This week is going to be a busy one around here regarding work and personal adventures and I’m mentally preparing myself for that and the next 30 days. All great stuff, it just so happens to coincide with a burst of energy and creativity that I’ve been feeling the last few days. I have written it all down so hopefully I’m able to execute it all in mix of everything.

Is it just me or does it feel like summer is slipping away fast? Next month I’ll be turning 30, yes, I know… it’s one of the big ones. I am completely okay with it, I really am. Along with that comes a lot of reflecting, thinking and dreaming. It feels great to have different outlets in my life to express all my feelings. This being one of them so in the next month you’ll probably see a lot of that sentiment here. Just thought I’d warn you. It’s all part of putting myself out there, but also recording the journey for myself.

It’s been awhile since I’ve done a self-portrait. Luckily for me I have this photo captured by Betty Lang during our shoot last month.

“Feet, what do I need them for
If I have wings to fly?”

Frida Kahlo

What is your SUPER WOW this month? I’d love to know.

Everything from editing photos, post office run, paying bills, budgeting, shredding two trash cans full of docs, phone calls, research online, emails, trying to get into a pilates & yoga class that is full, job searches and all while dog sitting and ending the day with a wonderful meal, dinner (my favorite ending to any day, no sarcasm here, really). The only problem is: but I don’t want to!

Photo by Betty Lang

Just thought I’d share in case you felt the same way, you’re not alone-happy Monday!  ;)  Lot’s of great stuff this week, lot’s of doggy photos, a mamalita session and maybe some more videos.

We met up at Priscilla’s house and therefor I got to meet her adorable daughter Addison or as they call her Addie. Towards the end of the day we took a walk outside in her community to get some shots of one another and of course my camera loved Addie, I couldn’t help myself. She’a a bright little girl too, she already knows how to count in Spanish and English and she’s only two!

Priscilla and I were in choir together and so had many encounters then, she can be shy, but she is the sweetest girl I know. I knew Jaye Anne back in high school as a sweet gal too, the girl that had killer natural blond hair, but we didn’t have many encounters then, unfortunately. Her and I bonded over our love for photography and wine. She makes the yummiest baked chimichangas, yes, homemade. We all clearly bonded over food and our willingness to learn more and explore with new foods and recipes. Oh and also chatting for hours on end.

Priscilla, it’s so neat to see you as a mama. Or mami, mami, mami as Addie likes to call you.

Isn’t she darling?

She was splashing her own face, her expression is priceless.

Jaye Anne you’ve got some beautiful eyes, pretty girl.

Priscilla and Jaye Anne, you’re such beautiful people through the inside and out so work it, girls. Look forward to our next meet up whether it’s just the girls again or we try a triple date with our guys. I’m suddenly hungry for baked chimichangas.

On the trip I truly enjoyed my down time and only took 275 photos, yes, only 275! That is counting my couple’s session. Besides, this time around in Cancun we mostly did lounging at the beach and pool with only doing 1 tour to Xelha, a must if you go. It’s a natural aquarium and it’s so much fun, didn’t take my camera, only the point and shoot since you’re surrounded by water everywhere and didn’t want to deal with the hassle.

Kris swam with dolphins, so cool to watch and see the joy on his face.

Our new friends from New Orleans.

Kris went parasailing, I stayed on the boat. Open water and heights, no thank you, maybe one day I can be braver.

The Riu Las Americas Hotel in Cancun, it’s outstanding and all inclusive therefore budget friendly. Possibly a great place for a destination wedding, or 12 year anniversary by the time we get to it.

At Xelha, we tubed down the river for about an hour. Kris got to jump off cliffs and he pushed my tube down the river as he swam, I am so lucky.

Cancun Mexico-Beach from Nancy Orozco on Vimeo.

In a nutshell, we really enjoyed our time away. I mostly enjoyed not cleaning, working, cooking, running errands or having my phone ring. Somedays I had no idea what day it was or the time, for us the only way to do that is to get out of the country and already working hard to pay for the next vacation. It’s just a priority. We also enjoyed meeting new friends, we met some great peeps from Manchester, England, San Francisco, New Orleans, Poland and Argentina. Hello to all of you and I’ll be sending your photos soon.

Up next a couple photo session I did in Cancun.

