Wrapping up 2 0 1 0

As I wrap up 2010, I have so many wonderful things to be grateful for { oh look, i learned how to spell grateful} and so many things to look forward to in 2011. For those of you in a time crunch, I bolded the highlights for ease with skim-reading.

2010 was a huge year for me. For one, i released my debut album : "Hey mom, Look what i can do" . Thank you hugely to Justin Huey, Emily Moore, Tim Cossor, Amanda Smith, Rugby Cafe, Ica Diongzon & the lovely folks at Built By Icon. ... It took a village folks.

I was cast in my first professional musical in years, at the H street Playhouse. "All That Glitters" that fought through the snowpocalypse and dominated a 3 week run. I then did my Senior Capstone shows "20-Life" and "Pms- Fulana" which sold out and ran beautifully. Then, I graduated College { I know right ?} without ever reading a book... { i KNOW right} seems like they give anyone a diploma these days, no but really. College was fun and all.

I decided to be "adventurous" I jumped off a cliff into a river in New Orleans. I traveled to europe for pretty much the first time. Italy. Greece. Croatia. the works, and then I moved to HOLLYWOOD... {cue music , probably Miley cyrus or something}.

I was introduced to the wonderfully talented gent you have all now heard of, the charming dork whom I love, Mr.Scott Cassidy. We created a duo project/band called Me & Mr.Cassidy and have just about finished writing an entire album worth of delightfully romantic songs following the story of two imaginary love birds Annabelle and Theodore. Since October 30th, we have had 7 gigs together and 2 seperate) we will be starting off the new year with a boom, Ica of Ica Images ( who shot all of my solo projects) will be flying out to LA to photograph Scott & I the 2nd week of January! And More wonderfullness to come ....so come to a show if you can! ( and bring a date it's totally cute)

January 2nd - Bloombars, Washington DC 8:00

January 6th - Genghis Cohen, West Hollywood 8:30

January 16th- Jitters, San Diego ( W/Bushwalla) 8:00

February 8th- St.Nicks Pub, Los Angeles 9:30

the first N O E L

the 2nd holiday song in the series from Scott & I, please enjoy.

baby it's cold O U T S I D E

Baby, it's cold outside...

{ the winter date rape song. what is in her drink ?}

from myself and mr. scott cassidy.

H O L I D A Y : show

So , The christmas show went well...

{causing a damned rukus }

We were the youngest folks in the cast and possibly the least mature. We goofed off backstage and joked that we sort of felt like highschoolers again backstage for a christmas concert. What a blast! All of the sketch theatre and music was hilarious.

It was produced by Steve Altman of Saturn & Vine and was held at the Theatre Asylum in Hollywood, it was a very intimate theatre space with stadium seating.

I made dozens of holiday snacks, something about Christmas in LA hasn't quite sat right in my stomach, 70 degrees feels strange as I sit across the room from my fake christmas tree. But I made so many christmas cookies that it began to feel like christmas. Mixed between that and the feeling of family and community amongst the performers was the first time it was felt like the holidays for me.

so thank you for that, guys.

we sang "have yourself a merry little christmas", stay tuned for a youtube version!

F A C T S : about {me}

10 things that maybe you did not know about me before reading this blog post:

+ I watch criminal minds every day. If i wasn't who I am, id like to be in the BAU. Sometimes i solve the crimes before they do! I wish i could catch bad guys.

+I make green tea all day at home, but at starbucks, i order cold black tea. { almost daily }

+my gramaw threw me my 21st birthday party at the red lobster

+i have never read a whole book, but sometimes i wish i was a "reader"

+I wear red lipstick every single day. but before this fall, i had never worn it.

+i majord in musical theatre because i love singing, dancing, and acting, but i hate musical theatre.

+if i could be anywhere in the world it would be greece or kiawah. hands down.

+ my family doesn't think im domestic, but im secretly quite the cook.

+on my first album every song { except 'every single time'} is about a person or time in my life 100% true. On the new album, it is all made up stories.

+I love washington D.C. and i loved living there, but im not registered to vote and I really don't know the difference between republicans and democrats.

