Anna Creissen Photography

My 40th celebration

My friend Guylaine catered for me and this was an accessory to my cake

So, I guess turning forty isn’t so bad after all.  My friends helped me celebrate at our home.  We served Mojitos and later had champagne and wine.  The highlight of the evening was when our French friends showed a slideshow of me complete with funny music.  They then performed a dance to the Slumdog Millionaire theme song.  That really got things moving and soon we had people dancing.  Great fun.  The food made by my friend Guylaine was sooo good.  She made bacon-wrapped prunes, olive bread, Terrine de Saumon, and goat cheese onion tartlettes and much much more.  All in all it was fabulous.

Self-portrait

Here I am on my first full day in Las Vegas.  Looking out the window I thought I was on Mars.  There was this strange martian looking building in front of my window and beyond were snow-capped mountains. I have to say it was really nice to be somewhere exciting and new.  Las Vegas gets a pretty bad rap but for me,  the hotels as outlandish and tacky as some were, were actually quite amazing.  Some of the lobbies had incredible displays.  They had light  from outside coming through the ceiling which made the displays so pretty.  The MGM was so big downstairs that it took me a day and half before I didn’t get lost walking around.  Friday and Saturday the hotel became packed because of it being presidents weekend as well as it being Valentine’s Day.  The workshop I attended was incredibly useful.  I have described it a little on my Boudoir Uncensored blog.  Marissa and Kim really know what they are doing and were extremely generous with their time and advice.  They are both absolutely gorgeous and stylish as well.  I think the most interesting part of the workshop were all the little tidbits of advice that were going around whether it was from the Diva’s themselves or other attendees.  For example, which company people use to do prints, which one is the best for promotional cards, which albums are best for starting out etc.  Sorry for my bad grammar.  In any case I have a little journal I carried around the whole workshop where I noted these things down.

On another note to my great surprise the first day in town as I was buying a $9 tube of toothpaste I ran into Rachel from Tamara Lackey Studio with whom I have worked on weddings.  She was in town for the big convention with another colleague named Courtney.  It was great seeing them and we all enjoyed going out to a  Mexican restaurant on Friday night.  We also took a trip to Bellagio to see the Fountain show which was amazing.  Anyway, it was a great trip and I can’t wait to visit that town again.

Ciao

Anna

Alain and Ceci

James had his first art show at a friend’s house on Super Bowl Sunday.  He had been working hard for two months on his pen and ink drawings and framed everything himself.   James works by first taking pictures with a little point and shoot he has.  He downloads and then prints the pictures he likes.  He has also found pictures of scenes he likes on websites and makes pictures from these scenes.  For a 12 year old he is quite ambitious and totally got into the pricing of his work.   We were very proud of him.

Anna and James

Hi,  Kids had MLK off so we went to a pizzeria on Franklin and then went to the art supply store next to The Lantern.  Kids like playing Pacman at the Pizzeria.   James has an art show coming up this Sunday at a friend’s house that is hosting a super bowl party.  He will be hanging up some of his artwork on a wall at their house.  He has been busy sketching and framing his work.