Last Friday afternoon Annie and I wanted to take a day off and spend some girly time together, we spoil ourselves like that. We planned on lunch and some beach walking by her house in Newport. So after visiting my sweet grandma I met up with Annie. She had invited her friend Kelly that was visiting from Michigan who then brought her best friend Erica along as well for lunch. Still with me? Okay good.

We had met before a year ago, but very briefly and so we quickly got reacquainted, chatted, laughed, bonded and then chatted up some more. After having yummy fish and shrimp tacos at Sharkeez (great hangout during the day, not so much at night) we decided to go walk on the beach. I had brought my camera so I told the girls to play along so I could get photos of them. I knew that they would be willing, but I was taken back at how much fun they were having with it, um, especially Kelly. This was definitely the highlight of the day and I’m glad we documented it because it really was an awesome date.

Erica had a splinter, no problem, the bff came to the rescue.

My favorite photo of them, so cute and Kelly looks up to something.

Love this photo of you Erica, it says it all. You’re so pretty and a sweetheart!

Sexy mama, you sure knows how to rock a dress.

Just love Erica’s reaction here.

Photo courtesy of a bystander. Kelly, can you teach me how to pose like a model?

Sorry Annie, I was laughing with you, not at you.

You’re all just gorgeous.

Erica and Kelly, thank you for an awesome afternoon and hope to get to know more of you in the future. Annie, we did it again! Another girly date with a bang, I love that we can be anywhere, do anything and just have a ball. Love you, hope this brightens up your week.

Hooray for beautiful friendships and girls who know how to have fun!

As I mentioned before I have been reading The Artist’s Way and one of the assignments is morning pages in which you write three pages every morning of all your thoughts, any thoughts for at least three months if not longer. The exercise allows you to get rid of feelings and fears that are getting in the way of your creative journey or any journey for that matter. It has been so therapeutic for me, like my best friend Annie and I always say “who doesn’t need therapy at some point in their life?”. Not only is it forcing me to face my fears, but I’m taking action on some of them and it has been very liberating.It could not have come at a better time. Just when I was feeling lost and fearful I found a way to deal with it so that I can face it, heal and move on. It’s not to say that it will make it all better or that I will never fear again, I’m taking it one day at a time. Lately, that has been my motto “just take it one day at a time”. I’m still feeling a little lost, but I’m confident that I will find my way soon.

I wanted to share these photos because April was just not a good month on so many levels and seeing these photos makes me happy. It gives me that feeling of ah, I made it through now let’s move on. On Saturday Kris and I went shooting near our house just because. He will be practicing with me a little more as he becomes a second shooter for any future weddings I shoot. I’ve been dying for some photos of us and so I took a tripod that was given to me, but those photos just did not workout. Out of focus, couldn’t get the right angle and so we just shot each other and our surroundings. Here are some of my favorites that Kris captured and one that I took of him that he approved (yes, I have to get his approval to post). He was such a good director and comforting, bringing out the kid in me (he’s so good at doing that).  Thank you sweetie for always being there.

So glad I had a good hair day, my curly noodles don’t always cooperate with me.

Yelllow flowers and a sunny day = happiness

For those of you still there, thank you for listening and always supporting me. Your comments always bring a smile to my face.

Unfortunately I didn’t take many photos as I was hosting and cooking a lot of the time. I snapped a few here and there, I need to get better at this.

Menu: carne asada, lime chicken wings, guacamole, rice, beans, potato salad, roasted corn & red peppers, watermelon for dessert (all homemade, of course).

I hope you all enjoyed a good mother’s day with a great mama in your life.

Excited about the week! My sweet grandmother is in town, so I’ll be spending some time with her, a few mixers to attend and prepping for a family shoot this weekend at the beach. I’ll be back with wedding photos from the last wedding I shot a few weekends ago, have a lovely day!

Here are a few pretties that are on my wish list and items that I’ve invested in because they keep my cooking foodie soul alive.

I love cookbooks, they bring so much inspiration and it makes it so much easier to do my meal planning for the week. I typically make 2 of my all time favorites that are my own recipes then try 1 or 2 new recipes from these cookbooks. It keeps my cooking fun and creative without feeling overwelmed.

