preview, review

Next week an Announcement will be made. Although I'm not yet openly talking about WHAT/WHO, lets just say that IT will be twice as good as it is now. I'm super excited.
This announcement has me working on new branding (including logos), newborn postcard, a new pet photography piece, and new pricing sheets. So one of my tasks is to identify my 100 or so favorite photographs. While going through thousands of 2011's photos, I picked these images taken in OHIO. Thought I would post, just as a review.

I adore this engagement shoot from Ohio. These guys were SO young and in love. AND hip. And it made me seriously reconsider wearing crocs. I mean, crocs are so NOT cool. 

I may add some photographs from Oregon tomorrow. Just for fun.

78 S May Ave FOR SALE

update: we accepted an offer the FIRST day the house was on the market. Yay! We know that the new owners will LOVE it. But we wonder, will they keep the mural of horses? hmmmm?The purple bungalow is now on the market - perfect for another couple/family or swingin bachelor. After the months of painting, cleaning, fixing, & all of the sweat/elbow grease to get this home the way we love it, we are moving back to North Carolina.

The living room is the front room in the house. We painted all the walls & ceiling. They were a icky smoke stain yellow and now two walls are off white, & the others are grey/purple. It is subtle.

The view from the front door is on the left below, and is open through to the dining room (right) and the kitchen. I think the inside of the house is really pretty, especially now that the dining area is a happy olive green. Dan and I never found a dining table we loved for the space, so for us, it was just an office.The master bedroom - with the original pale blue paint. I recently got us a happy quilt set that matched with the wall color. The bright bedding makes me wonder why I lived SO many years with drab ass brown bedding.Here is the second bedroom. The wallpaper is GONE, and I love LOVE the new color. It is a grey, but sometimes looks blue, and sometimes looks green (kinda like hazel eyes). The white trim and the hardwood floors, makes it perfect. I may use it again in our new home. (The twin bed photographed way more bright lime than it is in real life).And, ah, the red retro kitchen. Which we have LOVED. It has been the home of many a cheesecake, apple crisp, lemon cake, kale lasagna, veggie chili and pesto pizza. Dan is the cook, I am the baker.
The bathroom and our awesome owl shower curtain. We replaced both faucets, shower head, seriously cleaned all nooks/crannies, & painted the walls & ceiling off white. I wanted to replace the floors with a black and white basket weave tile. But we ran out of time.
And our beloved back yard - with the four horse mural. We have a kick ass vegetable garden with cucumbers, tomatoes, lettuce, onions, garlic, peppers and basil, all for someone else to reap! I need a photo of the garden, but by the time I realized I needed one for the blog, it began to POUR. SO, this shot is from this spring. I will link to realtor.com as soon as my realtor sends it my way. The purple bungalow costs $134,500 firm.

no words wednesday!

Puppies!

My friend Lili has a new puppy. An adorable, yummy breath, squishy, english bulldog named Bacon who I think I need to steal. seriously. I insisted on photographing little Bacon after first laying eyes on him at the farmer's market last weekend, so yesterday I forced myself and my camera on Lili's family and we spent a few minutes together (in the very warm sun). Bacon, was delicious.Lili has another puppy, who's the size of a mountain, 10 month old Zeek. He likes treats ALOT and will do nearly anything to get one. Like smooch Lili on the face.Zeek looks quite pensive with that arched eyebrow!
And this is Shelby. She is Lili's favorite. The sweetest dog and quite a show off! She minded her manners the entire time I visited.
Thanks Lili for letting me get my puppy breath fix. Little Bacon makes me swoon. I wish my baby boy was already born and I would photograph the two of them asleep together in the studio. How precious would THAT be???

purple house yard.

It has finally stopped raining long enough to get some yard work done, here in Athens. Dan has been working like mad in back yard preparing the garden, cutting grass every three days (the unfortunate side effect of fertilizing), trying to identify what is a plant/flower and what is a weed. WEEDING. mulching. etc. Here are a few of our plants.
Today, Dan planted cucumbers, 2 kinds of basil, 3 kinds of tomatoes AND cherry tomatoes. Combined with our lettuce, onions and garlic, I am feeling some seriously good salad and pizza happening in a few months! And I should document/photograph our first serious garden.

my favorite! a purple bearded iris with a yellow center. With morning dew. These were a gift from Carol, my mom-in-law and I adore them!The bird feeder above was left in our yard and I love it. I need to photograph the two we received for Christmas.

blooming flowers, green leaves

I came home from a portrait session this afternoon and found a bouquet of beautiful flowers waiting for me. Dan must have picked them while working in the yard - he is furiously planting veggies like onions, lettuce, and sewing grass (we have some bare spots). The yard is OVERRUN with weeds and we have no idea where flowers and shrubs are going to pop up (since the previous owner didn't leave us a plant/flower map...) These flowers smell wonderful. All in favor of fresh flower surprise, say I. I.

