Don't get me started...

... on our evil (yet BRAND NEW) upright freezer.

Meet the freezer.

Yes, it has horns because I'm convinced it's straight from gahanna. Yes, it's energy star and hugs trees, but the first one didn't work and the second one had a LARGE malfunction last night.

Erik gave it a swift kick, which it completely deserved (don't worry, we got it scratch and dent, so he aimed for the dent that already existed in the door). If it were up to me, that freezer would have slept outside in the backyard last night. Only getting it into the backyard would have meant lugging it up from the basement, so I just glared at it.

Not convinced yesterday sucked? Here's a sure sign I should have spent the entire day in bed: I botched a batch of brownies.


Yup, I did. Heck, it was even brownie mix from a box, and I totally screwed it up.

I don't mean to brag, but I can hold my own in the kitchen (can you say I make a killer German Chocolate cake from scratch?). I throw things in a pan and they come out awesome! Roomies have even asked for my recipe, which is when I have to sheepishly admit I just throw things in willy-nilly. SO for me to mess up something simple and hard to mess up like brownies from a box .... I just admitted defeat and went to bed.

EDIT: And to top things off, after I posted this earlier, I went to let the cat in ... and guess what? She had a half dead bird in her mouth, which she thought should be brought into the house. UGH! I swear she's half python. I've seen her unhinge her jaw to swallow a bird whole before ... crazy cat! She put the bird down, I scooped her up and brought her in, Eirk scolded her, and I kicked the half-live bird off the porch ... and it actually flew off. I guess it went to die alone in peace, sans cat.

Time to vote!

SO, since being around Erik's house, I've been introduced to cable TV ... specifically home decor television. Crazy talk.

Anyhow, Design Star is on HGTV and a girl from Kansas is one of the two finalists.


Voting is open until Wednesday ... so go VOTE HERE. I feel obliged to vote for the girl from Kansas...but I have to say that Matt, the other finalist is pretty stellar and I'm jazzed to see who wins!

Wedding ticker

Erik wanted me to add one to our blog ... so here you go.



It ain't pretty, but it suffices. Maybe after yoga I'll find a better looking one.

Oh, and it's at the top of the right column until the wedding, so in case any of you are wondering... ;-)

ps-I added some of our e-pix to our wedding web site.

Karen + Erik's engagement slideshow — crossover

SOOOOO....our engagement slideshow is up on the Heartland Blog. Please CLICK HERE to view the blog post.


I have SO MANY favorites, It's seriously hard to choose one (or two or ten!).


As always, please leave some blog love (comments) on the Heartland Blog to let Mike know what a killer job he did!


Ok, so I actually took these two photos of Erik being a goon! :-)



Oh, and for your curious cats out there, we went to the Cozy Inn and Steifel Theatre for our photos.


Also, jump on over to the online proofing gallery by CLICKING HERE to check out the entire session!

It ain't sexy, but....

I've been meaning to post this for quite some time, but have never quite found the time. Somehow, today, it seems important.

A few weeks ago, I was talking with my parents about changes to wills and powers of attorney and all sorts of that stuff. Yeah, it sounds morbid to talk about "what do you want me to do when you're gone" but it's VITAL to find out NOW!

Some good questions to ask your loved ones:
• Do you have a will? If so, where is it/ who is the attorney?
• Who is in charge of the finances? Is there a financial advisor or accountant I should be aware of?

Granted, an unmarried person like me probably doesn't have quite the need for a will that others do. I have no kids, no house, no real estate ... just investments. BUT these investments (and even my car) do have a TOD (transfer on death) to an immediate family member (and even Erik on a few of them).

So, why the heck does this all matter? For we singletons, not much now. But what about my married friends, siblings or parents? You need to know about the wishes of your family, and even if you don't have reason to have a will, make a point to find out the expectations your siblings/parents might have of you in THEIR will (raise the kids, dogs, etc.).

