mila | news . we're having a GIRL!

WE'RE HAVING A GIRL!!!! so the question now is who won?

i wanted a boy but thought it was a girl .. based on scientific deduction of course. my family produces a high percentage of girls, very strong women actually. "strong" is the most PC term i can think of to describe our female tribe. curtis wanted a girl but thought it was a boy... based on a hunch ( i think he was just trying to make me feel better). i know one thing for sure. my shoe shopping budget is gonna lose out. there's gonna be some serious dents made in that fund :(

i texted the family and friends this morning with the news and here's some of the initial reactions...

• from my sis -- "WOOOOOOOOOOO! No more arguing about boys names :)"
• from my aunt (the rare one on my dad's side that produced boys) -- "I knew it!..."
• from my cousin (one of the girls) -- "... score one more for us!"

last month we started thinking about names and got really stumped on boy names. i mean REALLY stumped. i was getting desperate and thought we could just call him friday. curtis threw that into the dump pile along with all the other names. it was getting so ridiculous that i threw my hands up and said it was pointless since we didn't even know the baby's sex yet! good thing we stopped. no reason for anyone to sleep on the couch over that now!

tonight i'm gonna dig up some of our baby pictures. we can start guessing what this baby is going to look like. i was born with two teeth and curtis actually had hair!

mila | craftiness and compliments

if i had a dollar for every idea i came up with i would be a millionaire. i'm a problem solver, a fixer, an enhancer. it's in my nature. it's this particular ability that made me successful in my previous career as a business analyst. my problem is follow thru.... these days anyway. and that is where curtis comes in.

my creativity needs an outlet, sometimes it means CREATING work where there isn't a need for it. curtis balances me out. he reminds me of where we are, why we are and why i should or shouldn't pursue an idea. and sometimes... he just follows through for me.

i'm somewhat of a pack rat... albeit an organized one. my creative streak demands that i don't waste anything so i have a bunch of odds and ends tucked away in boxes everywhere. a moment of inspiration hit me when i saw a display at a craft fair over the summer and i told curtis i wanted a wall of photos in the living room. after i told him what i had in mind (using a handful of drawer pulls) he took my ideas, and threw up a wall of our favorite photos from our recent travels.

don't you just love it?!?!? frames from IKEA + silver drawer pulls + ribbon. voila! i've got a few more crafty nifties waiting to get explored in my head. i'll be sharing as i go along.

p.s. i actually took these photos coz i rented a tilt-shift lens and wanted to understand what it did. now i know.

mila | summer 2009

the weather's turning. i turned the fans off around the house last night. i wore my uggs to the store yesterday. i had a long sleeve shirt on today. summer is passing ... and i've got my fuzzy slippers out again. curtis and i haven't seen this side of cold since the fall/winter of 2007 coz we bailed out before the cold hit in 2008. dare i say it.. i missed my boots and my sweaters!

it was a fun summer! lots of photo shoots, friends, bbq's, picnics, beach days and happy surprises. here's some pictures from a couple-three summer get togethers with our k-rews. backyard bbqs, fourth of july at the beach and the OC fair!

one of these days i'm going to figure out how to get this slideshow to be the right size. any suggestions anyone?

mila | orange county portrait photographer . published parenting magazine

my photos were published on parenting magazine! barni, one of my girl friends from high school works for parenting magazine philippines. she saw one of my family photo posts on facebook one day and jokingly commented that she wished she could use my photos for her articles. the wheels started rollin and she extended the opportunity to use my photos in parenting magazine and working mom. she loved my style and i loved that she loved it! they used 7 of my photos for the august issue and have a few more lined up to be published thru december. in some cases it looks like we made the cover!


thank you so much to all the families who gave permission for use of the photos.