Friends & Witnesses

My husband and I were blown away by two of our friends, Mark & Christina (Tina). We haven't seen them but maybe 2 times this year due to both our schedules... then yesterday I received a call from Mark inviting us to go to dinner... well... I told him that Tim and I could go if we went to a restaurant that would honor our CitiPass... ya know, one of those city books that you buy and get two-for-one dinners or lunches.

Anyway, Mark says, "We want to treat you guys" in celebration of your anniversary (of which they were our wedding photog's and our witnesses all in one, cause we were in Scotland getting married) and Christmas. Well I was taken a weee bit aback by this invitation... I had no expectation of their intentions...

Mark & Christina picked out a restaurant that we had never been to called Stoney River... it was REALLY good. We had a great time, and I took some pictures and passed my camera around... here are some shots.Thank you Mark & Christina for such kindness... you really touched our hearts... we look forward to returning the favor when we are able...P.S. Those are ONION Rings!!!

Home Again!!!

On the road again... just can't wait to get on the road again...

Actually, I'm not really looking forward to it... my trip to CA was very WONDERFUL and part of me doesn't want to leave... going home means it's time to WORK WORK WORK... but then again, Piano Wizard should be arriving at our home really soon, and I can't wait to get started learning how to play the piano...If you haven't seen this revolutionary tool, YOU MUST check it out!

And, if you would like to invest in the project that is bringing this awesome little puppy to the public, you need to email or call me ASAP!

STOP

It's a dream filled thought that I would love to see come to pass. It's a waste of time and energy to hate, it is easy to love... well, most of the time...

It's not nice to be mean - it's mean not to be nice!

I was tooling through Nashville in the West End area near Vanderbilt University when I came across this sign... yeah, I agree!

Deep thought in the Laundromat...

I was sitting at a local Laundromat (don't ask) recently while waiting for two comforters to dry... In the mail I had received a catalog (that I usually throw away) with some of those sort of things that I don't need... but I needed to kill some time while waiting for my comforters to dry...

Anyway, I was flipping through and came across this little framed saying: Well behaved women rarely make history....

WOWIE! With all that I am working on right now with my business, my spiritual life, my relationships, etc. (try not to notice the order I put those in...). That little graphic caught my attention. And I started to ponder what "well behaved,” meant to me...

Throughout my life as "the child of Armando & Diana" I prided myself on being well behaved... BUT, and this is a big but, I realized that I was always trying to please everything and everybody outside myself to be what "they thought" was the right thing or person to be... never truly honoring myself in who I wanted to be... AND, being well behaved really opens a can of worms... even in the society that I grew up in where women mostly raised families and kept a home...

I was born into a new faction of women who decided that raising a family wasn't necessarily going to feed the inner needs... I became a young woman fighting (mainly inside myself) for the rights to be "whatever it was I wanted to be". And for me, raising a family and keeping a home was not even close to my desires...

So then I started to look at my "current" definition of "well behaved". AND, that I did't want to come off as someone who is well behaved, because I am someone who is working on something that will very well CHANGE HISTORY... oooooooooooouu, those are big aspirations, aren't they? Yes indeed. I can't go into much detail as there are legal issues, but I can tell you, I am going to disrupt the business I am in... and I am going to leave my mark...

I now believe that well behaved women aren't what I want to be, or what I am... and I'm O.K. with that...

All I was doing was flipping through a stupid little catalog in a Laundromat waiting for my blankets to dry... ya never know where deep thought will occur... I'm used to it happening inside my car driving down the road... I welcome more of it in more places...

Colours

I thought only the smog filled skies of southern California could have a sunset that was this colorful... This is a silhouette of my husband with the sun setting in the west in the back roads of Tennessee...

Doggonit!

Too cute! I couldn't resist snapping a photo of this dog at the Jack Daniels Country Dog COSTUME Contest. He didn't win, but he sure was cut!

It was amazing to see the costumes people made for their dogs. The winner was dressed up like a chef, but not just any chef, a Jack Daniels chef!

