Perspectives

Miss me?

If so, you can see what I have been up to by visiting my fan page on facebook . I several sneak peeks from recent sessions posted that will hopefully hold you over until I can get back to the blog :)

Our baby girl - Talli

I would say our "NEW" baby girl, but I got her a little over three months ago :( However, if you are friends with me on FACEBOOK, than I'm sure you are very familiar with Ms. Talli. You might even be a little tired of hearing about her ;P

I have been meaning to put her on the blog for awhile now (since we got her actually), but I just haven't had time. I hardly had time to take pictures of her until a month or so after we go her. Which is why I am so thankful for camera phones.

Talli is around 4 1/2 months now (we got her around 6 weeks) and is a American Pit Bull Terrier. Isn't she the cutest thing ever! I fell in love with the breed after my mom gave me Coco (she was a rescue from our local grocery store and is a mix of Lab and Pit Bull). I was going to college that summer and would be living alone, so my mom thought having a dog would be a good thing. Although I wasn't really excited about taking care of a puppy at first, she quickly won over my heart. I have never had a sweeter dog and I have owned several while growing up. She is my best friend and I have always said that whenever it's my turn to walk down the aisle she will be my maid of honor. Yes, she means that much to me!

Unfortunately, Pit Bulls have a really really bad rap. The are completely misunderstood and people like Micheal Vick make me soo angry. I will admit, one of the things that really attracted my mom when she gave me Coco was that she was mixed with pit. She thought that because she was part "pit bull", it would make her a really good guard dog. 

Now, I don't want this to turn into a preachy post. I really want to just show of pictures of Talli and rave about her cuteness, but it's hard to do that when I know people that are not educated in the breed will be secretly wanting to burn her at the stake. Or mistake them for having certain behaviors and/or characteristics - such as being a guardian dog, because of what they THINK they know. With Coco alone, I have face so much prejudice and I know it's only going to get worse when Talli get's older. Heck, I face it now and she is only a pup! So I have been doing my homework, and even more now since I got Talli.

The funny thing is, my mom got Coco thinking that the "pit bull" in her would make her a great guard dog when it fact Pit Bulls were not bred to be guard dogs. They absolutely LOVE humans. Aggression towards humans is not a characteristic of the breed. They were bred to be critter getters, so yes, they can see other dogs to be critters. Therefore, most people confuse dog aggression with people aggression.

Which is why, it is very important for you to socialize your Pit Bull puppy with other dogs at a very young age. 

Did you know that there was a Temperament test for dogs? According to Dog Fancy magazine's Popular Dog Series: American Pit Bull Terriers more than 27,000 dogs have taken a temperament test which is given by the American Temperament Testing Society.The test has 10 parts and measures a dog's reactions to strangers, novel noises, sights, and unusual footing. Also measures the dog's self-protective behavior and potential to be aggressive are assessed. Pit bull's were found to have some of the highest scores, passing up Sheepdogs, Collies (I guess Lassie can get tired of saving Timmy from the water well) and Golden Retrievers. Just saying :)

There are also up to 16 different breeds that are mistaken as "pit bulls". Not including all the mixed dogs. The media is notorious for labeling any stout dog with a square head as a Pit Bull when in reality it could be a number of other dogs. The media loves high ratings and labeling stories "PIT BULL ATTACK" always gets the ratings.

So do you think you can tell the difference? Test yourself and see... http://www.pbrc.net/misc/PBRC_find_the_pitbull.pdf  

The answers: http://www.pbrc.net/misc/PBRC_find_the_pitbull_key.pdf

The Dogo Argentino is big in Texas right now and with its cropped ears you could swear it was a over sized American Pit Bull. Unfortunately, the Dogo Argentino will bite people and unfortunately Pit Bulls will more than likely take the heat, because of the unfamiliarity in the breeds physical appearance. 

Anyway, I am not going to go on anymore about Pit Bulls, although I could go on forever about how loyal and eager Pit Bulls are to please their human owners. I can talk all day about how smart they are and how they make excellent family pets, but I won't, because I am ready to show off Talli!!!

And without any further introductions (or preaching)...

