The Phoenix Wedding

In September I photographed my friends' wedding. It's not really my specialty, but I do enjoy playing around with a camera and in Photoshop. However, having said that, I wouldn't normally have agreed to do it, but I knew they'd be really great subjects and totally open to any of my suggestions. It turns out that not only were they open to anything, they were really laid back, and also gave me some great ideas in return. We had a ton of fun shooting these and they turned out way better than I could have hoped. I would do this again for them in a heartbeat!

I also helped design the belly bands that went around their lottery ticket party favors (inspired by my own wedding favors).

Farewell

My co-worker (and good friend) moved to Columbus, OH in October for a very exciting job opportunity. I was very sad to see her go so I put together this "survival guide" to hopefully help ease her into her new world. It's a mini book (5.5" x 4") and about 24 pages, all containing random facts about Ohio. Instead of posting the whole book I'm only posting a digital mock-up of the front cover and one inside page to give you an idea of the design. I spent a couple weeks researching Ohio in order to fill the book with interesting facts. Surprising, Columbus is a really cool city. I betcha didn't know the ice cream banana split was invented there!

It's a Girl!

I recently designed this baby shower invitation for my sister. She already knows the gender so I was able to use a very specific "girly" color scheme. It's not often that you see lavender and chocolate brown combined, but it really does make for a rich and beautiful color palette.

Randy's 40th Birthday Card

This is a digital mock-up of a birthday card I created for my friends' 40th b-day. Along with the card we gave him a very large bottle of rum, so I carried the rum theme throughout the card giving him hints as to what his present may be. Inside were 3 cards each containing something about rum (song lyrics, mixed drink and a beef recipe). I finished it off by sealing it with a round personalized sticker. It's all in the details!

Book Binding II

I was also the photographer at this wedding so as a gift to the Bride and Groom (also very close friends of mine) I created this book and gave them a disc containing all their photos, which slipped nicely into a pocket I constructed on the back cover.

Book Binding I

My recent obsession has been making books. I've been giving them out as wedding gifts because I figured there's no better gift than something hand-crafted and useful. Each book is personalized to match their wedding theme and colors. I absolutely love making them and enjoy working so diligently to give each one the personality to best represent the couple of whom it will go to. You will most likely see many more of these to come.

Strawberry Season

Strawberry season is long past but I had to post this anyways for the beautiful colors.

Bountiful Flora

I love plants, flowers, vegetables, and pretty much anything lush and verdure. Now that I'm a homeowner I can finally plant the garden I've always wanted. Okay, I'll be honest with you. I don't have much of a green thumb. But luckily my husband does. So he takes all the credit for the beautiful veggies and flowers that surround our humble abode.

I Love Cupcakes!!!

It's true, I do love cupcakes. So much that I even had them as my wedding cake. Not these cupcakes though. These are peanut butter and jelly cupcakes that I got from Martha Stewart's Cupcake cookbook. It was also my first attempt at baking real cupcakes (I'm not counting the box kind either). They turned out amazing and look killer too. The frosting was lip-smacking good!

The Windy City

I took a trip to Chicago a few months ago and snapped a couple shots of the city from my hotel window. The sun was just perfectly peaking out from behind some fluffy clouds so I took the opportunity to see what kind of image I could get. I think it produced a fairly nice chiaroscuro effect.

Emergency Chair Rehab

Here are some great retro chairs I picked up at an estate sale this summer, but they were in desperate need of a new coat of paint. So I gave them some life with these bright cheerful colors and designs. Much better than the creamy tomato soup color they were sporting before the make-over.