Wedding Gallery

Alright, I know the Bad Girl-peeks will be revealed tonight in just a few hours but hey, I worked very hard for them the last two days so I think I can show them off if I like even if you'll see the full results in just a few hours right :P

And well, my sis (and mother) have been buggin me about writing more in Norwegian so - as this is personal stuff I'll do so for them and I will try to be better re. writing in NOrwegian in the future aswell :) So - here's my recent weekend with my sister & nieces..



Amalie og Tuva fant raskt tonen - de lekte og herjet fint rundtomkring sammen med Adrian. Tenk at aldersforskjellen mellom de to er akkurat den samme som meg og Pia...bare i omvendt rekkefølge...14 mnd.. det er både søtt og snodig og littegranne nostalgisk å se på de små versjonene av oss selv gitt. Knoll & Tott v.2.0 ;) Vi prøvde å legge de sammen første kvelden men det funka lite fint gitt - 2 minutter etter at vi var gått herjet de i første etasje og gjemte seg under trappa og greier - Tuva måtte pent legge seg på loftet tilslutt :)

Min utrolig vakre niese - vi farget håret hennes lilla da hun var her - skikkelig stilig og tøft :)
Hun har sånne nydelige, uttrykksfulle øyne - og lange øyevipper heldiggrisen!

Sukk...*misunnelig* :)


Har mange flere bilder - jobber på spreng med å redigere de slik at jeg får sendt de avgårde forhåpentligvis idag eller kanskje imorgen - sammen med kodebrikken til Pia. Hun glemte sin her hos meg og jeg skjønte ingenting helt til nettbanken min ble sperra pga feil passord ;p Alt er i orden nå =)

Nå skal jeg leke ketchup..eller catch up om du vil (den vitsen der er bare så utrolig morsom haha...første vitsen Adrian lærte seg forresten..men jeg skjønte den egentlig ikke før jeg hørte den på engelsk altså, siden har den vært en favoritt her haha ;) ) - har en del CD'er å brenne (og flere bilder fra de andre helgene å redigere) og en del brev å poste.. Og så skal Amalie til tannlegen nå snart - tannlegen ja - var hos ham igår jeg - suuurt og vondt - å gå til tannlegen 3 ganger på 6 mnd er kjempegøy ass :p

This weeks Pencil-Lines featured the lovely Karen Day - and with sketch by our own Anna Bowkins. Loved this one - made it with the April kit of Bad Girls (I HEART these Bam Pop-frames!!!) - old photos of Amalie - but too cool ones at that :) Thanks to Mari for letting me use one of her U's when I didn't have anymore myself :p

Anyways - just a quick one today - I've been busy all weekend with my lovely sister and nieces - it was SO good to see them again - now I gotta hit the dentist then hurry home and wrap up my May BG stuff as I postponed them due to the visit. Will be back blogging more soon! :)

OKay. I have a confession to make.
When I look at pictures of myself and my family from when I was little (or wasn't there at all), I go all warm and fuzzy inside of me when seeing the furnitures, the home, the clothes, the surroundings. These photos are usually not of great quality, usually there's a photo of me and my sis and a huge part of the picture includes a very disturbing background... yet I love and adore them simply because..well, they evoke all these fond memories and stuff with me. Which totally makes them scrapable in my eyes. Even though it might be a lil hard at times I have to admit.

So. It should be pretty clear that I should remember to do the same now once in a while right? Step back, use the wideangle, scoop a lil more of the meeeeessy everyday-house and stuff in the background when taking photos of my own children? And more importantly, scrap these? Hm. Well, I do try to - but - here's my confession. It's hard. I'm so madly in love with my own children - aw look, they're so darn sweet and cute, and yes, it's the mommy in me speaking. I love love love taking closeups of them. Their eyes, their cheeks..their faces... most of my photos of them are portraitstyle. Or photos where they frame the whole picture, leaving just a little background that's blurred out or if I actually remember to, try take the photos in such an angle that the background isn't too disturbing. They're gonna hate me for that I'm sure. One closeup is cool, two...okay..three....right....a zillion..uhm.. that's like, enough now mommy. *sigh* I am trying! Really. But like 95% of my shots of the children pretty much excludes the "background". Ohwell. That still means I've got 5% of the kind of photos they'll prob appreciate the most when they grow up, no?

