Month: August 2013

Engagement Pictures with Melanie and Joel!

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A few weeks ago, I had the honor of doing engagement pictures with Melanie and Joel! Melanie and I met at our friend’s superbowl party a few years ago and we bonded over being able to make weird noises (haha… seriously…). I am sure L was super happy that she introduced us after that part. Anyway, now Melanie is engaged to Joel and they asked me to do their engagement pictures! This was my first time meeting Joel and I have to say, he is awesome. And he and Melanie and super adorable and perfect together. We had a ton of fun with these pictures and I am very honored that they asked me to take their pictures. I hope they enjoy them (I should be getting them in the mail by the end of the week)!

Some things I learned doing these pictures:

  1. It’s fun! I love getting to know couples and figuring out how to take pictures that show off how awesome, adorable, happy, etc they are.
  2. Taking engagement pictures is inherently a bit of an awkward situation so the faster I can get everyone laughing, the more comfortable we all feel and then the pictures turn out more awesome!
  3. My two lenses are not equal in awesomeness.
  4. I need to take a lot of pictures because sometimes people blink!

What have you guys been up to lately? I took engagement pictures for my friends J and K this weekend so be prepared for more adorableness in the near future! In lab related news, there is a lot to get done if I really want to do graduate within the year so this is going to be an interesting school year…

The great defenders!

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Some of the awesome girls in my class back in the first week of our first year of grad school… awwww we were so young!

Helllloooo everyone! I finished my committee meeting yesterday so I am back! I think it went pretty well. I analyzed a lot of data and didn’t sleep pretty much for the past two weeks so that I could put all of what I know about my protein in my presentation for my committee members. They were helpful in telling me what they think I should focus on that will tell the best story (i.e. so that I can write a paper/my thesis) so that I can graduate within the year. Yeesh… It’s going to be an epic year. That’s all I can say about that…

Anyway, for now I am happy to be back in a world where I don’t have to analyze data and think about my project every waking (and sometimes sleeping) moment. I have a lot of stuff to catch you up on but first, I want to talk about my two friends E and L who are both defending their PhD theses today! Congratulations you guys! You worked so hard and by the end of today you will be doctors!

And now a little back story. First, L is my first friend here in the state of CO. I met a lot of the people in my class all at the same time (recruitment weekend) but I actually met L at the University of Washington’s recruitment weekend two weeks earlier. The next weekend, she went to go check out a school in Canada while I checked out UC Davis and then we reconvened after that here at CU chemistry program’s recruitment weekend. I am so glad we both decided to come here. It has been an honor getting to know you L and I hope we keep in touch about what’s next for you!

Potassium and L (second from the right) with two other girls they met at the University of Washington recruitment weekend. I wonder where those two other girls ended up going to graduate school…

Now E! E is an organic chemist in my year but we decided early on that she is an honorary biochemist because we pretty much were inseparable our first year. E, I will never forget our horrible decision to go to Wendy’s and get milkshakes right before an indoor soccer game. It was worth it because we had to get caught up on everything but man… that was an interesting soccer game. Also E was my first photo buddy here in town because we got our DSLRs right about the same time. It was so much fun running around Boulder county learning how to take pictures with you. Also, I think we all had a blast at your wedding! I know you are about to head to Portland soon to join your hubby and I wish you the best of luck! Keep in touch friend, I will really miss being neighbors! :)

Potassium and E, photo buddies…

That’s all for today everyone but stay tuned because I have engagement pictures for you (hopefully) next week! :D So what has been going on in your worlds lately?

Happy Anniversary! Now pose…

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Turns out it’s really hard to get a picture in which 10 people are simultaneously smiling…

Hooray! Wedding anniversary pictures finally!* :D So before you scroll down to see the rest, let me tell you a little bit about the party. It started out a little sketch because Cobalt and I were running around like crazy building things from IKEA and we lost track of time. When the first guests arrived, they got to go with Cobalt to the store to get party supplies and snacks while I made sure the house was in order. Then when more people showed up we headed to the park by our house with a bag full of props for the photo shoot! It turned out to be really fun as you can see below (in no apparent order)!

K and A bravely started us off…
I think J is rethinking saying yes to K’s marriage proposal now that she knows that sometimes K has yoda hands…
Cobalt and T being sneaky in masks
A has requested the name Titanium on this blog now… Love it. Also she totally rocked this mask.
I love that C and L seem skeptical about the parasol while K seems so happy about it.
The happy couple?
J’s turn with the claws…
Titanium modeling the parasol, the mask, and the backdrop!

