Bookclub photoshoot teaser...

First Book Club party photo, Karyn Llad-Miller

One thing I love about living a creative life is that I learn ALL THE TIME. I am not always a patient learner. As anyone who knows me well (or worked with me *cough*) knows that I get all excited about a new idea and then proceed to draw everyone in to my creative endeavor. Fortunately, I know many creatives who would be happy to drop everything and jump on board and more patient friends who are willing to play a supporting role. My father looked at me at one point and said, "Honestly, sometimes I have no idea where you came from!" and my mother asked me about 8 times, "Now why are you doing this?"

One aspect I'm practicing is event styling and photography. I see these things all over the internet and drool. Then my stomach hurts because I know I want to do it too--but with my own ideas. In my mind's eye it's really going to look fantastic! But the reality is that I'm not a professional in ALL aspects of the event styling--not even close (although I do feel closer now that I have my new camera) and that is the basis of much frustration.

I know what a good photograph looks like but I'm not able to take it. I know what the food should look like, but I can't make it. I know how a beautifully styled space looks like but thinking 3 dimensionally isn't my strongest suit. Even if I could do all those things well, I am just one person and there are other people in my life who would like to have me around some of the time (my kids, husband, clients) BUT, I can design great paper products since I've had LOTS of practice with that. So that's something.

When this last creation stormed into my brain, I set out to find the people who could help me do all the other things that I couldn't do. I called upon Karyn Llad-Miller since she is an amazing photographer. I yanked Tammy Duvall out of her Waldorf School/Gala Planning world and put her fashion and retail styling degree into gear, and I met Alexis Anderson who is a cake designing fool in her free time. After rescheduling about 12 times (the Universe was not yet ready for us) we finally got a full day to style and photograph my next project: The Bookclub Coffee party.

I'm pleased with our efforts, but as many of you might relate, I've been spending the last week rethinking and restyling to make it better. I'm already looking forward to the next one, knowing that I've got some more experience on my side.

I will flesh out the details of the event separately because well, that's what this blog is about. I'm just starting you out with one of the photographs Karyn sent to me last night. It's beautiful and I nearly cried when I saw it. I couldn't help it. I was feeling emotional people!