Here are some adorable photos of Luketan + Matt!
They were recently engaged, and wanted some photos to remember the moment!
They are such a sweet couple, and I had a blast at our session. I can tell that they are a perfect match!

He and his friend Nate worked there, and we always had such a fun time. Here are a few pics of the place that I took forever ago…

Anyways, this post isn’t about Billy’s, it’s about Jared and Anna Kate!

Jared is intelligent, has a great sense of humor, and a heart of gold. He is just an all-around good guy. He can make anyone laugh, and he’s currently in his third year of medical school! (He’s come a long way from milkshakes).

Anna Kate is a perfect match for Jared. She is wise, beautiful, creative and super sweet!

I could go on and on about how awesome this couple is, and how much fun we had on their engagement shoot, but I’ll let the photos speak for themselves! Play the slideshow and see for yourself.

It has been a long while since I have shot a newborn baby girl, so when Stephanie called me and set up a session for her new bundle of joy, I was super excited!!

Sydney was a great sport, I’m really happy with the images that we got from her session. I just love how cute her room is, (Great job Stephanie & Scott!) The green is such a pretty color! Sydney was just 9 days old in these photos, congratulations Stephanie and Scott, on your new addition!

Here are a few of my favorites from their session, let me know what you think.

Here are a couple cute ones I quickly pulled from their session, enjoy!
More to come soon!

Some of the people in my CNF I have known since childhood, others, I happen to meet here and there, and everywhere (Thank you Dr. Suess!). More recently, at one of our favorite “spots”, Jade, we met Josh. Josh was our waiter the first time that we went to Jade, and he was probably the friendliest waiter I’ve ever had. You can read more about our first trip to Jade here.

Anyways, Josh is a foodie himself. I’m not quite sure if he refers to himself as that, but he definitely knows the best places in Portland to eat good food. He has a blog called PDXploration where he writes and posts photos of his dining experiences. Check it out, he has some great info and his pics are awesome! He sets up group dinners once in a while for his CNF, and I was lucky enough to be added to the list!

This is the first of the group dinners that we were able to attend, but it definitely won’t be the last! A group of fun, creative people, delicious food, and a warm inviting atmosphere is sure to mean a good time!
And now, I will relish and reminisce all about our fabulous, awesomely delicious dinner ::siiigghhh::

Taste Unique
Just a few blocks (literally) from the house that I grew up in, in my old neighborhood, there is a freshly renovated strip of buildings. In that little block, is a cute little place called “Taste Unique”. They say themselves that “Taste Unique isn’t a real restaurant. If you walk in at lunchtime we will seat up to 10 people and you can choose
one of our daily specials, but our appearance places us somewhere between a Bistro and a Deli.”

They have an array of delicious dishes that you can take home and reheat for your family as well. They also offer cooking classes, and hold special dinner events once in a while. Check out their calendar for the most up to date happenings!

The owners, husband and wife, are extremely friendly! They are kind, warm, and well, let’s be honest, who doesn’t get that cozy new best friend feeling when being fed amazing foods by someone? Ok, maybe it’s just me…. hahaha! Anyways, they are great! Lawrence is from Rome, Stefani from Italy, and together, they create some fantastic dishes!

We started off with the Millefoglie di Verdure- delicious multilayered casserole of 7 different vegetables.

This was INSANELY delicious!! Each vegetable is cooked separately and then stacked, so you get the most flavor out of each  different ingredient. (Mark’s favorite was the zucchini on top- YUM!) Stefani explained to us that when she was in cooking class, they spent a LOT of time practicing cutting vegetables, so instead of tossing them, she found a way to make something delicious out of them… ok, well she was modest, I added the delicious part! I can’t help it! I felt like a judge on Iron Chef eating this one, superb quality.

Needless to say, I don’t think any of us left a morsel of this dish on our plates.

Next was the Risotto con gli Asparagi- Risotto with asparagus and a drop of lemon. Topped with real home ground Parmigiano.

Ummm, can you say “comfort food”??? This dish was something I could eat on a daily basis. The cheese, the asparagus, the risotto… mmmm it was all just sooo yummy!

Up next, just when I was almost full, came the next dish- Fettine al Marsala Beef cutlets cooked in Marsala and served with ‘summer style’ mashed potato side.

