I recently was asked by my good friend Thom to do some photos for his new improv comedy group, Thora Birch – with the group’s theme of childhood stardom and fast-fading celebrity fortune, we met up at Wish Craft, an adorable little venue in Roscoe Village, to play around.

Here’s what we came up with:

A good friend of mine, Thom, is part of a hilarious sketch comedy duo called A Good Idea [In Theory].  He asked me to take some photos of him and his partner-in-crime, Andrew, for their upcoming show.  Here are a few of my faves:

Here is the finished poster I designed for them.  Oh, and I’ve seen the show, and it’s pretty darn funny.

Oh, and I also dabble in web design, so I put together their blog site as well. :-)

Today has been a busy busy day. I have taken a lot of pictures here in my building, some for assignments and some for fun. I will be forever grateful for the day that I have a real studio to work with and not my dinky light set, seams of cheap paper that need photoshop-ing, and the hassle of moving lounge furniture to set up my shoot. Though the situation may be less than ideal, however, I have gotten some really great shots today, and I am learning to make my little light set work some magic. Here are some of my shots from the day:

My beloved, half-heartedly posing for me (not really posing at all I guess you could say) as he watches the Avalanche beat the Redwings. Yay!

Tony, a resident on my floor who I randomly pulled from his room to sit for me. Ah, I love being an RA.

Ashley, a fellow RA, and a real sweetheart.

My wonderful roommate Hayley. We’ve concluded after today that she makes a good model, has good photo-viewing opinion/expertise, and a GREAT studio assistant.

Brentley = Happiness.

Chioma, who shall photographically stun the man that her mom is trying to set her up with with.

What else is new here in Chicago? Josiah and I went to the Colorado Avalanche game here at the United Center, and boy did we have a blast! We love going to hockey games, especially for $8.00 a piece. I think Josiah’s dream is to live in Colorado together with season tickets. I have many more photos to post from the game, but I picked one of my favorites. We are kinda silly sometimes.

I’ve been swamped with assignments this week, the teachers are really piling it on with midterms around the corner. I just keep telling myself that there are less than two weeks until I’m in Hawaii! *Excitement ensues.* This past weekend I had a photography workshop for two days, and on each day, I shot nudes for about 6-7 hours. It was a good experience to have under my belt, though not really my favored genre of photography. Needless to say, I won’t be posting any of those pictures online.

Well, that’s all, take care everyone! Tomorrow I’ll be up at the crack of dawn (actually before it!) to shoot pictures until around 10am. A full day ahead of me – wish me luck!

A while back, I had posted two pictures of my friend Ashley, who was expecting at the time. She came and visited me today, and we spent a couple hours in the studio with her now almost three-month-old Kaydence! Such a sweetheart, my first go at studio baby photography, and a very easy girl to work with!

p.s. Ash – Kaydence is so lucky to have a mom like you. I am so proud of you!

I read Haleigh’s post while printing images as part of a two-day print workshop here at school, and she got me on a pop-art search. Here are some of my favorite finds:

Michael Kalish. I couldn’t copy a couple of the ones that I really liked because his site is flash. He uses license plates and paint on sheets of metal and wood. Check it out here. p.s. my favorites are “Rain” on page 4 of his collection and “Humphrey Bogart” on page 3.

Marco Kooiman. Trendy colors and nostalgic scenes. His website here.

Ahh, there are more. But no time. Enjoy!

As promised, here are some of my favorites from the other half of the Laundrypile family – the boys.

Jack, Caedmon, and Tyler – thanks! You rock, boys!

Heth, this one is for you! I finally got my butt in gear and finished your kids’ photos. There are too many to put all up on blogger, so I’m leaving some out and breaking it into two posts…

Gemma, Cam, and Noelle – you girls were the greatest!

p.s. heth, how do you want me to send you all the pictures? CD?

I know it has been a while since I have blogged. My reason: dial-up internet connection. When I’m at home in Iowa, I rarely blog because I cannot stand the internet at home. Back in Chicago now! And though it was great to be back on the dairy farm seeing good friends and family, I am somewhat relieved to be back in my city. Something therapeutic about the trains roaring past my building or the lack of having to spend money on gasoline (since I don’t drive here). Since the new year is more than newly upon us now, I thought I would count my blessings from this past year and this new year via post: (in no particular order!)

1. New equipment that will make my photography business more efficient. The Canon 5D, two new lenses, and a light set all this year. I don’t know that there is anything else right now that I could want. I feel like I am set to go for a long while. At least until I pay all this off. Some favorite images from my new gear:

2. Great friends. Both in Waverly/Waterloo and in Chicago. I got to chill with most of my good friends from high school at least once when I was back – shopping, movies, late night conversations. All wonderful. And now that I’m back? Late night board games, deep conversations and girls’ nights. So priceless. I feel so blessed.

3. Family. Game nights, dinners with mom’s macaroni, growing and changing, but always there for each other.

4. Love from a great guy. We’ve had our thick and thin this year, but I continue to grow closer to Josiah each day and am continually challenged to be a better person for him. I love you, babe.

5. Love and forgiveness from God. I seriously screw up every day, but He is always forgiving, and his love is the prime example that I must live by, because it holds no record of my wrongs and challenges me to live with purpose.

Here’s to a great new year, everyone!

Last night was the most fun night I have had in a long long time… I’m here in the University Center on duty for the weekend, meaning I really can’t leave the building at all except to go to Panera (which is in our building). A bunch of other girl RAs are also on duty, including my roommate, so we invited the other ladies over for a girls’ night. Before our duty meeting, I snuck out of the building and caught the train to Chinatown, which is only 5 minutes away by rail. I went to the Ten Ren Tea & Ginseng Company, quickly picked up a 1/2 pound of loose leaf tea, then headed back immediately.

We rented the new Woody Allen film “Scoop” and began watching it – we never finished, it is absolutely awful. Two great actors, Scarlet Johannsen and Hugh Jackman, were awful in this movie. When the DVD skipped and stopped an hour into the film, we took it as an omen that we should just stop watching it. Instead, we put in one of my favorite movies, Two Weeks Notice, with Sandra Bullock and Hugh Grant. So we got our fill of romantic comedy and an amazing British accent. Good stuff.

Meanwhile, we tried the new tea I got, Mango Black Tea, and let me tell you, it is AMAZING. It was $20 a pound, one of the cheaper teas at Ten Ren (They have one green tea that they sell at $130/lb.) but it was so good, perhaps the best tea I have ever had. It has real pieces of mango dried up in it. I used my new french press, which I am so excited about, and Hayley’s water boiler, and probably refilled it 6 times, thus about 30 cups off of 6 tablespoons of the loose leaf tea. I don’t think I will ever go back to regular tea – I’m going to Ten Ren again tomorrow, so that I can take my time and get acquainted with all they have to offer. Supposedly they have 200 varieties of tea there.

Following the movie, we sat around and gushed about boyfriends and dating and life until after midnight. It was so much fun. A few of us had to do late rounds in the building still, so we headed out and girls’ night was over. I believe we’ll be doing another on Monday. Priceless.

I wanted to share a couple photos that I took today of my friend Ashley. She had been planning to visit me for probably over a month now, and on Wednesday, she called me to say she was going into labor. The visit was off, so we thought. But her labor stopped, and since she’s not due until the 28th, she and Darren made the trip downtown so I could get some “belly shots.”

Here are a couple of my faves: