And on to a much more trivial post...

This is a very trivial post followed by such a serious one, but I just wanted to suggest "He's Just not that into you" as a great romantic comedy. I love that genre to begin with, but this was actually a pretty good one :)
I had read the book some years ago and just didn't think much of it.. but the movie is SO different and I loved it. So if you are into that kind of movie, I would def. watch it!! :)









PS: oh, and if your hate for Drew Barrymore is a factor for not seeing this movie (as it was for me) don't worry she is really not in many scenes ! ;)

Inspirational

Blogs are a keyhole into other people's lives; and in my opinion that's a beautiful thing. People share what they feel comfortable sharing, and on the internet, that usually happens to be a lot. I myself am a blog follower of several interesting sites. When you read about people's daily lives, you feel as if you know them without ever having met them once. One of my daily reads is Jasmine Star's blog she is a wonderful photographer in CA. She is friends with another photographer Amy Wenzel who is another fab. photographer. Anyways if you go read the last posts on both their blogs, you will probably find yourself weeping as I did this morning. Amy's husband is in the hospital after a freak accident. After you have read Jasmine's post, read Amy's and then read her husband's who has been blogging from a hospital bed. This is really an inspirational story that makes you realize how fragile life is, makes you wanna drop what you are doing a spend the whole night/week/month with your loved one.

-V

this is a picture of Amy & David taken by JASMINE STAR http://www.jasminestarblog.com/

Busy Busy

So life in our household has been BUSY AS CRAP lately!
Both Brian and I are constantly working (which is great because we LOVE our jobs)
but the downside is that I REALLY NEED TO CLEAN THE HOUSE (majorly!)
not this weekend, but next, will be the ONLY FREE weekend I have in a while, for a while. And I promise promise promise to clean my house!!!!!!

Today, tomorrow, this weekend and this month are going to be incredibly busy.
---------------------
Our friends Tori & Devin invited us for dinner to their house tonight, and it was lovely.

By being their photographers, and with Tori working with Brian, we quickly became good friends and have always very funny/interesting/refreshing conversations. I feel lucky to know such people and to not only know them as my friends but also to get a closer look into their relationship as their photographer, to then capture AMAZING moments on their wedding day (because it DOES make a difference!). I know their day will be very emotional for me! :) Seriously, photographing weddings of people you are close to, IS THE MOST REWARDING experience for me. I love it, and I just cannot wait. What was also amazing to see with my own two eyes, were all the pics from their engagement shoot Christine and I took, all over their (temporarily-just-moved-in) empty house. It really made me feel good to see how they had arranged/displayed them in their home, and to see that they those images are special to them. :D

Anyhoo, Devin cooked SO WELL for Brian and I tonight. He prepared great steaks, grilled mushrooms & shrimp, and Tori made amazing green beans with soy sauce! I swear it was like eating at Outback, SO GOOD! It was so sweet of them to invite us and we had a seriously great time.

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This is a really random post, and Im sorry about that, I promise to make up for it with Italy images later! Speaking of Italy, I am so jealous that my mom & my sis are there already!!! I just can't wait to go!!!!!!!!!!!!! and by the way I totally decided to BRING my 5d... wwwhhahahah! I figured, pictures are what my life is about, pictures are a huge priority in my life, and it is with high quality images that i want to remember this amazing experience with my husband. I want to make amazing imagery and I am so ready for it too! Anthropologie did a catalog that looked like it was shot in Italy, and I just loved it.
I will end this post with some images of that! :)

