i’ve got my love to keep me warm
January 11, 2010 | Filed Under Relationships | 2 Comments
On route from their home in Texas to visit family in Columbus for the holidays, Kate and Joshua made a special stop for a winter engagement session in downtown Cincinnati. The city provided a dynamic setting for a romantic and hip urban photo shoot with a fabulous couple, whose amazing chemistry was such a delight to capture! Since it was their first time exploring the Queen City, we traipsed all over town, from Fountain Square to the East Side to Over the Rhine. They were such a joy to work with and I can’t wait for their wedding this summer!
the friendly beasts
January 5, 2010 | Filed Under Conceptual, Fine Art, Personal, Relationships | Leave a Comment
So I also forgot to blog highlights from my holiday card session with the kiddos this year. The “friendly beasts” motif for our 2009 greetings came to me when I was hitting Cappel’s for some post-Hallowe’en deals and I saw these fabulous animal masks. We took advantage of an unseasonably mild November day and headed to Woodland Mound for a shoot along the beautiful backdrop of the Ohio River. I was so tickled with how it went that it was really hard selecting just a handful for the cards. I told myself that I’d be featuring all my favorites- both the ones that made the card and the ones that didn’t- here in the blog, so I reckon it’s high time I get-a-featurin’, then!
back to life, back to reality
January 4, 2010 | Filed Under Personal | Leave a Comment
I had hoped to blog these before Christmas, but the last two weeks really got away from me. I got a visit from good old H1N1 just in time for the first week of holiday break, so it got off to a rough start. Thankfully the rest of my family had been vaccinated, so I was the only one out with it. I was on the mend enough to get in an engagement session (a coming attraction here at the blog) before promptly acquiring a nasty respiratory infection. Thanks to a wonder antibiotic (which shall remain nameless because I already get enough spam from drug companies without issuing a special invitation for more), I was able to enjoy Christmas and New Year’s with my family without feeling too crappy.
Well, here we are on January 4th already; the holidays have passed, the decorations will be coming down, the children will be returning to school tomorrow (one extra day off for records or something), there’s work to do, galleries to finish, emails to answer, contracts to finalize, mail to send, orders to process, albums to design, website updates to make, tax returns to file, bills to pay, et cetera and so on and so forth! For me as for many others, today it’s Back to Your Regularly Scheduled Life. Before I get to all of that though, I’d like to share some personal goodies with my first 2010 post here, or else, gentle blog-follower, please understand that they will never see the light of day (much like all of my personal photos from this past fall, which I would love to share at some point, though they will be out of place no matter when I post them now)!
Part One: The Big Tree
This is the tree in our living room, the decoration of which my husband has declared I am “autocratic” about. 
One of these years I will achieve exactly what I’m going for in my head; this year I didn’t quite hit the mark (forgot some touches and didn’t realize it until I stumbled upon the box when it was too late to put them on), so alas, it had to do without them. Issues? Who, me?
Part Two: Christmas Past
If you’ve been following the blog for a while, you’ll recall that last year we celebrated Christmas in Santa Fe. As nice as it is to be home for the holidays, I have to say there was a huge part of me (and I know my husband will agree) that ached to be back there this year, and looks forward to spending Christmases to come there as well. When we deck the halls each year, I like to replace some of our framed photos with memories of Christmases past. This year, it only made sense to feature some favorites from last Christmas in New Mexico (as a side note, I can barely believe a whole year has passed since then)!
Part Three: The Gingerbread House
An annual tradition that the kids always look forward to. Since it’s really not edible once it’s been displayed for a week or so, disposal is always kind of traumatic for them. This year we came up with what proved to be the perfect solution: leaving the gingerbread house out on Christmas Eve in lieu of milk and cookies. 
Part Four: The Little Tree
We bought this tree several years ago, when we were living in Arizona and had neither the space nor the money for a large Christmas tree. Since then, it has had the honor of being the children’s tree, which they are free to decorate however they like. This is really the more sentimental tree, because it’s decorated with love by little hands, featuring ornaments they have made themselves as well as many other treasured ones acquired over the years (some going back to our own childhood). As much as the “main tree” has come to satisfy some need of mine for a kind of personal artistic expression, it’s really the kids’ tree that warms my heart.
Part Five: Christmas Day
This Christmas was the first one I can recall with my children where we had a true Red Ryder moment. Much as Ralphie’s mom was emphatic that his dream toy was a bad idea, I have long been emphatic about never having video games in my house. Well, the first rule of parenthood (as I well know, and shouldn’t have forgotten) is that you never. Say. Never. How long did I think I could possibly resist the Wii? I don’t know, but I do know that my husband won me over on the idea this year, and I know that it was the last item in the world my children expected to find on Christmas morning, and I know that when my daughter got that look on her face (see below- you’ll find it), and then dissolved into tears and tackled my husband with the biggest hug she’s probably given him since she was a preschooler… I know that whatever reservations I had (and still have, to an extent) that they might shoot their eyes out (or, in this case, play their brains out) was trumped by that moment. Now if only I can uphold the Wiikends Only rule for those two. Wish me luck!
