Hilary

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What a crazy few weeks it has been. I’ve had shoots booked the last several week-ends, which means, during the week, I am busy editing and getting images ready to go back out to clients and on our website. Believe me, there are worse problems to have, right?

These shoot, in turn, have generated buzz with some other people who are interested in having pictures done, if possible before Christmas. That qualifies for a miracle, for sure, but thankfully, everyone has been so reasonable. It’s crazy cool to be able to say, “I’m already shooting that day, but let’s see what other dates are available.”

My colleague, Kendall, over at This is Happily Ever After, has also been booking like crazy. I am so grateful that she and I are partners in this venture. It’s been exciting, educational, and so much fun.

In addition to snapping it up for business, I finally got the girls 1) dressed in their Christmas finery and 2) in a good mood (gotta have both parts) so that I could snap our holiday photo. They requested some holiday tunes during the shoot and I think they’d have sent me downstairs for craft services if I hadn’t kept things moving. You know how in some of those celeb magazines like Us Weekly or In Touch, they give you the details about whose on the cover of such and such magazine?

Who: Morgan and Coever

Hometown: Richmond and Norfolk, VA, respectively

Wardrobe: The girls showed up in playclothes, but enthusiastically slipped into bespoke Christmas dresses courtesy of their grandma

On Location: The girls rocked out to “All I Want for Christmas is you” by Mariah Carey, “I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus” by the Jackson 5, “Santa Baby” by Eartha Kitt, and “The 12 Days of Christmas” by Straight No Chaser.

SN: “The 12 Days of Christmas” by Straight No Chaser is one of my favorite renditions of this song and every time it comes on, Craig just shakes his head as my dorkdom increases. Hey, I’m getting in the Christmas spirit.

Anyway, in the midst of all that’s going on in preparation for the holiday, I realized that I haven’t even baked anything yet. I’ve been on a serious baking hiatus since the end of October. I think I overdid it on that pumpkin K-cup coffee and my taste buds are on strike. I also haven’t really been that hungry for baked goods; I know, what the f/stop is up with that? It’s been all about the ice cream lately. Have you had Ben and Jerry’s Oatmeal Cookie Chunk? It’s like a chocolate chip oatmeal cookie but in ice cream! Yum! I’ve been trading that off with my old standby, Haagen Daz Coffee. Of course, I have to beat back the girls with my giant spoon or wait until they go to sleep in order to eat it. I’m pretty sure if they woke up to coffee ice cream in their stocking on Christmas morning, I’d get no complaints.

Mmmm. . .ice cream for breakfast. . . I’m going to have to find a recipe.

IN: ON: December 14, 2011 TAGS: Odds and Ends BY: Hilary

Monday’s Message

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Mondays get a bad wrap. The fun of the past Friday, Saturday and Sunday is still a tasty morsel of good times in the front of your brain. The promise of next week-ends date nights, quality family time and general do-nothingness is barely visible on the horizon. The promise of next week-end; it’s like waiting for Santa, the Easter Bunny, and your favorite relative to all come visit at once.

Monday is a buzzkill.

Back to work/school/regualrly scheduled programming. SN: Now that DWTS is done, what’s there to watch on Monday night , anyway? There are emails to send and voice mails to return. Trips to the post office. Trips to the dry cleaner. Stuff to return. Stuff to pick up. Things to do, do, do, whether you work from home, in an office, in school, or somewhere in between. The bottom-line is there is work to be done. How can you not succumb to the grumbles and gripes of yet another Monday when the clock on the wall is dialing it in, the coffee has about as much bite to it as a toothless doberman, and Siri is taking a personal day?

I’m making a choice, though. I’m going to have a good day. . .a good Monday, even. I had a great week-end. I am ready for what my week has in store. My to-do list is longer than a two-ply roll of toilet paper, but I’m about to get all Chuck Norris on it.

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I’m ready for you, Monday. Let’s dance.

IN: ON: December 11, 2011 TAGS: advice, sharing BY: Hilary

Write On

I love stationery. I love monogrammed flat notes. I love embossed folded notes. I love personalized notes that come in lined envelopes. I have several boxes of note cards that I keep in rotation.

