Canvas Print Sale!!!

Hey guys! I just thought I'd let you know that through March 4, any 24x30 or larger canvas gallery wraps are 25% off!! And for the entire month of March, ANY size canvas gallery wrap is 10% off!

Why am I doing this? Because I absolutely LOVE my gallery wraps and want everyone to have one for their own home!! To see what these are, I will post some pictures for you drool over. (I've included a sample from their website in the meantime - but I will take some pictures of my canvases as well). They are your pictures beautifully printed on canvas and wrapped around a 1.5" think board that hangs directly on your wall...no need for a frame! I already have 3 myself, and want more! So if you are interested in purchasing one, just let me know! Also, if you need help picking a picture from your event, I can help you with that as well - I can tell you what works and what doesn't work with a gallery wrap. You can also do custom sizes.

Trust me, you won't be disappointed!

Baby Skoog #2

After Jen (Matthew's sister) started having contractions last week (2 weeks before her due date), we decided it might be a good idea to go ahead and do her pregnancy pictures while she was still pregnant! So at the last minute, I was able to photograph her belly before the arrival of baby Skoog #2! You can see the slideshow here. And here are some of my favorites...

Well, it turned out the contractions were a false alarm, since he still hasn't arrived, but will any day now! We are so excited to meet our little nephew, making Matthew and I an aunt and uncle for the 8th time! And even more exciting is that Jen wants me to be present at the birth to photograph the occasion! I'm very excited! I've been driving around with my camera in my car, on call, so that should she go into labor, I can head straight to the hospital, camera in hand! So stay tuned for more pictures of baby Skoogy in the next week or so!

EDIT: Ok, so I wrote this post earlier in the day, but didn't post it to the blog yet...baby boy Skoog didn't give me any time! He was born today, 2/28/08 at 8:03 pm. Pictures of the birth to come soon!! Stay tuned!

andrew and darci

Last weekend, I spent a couple hours in Greensburg, IN with Andrew and Darci to shoot their engagement pictures. The weather wasn't cooperating early in the day, but thankfully it all cleared up just in time for us to get some great pictures! Darci was a trooper, putting up with some huge gusts of winds during the shoot. The combination of storm clouds and a little bit of sun made for some awesome pictures! This was my first time shooting on a farm, and I could have stayed there all day with the two of them! They were so great and such a cute couple - I am very excited about doing their wedding in July! I have picked just a few of my favorites from this shoot and you can see their slide show here.




















Andrew and Darci, thank you so much for letting me come out to do your engagement pictures! I hope you enjoy your pictures!

Cruise!!

Matthew and I had a fantastic time on our cruise! We got back late Saturday night to cold, icky weather. That is not the best way to return from Mexico! We had perfect weather the whole time - 80s, sunny, no clouds, beautiful!!!

We flew first to New Orleans the day before our ship left. We didn't know this when planning the trip, but it happened to be Mardi Gras while we were there. That was definitely an experience! Our cab driver from the airport told us that he would have to drop us off a few blocks from our hotel because of the parades. Not a big deal, we had rolling suitcases and are two young sprats that can make the walk. So we get out and start walking, then realise, not only could cars not get through the parades, but neither could people, especially people with big suitcases! So we keep walking and walking, trying to find a break in the parade to cross the street to our hotel....we don't find one. At this point, we are even farther from our hotel than when the cab driver dropped us off, we are sweating because we are dressed for cold weather (we had just come from Cincinnati with sub-zero temperatures), and there is no hope of crossing the street! So I decide to find a policeman who could be kind enough to open up the gates to let us cross the parade to the other side of the street. I approached a man who turned out to be a God-send, because when he saw us, he knew exactly what our problem was. He saw us with suitcases and frustration on our faces, and said "Let me guess, you're trying to get to your hotel?" (I think our bags gave us away). This nice EMS guy decides to put our bags in the back of his SUV and take us to our hotel.

But that's not the best part! He told us that the only way to get across the street was to go back to the highway and take that to the next exit ramp over the parade. He said that cab drivers know this, but choose not to take this route because of the massive amount of traffic - and he was right, there was A LOT of traffic - but not for us! He turns on his sirens and is pushing people out of the way -on the highway, on the one lane exit ramp, at intersections and red lights...it was incredible. He came within inches of hitting cars, with the sirens and horn blaring, making them get out of our way! Turns out, he was the Chief of EMS for New Orleans, which means he runs the entire EMS in the city, and did during Katrina. I'm sure he had tons of stories and I really wanted to talk to him about it, but he was concentrating on not hitting anyone, so I decided to keep quiet.