This is the first day we brought her home (camera phone pic). We went to Target to go buy a birthday card or something and saw her father hanging out in the back of the parking lot. He was with his owner and they were selling this beautiful girl (along with her siblings). Terry and I had been talking about getting Coco a playmate and I knew that it was going to be a pit bull with a blue coat, but we weren't expecting to find one or get one so soon. I wanted one that had papers, but I knew that it was important to take her home. If I didn't take her than there is no telling where she could of ended up. I wish I could have taken them all home :(

 

She is probably around 10 weeks or so here. The middle picture is my favorite. 

I recorded few of her commands and tricks she has been learning. I need to update it, because she has learned several more since the making of the video. The cutest thing she does right now is waves "goodbye." The kids at Pets Mart love it! 

I have been doing a lot of positive reinforcement training with her. My favorite person to watch is Veronica Stelwell

on the Animal Planet. I love positive reinforcement training, because it's a complete 180 from the traditional dominance training, I think it's more affective and it just makes learning fun and exciting for your four legged fury friend. Positive training encourages your dog to make the right choices on their own without you forcing them like in dominance training.

A few books that talk more about positive training and are good reads are:

Don't Shoot the Dog by Karen Pryor and The Power of Positive Dog Training by Pat Miller

And this was just yesterday! We have my mom's dog, Chola, staying with us, so I can do some basic training with her, but all Chola and Talli have been doing is getting into trouble :)

I spent several hours on Sunday bathing her and Chola (because they decided to roll in the mud after the morning's rain), cleaning off the patio, washing the mud off the side of the house to only walk out to this on Monday afternoon after leaving them outside for 10 minutes (sigh).

Anyway, I am always looking for doggies to play with and for doggies for Talli to play with, so if you ever want to set up a play date let me know!

And if you want to learn more about American Pit Bull Terriers you can visit www.pbrc.net

Epic Save-The-Dates

Terry shared this with me and I thought I would share this with you - so freaking awesome!

You can find out more about this crazy cool couple on their website http://www.jeffanderin.us I can't wait to see pictures from this wedding.

Halloween 2009

Ok, ok, I know that these are really late... but better late than never. The first thing I want to say, is if I EVER get married, I am going to hire a wedding planner. I know it was just a Halloween party, but WOW, that was some hard work. I guess anything can be hard when you do it yourself. I almost didn't make it... thankfully Terry, my Mom, Dad, Brothers, Uncle, a few Friends, and my Grandma helped at the end to make everything come together.

It really wasn't suppose to be as detailed at it was... it really was just a half-hearted idea I threw out to Terry one night when we realized that Halloween was on a Saturday and the fact that we still had not invited anyone over to see our new house. AND If you saw last years post you will know that Terry and I kinda have a thing for Halloween. So it was almost perfect, like it was meant to be (haha).

I don't know how it all started really, our "thing" for Halloween, we were only going to buy a few decorations and some cheap costumes to scare the kids (in a friendly and innocent way) in our neighborhood when we first moved to Pearland.  I don't know what happened. I blame my dad, hahaha. Not really. Well... sortof. My Halloween was taken away from me as a child and in exchange I was given Hallelujah night. Lame. I know what you are thinking and no, I love my Lord Jesus. But, you can only dress up as the Virgin Mary for so many years before you are ready for a change of scenery. I guess I could have gone as a donkey, but that is just wrong.

I never lived in a neighborhood that had a lot of kids either. So I never had the pleasure of passing out candy. When I saw that the neighborhood we moved into was full of kids, I got excited. Now, if you know me and Terry than you know that we are really not on the bandwagon to have children of our own (not just yet anyway), but we love the idea of being the "Aunt" and "Uncle" that will spoil them rotten! So that was the plan, decorate the house, buy the good stuff to pass out on Halloween and sit out in the porch in costume. It just ended up turning into something a little more than a few decorations.