Jack Daniel

What a fun day spent in Lynchburg, TN at the 17th Annual Jack Daniel's Invitational BBQ! It took us about two hours to drive from where we live, and when we arrived just a mile or so outside the city limits it was bumper to bumper... even tour buses were there...
Lynchburg is a quaint little town where the Jack Daniels distillery is located. Many years ago when I first moved to Tennessee, I went to the distillery for a tour, it was so interesting. About I year after that, a deed arrived in the mail. I had been gifted a square inch of land located on the grounds of the distillery. I was officially a Tennessee Squire. Every year they have the barbeque they host a private party for the squires too, that is just one of the benefits. I also get a calendar every year, and sometimes a goody bag! We went to the party, and got a collector bottle of Jack signed by the master distiller, Jimmy Bedford, and also one of the tasters, Lynn Tolley signed our bottle (she also owns Miss Mary Bobo's - a restaurant in Lynchburg). The bottle of Jack was not free... they did however, give us a commemorative shot glass, a small shot bottle of Jack, and a squire pin. Very cool!

Anyway, we also entered our little girl Lucy in the Jack Daniels Country Dog Talent Contest... and guess what? She won second place! Her talent was that she sings Happy Birthday with me... and she sang the whole song and got more applause than any of the other dogs... we were real surprised she didn't win first place... oh well! So this is a picture of Lucy with Kelsie Hardin - Junior Miss Dogwood Queen. Aren't they precious?!
Oh yes, and when we were getting ready to leave there was LOTS of traffic, so Tim and I decided to drink our Jack Sours before we left (waiting for traffic to die down). We happened upon the grave yard in Lynchburg… we found Lem Motlows grave, and then Jack Daniels grave, and low and behold… two seats right on top of Jacks grave, so Tim took my picture right there on Jack’s grave enjoying a delicious Jack Sour… yummy!

Brothers

There are some days when I really love my job. Today is one of those days.

I had the good sense to accept a photo assignment of two brothers, Isaac & Ford. They are seven and eight years old, not normally the age group I choose to photograph. But the call came in as a referral, and my inner guidance told me not to turn this one down... I am sooooo glad I didn't pass this experience by.

These two boys were so awesome to play with, and when I say play, I mean photograph. It was almost like they were professional child models or something. They were so up for showing me who they are... and most importantly, their mother (who is 8 months pregnant with a girl) told me she wanted me to capture the essence of their age... to capture this candid time in their lives. So, here's one of the shot's that the boys did for me.

Also, I want to point out, that I spent a good bit of time laughing with these boys... I had them laughing, and they had me laughing... I almost think I had a better time than they did...

Halloween Oreos.......

Nothing is safe from my camera... Here is what I'm bringing to a dinner on Friday that is of the Halloween theme. I don't usually have the time to fuss these days as I am soooooooooo busy with work on my business... but I thought I should take the time to do something fun, AND, it was... in fact, I did this while I was on the phone (at about 1 AM) with a dear friend in Dallas...

White Chocolate (purple colored), hand-dipped, with a candy corn. Very halloweeny!

Talk about multi-tasking... Yum yum yum....

NEVER BORING (My Life)!

I can't even remember the last time I have had a Clint the Black Cat show. I put it on the top shelf about 4 years ago to pursue my photography/web design business full-time. But here I am again, my first show in years... and I am nervous. There will be K-5th grade students there who have written their own books. I will read Clint the Black Cat to them, then some of them will read their books to me. It should be fun fun fun...

I judged an art contest yesterday at this school... it was so cute and always such a joy to see a child's artistic expression. The theme was reading and books... most of the children had a hard time following the theme, but as usual, there were a select few that were inspired.

Dear Young Entrepreneur!

I was asked to write a letter to the consortium of "young" entrepreneur education - speaking to young people (and maybe some young older people)!

Here is what I was guided to write:

The best advice I can give anyone about embarking into the business of CREATIVITY is dive in, get it all over yourself, and don't look back! If your heart and your head won’t shut up because they are so excited about seeing a creative thought become reality, than hang on and ride the ride ahead.

Start with the following if you need some guidance:

a) Don’t ignore your idea or thought (you might even have an excited sensation in your chest; feels much like a rush of adrenalin during a bungi jump or skydive). You want to scream inside (and out), and I suggest that you should… scream for goodness sake… there’s nothing like a good scream when you’re riding an exciting new ride. If you ignore these thoughts and ideas, you will regret it every day of your life. This is your higher power guiding you to be who you already are!

b) See the idea in your visual mind. See yourself creating the thing that you envision. Close your eyes and perhaps mime the action of the creation with your hands. Keep a separate journal of ideas. I have many of them.

c) Take a step each day in the direction of this dream that you have created. This might mean picking up the phone to find someone in the business that you want to be in and ask him or her to be your mentor. Most people are honored to be a mentor; it is validation that they too are heading in the right direction of their dreams. And remember dreams never end - they continue to EXPAND.

d) Live and breath your dream. Speak it into being! The words you speak are the power and belief of your dream. If this isn’t already happening, then you MUST seek a way to make it happen. BUT, don’t fall into the STARVING Artist TRAP – been there done that… it was NOT pleasant! I CANNOT eat tuna fish anymore…

e) **This is the biggest one!** DO NOT ask for approval from other people – I don’t care who they are! Your dream is YOUR dream! It belongs to you and NO ONE ELSE! Dream thieves live among us in the millions, and many times they are the people we trust most in our lives. Just do your dreams, and YOU will inspire someone else to do theirs.

