the paper pony

Happy Hipstamatic Weekend

2010-03-12T18:33:00.001-08:00

New friend Annie McElwain introduced me to the Hipstamtic camera app for the iPhone in Vegas when I complained about not taking a good camera-phone photo.

Now I'm all about the cool. Annie takes pretty photographs with other cameras too - see them at amphotography.com

Happy Weekend!

Heidi's Fall '10

2010-03-03T14:45:00.000-08:00

In keeping with tradition, some favorites from Heidi Merrick's Spring Collection:

As always, the entire collection is gorgeous. See it here.

Refreshing the Inspiration Board

2010-02-25T11:51:00.000-08:00

[ Design by Nate Berkus & Anne Coyle. Elle Decor March 2010 ]

In the current issue of Elle Decor I fell in love with Ellen Rakieten's (Oprah producer) home, especially her office inspiration wall. I love how everything is arranged grid-like and attached with binder clips - genius! So I copied...

Happy Valentine's Day :: Kristine & Brandon's Engagement

2010-02-14T06:00:00.000-08:00

Happy Valentine's Day!

This session is from just last Thursday, but I thought they were perfect to post today. These two are so romantic and cute together, which made some very sweet photographs.

Wishing you love and sweetness today.

xoxo

Stephanie & Amato's Engagement

2010-02-12T11:46:00.000-08:00

Blog It Forward :: What Inspires Me Most

2010-02-10T05:00:00.000-08:00

When I started thinking about what inspires me most I thought back to why I started taking pictures

And what pictures I have in my head when I'm photographing people

And how these pictures make me feel. confident.alive.happy.colorful.quiet.sad.nostalgic

and what I want my own photographs to feel like. and what I aspire to be and who I admire.

In school we always pretended to be shooting for a magazine. Harper's Bazaar is my favorite.

I love images that are natural & beautiful, not too contrived or trite.

Like the photographer is having a conversation with these people and catches a pause.

I love images with soft movements, quick glances, like you can imagine what happens next.

Ah, photography.

Hope you are inspired by this collection of beautiful images. Sources & photographers for all images below:

Top to bottom: 1) March 2003 W, Michael Thompson. 2) April 2003 Vogue, Mario Testino. 3) March 2006 Vogue, Arthur Elgort. 4) December 2007 GQ, Carter Smith. 5) February 2009 Harper's Bazaar, Alexi Lubomirski. 6) April 2009 Harper's Bazaar, Peter Lindbergh. 7) October 2009 Vogue, Mario Testino. 8) November 2009 C Magazine, Hilary Walsh. 10) February 2010 Harper's Bazaar, Alexi Lubomirski.

:: For Tomorrow 2/11 ::

Continuing with the Blog It Forward mash up, PaperJot will be posting inspiration for tomorrow. Thanks again to Victoria for organizing this collaboration. She has posted the entire schedule here of the 300 blogs who are participating. Looks like I have a new morning ritual for the next month or so! Following all these lovely inspiring posts and discovering some new-to-me blogs along the way.

Be sure to click over to these lovely blogs also posting their inspiration today:

• creature comforts • hula seventy • paper pony

• design for mankind • ink on my fingers • poppytalk

• heart fish • oh, hello friend • smile and wave

Happy Wednesday, now Blog It Forward!

House Pretty

2010-02-08T14:43:00.000-08:00

Walked around the house with my camera this morning in search of some new house pretty. We live in yellows, greens, whites and grays.

Blog It Forward Starts Wednesday

2010-02-08T13:41:00.000-08:00

I'm excited to be part of this collective project starting this Wednesday February 10! The lovely Victoria organized all this craziness and we'll all be posting on "what inspires us most" in a chain-letter sort of way (but hopefully much more fun & much less annoying than an actual chain letter). I'm one of the starter blogs that will be posting Wednesday, then linking to the next in my group and so on & so forth. It will be 6 weeks or so of inspiration goodness from all over.

To see the full list of participants click here. I'm looking forward to discovering some new blogs through this & sharing my own inspiration with you all.

'til Wednesday,

xoxo

B is Two!

2010-02-07T13:20:00.000-08:00

Our little B is two today. Poor kid has a fever and a cough, but that will not stop him from smiling...although I'm sure the donut helped. How can you not be happy when you are in the presence of sprinkles?

My current favorite B things:
- "thanks mommy" and "you're welcome mommy"
- "careful careful careful!" whenever he feels like he's going to trip or fall or drop something
- "Oh yeah". His response to most answers we give to his many many questions. Like, oh right I totally already knew that.
- "bye Maisy, miss you!" to Maisy the dog when ever we leave the house.