Anyway, back to 2010... since I don't have any pictures of the awesome decorations I am going to have to do my best to describe them to you... it all started with the Halloween costumes. Terry and I love Tim Burton and we LOVE LOVE Sweeney Todd. So it wasn't hard to figure out what we were going to be for Halloween. Terry went all out on his, he wanted to be as authentic as he could get. I found the blue pin-striped pants pretty easily (thank you Goodwill), he found a realistic replica of the razor and leather pouch on Ebay, and the hardest item to find, the Victorian double breast vest, was found online at Guess.com (surprisingly). Unfortunately, we didn't have time to spend on his makeup, but there is always next year. He had a wig too, but we didn't have the time to properly style it, so Terry decided not to wear it - he really isn't into Jerry curls. I was Mrs. Lovett, my grandma made my costume. One of thing things I love about planning this whole thing was spending time with her. Terry and I didn't really take a picture together, but you can find a few below.

Then from there came the invitations (the only thing I was able to get pictures of). I know I wanted something different, why I just can't go to Wal-Mart and buy the thin paper pumpkin invites that come 100 to a pack for $2.99, I have no clue. I think it's a disease, but I seriously do not know how to keep things simple. Anyway, so the design of the invites came to me in a dream...haha... no really... they came to me in that moment when you aren't asleep, but really not awake either. Terry really likes Edgar Allen Poe and his poem The Raven. Personally, I think he likes it because of The Simpson and Homer's take on it, but whatever. I love witches (get your mind out of the gutter, they just peak my interest, I don't cook in a cauldron unless it is the 31st of October) so with that it was decided that Macbeth was the theme for the dining room, The Raven was the theme for the living room and Sweeney Todd for the Kitchen (and I was really planning on just buying some fake blood and cobwebs and calling it a day). So as far as the invites, it just made sense that if we were going to go with a bunch of short stories then a bookmark invite would be perfect! So yeah... there was alot to be done. 

The dining room was my favorite out of everything and it's one of the first things you see when you walk into the house, so it made the perfect segue to the rest of the house. I was able to find a really cool authentic looking cauldron along with all the other cauldrons I have collected over the years (for Halloween purposes ONLY) and some spooky looking books, written in German, at an antique store. I even bought glass potion bottles and filled them up with eyeballs, color liquid, shrunken heads, and herbs. I handmade each label with a calligraphy pen and Gothic inspired rubber stamps. I wanted a spell book, but I am kind of leery about looking that stuff up online, so I took a few spells off the hit show Charmed and of course Macbeth and hand wrote them on vintage homemade paper. We had just bought a buffet with a hutch for the dinning room so it worked out perfectly - I decorated it with mouse silhouettes, skulls, a witches hat, and a witches broom. I topped everything off with cobwebs that covered the entire buffet and stretched to the chandelier, draped the window curtains, and then finally off into the hallway, so when you walked in it was like walking into a tunnel of cobwebs - very cool. Add some real candles, dry ice, strobe light, and a smoke machine, and you could of sworn you walked right into a movie set in Hollywood. Ok... it wasn't that good, but it was impressive  :) Also in the walkway that passed the dining room you found a buffet of "rotten treats" held in various sized large glass containers - from bat dropping to rat tails. The candy buffet set up against the hallway wall that was covered to look like stone. 

Once you made it through the entryway hall and dining room, you were greeted with a curtain of ghostly torn white gauze hanging from the door frame. Push those aside and you entered into the candle lit chamber (our living room) and were welcomed by the black beady eyes of several crows - from the silhouettes on the windows to the realistic stuffed crows on fireplace mantel and book cases. The fireplace mantle proudly hung a ripped blood splattered canvas banner with the bloody words "Once upon the midnight dreary."Also on the mantle sat a skeleton bust and more cobwebs. To your left was the kitchen and in there you could find two busy ladies serving cockroach infested dips and bloody meat pies with human body parts (my mom and grandma are the best). Once you got your food, you would make your way outside to the porch which was covered in torn bloody gauze that spookishly blew in the wind while the eerie sounds of witches, ghost, and everything Halloween played in the background. Finally, in the yard, low lying fog slowly rolled across the ground and set the scene for our skeleton graveyard.

