Amy Nieto Photography + Design

Thank you, sir. We miss you down here.

JJ Abrams - I LOVE you and I want to MARRY YOU. Thank you for reviving the franchise!

I took him to the coast and to some waterfalls east of the city. Yeah. Didn't see much of Portland this time either! ^_^ No matters, all sorts of fun was had.

He stayed at The Nines hotel in Downtown Portland, by the Pioneer Courthouse Square. AWESOME HOTEL. I had served the grand opening banquet last year and was quite impressed with its design. My brother was not so impressed with all the turquoise. :P

Though I knew we would not be seeing much of the city, I really wanted to impress him with Portland's culinary variety. Our first stop was Pambiche, a delicious Cuban restaurant on SE Glisan and 28th. It's the closest thing to our Puerto Rican food we're gonna get here. Before heading out to the Coast on Sunday, we had brunch at Detours Cafe on Division and 30th. Oh so yummy!

We hiked the Latourell Falls on the Historic Columbia River HIghway. It was here that I found that SUPER AWESOME GIANT SLUG on the first picture. Seriously, it was huge and awesome and I'd never seen anything like it. Highlight of my day, fo sho.

The waterfall was beautiful and the force emanating from it was quite strong. Fascinating.

Nature provides us with the mst beautiful of chandeliers, doesn't it?

Some people dream of owning a cabin in the woods, at a ski resort... to those people I tell them, WHAT!!?!?! Why would you want to live in the mountains where it's COLD! A house by the Ocean is what I want! AHHH YES.

I found three sand dollars. I wonder if Trimet will let me in the bus with them? Hmmmmm?

I hope you visit me again! Andmaybe this time I'll show you around Portland :P

Today, I count Sarah as one of my dearest dearest dearest friends. We finally met in real life back in September 2008 when I journeyed into the Great Country of Canada via Chiliwack, BC.

I am pleased to feature Sarah's latest photographic project: A quirky fashion shoot inspired by Alice in Wonderland and Marie Antoinette. I am SO proud of Sarah and her achievements and ask that you stalk read her blog and peruse her portfolio.

You can view this Alice in Wonderland set on her Flickr.

Which reminds that this blog is a hassle to actually subscribe to. So while this blog is still going on you can subscribe by adding the following link to your rss reader of choice:

I just need something to HAPPEN. I know good things don't happen overnight, but I NEED SOMETHING TO HAPPEN. And right now, NOTHING is happening.

Le sigh.

(As always, click image above to view bigger)

Ladies, thank you thank you! *HEARTS!!!!*

To conclude this entry, I must share a small video of my friends Kjell and Kim's Polychromatic150 show at Albina Press on SE. Kjell and Kim own and operate Plywerk, a service that offers a totally awesome alternative to traditional framing. A total of 150 photos mounted on bamboo plywood represented the color spectrum in a wonderful array of places, flowers, people, objects and more. Four different artists contributed to this fantastic show. And yes, the girl in the super ugly olive shirt is me. That's my work uniform. Ugh.

I'm off to bed, for this weekend I have an awesome person visiting me: MY BROTHER. hip hip horay!

We had a grand time. If you come to visit me, I will totally take you to the Market. Yet another thing that makes me glad I moved all the way out here ^_^ By the way, Linnea has some awesome pictures up on her blog. Check 'em outz!

Of course, we had to have silly photo shoot for the sole purpose of "updating our FB profiles". :P

I seriously took like a billion pictures of peonies. I spared you all the torture... a little bit.

Wonderful textures. These succulents were only $3! Maybe I should like, revive the three miniature succulents I currently am killing before I decide to add more to my mass genocide resume.

I am totally naming my child Picklopolis Mauricio Nieto. That's how awesome that sign is.

{Por favor, si hablas español, no le busques el doble sentido a estas fotos! jaja}

Nutella and Old Timey Music go together like... like, awesome things that go well together!

super cute little girl dress!

Inspired by these AMAZING beauties here, here and here (and of course, by my obsession with ban.do) I set out to figure out how to make those fabric rosebuds. I'm assuming they just wrapped the fabric around like a tutsy roll (great comparison, amy). So I did just that...and couldn't stop... at 1AM, knowing full well I would regret this the next morning at work.

But look at them! They're so cute! I turned the brown one on the bottom into a hair clip. This one is different from the rest, I simply cut several circles of varying sizes, sewed the middle, pulled the thread and scrunched it up. Then I "burned" the edges with a lighter so they would curl up. Which is not a good thing to do on your bed in an old 1920s house. yeah. No.

Anyways, SUPER CUTEZZZZZZZZ!!!!

This will be the end of me, I tell ya!

I am OBSESSED with the paper lace I bought from this wonderful seller, A Bohemian Market, at etsy. I highly recommend :)

All of that disappears when it comes to gowns. Especially dramatic, fashion-forward, cutting-edge, extravagant, exquisite, decadent gowns like the one featured above. OH MY! Excessive ruffles and pleats. THAT gets me going like nothing else. During my Fashion Photography course in college I bought several types of fabric to create flowing, draped gowns to be worn by dancers for a project I was planning on doing (which I never did). I drew maybe a dozen designs, quickly realizing I kinda wished I had majored in Fashion (for a good two years I WAS surrounded by fabric and 120 film rolls. Chaotic college years).

Who are some of your favorite fashion designers? What is your general opinion on fashion/fashion industry?