P H O T O shoot: {atlantic city}

THIS IS ANOTHER CUT AND PASTE FROM www.icaimages.com {check her out!} you can tell by her words that we are very good friends, I feel it takes a good sense of comfort to get work out a photo session- and i love this gal!

Portraits: Hope Makes Music

My dearest Hope is no stranger to this bloggeroo of mine. You might remember her from this or this post or her song from this post and you can follow her own photography adventures here.

This shoot was extra special because my dearest Hope has since moved out to the city of angels, yup LA. She moved a few days after my big sister's wedding and the only other time I saw her was for this wedding I shot in New Jersey in the Fall where she was a guest. And during that weekend's events we squeezed in a fun little shoot for Hope's musical endeavours.

Hope . Makes. Music .

In just a few months my lovely Hope has taken LA by storm and has teamed up with another talentedmusician thus forming: Me and Mr. Cassidy. Their music is amazing and I mean that from the bottom of my heart. Not just because I love Hope, but because I love good music. If you are in the LA area please go out to one of their shows, show them some love, and prepare yourselves to be blown away.

No words can express how much my life's been blessed by my dearest Hope.

Over the years our friendship has become well worn in, like a really good vintage dress or two.

Every time we're together we learn something new from each other, or make something new, or try

something new, or go some where new together ... no two get-togethers have ever been the same.

Our friendship has definitely been the furthest thing from boring, because we thrive off of each other's creative juices, each other's success ...

Even each other's silliness.

I need not tell you how gorgeous she is on the outside ...

But what I must say is that she's just as gorgeous the inside.

I'm sure I've said that a million times, but I mean it.

Where ever the road takes you Hope, I'm there. Always a phone call away, a plane ride away, or a thrift store away. I love you and I'm so proud of you and where this road has taken your music, and your career. There's only up from here love.

Up and down the East Coast,

Or out west with the Pacific sunset ... I'm there for you.

In less than a month I'll be flying out to LA to once again shoot images for Hope, her new band, her talented friends and fellow musicans, and to make even more Ica and Hope {a.k.a "Ice and Ope"} memories. I can hardly wait ... and to my West Coast Family just learning the new .... yes I'm headed your way too. So make some room for me, I wanna play!

******* If you're in the L.A. area / Santa Monica area on Jan 5th - 12th and want some pictures please let me know ASAP. I've a handful of shoots to schedule during my week their but If I can squeeze you in I will. Email me at ica.images@gmail.com *************

I love you Hope. And I can't wait to see you baby girl and make some new west coast memories with you!

Happiest Monday to you all!

A L B U M cover :icaimages

This is literally a direct cut & Paste from Ica's Blog! www.icaimages.com about the process it took to make my first album cover/packaging. { check her out! }

In Print: Hope Makes Music - Part 2

After going through my last post featuring little Miss Hope,

I realize I've forgotten to to blog one very important thing...

Hope's album.

Hope released her album Valentine's Day this year and thinking back on the journey it took to get there, and the separate journeys she and I have been on since, have been quite amazing. Looking back, I feel like Hope's album was a labor of love for the both of us and I'm so blessed to have been part of such a wonderful project.

If you can recall the very first shoot I did with Hope, we'll here's where those photos ended up ...

{Left. Front Cover, Right. Back Cover (Back Cover image by the incredible Douglas Sonders}}

For the first time in a few years I was asked to put my graphic design education into good use for someone other than myself. Hope not only asked me to shoot the images for her album, but she also asked me to design her actual cd from cover to cover.

It was a long, but fun filled process that turned out {what I believe} to be beautiful. Not forgetting the beautiful music packaged inside. I wanted to make sure all of Hope's hard work and pretty tunes were displayed in packaging as lovely, and sweet as her music. Together, I think Hope and I make a pretty good team.

This album was released almost a year ago, and since then I've seen and heard Hope's music and sound grow so much and I know that this is the first of many wonderful cd for Hope ... and it just gets better from here. Stick around ... Hope's going to be big, I just know it.

Buy Hope's album HERE.