-V

Small World

Since my mom, my sis, my bro in law and Karsten are all away in Italy,
and because today was my only "free night" to do something, Brian and I thought it would be a good idea to go out to dinner with my dad. We chose the yummy Logan's, with it's yummy rolls which you CANNOT GO WRONG with! Anyhoo, my dad and I were speaking in Italian and the waiter immediately called it out and correctly recognized which language we were speaking. We always get "Spanish" so it was nice once in a while to hear the RIGHT thing. Anyhoo, he showed off his Italian by saying a few curse words, which we thought was hilarious. Then he told us that his SISTER modeled in Italy for 5 years, and that she appeared on "GRANDE FRATELLO" which is Italian for "BIG BROTHER" a pretty big reality tv show over there.
More interested, I proceeded to ask what is his sister's name was, and he answered VICTORIA PENNINGTON!!!!
I thought that was pretty cool... here she is "no-one" but in Italy she was actually pretty "famous". When he said her name, it all came back to me; I had heard that on the "GRANDE FRATELLO"/"BIG BROTHER" show there was a girl from Huntsville, AL
so it was all quickly adding up! Then he pointed to his family who was eating at the next table over and sure enough his (other) sister looked just like VICTORIA.
Anyhoo I realize this is not very exciting, but I thought it was cool that we are all connected like that and how SMALL the world is.
PS: Here is a pic of VICTORIA PENNINGTON:

it's out it's out it's out it's out !!!!!!!!!!!

THE LONG LONG LONG AWAITED NEW MOON TRAILER IS HERE!!!

http://www.mtv.com/global/music/videos/popout/?id=1612947&vid=395235



I can hardly wait for the movie to come out in November!!!!!!
Christine and I will be in Savannah for a wedding, but we've already discussed and agreed that we will be going to the movies, in Savannah, at midnight for the first show of NEW MOON.

There is already a "flaw" in the trailer though: In the New Moon book Jacob DOES NOT transform in front of Bella for the first time when Laurant wants to kill her....
tisk tisk tisk

STILL, I do not care I am going to be a die hard fan until the immortal end!

-V

Pictures!!!!!!!!!!!!

These are the pictures from the mini-photoshoot I mentioned Christine did of Brian and I
on my b-day!!!!!!!! i LOVE THEM ! and I can't wait to hang them in my houseeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!! you can see all of them here:
http://simplybloom.blogspot.com/2009/05/great-to-be-back-and-very-very-short.html







MY FAVORITE SHOT!

A few random happenings

this week has been BLAH! not much going on besides a WHOLE WHOLE WHOLE lot of work...

Many moons ago I had bought a cute table at a thrift store on University Dr.
I thought the shape was pretty and that with some work it could be made into a vintage-chic piece! :D Before I spent $50 on the piece of junk I called my mom to see if she'd be in on restoring it and going into a little "design-on-a-dime" project with me.
She of course agreed (as she LOVES that kind of stuff & is pretty good at it).

We sanded the table for about 6 hrs (in 2/3 days) then we bought the paint and the CRACKLE EFFECT GLAZE and created this:

Best B-day evah !!!

This birthday has been a fantastical one!!!
We started celebrating it early (Sunday) at my parents' house and that was already enough amazing-ness for me to take:
My mom made a fabulous dinner (as usual) but this time with my very own favorite dishes and also a gorgeous berry and whip cream, pink and white CAKE.
My parents gave me *THE* prettiest Juicy Couture purse & my sis *THE* prettiest Juicy wallet!!!!!! I know.. you are probably thinking what more could you EVER want, right!!??!?!? well that's what I thought!
After these fantabulous gifts, my mom added that she had one more "SPECIAL" gift...
WIth tears in her sweet/gentle eyes she gave me a family heirloom (yellow gold & diamond) ring that belonged to my grandmother and then her. It was such a special moment. One that truly made me feel the transition from adolescence into womanhood.
THE WHOLE NIGHT WAS SO SPECIAL AND SWEET. As well as decorating their house with festive "happy birthday" banners, my parents also decorated the dinner table with confetti in the shape of "21" and set a flashing "legal at last" button by my plate.
They are so thoughtful and sweet, and I know that I have a very special & loving family.