If I need to send a thank you, I use these:

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If I want to let someone know I’m thinking of them, I use these:

I love, love, love Design-her Gal! My first set of calling cards came from there and I couldn’t give them away fast enough. It’s fun designing a mini avatar that looks just like me. I can change her clothes with the seasons, which is usually when I need more cards, and I can change her hair as often as I change my own. That alone has made the purchase worth it.

There was a period where I had these great Vera Wang notes that I had gotten from Tuesday Morning,

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but somehow, I was writing more and more notes to people. I burned through them in a matter of weeks. I found myself in a bind to get my hands on some stationery. So, I improvised and turned the girls’ art work into note cards.

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For those you who received one of those, I hope you kept it. It’s going to be a collector’s item one day.

Anyway, I was out an about the other day, searching for a hostess gift when I saw these super cute sets of assorted note card from Rifle Paper Company.

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Don’t they just make you want to write someone a note? I might have to tell Santa to stuff these in my stocking. And speaking of the fat man and his busiest night of the year, there are holiday cards, too.

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So tell me, am I the last of a dying breed? Is the art of letter writing and note card sending dead? Why don’t you get yourself some new stationery to drop me a few lines and tell me what you think.

IN: ON: December 6, 2011 TAGS: random, sharing BY: Hilary

Fun with Photography

So, it’s that time of year when I need to take a picture of the girls for our annual Christmas card. Now that I’ve been accumulating all of this photography experience and knowledge, I really want to put it to good use.

Years past, it used to be that I would battle the masses to the Picture People or Portrait Innovations to get a great shot. That has proven, time and again, to be an exercise in insanity and aggravation. There were two years that I can immediately recall where I just said, “Whatevs. . ” and used some random shot from a good time we had at the playground. Last year, when I was just getting comfortable with things like ISO and manual exposure, I did a pretty good job in getting the girls at their smiley best. Remember these?

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Pretty cute and I love the how the tree made a natural backdrop for me.

So fast forward to this year and I’m wondering how I’m going to improve upon last year’s card. It’s a personal challenge. I’m so weird.

I was trolling around on Pinterest (what else is new), when I saw a few backdrop tutorials. There was one using some Christmas lights that gave off the effect a kind of snowy background. Hmmm. . .I could do that. So, I read up on the how-to’s, got my supplies and decided to try it out.

First, I rigged up my backdrop support and crossbar. I hate how this thing just came in a bag with no instructions. I’m a college educated woman and yet, putting this thing together made me feel like I was blind in one eye and couldn’t see out the other. Still, I got it up.

Then, I grabbed my Target queen sized white sheet (I spare no expense) and tacked that up on the bar.

I used these nifty clamps, just like the pros use, to make sure there was no slippage.

After that, I started threading my Dollar Tree twinkle lights across the bar and on the backdrop. I had to fill in with the other twinkle lights that have been earmarked for our Christmas tree because, truth be told, the background was looking pretty thin.

Let there be lights! It looks kind of sad, like Charlie Brown’s Christmas tree, but I keep reminding myself that this is just a test. Now that I look at it in the picture, I’m probably going to have to use the other sets of tree lights to really make this thing pop. We usually get the lights strung on the green wire to blend into the tree, but now I’m seeing the utility of the white wire ones. Well, if the picture doesn’t come out way quite the I want it to, then, I’ll upgrade to more fashionable lights. Besides, in my head, this is a tight, tight portrait shot, so really, whatever is on the sides doesn’t matter.

Okay. I got all my stuff in place and of course, I can’t find my tripod. Still. After that big office clean-up, there are still some things that have yet to turn up. Maybe if I stop looking for it, that’s when I’ll find it. And maybe it really went out with the trash. *le sigh*.

Anyway, the backdrop is set. The lights are up. The lights are on. Let’s see if we can make this work. My nikon is powered up with my nifty fifty lens in place. I’ve got my ISO on 320, my shutter speed at 1/60 and my apeture at 1.8 for that nice, creamy bokeh. Now, where’s my model? Oh, right. That would be me. And keep in mind, these are SOOC (straight out of the camera), so be kind.

Ooooh, not bad for a first try. I think fiddled with some of my settings between the two shots, hence the blue tint on the first one. Plus it’s a little dark. And I’ve kind of got a people’s eyebrow going on a bit in that one. Anyway. . . I keep cutting off my head and my chin because my arms are only but so long. Stupid tripod, where are you?! I can’t work like this. I need another model.

