a geeky photographer thing?

LOVED
loved
L@vEd!!!!!!
this image

and

JUST LEARNED
HOW IT WAS DONE!

wow. check it out!

(historical) hats off to you,
CHUCK KENNEDY and big thanks to the News Photographer Magazine for this story + letting us all see it online.

happy happy new year :: Amy + Ryan = first SilverBox engagement pictures of 2009

amy + ryan found SilverBox via the internet and booked us by phone (they live in Oklahoma and are getting married in Missouri at Les Bourgeois Bistro this coming May).

So our engagement session was my FIRST chance to meet them in person. Hiking around Capen Park with the two of them on a VERY crisp winter afternoon reminded me again: "yes! THIS is why i love photography. THIS is why i'm photographing weddings!" Hangin' with new folks who right away feel like old friends . . . seeing old hangouts in fresh new ways. . . finding color and light in the dead of winter.

Check out a few of my favs:



















and by the way . . . I'm blogging from Pittsburgh, where i'm visiting my dear friend, Helen.

If you've never been to Pittsburgh, you should visit! I LOVE this town.

why?!

~ banana and walnut pancakes at Pamela's restaurant in Squirrel Hill

~ photographs by Clyde Hare at the Carnegie Museum of Art. Clyde Hare spent 4 decades photographing urban renewal in Pittsburgh . . . he met Roy Stryker (who headed up the Farm Security Administration's efforts to document the Great Depression) at a photographic workshop in Missouri . . . Stryker later invited Hare to Pittsburgh to work with him on the Pittsburgh Photographic Library Project in the 1950s. Check out some of Hare's photographs here

~independent films at Regent Square Theater (we saw I've Loved You So Long)

~coffee at Trader Joe's

~belgian beer at Sharp Edge beer emporium

~Nationality Rooms at University of Pittsburgh's Cathedral of Learning . . . we're talking over 26 college classrooms designed to represent specific historical eras from countries all over the world: 5th century Greece . . . 18th century China . . .

~polish hill, squirrel hill, 3 rivers 446 bridges!

So much art and education and funk and energy. Is there a SilverBox couple who wants to get married in Pittsburgh? i'll be there in a heartbeat.

~kim

have you SEEN . . .

[ note the suspense ]
.
.
.
soon (relatively soon) ~ SilverBox unleashes a new look. and we're nearly as excited as kids on christmas eve.
the designer who created it? a very clever canadian who's website + blog you've just gotta see. oh what fun!
and here's what i just found on this GIRL NAME FRED's blog:

obamicon.me! [or your favorite muppet for that matter]

fred reports first finding it HERE
on the "how about orange" blog.
so if you were looking for a little friday distraction,
look no further!:
1. remake yourself via Shephard Fairey.
2. see the cool things our newest designer friend concocts
AND the cool places she takes you; AND
3. get deliriously lost in the yummy how-about-orange . . .

whew! and you were merely going to peek at WE were up to.

no chance, baby.
ENJOY.

hugs to all!
amy + kim

. . . taking down the tree

pathetic. simply pathetic. but i'm just not ready to let it go. i love it too much!
you see, we have what some would call an "artificial tree" --
we didn't USED to.
we were one of those families who would all go to the tree farm together.
all 5 of us would run off in different directions and spy "the perfect tree...THAT one"
(followed by hours of negotiations and attempts at compromise)
we actually came home with more than one tree on more than one occasion.
it just seemed easier that way.

but LAST YEAR, due to quite a few december weddings and some rather hairy work projects for paul,
it was getting awfully close to christmas and we still hadn't made it, as a family, out to the tree farm.
it was a tuesday, about 4 in the afternoon and 40 degrees and i felt like it was the best weather we were going to get for quite awhile. it was now or never time.

"kids" i said. "maybe we go out to the tree farm, right now, without dad"
(paul doesn't get home from work on a winter weekday 'till well after dark.)
"without dad?" the kids exclaimed, tears nearly forming in their eyes.
until zoe piped up with:

or we could just get that BIG WHITE ONE at TARGET?

why yes we could! i thought, making a quick u-turn and beeline to targheee

and it is a gem of a tree!
it is NOTHING like the artificial trees of my childhood.
it's a delight i tell you. --- and so darn cute with our wacky walls!

we're also a snowflake making family.
we hang them all over!
and THIS YEAR thought HEY, we could decorate the PRESENTS with these, too.



look closely at the bottom image below ~ see that lil baby tennis shoe strapped to a branch?
. . . we've saved our kids early shoes and now use them as ornaments.
it's gives us reason to get them out and hold those lil' bitty shoes every year. love that!


ok, and just a few from Christmas morning to follow.
[I'll save pictures of all of us giving my MOM perhaps the best present ever for another day.]

zoe collects nutcrackers.
she's always wanted one as big as she is.
ta-da!:



paul runs marathons now. crazy i know.
he just started in 08 i think (or maybe '07 was his first...hmmm) but i know for sure he has already qualified for boston. that seems big! and anyway, he'd been wanting this marathon poster framed.
thanks to avery coming home from germany + our little frame-it-right store down the street, "we" got it done!
(read: avery agreed to spend an afternoon dry-mounting, matting + assembling the frame)

paul LOVED it!



ave is an incredibly crafty one.
look what she MADE for tycho:



he was one happy boy christmas morning!



geez, not many pictures OF avery.
at 15, she's somewhat of a camera dodger . . . but oh, this is cute.
she created and gave zoe a shirley-temple-mix-kit: big box with sprite, grenadine, fancy glasses and look--maraschino cherries.
(complete with label she created . . . she's that kind of girl)

and here was an incredibly cool present avery brought home from germany for us all.
that max in his wolf-suit making mischief of one kind or another is a family favorite.
and WOW...to have a german copy!!!!
i can't even tell you how much we all loved this!



christmas day at our house involves opening presents, eating ronzas and playing games in pjs pretty much all day.
this year SORRY! was a big hit "it's a game of sweet revenge!"



let the wild rumpus start!

