Christmas time is here!

And I really can't think of any time of year that is more exciting for me!

...one more month until Christmas day!

Downtown Calgary hasn't seen snow all month, and to say that I am ready for snow falls, fireplaces, christmas trees and baileys in my hot chocolate is an understatement! I was going to put up our christmas tree today... but then Mike and I remembered that we got rid of our artificial tree last year. It was quite the challenge to assemble, and we thought we would get a new one this year. Since we won't be in our apartment for most of the Christmas season, we thought we might as well decorate everything ELSE. Hopefully that time will be tonight if I can stop searching for Christmas music on the web, and could get some actual work done!4 more weddings to edit and then I will be all caught up! That is going to be a very sweet moment, and just in time for a relaxing holiday with the family on Vancouver island! Woo hoo!!

A couple of weeks ago, a bunch of friends gathered in Banff to celebrate Kevin & Ashley's anniversary! We had a delicious dinner at the Keg (thank-you gift cards!) and then enjoyed some blueberry tea and scotch in the Rundle room at the Banff Springs. The Fairmont was beautifully decorated and was sure to get this girl in the mood for the holidays.



Carina, Shannon, Ashley and THIS Ashley getting in a mini photo shoot at the springs...



Ashley and all the guys on her anniversary. Ow OW!








Carina hates having the camera in her face... so we try to put it in her face for OBVIOUS reasons. She is GOOORGEOUS!




Ah yes... very regal. Haha... my husband thinks it's hilarious



These are the love birds celebrating their anniversary. They had their wedding in Banff three years ago at Buffalo Mountain Lodge and it was AMAZING. (because Banff+weddings=awesome.)



the camera caught Carina as she "pretends" to pose for a photo.





Kevin and Ash, we hope that you guys have a great year together! There is SO MUCH to look forward to in 2010. Watching your puppy (that you get in 3 DAYS!!) grow into a really really big puppy... and not having to move back to England are just two amazing things I can think of!! Congratulations to you both!

Once upon a time...

This Halloween, Mike and I were looking to do something different. We decided that it was long overdue that we drove up to Edmonton to see our good friends Dominique and Graeme!

We had planned to find costumes last minute and go out for a night on the town! We went to a couple places in West Edmonton Mall looking a different outfits, but sadly... if you want to buy a cool costume, you have to spend $100+ !

...now that is just silly when you can go and buy REAL clothes for less than that.

We thought we would go to Value Village to get creative when Dominique had a brilliant idea!

Dom is a music teacher, and thought it might be fun to check out the costume closet at her school. So that is what we did. We got into the costume closet and had lots of fun picking though wigs and dresses and...

farm animal costumes.

I couldn't resist the plush elephant head & leggings that I found and soon had my outfit put together. Mike found himself a sheep costume, Graham a wolf costume, and Dominique a duck.

We decided that since we had found a cheap way to cheat halloween, we would avoid the cover charges at all of the pubs downtown and opted for a night IN, with our costumes and a few cocktails.

Haha... well that night IN, turned into a night of photographs... because that is what we do best. Sadly, Mike fell asleep before the photo shooting goodness... so I can't show you how hot he was as a sheep.

Shh... Mike is sleeping...

Dominique threw a "superhero" themed birthday party for Graeme last year, and had these HOT costumes. So why NOT get a few photos? I love these ones! You guys make hot models.

We did end up going back to West Edmonton Mall where I found a great shirt at Urban Outfitters! I LOVE that store... it's a good thing that there isn't one in Calgary. Found some boots too!

Has anyone else been to anthropologie? Dom took me there and it was great!!

I hope that everyone had a fun & safe Halloween!

Happy November!

Bliggity Blog

Hello friends! I hope that you are all enjoying this crazy fall that we've had...

Summer in Calgary was wonderful. Mike and I worked almost every single Saturday shooting a wedding, many Sunday's... and we only got rained on once. For 5 whole minutes. We were VERY lucky, and even managed to get some cute rainy shots for the portfolio!

