Hip hip hip happy Christmas

Hope you are enjoying the time leading up to Christmas! The boy and I just finished a long, strenuous afternoon/evening of shopping, and we are SPENT!

I am really getting excited for the time spent with family and friends next week.

SO, wishing you a merry Early Christmas!

Love,

Eric, Roxy, and me.

Finally...

If you've been around my blog since July-ish you will probably remember this photo:

And the promise that came with it - sharing of the details of the Save the Date project... Well the time has come. Some of you may have received the postcard in the mail so this is old news. I still want to show it off though!

There it is! Front and back. :) It's printed on 'pearl' paper so it has a glittery, glossiness to it.

But our all time favorite part of the whole project was the video (which not everyone has seen!)

Oh I love it. I still watch it! We've had good feedback so far from both parts of the Save the Dates. They were so much fun to make & send out. The whole process took us a couple hours on the 4th of July. The video took maybe another hour. We got the postcards printed through Blossom Publishing and made our own address labels with our inkjet printer. Altogether, not too much work!

P.S. While I was attempting to photograph the postcards, I was interrupted:

hehe :)

Stopped in my tracks

I was just trying to have a lovely impromptu dinner with the boy tonight when all of a sudden I noticed that I could not see all of the letters in the word on my glass. I thought "uh oh..." and then proceeded to test out my vision by looking around at different details.

The I was missing in Miller.

The O was missing in Sports.

The pepperoni was missing on my pizza.

Then sure enough, I started to see the little lights.

Remember when you used to be able to turn your tv to channel 99 and see nothing but static? Or 'dancing ants' ? Now, it's probably just ESPN7 but you remember what I'm talking about. Well, picture that in bright colors. Now picture it right in the center of your vision, completely erasing what SHOULD be seen.

Now imagine it growing larger and larger within minutes until your entire vision is fuzzy, cloudy, and quite disturbed by the dancing colorful ants.

Welcome to my migraines. If I were an artist, I'd draw a picture to better describe. However, I'm not. So... I google image searched migraine auras. Interesting finds:

This shows the progression of the aura as it grows and then finally recedes. Blah.

Ugh I can't even look at this one.

A lot of people will say that even looking at or imagining the auras will bring tears to their eyes. I think the craziest part is that the aura doesn't bring pain at all. It's just the knowledge of what comes next. Check out this description I found here :

Migraine headaches may be preceded by a visual "aura", lasting for 20 to 30 minutes, and then proceeding to the headache. Some people, however, experience the aura but do not have a headache. This visual aura can be very dramatic. Classically, a small blind spot appears in the central vision with a shimmering, zig-zag light inside of it. This enlarges, and moves to one side or the other of the vision, over a 20 to 30 minute period. When it is large, this crescent shaped blind spot containing this brightly flashing light can be difficult to ignore, and some people fear that they are having a stroke. In reality, it is generally a harmless phenomenon, except in people who subsequently get the headache of migraine. Since migraine originates in the brain, the visual effect typically involves the same side of vision in each eye, although it may seem more prominent in one eye or the other.

Some people get different variations of this phenomenon, with the central vision being involved, or with the visual effect similar to "heat rising off of a car". Some people describe a "kaleidoscope" effect, with pieces of the vision being missing. All of these variations are consistent with ophthalmic migraine.

Yuck.

Pictures found: here , here , here, and here

Lucy & Sadie

I know it's been forever since I posted and believe me, it's never far from my mind. I need a fresh inspiration for daily posting! Until I get back on my blogging feet, I hope this will hold you over. Yesterday I had the honor of photographing my dear friend's little one, Lucy. She was such a delight, and I must say, quite taken with me. Hehe

I think nurseries are so adorable. Lauren and Jon have created a wonderful space for Lucy to grow up in.

She's so stinkin cute!!

I also recently was able to photograph my friends Nick and Laura with their newborn, Sadie! Seriously, I am completely intrigued with baby photography now.

Brings a smile to your face doesn't it? Babies may not be in my future for quite some time, but I'm certainly enjoying getting to hang out with my friends' little ones! :)

The Welker Family

Sue and I work together every Friday at the Y front desk. The first thing I ever heard about Sue was "Oh you work with Sue? She has 5 kids." I remember thinking, "Wow.. that's all I'm going to hear about. What in the world will we have in common!?"

