the ADOBE 15.

corn chips
cream cheese with a bit of bagel
lattes with whip cream
red wine
pizza
lasagna

although i admit i have indulged (seriously indulged), i blame none of the delicious items above for the 15 pounds i have gained in the last three months.

the blame, 100% of it, lies with these two FABULOUS and ADDICTING software programs:

Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 3; and

Adobe Photoshop CS5.

they are just plain amazing and make being a photographer just that much more awesome.
so... for the past several months, the time that i normally spend walking the dog, practicing (wii) yoga, going to the gym, or attempting to master the shake weight (if you have never seen the video of ellen degeneres trying out the shake weight, you are missing out and need to watch it here. she makes it look so easy. believe me, it is not.),  i have instead spent sitting on my booty at the computer happily editing images.... lots of images. for hours - doing fun things like this:

here is the o.g. pic of the lovely miss kaitlin:

here are 6 fun ways to play with it:

this sort of super fun playtime does not bode well for my backside.
or my front to be honest with you.

so... not setting any exercise goals in stone just yet (because those goals never work with me anyway) but I am going to make an effort to get much quicker at editing.... which means: lots more practice. fun. yay.

xo,

nik

"never, never, never give up" - winston churchill

Senior Pics: Nick and Sean

senior portrait sessions on sunday were awesome. both nick and sean, seniors at kennedy high school were so fun to work with.

allow me to introduce you!

meet nick:

this guy made my heart sing when he said the following:

"the best thing my parents ever did for me was to introduce me to piano."

meet sean:

sean is a swimmer. i thought he had to be joking when he said the swim team did a december "polar swim" in the lake...

brrr. not joking. ;)

thank you nick and sean! i had a blast working with you both and i wish you the very best in your endeavors. happy adventures!

best,

nikki

"the best way to predict the future is to invent it" - alan kay

t.g.i.s.!!!

thank goodness it's spring!

what a gorgeous weekend. 

the sun was still a bit timid but did come out to play

and the rain, for the most part, stayed away...

so that we could dig the bikes out and cruise to the park, take max for a long walk, go window shopping, let oliver run and play outside in the sunshine,

and take advantage of the perfect lighting! couldn't resist snapping a few shots of my favorite girls. 

check out these lovies!

other bits of awesomeness from the first official weekend of spring:

grandpa bob came to visit. such a treat to spend the afternoon with him. he brought with him a lovely (giant) bunch of daffodils (thank you! thank you! they are perfect)!; 

i finally got my hands on the new adele album, 21. AMAZING. a must have;

i have a clean car. yay! (was getting so ridiculously dirty that i no longer recognized it and was finding myself wandering aimlessly through parking lots...); and

i shot two senior portrait sessions. these guys were awesome. i will introduce you to them next post.

i hope you all enjoyed your weekend as much as i did mine.

i hope the sun stays out and the rain remains shy. for at least a couple more days.

nik

"flowers always make people better, happier and more helpful; they are sunshine, 

food and medicine to the soul" - luther burbank

a quickie

short, quick post.

just wanted to introduce you to my new fabulous, drool-worthy tote!

this tote has been on my "i soooo love and need that" list for many many months.

and now it is officially mine! all the way from france!

a HUGE thank you to kara and KK for this amazing surprise! love it!!!!!

find your new fabulous tote (so many fun prints to choose from) right here!

happy tote shopping!

best,

nik

"blessed are the happiness makers" - henry ward beecher

celebration.

yesterday was the 32nd birthday of my true love, my best friend, my ryan.

he is kind,
sexy (especially in highwater flanel pj pants),
smart,
funny,
generous,
honest,
true,
energetic,
loyal,
he has amazing dimples,
he is a wonderful husband
and the very best daddy.
he rocks.

we all love him.

and so we celebrated him, all weekend long!

we went out for pizza with jess, danny and reecey-roo on friday. we had a one hour wait for a table so we spent an hour at the blockbuster next door. they had a going out of business sale. perfect! ryan loves finding screaming deals on new movies. i believe he found eight he just had to have. i love that at least half of them were disney/pixar cartoons to watch with o.

the pizza, the beers and buckets were delish. the company, awesome as always. oliver loves an opportunity to have a meal with his bff, "roo."

we lazied around the house a bit on saturday until it was time to head to mom and dad's for dinner. as a special bday treat - my dad made a pot of clam chowder - ryan's fave. he used clams that ryan dug up the last time we were at the ocean. i am not a fan of clams (not even a little bit) so i would be lying if i gave a rave review - i couldn't muster up the courage to try it. however, everyone else gave it 10 stars. (i recall not too long ago asking my friend jen over email if she knew of a good clam chowder recipe - i wanted to surprise ryan even if it meant gagging over the smell of my kitchen for several days - her response was simply "ughhhh. there is no such thing.") if you differ from me and jen and are fans of clam chowder, i will update this post with the recipe once i get it from dad. promise.

a bigggg thank you to  my mom and dad for being so thoughtful and generous! ryan loved the chowder and the fabulous apple crisp (recipe forthcoming as well - sooooo amazing and dangerously addicting).

