snow day

It began snowing today. So of course I grabbed my camera and headed down to the lake. I snapped some shots. I can't wait to go out tomorrow. We're expecting another 5-8 more inches tonight! Which is also going to make for a fabulous winter engagement session this weekend, Lord willing! More winter magic pics to come!

   

love in the post

My sister, Stacey, is not only gorgeous (if you remember this post), but she's super artistic and talented! After months of listening to me BEG her to start and etsy.com shop, she finally caved. She was a bridesmaid in a wedding a couple weeks back and for their wedding gift, she painted a watercolor of one of their engagement photos and framed it for them. It was AMAZING! I knew she had a gift. She is an art and graphic design major at the U. I'm so proud of her. She also does fantastic things with acrylic and charcoal. Don't believe me? Check out her etsy.com shop: loveinthepost.

Someday, we might do some sort of partnership business. Me, offering engagement/wedding photography, and Stacey, offering wedding invitation design and custom artwork. We'll call it hopepost? lovefeathers? hopeinthepost? lovefeatherspost? Ok... it's a work in progress!

In weekend news, we had an ugly christmas sweater/white elephant gift christmas party with friends. In my white elephant gift I received chocolate, half eaten pack of cough drops, tazo tea and a shot glass from Costa Rica. Random. Bluejay got a picture frame and some white tiger figurines. Really fun night! Also, we went to a Christmas fair of sorts on a fun St. Paul street called Grand Ave. We saw reindeer, had a pancake breakfast with Santa, drank coca samples, ate free christmas cookies, heard carolers dressed in vintage outfits, and FROZE in the 9 deg weather! Jack frost not only nipped at my nose, he almost bit it off! But it was a blast!

I also got inquiries about three more wedding! Two of them I would get to travel to! One in northern Mn, and one outside Denver! Hurray for 2010 shaping up to be a great wedding season! Know anyone getting hitched? Send 'em my way :) How was your weekend?

Holiday Bokeh

Bokeh:The blur, or the æsthetic quality of the blur, in out-of-focus areas of an image, or "the way the lens renders out-of-focus points of light. The term comes from the Japanese word boke (暈け or ボケ), which means "blur" or "haze", or boke-aji (ボケ味), the "blur quality". 


I have discovered a new love. Holiday Bokeh. I was photographing some recent and favorite ornaments for you all, when I was reaffirmed how much I love shooting wide open. I am fascinated by the way the christmas light sparkle in real life, and I adore the way they blur in photographs. Happy discovery. Happy day. Happy Holidays. 

This is my newest ornament. It's from our first honeymoon. Bluejay and I decided to call our anniversaries honeymoons instead of anniversaries. Because I'm a holiday elf, I get new ornaments from every big event or trip. I'm spoiled :) This is from our camping honeymoon in Duluth. It rained all weekend. Our tent wasn't waterproof. We slept in the car. But we stuck it out. Now it's a memory!

These vintage style ornaments are my all time favorite!

This one is Bluejay's least favorite. He hung it on the back of the tree. I moved it to the front. I like coffee... a lot. So it needed to be up front. And I wanted to remind my mom that in 13 days we get to sit at Starbucks across the table from each other and chat in person. I can't wait!