Anyways. Yesterday was Amalies bday - thank you so much for the bdaywishes!!
There was a crop at the LSS too - but I decided against better judgement to attend the schools after-school-hike. Me and the children. Alone. Great thinking, self! Long story short - me and Amalie lagged so behind and got ever so slightly lost. By the time we finally found our way out of the forest/hill/mountain/whatever they were worried, had sent out a lady to look for us and she backtracked and managed to walk a whole round and back to the school and back to her home...which was just where we got outta the forest at :p Thank god Amalie was in such a cheery mood all the time, exclaiming "that way!" "this way?" "go now!" "Aaaiaaaaaan!" (calling for Adrian who was with the others) and jumping and skipping and bouncing and rolling and occassionally making me carry her when the lil bushes grew too tall for her to handle :p There's no doubt - next time - I'll skip the hike and hit the crop. Screw the stupid prize at school (for attending - the class with the most attendees on their hikes gets a prize). Sometimes you gotta accept your own limitations :p

Ohwell.
Today's yet another big clean-up-day - my sister and nieces are coming over for the weekend in the afternoon - yay - I haven't seen her since what, August or so - way too long! Can't wait to see them again...and to take photos of not-my-children & my beautiful sister - yay! (yeees..even after the confession above here...I *do* tire of taking piccies of my own children at times and long for other subjects ;p)

Have a lovely weekend y'all - I know I will :)

Joanna and Ben drove down from the Twin Cities to have their engagement session last weekend. It was the first time meeting the pair in person because they booked me for their July wedding over the phone after seeing my website.

The weather the morning of the shoot was cold and rainy. Luckily by the time the arrived the rain subsided. Our session started at High Cliff State Park. About 45min into the session and after learning more about the couple we decided to head downtown Appleton to do even more photos with an urban feel.

We took a break at a coffee house and chatted about their interests, their jobs and their wedding day. I love getting to know my couples!!! Joanna and Ben love life and love living in Minneapolis. One fun fact about each: Joanna is fluent in Spanish and Ben was a golf pro - he asked her to marry him in Spanish on the beach in Mexico - Awe!

Here are some of my favorite shots from the day. I cannot wait to shoot their July wedding!

Hello, Terrible Threes. I hope you'll be nice with us this year. We love you nevertheless!! :)
If you're interested in more pictures I've made a post on Scrappedugnad today - in Norwegian - with tips & stuff on how to take more photos & stuff..

Gratulerer med dagen kjæreste Amalie!!
Bildet er tatt idag - vi tok oss god tid imorges og gikk ned til barnehagen - Amalie, jeg og kameraet ;) Lyset er så nydelig nå på morgenkvisten med sol og klar blå himmel og sånn - sånt må jo utnyttes! For fler tips - sjekk Scrappedugnad :) (jadajada...shaaaaaaaaaaaaameless plug av Amalie og greier - men hun er så søt atte ;p)

Anyways. Poor Xstine was anxiously awaiting the photos from this weekend, so lazy me hurried wrapping up some editing tonight. Only showing two atm - will do more later and well, there's a good chance I'll be scrapping quite a few for the future layouts and stuff - dang - you Stavangerians (sp??) are so lucky with that LOVELY beach of yours - we SOOO lucked out with the weather and got this GORGOUS blue sky & warm sun and all that....taking piccies in direct sun wasn't all that bad, just looksieee...

Ps. Blue sky = I found two spots on my piccies....I marked one of them...looks like..dust on the sensor? Hmmm...

Ohwell - bedtime -- tomorrow is AMALIES BIG DAY!!! She's turning three!!! Yikes. My little darling baby is....certainly no baby anymore. *sigh*

I did plan on blogging earlier but never got around to hit post - here's what I wrote;

I am kinda going down memory lane today - revisiting ... don't laugh..... eurodance....haha..remember Another night? The reason is you? Coco Jambo? Hm. I should stop now before I embarass myself further ;) (Btw...don't you think the songs sounds kinda slow these days - I kinda recall them more upbeat..??) Ohwell. Short visit to eurodance - I think it's best to leave it be now uh. Ps..I'm kinda lookin for a french song - I don't speak nor read any french and I have no idea what the song was called or was about...uh..kinda tranceish, the music vid ended by some stairs and a bridge I think...in a city..blueish hue.... a female singer....I guess it's from uh, maybe sometime between 2001-2003?? Maybe later..anyone??

