I didn’t quite know what to expect when I agreed six months ago to go to New Orleans with my friend, Jess, and two of her friends, Amanda and Nikki. I had never considered going. It just hadn’t crossed my mind. As it turns out, New Orleans is an amazing city—filled with unbelievable music, food, architecture and culture—and I was in terrific company when I arrived last Wednesday.

We ordered beignets and coffee at Cafe Du Monde. We thought we were ordering four beignets total, but we ended up ordering four orders due to a slight miscommunication, so we received a total of 12 desserts (a happy accident).

We had platefuls of powdered sugar after we were done (along with sugar on the table, our bags, clothes, the floor and everything else close by when the wind picked up). It was worth it.

Nikki, Amanda and Jess—my lovely roommates during the trip.

We came across the most amazing live jazz band in the street. As it turned out, Nikki went to high school with the trombone player—such a small world!

Amanda and Nikki tried on a few masks at a local shop.

You can’t leave New Orleans without stopping at Mother’s Restaurant. I had the grits with cheese.

We caught three parades while we were there. The most amazing was the Muses parade. The parade is all females, and they throw beads and shoes. Yes, shoes.

I’m catching up quickly at the airport between flights (on my way to New Orleans!)—here’s part two of the Mad Men styled photo shoot in Vegas (view part one). Thanks again to Victor Sizemore, stylist, Summer Watkins, and hair and makeup artist, Amelia C., for putting together a killer shoot.

While I was in Las Vegas for WPPI, I took part in a workshop with wedding photographer, Victor Sizemore. The workshop was a dream—we met up on the 57th floor penthouse at the Palms Place, and we had an opportunity to take part in a “Mad Men” styled shoot with styling from Summer Watkins of Grey Likes Weddings and amazing hair and makeup from Amelia C.

I would love to find an adventurous Michigan couple to do another themed shoot with. That extra touch of makeup, hair and styling takes a shoot to a whole new level.

I’m enjoying a few days at home before the next few legs in my journey—New Orleans on Wednesday, followed by Fort Lauderdale on Saturday.

San Francisco is an amazing city, and it was made even more wonderful by the hospitality of my lovely host, Carina and wine tasting with the ever-engaging Nicole. San Francisco offered up its sunny skies on landing and takeoff, and the rest of the week was rain rain rain. No matter—instead of the photo walks I had intended to take, I enjoyed the city one cafe and meal at a time. My favorite was Cafe Roma—it brought me back to my days studying in Rome.

After San Francisco, I went directly to Las Vegas for WPPI, a HUGE convention and trade show for photographers. I came home with so many amazing new friendships and ideas (special shout out to my roommates Mikkel from New York, Christina from Miami and Kristin from Fayetteville). I have a jolt of new inspiration and energy to throw into the business 🙂

The cutest living room ever—isn’t it inspiring?

A tiny little teaser from the Mad Men styled photo shoot I took part in while in Vegas.