THE DEN10: DECEMBER 18th

After last week's ice tornado hurricane storm of events that seemingly never ended, this week is going to be a piece of cake and next week you should all be nestled in with your family and friends around a fire or a laptop streaming The Newsroom to celebrate the winter holidays just like Krampus intended. Things really slow down and traffic really thins out as the students head home for a month but these are the times when you learn who the true townies are.

Questions, comments or stocking stuffer ideas? Email glen@wedentondoit.com

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Wednesday December 18
Bourbon Barrel Beer Week | OSDH & ESSC | 7PM 
This amazing week continues today with Oak St. Drafthouse Lakewood Bourbon Barrel Temptress, Firestone Walker BB Velvet Merkin bottle, East Side Social Club Oskar Blues Bourbon Barrel Ten-Fidy and a Woodchuck Bourbon Barrel Cider (Bottle). Well that was a mouthful.

Thursday December 19
Amanda Shires / Sydney Wright | Dan’s Silverleaf | 8PM | $12
Here’s a classic Dan’s show. The ever talented Amanda Shires takes the stage with her violin tomorrow and this is a thing you don’t want to miss.

Merry Chrisfits / Half Truths / Special Comedy w/ Clint Werth & Scott Crisp | Rubbergloves | 9PM | $5

Friday December 20
Miracle on 34th Street | Campus Theatre | 7PM | $20
We will never stop loving our community theatre.

Go Shop for Gifts! | The Downtown Square | All Day
C’mon folks, time is really running out at this point so make a point to grab a nice bag of coffee from Yogurt Fusion or Shift Coffee or a giant metal letter from Serendipity. Check out our gift guide for ideas. 

Savage & The Big Beat / Danny Rush & The DD’s | Dan’s Silverleaf | 9PM | $5

Denton Guyer Wildcats Sate Championship Watch Party | Mulberry St. Cantina | 7PM
Go support those fightin’ Wildcats as they battle on the grid iron for the State Championship. GO SPORTS!

Saturday December 21
A Very Shirty Solstice: Bashe / Botany | Rubbergloves | 9PM | FREE
We see what you did there, Pan Ector and we like it. Our favorite local print shop decks the halls with a free show at Gloves with giveaways and fun stuff. 

Brave Combo | Dan’s Silverleaf | 9PM | $10
The classic Denton show where you’ll find a room full of Combo-heads doing the chicken dance. It never gets old.

Sunday December 22
Queen For A Day | Dan’s Silverleaf | 5:30PM | $10
A very convincing Queen tribute is never a bad way to end the weekend.

BEST NEW BUSINESSES: 2013

This year we've seen a lot of businesses come and go. We did our best to try and keep up with everything. We reviewed a few restaurants and highlighted some of our favorite new businesses through any way we could. We took a minute and looked back to the many new businesses that opened their doors in Denton in 2013 and argued about which ones were our favorites. Below is a list of our top five new businesses of 2013 along with a couple runner ups. Feel free to argue with us in the comments!

The Georgie Boy burger from Lone Star Attitude. 

LSA

There’s a place for organically grown businesses - little mom and pop shops that slowly come together over time and eventually become powerhouses of local business. Beth Marie’s was like that. We see that in the future of South Locust with The DIME Store and Shift both opening this year. LSA is basically the opposite of that situation. LSA is what happens when businessmen and restaurateurs throw tons of money into an awesome old burger place. Denton normally doesn’t embrace these types of things. LSA, however, somehow hit the nail on the head. Apparently, one of the things the square was missing was an almost Hard Rock Cafe-like, family-friendly burger place. We ran down a list of the reasons we dig LSA last month. You can check that out here. It's more of an fun atmosphere place than anything else, but they do have a nice, solid burger. Since our initial preview, we've always seen at least a 15 minute wait to be seated every time we've stopped by, so a lot of others must be diggin' it, too. 

A cinnamon roll from Royal's

Royal’s

Royal’s would’ve made this list if they were just opened for one hour a week, every week and they only sold those gosh-darned cinnamon rolls. They’re that good. However, on top of that, Royal’s also offers all sorts of bagels, bagel sandwiches and we’ve recently discovered that their salads are delicious, too. We were bummed when Jupiter House: Europa closed up shop. We always like seeing interesting businesses on the northern side of town, but we never knew Joey Hawkins would soon open up an even better spot. He probably owes his entire city council-ship to those cinnamon rolls. If you're still interested in Royal's you can check out our preview from last spring here. 

