Family Photography: Baba's 80th.

When I made the decision to move 12 hours and 2 provinces away from home, to join Scott in Manitoba, I was a little bit scared. I was moving away from all of my friends and family to a province where the only people I knew were Scott's people.

Thankfully, Scott has some great people in his life. He refers the them as his Selkirk Family - it is truly a fitting description. They all opened their lives to me and welcomed me with open arms making the long distance transition so much easier. I am so blessed to now count them as my people too. My very own Selkirk Family.

It was an honour to photograph one of these amazing families for a wonderful occasion - Baba's 80th.

My Favourite Part.

I love wedding ceremonies. The I do's, the kiss, the rings, the tears, the love. Just everything about them.

However, I have a favourite part. And it's not a moment that most people would choose. It the moment right after the couple signs the registry...

...they are standing off to the side to allow their witnesses to sign. And those few short moments, they are the first the newly married couple have to themselves. They get to hold hands and quietly whisper to each other with no one listening and smile together over what they just promised - to love one another forever.

It's a beautiful moment - special, unscripted. The couple can simple love in their own way. This past weekend, at Darren & Mallorey's wonderful wedding, that moment was absolutely confirmed as my favourite part of the wedding ceremony.

I think their smiles and their eyes full of love tell it all....

The Creamer to my Coffee.

Dear Scott,

I know that I can be difficult sometimes. Needy, whiny, selfish. I have a messy car, leave lights on, talk during tv shows, and seem to need a million hugs and kisses everyday.

And yet, you love me. You clean my car, shut off lights, only shush me on occasion, and seem to like the million hugs and kisses I give you everyday. You fill my gaps perfectly.

So really, this is a thank you. For bringing me flavoured creamers at work when I complain about having to use coffee mate. For reading between the lines and knowing what I need - even when I don't ask. For the little things you do everyday. And for so much more.

Thank you for being the creamer to my coffee and making my life so much sweeter. I am so very blessed.

I love you,

Kari

For the love of film.

I think that I have found my new photography love. Film. I just love everything about it - but mainly, the feeling film images have. It moves something in my soul. And makes me so very happy. Inspires me. Reminds me why I feel in love with photography in the first place.

When I finally took my film in to get developed, there were a couple other gems waiting among the treasure of those couple rolls.

Amy & Jordan




Mallorey & Darren.



These two are a little out of focus but I still kinda like them :)

Last Week....

...was a tough week for me.

I was tired, exhausted, overwhelmed, uninspired and very unmotivated - and for no particular reason. It was just one of those weeks where you are in a funk and all you want to do is curl into a ball on the couch and not move. Or do anything. At all.

And then, on Friday, it hit me. I was just using all that as a excuse. An excuse to be lazy. I was really just wallowing in my own self pity. And that's just not cool. Everyone's entitled to a bad day now and then - but to let it develop into a whole wasted bad week? That's my fault.

I needed to do something to shake me out of that funk I was in and jump start my motivation. And I resorted to the only way I know how - photography. I shook it up even more though and took my film camera out on a 10 minute walk and actually took it in to get developed right away. I am kind of in love with the results.

Yes, there are some big duds.



But some of them?

Pure, inspiring, de-funking, gold :)








I am beyond shocked that my attempt at a self portrait actually turned out!

And one photo from a roll I took in Phoenix. Of my favourite flower there :)


This week will be better. I've decided :)

Life Saver.

Okay, okay, it's really more of a time saver - but I have just a tiny flare for the dramatic. Or so Scott tells me, daily.

*Ahem*

Moving on....

I had heard of some of my favourite photographers talk about this tool they used to resize and brand their photo's for their blogs. To be honest, I thought that I just wasn't nearly a big enough deal to be using the same applications as Jasmine Star. So I looked into it and decided to wait.

Oh, if only I could go back and time and start using this amazing tool then. It would have saved me SO much time.

Blogstomp.

AKA the best time saver, possibly ever, when it comes to blogging images.

It is so easy to use - just drag and drop, choose the images you want, and stomp it. It even automatically saves the image in a folder on your desktop. Amazing. Life saving. Okay, okay, time saving.

I used to open each image in photoshop, run an action to resize, then move it to a template, watermark it, and have to save each image separately. Yeah, not fun and very time consuming.

What used to take me 30 minutes now takes less than 5. And I have a new best friend. Well, at least when it comes to blogging :)

AND then even have a free demo for you to download and try. Go and do it. Go now. It will be your LIFE SAVER. Okay, okay, TIME SAVER!

Just to make this post a little prettier - a photo from Paris. My heart yearns to go back to Europe. But that's another post for a another day :)


Resized & watermarked perfectly in .075 seconds. It just might be a new record!

