Archive for May, 2007

Spring is officially here, let the Ice Cream Truck arrive! :)

So I’ve added a new category to this blog called Garden Adventures. I wanted to name it “Watch My Garden Grow” but to many words.

Here’s a little history…Brian and I bought this beautiful, 100 yr. old, English Tudor home two years ago. We were in the thick of wedding season, so we focused on getting moved in. Last year summer came and went with weddings, and we still didn’t do any gardening except my pots on the back deck. But this year is different!

When Pascaline was 9 months old, we backed packed all through England. Brian and I fell in love with English cottage gardens. The landscaping of our house in the backyard is AMAZING! Two levels with a vintage swing set, purple lilacs, hot pink azaleas, Rhodie’s, lime green ferns, cherry trees, an old apple tree, you name it. But the front yard…well this is the front yard and the front side yard. Totally boring!

The Rhodie and Camellia in front almost cover up the whole front of the house. And check out the nasty shrubs in the bottom right corner. Got to go!

The side yard feels like a putting green! The landscapers even mow it with a lawn mower called a “California Mower” which is what they use on golf courses. To perfect and put together for our taste.

So a couple weeks ago, we decided to go at it. Just have fun. Turn the whole side yard into a English type cottage garden. But make it interesting.

Brian said the design almost feels like the feminine meeting the masculine. :) Thankfully, our neighbors are excited and totally anticipating what’s to come.

Instead of having huge flower/vegetable beds, we thought it’d be fun to leave grass walking paths with a circle at the top. The kids are loving it! They’ve been helping a lot!

We’re having a blast! It feels so good to get out here after work and just plant, dig, shovel compost, until the sun goes down.

For Mother’s Day we got up early and started in the garden at 9am and worked out there until 8pm. Our neighbors kept commenting on how ambitious we are. Little do they know…

The kids and I planted sweat peas, strawberries, corn, artichoke, lettuce, and we’re still thinking about the whole pumpkin idea. Brian and I love Peonies, David Austin roses, Lupine, Holly Hocks, Delphinium, Larkspur and tons of Lavender. We even found a white rose called Pascali and a red Peony called Blaze! The kids are so excited!

The best adventure so far has been Pascaline running up to us and saying she stuck four worms down her gardening glove. She thought she was pretty smart until we told her she had to get them out to keep gardening. Oh boy! That was a pickle of a situation. For TWO HOURS she sat and tried to get the worms out of the fingers in her glove without squishing the worms at the same time. Hilarious! Brian and I tried really hard to not laugh. At the end, she said “Well that’s the last time I ever do something like that again mom. Getting those worms out was worse than a time out in my room all day!”

More Garden Adventure to come! :)

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Catching Up

Happy Mother’s Day to all the beautiful mothers who visit this blog! I hope you had a good one. Brian and the kids were stars. I can’t wait to share more tomorrow.

I know I haven’t posted since last Monday. Thanks so much for your patience! My speaking engagement in Chicago was amazing, and I can’t wait to tell you more about that trip! But I think I averaged three hours of sleep during the nights, so I’ve been playing catch up on rest and taking in the kids and Brian.

In the meantime, for Monday morning, I just wanted to post a quick blog and wish you a wonderful belated Mother’s Day. I hope you are feeling celebrated in small and surprising ways. If you didn’t this weekend, buy yourself a bunch of tulips today! You deserve it! :)

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I’m Free!

Blaze has been running around the house all weekend yelling “I free!” What he’s really saying is “I’m three!”

I can’t help but smile at how cute his language is. I’ve never seen a little one so excited to no longer be two years old. He tells me he’s much older now, “I not baby any more momma. Can’t call me your baby. I Spidey!” I can’t think of many, if any, thing better than making dinner and having a little Spiderman sneak up on me and pretend to shoot me with his webs so that I’m stuck and have to be kissed by him. (and he hasn’t even seen the movies!)

For his birthday we went to the zoo and then had a big family dinner afterwards.

The craziest thing…I was shocked to find my little brother, Shaun, living at the zoo! (just kidding Shauni :) )

Blaze got to pick his own lunch. Without hesitation: ICE CREAM CONE!

Pascaline made a special connection with Joan the Walrus. It was the craziest thing. Joan would swim on her back right to Pascaline’s face and almost try to kiss her!

She couldn’t stop giggling!

We came home, took long naps, and then my parents, brother, and a special surprise of my grandparents! showed up for dinner. But here’s the AMAZING part! My dad came in with all this food prepped for dinner and started making stir fry for everyone! Apron and every thing. Here’s me sneaking a bite while my parents discuss dinner. :)

I’m flying out in a few hours, and here I am posting the blog. This is for me more than anyone else. Now I can look at the blog and see the kids when I start missing them. Brian’s staying with them this time, and I know he’s got it under control (plus I have our nanny coming tomorrow and the house keeping coming Wednesday before I get home–smart huh! took 10 years of marriage to figure out how to set that up right! :) ).