Happy Birthday Bug! We love love love you!

Happy Weekend

2010-02-05T17:37:00.000-08:00

Where did the week go? Whenever it rains we spend more time in B's room and these are some of my favorite details. His room is such a bright, cheery place to be.

A certain someone turns 2 on Sunday so we will be celebrating with play time in his new teepee (that we gave him a week early, I was so excited) and maybe a few donut holes. Donuts on your birthday...sounds like a great tradition to me.

Happy Weekend

xoxo

Happy Weekend

2010-01-29T17:13:00.000-08:00

Be the boss this weekend.

xoxo

2010 :: Goals

2010-01-26T10:31:00.000-08:00

Let's face it, I just like checking things off a list. Here is my list for twenty-ten. Check!

1. Find an organization to volunteer at - this has been on my heart for a long time and since having Baker my life has taken busy to a new level, but he is almost two now and things are feeling not so much calmer, but more balanced. I look around and see how much we have and how selfish I can be. With my possessions, and especially my time. Not to say that I am going to solve the world's problems, but I would like to be more involved in our community and use my gifts for others in some way.

2. Redesign my website (again) and blog - I did a small redesign on my site last year, but it doesn't quite say what I want it to and would like my site + blog to match my business cards & stationery, which I love SO much. I have said this already, but the people at The Decoder Ring Design Concern are good people. No job too small, thankfully for me :)

3. Open the pinkpenny "store" to sell album design templates - this goes along with the "monetize" post I did a couple weeks ago. pinkpenny has designed hundreds of albums and these layouts are just sitting on our computers collecting dust. Perhaps we could sell them to other photographers who don't want full service album design! We will see...

4. Landscape our home - I want a pretty yard, simple as that.

5. Freakin' compost pile!! 3rd year. This is getting absurd. I figured out what was keeping me from getting this done: thinking I would actually build one myself because it was "cheaper". I finally decided to order one pre-made so this will get done very soon. I think we will reduce what we throw away by half when we start composting - go Earth.

Reflecting on last year, two have carried over to this year, but overall I look at this 2009 list feeling encouraged.

1. Find balance between work & home (ie. hire some help) DONE! Found a great home-daycare. B loves it and I am going to bed earlier (most nights).

2. Make a new friend (or two) in Ventura. DONE! It has changed my life. So thankful for our new church and the friends we have made there.

3. Re-design my photography website. DONE! But I need to do it again...see above.

4. Landscape our home. Still working on it. I am at my breaking point with this one, just need to get a vision...or hire someone else to get the vision for us.

5. And, start a compost pile!!! See above : )

Do you set goals? What are some of yours this year?

A very girly baby shower

2010-01-25T15:55:00.000-08:00

We had so much fun decorating for our sister in law Jena's baby shower. My mom hosted at her house and there was an abundance of girly DIY:

- tissue pom pom garlands
- mini cupcake liner + tissue garlands
- flower shaped fruit salad made with cookie cutters (save the scraps to freeze for smoothies later)
- zipper flower pin favors sewn by my mom with tags made by her nifty die cutting machine. I want one!
- signs ala die cutter, alphabet stamps & paper straws
- mini homemade cupcakes
- Lots of mix n match china from my mom's collection as well as a few pieces from Jena's mom's milk glass collection.
- flowers from the Santa Cruz farmer's market

The last photo group is of my sisters, the lovely Jena and my brother who stopped by on the way to the golf course (I did not get a photo of me or my mom!). They are going to be wonderful parents and we are all so excited to meet this little girl, due on one of my favorite holidays February 14!

Love you Jena & Ryan! xoxo

More & individual photos on flickr - click here

Happy Birthday Forest!

2010-01-24T06:11:00.000-08:00

Homemade huevos rancheros + orange juice

church

a two-hour nap

Sakana for sushi with good friends Kasey & Tarah

Lucky's for drinks & dessert

Happy birthday Love.

House Party...Gingerbread, that is

2010-01-21T16:55:00.000-08:00

In a moment of inspiration & a little delusion, I thought it would be so fun to have ten of Baker's best friends over for a little gingerbread house making party. Martha Stewart here we come, I thought! But that is usually how everything plays out in my mind. Every event in my life is surely bound for the glossy pages of a magazine.

Well, it didn't go quite as planned, but hopefully from these photos you can see we still had fun and the houses that DID make it home in one piece were enjoyed immensely. Also enjoyed immensely...the sugar by Baker, because I was too busy hosting to notice his frequent trips to the candy stash.

view larger photos here

2009 Engagement Favorites

2010-01-14T14:29:00.000-08:00

Oh, how I love the engagement session. No time restraints, amazing light always, and so romantical. Hope you enjoy this collection of my most happy images from 2009.

