So we’ve been on this kick of going to estate sales.. we get such a thrill from it! The older the find, the better.. and if it holds some kind of personal touch from the previous owner it might as well be gold. Imagine our excitement when we ran across this map:

I tried to do a little research to find out when it was made.. but the publishing company [print company?]‘s website didn’t give us any hints.. and we kinda gave up after looking there… our guess is the 60′s.. but not only is the map a really cool piece for our vintage style living room.. but it has now taken on a life of it’s own.. check it out

[keep in mind I am NOT a videographer and every time I use my camera as an HD vid.. it stinks.. goal for 2012..]

i usually steer clear of shooting families these days because i’m just not that good at it.. i stick to my strengths.. but i’m super excited how this one turned out… great light, great kid and a family i just love. i donated a family shoot for a local United Way auction and the winner was the Bells!! this family is very dear to us and i couldn’t have been more thrilled that they won!! yay! alright.. but at editing.. 6 more session to go!! bring it on fall!! let’s do this!

One of the most incredible people in this world is my grandmother [or Grandmom to us grandkids]. This woman is our own personal super woman in every way. She leads with her heart as she lives completely selflessly for those she loves. Completely selflessly. She has taught us all what love really means and is the best source of wisdom and strength for her entire family. She has certainly been the most influential person in my life and I’m certain countless others. With all the love and time she has given to us.. it’s now our turn to show her how very much her love has meant to us.

Grandmom was diagnosed with Breast Cancer just a few short weeks ago. Even though super woman has a rip in her cape.. she still keeps flying. She is the strongest person I know and is standing strong in the face of this villain. She will conquer it and we will be side by side with her until she does.

In honor of this amazing woman some of the woman in our family are walking the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure here in Knoxville in a few weeks. I have committed to raising $$ for the event and have put together a gallery site for you to be a part of it! Whether you have a friend, mother, daughter, sister who is fighting Breast Cancer or you want to encourage the research being done to kill this villian for good.. please donate!

********For October only any current/past clients who purchase prints from their gallery sites 100% of the proceeds will go to Susan G Komen Foundation For The Cure*********

********Also I’ve put together a gallery site with images from my Europe Trip for you to purchase prints or canvases. 100% of the proceeds from that site will go directly to Susan G Komen! *********

CLICK HERE to view THE GALLERY SITE where you can purchase prints!!!

cheers! bonjour, buon giorno + ciao!!!

i can’t believe i get the chance to share this blog post. i can’t believe only 3 weeks ago we were in europe! As a photographer it is extra tough to come back from a vacation.. not only do you have to pack up and leave a land of dreams.. but you only hope hope hope that all the 100s of pictures you just took captured the memories as they were really lived. this is a long time problem of mine.. through high school and college i was absolutely obsessed [OBSESSED] with not forgetting a great memory or a great story of my life.. my camera became my record keeper and i am now so grateful for those boxes and boxes and boxes of images. it’s sad that over the last 3 years as photography has become my life.. i’ve stopped snapping every good time, every smile and every friend. i realized this while in europe and vowed to bring back the priority of documenting my life.. starting with this trip.. and BOY did i do just that!! thousands of pictures later.. i’ve finally condensed them to my very favorites.. favorites that i want to grace the walls of our new home.. favorites that i can use to tell the story of our journey.. but first i will share them with you.

if any of you are interested in gracing your walls with my images i have set up a site for you to do so.

CLICK HERE TO PURCHASE PRINTS + CANVASES

this trip was capital A- amazing!! i love culture, i love languages, i love people and tradition, i love history [david loves history more].. and this trip had it all. oh and i LOVE FOOD! oh, italy.. i miss you and your food.
…anyway..

our trip itinerary looked a little something like this: fly into london.. stay 2 nights [in an apartment we booked through AIRBNB.com which we LOVE LOVE LOVE].. train ride to paris with 1 night stay [also booked through AIRBNB.com] this was the biggest regret from the trip.. we did NOT stay long enough in paris.. too much too see.. such little time.. next we took an overnight sleeper train [so cool!!] to rome, italy where we stayed in the most unbelievable artist’s loft for 4 nights [booked from VRBO.com]. truth be told.. i would skip london + paris and head straight to italy if i had it to do all over again! we brought david’s amazing sister on this trip and she would slap me silly for saying i wouldn’t go back to london.. she is a londener at heart and it wouldn’t surprise me one bit if she ended up living there for a time in her life.

italy is breathtaking, happy, loving, full of life and life loving people, fast paced in a taxi and slow paced everywhere else. i adore italy and was overwhelmed by it’s wimsey. please do yourself a favor and take a trip to rome.. you can thank me later.

there is so much to say about this trip.. so many laughs, so many memories, so much beauty and SO MUCH FOOD to share about.. but i will let you take it all in yourself with these images.. grab a gelati, capaccino or croissant and savor..

bye, au revoir, arrivederci, ciao!!!

happy anniversary to the greatest man on the planet.. i couldn’t live this life without you… and wouldn’t ever want to try.. 5 years is a pretty cool number but I can’t wait to say 30!