[aka Lassen Sie die wilde rumpus starten]

:) amy

a second look . . .

don't you just love when you notice something that's been there all along, but for whatever reason, it just never really caught your eye before.

i guess i'd seen this picture kim documented this fall at the columbia country club.
but whoa.
i looked at it yesterday as we were going through some files and was just blown away by how very perfect it is.



kim: you are FABULOUS!!!!! thanks for being the world's best business partner :D

how cute is THIS!

holy cow this was fun!

these are little business card size magnets ~

oh i can't wait to see (+ hold!) 'em!

and look at me developing a little photoshop skill. impressed?

too cute for words i tell you . . . 

and speaking of cute words:  here's a new Silver Lining thing.

but first (wait for it) -- the background story.

for many years instead of sending a "holiday letter" paul + i enclosed an "overheard" column ~ mostly just stuff our kids said that cracked us up. 

we'd email each other conversations we had with the kids and then at year's end (or sometime within a few months of that) we'd sift and mine. fun times!

i actually had friends call last year and say "got your card, but where's Overheard?" ~ and well, we didn't get one enclosed THIS YEAR either . . . so i'm going to start sharing them here. good plan? see, this afternoon on the way home from school, zoe (9) uttered a classic:

i tried that dried mango you got. NOT good. it's like an INSULT to a mango. 

here's to keeping it real!

~amy

PS see this picture sans-calendar HERE in a "sneak peek from hopetown"

a lil' piece of the katie + michael story

C O N T I N U E D :

quick.
what do you see in THIS picture?



jingle bells.
REAL jingle bells.

and that ring-a-linging you hear: just the tip of the iceberg.

can you make out some of the program text?
instead of a "flower girl" for example, katie + michael had a sugar plum fairy + little drummer boy.

Q. the minister's job description . . . . any guesses?

A. parson brown!

oh what a hoot!!

ok, one more look at those jingle bells.
first with katie's grandpa's scarf (a brilliant idea!) then in the basket with the wedding program scrolls (ditto.)



when i first met katie, she had a binder of inspiration + design clippings with her.
for years she'd been noticing, collecting (and this is the real genius: ORGANIZING) great ideas.
simply put it was this beautiful array of things that had "caught her fancy" ~ ideas for you name it: decor, color palettes, hair styles, fonts ~ wedding inspiration and beyond.
it was a traveling design board in a binder i tell ya, and i LOVED it!

knowing how many years she's been envisioning and how many months she's been implementing made it all the sweater to see katie fully enjoy her wedding day moment by moment:



now if you've rounded up jingle bells for every guest, why not have a sleigh, too??

yep:



the above picture taken by the amazing annika miller during michael + katie's "first look" ~ i was peeking from the ground level and annika perched from above. LOVE it!

but WAIT. there's so much more to love.
from friday night's rehearsal dinner:



to the milk + cookies they served their guests near midnight at their wedding reception (these shots are annika's, too!)



katie + michael's wedding was simply chock-full of joy, laughter, one whimsical idea after the other and, most importantly: friends!

aren't girlfriends just the greatest!!!



at every age!



another fun before pic coming right up . . .

but first, the story:

so traveling to the wedding, the candlelighter, her kid sister (aka sugar plum fairy) and uber cool mom (see above) reported working thru the "genius test" and when the girlfriend gang heard of such a test being out in the car, shouts of "bring it on" were heard round salon.

it may have started out as amanda's middle school project, but it proved to be fun for all.

have you tried it? click here for something similar online. fun times!



3 more favorite things in no particular order:
a. a snow-topped cake that smelled so yummy, vanilla aroma filled the room
b. silver, silver everywhere (including buckets hanging off trees!)
c. katie + michael's first dance!








and there's a SLIDESHOW for you to see. hooray!
oh katie + michael (+ friends. oh how i LOVED those girlfriends!!!!) a dozen thank yous for letting me document your wedding day. loved LOVED every minute of it!!!

~amy

PS venues + vendors
it's always such a joy to be at Stephens College. the kimball ballroom is second to none!
thank you thank you THANK YOU amanda for making us feel so welcome.

invitations, programs, stationery, paper design: brooke of originals paper art.
(and she + handsome husband allen will be handbinding katie + michael's Originals Box Set, too!)
click here to see brooke's blog entries about katie + michael's wedding stationery.

cake: hats off to the SUGAR LOFT; this is the 2nd wedding i've documented with a Sugar Loft cake, both not only looked terrific, they TASTED DIVINE! guests where chattering about it ~ now that's a good sign! katie actually found out about the sugar loft by reading the Silver Lining ~ aah, even sweeter!!!!

flowers: christy + co, booneville

hair + makeup: green meadows hair company

lunch: the upper crust (mmmmm....have you TRIED that green apple + brie? A-MAZING!)

wedding coordinator: natalie merrill of event solutions "worth every penny" katie's mom explained.

we LOVE wedding coordinators ~ oh how they make EVERYONE'S life easier ~ especially the mom's!

michael + katie :: the SLIDESHOW

there's so much i want to TELL YOU about this remarkable wedding, but while i work on collecting my thoughts, hmm....wanna see a few pictures?

explanations + rambling narrative coming soon. but FIRST . . . am out the door for a new year's day walk with daughters + friends.

HAPPY NEW YEAR, all!

~amy