Like I said, there was a lot to do! I didn't even finish or almost even make it to the party for that matter. Nobody was dressed by start time - luckily people never arrive exactly at start time. I was still walking around in dreadlocks (I definitely don't have pictures of that) trying to get things done when a few of the guests arrived. Thankfully, my mom and grandma saved my butt (again) along with my brothers, dad, and Jacob (Terry's crazy, but amazing friend) and Terry and I were able to go change. And if it wasn't for the makeup and hair magic of Ms. Langley, I would have missed half the festivities - so thanks Langley!

It was a fun night. It all went by really fast. A month of planning gone in several hours, which only makes me think about how a bride feels when she plans her wedding. You can spend a year planning a wedding for it all to be over in one day, that's just crazy! Thank God for wedding photographers ;)

Speaking of which, I should of hired a photographer. I did set up a little photo area in my soon to be office so that guests could use it to photograph their crazy outfits. So without further ado, here are a few from the night... 

And the winners of the Costume Contest - Best Overall, Best Couple, Most Creative , Scariest, and Most Economical...

Houston Bridal Extravaganza!

Who went? Who had fun? Who ate cheesecake for me? I love the cheesecake they pass out every year. No, I didn't go this year :( But I had several people ask and I saw tweets and status updates on how much fun everyone was having and I sort of wish I did. I had fun last year and was really looking forward to it this year, but I think I am going to try some smaller shows this year.

There is nothing wrong with the Houston Bridal Extravaganza. I love it. It's just when I went as a vendor last year, I really notice how HUGE it was - thousands of brides and hundreds of vendors. You could spend  four hours in there and only get down half the aisle. While the show allows for brides to collect awesome information and win amazing prizes I think it can be overwhelming. As a wedding photographer I like to be able to speak to my brides and connect with them. I want to learn about who they are and what their vision is for the wedding day, it's just really hard to do that at the show.

Again, I love the show and I think every bride should experience it. Especially experience the cheesecake! You can gather alot of useful information and get wonderful ideas for your wedding.

Anyway, I am getting off track here...my whole point of writing this was to mention that even though I didn't go to the show, I am going to embrace the whole bridal show spirit and offer a discount on my collections for 2010 weddings!

Another good reason why I decided not to show is that I have almost half my year booked already and things are still looking good (thank you to all my past Brides, Terry, Friends, and The Knot), but I want to keep the momentum going and my goal is to have my year booked for weddings by summer.

So with that being said...

I haven't decided how long I am going to run this offer, probably til the end of January.  So if you want more information on pricing and the collections I offer you can email me at monique@mmperspectives.com 

I look forward to hearing from you!!

XOXO

- Monique

Email problems

Hello Friends!

So it was brought to my attention that emails have been sent to my inbox and were never responded to. I just want to apologize for the wait or any inconvenience that may have caused. If emails are being sent through my website there is a good chance they do get lost or never sent. It seems that the website email submit form is a hit or miss depending if it feels like being nice to me or not. I try to answer most emails within 48 hours or sooner, so if you don't hear from me, then please call or feel free to send another email. I promise I won't feel like your nagging me. I love my emails and phone calls it's the only time I usually get to talk to a human during the day. No offense to Ms. Coco (my four legged baby) but I can only take the one way vocal communication for so long :)

ALL YOUR EMAILS ARE IMPORTANT TO ME! And I don't want anyone to feel like I am ignoring them! So again, if you email me and I don't respond within a day or two, then please try again, because it could very well be that I didn't get it. OR, I have done this several times before, wrote the email, but clicking out of the email or hitting "save" instead of "send" and having the email go to the draft folder. Sound ridiculous? Yes, but it has happened on more than one occasion and the whole time I am thinking I replied when it is really just sitting in the draft folder. Oops. 

Ok, so I will be looking for those emails or phone calls!

xoxoxo

Monique

WELCOME 2010!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas! I know I sure did, but how can you not when you get to spend it with family and friends? It's the 1st of January and although I am excited to start a new year, I am also sad, because we have to take down our beautiful Christmas tree and the lights outside. It just seemed to come and go soo fast. Hopefully this year I won't procrastinate with buying gifts and decorating, so everything will seem to last longer. We shall see...