The taco special from Viet Bites. 

Viet Bites

Can y’all believe that Viet Bites hasn’t been open for a year yet? Seems like we’ve been munching on their banh mi and slurpin’ their pho for years now. We raved about this little spot a few months back. While Denton has it’s fill of Thai food, it was welcoming to see a Vietnamese restaurant open up in town. While they had a bit of a slow start, they've quickly established themselves as a go-to spot for locals - we imagine they’they've stolen a large portion of the Mr. Chopsticks crowd. We still stand by our claim that the specials at Viet Bites are some of the best food you can get in town.

The DIME Store

The DIME Store was a shoe in for this. Owners Rachely Aughtry and Shelley Christner,  have brought together some of the best artisans of hand-made goods that Denton has to offer under one roof. Handmade furniture, vintage goods, prints, beauty products and jewelry are only a little bit of what The DIME Store has to offer. In addition, these ladies put on classes to help people sell their goods online and have catered parties in the store quite often. South Locust is quickly becoming one of our favorite spots in town - can we all take a minute, and agree to never start calling it SoLo or something like that, though? That may ruin the whole thing. 

Shift Coffee

Shift

Denton really upped it’s coffee game in 2013. We even started writing a column about it. Shift better exemplified that than any other coffee shop this year. While the place may not look like much, the methodology and craftsmanship that you’ll find inside are impressive. While we’ve seen third wave coffee done in Denton before, it’s never been done to quite the degree that Angelo Fesperman and his crew of merry baristas are doing at Shift. These guys have absorbed coffee knowledge from some of the best spots in the metroplex and are putting it on display in town. They even had their first art show this past weekend that was actually quite well attended. Suffice it to say, we have high hopes for this little shop. If you haven’t found Shift yet, that’s okay. It’s located across Locust and down Prairie from The DIME Store. Go there soon and see if you can get yourself an inverted Aeropress brew.

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Runners up to this year's list: 

• Authentic Yoga Life
• East Side Social Club

WHAT WE DID: DECEMBER 16TH

The ice cleared, the roads are safe, the tree got lit, we all got some Santa-selfies and the wassail is all gone. It's like the freeze and the holiday season just crammed everything all together into one weekend. Now, it's time for us to get our last-minute gifts from our gift guide and drink as many peppermint mochas and mulled wine as we can before the new year gets here and we have to get back to our "healthy routines."

Don't forget to tag your pics with #WDDI while you're hustling and bustling the rest of the holiday season to make sure your pics wind up right here in our weekend round up! 

We seriously over-wassailed on Friday. We're still feeling the come down. La Di Da, Recycled and The DIME Store had some of our favorite wassail. Who did you vote for? 

Some of the wassail stops had code words for alcoholic wassail. Walking up to people and saying code words immediately become our new favorite thing. 

We got in pretty close with Santa. Close enough to smell that his hot cocoa was definitely not 100% cocoa. 

By the looks of it, these ladies spiked their wassail. Photo by @TheFinderandtheFarmer. 

The evening was still slightly wet and misty. There was even some ice on the ground still. We won't lie - we even slipped once in front of a crowd. Photo by Jazmine Lopez. 

Some wassail stops had other goods they were giving away, too. 

Jeff Amano of Serendipity On the Square passed out some of our favorite "leaded" wassail Friday evening. 

Photo by Kristin Scott. 

We hit up the Spune Christmas Show at Dan's, and enjoyed the local tunes and tacos all night long. 

We prepped for the event the best way we know how. 

Photo by Veronica_n_Denton. 

Many businesses have put up some decorations for the holidays. Jupiter House has some of our favorite local holiday decor. Shain Sheaff agrees. 

Shift had their first art show this weekend. Can't wait for their next one. Here's barista Aaron, brewing four cups at once. Photo by Nick Stevens. 

Post ice storm, many schools were closed until Wednesday or Thursday, but that didn't keep Dentonites from getting out and about when the sun came out. Here's a lovely photo of the courthouse by Raechel Haley. 

When there was ice, we saw some very ingenuitive sleds. Photo by @cookiemomster. 

Leaf art. Photo by @drcruz32. 

Jade Wintersee and her friend holed up in a construction sight to watch the ice storm roll in. 

The City of Denton even got to throwing #WDDI on their photos this weekend. Here's  alovely shot of the square before Friday's activities. 

