"Contented Sigh" post Demystified

So, in the "Contented Sigh" post, I alluded to a bunch of happy things that'd happened, but didn't explain them, so I will now.

New toy: 
After lots of thought, careful research, and a fortuitous promo, I decided to invest in an airbrush kit. As a makeup artist, I work with all sorts of different materials, and because I've already trained in airbrush, I figured it was a good time to expand my arsenal. Plus, airbrushing is fabulous for photography, which I am working mostly in, and has a list of pro's that compete with traditional makeup's con's.

I got my kit from Dinair, a great company that was one of the original founding/inventing groups of airbrush. The kit consists of an itty bitty compressor that is amazingly powerful, all the equipment attachments, the airgun, 8 foundation shades, glamor makeup stencils (not like tatto-art stencils, n'case you were wonderin' :) ), and some other stuff. It just so happened that Dinair had a promo to get a free set of blush colors when you buy a certain kind of kit---- the kit I was planning on getting anyway. So, with good timing and a lot of giddiness, I ordered my kit and got $50 worth of free makeup. WIN.

I've been practicing on myself, and did a trial run on my photographer last week, so I'll see if I can post those pictures if they get put up somewhere.  It's been delightfully fun to experiment.  I'll probably start offering it as part of my portrait-business stuff here soon. Stay tuned :)



Bucket List:
I owe an enormous thanks to Katie for this one. When she came to visit, I idly asked her one day what kinds of questions she asked strangers-- how she had so many things to talk about with the random human being she'd sat next to maybe five minutes before. One of the topics she mentioned was people's Bucket List (you know, that list of things you want to do before you kick the bucket.)

Some time later, out of sheer curiosity, I asked Eric what was on his bucket list. It was just something I'd never really thought to ask before, and Katie's questions had made me interested.
Eric replied that he'd always wanted to ride a horse on the central coast of California. Turns out he had never ridden a horse, and has been wanting to for a long time. I was surprised, and a bit delighted, because one of the things I'd always wanted to do was to take a horse into a gallop or a canter. (Most places with horse-tours won't let you do anything above a walk, or go anywhere besides the trail, so you spend a good hour sitting like a lump on this animal that has his nose glued to the horse's rear in front of him.)
I proposed celebrating our anniversary by going horseback riding on the central coast (convenient, eh?), and Eric really liked the idea. We found a company that lets you have free reign (haha... get it? Reign? ....meh, never mind....)  with your horse, and you can take it anywhere at any speed along the beach.

BEST THING we have ever done! I cannot describe the feeling of finally being able to be so free... the word 'bliss' is about as close as I can come. We took a trail through some sand dunes for a good half hour before arriving at the beach, and the moment I was able to take Indy (my horse) into a gallop, my eyes closed, breath came in of its own accord, and some sort of nirvana engulfed that stretch of beach.

We paid a rather hefty price for it-- not financially (it was actually quite affordable!), but with our muscles, sore backs, sore butts, and a distinct inability to bend over without groaning. It was kind of laughable, and while it lasted for me for 4 or 5 days, it was SOO worth it. We're looking into doing it again. If we could afford lessons, we'd both be interested in learning to ride better... but all in good time.

SO COOL.