At first the early snow fall was very depressing, but after gaining some perspective from some great friends, I was able to see it in a different light. I sat at Starbucks yesterday all by myself and treated myself to a Grande Caramel Macchiato. I watched the snow fall as I sipped my hot coffee and I loved it. Absolutely loved it.

Once Mike and I are all caught up with editing/book design and what not - this blog will be a bit more interesting! For now I hope that fall is treating you all well, and that no matter the weather, we can learn to cherish each moment of every day.

Good Bye Blonde...

It's fall and everything is changing around me.

The leaves are absolutely breathtaking, I just love taking photos at this time of year! The wooly sweaters and tall boots are coming out of the closet and Mike and I are starting to see the light of the long tunnel of editing.

As much as I dread the death cold winters here in Alberta, I do look forward to all of the changes that are happening. Did I mention that Mike and I went to an A.D.D specialist and Mike has been told that he is the absolute poster boy for A.D.H.D. We are totally excited because this means that he can simply take a pill and his life is changed. It's that easy. He can focus, and that is that.

Since taking Dexedrine to stimulate the parts of his mind that were tired, he has been a cleaning, baking MACHINE.

We went to the farmers market on Sunday and bought a full free range organic chicken and Mike learned how to carve it and get all of the best parts of meat ready for cooking. He then cooked us a beautiful chicken curry, and is working on a homemade chicken consomme for soup. He also slow cooked a bean chili for my lunches since I have been REALLY disliking red meats lately... and as we speak he is cleaning all of our cupboards and glasses so that we can send a bunch of our old dishes to the family centre we volunteer at downtown. I am THRILLED with the new Mike. He was always super fantastic, but now he also works really really hard. Love.

With all of the exciting and beautiful changes around me, I was craving a little change of my own. I have been blonde forEVER. Although it is indeed my natural color, it is getting a lot darker as I get older, and I'm just not too sure I want to keep up with dying it light.

I went into chatters to visit my friend Brittany Claus and She made me into a dark haired gal.

Here are some photos Mike snapped for me a few moments ago :)

I will never...

Own a pair of Manolo Blahnik shoes, but that doesn't mean that I can't drool a little over the idea...

Sex and the City is a bad influence on young minds that aren't capable of making millions of dollars. ;)

Because I can

Mike and I have been cooped up in the office together all week, and I'd have to admit that I've been a little bit SNAPPY. Don't let this confuse you with me being SNAP-HAPPY, which well lets face it I'm a bit snap happy too... but I don't think i've been the best person to work with this week and Mike puts up with all of it so SO well.

Here is a photo that I just came across in my editing while I was testing the light at Ben and Brittany's wedding.

Aww...

You're cute.

Thanks for putting up with me my darling husband!

I love you!

Into the Woods

My sister called me yesterday asking if I wanted to go camping. I had been thinking ALL day about camping!! After that phone call I ran around packing all my things as quickly as I could to get into the woods and OUT of the office.

As kids, my sister and I camped quite a bit with the fam... always in tents. We're hardcore like that. This would mark the first camping trip that my sister and I have taken where we were in charge of everything. Directions, fire, setting up the tent, cooking, etc, etc...

I would say that our little venture into the woods was mostly successful. Google maps failed us and led us to the middle of Banff when really we should have kept going on the highway... we both found it strange that a huge campsite would be sitting right in the middle of downtown Banff. We followed the google directions to find ourselves surrounded by tourists and hotels. Hmm...

My very smart older sister pulled out our Banff map that we got at the Park border and saw that Johnston Canyon was actually not at all in downtown Banff, so we continued driving.

We drove up to the Johnston Canyon Campground on a beautiful scenic drive in the trees and it was just starting to get dark. There was mist on the roads and the temperatures dropped from about 18 degrees (when we left Calgary) to about 5 degrees in the Banff area. Brr... it was not only going to be a cold night but also VERY dark and difficult to set up camp.