I was wrong. We've become great friends! And her kids are seriously some of the cutest. She has Chase, followed by Kirsten, followed by twins Maya and Alana, and finally Corbin. Oh and her hubby Chad.

Chase was such a good sport! He was horribly ill but managed to bear with us during the shoot.

I love this last one - Corbin is looking back at me. What a cutie!!

The Boy's Band

I just have to shamelessly brag on my fiance and his band... They just got signed! This is a very exciting time for them, and they oh so graciously agreed to let me photograph them (and even use my photos on their new myspace and possibly the new album!!)

The shoot was slightly stressful but one of the most successful shoots (in my opinion.) So anyhow, congratulations to Southbound Fearing on signing with Red Cord Records! :)

I've been shooting a lot lately. Mostly small projects for friends and such, but it's been educational to say the least. For some reason, I get super nervous right before every shoot. So nervous that I start thinking of reasons to cancel! This feeling doesn't really shake until about fifteen minutes into the shoot. I even start thinking about how much I DON'T want to be a photographer. Where is this nervousness coming from?? And how do I CHILL out!?

After I relax and get into the flow of the shoot, I realize that I love what I've been doing lately, and I really hope I continue to shoot every weekend (at least!) We'll see...

Yay Fall!

We may not have THAT many fiery red or vibrant orange trees, but we certainly have some pretty trees. As much as I love springtime green against the blue sky, I loooveee orange, yellow, and red against the blue sky too!



Go take a walk! Who knows how many more beautiful, brisk fall days we have left!

PS I am not a fan of photographers/photo editors adding sun spots or rays after the fact so I just had to clarify that the photo above is unretouched. :)

ok ok I may have adjusted my contrast a bit but that's all!

Us.

We used a tripod, self timer, lots of patience, and lots of energy. I think our result was pretty allright! I still want to get some engagement shots next spring through the company I work for but we just wanted to see if I could make it work being both the subject and the photographer.

I'm still very excited to show off our save the dates... I just hate the labeling process so I've been slacking. Sorrrrrrry. Hopefully soon :)

p.s.

I cannot WAIT to show the blog world our Save the Date project!! I cannot post anything about it until they are actually sent out but


ahhhhhh


I love them! :)

Blah-xiety

This post over at Color Me Katie prompted this posting of a self portrait. And an explanation to go with it I suppose.

For the past couple months, I have been struggling with anxiety off and on. Mostly it will hit around 3 oclock, while I'm at work figuring out what tasks will finish up the rest of my day. I've noticed a few things that seem to incite the same tightening, less-than-panic-but-more-than-calm, uncomfortable feelings.

And they are weird!

First, this blog. Have you taken a look at all the blogs I follow? I used to LOVE looking through all of them. I would take my time picking through each and every one of them - feeling inspired, creative, and relaxed. The first time I felt this 'anxiety' while browsing through my favorite blogs, I remember thinking, "Now this is weird."

Is it that I don't want to miss any? Is it that I feel intimidated by everyone else's greatness and creativity? Is it that I am forcing myself to enjoy something I may not find enjoyment in anymore?

Maybe. Maybe. No.

Blog-xiety? heh...

The other circumstance I find to be anxiety-provoking is the process of placing a lab order at the end of the day. This is odd, but hang with me for a minute. Around 3, when the pressure of the day is wearing thick, when the lunch I enjoyed is starting to put me to sleep, and when the mounting general annoyance of the office hits sky high, I begin to plan out the remaining 2 hours. Usually, I finish up a few photo-retouches and prepare them for a lab order.

Ok seriously, just trying to explain this is giving me hives. Hah... All you need to understand I guess is that it's not a stressful task but my mind seems to think I need to be panicky about it.

Whyyyyyy do I have to put up with these stupid feelings? Why does my heart pound and my breath catch for any other reason than seeing my fiance (ahhh cheesy, but I had to throw it in there!) Why do I feel like something is horribly horribly wrong when I know that it's not!?

Mom says it's hormonal. Well I say it's ANNOYING!

Give me back rationality! Give me back my generally calm demeanor! Give me back my afternoons!

And go AWAY anxiety! Off with you!