I’ve had. The way I feel now is so much better, and it’s only been two weeks.

I won’t try to convert you–everyone is different and needs different things. I am talking a lot about it right now though because I’m excited about it.

Please bear with me while I try this out. So far it feels right, and I’ll keep on going. I appreciate your support.

I’ve been neglecting my blog. Sorrryyyy.