Cross Iron Mills!!

We got a new mall, a NEW MALL!!! Not just any old mall but a big beautiful MEGA mall!

It is a happy day for me. As pathetic as it may be, I am so excited that one of my all time favorite shops now exists in Calgary!! 

I should correct myself... it now exists in BALZAC. Balzac is about 15 minutes North of downtown Calgary. (Now us Alberta folk all have an excuse to say Balzac more often. )

Mike and I were hired by Liz Claiborne to photograph the grand opening of their shop so they can dazzle the head office in New York with their storefront.

Here are a few shots of Liz and a few of the rest of the mall that we quickly snapped while exploring.

Harvey the Hound (Calgary Flames Hockey mascot) was hanging out taking photos with kids in the food court.

Robin Regher was signing autographs!  

(Calgarians are ALL about Flames hockey)

We missed Kelly Hrudey during the opening ceremonies.  What a shame. ;)

Each part of the mall has a different "neighborhood" and a different theme. 

Biggest La Senza in Canada! It is BIG.  I only wish it were a Victoria Secret.

Commercial photography is not only fun, but pretty darn easy too. I could see us doing more of this sort of thing in the future!

View from the top

Wednesday was my lovey dovey's birthday and I wanted to do something to celebrate his wonderfulness.

Mike has never been a big "present" guy- if you have ever gotten a gift from him, you know that it is almost always creative, or have some sort of meaning or adventure put into it! As some of you might know... this can make gift giving very challenging!

This year I decided to get creative with our resources... and planned a dinner on the rooftop of our building for us and some of our closest buds.






Kevin and Jason were responsible for carrying our crazy heavy table up the stairwell and onto the roof (THANK-YOU!) and then distracting the birthday boy with camera stores and video games.

The girls and I chopped boiled and prepared a lovely little feast and seated the guys when they arrived on the rooftop!




It was a beautiful summery day, +25 with a bit of cloud cover (which is always lovely for photos.) A nice breeze but perfect for sitting in the sun.



Shannon presented and served the guys wine as Ashley and I plated the Feta, Sundried Tomato & Walnut Penne. (From the Relish Menus of course!)





It was perfect! Even though it was still just dinner at our place, it was something different and special. The view from the top is awesome, and we just can't get enough of it up there!! Unfortunately just as we finished up our plates a crazy wind blew through the city and we had to flee for warmth!





We got stuck in the stairwell... Perhaps somebody should have remembered to pocket her keys after plating the pasta! It's ok... there is an exit on the bottom floor and I had Mike's cell phone to buzz us in. THANK goodness. Although it would have been sort of fun and adventurous being forced to find fun inside the stairwell waiting for someone to come rescue us! We DID have a lot of wine left over! Haha... Maybe next time.



Inside we had bread pudding waiting for oven time and Ice cream... and we played BANG! around the kitchen table! Fun game - us Kitchen folk like card games.



Happy Birthday to my most amazing and wonderful husband. You put up with more than anyone could ever know! You continue to make me smile and know how to make me laugh even when things aren't funny. You are my BEST friend, and this world just wouldn't be so sweet without you.

Kisses,

Ashley

Excommunicated.

Haha... Okay a little dramatic but SERIOUSLY! I feel like I've been cut off from social networking!!

Yesterday, I went about my day as usual. Sat at my computer to edit photos, checked for new emails, new twitter updates... then THEN I logged into my facebook account as I do about 5 times on a regular day. To my surprise I found that Facebook had disabled my account. Disabled MY account!

Not being able to take advantage of this free service is absolutely driving me crazy. It's not that I can't live without Facebook for a few days (I think) but it's the fact that I can't even if I wanted to. Geesh.

I signed up thinking, Oh just another online service that I'm going to enjoy for a couple of months and soon enough I'll be bored of it and find something new to do with my time. Not this time! Nuh uh! I have connected with over 500 different people that I have met throughout my lifetime.

Most of them friends, some of them people that I have gotten to know, some of them that are just enjoyable enough to follow. It's fun to know what everyone is up to! And of course the biggest one for me- PICTURES! I love seeing everyone's photos. I am always looking at albums and checking in on friendly smiley faces. I have a TON of albums myself, and Facebook has even become a place an easy place for me to enjoy my own collection of photos from the last 3? years.

I'm still not entirely sure why they decided to enable my account- I wrote an email to the peeps at Facebook yesterday asking for my account back and asking for an explanation...

