Ok, so has anybody noticed I”ve been a bit of a grouch on my blog lately? Yea, things are a little nutty AND I am detoxing caffeine, but it’s alllll good tonight. I’m turning my frown upside down and I have LOTS of personal stuff to share. I haven’t posted client work in a while as I’m not quite ready to post anything yet, but there will be some super cool stuff coming soon. (Stuff that usually makes my blog visitor numbers spike by the hundreds, if that gives you a hint on what’s coming…..)

Last week John and I had our anniversary and the day started with a super sweet card from John & the news that our house will be getting a professional deep clean by a cleaning service as a gift. YESSS!!!!! (If you know a professional photographer, odds are they have a house keeper help them at some point, if not weekly, because you are constantly working and barely have time to clean. At least that’s my story! I try so hard to keep up, but honestly, I’m lucky to get the basics done every week.) I haven’t had cleaning help since my sister passed away this past spring and I couldn’t function. I can’t say I have picked up the slack so much that we haven’t needed it, we just haven’t been in dirty house crisis mode. (Thankfully.) The last time I had a deep clean service was after Miles was born and I had some complications and the house was taking on a life of it’s own. I’m excited to get a boost to get me through my verrrry busy shoot filled October. I highly recommend getting house cleaning help. It’s not that expensive and if you work a lot or from home, it can buy you some major sanity.

In addition to the luxury of a deep clean coming, I was also surprised with a mega huge bag of M&M’s and these at my door.

Notice the photo frames in the background? We went out to dinner that night (Biaggi’s = yummy!) and shopped off our wine buzz by getting a bunch of frames for our dining room. (More on what’s going in the frames later. I’ll just say it involves a certian funky etsy.com print.) The frames just so happened to have our wedding flowers in the frame and matched the bouquet that John got me. The hilarious thing is John and I recently had a discussion about flowers and I mentioned that, like many women, I’m not a fan of carnations. So when he ordered these flowers he said, “Make sure there are no chrysanthemums!” The florist was like, “um…okay..” Ha! He cracks me up. So he got lucky that they left our carnations as well as chrysanthemums. (Though I have no idea what chrysanthemum even looks like.)

We had a GREAT anniversary and the celebration continued on to the Johnny Appleseed festival this weekend. We went twice because it was nutsy coo coo busy and we wised up and went early on Sunday. Ahhhhh, it’s our perfect day, defined. Here are the reasons I love the festival: It’s all natural, only allowing things that could have been created back in Johnny Appleseed’s time so everything is cooked over an open fire. There are a million people, but everybody is in a great mood. Nobody is yelling at their kids (unlike the three rivers festival which is like nasty junkfood and child abuse central), there are children dancing, children playing instruments and marching in little pioneer outfits, AMAZING food, live folk music and fun stuff to buy and check out. It’s awesome. Even Miles went out on the stage and danced to a little bit of folk music. (One time with a bunch of other children and the other time all by himself. Melted our hearts!) It’s just perfection in a day. No photos this year though. I cringe at the thought of eating a carmel apple and then touching my 5D. We just wanted to be in the moment. If you’ve ever read The Three Martini Playdate, there is a chapter I actually took to heart and that is to put the camera down and remember to enjoy your child. So the camera has been staying at home pretty often, and I’m ok with that. If you want to see photos from the event, check out last year’s festival photos. (and see how our photography has grown…)

Ok, enough talking. Let’s get back to some photos. I did take my camera to my Dad’s birthday celebrated at the Zabel’s house this past weekend.

Once again, John and I made my dad some shirts wear while he is ridding the Indiana nature preserves of Garlic Mustard, an invasive plant species. (My dad is a naturalist and VERY passionate about ridding Indiana of Garlic Mustard.) The shirts were a hit!

I love how you can see Miles and the Zabel’s dog watching through the window. Barb has the best vintage toys that Miles LOVES.

Barb is bringing out the cake I made here.

Grandpa left a candle for Miles to blow out. He wasn’t sure what to do with it.

He did know that HE WANTED CAKE ASAP.

and Barb didn’t disappoint with a Zabel favorite, Super Man Ice Cream!

Becky caught Miles attempting to dig right in.

Barb is allergic to chocolate so I tried a “black and white” cake. I’m such a people pleaser. (Don’t ask me why I was going for such a wide open aperture when shooting this cake. When it’s my family I’m photographing I get a little loosy goosey with my settings.)

Happy Birthday Dad!!!

Ok, this post is longggggg. I will say before I sign off that I got our “junk room” transformed into a usable space today. I’ve created the beginnings of a room that Miles (and John and I) can really use and enjoy and he Miles is THRILLED. I’ll have to take some photos soon. It’s all ready for he deep clean coming up! Woo Hoo! BTW, while my house is getting a deep clean, I’ll be outside washing windows and the siding, so I won’t be sitting on my booty eating bon bons like one might think. However, I might be eating bon bons while I”m working. I’m pretty good at multi-tasking when it comes to food.

Ok, I”m going to bed. It’s LATE again! Thanks for hanging in there with this book of a post.