TCB Tuesday: M is for Monetize

2010-01-12T16:41:00.000-08:00

I love car rides because Forest and I often have our best conversations on the road, usually turning to business and our goals for the future. On our last drive we started talking about the idea of monetizing your business and creating profit from the by-products of your business...a lot of boring words, but interesting when you start thinking about it! This idea is not new and I won't pretend to be breaking a revolutionary idea, but it has not been on my radar pertaining to my businesses until very recently. I guess I thought I didn't have anything extra to offer or didn't have the time to set it up. But who doesn't have time to make money? Really.

Forest told me a story about the lumber industry and how when it started, they didn't do anything with their waste such as sawdust. Eventually, they figured out sawdust could be packaged and sold for a profit. Now sawdust and products like mulch and fuel pellets are a huge money maker for the lumber industry. And they were throwing it away...

Here is a link to a great post about this and how various industries have created profit from their by-products.

I think photographers have done a good job of this recently: workshops, Photoshop actions, instruction manuals, books, etc...All these products they've created from running their businesses and they are able to profit from their knowledge and hard work. Pretty awesome.

The wheels have started turning in my head and I encourage you to think about how you can apply this if you have a small business - or even if you don't. You might have something of value to others that you would otherwise toss out...you never know.

2009 :: A look back

2010-01-11T15:14:00.000-08:00

A look back at 2009. I could say many cheesy things here, but I think the photos are better by themselves. I will say, I love photography and feel so blessed to do what I do. xoxo

Happy Weekend

2010-01-08T16:30:00.000-08:00

I finally got around to making the images larger on my blog (yay) so I will be posting a lot of photos next week. Best of 2009s, as well as some fun family photos I took in December. This shot is from one of them - a little jealous of their sparkly red tights : )

Happy Weekend!

Sewing on Paper: Baby Shower Invites

2010-01-06T14:11:00.000-08:00

I made these invitations for my sweet Sister-in-law's baby shower using paper from Target, Indesign, my inkjet printer, sewing machine, Japanese paper charms, and bits of tulle, tissue and mini-cupcake liners.

I felt like the Ban.do girls must feel when creating their head pieces...they have a fun job. Oh and yes, she is having a girl (obvi).

See more on flickr.

Happy New Year!

2010-01-01T21:04:00.000-08:00

We're still wearing our party hats

O Night Divine

2009-12-25T15:32:00.000-08:00

O Holy Night! The stars are brightly shining,
It is the night of the dear Saviour's birth.
Long lay the world in sin and error pining.
Till He appeared and the Spirit felt its worth.
A thrill of hope the weary world rejoices,
For yonder breaks a new and glorious morn.
Fall on your knees! Oh, hear the angel voices!
O night divine, the night when Christ was born;
O night, O Holy Night , O night divine!
O night, O Holy Night , O night divine!

This is my favorite Christmas carol, I sing it all month long. Wishing you Peace & Joy today. Merry Christmas.

Email troubles

2009-12-20T20:21:00.000-08:00

No, not a fun holiday post! Just a note that my rayaphotography email has been down for an undetermined amount of time. It's all fixed now, but if you emailed me and have not received a response or your email bounced back, please send again!

That's all for now. Hopefully this week I will be blogging something far more interesting than that last paragraph.

xoxo,
Raya

Family Film

2009-12-16T21:01:00.001-08:00

Recently a relative of Forest's dad sent us a link to a collection of slides he'd scanned from his Grandma Ruth's house. These ones charmed me - the beach, the camera, the cuff on that boy's jeans, the converse, the umbrella...so different than now, but also sort of the same : )

Kate Spade Bisbee 2006

2009-12-15T10:10:00.001-08:00

How I re-found this ad campaign. Ready, Go:
1 - Meet Michelle Woo, get to shoot her wedding in August 2010
2 - Tell Faith about getting to shoot this cool girl's wedding, send a link to Michelle's site
3 - Faith browses, find this in her portfolio section
4 - My heart starts beating faster, I think YES this is why I have saved all my magazines since 2003. I must have these photos on my inspiration board NOW
5 - Immediately go to my mag shelf, only to find that somehow my March 2006 Vogue is missing. Of course it is...
6 - Ebay saves the day.

I just think this spread is perfection. Bisbee is a special little town in AZ that Faith loves and always tells me about, but has not taken me to - what's up with that? These photos make me want to take a road trip there like now. And maybe lose my suitcase off the top of the car and then take pictures of my clothes strewn about on the side of the road.

And socks with heels - something I will never pull of, but still so cute.