Amazon.com's Support of Animal Fighting

My love of Amazon has gone cold.

Did you know Amazon sells animal fighting magazines? See here for the full story: http://www.hsus.org/

Let's do our part, being the web savvy people we are, and send Jeff Bezos an email telling him to stop selling magazines that support illegal and cruel practices.

Use the below link to send your mail to him

https://community.hsus.org/campaign/US_2007_amazon_fighting3/

Interesting Upcomings

Work has been coming in at a steady pace, to the point where finding a nanny a few days a week is about to become urgent.

A couple of weeks ago, I had a record 6 shoots in one week. A few nudes via my other 'secret' site www.katrinkas-secret.com, a maternity session, some family gigs and one really sad shoot I did for Soulumination. A little 5 day old at Children's Hosp.--they were taking him off life support and I was there to document a small bit of his short life with his family.

Tonight I'm shooting a living wake for a terminally ill gentleman. Tomorrow a Senior and a baby and then get this: drum roll please
I'm doing a two day shoot for a the white house committee on anti drug use. I'm shooting 5 people who have been effected by Meth use. The shots will be displayed during National Drug Recovery Month, aka September. How I was chosen for this... it beats me but I'm pretty geeked about it.

Strange photographic juxtapositions abound, from sick newborns, to terminal adults, to pregnant ladies, to families and then naked ladies.

Xander's Party

What the hell is going on?


Scanning for cupcake predators.


Loving cake with the ladies.

Happy Birthday Baby!

The X-man is one today!

Where have I been?

Status Report:

Moving: All boxes are mostly unpacked, or out of sight, with the exception of MY clothes. I find this quite telling as to what motherhood can mean for someone once obsessed with her closet. Forget your own stuff. It will sit in boxes for months, quite possibly 12 months. Unpacking will happen only as you realize you've washed everyone else's clothes before your own and now you have to open a box to find something clean, but very wrinkled, to wear.
But it doesn't fit because your boobs are still to big and you haven't unpacked the junk in your trunk.

Neighborhood: Drugs. They might have been fun at one time, but now they're just annoying. We have two major drug depots on each side of our block. To the west we have pot, to the south west we have crack in addition to people clearly not taking their AIDS cocktails, and shootings--there was one last week.

Inside of the house: I love love love this house.

Inside of the the inside of the house: we could quite possibly have ghosts. Remember the boots they found in the lath and plaster? Well, inside of these was a death notice. This note was revealed to me a few days before moving in, only after the person who found the boots was confident I didn't believed in ghosts. I guess I said I didn't.

Business: I'm not sure what happened. Maybe advertising is paying off or it's blind luck, but I'm at the point where I'm going to have to turn away business or be very 'exclusive' with my bookings. Kinda of cool but also kinda of bad because it means time away from the boy (not only shooting but the time it takes to post-process) and that makes me feel really bad.

That's a good enough update, right? more and photos of the new / old(1905) digs later.

The Husband has been good at keeping the internet abreast to the recents: See his posts here

Mooshi

A is for Acorn

Half and Half

BoyBoy

Forbidden Fruit

New Website

My new website just went live. Tell me what you think, if you don't mind. www.christinamallet.com

Blog!

Blog, blog blog blog blog blog blog.

blog?
Blog!

"Blog!"

In other news:
The house is close-ish to being done. After more than two months of remodeling we're on the last stretch, painting and floors.
Fact: The house was built in 1905.
Fact:Apparently it's common to find things in the walls of old homes, like skeletons, which is exactly what we found.

Not really.

However, they (contractor & his people) found a pair of old boots, a lining for a hat, and a tube top sort of bra in the wall. All of which has got to be 100 years old.

There are exactly 2 toilets and 3 pedestal sinks in front of our garage in a large crate, which I'm told weighs 600 lbs.
Why I had them delivered here, when they are for the other house? well, that's beyond me.

I'm shooting a wedding this weekend.

The end.

Confession

Dear Lord of UrbanHip,

I have a confession. Forgive me, for I have sinned. I have broken the UrbanHip commandment to resist the temptation for all things suburban, no matter how convenient they might be.

Will you forgive me? For I am now the not so proud card holder of the scary gym in the suburbs.

I had to do it. I needed to do it. I needed some me time.

Was the fact that I know one of boyboy's caregivers and one was a nice lady from Ghana, who's actually from Alex's dad's tribe, a sign from you?

This sin is my last. I promise to never cross the line again--cul-de-sacs and mini-vans will never tempt me.

This Kind of Day

Scary Gym Part II

After BoyBoy's meltdown at The Scary Gym I considered switching to their second location, a much larger and fully equipped location, in Bellevue.