Rabbit Hole Brewing celebrated their 561 brew at Oak St. Drafthouse. Reader Todd Spigener was there. 

Nathan Williams of Sunday Print Shop was giving away some cool printing goods this past Sunday. 

Andrew W.K. ended up rocking Hailey's pretty hard on Tuesday after he had to reschedule due to last week's ice storm. Photo by Deborah Nepal. 

Our haul of local goods was wrapped up nicely to share with friends and family. 

YET ANOTHER GIFT GUIDE

Ornament from Savvie Design Co. at The DIME Store. 

Y'all already know we push spending your hard-earned cash locally, so can we just skip the part where we talk about why that's a good thing to do and local economies and blah blah blah? Yeah? Good. Anyway, y'all are lucky that there's so many crafty people with initiative living all around you. They make lots of cool stuff that you can purchase as gifts for your friends/family/dogs/what-have-you. Actually, now that we think of it, is there a local company that makes animal clothing? Not that we know of. Get on it, y'all! Below are three separate gift guides that will help you spend money in town. If you have any local gifts you'd like to receive, let us know in the comments and maybe your Mom will buy it for you if she reads the blog, too. 

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For the Denton lover:

A dozen Christmas Eve Cinnamon Rolls from Royal's Bagels. 

Photo from Mandy Cave Watercolor 

Holiday Lighting Collectible Denton Christmas Ornaments

A bag of coffee from one of our many different coffee roasters (which we'll highlight later): Bookish, Macaroni Island, Seven Mile, Coffeewright, or some coldbrew from Dead Beat Coffee. 

Morrison’s Corn Kits

An authentic Denton-made Acme Brick

A model of a Peterbilt Truck

Denton-centric watercolors or coasters from the DIME Store.

A gift certificate to Recycled. They’re currently running a promotion where you can get a $100 gift certificate for only $80.

For the dudes:

Lessons from the Ghost Note, because he’s always wanted to be a drummer at heart. He just doesn't talk openly about it. 

Y’all play board games, right? We sure do. We like to stroll by More Fun Comics, Books and Games on the square and get a new one every now and then. Small World is great, but if you’re looking for something a bit more casual, then go for Fluxx or Cards Against Humanity (if it’s in stock).

Picture from Austin Street Apothecary 

Some Mustache Wax from Rose Costumes.

Or, if you’re completely into your dude’s facial hair (it is Denton, after all), get ‘em the leather dopp kit from Of Mud and Coal and a little of that awesome beard tonic from Austin Street Apothecary. 

A CHL course at Quail Creek Gun Range.

A couple giant aluminum letters (maybe a couple of you can get the letters for “BUTT,” "BEER," or “DUMB” if you hurry) from Serendipity.

For the ladies:

This “Dreaming of Denton” dress from Modcloth, designed to make you think about strolling around on the square. 

Photo by Rachel Elise. 

A Rachel Elise clutch - the bag to be seen with in Denton. She makes some awesomely handsome bags for pretty ladies. They even have a date purse - the perfect way to hint that you'd like a date for someone maybe? 

Handmade jewelry from Archerplusshare from her Etsy shop or available at the DIME store. It's the perfect way to buy jewelry without over-thinking diamonds or hearts. 

Lavender bath salts and body butter from Austin Street Apothecary - also available at The DIME Store. 

$30 for 30 days deal at Authentic Yoga Life. Put those Lululemon pants to use!

Mandy Cave Watercolor Denton-centric cards or some cheeky Triple Threat Press cards for writing all of her friends and family. Everyone one loves a little snail mail every now and then, right?

A cool, old film camera from Denton Camera Exchange. Maybe some Impossible Film to go with it (depending on what you’re getting).

A future class from Cardo's Farm Project, because natural dyes and canning are totally skills a Dentonite should have. And, yes, they can teach you how to pickle that.

JIVE FIVE: WASSAIL FEST AND HOLIDAY LIGHTING

Ice, you might have canceled dozens of events in town and rescheduled the rest, but we are not going to let you win. Help-Portrait is hard at work finding another date and Andrew W.K. already rocked Hailey's on Tuesday after missing his Saturday show. You won't spoil all of our holiday fun! One of our favorite holiday traditions, the Holiday Lighting and Wassail Fest has been rescheduled to this Friday evening. This year will be a little more scaled down thanks to the ice and a re-schedule, but we don't mind. You'll find us circled 'round the tree like the Whos down in Whoville, holding hands and singing with joy. We're not sure who the Grinch is in this situation, though. 