My ACTUAL birthday-DAY (although I woke up alone) began with embarrassment and laughter.
My lovable husband had routinely gone to work at 6:30 while I had the leisure of sleeping in until 9:30 :D ( love my life).
Once awake, and having found a chocolate cookie to call "what-the-heck-it's-my-birthday" breakfast; I admit, I was subtly looking around in the obvious "this-is-where-he-would-leave-a-card" spots in the kitchen. Not finding anything, and minimally disappointed, I took my birthday cookie and headed upstairs.........THEN, SUDDENLY.... in my peripheral view all I saw was PINKKKKKKKKKKK outside in the front yard. It took only a few blinks to realize what Brian had done:
HE HAD FLAMINGOED OUR FRON YARD; and in the middle of about 60 bobbling magenta flamingos, stood a giant sign reading "Love you bunches, Vania 21"
LOLOLOLOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!! embarrassment and utter joy overcame me all at once. It was the most unique gesture anyone has ever done for me. It made me feel sooo special and most of all it reflected us as a couple: completely silly, random, funny and ... over the top! It was SUCH an amazing start to the day.

I spent the afternoon with my bff, who had to kidnap me while Brian set up yet another surprise: his b-day gift for me.
When I was allowed back in my house, Brian immediately wanted to proceed with the gifts (with no hesitation from me).
He threw 6 ballons chronoogically at me, each with something drawn on top of it.

balloon 1- "I"
balloon 2- "heart"
balloon 3- "a funny picture of me"
balloon 4- " a cute picture of Baloo"
balloon 5- "a cute picture of Frosty" (aka Moof)
balloon 6- " a scary/funny/weird/hilarious pic of me again"

He then had me open this average-sized box wrapped in "High-school Musical" wrapping paper (which is an insde joke all on its own). In this old shoe box there was a choccolate box and a mere note reading "oh well... better luck next year"
next to the shoe box was a HUUUUGE box (still wrapped in the same funny paper). I was nervous to open it, and when he made me rip the wrapping I saw a clean apple logo. *INSIDE SCREAM* and *OUTSIDE SCREAM* it was a 24" (diagonal measurement) IMAC !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I believe the first words that came out of my mouth were "you are F*@#---*% crazy!"
(in a happy/shocked/ecstatic tone). I crawled onto his lap and kissed his whole face and neck. He could tell I was happy I believe because I was as giddy as a schoolgirl at candy-land.
So I am actually on my BIG BOLD CLEAN SLEEK BEAUTIFUL BRAND NEW SHINY computer right now, and LOVING IT!
I seriously have theeeeee BEST HUSBAND EVER IN THE WORLD, he knows exactly what I want and he always always gives me the best and most of all WANTS the best for me. I am so lucky, and so thankful for such a wonderful human being in my life!
God, I am overwhelmed!

There was also, another amazing surprise by my bff. When I woke up to tell her all about the flamingos (instants after I found them of course) she told me to go to our SimplyBloom blog
where she had posted an amazing tribute to me, my birthday and our friendship and colored the post with such cool behind the scene pics of me at work!!! her words, and the whole gesture was so amazing and again made my day shine brightly with happiness.

She was also amazing enough to take some cool shots of Brian and I before our dinner plans.
Me, Brian and Christine (aka: my two loves) headed to Bridgestreet for some photo-fun. She shot us for about an hour and then we met our peeps at the MELTING POT.

Although most people bailed out for some reason or another (we went from a party of 14, to a party of 8) we had an absolute BLAST, and the night flowed as smooth as the chocolate we dipped into.
My sis, my bro in-law, Christine, Seth, Tori, Devin and Brian and I ate: the creamiest cheese/white wine fondue, the most tender filet mignon, pork, & shrimp chunks boiled in broth-y goodness, gulped it all down sipping on amazing cocktails and topped it all off with "flaming turtle" & "Bailies Chocolate" fondues.... This was not a dinner, but a musical experience for our palates.

I will be updating this post with photos from the family night, the flamingoes, the mini-shoot of Brian and I and the dinner delight very very soon!!!!