So what's everyone's New Year resolution? I have two main things... First, I want to take the time this year to gather all of my family and friends birth dates and make sure to make some time to call them or send them a card. My list is almost complete (although hopefully never fully complete, because there should always be room for new family and new friends) and I have been making a hard copy and digital copy so that the list won't get lost and I won't forget. I just want my family and friends to know that they are always in my thoughts and important to me. Everyone is spread out so I don't really get to see them and the ones that are close by I don't see them either... why I don't know. So that brings me to my second resolution... I want to spend more time with Family and Friends.

I am horrible at phone calls or just stopping by to visit. I get so wrapped up in what I am doing that I sometimes forget that there is another world outside my front door. Facebook is the devil. It's just so easy to post on a person's wall instead of just calling them. Ok...ok... Facebook is not the devil, it has helped me keep in touch with those that I probably would never see again if there wasn't a network that had worldwide connections. But for those that are close, I should do more than just post "HEY" on their wall - I want to do more.

And of course, there is the lose weight and get organized, but that is every year. So they are on the list, but I am not putting too much faith in them or at least they don't excite me as much. However I did pass up some homemade tortillas and that can very well be described as "COMPLETELY UNHEARD OF." I do have another test, I am about to make some banana bread with all the yummy so ripe that they are black bananas I was was given. My mom made some banana bread a few weeks ago and one of the loafs she gave me was meant for a friend who had never had banana bread before, but somehow it just never made it to him. Oops. 

I have been working on the weight thing for awhile ( that is the understatement of the year). I have been going to the gym at last 2 to 4 times a week since October. Although I have been in and out of a gym, on and off diets, up and down in size, for my entire life. However, so has every other person. Some win, some lose. I think I am getting to the point of acceptance. I am not giving up, I am just tired of worrying about it. It drains so much energy from you and really hinders how you enjoy life. I love food. I love cooking it. I love baking it. I LOVE EATING IT. I haven't lost anything since October, but maybe 5 lbs, because I can't get the diet right. And even though I haven't really lost anything what I have GAINED is endurance and muscle. I am proud to say that I can make it through spin class without dying. I can now smile at myself when I am still on the bike pedaling faster than a mailman being chased by a chihuahua (Hey! Those little land parana's are vicious animals!) and people that look more fit than I am are walking out - AND ONLY 20 MINUTES IN!

I am also lifting more - about double from when I first started. I think Terry is even scared of me! Just kidding, but if he doesn't hit the gym soon... then he will most certainly have a reason to be :)

So I hope everyone had a wonderful Holiday Season! And I hope that 2010 brings an abundance of joy, endless laughter, countless blessings, and overflowing love to everyone! 

I just want to thank EVERYONE - family, friends, and my clients (also friends), for making 2009 so wonderful. My years only get better because of you all!

XOXOX

Monique

LET IT SNOW!!!

I love waking up to snow! There is just something magical about it! I wonder if Coco likes waking up to snow too? I made her go out and play in it or at least tried...

P.S. This was taking with my new phone - the Droid! I love it! I think the video quality on this thing is better than the videocamera I have.

Among other things...

Look who has resurrected from the grave! I can't believe it was almost or even more than two months since my last entry! Things have been crazy and although I know that isn't an excuse, it's the only one I have. I have lots to blog, I just need to find the time to get around and doing it. It seems that every time I tell myself I am going to do something like blog at least once or twice a week it ends up be the completely opposite and it turns into once or twice every two months. So I am not going to make any more promises to myself, because I seem to be ok with not telling myself the truth.

What's new with me? Well the biggest thing is that I have jumped on the new year resolution early and have joined a great gym in Pearland, Dynamic Fitness, and have been working with one of their great personal trainers for over a month now. Working with a drill Sargent has really open my eyes to a lot of things... like ellipticals can be the devil! I hate planks! And I will NEVER NEVER like walking on a treadmill at a 20 incline at 3.6 mph. Have a lost any weight? Heck NO! I love my sugar and carbs too much, but I do have more energy. Although, it has only have been little over a month, so I can't really expect to be slim and trim. 