So if you plan on coming out to sample the wassail and find the joy of the holiday in your cold, black heart, here are our tips and tricks to making sure you get to squeeze as much holiday cheer out of the event as possible. 

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NICE:

There will be 33 wassail stops along the way, so plenty of a-wassailing may be had on Friday. The ballot box for voting (because there will be a wassail winner at the end of the night) will be located at the corner of Hickory and Elm. Some places have boozey wassail (we believe La Di Da normally does), so keep your eye out for that, and have your ID on hand, ready to go! 

There will be a holiday lighting toy drive! Bring an unwrapped new gift to the corner of Locust side of the courthouse and hand it over to the people loading up the Little Guys Movers truck. These gifts are going to kids who may not other wise have anything under the tree on Christmas morning. 

Did you know that there are commemorative ornaments for sale each year?! You can buy them online, or pick up a few at the information table on the lawn. We've heard there are also a few for sale at some shops on the square like Garden Gate.

The Courthouse Museum will be open until 8:00pm - and the courthouse is beautifully decorated for the season. So if you have a chance (or need a restroom after some of that wassail) peek in and see how great the inside of the courthouse looks all dressed up. 

This is most of Denton's favorite holiday event of the year, even the re-scheduled and scaled down version. So get ready to roam the square and soak in all of the holiday cheer at it's finest! 

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NAUGHTY:

Parking on this particular night can often be a beast. We recommend parking on the outskirts of the square, or even a few blocks away at The DIME Store or north by Amitea. Both of which will be serving up hot wassail and The DIME Store will be giving away some fun holiday coasters. 

The sidewalks themselves tend to get a little crowded. Watch out for kiddos underfoot and don't worry if you get bumped a little - just be careful! We're all drinking hot drinks out there and some people may be carrying swords or other sharp objects that they've purchased from the mini mall!

Feel free to skip the line for wassail at J and J's. Get some delicious pizza, sure, but there's better wassail to be had. 

Kettle corn, y'all. We're drooling right now just thinking about it. (UPDATE: Looks as if the kettle corn people [and most vendors] will not be present on the rescheduled date. Bummer.)

The lines at bars and coffee shops can get a little out of control. We have a feeling that the wait at LSA will jump from 15 minutes to much longer, so be prepared. After all, wassail and kettle corn don't make a well-balanced meal. (UPDATE: Once again, looks like there won't be any kettle corn. The holidays are now officially ruined. Thanks a lot, ice storm. Jerk.)

THE DEN10: DECEMBER 11

Can things just go back to normal please? Apparently they can't until the cluster of this weekend's rescheduled events combined with what was an already very busy weekend finishes up. The good news is that we won’t have to use our Yaktrax or 4 wheel drive for another three years because this is Texas. This past weekend also proved once again that if you want precipitation to fall from the sky (either frozen or not) just plan a large scale outdoor event that depends on good weather.

Questions or tips on thawing frozen pipes? Email glen@wedentondoit.com

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Wednesday December 11
Tis The Season To Be Polly | Dan’s Silverleaf | 5PM | FREE
Seasonal tunes on the classical guitar are happening today at Dan’s starting at 5pm. Extend your holiday chill.

The 2013 Annual Christmas Craft Show | 2008 Brown Dr. | 5PM
More crafts than you can shake a candy cane at.

Thursday December 12
Subsonic Indulgence | Andy’s | 9PM | FREE
EDM comes to Andy’s.

New Science Projects Mixer 3.0 w/ Elesh Norm, Losing | Macaroni Island | 8PM | FREE
No Jerks

Friday December 13
A Spune Christmas: Robert Gomez / Moonbather / The Days / Blessin’ / Tiger Tooth & PAW | Dan’s Silverleaf | 7PM | $8 
Same deal as what was canceled last week. You know the drill, free tacos and music.

Denton Holiday Lighting | The Courthouse Lawn | 5:30PM
This will be a lower-key event with no hay or carriage rides and the streets won’t be blocked off. We’re imagining the humble townsfolk gather around our meek and mild tree as we hold hands and spontaneously sing a song. “Every Who down in Whoville, the tall and the small was singing, without any presents at all.”

Wassail Fest | The Square | 5:30PM | FREE WASSAIL
Bring your Wassail judging face and a flask of rum to spike your favorite drink. This is a great way to enjoy the chaos and take a peek into downtown business' Christmas wares while having a nice evening stroll around the square.