I would like to conclude by saying THANK YOU to my family, for spoiling me rotten from day one and always loving me SOOO MUCH. Thank You to my wonderful husband, without you I would be lost. You are my EVERYTHING, and I have no idea how I deserved you in this life. Thank You to Christine, whom I love like a sis and always hope to know and call best friend.
Thank you to my sis for being ever so cool, such a loving mother, wife and sister and always loving me. and Thank you to m friends for being true.

I realized on this wonderful special day JUST HOW LOVED I am by those around, me. It's such an amazing feeling and I am so thankful, it's hard to express.

Love,

-V






















with the crazy flamingos, and our housy in the background :)








a reflection of my entire body in my gigantic new imac!!! :D it's THAT BIG!

Regarding Italy

Although I may already have made my mind up about this, there is still some doubt in my mind on whether I should bring my big/expansive/main camera to Italy...(+ 2 lenses)
of a total cost of about... $3000
sooooooo what do YOU think???

Easy Peasy Salmon :)

For mother's day I invited my side of the fam. for some dinner at our house.
When I volunteered for this, the pressure of impressing my mom (culinary goddess) and my dad (picky as a toothpick) had not hit me, until my sis brought it up of course.
So I had tho think of a recipe that was quick (as anything thing I want to do in the kitchen must be). It also had to had low chances for failure, and of course tasty.

I also made caramel apples once again as they fit the criteria above as well.

SOOO
Here we go, 2nd recipe on the blog:



Salmon filet (Sam's Club has always excellent pieces)
Zestly Italian dressing.

and yup that's it. Those are all the ingredients! fabulous, right?!

Preheat oven at 375 and marinade salmon in dressing.

Bake for 20 min COVERED and then 10 more min. UNCOVERED!

Listen for timer to go *DING*
and it's ready to serve (with rice)

VOTE VOTE VOTE PLEASE!!!

If you are my blog follower I would VERY MUCH appreciate it if you took a second to VOTE
for on either image #5 or #8 called "Bursting Love" OR "Soft Shimmer"
here:
http://flarecompetition.blogspot.com/

PRETTY PLEASE ?

Im in Love

Sorry Brian
but it's true.
I know Adam Lambert may not be into women so much, but you know a girl can still dream :)
He is a breath-taking artist, he emits artistry and it amazes me when artists are so excellent at their craft, just amazing.
Please DO watch this performance Ive linked below it WILL take your breath away if you have a heart.

http://www.americanidol.com/videos/season_8/performances/adam_lambert_mad_world





HOLY SHIT! total hotness and attitude. YUM!

Girls' Night this Friday !!!

**update**




I am excited!
This Friday I will have my best girls at my house for some girly food, drinks talk & movies!
I need it! being around a DUDE all day every day gets me craving girl-nights every so often. We plan to have:
CARAMEL APPLES
LONG ISLAND ICE TEAS
AND A ROMANTIC VAMPIRE WHO WILL NEVER GO OUT OF STYLE.

and although I am pretty much already set on TWILIGHT OF COURSE, what do YOU
think we should watch????

1st Recipie | BBQ Chicken & Rice

So as you can see I have been doing "1st's" 1st poll and now 1st recipe!!
It was my sister's idea to post one on here so I thought I could make it a habitual thing :)
I WILL say every recipe I will post on here will be easy and relatively quick, because I do like to cook but not if it takes 4 hrs a-la-my-mom. This 1st recipe is one of mine and Brian's fav & we've been making it for over 2 yrs!

...so here it goes...

BBQ Chicken & Rice


INGREDIENTS

serves 2 ppl.
2 chicken breasts cut in small pieces
1&1/2 cups of rice
1&1/2 cups of water
1 chopped red pepper
1 chopped zucchini
1/2 cup of BBQ sauce
olive oil

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Brown chicken in skillet with olive oil for about 3 min in med-high.
add water + rice + BBQ sauce and slowly bring to a boil. Reduce heat to med, sprinkle with pepper & zucchini & let simmer for 10-12 minutes.
Once all the water has evaporated you know it's ready to serve :)

ORIGINAL RECIPE

Enjoy!