Marvelous Monday :: guess who's coming to town...

As we have gotten closer to the Christmas season, my anticipation has been growing by the minute. Because, you know, I've been carrying around a baby for about nine months now. Our little guy Kaden was due to be born on Dec 28, but because of his position (he's a double footling breech), my doctor suggested that we schedule a c-section. I was a little (well, A LOT) nervous about scheduling a surgery, but after some thought and a lot of prayer, it was pretty obvious that this was the right choice for us.

SOOOO... I'm having a baby on Saturday!!!

That's in five days. FIVE!!!! Can you believe it??

For all my clients, thanks so much for all your kind emails and card wishing us luck! I really do have the best clients ever :). I will be working most of this week (in between washing baby clothes and such, of course), and maternity leave will begin on December 20 and run through the beginning of March. If you need something, though, please don't hesitate to shoot me an email or give me a call. I may not be able to respond super quickly, but I will do my best to get back to you or have my trusty assistant get back with you in a reasonable amount of time.

And what's a blog entry without some photos!? I took some photos today of Kaden's room that we just finished

As you can see, we have a bit of a dilemma... there is no closet in the room :(. I bought some shelves to try to remedy the problem but we'll see if that actually works :) If anyone has any suggestions about storage in a closet-less room, I'm all ears :).


And check out those letters above the crib!

My friend and 2007 bride Jessica actually MADE them for me! If you look closely, you can see that she painted the letters with the same pattern that's on the bedding.. monkey and all! Jessica rocks :).

Look who's getting married :).



Jess and Adam are getting married next fall and I had the pleasure of shooting some engagement photos for them. We met up on a chilly day this fall at Tower Grove Park, but these two worked it out amidst the weather. Here are a few of my favorites.









One of my favorites. I was all up in their business to grab that shot :).












My fave. Jess, you're beautiful.

Where, oh where have I been...

Soooo... Yeah, I know. I am a bad blogger.

I've been editing and shooting like there's no tomorrow and my poor blog has suffered from bloggity neglect. But no more, my friends, no more. Very soon, I'll be rolling out some sessions with some amazing clients that I'm so excited about posting! In the meantime, though, here are seven things I've been up to (other than editing and shooting, of course):

1. I've spent some time listening to the lyrics of that Jason Mraz song that's on the radio way way way too much (I'm Yours). Have you listened to the lyrics ever? Gosh, that song is a little silly. The last verse says, "I've been spending way to much time looking at my tongue in the mirror/ and bending over backward just to try to see it clearer/ but my breath fogged up the glass/ so I drew a new face and I laughed." Nonsense, I tell you.

2. Eating. And, on a related note, I now have two chins. And my feet have pretty much disappeared too. Awesome.

3. I skipped Black Friday, but indulged in Cyber Monday.

4. Not cleaning.

5. Falling in love with gumdrops, mint m&m's and twizzlers. Those bits of sugary goodness are seriously amazing.... and quite possibly related to my aforementioned afflictions in #2.

6. Getting confused about the position of my baby. I was pretty sure he's been breech this whole time, and my dr. concurred. Then, I visited another dr. and he said he didn't think the baby was breech. So basically, all this time when we've thought we were talking to the baby's head, we've probably been talking to his rump. Poor kid... he probably already things his parents are nuts.

7. Trying to keep Stella trained. That dog trainer we sent her to for a week was un-be-freakin-lievable. I, on the other hand, pretty much suck.

Keep your eyeballs peeled.... photos coming soon!

Fabulous Friday

I'm very well aware that this makes me a total dork, but I just got pretty dang excited watching the trailer for the upcoming season of LOST, and I couldn't keep it to myself. The new season premiers January 21, 2009.

Albums :: Leather Flushmount

One of the best ways to display your wedding photos is in an album. I often get questions from clients about album options, and wow, there are quite a few options to choose from. So, in effort to explain things a little more clearly, I'm going to blogging this winter about the several different types of albums that I offer for my clients. Today we're going to be looking at a leather Flushmount album.

This album is a sample I created from images taken at Jessica and Brandon's wedding last August. It's a 10x10 square album with a rustic brown leather cover with a square cameo photo. I really love this leather choice, and the album company I work with offers an amazing selection of leather colors and styles.