My friend Kaja is doing her MA in Industrial Design, and is in the process of developing three interesting and cool toys for a Norwegian furniture-manufacturer for children. They're all supposed to complement each others and stuff. Have a look and let her know what you think & if you have any suggestions :)

She's gonna finish the (concept?)models within two weeks - and there are room for improvements and changes - although I think she's doing great already - esp LOVE the first one - a climbing tree which's so decorative aswell - but if you have comments she'd love to read them.

Klatretre
Lekehule
Gyngemøbel

Offbeat Bride (www.offbeatbride.com) blogged a few photos of mine from the wedding I helped shoot in San Francisco. It makes me excited to have my photos featured!!!!

Check it out for yourself!

Day 6

The next morning came way to quickly! But I was up early enough to get my coffee and a good seat in Michael and Anna Costa's platform class. I absolutely LOVED this pair!!! The information I soaked up in this class is going to be so very useful to me this season.

Today was the first full day of the trade show. I visited so many booths....some of the vendors I researched included: KISS, Forbeyon, Jill•e Bags, Canon, DNL Photo Packaging, Studio Cloud, Triple Scoop Music and much more! After a few hours at the trade show my roommates and I decided to venture to the MAC Cosmetics store to have our makeup done for that evening's party hosted by Photo LoveCat and PIF photography. We had a lot of fun and even squeezed in a mini photo session at the store. The MAC Cosmetics professional store in Las Vegas is the largest in the world!!!


The last class of the evening featured Jesh de Rox. We arrived early so we could get good seats... we got there over an hour and a half early and scored 4 first row seats. Jesh's talk was amazing. He talked more about being a good person - being there in the moment. He had us do a visualization - he had us close our eyes and think of someone who we love and who loves us. He asked if we felt any kind of tingling sensation when we were imagining that person. That feeling of love and exhileration is free, real and love... that is how we should live our lives and approach our photography. It was really inspirational - especially when Amy Seely performed - she is AMAZING! I felt like I left that class with a clear mind and a better understanding of why I do what I do.

Check out these videos!






As if the night couldn't get any better.... we were invited to the Pay It Forward / Anne Ruthmann / PhotoLoveCat party at the Palms I-Bar. We arrived a little early so we could help Anne with some last minute preparations. While were were enjoying the open bar I met Michael and Heather Krakora from Madison. They were a neat couple and look forward to meeting up with them again.

One awesome thing about this party was that they were giving away a ton of prizes!!! I won a 16x20 gallery wrap, but decided to PIF (pay it forward) to someone who could really use it. Other awesome prizes that were given away by many great sponsors - to read more about it visit the PIF blog.

Day 7
We slept in a little... after coming home at 3:00am I needed to sleep at least until 8:00am - but Kelly and I woke up early enough to sneak into the end of one class. After that is was more trade show - Tradeshow sooo many booths!!! So little time! Got to meet Jessica Claire, Mathew Jordon Smith and while walking around the booths! I signed with the album company Forbeyon and am very happy to bring this high end album to my clients. Later that evening we attended a platform class by Jared Bauman. He is only 27 years old and is speaking on running a successful wedding photography business. I was lucky to be a part of a "dance off" and won a instructional dvd from Me Re Koh ;-)

After the last class of the night we headed to In and Out Burger. This restaurants concept is to have everything fresh - never frozen. They make the french fries from real potatoes right in front of your eyes. They pride themselves on high quality meats and great service with a retro feel.


This was our last night in Vegas so we decided to have some fun jumping on the bed. We were inspired by a photo we saw in class that day and HAD to do it ourselves - see more fantastic bed jumping photos at bedjump.com


Day 8
Kelly and I woke up early and headed to the airport. We were happy to be "leaving Las Vegas". It was a long trip home - I was happy to see my family after 8 days away!

Ahhh...!