I also snagged a couple shots of them preparing this dish in the open kitchen

This dish was incredible. The food was all so simple, so pure. The flavors were bold and rich, you could really taste the Marsala, the beef, the potatoes mixed with celery root. Truly gourmet food.
They also served us fresh foccacia bread (baked every hour, fresh) with an olive oil and some type of salt sprinkled on top. I’ve never had bread that wasn’t garlic bread that was SO good!!

For dessert, we had -Maritozzi con la Panna -fresh baked sweet bread stuffed with whipped cream. One of the most famous Roman traditions.

Simple, light, fluffy, a tad bit sweet… I could have eaten about 4 of these they were so good! Lawrence was telling us that in Rome, they are no kind of delicacy at all, more that they are “street food”, served in bars, dunked in coffee (which would have also been REALLY good).

Even baby Maya loved it!

We were also served fresh Caffè, which is more amazing than regular espresso or coffee. First, the little cup is coated with a sweet cream, then the espresso is poured in. The sugar in the cream stabilizes the shots of espresso so that it doesn’t turn bitter, and it also leaves a beautiful creme on the top. Y-U-M! Mark doesn’t even like coffee, but he didn’t leave a drop of this liquid deliciousness behind!!!

The restaurant itself also has a warm charm. It is decorated with old family photos and real kitchen gadgets that have been handed down from generations before. They even have some articles of clothing hanging from the ceiling that were given to Stefani from her family. Their logo is brilliant, a silhouette of Stefani’s mother, from an old photo of her cooking. They also have an awesome chalkboard menu. I love chalkboard menus.

All in all, if you aren’t drooling by this point, then something must be wrong with you! If you live in the Portland area, stopping by this fabulous little joint is a must. Eat in, take something home and be the “dinner hero”, or sign up for a class. Stefani & Lawrence, the owners, are genuine and kind, and they clearly just want to share the love of good food. Mark and I will be going back for sure, Italian is my favorite, and this place is a home run! Thank you so much for your hospitality and delicious food!!! Taste Unique gets an A+ from us both.

<3

i posted about it on my facebook page.. but never said what it was that i splurged on. it took about a month to get to me, but when it arrived from hong kong i couldn’t have been more excited!!! i have been wanting one forever now, so it’s really fun to have one… this is the beauty that i purchased:

a fujifilm instax mini 7s!!!

i also purchased 5 packs of film with it. It produces business card size polaroid photos, and i am in loooooove with them!!! Thank goodness they still make film for this baby, i hope they never quit!!

my first photos i took with it were of quincey and the flowers that mark brought me when he picked me up at the airport from costa rica

Then i took my fabulous friend Tonja out to a newer restaurant here that I’m in love with- Slappycakes for her birthday, and we had some Polaroid fun It’s a super awesome modern style restaraunt that is all about having fun, making pancakes, and enjoying deliciousness!! All of the staff is SUPER nice too! We ended up taking my dad there for his birthday the next weekend, we loved it so much! Oh, and they serve Stumptown coffee <3 win!

Making delicious pancakes!!

Us and our delicious blood orange mimosas! Yay birthday breakfasts!!!

My camera shaped pancake with butterscotch chips <3

The awesome booth decal! This place has STYLE!!!

Can you say “YUM!”?!

They came over and sang “Slappy Birthday” to Tonja, and gave her a deep fried banana with fresh made whipped cream and a candle to blow out

still learning to use the different settings on this polaroid cam… you can set it to indoors, cloudy, sunny, or really sunny…. i forgot to switch it, and it was bright out for these 2. Thanks to the random dude on the street who took these for us!!

And of course I had to get some fun pics of my boys and i

Mark bought me an amazing 7th Heaven bunny butt cupcake from JaCiva’s!!! THAT is LOVE! <3 Quincey wanted some, hahaha i love that pic!

<3

Needless to say, I’m putting my “splurge” to good use! And hopefully I’ll be able to use it soon on some of my photo shoots!

until the next post!

<3

I got to shoot with this family a while back when their little newborn baby was just 2 weeks old. With two older sisters to help take care of her, this little baby girl has a good life ahead of her. A family with 3 girls, all close in age is so similar to mine, I couldn’t help but to fall in love with them Thank you all for a very wonderful shoot!
I’m loving this set in black and whites for some reason.

Here are some of my favorites from our session, enjoy!