Happy Birthday Alec

today is alec's birthday!

when we woke up i whispered "happy birthday" to him. he peeled open his eyes, did a fake cough and said "i'm old". he cracks me up.

i left early this morning to get him some breakfast... bagel with cream cheese, onion and tomato. he also opened up one of his presents in bed. new shoes!

lucky guy has the day off work so he's going with two buddies to play golf. later he's meeting me at 6 to go out to dinner then to the studio screening of cloverfield. the studio i work at did the monster effects shots which looks awesome! i've seen our work over and over but i can't wait to see the final film. it's getting some great reviews. for his birthday dessert i'm picking up a variety of yummy cupcakes.

this sunday his band is playing at annie's social club so they'll be doing a joint birthday celebration for him and his friend josh.

**side note** tomorrow will be six years since alec and i first met. my friend, christina, was dating one of his friends at the time. i met up with them two at a bar then we left to go meet a friend of his who just celebrated his birthday. the rest is history.

i love you!

in bed with his new shoes

Secret Santa

it's time to get creative. each year at work they do secret santa for the holidays. this is strictly voluntary. the rules are you can't buy anything, the gift has to be "handmade". working with so many creative people you can imagine all the cool & amazing gifts i've seen. this only adds to the pressure. each year i tell myself i'm not going to do it. that doesn't work. october rolls around and i'm feeling creative ready to take on the challenge so i sign up. now i'm less than a week away from the exchange and i don't have a solid idea. time to think fast.

last year i made a set of photo magnets of a car. this guy loves his scout international! i took photos of differnt parts of his car, painted wood panels, decoupaged the images onto the wood and added a magnet back. for packaging i sewed a denim draw string pouch which would hold the entire magnet collection. he loved it!! i think he was more shocked at how i was able to take close ups of the "hood" lever and the stick shift knob. i got sneaky and got the keys to his car but he thought someone broke in. it was very covert.

i have a few ideas for this year... i just need to finalize the plan. it does involve some "photography". i'm off to shoot some of my ideas. i'll be sure to post the final product.

happy holidays!

Enchanted

for the past few years the studio i work at has been involved in creating the majority of visual effects shots for the disney film enchanted. i was the visual effects editor which means i take all the numberous iterations of work done by animators, lighters and compositors then cut them into our sequences to make sure things cut properly (plus so much more). we were only one studio that contributed work... there's some amazing CG characters, effects and city scapes.

i can't believe that the film will finally hit theaters tomorrow! i missed the company screening this past weekend so i'm looking forward to seeing it this week. with a big thanksgiving weekend premier i'm sure they'll get a good box office response.

if you see the movie let me know what you think!!