This is the message that pops up when I try to sign into my account

Why was my account disabled?

Your account was disabled because you violated Facebook’s Terms of Use, to which you agreed when you first registered for an account on the site. Accounts can either be disabled for repeat offenses or for one, particularly egregious violation.

Facebook does not allow users to register with fake names, to impersonate any person or entity, or to falsely state or otherwise misrepresent themselves or their affiliations.

We do not allow users to send unsolicited or harassing messages to people they don’t know, and we remove posts that advertise a product, service, website, or opportunity.

Our Code of Conduct outlines the types of content we do not allow on the site. This includes any obscene, pornographic, or sexually explicit photos, as well as any photos that depict graphic violence. We also remove content, photo or written, that threatens, intimidates, harasses, or brings unwanted attention or embarrassment to an individual or group of people.

I can only guess that the line that I've highlighted is the reason for my account to be shut down. Every time I post a new blog post on the SNAP blog I update my twitter which updates my facebook which provides a link to our photography blog.

If you click on the terms of use link you will see nothing quite as clearly written as the above statement. The only thing I could find on the terms of use page was

"You will not send or otherwise post unauthorized commercial communications to users (such as spam)."

Ich! Am I a spammer? Sorry facebook friends (or ex-facebook friends? I'm not sure)

ANYWAYS... apparently that was all facebook needed to boot me off. I have a lot of photographer friends on my facebook, and they seem to all be doing the same so BE CAREFUL!!

xo

Ashley (the excommunicatee )

Summer on Vancouver Island

If you didn't already know, Mike and I are enjoying a short vacation on Vancouver Island right now!  

We had the ABSOLUTE pleasure of photographing my good friend Julie's marriage to Michael Willing on Saturday and have been using that wedding as an excuse to stay on the island for a little while until our next wedding!

It has been an AWESOME vacation so far!  Mike and I took off Monday evening from Calgary and drove through the night (and through the intense heat wave!) and got to Vancouver on Tuesday afternoon.  

Vancouver was fantastic as always... Shannon and Jason were there visiting with Shan's sister Kristy so it was fun hanging out with them there!  We went to Granville island for the day and sat on the Bridges patio drinking mojito's and sipping oysters! I got myself a scary looking burn that day... Eeek!  Other than that it was such heaven.  The ocean breeze was such a relief in the humid high +30's!  I'll leave those photo's up to Shan!  We put our camera's to rest for the majority of our vacation :) 

The crew went Ocean Kayaking and I was lucky enough to catch a date with Miss Keira-anne (and the famous Jordy the dog) last minute!  We sipped Okanagan Kettle Valley Pinot Gris down by the ocean (mischieviously hidden in Starbucks thermos') as we watched Jordy run around and play with other adorable pups.  I even thought for a moment that I might enjoy having a dog one day?  It was sort of a breakthrough for me...

Keira and I just have an incredible bond... it's crazy how life changes and we change, but every time we see each other we can just pick up where we left off.  

Since being on Vancouver Island we have had ourselves all kinds of fun.  

Yesterday Mike, Dad and I went to Coombs Market for lunch and some magical Island Farms ice cream.  We then hit up the sandy beach in Parksville for a peaceful nap in the sunshine.  

on Thursday  I had one of the BEST birthday's of all time...

My mom and I went to enjoy some time together in Victoria while Mike, Dad, Jay and Shan went golfing at Bear Mountain!  

Congratulations Shannon on getting a birdie on one of the HARDEST golf courses in Western Canada!

It was another hot hot summery day in the B.C heat wave, but we managed to keep cool with gelato and various other lovely Vancouver Island Delicacies.  

The rose garden at The Empress is looking particularly fantastic right now!  I'm not sure how these delicate roses are managing to live through this intense heat! 

Mom and I EVEN went to The Noodle Box in Victoria- one of my ALL TIME FAVORITE places to eat.  Mmmm... it was everything I remembered and more.

We all met up in the evening at one of my favorite dining spots on the island - Steeples Restaurant in Shawnigan Lake.  Since Mike and I had never dined there in the summer time we had no idea that they had outdoor seating in their backyard garden.  Dinner was absolutely perfect, and the company was even better.  We sat in the garden eating dinner until it got dark and had coffee (and fiery birthday Sambuca) under the stars.  It really was just perfect.