Kitchen Fun: Cinnamon Buns

I haven't posted a recipe in SO LONG that I thought it was time to change that :) Plus, Scott and I really wanted cinnamon buns this morning!

This was the very first 'bread' recipe that I tried and so my great surprise they turned out really good - so, if I can do this, anyone can!

First, the ingredients...



Dough:
1 cup milk
4 Tbs butter, cut into chunks
3 1/4 – 3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, divided
1 (.25 ounce) package instant or ‘rapid rise’ yeast (about 2 1/4 tsp)
1/4 cup white sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 egg (not pictured because my super cute kitchen helper was at the store picking some up :)

Filling:
1 cup brown sugar, packed
1 1/2 tablespoon ground cinnamon
1/2 cup butter, softened

Secondly, put on your cutest apron. Bonus points if it matches your toenails!



In the microwave, melt the butter in 1/2 c. milk then take out and add the remaining 1/2 c. milk. Stir until the butter is melted.



While the butter/milk is cooling, whisk together 2 c. flour, the white sugar, and yeast in your mixing bowl. Once butter/milk is warm (not hot) add it to the flour mixture along with the egg and mix together, using the beater attachment if you are lucky enough to have a kitchen aide mixer :) Beat until well combined.



Add the remaining flour slowly, until the dough barely leaves the side of the bowl. You want the dough to be slightly sticky but not so sticky you can't touch it without it sticking all over you. How's that for overuse of the word stick?



Knead for 5 minutes.



Take dough out of bowl and put on a floured surface. Let rest for 10 minutes.



While dough is resting, put all the filling ingredients in a bowl and mix together. I had a super cute kitchen helper to do this part for me. He is just so cute :)



Then, roll the dough into a 12 x 14 rectangle. Spread the filling mixture across the top. I use my fingers; because, try as I might I just couldn't make it work with a spoon or spatula. Bonus points to you if you can!



Roll up from the LONG edge. I did this wrong the first few times. It actually makes a big difference!! And now, here is the biggest secret - use dental floss to score and slice the dough. You just wrap it around the dough and pull the ends in opposite directions. It's like magic.



Then put buns into well greased pan and let rise for 30 minutes. Bake at 350 degrees for 15-20 minutes.



While you wait, you can mix up the icing:

1 1/2 C powdered sugar
2 T melted butter
1/2 tsp vanilla
1-2 Tbs milk

Just mix all ingredients until smooth.



Bake until golden brown. This time, the middles popped out of some but that's okay.



Then just spread some icing on the gooey delicious-ness and enjoy!



I originally found the recipe here. It is a great site full of amazing recipes!

Backyard Beauty: The Front Yard.

This morning I woke up to overcast skies and the scattered puddles left over from rain. I grabbed my camera and, in my pj's, ran out the door to take a few quick pictures in our front yard....

Complete Randomness.

Because I sometimes feel so very random - here is a completely random post today.

Things I've been loving lately....

Bones.

Why have I waited so long to watch this show?!?!?! It's on Netflix and I've already burned through Season 1. Just a warning if you want to start watching this show - don't eat anything while watching. Trust me.

This song.

Just everything about it. It's rocking my world.

Golf.

Slowly, very slowly, my golf game has been improving and my score getting lower. I am so surprised how much I've been enjoying this ridiculously frustrating game!

Instagram.

I've really been trying to document more of my own life and I just love posting instagrams. They make my heart happy. Plus it's just so fun to go through and pick which 'effect' to add to the picture :)

Lazy mornings.

I love me a good cup of coffee and being able to relax on the couch while drinking it? Yes, please.

Slurpees.

I had my first one of the year yesterday - cream soda, the best flavour ;)


And just when you thought it couldn't get any more random...



Yes. That is me in a bunny costume.

Happy Wednesday!

Preserving Memories. Part 2.

In this digital age of photography it is very easy to get wrapped up in seeing photographs only online or on a computer screen. Easy to think that just because it is digital, it will be there forever. Easy to forget about displaying that photograph in another form.

Easy to forget how important preserving our memories for future generations are.

You know, in the off chance Facebook doesn't last another 20 or so years ;)

As a photographer, it is also easy to get wrapped up in the actual taking of photo's instead of displaying and preserving our own. It may have taken me almost 7 months but I finally made the effort to make a physical copy of my favourite wedding images!

I started with some prints hung up in our apartment...





And then put together a wedding album. I love the way it tells the story of that wonderful day...






I print most of my photo's at Costco and used iphoto to make the album.

Are you printing your photo's? How else do you preserve your memories?