Charity Summerby

The best things in life are free
But you can give them to the birds and bees
I want money.( Read more... )

Okay, I think I'm losing my damn mind. Presents are disappearing from under my tree. At first I thought Manny was just hiding them somewhere, but I literally just watched one disappear on me. I spent hundreds of gal Anyone else having this issue?

I just wanted to say:



Like OH MY GOD.

WARDED TO MANDY BROCKLEHURST:

What's the situation with you and Stephen Fawcett? I saw all those inkblots you made, and you never told me what happened with Lee in the Caribbean.

Baton down the hatches, folks. Seems like the gnomes are getting mini-break happy. I saw a couple gnomes absconding with someone's sundial, and it was a heavy, concrete one. Not for the faint of heart. Thank Merlin I haven't even put anything out on my porch or in the garden yet. Just waiting for one to scoop up Manny and try to take off with him.

Dug up some old pictures of my family. Damn, we are some good-looking people.

( Cut for flist! )

( Warded to Calendar Participants )

I overheard a conversation in the Magic Bean today that really kind of irritated the crap out of me. Some girl was talking to her friend about the bloke she'd had a crush on forever and how they finally got together. That wasn't what bothered me. What bothered me was that since he'd reciprocated she felt like her life was complete, like she finally had meaning and all of her insecurities were gone. Like he'd just lifted them right off her shoulders.

Okay, first of all? That's complete and utter overly romanticized bullshit. The only person who can make you feel fulfilled, like you have worth is YOU. Laying that kind of responsibility on someone else is just ASKING to be let down at some point. Even if you stay together forever and ever amen, there are still going to be hiccups and bumps in the road, and you'll start questioning yourself all because this person is not fulfilling your ideal of storybook romance because you've asked him four or five times to put the goddamn seat down on the toilet or because he won't rinse his dishes before leaving them in the sink.

Don't put that kind of pressure or responsibility on another person. If you're not happy or you don't love yourself, then no PERSON is going to complete you. If you think that, you've got some serious issues. That's not how love works or SHOULD work.

Maybe it makes me a cynic, maybe it just makes me a realist - who knows - but you - as a couple - are not an entity fused together when you couple up. You should still have your own personality, you should still have your own hobbies. Yes, there's compromise but that doesn't mean that you give up everything you were before to fit some mold to be this guy's perfect girl. People get tired with perfection, and it's the quirks and the differences that really make for a memorable and rewarding relationship. If you're not BOTH growing as people, and letting the other person change you BOTH, then it's gonna crash and burn, and then where will you be? Questioning your self worth and full of those same damn insecurities you had before you hooked up with this bloke.

It really bothers me when I hear women talk and act like this. You're not an accessory to a man's life. You are still a human being with her own dreams and aspirations. You can compliment someone without being absorbed by him, by not losing yourself. That's not completion, that's putting his wants and needs so far above your own that it's not healthy and it's a big, giant red flag that you have no idea what a relationship actually is. It should be mutual.

Merlin.

WARDED TO CALENDAR PARTICIPANTS:

I've set next week aside for photo shoots. I've got Monday through Friday, 8am to midnight each day set aside. Then Saturday, 12-8pm. Each photoshoot should really be about four hours - including dress, make-up, locations, etc. The schedule for M-F is: 8-12, 12-4, 4-8, 8-12. For Saturday, it's 12-4, 4-8. These cannot be rescheduled as I have shoots this week and the week after. And since I'm doing tihs for charity, I can't really afford to be out more than a week.

January: Lavender Brown & Wayne Hopkins
February: Mandy Brocklehurst & Lee Jordan
March: Veta Kaminski & Rhys Dearborn
April: Margaret Wood & Charlie Weasley
May: Romilda Vane & JJ Connolly
June: Leah Dawlish & Rhys Dearborn
July: Parvati Patil & Scott Turpin
August: Aoife Flaherty & Caleb Warrington
September: Rose Zeller & Justin Finch-Fletchley
October: Mercy Ryan & Leo Montague
November: Madeleine Stump & Oliver Wood
December: Charity Summerby & George Weasley

There's our list. Wayne's has been knocked out, so we've got 22 people still left to do. I've got clothing and make-up. And yes, I'm sorry, but you guys will be wearing make-up to even out skin tones and highlight and accent certain physical characteristics. My cameras will pick up EVERYTHING.

If you have clothing you want to wear or ideas to share, this is the place to do it. If you decide to go into detail, please make sure you that do so under a ward to Lee Jordan and I only.

First come, first serve.

The joys of testing out your new dark room. I plopped into it last week, but found a tiny stream of light right down the centre of the room. Seriously? I spent good money for that, so you know I raised holy hell over.

And then finally got to break in the new dark room last night.