I'm back home from Stavanger - had a lovely weekend with nice ladies not biting my head off w/my classes and stuff - yay! :D Esp thank you Xstine, Trude Julie & May Lis (and Mari - but she ran off to Prague after a few hours that lil bugger..ahwell..I have a new BFF in Maja so there! ;) ) for taking good care of me this weekend - I think I've put on 3kgs at least :p We even went shopping & photosessioning!! I'd share so much but atm I am really really exhausted - I seriously don't get how teachers like Céline pulls it off travelling almost every week and stuff...such a stamina cause I am so tired and about to hit bed atm!!

So. Quick post to announce the Pencil-Lines of this week (YAY for my old faves 7gypsies! Love this paper! The additional stuff is Love, Elsie) & to say that after having had hands on experience w/D300 (Xstines) I.MUST.HAVE.IT.FOR.REALS!!!!!! I am so in love. I know it's the perfect camera for me (apart from D3 but hey I'm tryin to stay realistic!) and I soooo want it. Who wants to be my sugardaddy!?!?? Or mommy, at this point I'm reeeeally not picky :p Email meeeeee...keke ;p

Ciao ~ I'm signing off to bed now..

Ps! Layoutkurset imorgen er fullt, men det er fortsatt noen plasser igjen på shadowbox-kurset 15-18!! :)




Here's my contribution to todays Scrappedugnad, where we had SILJE ♥♥♥ guestdesign!!! She challenged us with fabric - duh, what else?? (apart from paint maybe haha ;) ). Lucky me Mari gave me some fabric last weekend so I had something I could use - only that I'm like, a procrastinator these days...did I mention this already..?? Sooooo I finished it just now (lots of Prima (love Teas & Silk - perfect for old-day-photos - yes - another photo of myself..) and a lil hambly) which means I have two and half more hours to pack my personal scrapping-stuff & clothes and get ready for Stavanger!! (The weather's lovely - YAY! My only regret is that some friends are heading to a cabin for scrapping this same weekend - bleeeeh! I'm sure we all will have fun wherver we are at though :) )

Btw. Sorry for the angle of the layout, had to do an uneven angle due to the light-reflection in the Hambly.

Sooo remember my rant in the last post about six year olds demanding spa and beautytreatments and stuff?

Well lookie lookie - a doc - a plastic surgeon natch - is launcing a book called "My beautiful Mommy" (at Mothers Day in the US ;p). The plot? Not how beauty comes from within - Heaven forbid - it's a book explaining to six year olds that mommy's gonna get a lil nip&tucked. Like. Nosejob, tummyjob and breast augmentations. YEAH that's exactly what I've been looking for for Amalie!

Nonetheless, Mom reassures her little one that the new nose won't just look "different, my dear—prettier!" Naturally, the ending is happy. Mommy is "even more" beautiful than before, and her daughter is thrilled.

Right.
Now don't get me wrong - getting stuff done is a personal business&choice but uhm, a book exploiting this & turning it into a childrens book with the values it translates and all? Uh. Once again I just have to quote Perez Hilton; "So wrong, but so right for these times we live in!"

Have a lovely weekend!!! :)

Day 5 - Sunday

Our WPPI 2008 Flickr Group had it's very first meet-up at the Venetian Hotel's Grand Lux Cafe. Those in attendance were Kate Nadine, Danielle, Zach (Goody), Kelly A. Lee, Corey Ann, Kelly, Aubrey, Samantha Nicole and Melissa Brown. After we ate and chatted we walked the shops at the Venetian and saw the Gondolas.

A group shot of the WPPI 2008 Flickr group:


That afternoon the trade show opened, the first class was taught and the parties began. We were invited to the Robert Evans - Photography Mentor/Sara France GoBee Party in a penthouse suite at Mandalay Bay. The party was really cool. They had a photobooth and a airbrush tattoo artist. Many amazing photographers also were in attendance - I got to have some pretty cool conversations with Anne Ruthmann, Jesh de Rox and Becker. I also got to meet some amazing up and coming photographers such as Mel Barlow, Abby Rose, Pepper Nix and Punam Bean.

Some photos from the party:







We snuck out of the Photography Mentor Party to check out the Pixel 2 Canvas party. We were able to meet Kevin, the inventor of the RadioPopper flash trigger device. I was able to test the RadioPoppers on my camera...all I can say is it is so very cool. I cannot wait for mine to be shipped!