The Kind Diet by Alicia Silverstone

I’ve checked it out at the book store and fell in love with quite a few of the recipes, definitely worth buying. We usually cook at least 2 vegetarian meals a week and I don’t have any vegetarian cook books, what’s wrong with this picture? Perfect excuse, right? It’s pretty high up on the wish list.

The Pleasures of Cooking for One by Judith Jones

She is the cook that discovered Julia Child, I love her simple style and balance of a mediterranean diet. I figure I can just duplicate the recipes, like her cheese soufflé… yum.

Super Natural Cooking by Heidi Swanson

She is also the blogger behind the very popular food recipe blog www.101cookbooks.com, I love that she finds ways to offer substitutes for flour, sweeteners in a more natural way like not using corn syrup for baking, but using natural can sugar and agave syrup, you get the drift. Also love how she evens out the types of foods so you’re eating a good range of all the good foods we should eat from grains to veggies. Definitely not your cook book if you like super rich carb & heavy foods.

Mango Splitter

We love eating mango’s in this house, especially during the summer. We have the pineapple cutter and we use it frequently. Genius, anyone who has cut a mango knows the pain of cutting them, plus I always feel like so much of the fruit is left on the seed, not anymore with this gadget. Totally getting this soon!

Cuisinart Food Processor

I have borrowed my dear friend and neighbor’s food processor to make pesto and veggie burgers in one of these, love at first sight and I must own one in the near future.

Williams Sonoma and their Technique Classes

The best part about these classes is that they are free to the public, yes FREE and I have yet to take advantage. Mostly because they are Sundays, but I must go to at least one next month, their May schedule is looking good, not available online yet, but you can get them early on if you sign-up for their emails. You can look them up by store and they also offer cooking classes, but those do include a fee. They do sound like a lot of fun though since they are theme based, like Cuban cuisine would be one they offer and of course you get a taste of it and a certain percentage off any item at the store that day. Not a bad deal.

Lunchskins

A few months back we invested in these because using and buying plastic sandwich bags gets old and  it’s bad for the environment so these dishwasher safe, certified food safe, hand sewn and quick drying light cotton lunchskins were the perfect solution. We liked these better than the lunch boxes with the containers because these are more roomy, plus we can both use them. Kris uses them for his packed lunches for work, I use them when on the go and running errands to pack nuts and fruit and we both use them when packing snacks for hiking. Yes, I did get those colors. There are other alternatives, I like these at this Evelyn Fields Etsy Shop, definitely cute and serve the same purpose.

Lavender Ice Cream

Source

Ever since watching It’s Complicated and watching Alec Baldwin eating it (wish they had a photo of him eating it, so amusing), I knew I had to have some… since I don’t have an ice cream maker I’m thinking I’ll have to search for a gourmet shop in LA that will carry it or I might need to just order some online and shipped to me in dry ice, um yeah, craving at it’s fullest. You can get the recipe clicking on the source link. And if you haven’t seen the movie and you’re a foodie then netflix it ASAP and watch it, seriously, you’ll be drooling and the chemistry between Meryl Streep and Alec Baldwin is amazing.

Breville Juice Extractor

Kris and I had been wanting a juicer for years, we finally invested in one a few months back thanks to a gift card… so worth the investment. We now juice 3-4 times a week. Our favorite combos are the green drink which contains: spinach, zucchini, parsley, celery, sprouts and 2 apples to sweeten it up, delish! Our favorite fruit one so far is the pineapple and orange one, can’t wait to have small juice tastings when more friends come over. I will soon post juicing photos and Kris the juice master working this machine. It by no means takes away the nutritional value of eating raw fruits and veggies, but it’s another great way to get the daily fruit & veggie intake, plus it hits your blood stream right away. What I love most about juicing besides the nutritional value is that it’s something we do together that we both enjoy and makes for some good bonding time.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this post as much as I did, I’m thinking this needs to be an ongoing series for me.

Cheers to healthy cooking and eating with a side of foodie shopping!

Edgar received it as a gift from his friend that breed’s them. He had been wanting one for a long time and he couldn’t be more happier, he’s already in training. Did you know they have private training school for pups now? Edgar didn’t enroll him in one, but his friend did.

