happy halloween

I don't have much time to write but I just wanted to tell you guys Happy Halloween! Here's a quick shot of the pumpkin Dan and I carved and the pumpkins our fannntastic friends Billy and Sarah carved. Ours is the one with the polkadots (or swiss cheese could work too) and their's are the other two with the faces. :) Aren't they cute!? I'm going trick or treating with Reagan tonight so hopefully tomorrow I'll have some fun pictures to post. :) I hope everyone has a great Halloween!

grace

This past week I got to photograph Grace and her mom again. :) Last year right around this time we did a few pictures when she was just little! She's now 19 months .. walking everywhere, talking a ton and being way too cute. :) We spent the afternoon walking the grounds of the art museum letting her explore. We had originally planned to take them earlier but we got rained out, luckily. :) I was glad we rescheduled because there were a ton more leaves on the ground. Fall photos with massive amounts of leaves are the best.

My favorites ..

silverchair ?!?

Let me just warn you first off that this blog has nothing to do with photography .. I am just way too excited to not post about this. :)

I got a phone call this morning from a friend telling me my absolute favorite band in the world was coming to Indianapolis. I'm not going to lie, I thought he was just messing with me. Ok look .. long story short, I've been a huge fan of Silverchair since I was in junior high. I am now 24 years old. In all of those years, they've never once set foot in Indiana for a show. So getting a phone call telling me they were coming here was totally unimaginable! A year or so after I graduated from high school, for fear that I would never be able to see them perform a concert, I flew to Hollywood and saw them two nights in a row (and to throw me into even more shock, I MET THEM!). I never once thought I'd get to see them live again.

Apparently I was wrong because sitting right next to me, on my horrible mess of a computer desk, are two tickets to see the most amazing band in the world on December 11th of this year at the Music Mill.

I know it seems completely insane that I would be going this crazy over a band but I can't explain it! I'm pretty sure there are only about 3 people who know me that get it. This band has been my favorite for right around 12 years! .. and now they're going to be in my city! Plus the bonus is, there is no airfare involved here people! I only had to spend $22 on a ticket .. and possibly will have to spend a few more dollars for some snacks and long underwear for when I'm waiting outside that day to get into the show. :)

I am literally the happiest person on the planet right now!! :D

uncle silvano

So, my (Great) Uncle Silvano is pretty much famous in the art world. :) Since I was little I've always known of him and the work he did and I've always wanted to meet him. I finally got the chance when we were in Europe. He does restoration work on statues that are thousands of years old. Thousands and thousands of years .. seriously, it's crazy to wrap your mind around! People from all over the world call him for help in restoring artwork they find. He was even named the best in the world for the work he does .. innnnsane right!?! :)

I was soo excited when he invited us to his workshop in Italy (he also has a 2nd shop in Germany). That was definitely one of the highlights of my trip and we there maybe a total of 10 minutes. :) I was looking forward to it the moment we found out we were going to Europe.

It was strange walking into the workshop and being surrounded by these life size statues .. especially some I had learned about in my art history class a few years ago in photography school! :) Seeing a photograph in a textbook doesn't even do the statue justice when you have the chance to stand right in front of it and take it all in.

The sizes of some of them were unbelievable. One of the pieces he had been working on was hanging from a beam on the ceiling. I stood next to it and came up to it's hips .. & I'm not a short person! I took a picture standing next to it but quite frankly I don't feel the need to share how crappy I looked that day. My hair wasn't done and no make-up had been applied. No one needs to see that. :)

It's pretty crazy to think my uncle does such amazing work! He's full of so much knowledge and history from doing the work he does. I am SO glad I finally got the chance to meet him.

Here are a few shots I took at the workshop. I could have spent the entire day there photographing. :)

a few faves - germany

I have had basically zero time to work on any of my photos from Germany & Italy but I made myself sit down and find a few to post before I leave for a shoot I have this afternoon. :) These are just a few of my favorite random pictures from Germany but I have a ton more .. just no time to work on them! There will be more of these posts in the future, I promise. :) Enjoy these for now!

i'm baaaa-ack!

I'm back and rested up from my trip to Europe .. and finally blogging about it. :) It was a great trip but my mom and I both came home sick. She had the flu the entire flight home and I wasn't feeling so great myself. I haven't been feeling up to doing much of anything the past few days. Now that I'm finally feeling better, I figured I better update the blog before people start wondering what happened to me. :)

I can't even begin to tell you how great my trip was. Getting the chance to meet all of my family over there was so great! My Grandma was born in Germany as well as her three sisters who all still live there. It was so great visiting with them, learning German & Italian and eating tons of weird food. :)

There wasn't one day where we just sat around. In Germany we went to 3 castles, shopped downtown Munich, went to a huuuge farmer's market downtown, spent a day at the Octoberfest, lunch at a beer garden with family, lunch at the Hofbraeuhaus downtown, spent the day at Lake Starnberg, attended the baptisim of baby Elisa (my mom's cousin, Frank's, daughter), shopping again :)

In Italy we went shopping on Pordenone, spent a day in Venice (which was my favorite day of the entire trip!), went to the beach & walked along the Mediterranean Sea, photos and shopping at a little fisherman's village, ate TONS of gelato, finally got to see my uncle's workshop (he restores and finds statues from thousands of years ago).

We did so much more but I can't think of everything! I'm sure once I finally go through all of my photos, I'll remember more. :) Hopefully sometime later this week I'll put up a bunch of my favorites so you guys can see! I can't wait to show them off. :) It was such an amazing trip! Check back soon. :)