The new house is coming along... I have painted two rooms and lived. So I might paint two more before the year ends. We had our first house warming party/Halloween party just a few weeks ago, so pictures coming soon (of what I have, but I will explain more in that post).

Other than that I have been staying busy with weddings, engagement and bridal sessions! I have posted a few, but I have several more on the way (hopefully).

OH! I have finally given in and started a twitter account... technically I have been "twittering" for awhile now if you count facebook, but I figured to jump in the dark pool anyway. So find me on Twitter! No promises on being interesting, but it could be good to find out if I am running promos and such :)

Hopefully see you on here again soon!

- Monique

And since blog post are always more interesting with pictures, here are a few pics of my invites I made for the Halloween party... 

I'm back!

It has been brought to my attention that it has been a month since my last post! I am not one for excuses, but I do have some really good reasons :)

1. We bought a new house!!! That has to be a good reason right? That was an experience... a long story... but we got the house and I couldn't be happier. Moving was a chore and I NEVER want to do that again. It is crazy how you just seem to collect stuff over the years and all the little things just really add up. I  now know that I hate moving and that paying a moving service will be well worth it in the long run. However, I love my new kitchen, my new dinning room, and the new office area that will be dressed up for all of my clients. I will post pictures soon, but I have NO FURNITURE right now, so the pictures will have all the sellers belongings, but you will get the idea of what things look like. I am sooo overwhelmed... I have decorating magazines piled as high as the ceilings... I have ideas, but only ideas. I have no clue when I am going find the time to start painting and buying furniture. One day I want country french/modern... then the next day its cottage/country/modern.... then its just modern... And then all the color choices! Ugh, I don't even want to start thinking about that... Anyway, like I said, I will post pictures soon... oh what the heck... here you go...

The front door.

This piece is hanging just as you enter, I absolutely love it!!. There was drama over it at the closing table, but thankfully we were able to keep it in the end.

The dinning room. I think I am going to keep the colors, but again I change my at least twice a day.

The new office!! I do love red, but I want to stick with my branding, so the walls will probably be painted a light or dark grey.

Our living room... this is the room that is giving me the most headaches. It is so oddly shaped, so I am having a hard time trying to figure out how I want my furniture arranged. Our T.V is going to be in the same area that the sellers had their T.V., but I don't want such a large sectional. I think I would like to have one couch and then two accent chairs.

A view of my very cute kitchen. LOVE LOVE LOVE!!

The master bath.

Master bedroom.

Terry's new office. I have no idea what color to paint this room.

My photography/guest room. I think I want to make this a black and white room, but I am not sure. One of my clients did it with their bathroom and it was soo awesome! But I am still on the fence about it.

Anyway... moving on...

2. My monitor decided to kick the bucket. I have been waiting on a new monitor for over a month now. Samsung made it sound like it would only be a week, but now they don't want to replace my monitor with a comparable one and it took them over a month to tell me. So they are suppose to just refund my money which means I will be able to get an extra 6 more inches!! I guess it was a good thing, but it has been nothing but a headache trying to use Terry's monitor to process my images. So I just stopped since I was being promised that it would only be a few more days and every time I would wait for the UPS truck to arrive, but no monitor. So hopefully next week I will have a new Dell 27" flat screen that will make my arm tired from moving the mouse arrow from one corner of the screen to the next ***evil grin*** 

3. My brother kinda had an accident... again... We really need to bubble wrap that boy! It has only been a year from his car accident and I yet again, I found my self making my way through the winding maze of Memorial Herman to get to the emergency room. I really really don't like hospitals. There are never any smiling faces and the air is filled with sorrow and sadness. Thankfully, he seems to be healing ok, but it was a long week. It's always hard to see a loved one lying helpless in a hospital bed surrounded by tubes, needles, and machines.

Sooo... yes... it has been a hectic month and things aren't slowing down. However, I do have alot to post, so hopefully I can pull myself away once a week to show off some goodies - progress with the house, recent sessions, and some new weddings. Starting with my bridal session with LeAnn! So please stay tuned!