Let me just be loud and clear about one thing, I love the idea of my baby brother having this pup, I already love him too, but the name just makes me want to vomit! It’s okay, my brother has heard the ranting already. Like really, you really are going to name him that? How humiliating when you take him to the dog park, he’ll get made fun of you know? So If we can’t convince Edgar to switch the name (you know, it’s still early to change it), he might have a few different ones. Just like my parent’s chihuahua whom goes by Mousy and Chiquita, brilliant, I know.

The three of us, Edgar, my other brother Erik and I enjoyed a lunch at a cafe at the Beverly Center. We had originally thought of going to the UCLA Book Festival, but since Erik goes to school there he wasn’t too excited about being on campus on a Sunday.  Plus, Edgar and I arrived a little late so we decided to not go after all. After lunch we picked up the pup at Edgar’s friend’s house and took him to a park near by in La Brea. It was nice to get some sun and run around. Then we dropped Erik off and we headed to my place. Once we arrived Kris was able to meet the pup and play with him too, nice way to end the day since Kris had to work.

Now for the good stuff. There are many photos to view, but after viewing I’m sure you’ll agree that they are worth the long post, enjoy.

My favorite photo of the day.

Holy cute!

Now does this little guy look like a Duggie to you? Please join me on this campaign to change his name, a cute pup is counting on you.  What name would you give him just based on these photos? We don’t know his personality much yet as he’s only had him a few days, but he’s very playful and oh so full of love.

We started early, I woke up at 6:00 AM and made coffee and toast while Kris packed up all our snacks and survival kit (if you know Kris, you know how paranoid he is) and headed out at 7:00 AM. I loved being able to cruise on all the way up the 60 to the 10 freeway with no traffic, I guess only on an early Sunday morning. Even the drive up the road to the main entrance is beautiful. It was love at first sight! I had already done my research so I knew which trail to do, the easy slow paced one (you know, for non-experienced hikers) and at the end of the trail is a waterfall, perfect. So we started off with this trail, it took about 45 minutes, very easy, even saw an 80 year old woman and pregnant lady along the way. We headed back and learned about the Rising Sun Trail, the hard, steep, you want to cry for your mommy trail, that one. It loops around and around, steep all the way up, the end you is the top and can see the whole coast, downtown la and beyond. Gorgeous indeed, but I was not prepared for it. I go to the gym 2-3 times a week, but this could not have prepared me, it kicked me you know where really hard. Kris of course had no problem, show off! He also thinks it’s fun to race up the mountain because he can’t wait to see the view, get the picture? Then you’d think that going down is easy? Not so much. Almost just as bad, but believe it or not, I didn’t complain much during the hike (too busy trying to catch my breath).

However, I am really glad I did, it’s one of those feelings of accomplishment, like hey, I can do this. It was probably about 5 miles all together. We were both beat and hungry at the end of it all. I was sore that day and the next in body parts I didn’t even know existed.  Thank goodness we’ve been in the area before and know a yummy, healthy cafe in Pacific Palisades. It’s called Cafe Vida and a lot of hikers go there after for breakfast or lunch. They have the best peanut butter milkshake made with almond milk, peanut butter, whey chocolate protein and banana – delish! Not to mention great healthy breakfasts, all organic, plus unique and fresh salads.

That my friends is a healthy, fun, refreshing Sunday Orozco-Jasie style. We plan on going hiking every Sunday for the rest of spring (mostly in LA) unless I have a photo session of course, friends are welcome to join. Even went yesterday to Temescal Canyon, also amazing and beautiful. It has a more of a forest-like feel, with lot’s of trees and vegetation for shade, but not as many wild flowers. Finished the morning with a stop at the farmer’s market there and grabbed produce for the week and had yummy Indian food.

I hope to document more trips soon. I didn’t take my camera to Temescal Canyon yesterday, sometimes it just distracts you and you can’t enjoy your surroundings the same way.  I love that there is so much to discover and do in So Cal, definitely a great place to live.

Stand off, no one won, we scared them off.

Texture.

Movement.

So what do you think? It’s hard not to fall in love. Such a freeing experience, just imagine… no cell phone, noise, tv or nothing else for 3-4 hours. Just pure silence in nature. Thanks for viewing, more from my photo sessions this last week coming up.