21 weeks, no chicken yet

Crazy week: I self-hypnotized myself through a root canal while Dan did all kinds of tree science and preparations for classes starting next week at OU. Tonight was the first night we could do my 20ish week portrait. Before dinner, we went to uptown Athens, and Dan got some cool photos of me. I am 20 weeks, 5 days; OVER halfway there!!!

what's going on with the baby. During our ultrasound this week, we discovered our baby is still a boy. Dan loved seeing him squirm and kick and jump. His spine, leg bones and skull are visible. He has BIG feet and his nose is still large. He has great lips that look like my moms. Which is good, because she has beautiful lips. He weighs 10 oz which is perfect. According to my doc, I am too perfect with all my numbers. He kicks me and I can feel his hiccups (which is just the COOLEST, weirdest feeling, and tends to only happen at 3 am). I feel like my whole life is shifting and i am more concerned with what to find/buy for the baby than I am for myself.

Next portrait? So, I really wanted to incorporate a chicken into my 20 week portrait last week. My vision was me looking quite artsy and maybe a bit odd. But last Friday was rainy and cold and I just wasn't in the mood to go to my friends farm and pose with some poultry. I still love the idea, so my 24 week portrait will absolutely incorporate some farm animals. I promise.

Books: I am loving searching/picking out books for the baby. Our favorites are vintage books, like we read when we were small (36 years ago...) and we look on Etsy and Ebay and Amazon for cool retro books ALL THE TIME. Dan snuck these photos of me reading a Dr. Suess book I have never seen. I am going to put these photos in the baby book (i have yet to construct) so our boy can know that I loved him even before he was born.

Photography: I have seven shoots in the next 10 days. EEKS. And an incredibly full April. I am so happy to be working again, the winter and all of the snow really slowed me down. Tomorrow I get to shoot two high school seniors (who are sweethearts, which of course, I love). Yay for good warm weather and daylight til 7:30. Happy spring!

my office/dining; after/before

My new office/dining room after:Here is the space Before:This is my office and eventually, dining room (we just need to find a LONG rectangular artsy chunky table and perfectly mismatched chairs). I left one day and asked Dan to paint two of the walls. I came home to a full room of green. AND... I love that all four walls are olive green. This space is the center of our house, and you have to walk through it to get to EVERY room, so it is pretty important. I just love it. I tried to make it feel personal, and cool. Like this little space above the music bookcase. From the left, A crate from our wedding party holds: the first card Dan gave me, a doorknob from our first rental in Oregon (it was broken before I took it I promise), an owl Joanna gave me, our prom photo (from 20 years ago), and a photograph of my grandfather, who I never met, who I am told was an incredibly snazzy dresser.

This color makes the space feel earthy and cozy. The curtains (from Ikea) and a new light (from Lowe's) update the room have more - in comparison to the before photos. I wonder, Do we need a rug?

This hanging terrarium is my most favorite Christmas present from Dan's mom, Carol. I look at it every day, and those tiny plants and rocks make me happy. If I had the guts, and Dan's guts too, I would paint the ceiling metallic tangerine. Maybe even stripes. Because I love orange and green together.

I heart the green glass bird. I bought it in uptown Athens, just because.
Here is what the my desk looked a week after we first moved in. Crazy messy. And what is with the desk on a diagonal? I didn't want to face the wall, because of fun shui, but dang, that is some serious clutter.

Nursery: In case you are wondering why we tackled the dining room before the baby room, the reason is: Just because the room was driving us both nuts. The baby room is next. Currently there is a big pile of baby stuff shoved against all four walls and some NASTY wallpaper still needing to be removed. My friend Joy is helping me with the room, and we decided that the color scheme is orange, brown, baby blue and white. Last week, I found an awesome twin bed, for me, and we are picking up the crib (from my dear friend Corey) in three weeks. I think once I see the crib and the bed in place, I will be able to make more decisions about color, bedding, decoration, etc. Yay. I promise to post photos, once some changes occur.

new images on the website

I just added 5 new photos to my website. I am not sure how these two kid shots were left out. Because I love them. Both were taken in my studio on an all white backdrop. So not walmart, right?These three photographs show engaged couples smooching, which makes me super happy. Kissing. Smooching. Love. Just how engagement shoots should be, right? Am I gross?

more Ohio snow portraits!

Can you imagine having FIVE girls under one roof? The really good news is that there is probably always plenty of hairspray, cute sweaters and gossip. Remembering when I was the precious age of 10/11, I would have LOVED to have had an older sister, for advice, someone with knowledge (and coolness). Photographing sisters is always so MUCH fun, because girls this age LOVE having their picture taken. Or maybe it is just me... maybe I am suddenly super cool.