Meet her lovely parents.

Her parents who did a spectacular job of decorating their house at the last minute when rain threatened their original outdoor party plans.

And lots of lovely people who love Evie came to celebrate in her home.

There was cake.

And finally, Evie napped.

Happy birthday, Evie!

And boy, do I wish the Orlando chapter of the Social Media Club had met before that project. The inaugural meeting was last night, and it was a fantastic bunch of social media-minded people.

Check it out! Lake Eola Fountain is in the logo! I LOVE IT!

The topic revolved around mistakes and lessons learned in social media, and people had some great stories to tell. At one and a half hours, I really did feel like the time flew by, even though the flow sometimes sputtered a bit. As other people noted, this can be improved with a moderator or agenda.

One of my biggest personal challenges at events like these is that I work for government. Our obstacles in social media are very different than businesses and non-profits, and even as an individual I have to approach social media and my personal brand with this in mind. I had great anecdotes I could have shared last night, but I simply would not be able to do so because of those government-related obstacles.

It was great that they had wi-fi there, and I wish I had known that ahead of time so I would have thought to bring my laptop. It would have made it feasible for me to look up certain articles I was thinking of that I would have liked to share on the #SMCOrlando twitter conversation.

I do wish there had been more time to network afterwards. There was an invitation to head to a second location afterwards to continue the conversation more informally, but at 8:30 on a Thursday night, I’m better at winding down than I am about engaging socially!

For more, check out the recaps from Mike Nunez and panelist Katy Widrick. All in all, it was an awesome first meeting of the Social Media Club Orlando, and I’m looking forward to the next one.

On a photography note, I’ve been digging the Hipstamatic iPhone app, which I used on the photo in this post. I’m already starting to get a little tired of it, but until I can’t stand it any more, I’m going to subject the world to its retro goodness.

Happy Valentine’s Day, everyone!

I should be sleeping, just like Ella is in this photograph. Instead, I am sharing the cuteness with you. How sweet is it with her mom watching over her? We were both waiting to see if my shutter was going to wake her up, but Ella takes her naps seriously. I had a great session with Ella and her mom Jenny today, and here’s a sneak peek of its beginning.

More later. Until then, I think I’ll take a cue from Ella and try to take my own sleep a little more seriously.

Photo originally taken on February 10, 2010 in Orlando, Florida.

Photo posted on February 11, 2010.

Today I had a wonderful session with Allison and her (beautiful baby boy) Ben! It was a blast. Both mom (and baby!) were up for anything – I honestly don’t remember ever knowing such a mellow little dude as this one.

Thank you, Allison and Anthony for letting me take photos of Ben!

Our wedding in October 2008 has been on my mind lately – or, my wedding dress has been, since I’m trying to get up the motivation to sell it. I’m not the sort of person to hold onto the dress for sentimental reasons – I have tons of lovely photos of me in the dress for that.

I had almost forgotten about this picture. These are hair pins that I bought for the wedding, not realizing they didn’t quite go with the champagne shade of my dress. Just a relic, hanging around my office. It’s too bad they never got their turn to be worn, but they’re not my style. Perhaps I should throw them in as a freebie for whoever buys my wedding dress. This is what I wrote about the hair pins when I received them, before I had compared them to the dress:

“I’m picky about how I like my flowers. I only want them in my home if they’re in a vase, not adorning my walls or my bedspread or my keychain or any other place you can slap an applique. But I love these hair pins.

“But I love these hair pins. I think the color will match my dress perfectly, and the pearl in the center will match the pearls I will wear (appropriate for my June birthday as well).

“No clue how I am doing my hair yet. I am waiting for the two-tier veil to come in so then I can do a hair trial with my stylist.”

I love time traveling through my photography and writing.

El Hub and I went to lunch at SEA Thai today, and anyone who knows me will not. Find. This. Shocking. Seriously, we go at least twice a week. The staff knows us by sight and brings us our “usual.” I would go more often if El Hub and my wallet weren’t stopping me. Man, I love SEA Thai. I went from Thai food mild spicy skeptic to hot spicy enthusiast thanks to this restaurant. If you’re in the Orlando area, I highly recommend it.

I dragged out my Nikon 55-200mm VR telephoto lens yesterday to challenge myself. The minimum of 55mm has always felt stiflingly close, so forget about kicking it up to 200mm! Plus my 35mm lens is so wonderfully fast that it suits my indoor photography. I didn’t have room to do more than 55mm at SEA Thai today with this flower, but I did get a nice DoF by blurring out the wine rack in the background. I didn’t like the coloring of the original, so I tweaked it to give it a softer edge.

Magic Kingdom balloons at night., originally uploaded by Victoria Shade.

Mickey balloon bokeh at the Magic Kingdom is too much fun. Click here for the daytime version.

Have a magical day!

Last night’s second annual Parramore Kidz Zone (PKZ) College Night was fantastic.

During one of our PKZ tours in Parramore, a large group of teens were asked, “How many of you want to go to college? Raise your hand.” Every single hand went up.

Those same youth were then asked, “How many of you think you’re going to go to college?”

Only a few hands remained in the air.

PKZ is an amazing project. We want to see more of those hands in the air. Last night I think we saw a few more go up.

Click here more information on the City of Orlando’s Parramore Kidz Zone project.

Taken on a Nikon D40.

Photo posted on January 14, 2010.