New Fumes / Nervous Curtains / Visceral Cuts / Grandma / DJ YeahDef | Rubbergloves | $3 | 9PM

Sunday December 15
Liquor Store / Video / Fogg | Rubbergloves | 9PM $5
Not a shabby Sunday evening lineup for any venue in Denton. Liquor Store will be sure to finish thawing your chilled bones.

Monday December 16
Bourbon Barrel Beer Week | OSDH & ESSC | 7PM
They’re starting off the week with a Rahr Bourbon Barrel Winter Warmer and an Anderson Valley Bourbon Barrel Oatmeal tapping at OSDH and ESSC respectively. Both of those sound good enough to drink.

3 SONGS: DECEMBER

3 Songs is a monthly column in which we highlight three of our favorite local songs. We skipped this column last month because nothing was really vibing with us. Today, though, we’re having a difficult time whittling things down to three songs. Oh well. Maybe we’re just in a better mood now. Read on to hear music from the likes of Ashley Gatta, Doug Burr and Dome Dwellers.

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CODETALKERS - "War Games"

Do y’all know that we still have a reputation as being mostly a folk music town? What happened to the space rock stereotype? Heck, Midlake’s latest wasn’t even very folky and we’re the home of what is probably DFW’s heaviest band, Terminator 2. Y’all are doing more than your part to shake that folk stereotype. CODETALKERS are helping, too. This punk five piece featuring members of The Distressors and Von Ehrics has duel vocals and duel drums. There’s a lot going on in the five songs from their self-titled EP. “War Games,” the song embedded above, is a discordant post-punk heavy hitter full of palm muting and aggressiveness. This behemoth continuously feels as if it’s about to fall apart, but CODETALKERS manage to keep the song under the reins. CODETALKERS next show is January 24th at J and J's and we can't wait to check it out. 

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Ashley Gatta and The Free People - "Fainthearted"

Ashley Gatta and The Free People’s sophomore album, In Dependence, came out back in September, but we just heard it a few week’s ago. While the new stuff is still plenty soulful, this album has lost the majority of the Norah Jones vibe Gatta had going for her previously, not that that’s a bad thing. Gatta has found a new sound that we’re diggin’. On “Fainthearted” above, AG&TFP (nice acronym, huh?) have a nice poppy alt-country sound with a bit of a sneer.

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Dome Dwellers - "Bellied Up"

We highlighted Dome Dwellers with the song “My Halo” off of their last EP back in our September 3 Songs column. Back then, we said the following about Dome Dwellers, “The guitars are full of 90’s-era chimey-ness and tremolo and the math rock aspect of this tune acts as more of a hook than it does a headache - let’s just say that it’s more Algebra 1 than it is Pre-calculus.” This holds true for their debut album, Maybe I Should Have Some Pride. It’s chock-full of lite math-rock goodness that doesn’t fall far from the initial statement on their EP, and that isn’t a bad thing at all. The entire album is available to purchase on bandcamp for whatever price you would like to pay. We’ve listened to the entirety of the album and dig it quite a bit. This track, “Bellied Up,” is immediately one of our favorites. Lots of super 90’s bass and reverb-laden guitar noodling throughout. The hooks don’t come in until late in the game, but when they do, they hit hard. Lead singer, Michael Slack’s falsetto has become pretty darn impressive at this point, too. Catch these guys live on December 14th at Rubber Gloves for their CD release party.

WHAT WE DID: DECEMBER 9TH

Ice. Many ices. Inside lots of time. So long me forget words. Need words for write blog post me think. Cabin fever bad for words. Hashtag word, right? Me think so. Use it to find pictures for blog post. That way, less write. Need find other humans. Talk and learn words. Ice gone?

Icemaggedon 2013 otherwise known as DentonIce, Icemagadan (y'all can't spell), and a myriad of other names was something special. While many slowly developed cabin fever, we also had a chance to walk around to visit neighbors, cook some good food, drink some good bourbon and get most of the way through the Harry Potter movies. Y'all ended up taking so many photos, we decided to break some of them up into sections. Earlier last week, we were already excited for today's What We Did, but that was back when we had thought it would be full of pics of the Holiday Tree Lighting, Help Portrait, and Andrew W.K. My how things changed, huh? Most of those events were canceled and rescheduled. Keep your ears tuned to the Den10 to find out when they're happening now. Photo above by Michael Seman. 