The spine


Page thickness


A flushmount album is a collection of prints which are mounted directly to the album leaf and span across two pages (also called a spread). After the photo is mounted, it is then sprayed with a protective coating to protect it from aging. Of course, you should still take care in handling the album and turning the pages, but this protective coating is a valuable piece of the flushmount package.


another view of the page thickness. I really like the density of the pages... they're thick enough to be sturdy and convey a sense of weightiness, but not so thick that you feel like you're turning a page made of cardboard.


One of the things I really like about this album company is that they crease the prints before mounting them. That way, I can design spreads with photos that go across the whole spread without breaking the continuity of the photo.


I have a background in magazine layout and design, which makes designing a wedding album such a fun task for me. My style is clean and simple, with a focus on the photos, not on a trendy design that will look dated in the next ten years. The last thing you want is a wedding heirloom that your kids look at and say, "Ugh, that's SO 2008" :).

If you have any questions about flushmount albums or would like to set up an appointment to take a look at the different types of albums I offer, please don't hesitate to shoot me an email.

Marvelous Monday #23 :: First Day of School

Look who had her first day of school today


She looks all cute and cuddly here, but beneath those puppy dog eyes lies the energy of an ADD three-year-old who's overdosed on pixie sticks and candy corn. If you've been to our apartment, you know what I mean. She loves people and she shows her affection by repeatedly jumping on our guests, licking any visible skin, and -her new favorite- biting pony tails. Yeah, that's not so much gonna fly when our little baby arrives :).

So today Jon dropped her off at dog training school and she's been there all day long (and I've been strangely productive... weird how that worked out). I'm so glad she's going to be a little more obedient, but I've spent a good part of the day worrying that the other dogs won't be nice to her. Sounds like those motherly instincts might be kicking in.

Ellen and Jay at Lafayette Square

A little earlier this fall, I met up with Ellen and Jay on an unseasonably cool day at Lafayette Square Park. We were all pretty frigid, but Ellen and Jay rocked it, amidst the brisk conditions :). Here are some of my favorites!

Beautiful fall colors

classic










My favorite alley. I just love the light here!

Thanks for braving the cold with me, Ellen and Jay! I'm already excited for your fabulous wedding next fall!

David and Brianne :: Early Morning engagement shoot

So, David and Brianne are going to school in Bolivar, MO.
they are both originally from Kansas City, MO... as am I.
I live in St. Louis, MO.

So all the stars needed to align for us to find a time - a place - to meet for their engagement session. I was in Kansas City for a weekend baby shower and so were David and Bri, so we jumped on the opportunity to get together! All our evenings were full, so we met up in the morning after sunrise for an engagement shoot. I've got to admit, I'm not a morning person. At all. But once you see the gorgeous sunlight in these photos, you'll know why getting up early is TOTALLY worth it :).



See what I mean? Gorgeous morning light in the fall just can't be beat :).






I love using my trusty assistant to test the light. He's the best :)


There's that light again :).


And the sky just looks even bluer in the fall. I love the fall :).








One of my fav engagement pics ever. How adorable are they??


I love how romantic this is!




Thanks so much, David and Brianne, for meeting me so early! We had a great time with you both and can't wait for you wedding in June!

marvelous Monday #24 :: Photo Booth Fun at the Perk

This past weekend, Jon and I spent our Friday (and a good part of Saturday morning) at the Perk - a student event at MBU that we planned from start to finish. We, along with an awesome crew, turned the gymnasium into a coffee house in a day's time and filled with student performers who sang, danced, and acted the night away. the event was quite a departure from our usual weekend activity of shooting weddings :). It was a great time - terribly tiring - but great :). Since I'm just a little prego, I wasn't able to help with all the heavy lifting and loading that I usually help with (for those of you who didn't know, I'm totally hoss when not with child), so I decided to focus some of my energy on setting up a photobooth for the students to use during the event. After some research and some testing, I got it all figured out and the students had great time using the photo booth. It was totally unsupervised and I laughed pretty hard when I saw the final outcome :). These are just a few of the hundred or so photos taken that night:















marvelous.