A year ago my office looked like this. Disaster, no?

And now, now it looks like this:

<sigh of contentment>

While it is not totally done yet, its definitely happier in there. A goal for this year is to add a screen on the wall and more seating so that I can have all of you, my lovely clients, in to view your photos, big and beautiful, and consult about how and you’d like to display your lovely photos in your home.  The shelf above my computer usually contains one more white photo frame, but it was, for the Christmas season, taking up residence on my mantle downstairs to display this subway art.

This frame contains a little something I whipped up one day on the computer.

The photo on the left is some art I made! It’s been in the hopper for awhile to make a blog debut. I thought about giving it its own DIY crafty post, but this will have to do for now. Basically, I took some old fence boards (we got a new fence this fall), had the hubs cut them to my specifications, and glued them on another piece of random board we had laying around. The backer board is about an inch thick, which is nice, because it gives the piece the look of standing off the wall a bit. I glued the boards on with wood glue and then clamped them. Then came the part that took the longest. I was going to stencil the words, but when I couldn’t find a stencil of my liking, I printed out an alphabet of a font I liked and then freehanded the letters while looking at the font. I used some white craft paint that I watered down a bit so that the paint seeped in to the wood a bit and didn’t look so stark.

Thanks for stopping by and viewing the office. Next you should drop me a comment or an email and tell me what you would love for me to photograph with you this year!

I was excited for weeks. We were going to GRAMMY’S HOUSE.

There’s just no place like Grammy’s house. My grandma lives in Southern Missouri, right in the heart of the Ozarks. There are more cows than people, the lake (Bull Shoals) is calm and wonderful, and the memories and traditions run rampant. For the first time in years and years, my dad’s three brothers and all their kids (minus one cousin, we missed you Jamie!) all descended on Grammy for a few days of fun. Growing up in St. Louis, we were about a 4 1/2 hour drive from Grammy’s, so many, many of our summer weekends we packed up our full sized conversion fan and headed down. We jerry-rigged a TV and VCR in the car for us kids (to whom 4.5 hours might as well have been about 12) and we would watch some of our favorites– Willy Wonka, Pippi Longstocking, On Our Own, or two real-people old-school Disney movies, “Sammy the Way-out Seal” or “The Absent-Minded Professor.”  Once we arrived, we would ski, kneeboard, wakeboard, tube… we would eat Antler’s Pizza and hope we wouldn’t be the one to throw up that time from it… we would have an ice cream pig-out (or “hog” as one cousin once called it) and play Nintendo and games on the OLD computer with the giant floppy discs (which, I would like to report, still is completely functional.) The memories go on and on– measuring ourselves by our tree, going down to the swimmin hole, huntin arrowheads, feeding the carp and the geese, eating in the front yard on the long picnic table, making Grammy and Grandpa go get on their old ham radios (I still know their call signs! KA0MVU this is N0GMF!), and at the end of the day, crashing in our huge basement cousin slumber party.

So. Grammy’s is special to me, and Lee has never been there before, and so I had been pushing for a trip like this to happen for months. We had a grand old time. (Nichols– lets do this next year!! Grammy, please?!)

We arrived to Uncle Dan and his 800 kayaks…

Oh, I’ll go ahead and apologize, this post is *mostly* pictures of my niece Becca. She turned a year in June, and I hadn’t seen her since Christmas, so this photographer auntie may or may not have taken a lottt of pics of her.

The cousins’ true personalities emerge when the camera is out:

Impressive right? Or maybe just hilarious…

Maybe Becca will be a photographer like her auntie… or maybe she was just diggin in my camera bag to tell me she would prefer her portrait taken with the 85mm instead of the 50.

Becca and Layla were besties. They see eye to eye.

I feel like her eyes are saying “Please don’t tell me you’re not going to give me what I want?!”

My baby girl is so smart. She can read. For real. She can do “eyes,” “toes,” and a bunch of other things. She also started saying a few more words over the course of the trip. “Pass” (which is pacifier)– she says it like its a question, raising her voice at the end of the word– like ‘please, won’t you give it to me?’ The other new word was bottle, which she does by making a ‘b’ sound and then sticking out her tongue while doing an ‘l’ sound. Its absolutely adorable and hilarious.

Here’s Uncle Chris!

This next pic makes me so happy! It’s my whole immediate family. Even though its a little blurry, and not how I would have set us up or composed the shot… we all look tan (or burnt) and relaxed  and HAPPY. And we were… so happy to be there together.

At Grammy’s one night, we began the obligatory cousin pics. Notice Jamie-on-a-stick. We had to include her And also of note, the youngest cousin is the tallest. Kevin is only starting 9th grade and I think he’s like 6’4″?

