Like a Kid in a Candy Store…

I went home with my man to his hometown of Moline, IL for the very first time. I just loved hanging with his family, taking Lilly for walks, seeing all the Quad City hotspots, eating Mexican, meeting Noni and Papa in their house that they’ve lived in since Lee’s dad was a boy, eating yummy food, being the family photographer, celebrating Good Friday and Resurrection Day, and just getting to be with Lee for 3 days straight. But maybe one of my most favorite parts was going to visit “the store.” Or, more precisely, the storeS. You see, for 100 years now, Lee’s family has owned and operated “Lagomarcino’s”– they make their own chocolates and ice cream and have a soda fountain. Isn’t there something just so romantic about that??

We went to the Davenport store for lunch…

After we ate some real food… it was dessert time! I had to try a little bit of a few different things… but I think I’ve now settled that Lago’s peppermint ice cream with their hot fudge is the best thing ever! It was so good that I had more that night when we all went to the Moline store after hours. The sundae tasted even better because I had Lee make it for me :)

I also got to see where all of the chocolatey goodness is made. I pretty much couldn’t even contain myself. For Easter they make these handmade famous chocolate eggs that they fill with chocolates… like their yummy caramels and toffees and turtles (what do you call those, guys? I can’t remember…)

Little Laina was busy being a waitress.

And here’s our cute lunch dates.

Don’t worry though… I didn’t jump in the chocolate river… or ride on the scary Wonka boat. But I did live the dream and ate ice cream and candy galore!

Silas’ Photoshoot

Had a fun photoshoot yesterday with the cutest little family. Mr. Silas is 9 months old and is definitely going to be a little heartbreaker! He had just woken up from a nap and was the perfect little model for two hours straight! His blue eyes are to dies for, don’t you agree?

It was amazing– he’s only 9 months old, but look what he could spell with sticks! ;-)

I snagged this next one while he was getting changed… dang… the kid was charming it up even when he was getting changed!

This next one may be my favorite shot of the day… and it was just done on a last minute whim… and thankfully we didn’t get the baby run over! He’s just such a little stud with his collar popped :)

And lastly, here’s a shot of the whole family totally workin it. I told them to get their game faces on, and I think they totally pulled it off. It’s probably all of that “America’s Top Model” you’ve been watching Brittany ;-)

I may post more of the little stud once I get them processed, but wanted to give this little taste for Silas’ momma and daddy until I have the rest of their pics done!

The Nautical Life

A few shots from spring break in Destin with my parents and best friend, Julie

Gotta sport the Sperry Topsiders!

Spendyourself shoot

So, even though I am highly unqualified for such a thing… I have been named “Art Director” for this company I’m a part of. It was pretty much born out of a joke, really… but I have been handling some of the artsy fartsy stuff regarding getting Spendyourself off the ground.

Spendyourself is a non-profit apparel company designed to help be a voice for the voiceless and oppressed around the world… and help restore their dignity through sustainable projects. Basically we are designing a t-shirt or a series of shirts where all of the profits go toward a specific project and aim to create sustainable solutions.

The first t-shirt series… “Omed”… is for a camp of internally displaced refugees in Afghanistan. Basically, these people left many years ago when things in Afghanistan were bad. They returned to Kabul a few years ago, to find that there were no jobs and nowhere for them to live. The government “relocated” them out into the middle of nowhere… the middle of the desert.. with pretty much nothing but tarps for tents. Sozo International stepped in to bring some basic relief and meet their survival needs. We are slowly moving towards sustainability in the village, and so this t-shirt series is helping to finish building a school in this village, Barek Aub, for these refugee children who currently have no place to go to school. Barek Aub means “broken water” and we hope to bring True, Living Water to this place. This is reflected in the t-shirt design.

The Spendyourself website will be up in about a week for you to order shirts! But, for now, I thought I’d show you some of the fun shots I did in our t-shirt photoshoot.  You might recognize one of those uber-handsome men… its my boyfriend Lee…

Those are our logo tees… designed by Tyler of Pedale Design

Fun fact: Those two are getting married in 10 days!

And this last one is a little blurry… but I just think it is soo dang cute of my man… The reluctant model did pretty good, don’t you think?