Some of my friends have kiddos, but no stipulations regarding the kids ... no provisions made for the little ones. Yes, godparents have traditionally "raised" kids in the case parents were not around, but we godparents have NO legal rights. If you want the godparents to raise your kids, PUT IT IN A WILL. If you would like your parents or sibling to do so, PUT IT IN A WILL.

Mom and I were talking about it, and she's seen cases where parents made no provisions and a child was REMOVED from its extended family and put into foster care. Scary, but true!

Sorry about the soap box rant (and I KNOW we're in our 20s and it seems crazy to think about this stuff!), but having some sort of guidelines is a smart move.

EEEEEEEEEEEK! — Crossover

Cruise on over to the Heartland Blog by CLICKING HERE to see a few photos from the awesome e-session Mike did of Erik and I!!!!!!

ps-leave a comment on the HEARTLAND BLOG, please! We LOVE comments, but don't always get many! I'll give you a cookie! :-)

Crossover — HOT DOG!!!!!

Gotta LOVE this image from Mary and Ty's wedding in Plainville over the weekend. Sizzlin' hot!

Skip on over to the Heartland Blog to check out the sneak peek and stay tuned for their slideshow!

You might also want to visit Mike's personal blog to check out a KICKIN' sunset photo, as well as his take on small-town life. ;-)

Pool survey!

It's summer and that means pool time .... except here in Salina.

Ok, Salina DOES have a pool, but it doesn't quite match up to the aquatic parks in Hays or Independence.


SO, how does this affect you, our blog readers? If you are willing to GO HERE AND FILL OUT A SURVEY on what you like in an aquatic facility, I can show it off to you when you come to visit us. :-)

I've been quite spoiled in my last two towns to have awesome aquatic parks (I even got to watch them build the one in Indy!), and it's interesting to watch the process of trying to get one built here!

Oh, the excitement!

Woah, this is totally exhilerating! My brother-in-law listed a lens of mine on e-Bay. I NEVER use it, so decided I should sell it. With just a few hours remaining, I'm excited to see what the final result is!

I've bought a camera on e-bay before, and it was totally exciting with the bidding wars ... but this is WAY cooler than buying something because moo-lah will end up in MY pocket at the end of the auction! :-)

HERE is the live auction!

Pumping Canon — I mean iron!

I'm feeling lazy (AND just returned from one HOT, western Kansas wedding), so I'll share this from Melissa Jill's Blog.

Melissa says:
"camera = 7 lbs.
camera bag = 37 lbs.
# of hours shooting = 9-10
# of hours spent standing = 8
# of squats in 9 hours = 70
what I've decided I need after every wedding = a massage"

AMEN SISTA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I know in the past I *should* have worked out more, but what people don't understand that being a photographer IS physically taxing! We stand, squat, crouch, wiggle on the ground on our tummies....we move a TON!

But now that I live in Salina, and Erik is a wonderful influence, I'm at theYMCA several times a week. Erik is a regular weight lifter, and he's gotten me to start (I know I need to so my bones are strong and osteoporosis doesn't get me!).

But Erik's horizons are getting broadened, too! He's working on his yoga technique! :-)

Moving we no likey!

What does it take to get Karen moved from Hays to Salina??????

2 Uhaul dealerships
2 Toyota pickup trucks
3 snack wraps from McDonalds
1 Quarter pounder from McDonalds
1 medium french fries
1 Uhaul moving truck
1 hail storm
1 foot long sub from Subway

...

By the time we made it to Hays, we just threw things into the truck. That took 2 hours, and once we returned to Salina, it took 1 hour to move from the truck into the house. I'm exhausted just THINKING about our move 1.5 months ago!

R3 — around the house

After yesterday's LONG post, I thought I'd add a few ways we are environmentally friendly here at Erik's house is by:

- recycling daily, including cardboard boxes our granola bars and cereal come in.
- compost pile for our garden :-)
- CFL light bulbs are going in as old ones are burning out!
- JUST SAY NO to paper napkins. Erik's been using cloth napkins lately, and so have I ... we use NO TREES, and we can wash them when they're dirty
- use cloth bags at Dillons. They even give you 5 cents off when you use them! Totally hard to beat!
- saying 'no thank you' when someone asks if we'd like a credit card receipt (this includes the pay at the pump, too!)