oliver stayed with grandma and grandpa and ryan and i had a date night! first in quite a while. i surprised my man with tickets to a comedy show. we saw the hilarious (but a bit dirty i must admit) rocker comedian, huck flynn and local comedian drew barth (also verrry funny). you can check them out here and here. the comedy underground in tacoma offers fun, live comedy three nights a week. inexpensive way to enjoy a night out.

after the comedy show, we did something very naughty:

shared a giant plate of best nachos ever at the matador.
not awesome to do at 11:00 at night when plagued with heartburn.
i must admit: totally worth it anyway.

it felt incredible to sleep in until 8:00 sunday morning. big thanks again to mom and dad for keeping our kiddo. ;)

who doesn't love a good tour and/or beer??? we, along with 10 of our dear friends spent sunday afternoon at the redhook brewery in woodinville. even if you are not a fan of beer (i must admit i am not big on beer), the tour is well worth the $1 cost of admission. the tour guides are always witty, full of energy and knowledge (albeit beer knowledge - but whatever). a good time was had by all.

redhook also sells really great t-shirts. they have a full bar and a cafe with excellent food. there are also several fabulous wineries right next door.

so check it out sometime.

finale to bday weekend was spent at laredo's on lower queen anne. YUM. (here is a convenient little link to their menu) i highly recommend it. i also highly recommend considering leaving your toddler with a babysitter. although i was able to find small increments (like 30 seconds) to shovel food in my face, i spent the majority of the evening chasing oliver up and down the sidewalk in the pouring rain. (uncle eddie and uncle ben took turns as well - thanks guys!) i was the crazy camera-yielding mom racing after the pitter-patter of soggy little shoes. the smile on oliver's face as we played outside was well worth being drenched and exhausted though. the photos were fun too. mini ryan:

we did make it back into the restaurant to watch handsome blow out his candles.

i am super curious what he wished for. 

it was a fabulous weekend of celebrating an amazing person. 

our hearts were full but also heavy as we followed the news and kept japan in our thoughts and prayers. 

celebrate often the people you hold dear.

xo,

nikki

"know the true value of time; snatch, seize and enjoy every moment of it." - philip dormer stanhope

brand new bebe!, wise words and free treats

oliver's new cousin arrived last night at 5:22 pm! yay!  9 lb., 1 oz. welcome to the world precious baby meagan kate! cannot wait to meet you! so excited for your mommy and daddy to begin the greatest adventure of their lives. (i wish i had a pic to share but i have yet to see the little belle!).

i am still trying to find time to finish reading the happiness project.

i was able to find five minutes for reading last night and came across these wise words. i agree wholeheartedly with gretchen.

"people who love their work bring an intensity and enthusiasm that's impossible to match through sheer diligence... enthusiasm is more important to mastery than innate ability, it turns out, because the single most important element in developing an expertise is your willingness to practice. therefor, career experts argue, you're better off pursuing a profession that comes easily and that you love, because that's where you'll be more eager to practice and thereby earn a competitive advantage."

very tempting free treats:

howard schultz and the starbucks gang have come up with ingenious new bite size treats to hook us all! debuting this week, these cutesie treats are free between the hours of 2-5 pm, tomorrow through saturday with the purchase of any beverage:



speaking of ingenious, is this lamp shade not PERFECT? (my latest and greatest anthropologie obsession).



happy wednesday friends.

nik

'take care to remind yourself how lucky you are and be as eager for monday mornings as you are for friday afternoons' - gretchen rubin.

not so lazy sunday: antiques, water and lemon

i love a lazy sunday. so does ryan. we are teaching oliver to love them too.

unless it is football season and we have tickets to the game, we normally spend our sundays free of absolute plans. we occasionally catch up on grocery shopping or run a few quick errands but for the most part, our lazy days are reserved for reading, playing, long walks, bike rides, cooking, napping...

we threw lazy sunday out the window this week and made plans to hang with my baby brother tyler and his eddy. we had so.   much.   fun.

tyler and eddy brought oliver a gift. the most fantastic, hilarious dancing frog you would ever lay your lucky eyes on. so. rad. oliver loves tyler and eddy. he loves them even more post froggy gift.

after twenty minutes or so of watching and laughing as froggy shook it's froggy tail and serenaded us with (this song), off we went on a sunday adventure to one of my favorite places: the gold mine of antique shopping: pacific galleries antique mall.

treasures currently on display:

(ummm, why?)

i found hundreds of items that i just had to have but did not leave with a single one of them. i am currently "saving" for this treasure here (aha. anyone who knows me is laughing at the prospect of my successfully saving money). i will likely go back for the stripey coffee mugs. that blue is perfect!

when we figured we had roamed the antique mall to our hearts' desires - we headed to alki beach to let oliver throw some rocks in the water and to get some pizza at the best pizza joint i know: pegasus pizza on alki.

oliver enjoyed (??) his very first lemon wedge. tehe. we all enjoyed watching him enjoy it.

the best part of being out on this not so lazy sunday was that the sun decided to be out too. for the first time this year, it did not feel like winter here. loved it.

cheers,

nik

"be yourself. everyone else is already taken." - oscar wilde.

p.s. if you know any fun high school seniors who would like fabulous, fun senior portraits... e-mail me. i am offering deals on senior portrait sessions booked by the end of the month.