That night we stayed up quite late... but it was sooooo worth it ;-)

Some more peeks for this Saturdays class in Stavanger - yes - I finally got the last samples wrapped up :) The layouts & techniques has been planned for a long but I am such a procrastinator when it comes to actually executing & creating them :p But!! I am soooo looking forward to this weekend.....all I have to do is to survive two days as a single-mom as my husband is leaving for Berlin today (he keeps teasing me - Stavanger - Berlin...Stavanger - Berlin...I win!! Pffttt..) for workrelated-stuff (my ass...apparently they only have one day visiting a school and spending the rest playing tourists...).

Buuuut I'm not complaining cause I get to go to Stavanger :D :D :D

Late last night Amalie suddenly just threw up a LOT... yuck.... meeeessy... so she stayed at home with me today just in case (she's been remarkably well all day). We spent some time mother-daughter bonding, dancing to Britney Spears, painting our nails black (yeah..she IS cute with her black-polished nails HAHA) and small trips around the house :p

Speaking of girls and nailpolish and stuff...have you seen this new trend? Ugh. Me no like - not the way it's portrayed in here, all serious and all... I mean...we all have been guilty of borrowing our mothers lipstick and nailpolish and dressing up for fun..and I can understand the cases where there's like, lots of acnes and real problemskin...but this?? Ugh. Even Tesco in the UK are selling pushup-bras for seven and eight year old - helloo?? Let the children stay children for as long as they can uh?

Just love this blue, flowery, gorgeous paper from Gudruns collection (3ndypapir)! I simply had to scrap it when she was so kind enough to offer us her own papers at the crop this weekend...I added Mari's vintage-papers & a lil Hambly (behind the flowers) from Celines RAK aswell :) Oh, and I sprayed the vintage-papers with some gold & walnut gold spray. Yumminess!

Ps! Is this just sad or yucky or just plain weird... when you suddenly realize that the actors you might possibly have a sliiight crush on are all so much goddamn younger than you...

shit.
I'm old.

Gah!

Phew!!

This weekend has been so fun - for me it started on Saturday - with the arrival of Eli, Sonja and Gry for some evening-cropping in my home and with Mari and May Lis arriving a lil later - the two latter all the way from Stavanger :) Lovely Mari had made a frame with some doilies and butterflies - aww!! And May Lis brought wine for me!!! *wheeeee* :D
We cropped for a while until Lene messaged me letting me know they were finished for the evening (they had private classes with Celine at Papirgleder..for those connected to the store), so me and Mari went to fetch them..

Had a lovely evening here with food and drinks and lots of scrapping and chatting -
personally I managed to finsih one and half layouts - not too shabby!!! :P (and weee again - I got a momiji from Lene, Gudrun and Celine and the latter also brought me her bday-rak :D :D :D)

The next morning (ouchie - had to get up early alright......) we went to Papirgleder to attend Celines class - "Guess what!?!?" where we got to play a lot with paint and crayons - fun fun! I have to admit I was a bit sceptical in advance - three hours with just one layout?? But really, the time just flew away and all too soon it was like - alright we gotta wrap up now and I was like but but but.... I didn't finish mine ;p I love paint but the wrinkled papers makes me go ugh so I haven't used it too often but I will from now on cause it's really fun!! :D

We went to eat at Peppes before the others had to go back for another class - we only took one so we went home for a bit after the food then headed downtown to meet up with Lene, Gudrun and Celine after their class -- it was time to show them The Wall!! :P (I really don't know what those people who work at that place thinks of us.... but uhm, six laughing & giggling ladies and just as many cameras doing silly things in front of that wall?? *keke* :P And yes. I used flash in a few of the shots. Hm.) The weekend ended all too soon after that cause all of'em but Celine had to fetch the bus to the airport..sniff.... but I'll see Mari and May Lis soon at least!! And Christine!! Wheeeee :D

And my impression of those I hadn't met before?
Lene and Gudrun - just as cute and sweet as I had imagined them. Have to say they were smaller than I thought tho!! LOL ;) So petite :) :) Nice to finally have met you two!
Celine - so much nicer and sweeter than I had imagined. Not that I didn't think she'd be nice, haha.. just,,.. it's cool when like, foregin people you have secretly admired & never thought to ever meet turns out to be really really nice irl too :)

Okes. Gotta wrap up the unfinished layouts, still haven't gotten around to do them :P