What a diva, but she’ll do.

I’ve still got some tweaking to do (I really want to blur out the strands and just see the bulbs). Sure, it’s a very amateur, very MacGyver type situation I’ve got going on, but I’m going to make it work for the Dixon Christmas Card 2011. Overall, I’m going to say, mission accomplished here. Now, to get the girls geared up in their holiday finery (read: clean shirt and combed hair) for the real deal.

And you, dear reader? Go wait by your mailbox!

IN: ON: November 28, 2011 TAGS: 30 day, holidays, photos BY: Hilary

Dive Right In

One of the neighbors on our street is having a pool installed in their backyard!!

The weather hasn’t yet turned frightfully frosty yet, and summer isn’t that too distant of a memory, but now I’ve got warm weather, vacation and pools on the brain. I’m thinking I might have to have those contractors measure out a nice in-ground set-up for us. . .after I trot over to the neighbors house with a nice beer bread or banana nut loaf, of course. Gotta get in good now and make sure my seat under the cabana is reserved.

Don’t these pools make you want to take a dip?

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IN: ON: November 28, 2011 TAGS: fall, random, summer BY: Hilary

Giving Thanks

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Last year, just as in years’ past, the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade was on television while the family was in the kitchen prepping for the main event. The girls would float in and out of the family room, pausing in front of the screen to take in the sight of marching bands, super sized floats, and the scores of cartoon characters inflated high in the sky over the crowds. I, too, would check some things out when I heard the broadcasters mentioned a name or group that I was particularly interested in seeing. Somehow, between setting the table, shuffling pots and pans, and trying to sneak off with a book for a hot minute, I happened to catch the Rockettes the same time that Morgan and Coever did their pass by the TV.

Growing up, my grandmother used to tell me that she was the first Black Rockette way back in the day. There wasn’t any evidence to back up her claim. There weren’t any flyers, there weren’t any photographs tucked into a worn photo album. There wasn’t anyone who could corroborate her story. She just repeated it every year, especially around the holidays when the Rockettes were more visible during the parade and their holiday extravaganza at Radio City. She was almost Pavlovian in her reaction. Rockette’s on TV? Here comes Gram, “I remember when I was Rockette, doing all those high kicks. ”

For years, I believed her. Then with the cynicism that comes with early adulthood, I jumped onto Google one year to find out who indeed the first Black Rockette truly was. Her name is Jennifer Jones and she made her debut in 1988. Was I depressed at learning the truth? No, I was kind of proud. Gram had been consistently bestowing a gift on me year after year. Sure, she wasn’t the first, but that didn’t mean that I couldn’t be if I wanted to. Whatever I wanted to be, I could.

Last year, when the girls and I caught the Rockette’s doing their performance, I thought about Gram. I thought about her maintaining her status as “the first Black Rockette”. When those ladies lined up to do their iconic line kick, I found myself tearing up. My throat grew thick with missing my gram, and the temptation to just whisper to the girls, “You know, your Great-Gram was a Rockette.”

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I didn’t tell them, of course. What with their access to Google and all things digital, they’d quickly figure things out. I did tell them the story of how their Great-Gram Eleanor told me she had been a Rockette. I tell them of how she had a department store’s worth of perfumes on her dresser, how she always said, “Hey, doll!” when she answered the phone. I tell them that even though she passed away when Morgan was just a baby and that Coever never met her, she loves, loves, loves them dearly, and always will. I tell them how lucky I am to have had an adult relationship with my grandparents and how lucky they are, too.

This day, and always, I’m thankful for my family and my friends. I am thankful for the roof over my head, the clothes on my back, and the food in my belly. I am thankful for opening my eyes every morning, for walking on my own two feet. I’m thankful for the people whose lives I’ve touched and whose lives have touched mine. I am thankful for the people whom I have never met, but work to ensure my safety and the safety of my family, friends and neighbors. I’m thankful for all the things that I take for granted the other 364 days of the year and I’m thankful for all of the things that I often complain about as well. Sometimes, I need a national holiday to remind me.

Or a Rockette’s high kick in the pants.

Happy Thanksgiving, y’all!

IN: ON: November 23, 2011 TAGS: fall, reminiscing, sharing BY: Hilary

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Hilary

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