You know you're successful when...

Your client get's reported injured and pulled over on her drive home.

Lexi, aka, Mulan from the Zombie Disney Princesses shoot posted this on Facebook.

"Did a zombie photo shoot today. As I was driving home. I got pulled over by the cops. They said a man reported me injured...."

See the final proofs from the shoot here.

As always, follow me on Twitter, like me on FaceBook, and visit my homepage at jaydhagberg.com!

Custom Tapestry Portraits, or, some really cool stuff you should check out!

Here's one of my mother's most recent endeavors. To the left is the original photograph by photographer and commissioner Charles Zahn, and to the right the realized piece.

You can find Erika online at Moon Bay Designs.

Here's another of her current work in progress!

As always, follow me on Twitter, like me on FaceBook, and visit my homepage at jaydhagberg.com!

My 5 Favorite Things of 2012

Following in the time-honored tradition of Oprah, let's take a look back at a few of my favorite things of 2012.

Starbucks Christmas Dark Roast

To answer your question straight away, yes, I work for Starbucks and no, I'm not getting paid to write this. I am but a lowly barista working his way through college, and they don't pay us more than eight dollars an hour for anything. However, this is by far my favorite Starbucks coffee of the year. For those coffee geeks out there, it's a wonderful blend of aged Sumatra. It's spicy, dark, and syrupy. It's like Christmas in a cup, hence the name. Get out there and get a couple pounds before it's gone. While you're at it, all you tea drinkers out there should get a tin of Tazo's Joy, another seasonal favorite of mine that's only around this time of year. If you're feeling super generous, stop in at the BlockE location in downtown Minneapolis and buy it from me. It makes me look good, and lord knows I could use a raise. 

Samsung Galaxy SIII

This has been my main purchase this year, and by golly, is it great. I've been an avid iPhone user from the beginning, but when the iPhone 5 came out I was horrendously underwhelmed, and left the comfortable world of Apple for greener pastures. What I found was nothing short of amazing. In a nutshell: bigger screen, better resolution, better battery life, and a myriad of customization options. Plus, it's 4g. I mean, come on.

Z-Palette

As you all probably know, I am a freelance makeup artist here in the twin cities. This is something that I've been reading review upon review about for the last couple years and finally just got around to getting one. Why did I wait so long? Unlike a lot of other palettes out there, (cough, the new Mac Pro pallets) the bottom of this pallet is actually magnetized, not the other way around. So, unlike many others, you don't need to spend hours sticking magnets to the bottoms of each individual pan. For those rare shadows whose pans don't stick to the magnet, each pallet comes with metal stickers that you can pop on the back. Strangely enough, the only shadows I've had this issue with are the Mac shadow, but luckily the stickers they include are the perfect size for the shadows. I only wish they made some larger ones for my Mac blushes as well. 

Yamaha CP33 Stage Piano

This is probably the largest purchase I've made this year. I'll tell you right now, it's expensive. Like, over $1,000 expensive. However, it's by far one of the most reliable and piano-like electric piano I have ever played, much less had the pleasure of owning. The touch to this day blows my mind. If I close my eyes and listen real hard I still think I'm playing the Steinway at Palais Corbelli in Vienna where I went to school. It looks amazing, it feels amazing, and it sounds amazing. 

Google Analytics

So I know you all like stalking me online. What can I say? I'm pretty awesome. Well it's a pleasure to inform you that I like stalking you back. Now I can! Honestly, I have no idea why I didn't start using this sooner. A simple must-have for any internet presence, Analytics gives you valuable statistics such as page views and referral sources, which tells your where your time and energy is best invested! I, like the rest of America, can be pretty lazy at times, and like to get as much traffic with as little work as possible. This helps me do just that. Check it out, all ye bloggers and website owners!

Got any favorite things you feel should be on this list? Leave them in the comments below!

As always, follow me on Twitter, like me on FaceBook, and visit my homepage at jaydhagberg.com!

Happy holidays, or, how not to buy everything.

So I figured it's time I get back to writing now that the semester is over, and this means regular updates from here on out.

The first thing I want to say is, happy holidays to all! It's been a great year for me, and I am very thankful for all my friends and family who have been there for me down the line.

The second thing I want to say is, stop spending so much! Stop dreading! Stop stressing! It's a holiday. It's about joy and togetherness and giving and love and being with those you care about.

Let me back up a minute.

Unfortunately, this holiday season, finances have been very strapped on my end. Following my recent trip to NYC, I've been living paycheck to paycheck. The funny thing is that while I have no money, I've spent more time Christmas shopping this year than any other year before, and what I've seen is scary. Apparently I am the go-to shopping buddy within my circle of friends, so I'm the one who gets to tag along and watch them spend away their hard-earned cash on trivial items that will probably be forgotten by their recipients within the next year. At the rate they're spending, I applaud their giving. However, their attitude leaves me a bit perplexed.

Too many times this year have I heard friends exclaiming that they hate the holidays. They hate spending all their money. They hate shopping, yet they go out for hours on end buying item after item in multiples and multitudes for everyone they know. They feel guilty that the gift they got for their sister was only twenty dollars, and so they feel obligated to buy them more. They feel guilty that they only got one gift for their mother, when they got three for their partner. Pretty soon they're dropping a couple hundred dollars on each person and a few thousand in total. I find this holiday inflation all too ridiculous.

Let me tell you a story. Once upon a time there was a little boy who lived way out in the rural Minnesota backwoods with his sister and his single mother. The mother was hard-working and dedicated, but very poor. Each Christmas, the boy and his sister received one gift a piece. Value didn't matter, because they weren't worth much more often then not. You got one present. One. That's it. After presents were opened they feasted with the whole family on rice and sugar and cream to remind them that there are others out there who have even less than they did; to remind them that they had enough. Now that little boy was me, that family mine, and that was the mind set of our family holidays. It wasn't about giving gifts, it was about celebrating that we had made it through the year and had an extra thirty dollars when all was said and done to spend on a new toy for the youngest.

This story also leads me to my second point - going home. All too often do I hear people dreading returning to their families for the holidays. Also due to financial restrictions, I will not be going home for the holidays, but left and right I hear my friends and coworkers dreading the impending doom of sitting around a table with loved ones and feasting until their bellies burst. You know what? I would do anything, and I mean anything, to be able to go home this season and spend time with my family. Maybe I'm the exception because my family is so close, but none the less, a family is a family, and we need to appreciate them while they're here. In light of so many recent tragedies both personally and on the nightly news, I'm realizing more and more these days how numbered our days are. I don't mean to sound morbid, but it's a fact.

So, this holiday season, I implore you to just let bygones be bygones and truly appreciate family. If you're still debating going home for the holidays, you still have twenty-four hours to make it. If you're unable to go home, make sure your family knows how much you love them. Don't worry about the gifts and the things and the wheres and the whens. Who knows, maybe the Mayans were a couple weeks off and this is our last holiday season as we know it. Live it as such.