British actor. Think he was up for a part in Aurors. Not really sure. Didn't really care, because I was WAY too distracted looking at him.

( PICS OF HOTNESS - cut for your flist )

If anyone needs me, I'll be scraping my jaw off the floor.

Who's up for some drinks and dancing tonight?

To all you acting types:

You are in dire need of new headshots. You are in dire need of new headshots. You're getting sleepy, and you want new headshots.

Or just need to get in front of the camera.

Admit it.

What's with all the black cats out this morning? Manny's nearly took my arm of trying to chase them.

It's been a seriously hectic month for me, starting with my birthday. Always does, doesn't it? Ran off to Italy for a week for a fashion photo shoot. Been a good long while since I've done one, honestly. Felt a little rusty, which means I think I need to get back on that horse. Could use some volunteers. You get pretty pictures of yourself, and I get some experience. Any takers?

Got most of the new house done and ready. The first thing, of course, was my studio. Merlin, I bloody love having a studio in my house. There's nothing quite like being able to wander in the dead of night into the dark room and fiddle with things when you can't sleep.

You can see what I've done with the place:

( Very image heavy! )

Come back from Italy to frantically running around, trying to find a good costume for Halloween parties and rituals. Maybe I'll just toss on some bunny ears and a tail and be done with it. What are YOU all going as?

WARDED TO REBECCA SUMMERBY:

My Gods. Isn't Robards one of you best mates? You all right?

What the HELL is going on in the world. I swear to Merlin, every time I turn around someone ELSE has gone missing.

Manny kept trying to steal teriyaki chicken yesterday. Cheeky pup. I kept telling him that he wouldn't like it, but he kept looking at me with those eyes. I am nothing if not vulnerable to puppy dog eyes. Which explains why my siblings can get away with so much.

So I succumbed and gave him a strip.

His reaction was priceless.

( Cut for photo )

I told him.

There was something important going on together, but I can't remember for the life of me. What WAS it? Oh right, it's my birthday.

( Warded Private )

WARDED TO REBECCA AND CJ:

It's on, girls.

Now do we want to have dinner or lunch with her?

Lunch requires waiting a week. Dinner can be done Monday.

Hot damn. Offer accepted. Everything's moving into place. I should be in the new place by October. It'll be a very happy birthday to me.

WARDED TO DEVLIN SUMMERBY:

Good news, I'll be out of your hair in a month, if everything goes well.

The good news is: I've found a buyer for my house in Bath. The bad news is: I still haven't found one in Dunmoody. So this is me - officially - being homeless. Storage places are first on my list to look for tomorrow so I can move out as quickly as possible.

WARDED TO DEVLIN:

Don't worry, little bro, I'll be looking for a hotel for the next couple of weeks until I find some place here.

My bread and butter is wedding photos - portraits, staged shots, candids during weddings. That's where I make my money. It allows me to buy better lenses (because the lens is more important than the camera) and experiment with different types of shots. My first camera was used four times over before I got it, but it was my favourite. Too bad it didn't have all the options my Hasselblad's got. I'd have a never-ending supply of Lomos and Dianas.

Anyway, I'm a big fan of setting a scene. I took these last year on some of my travels.

( Photographs )

Looks like I descended on Dunmoody just in time for ripe pickings, didn't I? Irish men better step up their game, the Scots are really hot on your tail for fittest men. Few sparkly types out right now, which tells me that Transylvania really DOES house some Quidditch-loving vampires, bless them. Or not. Depending on their thoughts on deities.

Got side-tracked. Have a habit of doing that. Meant to introduce myself. I'm Charity Summerby. I'm not going to tell you my age; I'll just say that Devlin Summerby is my younger brother, and leave it at that. I am a clothes horse, but more importantly a Shoe-aholic. I would forego nights at a pub for weeks for shoes, though thankfully, I don't have to do that anymore. Some of you will know me because I took your wedding photographs. Some of you might know me from school, and if so hello! I can't wait to catch up! Some of you might remember me from a really bad life decision in which I almost married someone whose first name sounds like DUMPSTER that award-winning photograph of Hogsmeade way back in the day.

Oh, and when I said I descended on Dunmoody way up there, I meant that I crashed on my famous little brother's couch and ate all of his food because that's what family does. Next stop on my whirlwind tour is to barge in unannounced at Shane and Bec's and send the niece and nephew into hyper-spastic fits and then kindly hand them BACK to their parents. Ah, the joys of being childless. Then I plan to yank my little sister's hair and take her out to a pub with me.

And before I go away, leaving you with the perfectly loathsome expectations of a stereotypical shallow woman with a shoe fetish, I want to post a photograph of my main man. I love him more than life itself.

( Photograph! )