Later, I'll touch on how Heartland Photography hugs trees! :-)

R3 — wedding invitations

R3 — Reduce. Reuse. Recycle.


So, how does R3 connect to wedding invitations????? And why am I writing about this now?

Well...this week, Erik and I ordered our wedding invitations. Yay! Big excitement!

One thing we decided, however, was to keep these pretty environmentally friendly. How did we do this?

1. We used double-sided invitations in place of the "traditional" invitations.

Lemme explain. We received an invitation about a month ago ... and it came with an entire sheet of paper that was not printed on, and it came in two envalopes, with a reply card, an envelope for the reply card, a reception card, the card where the couple is registered and the card giving hotel directions/accomodations. WOW!

When you get ours in the mail, you'll notice there is only ONE ENVELOPE.

I am SO excited for the invites to arrive and to mail them out! :-)

2. We nixed registry cards.

Our invitations are double-sided and include our wedding Web site. The registries are there, and besides, it's totally tacky to put those in the invites!

3. Our RSVPs are post-cards.

Some people (like my smart sister) opted to have people e-mail or call, but not all of our guests are internet savvy ... so yes, we are not hugging a tree on this one.

4. Our envelopes are 30% recycled!

Our awesome designer found envelopes made out of 30% recycled materials! :-)

...

How can others be more friendly to the environment, especially in regards to wedding invitations?

1. NO save the date cards ... instead, send them via e-mail.

Sure, Erik and I sent them out, but we sent our "save the date" with Christmas cards ... and since we send Christmas cards anyway, we didn't figure it would be any extra paper or stamps.

I get a kick out of my friends who e-mail me to tell me they're getting married on their date, could they have my address to send a save the date? HELLO! You've just TOLD me to save the date!

2. Use post-card sized RSVP cards, and do NOT use an envelope for them.

You simply have to put a stamp on them and they're ready to go!

3. Opt for double-sided printing, if possible

...

So...this is nice, but what are my rewards?

There are several rewards.

1. You're preserving the planet for future generations.

2. Printing on two sides of paper DOES save money by eliminating the need for additional pieces of paper.

3. You save money!!!! This is by not needing to purchase multiple envelopes and additional paper. It's also more economical to mail a post card than pay for a RSVP card in an envelope.

Who wants Erik to blog???

Hey, if you want Erik to do a post, leave a comment! Let's ALL encourage him to blog along... :-)

Possible topics include:
- Rants on the Royals season
- Robo kitty
- Speculation about the upcoming Chiefs season
- Erik's method in preparing for his fantasy football draft
- Eating squash grown from his own backyard
- Erik's first yoga adventure
- Karen's insane antics, including walking the newly-purchased roto-tiller 1.5 blocks from the seller's house to Erik's house ...

OR leave your own topic suggestions in the comments!

#31 — Purchase an original piece of art

... CHECK

I have not blogged this since .... late January. Ack! I have been TOTALLY slacking on posting my 101 in 1001!

Erik and I purchased art — 3 pieces — from the Five State Photography Exhibition at the Hays Arts Center.

I IMMEDIATELY fell in love with this abstract piece by Stephen Weaver. It's now hanging over the couch in the living room. :-)


Erik adores this brightly colored piece by Jose L. Feliciano.


Lastly, this one is smaller, but I am just in LOVE with it. Ironically, I worked with the photographer, John Njagi, at The Great American Cattle Drive in Ellsworth. He was shooting film for a public TV station. This is also abstract, and I don't have the perfect place to put it, but as we re-make the house and paint, I'm sure we'll find the perfect place for it!

Champagne Thursday...

Remember my obsessing over this jumbo size bottle of champagne???????

Tonight, when Erik said "let's get a bottle of champagne," I knew I wanted to try some Veuve Clicquot.