[we're just a couple of bookends.. ]

“Get Excited!!!”

This is a phrase I heard about 100,000 times in college from my one of my favorite people and I miss it so very much. Meet my friend and college roomie Liz.. and her super great hubby Keith. When I think about this girl.. I’m flooded with so many memories and laughs I can’t help but smile. Like the time we decided randomly one night to hop on a plane with a backpack to NYC for the night, stay in a hostel and fly back the next day [we accidentally booked it for a month later instead of a day later.. but that's another story]. The bus dropped us off in the Bronx and here we are.. two bouncy, smiley girls in a very scary place. Oh.. I could go on. and on. and on.

OR the time we were led into an abandoned campus library at 4am and ended up running from a black bear from inside the building.. yeah. That happened.

I’m telling you.. this girl has filled my life with some of my favorite stories and I know she will do the same for their little one expected in a few months. I’m so thrilled she’s going to be a mama and I’m so thrilled to meet him.

One little detail I MUST add to this.. there is a image here with a mini Abe Lincoln finger puppet… my Liz LOVES Abe Lincoln [or did] so when I saw the finger puppet in a Knoxville kids boutique I HAD to get it! When she tells stories of the greatness of Abe.. she now has a prop.

I’m going to try to type this out without crying into a big puddle here in my office.. I simply ADORE this man in every way. This man taught me how to love.. with his love.. how to work hard.. with his hard working hands.. how to be cool.. with his swagger [Yes, my dad has swagger. It's all in the walk] and how to make the best PB&J you’ve ever experienced. When I look back on the fun and laughs we’ve shared I can’t help but want to live those childhood memories all over again.. and again.. and again. And today I find myself more and more like him every day. My adventurous spirit, love of all things fun, desire to live life to the ABSOLUTE max, my laid back nature [and complete intolerance for all things dramatic]… all come from my dad and OH how I’m thankful. I even laugh a bit when I’m 10 minutes late to EVERYTHING.. because I inherited that as well. I think it’s a gift to be exactly 10 minutes late to ABSOLUTELY everything! This man has the biggest heart I know and I could NOT love him more than I do. Now.. I can’t wait for my little kiddos to meet him someday and soak up all that love as well.. I hope he passes along every one of the qualities to them that he taught me [except maybe the late one. ]

Dad, thanks for all the hugs, all the love, all the lessons, all the snowmen, all the bandaids and the kisses to make it all better, for wiping my tears, for the long talks of wisdom when I was young, the constant protection… you are my hero and I adore you more than life.

i sure do love tennessee. one of my very favorite parts of living here is how close it is to the Great Smokey Mountains.. i was born an outdoor lover.. growing up with my dad taking me to the Smokeys almost every other weekend is probably the reason why.. but i just couldn’t love it anymore than i do. pair that love with the inability to sit still for too long and you’ve got a great sense of adventure. i’m lucky to have met and married a man who can’t sit still for very long either! so, we’re sitting on the couch on saturday afternoon just twiddling out thumbs racking our brains for something to do that night other than stay at the house. these were some of our unfruitful ideas.. 1] go kayaking.. take too long to get the yaks-racks on the car 2] go wakeboarding.. or even boating.. no boat [sold it last year.. bummer] .. we even considered renting a sail boat.. hmph. 4] buy a boat.. kind of disrupts the who “downsizing” thing we’ve got going on now 3] walk around downtown.. did that the night before…. then we remembered that the fireflies [lightning bugs for those of us in the south] were doing their little mating dance @ Elkmont in the Smokies! Bingo!! I wish I had a camera by my side to capture the look on our faces! And we were off!

Every year for 2 weeks in the summer there is a certain breed of firefly that mates around the Elkmont campground in the Smokies. Right when it gets completely dark they begin to blink in unison. Think, Christmas lights. Hundreds and thousands of fireflys blinking all at once. It was one of the COOLEST things we’ve ever seen. We are just nerdy enough to adore them. I tried to get a pictures of them on my bulb setting.. without any luck.. just a black frame. This is FOR SURE something you need to see for yourself! If you can get past the long long lines for the trolleys to take you up there.. and the completely obnoxious people around you saying “it’s-just-a-bunch-a-bugs” or the folks ACTUALLY trying to take flash pictures of the bugs and scaring them away [big WOW to this one]… then you will LOVE LOVE LOVE them! They will be taking shuttles from the Sugarlands Visitor Center to Elkmont until the 19th I believe [check to make sure]. And get there around 5:30 – 6:00… [shuttles start at 7] or you may not even be able to get on the trolley.

Happy Bug Watching!!