I know you Got Soul...

A song from one of my favorite hip-hop duos of all time: Eric B & Rakim. I found the first several lines quite appropriate as I have not posted since the New Year came in and quite frankly, It has been a longtime and I'm sure you feel like I've left you.

Never that...Rest assured that this is not the case. I've been working diligently since 2010 entered. I've fought through that cold/fu thing that seems to last for 2 weeks at least that EVERYONE got and have been shooting some pretty cool things. Several behind the scenes posts that I actually have in the queue now must wait, as the first is scheduled to hit print and newstands for March 2010, so, I apologize that I'm not able to share it now...

What I will share now though, are the lyrics to the first verse of "I Know You Got Soul" and know that a new post is coming sooner than you think...

"It's been a long time, I shouldn't have left you

Without a strong rhyme to step to

Think of how many weak shows you slept through

Time's up, I'm sorry I kept you

Thinking of this, you keep repeating you miss

The rhymes from the microphone soloist

And you sit by the radio, hand on the dial, soon

As you hear it, pump up the volume

Dance with the speaker 'till you hear it blow

Then plug in the headphones cause here it go

It's a 4 letter word when its heard, it control

Your body to dance (you got it) soul...

Ditects your body like a red alert

reaches your reflex, so let it work

When this is playing, you can't get stuck wit

The steps so get set & I'm a still come up wit

a gift to be swift...follow the leader, the rhyme will go

Def wit the record that was mixed a long time ago

It can be done,

but only I can do it

for those that can dance and clap ya hands to it

I start to think

and then I sink,

into the paper,

like I was ink

When I'm writing I'm trapped in between the lines...

I escape, when I finish the rhyme,

I got soul..."

-Eric B. & Rakim from the album 'Paid In Full' 1987

Happy Holidays!!

Whatever you celebrate...

...Make it Merry!

Happy Holidays!

xx!

*all photos top-bottom: nini, Tamelyn, acd111 Flickr!

Caught out there...

ph: D. Kreiger via Racked.com

This was snapped of me sometime during Fashion Week. I vaguely remember taking it and was surprised when it was posted several weeks later with votes rating my outfit attached to it over on the super cool blog Racked...I was alerted to it via a text message from a friend of mine and thought it was a cool reminder to always be on your toes. I figured that I would share it here...

The Must See list:

I had to go over the river and through the woods almost to Grandmother's house (figuratively speaking), but I finally made it out to see The September Issue, thankfully, while it was still September. 

This movie is a MUST see for anyone who works in fashion or has a desire to.  As someone who works quite a bit with magazines, I cannot help but to have so many thoughts and opinions about this movie, both positive and negative. I will only share 2 of the positive ones here on this blog:

1.) Grace Coddington always has been and always will be a humble genius

2.) Ladytron on the soundtrack is equally genius



Next up on the must see list is 'Coco, before Chanel':  Sure to be as genius and as badass as Coco Chanel herself...   

Tilling Weeds in the Beauty Beauty Garden

I know, I know...It's been a while. I think the last hiatus I took from blogging was the Presidential Inauguration. Here's a photo montage to explain my absence this time. I've been nonstop shooting for the past 16 days straight and survived on about 4 hours of sleep a night...I think it goes without saying that this work schedule did not permit me to tend to this blog the way I normally do...Sorry about the weeds that temporarily grew in the Beauty Beauty Garden...I hope it doesn't happen again, but sadly it may; Fashion Week is literally right around the corner...

My home for the past 2 weeks...

A partial view of the 'snow set' from a Holiday Job 

BBQ catering (yes, they flew it in) and although I don't eat meat, I did think the gesture was impressive...

A rare view inside of one of my bigger makeup kits...

Busy busy busy, always something going on at Pier 59

Part of wardrobe for yet another shoot...

Belinda on yet another unrelated shoot...

Fabulous footwear outtakes...

Personal goodies inside the stylists jewelry kit...

Part of a set near completion...

"Dreamland" on some downtime...(for the model, not for me...)

Class is in session...

Rashida B. the eyebrow expert tells it perfectly, way better than I ever could on how we met. Rashida, in addition to being a super successful eyebrow guru with her own studio, runs a great blog that is required reading for those serious about getting into all facets of the beauty industry.

This week I was her featured artist and Image Maker over on her blog 'BeautySchooled'. She asked me some amazing and poignant interview questions to which I was candidly honest. If you want to know more about me, and about how I got my start, mosey on over there, have a look-see and read it, won't you??? I'd love to hear your thoughts.... 

And for more information on Rashida its fabulous author and her eyebrow studio 'The B Spot' in Chicago please visit her official website.

Whirlwind!!!!

Let me start out by saying that the purpose of this post is 2 fold: the first is to kill 2 birds with 1 stone so I can go back to bed and catch up on some much needed rest as this is my only day off, and the 2nd is to share what I've been up to with you guys... 

I've been insanely busy the last few weeks; I can't even quite remember all of the projects, BUT, the following is a narrative in pictures of some of my last few weeks:

I love being so early that I have the studio to myself, at least for a few minutes

And  I also enjoy getting the first pick at the catering (minus the meat)

Sometimes I'm neat....

Yummm...Bier! 

and sadly, sometimes, not so much....

Dear Anonymous....An Ode to my first piece of Hate E-mail

I had a good laugh at this, and instead of posting it in the original thread in which 'anonymous' sent it, I decided I would dedicate an entire entry to this piece of nonsensical rant so that it could be best showcased..... Mind you, I was on a job when I opened it and forgive me, but, I laughed so loud out of the blue, that the client wondered what was wrong. I will now post it in it's entirety here, verbatim (including spelling and grammar mistakes): 

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Out-take of the week....": 

Are you "wanna be" MUA, submitting to what you think you beleive you are a MUA when in fact you have no certfication or training. "Fashion Designer" turned Makeup Artist, LOL~how successful (oh gee who are you? Did I attend one of your Launch Parties? NOT!)was your pretend to be Designs? Umm,,did you even graduate High School? OMG You mut have a kit full of AVON! Yes I want you to do my makeup for my wedding! Next time you decide to rash someone think about KARMA~ 

I hope that you as my readers are having as good a laugh as I did...I've not the vaguest idea of what this person is babbling about, but, it's obvious that someone has done #2 in 'anonymous' ' Cheerios.... I would also love to give 'anonymous' the proper credit for its submission, so please, get at me so I can sign your name to this lovely piece of prose, if this was even intended for me.... Thanks!

Je suis désolé...

It's not that I've been on haitus from blogging on purpose. I've just been hard at work in the past 2 weeks and was not able to blog about several of the projects that I was working on at the client's request. While fighting through the effects of Mercury's retrograde on my personal and professional life, I waded through the month of May and found myself so busy towards the end of the month, that I have not been able to update things until now...I did feel that an apology was in order however, since, most times, I update here on a somewhat pretty regular basis...Updated posts are coming...Thanks so much for standing by and in the future, I will do my best to warn you in advance of my blog 'down time'...