More of Indiana

So after hanging out in their old neighborhood, we went over to the "creek" (I think it might have been sewer water) where Jason used to fish.






This sight literally made me jump just slightly- look how close the color of my shoes is- that's amazing!!!


Then we headed over to Charles's parents' house where they were setting up for the party that night and the wedding the next day. I think this house may be half the reason I liked Indiana. Sooo Pretty. (Sigh . . . .) Anyway, I'll have to get myself a porch like that one day.


So when we got there Tessa had a secret for Charles . . .


She'd been saving this special job of splitting the bonfire wood just for Jason!!




It was so pretty out, and I'd already taken more than enough pictures of lovebirds Jason and Shawn as you can tell, so luckily Charles and Tessa were willing to do a little day-before-the-wedding 5 minute shoot for me.












We left and went to have a fabulous dinner with Jason's brothers and mom, and then by the time we got back the party was underway




This picture is so funny. I let Charles's dad swap lenses with me, so he put my fancy shmancy lens on his Rebel- and he was quite impressed.

. . . maybe I could get him to trade me- my lens for his front porch. . .

Indiana

We just got back yesterday from our trip to Indiana- and it was such a nice trip. I've never been to the midwest before . . . except to Chicago for a weekend once- but that just felt like another big city, so I'm considering this my first real Midwestern trip, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I learned that it's totally uncool to call Indianapolis "Indy", and that "Nap-town" is what the cool kids are saying. I saw my first "White Castle" and my first "Waffle House" and I apparently can't pronounce "Hoosier" right.

The first night we stayed at Jason's grandma's house and for some reason I just loved her house- it was just like Grandma's houses should be- with lots of knick knacks in the windowsills, pictures of grandkids in every available spot, and lots of knitted and ruffly things. I took so many pictures, I guess just cause I was having a familiar feeling and wanted to capture it.



At one point I realized something kinda bizarre. The layout of her house is just like the layout I often create in my head when I'm reading a book and there's a house in the story. Weird.









While being a military brat doesn't really allow one to claim to be "from" anywhere, Shawn grew up in Indiana from 5th through 9th grade and I think considers that to be where he's from more than anywhere else. It's where Jason and him met, so on Friday after waking up we spent a good deal of time driving through the old neighborhood and reminiscing.

Here is the old house




And the rock in the front yard that Shawn swears used to be bigger




They had so many memories from that neighborhood. It was good to listen to them remember where people used to live, and what happened on what corner, and to retrace the path they used to ride on their bikes to each other's house. . . I think generally people usually miss out on the first portion of their significant other's life's experiences; being able to do something like this felt really special.




There's tons more, but I'm too tired right now- I'll have to post the rest tomorrow

Mitra and Matt

So Jason, Shawn, and I are in Indiana right now for Charles's wedding and it has been such a good time- pictures of our adventures to come soon- but I just wanted to post some of these pictures from my photo shoot with Mitra and Matt and their three fabulous mutts- Echo, Monkey and Kaiya! I didn't have time to meet with them before we left since I was busy getting ready to go and they were busy with NBA finals! :) so I wanted to put a few highlights up here to hold them over until we can meet next week and see the rest.























tons more great ones guys- can't wait to show you!!

It's official!

As of today there should be no more questions from people coming into our studio off the street asking "is this is an interior design shop?" (which is a wonderfully flattering question, but just not the one we're looking for). From here on out, hopefully all the questions should be more like, "how soon can you photograph my dog/kid?" and that's because we FINALLY got our signs!!
I think they look super cute! More than anything though, I'm just happy to have this sign ordeal over with. After trying to teach ourselves to use Illustrator (which totally didn't work), researching a million different sign places, choosing the WRONG one the first time around, losing a good chunk of money because of it, we finally found New Bohemia Signs- a great place that hand-painted some really fabulous signs for us. We also have Jessica Lord to thank for making that sweet faux-rusted post.
Anyway, hopefully the whole ensemble will be an eye-grabber and we'll have people banging down our doors. . . . this woman will apparently not be the first.
Com'on!!- look the other direction for cryin' out loud!

Brides of March video

Katie, the bride from the most recent wedding I posted, just sent me this video from the Brides of March that crashed her wedding. If you look closely, you can see me in the background for about half a second!

My Embarrassing Dog

You might have already seen something similar on Tatanka's blog, but I just couldn't resist posting some of the same pics here too. Dangit, I love that dog- he's so freakin' cute! Embarrassing, but cute.
So when Shawn and I were in Carmel last week we went into Diggity Dog- the most elaborate pet store I have ever encountered. Seriously, they have collars nicer than any necklace I own, and ceramic dishes that make my Bed Bath & Beyond dishes look like paper picnic wear! And they have tons of it- the place is ginormous!
But even with raw hide options that went on for miles, there was only this one product that Tatanka just had to have. I asked Shawn if it was a bad idea b/c then people might think that we were Republican, but he assured me that they would know it was only our dog's party.