If someone told me that I would have completed 3 murals in Los Angeles, received 20+ awards for photography, co-starred in a movie-of-the-week with a screen legend, authored a children’s book series, have a patent pending, and was going to continue producing creative ideas that were endless; AND, I was going to love every minute of every creative day of my life… I would have jumped on that train when I was 16. Don’t wait till your forty-two like I did to live your dreams, do it NOW! Although, if you are 20 to 100 and still haven’t decided to live your creative passion, I’m proof that it can still happen and is continuing to happen every minute of everyday!

Either way, follow your heart and your dreams; your passion will never fail you. And never forget: Only the ones who believe ever see what they dream come true!

Creative blessings forever and ever,

Carla

Peoples Choice Award

I truly believe that this entire experience of taking this photograph was a gift from God. I was at the right place, at the right time, with the right equipment in my hands.

Lucy (my Scottish Terrier) had never been taken off her leash before, she's a typical Scottish terrier, and she wants to rule the world and all its creatures. Since this day, every time we go to the Dog Beach in Huntington Beach, CA, we gladly unleash her. I have never seen such joy on this sweet little dogs face as when she runs around the beach sniffing and chasing other dogs.

I entered this photo into the Tennessee State Fair professional category. All my photos placed except this one... I'll admit I was very puzzled as I thought this to be the best of my submissions. I call this UNLEASHED! Well, my puzzlement was answered, as total strangers in attendance of the fair voted it the BEST professional photo in the exhibit! We won the "Peoples Choice Award", a large purple fancy ribbon - I am very proud for both Lucy and myself!

Remissssful Me!

Remissful me. I've been gone for a couple of weeks and away from my computer and blog... so please forgive me if you've been looking for a new entry.

Every nine weeks I travel to a foreign place... Los Angeles... I find it amusing that I would feel like Los Angeles is foreign since L.A. is my birthplace (Torrance, CA actually), and I lived there for 31 years. But each time I return there, my connection is less and less, and the place I sometimes refer to as home is so strange and foreign to me. If it weren't for my family, and the business side of my life, I'm not so sure I would return there any more... very sad to think...

First things first: I don't like driving there at all anymore... toooooooo many cars!!!!!!!!!!!!
Secondly: It seems like it is a POLICE state any more. It is very easy to figure out what you CAN'T do (what's against the law). And maybe I am exaggerating, but it seems like common things anymore there are against the law (parking, stopping, looking, smelling, enjoying... etc.).

Now that I live in a small town in Tennessee, I find my visits to California becoming quaint in nature. I grew up in Seal Beach, a small town surrounded by much larger cities on either side. So, now when I go to CA, I gravitate to my small town attraction by visiting the downtown area of Seal Beach. You can walk along the sidewalk in peace, window shop, and guess what...??? Parking is FREE... a very uncommon occurrence in southern California.

I have a photo of the beach from the pier, I'll keep looking for it so I can post it, and you can see Seal Beach.

California Dreamin'

All the leaves are brown
And the sky is gray
I've been for a walk
On a winter's day

I'd be safe and warm
If I was in L.A.
California dreamin'
On such a winter's day...

aaaaahhhh I love the Mamas and the Papas...

I'm looking forward to going to the beach... when I look out toward the never ending ocean, my mind just seems to clear. I can sit for many minutes in silence just listening and watching the waves break.

It's a time to recharge and rejuvenate.
I took this shot at Seal Beach, CA (my home town) a few years ago while doing just that... recharging.

Little Pisser...

Not 5 seconds earlier his mother had just warned me that he was probably going to "go" very soon... It was a warm feeling that surprised me as I balanced behind my camera taking photos of little Jack.

Only five weeks old and Mom already knows her son... he did… on my brand new red blouse... and on my pro lens and camera...

You might be laughing... I wasn't; I wasn't doing much of anything... I was in shock... I had piss running down my cleavage.

Did I bring an extra blouse with me to the shoot...? NO!!! I had to spend the rest of my day in that blouse...