Pizza at Antlers. So many good stories from past Antlers trips…

On the left is me and my tree. Every time a new grandchild was born, they got a tree planted at Grammy’s house on their first visit. My tree is going strong, 29 years later! On the right, G.G. (Grandma Gretchen) snuggling her grandbaby in the hammock. We have pics of my mom and dad with me at that age in that hammock.

Grammy is in process of getting rid of all of her stuff (which I protest.) Here is a portion of her incredible beer can collection. There are beers from alll over the world.

This is one of those cool contraptions where you put it in your hand and it makes the liquid boil and raise up to the top. Crazy!

And the next few images won’t mean much to most of you, but I went around taking pics of things that have always been there… things that every grandkid knows all about. There are so many more, but many of them have already made their way to children and grandchildren’s homes. One thing of note: the middle pic is of Grammy’s guestbook. I wrote those entries in my almost-6 year old handwriting in 1988.

And that truck there, in the middle, it has been around for-eh-ver. Us kids would have to climb in the back where there would be a few couch cushions for us to sit on, amidst piles of skis, coolers, floats, chairs etc. etc. It was like an obstacle course getting in and out of there!

And we’ll end with one more of the cuteness that is my Beccaboo.

I love you, family! What a great vacation.

Here’s a few pics of my summer girl that Lee shot. She loves to get a big ol stick in her mouth, shake it like its a dead animal, and prance around the backyard like she just won first prize in the Pedigree dog show.

This summer we also started a garden. The operative word being “started.” We haven’t gotten a whole lot of fruit from our labors, but we have definitely learned a whole lot of lessons for next year. That and we have a bumper crop of Bibb lettuce that tastes disgusting. (Anybody know why our lettuce would taste bitter and chemically? We’ve applied no chemicals.) And on the right is as artsy a picture as you’ll find of a composter. Also a new endeavor for us this year. I love not throwing away all the fruit and vegetable trimmings we use to pile up in a landfill where it will not decompose (at least not very quickly). I’ve purchased this compost bucket which sits on the counter and gets filled up until its ready to be brought out to the big guy.

And here are some lovely farmer’s market eggs, which I thought were too beautiful not to photograph. Just yesterday I read an article in Today’s Woman magazine about a local Louisvillain business called Chickens in the Hood that builds custom chicken coops and educates people about urban chicken farming. Love it! Maybe one day we’ll have our own chickens to lay such beautiful eggs!

To summer!

“Summer afternoon – summer afternoon;

to me those have always been the two most

beautiful words in the English language.”

Henry James

I mean, how can it not be, when this is your view for dinner?

There’s something I just love about this next shot.

We started the evening with a small girls dinner at the Grape Leaf, and then transported Shannon to her super secret birthday surprise.

Every birthday girl needs a crown and a glow necklace, dontcha think?

And here are a few photobooth faves.

We love you Shannon. I already used up all my sappiness in your speech, but you are one of the best friends I could ever imagine. Love you.

Friday when we arrived, we headed downtown and walked across this incredible long pedestrian bridge, which takes you to a park and some quaint shops.

Seeing as we had no real agenda, I saw a spot that I liked, and declared an impromptu photoshoot!

Saturday morning we headed to Rock City, a place with a supposedly beautiful view. We quickly discovered it to be a $20 tourist trap… so we hopped right back in our car in search of some unexploited beauty. We visited the Chattanooga Nature Center, which the bride’s family had a hand in creating.

When I got out of the car to shoot the wildflowers, what did I see, but a bamboo grove! And one with a path to let you walk inside!

After the wedding on Sat night we again set off in search of adventure. We found a road that looked like it went up a mountain, and were going to try to catch the sunset. We ended up on Raccoon Mountain. Although we were slightly concerned that either a) they were going to lock the park gates with us inside, or b) we were going to run out of gas up there, the views were totally worth it.

For a long while we drove on this crazy road that had guardrails on both sides because on either side you would tumble like 100 feet or more into a lake or a rocky ravine. The pic doesn’t really do it justice. This road was insane.

Thank you Chattanooga for letting us see God’s handiwork and letting us breathe your fresh air. It was quite lovely spending the weekend with you.

My friend Michelle came along, and we enjoyed our beach time (burning our white bodies on accident– they hadn’t seen the sun for months!), riding the jet skis and seeing the dolphins, eating lots of yumminess, and riding on the boat. I took the camera out on the boat one day, and snagged these nautical pics.

Taking out the crab traps. It’s tradition.