APPEARANCES

Most of Denton was glimmering under a few inches of ice. When it stopped being aggravating, it was kinda pretty. Photo by Kendall Bales. 

Photo by Thorpe Griner. 

UNT without the cars and streets is apparently beautiful in the fall/winter, too. Photo by Naomi Wood. 

Photo by Jessica Hume. 

We got a lot of ice, y'all. Photo by txbhrtfld. 

COOKING

Like we said, the storm had lots of us stuck inside, baking. Here's some baked French toast made by a WDDI staffer. Guess which one. 

Hot chocolate apparently warmed the hearts of many of you this weekend. Evie Marie's Mexican hot cocoa might have looked the most scrumptious, though. You save some for us, Evie? 

Oak St. Drafthouse had their own hot chocolate they were selling. Hannah Luxenberg was the only one there when she got hers. 

The coffee nerds/geniuses over at Shift ventured through the ice to stay open through the worst of it and provide Denton with delicious coffee. Photo by Stefania K. 

Shaina Sheaff made the world's tallest cookie tower. 

Michael Seman texted his way through a quiche recipe successfully. Wonder how many ice days this quiche made it through. 

VENTURING OUT

The Denton Record Chronicle (and managing editor Dawn Cobb's personal Facebook page) did a great job of keeping us updated. We always enjoy a fast news cycle and this weekend's events definitely provided one. Between unfortunate events, road conditions and school closings, we were refreshing Twitter like nobody's business. 

Taylor Bunch and Stephanie Smith ventured out to one of our favorite murals on ice day # 1. 

Sara Button and her dogs ventured out into the ice for some relief. 

Gabe Bunch and John Stanson made it out to walk the Greenbelt on Sunday. 

While many local businesses actually tried to be open, not surprisingly this was the signage in front of most spots. 

The cold had many exploring uncharted areas close to home. 

We found that yaktrax made for easy walking through the ice. 

The amount of time that Dentonites could stay indoors varied wildly. Jessica Hume (and many others) venture out for food. In this case, it was chili (not the dog). Photo by Jessica Hume. 

Dogs had to get out, too. Photo by Sarah Adams.

It was the first time we ever heard many phrases or terms such as "cobblestone ice" and "freezing fog." Photo by Todd Spigener. 

Photo by Bryce Olson. 

On Sunday, we saw a brief three hours of above freezing temperatures (and some sunshine) during which time, many people tried to get three days worth of outside activities accomplished. Photo by Shaina Sheaff. 

And, of course, a requisite photo of some delicious tacos courtesy of Shaina Sheaff. 

INTERVIEW: SHAINA SHEAFF OF HELP-PORTRAIT: DENTON

Wedding and portrait photographer Shaina Sheaff 

Y'all know those 'grams of jazz and tacos we include on our Monday mornin' What We Did posts? Most of those belong to photographer Shaina Sheaff. Sheaff actually has a whole bunch of awesomeness on her plate at the moment. In addition to her wedding photography and portraiture, Sheaff is working on bringing Denton its first ever Help-Portrait event (which you can read more about in the interview). Read on to find out why she thinks Denton is a black hole and why she has a barbie shoe and tiny plastic lizard in her camera bag!

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WDDI: Hey Shaina! Tell us a little about yourself and your history with Denton.

Shaina Sheaff: I'm a bit of a townie. My parents moved back to Denton when I was six months old, and I feel incredibly lucky to be able to say that I was raised here. I spent the majority of my childhood doing things like playing hide-and-seek all over UNT's campus, being afraid of the people who wore all black and hung out in Kharma Cafe, and watching my dad play chess with some of the Brave Combo guys at The Flying Tomato late at night. My mom and I moved to Muenster, TX for my high school years, but I came right back to Denton after a couple of years of college. This city is a black hole. You can leave, but you always end up coming back for more if you really love it.

Like most of us who have been here a while, I've had a love/hate relationship with Denton for years. Right now, I'm in the middle of being head-over-heels for this town. The creative community is thriving, people are collaborating together...it reminds me a lot of the Denton of my childhood because the art seems to have become more organic over the last few years. I keep saying that it's a great time to be a Dentonite, and it truly is - I'm excited about where our city is headed and I can't imagine ever wanting to move and raise my daughter anywhere else.

What is Help-Portrait?

