Showing posts with label photo shoot. Show all posts
Showing posts with label photo shoot. Show all posts

Wednesday, April 30, 2014

My New Look


 So I am not sure if you noticed, but I am sporting a brand new look here on the blog and as well as on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Pinterest.

I am having a hard time finding the words to say just how much I LOVE it! 

My five-year blogging anniversary is coming up, and I felt it was time to update my look.  The cartoon character of me with the bright turquoise and pink will always hold a special place in my heart.  That was the start of something brand new, and I felt that design captured my excitement.

But a lot of things change in five years.  My style has evolved, and I wanted something a little more subtle and soft.


So I spoke in my preferred visual medium – Pinterest.  I made a board of all sorts of things that inspired me which included everything from shoes to interior design.  I hoped Lyndsay, the fantastic designer at Cordial Punch Press that I have been working with since the beginning, understood what I was trying to communicate.




Luckily, she did.  I don’t know a lot of people who can look at a bunch of random pins and know *exactly* what I was trying to say.  Not only is she a talented, designer, but she speaks my secret language of pins.


Someone else who was picking up what I was laying down was my sister-in-law, Brandy from BrandyNicole Photography.  I gave her a bunch of pins of what I wanted the new profile pic to feel like, as natural and candid as a photo shoot can be.   




I think she totally nailed it.  Here are some other photos from our photo shoot. 

mommy on the spot working from home brandy nicole photography
This pretty much sums up
what working from home has been all about.

mommy on the spot desk photo brandy nicole photography
This is another one of my favorites.

mommy on the spot vision board brandy nicole photography
Something in this photo tugs at my heart strings.


Collaborating with others in a creative way is risky – it can be amazing and uplifting or tumultuous and frustrating.  I really feel that both of these artists were in tune with what I was trying to convey and feel fortunate to have such talented friends.

Hope you are digging the new look as much as I am!



Tuesday, July 17, 2012

I Don’t Even Know Who I Am Anymore!




I’m not sure if you saw it on Twitter, but I had a pretty interesting Saturday night.  And by interesting, I don’t mean commenting on the shows I was catching up on my DVR.  Oh, no.  I was out!  On a Saturday night!

Brandy at Brandy Nicole Photography was doing a photo shoot for my headshots that I needed for this fashion show casting call I am going to on Sunday. 

What?!  A fashion show?  But you are not a model and well into your thirties.  Well, my friend Shannon at Detroit Fashion News is organizing a fashion show for charity at The Village of Rochester Mall, and I decided to go out of my comfort box and try something new for a good cause.

A photo shoot?  A fashion show?  I don’t even recognize my life right now.  It’s crazy!

The photo shoot was fun, but it was not easy for me.  I’m not the most photogenic person.  If someone tells me to smile, it can range anywhere from a grimace to an over exaggerated clown smile.  So when you see the final products, you can totally appreciate Brandy’s mad photo taking/editing skills.

Even though I listened to some fun pre-kid music mixed with some Katy Perry and drank two Skinny Minis, it wasn’t until the end that I started to smile more naturally.  I’ll tell you what, I have a whole new respect for models after this little adventure.  It’s hard to “pose” natural.  I started to over think my smile.  Is this too sneery?  Is this too EXCITED? 

Well, I must have not looked like myself because my dental hygienist just happened to walked past us (we were at a park) and she said, “Hey!  Do I know you?  I think you’re Erin, but I didn’t recognize you all dolled up like that.”

Yes, I usually look underdone throughout the day.  Point taken.

So after we wrapped (Wow!  Do I sound like a total celeb or what?!), we decided to hook up with one of Brandy’s friends and Lyndsay from Cordial Punch and go to a bachelorette party!  Not like a Magic Mike bachelorette party, more like a bunch of girls meeting up at a local bar.  Long story short, we never actually met up with the bachelorette party, so it was just us four hotties hanging out.  I hadn’t been out to a bar with just the girls since before Marie was born.  I totally forgot bar etiquette.  I threw caution to the wind and picked up the first round.  I felt so alive!  It was totally fun! 

Until this guy sat next to me.  I didn’t think he was checking me out because in my mind, I’m a mother of two and those days are long gone.  So he starts talking to me, and I find myself responding in this ultra-perky, totally non-sexy voice.  Come to find out, he’s a former student of mine!  I didn’t recognize this trim, tan young man because the last time I saw him, he was in the ninth grade boy and under construction.

We exchange a few pleasantries.  I tell him my name is no longer Janda and that I am married with two kids.  I no longer teach English and apologize if I was bitchy to him.  He said I was a tad bit bitchy.  And then he proceeds to say how easy my job was as a teacher.  After I ask him his age (which was and unbelievable twenty-six), I tell him that I was four years younger than him when I was his teacher and had a hard time dealing with the pressure of being a teacher at such a young age.  When I tell him that I stay home with my kids, he tells me, again, how easy my life is.  And then asks me, five minutes later, if I am married.

Oh, now I am starting to put the pieces together, but I continue along with the conversation as this ultra-perky, non-sexy person.

And then he says, “So, you are married, right?”  It was less of a question, and more of fact checking statement. 

At this point, I am 90% sure he is kinda maybe hitting on me.  I tell him that I am married with two kids and unavailable.

I discreetly ask Brandy’s friend for backup and get the hell out of there as fast as I could.  Because that was just way too weird.

A photo shoot?  A casting call?  And now a former student hitting on me?

Like I said, I don’t even know who I am anymore!

Now it’s your turn – tell me a crazy story!