I’m heading to Hawaii next weekend, so if you have any print orders you need right away, please place them before this Friday. All orders submitted after Friday will be processed after I return on the 25th. Here’s a friendly local Honu (turtle) from the North Shore of Oahu.

…is to tell them to be serious. Works like a charm every time. Even on adults! Try it sometime.

Saw a blog post today that got me thinking. Who is my ideal client? An optimist. I see a pessimist and I go running in the opposite direction. Life is too short to be negative. I like to surround myself with like-minded people, both in my personal and professional life. When I’m around an optimist, my work glows. When I’m around a pessimist… well, you know.

Be happy. Be fun. Be daring. Your personality will show through your photos. I guarantee it. If you are self-critical, it’s going to show in your photos. If you are confident… you are going to rock your session.

Are you ready to have fun? Me too. Let’s make some fun memories together!

Well, you probably have. I keep getting calls and emails from clients and friends saying they saw photos of me and my daughter in doctor’s offices and magazines… even Babies R Us email blasts. My amazing and talented friend Carrie Sandoval took this photo of my daughter and I when she was only 3 weeks old. That was 3 years ago. Kind of fun. =) Her first modeling gig. Who knew?

My kids are off from school all this week, so I dragged them outside for some photos. Here’s a little outtake of my oldest son leaping over his 3 younger siblings. =) Our family portraits are never normal, but we sure do have a lot of fun!

My sister came to visit us for two weeks from Oregon and my dear friend and makeup artist extraordinaire Kevan was kind enough to enhance Erika’s lovely features. Kevan rocks the brush and color palette, let me tell you. She hails from Hollywood and kicks butt.

My amazingly talented friend and Disney artist Adrienne Brown offered to paint a likeness of an old photograph of my mother and I. This is a huge deal because she has such a jam packed schedule painting Tinkerbell and all her fairy friends for Disney books, posters, and movies. So I was over the moon and completely honored that she offered to take what little free time she has to do this for me. She took the original and breathed new life and luminescence into it. My gratitude is beyond words. You can view more of her work here. And she really is one of the nicest, most down-to-earth persons I’ve ever met. Great talent and absolutely gracious. Many, many thanks to you Adrienne for your kindness.

Here is the original photograph:

Here is Adrienne’s painting (posted on this blog with her permission, of course):

www.erikajessop.com

Vacation. Had to get away… and away I shall go. But unlike the GO-GO’s, my vacation is not meant to be spent alone. Packing my family of six into my mommyvan (a.k.a. minivan) and taking this show on the road. Driving south to Orlando to poke our heads and feet around Disney World for the first time. Being Native Californians (except for my husband), we are seasoned Disneylandians. But Disney World will be like Disneyland on steroids in comparison. I’ll be incommunicado from April 23 – May 2. Please pray for our sanity. Four kids and long car rides will test any parent’s will. =) Luckily there are some beaches along the way. Yippee!!!

During the crazy storms we’ve had, I picked up a few books to read. I haven’t really read since before my first son was born 13 years ago. Before that I used to be obsessive about reading. Having 4 kids sort of stuck reading on the backburner for me. I missed it, but there was never any time. I weaned myself away from the Internet and devoted my free time to reading. So now you can say I’ve gone a bit overboard. February has been a slow month for me business-wise, so I dove right in.

I even borrowed my son’s Percy Jackson and the Olympians. He has always hated reading and I’ve struggled for years to find something he could latch onto. He was the kid who’d rather be grounded than read a book. It made me sad because as a kid I’d stay up past my bedtime, under the covers with a flashlight, just so I could read A Wrinkle In Time or The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. But Percy was the character that he latched onto. Now he’s reading the second book in the series. I’m itching for him to finish so I can read it. =)

Not pictured here is The Glass Castle. What an amazing book. It really makes you appreciate the things you have in life that so many of us take for granted. The most basic of things like food, heat, clothes, shoes… if you have a chance, I encourage you to read it.

After reading the books, I went to see Dear John and Percy Jackson and the Olympians at the movie theater. It always amuses me how much they change the storyline in movies. The books are always better. Even my son agreed. =)