At the liquor store, I headed straight to the shelf and picked it up. The clerk commented "the lady has expensive taste." THEN I looked at the price. ACK! $64. And then the bottle was quickly returned to the shelf. :-(

Erik mentioned he'd like to try some Moet. But .... at mere pennies less, we opted for the no-frills Korbel.

So now, we're waiting on lovely Kristine to join us for some refreshments. :-)

Oh, and who can be the first person to leave a comment on the movie where the blog title came from???

How to give a cat a pill...

Erik and I successfully gave Esse a pill Sunday! We get a total prize.

In honor of that (and because my brother, Paul, is also feeding pills to the cats he lives with), I thought I'd share this humorous writing:

HOW TO GIVE YOUR CAT A PILL by Peggy Althoff

1. Grasp cat firmly in your arms. Cradle its head on your elbow, just as if you were giving baby a bottle. Coo confidently, "Thats a nice kitty." Drop pill into its mouth.

2. Retrieve cat from top of lamp and pill from under sofa.

3. Follow same procedure as in 1, but hold cat's front paws down with left hand and back paws down with elbow of right arm. Poke pill into its mouth with right forefinger.

4. Retrieve cat from under bed. Get new pill from bottle. (Resist impulse to get new cat.)

5. Again proceed as in 1, except when you have cat firmly cradled in bottle-feeding position, sit down on edge of chair, fold your torso over cat, bring your right hand over your left elbow, open cat's mouth by lifting the upper jaw and pop the pill in - quickly. Since your head is down by your knees, you won't be able to see what you're doing. That's just as well.

6. Leave cat hanging on drapes. Leave pill in your hair.

7. If you're a woman, have a good cry. If you're a man, have a good cry.

8. Now pull yourself together. Who's the boss here anyway? Retrieve cat and pill. Assuming position 1, say sternly, "Who's the boss here, anyway?" Open cat's mouth, take pill and...Oooops!

9. This isn't working, is it? Collapse and think. Aha! Those flashing claws are causing the chaos.

10. Crawl to linen closet. Drag back large beach towel. Spread towel on floor.

11. Retrieve cat from kitchen counter and pill from potted plant.

12. Spread cat on towel near one end with its head over long edge.

13. Flatten cat's front and back legs over its stomach. (Resist impulse to flatten cat.)

14. Roll cat in towel. Work fast; time and tabbies wait for no man - or woman.

15. Resume position 1. Rotate your left hand to cat's head. Press its mouth at the jaw hinges like opening the petals of a snapdragon.

16. Drop pill into cat's mouth and poke gently. Voila! It's done.

17. Vacuum up loose fur (cat's). Apply bandages to wounds (yours).

18. Take two aspirins and lie down.

In reality, our vet showed us how to do it much more easily.
1. Put butter or petroleum jelly on the pill.

2. Pet Esse with left hand, talk soothingly for a minute or two.

3. With left hand on back of her head, pry her mouth open with the thumb and forefinger.

4. With pill adhered to finger on the right hand (thanks to butter), place the pill on the back of her throat, at the back of her tongue.

5. Hold mouth shut.

6. Drink an Arnie Palmer and relax!

I know we've intended to give an Esse post, so it's on my list ... so there will hopefully be a post on her soon!

Hair accessories

Alrighty, time for more obsessing about wedding accessories.

My veil will be a birdcage veil .... sort of vintage and fun!


Some people wear feathers with these, but I don't fancy myself a feather sort of girl.

SO I was considering just going sans anything, but I have become OBSESSED with hair accessories. (and I totally SHUN tiaras!)

I'm gonna give you my photos, then let you vote, as I did with my wedding shoes.


Speaking of shoes, the hair accessories are a little lighter shade, but some have darker blue. Do you think different shades are OK? Especially since the colors won't be right next to one another....

OK, on to the bling!

#1:


#2:


#3


#4


#5


#6


#7


#8


#9 — maybe I could get a few and cluster these together?


#10


#11


#12


#13

Elephant wedding???

As I was blog stalking the other morning, I came across the most interesting image on my friend, Erich Camping's blog.

An elephant IN a wedding. Yes, that's right folks, IN a wedding.