Then we went to the playground to play with the props. Cobalt is especially happy with the lens flare in this picture.

After the photos, we had a BBQ, played Cards Against Humanity, and giggled over all the awkward but hilarious things in that deck. I think it turned out to be a really fun time and thank you to all of you who came out and celebrated with us! We really enjoyed it! Cobalt and I are already coming up with new photoshoot ideas…

What do you think of the photos? Do you have a favorite? Also, what have you guys been up to lately? We’ve been getting a lot of rain (almost a proper monsoon season if you ask me!) lately. What has your weather been like? Are you ready for fall yet? I think that I was so annoyed with all that May and April snow that we got that I am still dreading fall and then the inevitable winter…

In other photo news, I took some engagement pictures for my friends M and J yesterday. Can’t wait to show you my favorites! :D

*Unfortunately my posting schedule is probably going to get a little weird for a while. My committee meeting is coming up soon. For those of you who don’t know, that’s where I meet with 5 faculty members and tell them everything I did this past year and how I plan to graduate in a year or less (freaking out excited not sure how I feel about any of that). Anyway, I have a lot of work to do to prepare for it. Also Cobalt and I are just plain BUSY right now. Craziness…

Artistic sisters

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Helllooooo everyone! I hope you are having wonderful Tuesdays! Today’s post is about art and science! Last week when my sister was here, we spent a lot of time driving. We went to Fort Collins, CO to speak to some summer research undergraduate students about grad school. On Wednesday, we participated on an alumni panel and on Thursday, we returned to check out the students’ research posters and hear the keynote address. It was awesome getting to know these students and hearing about the successes and frustrations with their projects this summer. When we were not hanging out with the summer students, we hung out with the other grad/med school students on the panel and the keynote speaker and it was really nice to make new friends (all the alumni had the summer program in common but none of us actually participated in the same year). Everyone was so cool and inspiring! However, by the time we got back to Boulder on Thursday afternoon, we were exhausted/tired of driving. So first we ran around like crazy in a big rain storm and then we settled down in Cobalt’s and my living room to do some art before we had to take my sis back to the airport. This was my creation from our art afternoon. I have to say that I’m pretty proud of it! :D What do you think it should be called? All I can think of is “Whales in the sky keep on turning…” hahahaha…

What were you guys up to this past weekend? Cobalt and I celebrated our anniversary by staying at a lovely bed and breakfast (also in Fort Collins… he drove that time) on Friday night and then spent the rest of the weekend at IKEA/putting various pieces of furniture together. Also we had our neat anniversary party on Sunday! Stay tuned for pictures (but don’t be dismayed if they don’t show up in a timely manner this week; my summer students have their poster session/end of the summer banquet coming up)!

We need your help for our anniversary!

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So Cobalt’s and my one year wedding anniversary is this weekend! To celebrate our anniversary, we’ve come up with a project and we need your (if you live within driving distance of Boulder) help!

A few weeks ago, Cobalt and I were hanging out with our (recently engaged!!!) friends J and K in a local bookstore. J and I were looking at magazines while K and Cobalt were off somewhere else. J picked up a few wedding magazines to flip through and I started with the photography ones until I discovered that this bookstore has an entire shelf dedicated to magazines from France. I picked up one about recent movies and flipped through it until I found an article about Ryan Gosling with this picture on the front:

I did not take this picture (obviously). This photo is by Art Streiber and is featured in the May 2013 edition of Premiere magazine.

I thought it was hilarious how he looks pretty normal except for those crazy yoda hands and I showed it to Cobalt. Then an idea was born…. here’s what we wanna do. So the day of our wedding anniversary (this Sunday, August 4), Cobalt and I want to have a photoshoot where you, our models, get to pick one crazy costume piece (we’ll have hats, masks, goggles, and even the yoda hands Mr. Gosling is wearing above for you to choose from but you can bring your own props too) and then you get to pose for us. I think it’s going to be really fun. Cobalt and I prepped all last weekend and we are super excited! If you would like to be in our photoshoot, leave me a comment here (or a Facebook message if we are Facebook friends) and I’ll contact you with details. Come one come all! :D

I also did not take this picture. This photo is also by Art Streiber and is featured in the May 2013 edition of Premiere magazine.
This is an example of one of the awesome props we acquired. Also this is how sad I will be if no one wants to do our photoshoot with us… :-/

If you are (unfortunately) too far away to come have fun with us on our wedding anniversary, tell me about your first wedding anniversary. Did you do anything special?