Help-Portrait is a non-profit organization started by Jeremy Cowart five years ago this December. The idea is that groups of photographers, hairstylists, makeup artists, and volunteers all over the world join together to take and deliver professional portraits to people in their communities who might not otherwise have the opportunity to have that experience. As of last year, 20,371 photographers and 32,299 volunteers have given more than 282,295 portraits in 62 different countries. Pretty inspiring, to say the least.

Just over a month ago, a group of Denton photographers started talking about trying to organize a Help-Portrait event here in Denton. We didn't have much time, but we've been really overwhelmed by the positive response and the number of people who signed up to volunteer their time and are thrilled to see it coming to life!

What can Help-Portrait do for the Denton community?

This is our first year, and we're really excited to be working with the United Way (along with several other local organizations and groups) to find the families and individuals we'll be photographing. Denton Christian Preschool graciously offered their space to us to use on December 7th. An amazing group of hairstylists and makeup artists have signed up to volunteer their services and Sally Beauty Supply has donated all of our hair and makeup supplies. I think it's more than just providing hair and makeup, photographing them, and delivering prints, though. We want to really get to know these people and who they are. We want to invest in their lives and share a really great day with them.

“Both Denton and photography mean a lot to me...So, to be able to give back to my community with something that I’ve been blessed with and by is a really humbling and beautiful thing.”

Why are you excited about it?

I first heard about Help-Portrait a few years ago when I met Jeremy Cowart. I was really blown away by his work, but what really stood out was the heart he has for people. He's used his gifts to serve so many different people all over the world, and it was really inspiring to see such powerful images and stories. Both Denton and photography mean a lot to me, for reasons I can't even begin to describe. So, to be able to give back to my community with something that I've been blessed with and by is a really humbling and beautiful thing for me. And to see a group of people work so hard to make this happen in such a short amount of time is really inspiring. It's good to be reminded that the heart of Denton is truly built around our community and loving our neighbors.

A couple of us have already started making plans next year's Help-Portrait: Denton event. While we're keeping our numbers small this year, we hope to be able to rent a larger space in Denton and open the event up to the community. We'll be able to better plan for next year after this initial event, but we hope to be able to do things like provide clothing and food. Definitely some big dreams, but I have no doubt that we can make it happen.

What can we do to help?
We have around 30 people who have signed up to volunteer, but we still need sponsors to donate things like coffee, bottled water, and lunch for the people being photographed. We also desperately need photo paper, ink, and a sponsor to donate printing services for all of the forms we'll need to have beforehand. If you'd like to help sponsor the event, you can send a message to Sara Button. Outside of that, the best thing you can do is stay tuned to the Help-Portrait: Denton Facebook page for updates regarding our event next year.

How would you describe your own, personal, style of photography?

I could answer this in several different ways. My work has really changed over the years and leans towards being more artistic, emotional, and non-traditional - with a bit of editorial, fashion photography, and photojournalism mixed in. I feel like my style, at it's core, has more to do with the way that I interact with and get to know the people I work with and less to do with things like post-processing and composition, although that plays an important part as well. I want the people I photograph to feel like I've given them a true and honest image that accurately communicates who they are in a creative and flattering way. Being able to capture emotion and romance is a big part of the job description when you're a wedding photographer, and it took me a few years to recognize how important it was to really learn how to direct and communicate when you're shooting. I'm definitely still learning, so I hope that my style will continue to evolve and that my work will continue to improve as a result.

What’s your favorite non-human subject to shoot in Denton?

As strange as it sounds, I'm really in love with the buildings, particularly the older ones. (Well, it's a toss-up between that and my cat, Zelda. Or the tacos that I'm constantly craving.) In all seriousness, the architecture and character of the city stayed the same here for a long time, and I'm sad that I wasn't camera-happy back when the Fry Street and downtown areas were still intact. There's an old stone house that was built in the early 1940s in my neighborhood. I grew up going over there after school when I was a kid, so it's a bit of a landmark for me. If you follow me on Instagram, it shows up in my feed on a regular basis because I love the way the light reflects off it when the sun is setting throughout the year. The city is getting ready to tear it down soon and I've gone into a mild depression over it. I love all of the change that has come to Denton over the past few years, but I'm a sentimental person and I hate that a lot of the places that have made Denton "home" for me are slowly disappearing. That's why I'm trying to photograph as many of them as I possibly can before they're all gone.

Tell us one of your top-secret Denton shooting locations!