But even though I know it’s all going to be fine. I can’t help but be missing my family already. As moms, who physically carried our babies during pregnancy, I don’t think we ever stop carrying them inside us. It must be why it feels like I’m tearing my heart apart every time I leave. If you are a mom, you have to buy this book for you and your kids. It’s called “Mama Always Comes Home.” It’s the BEST book b/c it shows mama bird flies away from the nest to find worms, but she always come home, or mama kitty leaving her kittens to drink some milk, but always comes home.

The kids and I read this the night before I leave for a trip, and they love to talk about how all kinds of mamas leave for a little while, whether it’s to go to work, go exercise, have a date with dad, have dinner with a girlfriend, but they always come back.

One more picture I caught this weekend. My two great kids, creating their own teeter-totter with a shovel and fire hydrant outside our house. Just love them!

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I know I’ve said this before, but I’m overwhelmed at how wonderful the photography community is! On Monday I’ll be flying out to Chicago to speak at Pictage’s wonderful bi-annual conference. Brian and I always love these events b/c it feels like a big reunion of old friends and than also meeting so many new ones.

With our crazy month of April, I forgot to sign up to be a mentor for the conference. So I decided to bid, and I found out today that I won a session with Robert Evans. His most well known clients have been Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston’s wedding, and he was also the photographer for Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes’ wedding.

photo by: www.robertevansstudios.com

Robert and I had a great conversation on the phone today, and I’m excited to chat more with him when we’re in Chicago. He is the nicest guy with such good stuff to share. And his work is beautiful!

Here’s some other fun news! My speaking session is on Tuesday at 1:30pm, and my talk is “Associate Your Way to the Top“. I’ll be sharing all the things we’ve learned on how to grow your business with associate photographers and also the joy of working with a creative team.

But the fun news is that for the first time, I’m bringing our new “Associate 101 Kits”!! Every thing you need to know about hiring associates from legal contracts to billing management is in this kit! It’ll include; our Independent Contractor Agreement, our Client Contracts we give to clients, our Pricing and Packages, Client Questionnaires, and 2 automated spreadsheet downloads that my amazing Brian created.

One download is called “Associate Management”. It is an AWESOME automated spreadsheet for those of you who want help in structuring out your payments and what percentages to give associate photographers. You’ll freak out when you see how easy this tool makes your life!

The other download is called “Workflow”, and you can purchase that now in our e-store. Hundreds of photographers all over the world have purchased it already. The positive feedback is overwhelming. What can I say, my husband is AMAZING! :)

So I thought I’d put this all into one kit and have it available to purchase for those you who are wanting to expand your studios. I only made 22 kits. We’ll sell them for $99, and if I have any left and you didn’t make it to Chicago, shoot me an email (mera@merakoh.com) and let me know if you’d like to be on the list to get one!

But what’s more exciting than all this?! Blazey is turning three on Saturday! Spiderman birthday, here we come!!! :)

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This wedding isn’t even released yet to the bride and groom, and we already had an upscale national magazine ask to see their photos and hear their story!

I think it’s a first for me to send the photos to the magazine before the client! But we’re all excited and keeping our fingers crossed!

If you read my previous post, you know I absolutely adore Kisha and Damon. We photographed their Cincinnati wedding in early April. It was an incredible weekend, and I left changed by the people I met and the stories they so willingly shared. Brian and I are honored to have captured their day. Here is Kisha and Damon’s slideshow, set to the most romantic song, tell us what you think!

ATTN to all of Kisha and Damon’s Friends and Family! Brian and I gave the okay to our pro lab to issue each of you a $5 Gift Certificate. To obtain this you need to pre-register to see Kisha and Damon’s wedding. Here’s the link. I guess the trick is that you have to do it before her wedding is online and ready to view. Her whole wedding should be online and ready to view by Monday! So you’ve got a couple days. I can’t say enough how wonderful it was to meet all of you. Our conversations were life changing. Thank you for sharing your beautiful family with us.

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Two down. One with a head cold. The other with a ruthless flu. Pascaline has gone through rolls and rolls of toilet paper and a couple Kleenex boxes in the last three days. Brian has been getting up at all times of the night nauseated and with fever. Blaze and I…let’s just say we’re running for cover!

Blaze is turning three this Saturday, so I’m praying he stays healthy for his long awaited Spiderman party. I leave for a speaking engagement in Chicago on Monday, so I’ve been washing my hands every ten minutes. :) Needless to say, posting my blogs has been pushed to the back burner with a house full of sickies. But hang in there, I’m posting an awesome slideshow on Thursday! Can’t wait for you to see it!

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