During our free ride, I took a short video just to document that this really happened. It doesn't show much, but you do hear the sirens. I didn't lift the camera to take pictures or video because I didn't want to get in trouble or anything ( I don't know if there are any rules about documenting the inside of these kind of vehicles - plus I didn't want to distract him). Also, I must have hit the button early because I later realize that the video is a lot shorter than what I thought I took (sorry Matthew!) - but at least we've got something!

So that definitely made for a good and interesting start to our vacation! He informed us to tell all our friends back home that when they visit New Orleans and have an EMS vehicle on their tail with sirens blowing, don't panic, it's just the EMS taking tourists to their hotel!

New Orleans was an experience in itself. We walked around Mardi Gras and saw some of the parades. I did learn that during the day, they toss beads out to everyone - you don't have to give up your dignity to get any! That really relieved me because I saw A LOT of people with beads and it scared me that all these people gave everyone a peep show just to get beads. So of course, I got some beads after learning that great fact. (I didn't want to go home with beads thinking you had to do something to get them and then let others think I participated - I was merely an innocent bystander who got whacked in the head with beads from the parade!) Apparently, what we hear from the natives, that things start to get really out of control and unsafe in the evenings - so we were glad we were only out during the day. Don't get me wrong - people were still crazy and completely drunk during the day, but that was the "family friendly" version of Mardi Gras. (Trust me, I wouldn't want to bring my family to this!)

We spent the evening in our hotel for the SuperBowl and decided not to venture out after the game - I think that was a wise decision on our part. Not to mention we got to watch one of the greatest SuperBowls ever!! I'm a Giants fan now! (Ok, not really, but was for this game!) Gotta love those Mannings!

Anyways, after all that, we finally got on the cruise! I don't have nearly as crazy stories like our New Orleans experience, so I'll let the pictures tell the stories..

This is our ship at night the first night we were on it....

Trying to get artsy with a point and shoot. Oh yeah, I should mention that this was a TRUE vacation for me - the only camera I had on me was the small digital point and shoot and not my big professional one. This vacation was so freeing because I didn't lug around a big camera and laptop! It was fantastic! I was completely off duty and although I wanted good pictures to document the trip, I wasn't obsessed with getting THE picture or the best picture possible - that's what I call a TRUE vacation! :

Hanging out in Progresso, Mexico. (We have a lot of self portraits on this trip)

Our beautiful ship, docked at Progresso. (Yeah, not much to do here - wouldn't recommend it even though we had fun- we ended back up on the ship early that day).

Anther self portrait...I'm really glad Matthew has long arms and can do this...

Our ship docked at Cozumel (GORGEOUS place - highly recommended). Oh, and someone took our picture - yay!

The Fury - a boat we took on an excursion to go snorkeling, lay on rafts at a private beach, with all the drinks included, and some good music and dancing on the deck (I learned the Cuban Shuffle - for those who don't know this dance, you need to get on the bandwagon because it's so much fun!)

On the way out to the private beach - can the water get any more beautiful?

The rafts we used to float in paradise...

More Cozumel...

My virgin Pina Colada - a favorite for the trip - I think the bartenders laughed at me every time I ordered it without alcohol. Hey, I think it's better without the alcohol... Sue me! (Oh yeah, and I took this cause I like the reflection of the ceiling in the bar counter) I drank this while we listened to Justin, a fantastic acoustic guitar player who played in the lobby twice a day - we would schedule our day around when he'd play so we could come and sit an listen to him (a great excuse to get my virgin Pina Coladas) :) Matthew immediately fell in love with him when he heard him play Eve 6 the first night on the ship.

Matthew enjoying some good Mexican food at 11:30 pm - maybe not the wisest of decisions, but hey, you're on vacation, mon! (a favorite Jamaican saying from our honeymoon - still a good piece of advice for anyone!)

A beautiful sunset over the Gulf...

yay for tans!!

We got off the ship around 8:30 am, but our flight didn't leave until 6:00, so we had all day to kill in New Orleans. Based on the recommendation from New Orleans people at our table on the cruise, we went to Cafe Maspero for lunch and enjoyed some good ol' Creole Jambalaya....mmm tasty.

We spent the day walking around Bourbon street (which is all strip clubs and bars - also a place I wouldn't recommend), the French Quarter, a flea market in the French Quarter, and watching some fantastic street performers. It was a good but tiring day. We got home around 12:30 am and were in bed by 1:00 am. It was a fantastic trip, and now with the weather the way it is, I want to go back!! I do have more pictures, obviously, and am going to make a little album, so if you're interested, I'd be happy to show you. But that's the trip in a nutshell!

Oh, and Happy Valentine's Day!