Never! Just kidding... We all know that places like the square have been photographed 20 million times. That part of Denton holds a special place in my heart and a large number of my clients request that we shoot there, so I just look for the spots that I don't see used in the work of other local photographers. I grew up visiting the old post office just off the square on an almost-daily basis. About a year ago, I was shooting an anniversary session for a couple who were in town from NYC and decided, on a whim, to pose them standing in the big windows there. I've had several couples request it since, and it's kind of become one of my favorite little spots to shoot.

A new favorite is Rasoi, the Indian food restaurant on Avenue C. I just shot an awesome portrait session with Horace Bray, a member of the One O'Clock Lab Band, there a couple of weeks ago! Such a random location - it's not a place you'd normally think of as an ideal spot to shoot portraits after dark, but we met up there around 9:00 PM one night and it was perfect! Bonus: we got to eat delicious samosas after shooting. Again, I try to find places that are unique to Denton, but that aren't over-used. My locations are typically right in front of all of us, so there's not really a "secret" one - I just try to push myself to view and capture Denton with a voice that is unique to the area in order to keep my job interesting, fun, and fresh. It's kind of like a scavenger hunt.

What’s the weirdest thing in your camera bag right now?

I just cleaned it out two days ago, but I pulled out a handful of small rocks and a fishing lure from a recent camping trip, a Barbie shoe and a plastic lizard, a tiny jade owl that a friend brought me from Alaska, and some Halloween candy. My camera bag goes pretty much everywhere with me (and I'm a mom), so I'm always finding random things in the side pocket.

What’s the strangest thing that’s ever happened to you while shooting a wedding?

I recently shot this awesome circus-themed wedding in Boyd, Texas. The couple actually paid for a live monkey to hang out and pose for photographs with guests during the reception and I got to hold him towards the end of the night! He definitely took a second to paw through my hair, found something, and turned it into a snack. So, I've been groomed by a monkey while working and I have a photo to prove it! Not many people get to experience something like that in their workplace. Best job ever.

To whom do you look for inspiration as far as art or photography goes?

As far as wedding photographers go, Andria Lindquist is my favorite. Hands down. She captures love and emotion in such a beautifully artistic and creative way and I'm really looking forward to the day when I get to meet her and hopefully hire her. Annie Leibovitz, Noa Azoulay, Tara Whitney, Jeremy Cowart, and Sue Bryce are all favorite photographers of mine and they all create really unique and interesting art - you'll rarely see anything boring or "safe" in their portfolios.

There are a lot of local artists and photographers whose work I really admire, as well. I have quite a few large paintings by Rachael Steinberg hanging in my home, and I am blown away every time I see something new that she's created. Her use of color has been a huge inspiration to me in the way I shoot for several years now.

I really love the way both Thorpe Griner and Stephen Masker approach shooting landscape and travel photography - it's not really my niche, so my jaw drops regularly when either of them posts something new from a recent trip. I go to both of them regularly for advice or opinions on my photos before anyone else sees them because I have so much respect for the way they both shoot. Jessica Hume  shoots portraits in the studio and does some really awesome live music stuff, but she does it in a really fresh way - I often notice new things when I go back and look at her photographs more than once. I also recently met a new media major from UNT who is doing some really interesting things with video and sound - Olivia Brown. I'd love to have the chance to collaborate with her on a project of some sort in the future. I'm looking forward to meeting more artists like Olivia because I'm constantly inspired by what the people around me in this town are doing - whether it's an artist or a jazz musician or a photographer.

P.S. I really love seeing the photography on WDDI every week! I get hungry every time you guys review a restaurant.

What’s your dream photo-shoot?

Two things tie for the number one spot on my photography bucket list. One: I would love to shoot a destination wedding in Ireland. I want to see the world. Someone make it happen and I'll hook you up! Two: I would like to take Jay-Z's portrait in front of the place where he lived as a child in Brooklyn. It's a little random, I know... but I'm fascinated by the fact that our environments shape us as people early on - which becomes evident in every artist's work, and I think that would make for a really powerful portrait. Also, I'm kind of a superfan.

Thanks, Shaina!

Help-Portrait: Denton will be held on December 7, 2013 at Denton Christian Preschool at Erwin Hall, which is attached to First Presbyterian Church of Denton located at 1114 W. University Drive in Denton, Texas from 10:00 AM - 2:00 PM. If you can help or need more info, please contact Sara Button. 

You can check out more of Shaina Sheaff's photography on her website or Facebook page.