It had rained before we arrived at the campsite so all of the wood in the wood pile was SOAKED. I knew from my previous camping experience with hubby how dry wood was absolutely necessary to build a successful fire.

Amanda and I searched through the pile trying to get to the middle and found ourselves some dry-ish logs. As much as you would like to think that we didn't manage to build a fire... we actually did!! A big one too! It only took an hour and a bit ;) With my kindling and Amanda's keen teepee building skills the fire was roaring.

Our neighbors were totally entertained by our attempts at setting up camp. They even shouted "we love you girls" when I totally on purpose set off the car alarm late at night when everyone else was asleep. They loved it. We are a class act.

Once we got the fire started and the tent set up we got a phone call from our friend Carina who was on her way to the camp site. She may have gotten a little lost, but managed to use her navigational skills to figure things out. She arrived just in time to enjoy our sexy looking fire and camp site.

We spent lots of time by that fire... it was glorious.

Once it started pouring rain, the three of us moved indoors to our two man tent. It was cozy-ish. I didn't realize just how skilled Mike has always been at pegging the sides of the tent out. We got just a little bit wet in that crazy down pour. We probably would have slept a bit better in the five man tent that Amanda brought if it weren't for her leaving the poles back in Calgary...

This morning we woke up to the soggiest camp site you ever did see. We were a wee bit soggy too. Just a wee bit. We DID manage once again to build a fire (ladies- it's really not as easy as it looks) and even cooked a gourmet breakfast. Scrambled eggs with cheese, Ukranian Sausage, Almond butter spread on whole wheat toast and chocolate milk to top things off. We only lit the propane tank on fire once to achieve that breakfast. We were doing well.

We aborted mission "two nights" at Johnston Canyon and instead found some warmth inside the Starbucks downtown Banff. We will be sleeping in our warm beds tonight. SO excited and I think that sleep might just begin riiiiiiggght NOW.

Some photos in the sticks

(click to see them bigGER)

The lovely and beautiful Carina

Me and the camera bag that i've been drooling over and finally have in my hands!

Amanda and Carina think that they are in an engagement photo shoot. Congratulations?

Hope you all enjoyed your long weekend!

An update filled with cute kitties.

I snapped this photo this morning while the boys were wresting...

I think EVERYONE needs to see just how cute and hilarious these guys are.

To those of you that read my blog, I'm sorry that it's been so boring lately!

If it weren't for the lovely "site meter" I would think that about four people read my blog but APPARENTLY there are about 30 of you that are checking in daily to see what's going on. Please feel free to COMMENT to let me know that you're here! It makes it alllll worth it.

So I think I owe you all a little UPDATE!!

I don't like to put up new blog posts when I don't have photos... so I snapped these this evening while the guys were sleepy and standing still(ish) for once. While I update I will show you random kitty photos of loveliness.

I woke Jack up for this photo...

Things are going well over here at the Kitchen household, Mike and I are currently on a bit of a health kick and we are hoping that it sticks! We were finding the stress of having our own business to be taking over our lives a little bit, and know that our non existent excercise routines and diet weren't helping the situation!

(Well we always knew that but we all know how hard it is to change routine!)

King of the washroom

The business has been going fantastically. We have had great clients all summer long and NO complaints! Yay!

We are quite happy with the progress that we've made, but the amount of weddings that we took on this summer with just the two of us running the business was a little much! We had a KILLER deal on wedding packages for summer 2009 and in turn find ourselves struggling with keeping up and can't afford to hire assistants to help us out with all of the editing/book designing/emailing, etc, etc. Yikes. I am looking forward to next summer so much! Our prices are a little more appropriate for the Calgary market now, and we look forward to a summer of loving our jobs without all of the stress!

I thought it was about time to take some kitty photos since the boys haven't existed in the world wide web for quite some time! I Hope Jack and Charlie brightened your day. They are WONDEFUL furry friends to have around.