WOW!  Wow is all I can say about life right now.  I’ve been wanting to share with you my week in Seattle at creativeLIVE and now that I am sitting down to write it, it feels like a life time ago.  Crazy enough when I went back to the calendar to see how long it’s been I was floored when I say that it was only 3 ½ weeks ago that I nervously walked onto the magical set of creativeLIVE.  Terrified.  Terrified I would fail, terrified that I would be found out as a fraud and terrified that the internet would tear a strip off me.  But George Takae had a great quote posted.  It simply said: IF YOU ARE NOT SCARED THEN YOU ARE NOT STICKING YOUR NECK OUT FAR ENOUGH.  (Oh, this is going to be a long post so go grab a tea or coffee and a cookie.  You’ll need it)

That really resonated with me because for over a decade I was in the same job, a job I loved but it was safe.  I literally wrote the rule book so I really didn’t have much to fear.  Then I got comfortable in “mommy-marterdom” mode for the past 5 years and in the past 6 months I have completely reinvented myself.  Well, not so much reinvent as reintroduce myself to the me that I locked away about 16 years ago.  So now I challenge myself to be vulnerable, to try new things that scare me and to give people the opportunity to say no instead of assuming the answer will be no so not asking.  Anyhoo, I digress.

It was truly an amazing week on creativeLIVE with Sue & Simona and now it’s all a blur in light of recent events (more about that soonJ). 

The first two days were Hair and Makeup with Simona.  Not only were we doing makeup but we were doing makeup on set right behind Simona for all the internet to see.  Well, if I was going to fail I was going to fail BIG and at that point I got comfortable with failure.  If I failed then others who would make the same mistake could learn from my failure.  At that point I embraced the possibility of failure and the fear left and that made way for the excitement. 

I was a learning spounge.  I was not going to squander a moment of this amazing opportunity I was given.  My makeup before the workshop was good, some even said great but I would always look at it and not know what was wrong but there was something off.  Now, because of Simona, I know not only what was wrong but how do either fix it or just not do it in the first place. 

The next day was hair.  Oh goodness, I curled hair for 3 hours straight on the internet.  Any client coming in with naturally curly hair I’ve got you covered!  Hair, I feel, had been my weakness.  Mostly because I have a completely unrealistic expectation that hair when done right is flawless.  Like in the magazines.  So not true!  After setting, backcombing, curling and zushing (zoo-shing) a.k.a. revitalizing hair buy rubbing the scalp, about 10 girls in the whole week and seeing the way Simona and Tiffany (Sue’s other assistant and all around awesome girl) zooshed and placed hair for Sue to shoot my ah-ha moments were a million a second. 

Now I am confident in my hair and makeup ability.  It does help to have been stamped “Sue Bryce approved”.  After all, she is the leader of this genre of photography. 

The next three days of the workshop were a bit of a blur.  Simona, Gigi (another makeup artist all the way from Ontario) and I were in charge of the 23 models Sue was going to shoot over the next 3 days.  It was a whirlwind of fabulous girls, flying makeup brushes and hairspray highs all the while Sue was teaching the class.  We were still right there on set.  By Thursday night my dreams had Sues voice in the background posing people.

Not only did I have the pleasure of meeting, learning from and working with Sue & Simona, I got to know the students of the class as well.  Bonnie, from 2 Birds Photography, said it best when she equated the creativeLIVE experience to photo camp.  In the evening the students would get together and practice and learn from each other’s experience and I was lucky enough to be invited to join them.

On Thursday Tobin came down to join me.  Sue totally called it, there was no way he could stay away.  Also on Thursday we got wind of a shoot Sue was doing on Saturday of Kenna Klosterman (of creativeLIVE), Isi Gaga (one of the students) and Krista (a beautiful drag queen).  Well, I HAD to see that!  Tobin and I always wanted to shoot drag queens using Sue’s posing guides so watching her do it was even one better.  I didn’t think we could stay because hotels were booked and childcare for the wee ones at home but it all worked out and Tobin and I got to be there and help and observe.  It was a true gift to watch Sue do what Sue does best. 

It was such a gift to have joined Sue & Simona, the students, the models and the creativeLIVE crew for that whole week in Seattle.  I came out of it more experienced, more knowledgeable and with new friends.   

Now, as I sit in the airport, writing this post I am even more grateful for that week in Seattle.  I am on my way to Paris to join Sue and an amazing group of women on a very special passion project.  Here’s how the adventure started.

Next stop Paris!!!