It's so huge it quite possibly requires its own hydroelectric dam. This metropolis in the suburbs is complete with, a spa, salon, a botox spa, and super duper daycare that allows you to leave your BoyBoy and go off-site. This seemed like a glorious option given I get 2-3 hours a week of alone time, when Mrs. Doubtfire comes.

Well, it wasn't meant to be. We went there yesterday to sign on the dotted line but I chickened out and decided to stay urban.

I'm left with 2 conclusions.
1. I'm a really amazing and self-less mom because there is no way in hell I'll leave BoyBoy there.
2. I'm incredibly stubborn when it comes to maintaining my urban cool and giving in to suburban conveniences.

The reasons behind my super self-less momitude:
I suffered a bought of post-traumatic-stress upon entering--I went to daycare from 6 weeks on and hated it (Mom, if you're reading this, don't)--everything about this place reminded me of what I hated as a kid, namely:
no natural light,
feeding assembly lines,
and kids were aimlessly spinning in circles with nothing to do.


And for my "keep it cool, keep it urban" reasoning:
The art is horrendous. Imagine commissioning Thomas Kincade and The Happy Painter to paint scenes of a rainbow of people working out, children engaging story time at the daycare, and for a fantasy art experience, a triptych of a gymnast spinning in outer space, an outer space which happens to include Mt. Rainier. This art, hung like masterpieces (I'm talking huge prints), is everywhere.
The carpet is totally Las Vegas casino.
The parking garage is filled with BMWs, Mercedes and Mini-Vans, all of which freaks me out--it's a rich breeder gym.
Their spa is decorated like a Roman Bath, unfortunately minus the vomitorium, and has the following treatments: The Journey to the Fountain of Youth, The Royal Journey, and the Gentleman's Journey.

So, I'm sticking with the big city version of the scary gym which has natural light, views of the city scape, and a very tiny daycare.

Portraits of Hope at SIFF

If you're lucky enough to be going to The Seattle International Film Festival, consider taking in the documentary Portraits of Hope about Soulumination, the foundation I recently became a shooter for.

Portraits of Hope

USA, 2007,

8 Minute Running Time

US Premiere Genres: Documentary, Social Issues

Monday, June 04, 7:00 PM Egyptian Theatre

Lynette Huffman Johnson’s calling is to capture the sweetest moments at the most difficult times, in very touching portraits of children who are dying and their families.

DIRECTOR: Jon Ward

Producer: Jon Ward

Editor: Jon Ward

Screenwriter: Jon Ward

Cinematographer: Jon Ward

Music: Kyle Grimm

Vice

Red Tricycle & Me

Check out a photog write up on me at red-tricycle

If you're a Seattle parent, this site is the uber-duberist for all things hip in the breeding world.

The stuff behind my reasoning below

Here

Weighting

So, there's this rumor going around in the breeding world that nursing your young will make the pounds miraculously drop. Sure, this works in the first few weeks and month post delivery but after that, they fail to tell you that women who were thin prior to conceiving are more likely to hold onto 5, 10, even 20 lbs of baby weight. Exhibit one: Me.

I gained 50-55 lbs with Xander. Mind you he was a hefty fellow, weighing in at 9lbs 3 ounces, but I had... well... let's call is xtra, with a lowercase x.

Many many pounds departed, 35 to be exact, by the time Mr. X was 2 months.

The remainder, well, they've refused to leave.

When I say refuse, I mean it.

Case in point: I've paid for 5 weeks of not so great tasting diet food. Stuck to it for 2 weeks (okay, I cheated a wee wee bit..... occasionally (substituting 3 fruits for an evening glass of wine). What do I have? A new scale, to prove the first one wrong, which it turns out was not lying or faulty. After days and days of no more than 1500 calories, my jeans are the same and well, it's just... uhm... kind of depressing.

This is the point in the story where I Google like mad to prove that there's some reason beyond me to blame.

After numerous oracle searches .... Enter: post-partum weight loss... no weight loss breast feeding... weaning and pregnancy weight loss... I've come to learn that my body is likely revolting and storing stores for the drought or more appropriately, the famine.

I'm probably divulging too much, not only boring but too personal, stuff for the internet but this is a public service announcement: 1. don't believe the hype about nursing weight loss 2. if you were thin before hand and haven't lost a portion of the flub, it will/might/should/god please! fall off when you wean the lad or lass, or, at least that's my excuse.

Meanwhile, a giant box of uneaten, not so edible, diet food is waiting for the day the boy is weaned. Or, that's at least what I'd like to think.