The bottle of wine below is a French wine from 1981 that was a gift from my siblings and I to my parents for their 25th wedding anniversary. Now that they are celebrating their 30th anniversary TODAY, and currently traveling in Italy in celebration, I made them promise they would drink it in celebration, to cap off the trip.

On the way home from Baytowne Wharf the fog became incredibly dense. We couldn’t see anything and had to rely on our navigation system to get us home.

Michelle checking her crab trap again. We only ever caught one, and a few hermit crabs. We wanted so badly to have a pic titled “We’ve got crabs!”

Thanks to “Grand Masters” Bob and Gretchen and to Tinkerbell for a great trip! Love you all!

1. Teva Mush Flip Flops- These are the best flips ever. No lie. You will never want to take them off your feet. I have that exact pair on right now… and I pretty much wear them every day during the spring/summer. I brought a pair to Africa the semester I lived there, and they were all I wore, and I made my mom mail me another pair while I was there. So, if you can’t tell, I’m a fan.

2. Barnes and Noble- Going in here is like vacation for me. I love to peruse the books, the sale racks, and pick up some magazines to flip through over a Starbucks Americano in the cafe. Love me some B&N. Our date nights quite frequently involve a stop there, where I look at the journals and stationary, and Lee steals off and looks at this book, laughs hysterically, and I find him, roll my eyes and ask him if he is really looking at that again.

3. French Press Coffee- this rocked my world, and is truly possibly the best way to brew and enjoy coffee. You need to get one. They have them all the time at TJ Maxx on the cheap!

4. My ice blue KitchenAid mixer. Definitely one of my favorite wedding gifts. My momma knew that every girl needs a KitchenAid! I use it at least a couple of times a week.

5. My spring/summer Sperry Topsiders! My mom and I snagged matching pairs of these Floral Angelfish Sperry’s at Macy’s a few weeks back, and I love the bold pinks and greens– they will definitely go with my summer wardrobe!

6. Tervis Tumblers- another wedding gift from Mom, Lee and I both have 24 oz tumblers with lids (don’t worry, his isn’t pink too). You can put hot or cold beverages in these, they go in the dishwasher and are just really great for taking along in the car when you’re running errands.

7. Lip Gloss- Bath and Body Works carries a whole line of C.O. Bigelow lip glosses that are the shiniest thing you’ve ever seen! They have a clear gloss, which I mostly buy, but some with colors that are awesome too. Plus, they are infused with peppermint oil or other fragrances which act to freshen your breath too! I keep one of these in a chapstick holder on my keychain so its always with me!

8. Apple computers- Once you go Mac you don’t go back. Nuff said.

9. Edy’s Slow Churned ice cream- Mint cookie crunch and French Silk are my standbys, but right now in my freezer is Thin Mint and Samoa Girl Scout flavors (only out til April)!! This ice cream is delish, and half the fat and calories of regular ice cream, so it makes me feel a little better about eating it.

10. Diet Barq’s. It’s just delicious. We just burned through a 12 pack of that at our house.

11. BradsDeals – I have had people tell me lately that I always find the best online deals– and I owe this in large part to Brad’s Deals. I keep it on my bookmarks and click to it every few days and look at the newest offers. Great site for those of us that love a good bargain!

12. Insanity- I’ve done p90x a whole bunch of times, so it was time to mix it up a little. Thankfully I have a friend doing this with me, because it is pretty true to its name! Day 16 was dominated this morning!

13. Amy Butler- love love love Amy Butler patterns, papers, and fabrics. I even used some of her fabric in my wedding, wrapped around the bases of some really tall centerpieces.

14. My leopard print Sperry’s- These are my fall/winter sperry’s and I get tons of comments on them even from random strangers. Unfortunately, I believe they are out of stock most everywhere now.

15. The Twinery- colorful bakers twine that cheers up most anything!

16. Singer Simple- another fave wedding gift, that I’m excited about using. I did make an adorable doggie bed for Layla out of some gray and white Ikea fabric! And, bonus, I FINALLY got her to lay on the silly thing!

Friday night was dinner and the party, complete with my first ever 4-tiered cake and a photobooth with fake moustaches and other ridiculousness. And Saturday, Lee took me out to an amazing surprise 4 course meal at Asiatique.

First, me and the birthday boy. Oh, and big thanks to Elizabeth for our heart background. I was so excited to use it, and so not excited when I found it tangled like nobody’s business, and impossible to get straightened. So, excuse the jank-ness.

My sign reads “He’s OLD, but I still love him.” And, please note the awesome V-Day tattoos everybody was sporting (yeah, we totally put them on the guys.)

The birthday boy was plumb tuckered out, I think you could say.