How is it that Erich comes up with the most interesting, and yet relevant animal photos for his blog???

Photo packaging

WELL, there have been a plethora of changes for Heartland Photography lately. I'll save gushing over our new Web Site for a future date, but today I want to talk about our NEW PROOFING SITE!!!!


There are still some minor tweaks to work out, but I LOVE IT! Rebecca and Troy from PickPic have seamlessly integrated our Heartland colors and logo to make the proofing site very US. I ADORE Rebecca because she so patiently answers all of my questions and totally helps me out!

(be sure to check back on our proofing site in the upcoming weeks because we have some new events going live soon!)

The other thing I adore about the system is it allows the prints to be better branded with the Heartland identity. Lemme explain: previously, our lab would handle prints and send them out in a generic black box. Nice and all, but as we grow and our clientelle becomes more and more sophisticated, we really wanna WOW them with our presentation (we are also able to better ship them, so clients do not end up with bent boxes and subsequently bent prints!) The poofing was the first step, and our AWESOME new packaging is the second.

Once the prints arrive at my doorstep, I inspect them to be sure the quality meets our standards. Then, I put them in a box with some nice, white tissue paper.


I next seal the deal with a customized stamp and little "thank you" card to our client (gotta LOVE the personal touches!)


Next, I securely tie the box together with a ribbon (currently I'm using a blue ribbon I have ... and want to use up before I purchase any more — I hate to be wasteful — but the next color will be Heartland GREEN since our boxes are a rich chocolate brown!) ... also check out our logo stamped in the box!


Lastly, an invoice is slipped in the back.


Our stunning packaging is now ready to ship (I re-use the packing materials from the lab when I ship it out, to be a little more environmentally friendly .... but more on my tree-hugging ways in a future post!).

Blog peeves....

This is random, but bear with me.

I have some SERIOUS blog peeves. But wait, what is a blog peeve???? It's basically a pet peeve about blogs. So I simply smooshed the terms together.

1) Absentee bloggers. I have some photo colleagues who blog MAYBE once a quarter and it drives me NUTS. Yeah, life is busy, but the blog is something clients I talk with LOVE. I'm amazed at what they'll mention from a previous blog post.

2) Comments that take you to a new page ..... i.e. the comment box does not pop up in a brand new window, while leaving the current page alone. Does this make sense???

Here are the steps for Blogger users to remedy this:
- log into blogger
- select "settings"
- select "comments"
- under "comment form placement" select "pop-up window"
- click "save settings" at the bottom of the page.

3) (This is similar to the post above) Links that do not pop up in a new window like THIS ONE does. Here's another option, but notice how when you click on HEARTLAND PHOTOGRAPHY it takes you to the site, but in this same window.

Here's how to remedy it:
< a href="http://www.heartlandphotography.org" target="_blank">Heartland Photography

You'll have to add: < / a > after the end and BE SURE to delete the space after the first < and between everything in < / a >. I had to add the space so the code would show up on the blog

the secret is the "target="_blank" in the code.

If you have any questions, or think I"m nuts, feel free to drop me an e-mail.

Why graphic designers ROCK

I love Amy.

Seriously.

(Yes, I still love and cherish Erik, so don't get your panties in a wad yet!)

Who the heck is Amy? She's the graphic brains behind Heartland Photography. She is responsible for our awesome logo, as well as Robin and Chris' kickin' engagement album design AND using one of my photos for an amazing fundraiser.

Amy ROCKS. Bottom line.

Not only is she totally awesome and used a distressed leatherpress graphic element to fancy up the event card, she turned the font from this ... (kinda hard to read on a few letters)


into this.... (do you hear the Alleluia chorus?)

Some of my photo friends have the "do it yourself" attitude, and I applaud that. Others opt to use a "free album design" service from their lab, which is fine too. But we want to give out clients something custom. Somthing NO ONE else has ... a fresh design that is specific to THEM.

For me to do that, it would take 10 times the amount of time it takes Amy. And let's just face it, Amy does it best!