Category Archives: family

Thursday, November 1, 2012

Masterpiece

So far the count goes like this:
Three continents
Two islands
Ten apartments/rent houses/homes
Two homes owned and in a few weeks we will close on one more.

That’s a lot of moving folks, but most of the people I know have done twice
that!
That is also a lot of paint parties, scraping wallpaper off weekends, vinyl
letter placement afternoons, and stenciling/sponging nap times. And by a
lot, I mean years off my life ya’ll. Years!

A few months ago, I had the great pleasure of having my Mom and sister visit
for one last European jaunt. I had the guest room all set up with my tea
cups and an old German buffet, the wall a nice sunny yellow. As I’m doing
laundry, Mom comes in with the wall art that was hanging above the bed.
“What is THIS?” she asks me.
“Um, DUH, it’s a flower vase,” I say.
“Well, WHY is it hanging in your house? Cause really Staci, it’s the
ugliest thing ever! Why isn’t YOUR art hanging there?”
I will admit, it was pretty much just a piece of dollar store art. I was
just never down in the guest room much.
Honestly, upstairs my home was full of MY art. I truly believe that the
most beautiful thing in the world is my family. I believe the most
beautiful places on earth are the places we have visited together. And
having lived in all those houses and homes, the most beautiful one is the
one I’m living in now, cause we are together. (Even though we currently
have no furniture and are sleeping on a mattress on the floor. We have been
doing this for the last 3 months, but the end is in sight!) Don’t get me
wrong, I appreciate a great piece of art and there are a couple of Thomas
Kinkade’s in my storage unit ;)

When I walk into someone’s home, I don’t gravitate to the paintings, I head
straight for the portraits! It’s the smiles and the memories held in those
shots that tell me about you and your family. Nothing thrills my heart more
than to walk into a clients home and see a fabulous piece of portrait art
hanging on the wall! Yes, ART! Your family is YOUR greatest Masterpiece!
That masterpiece should be front and center!
Of course we will paint, and wallpaper, and stencil. Just make sure that
your masterpiece shines!

I love what Heather did with her images from our recent photo sessions.
A 24 x 36 canvas of her favorite! And another canvas with all the best from
the session.

Aren’t they just stunning! A timeless treasure of memories!

Now wait a sec! Don’t freak out! If you are unsure of which image or how
you would like to display it, just talk to me. I have ways to show you
exactly how your image will look, which size would be perfect, and what
placement would best suit the needs of your home and vision. We go over all
of this at your “view and choose” appointment.

Easy!

-S

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Posted infamily,portraits,travel,Uncategorized
Friday, July 20, 2012

Texture

I had no idea what I was getting into.  Seven years ago, when I stepped off that plane.  I had no idea.
I honestly thought that I was moving to Hawaii.  I don’t know why, I mean, Hawaii was never in any conversation.  For eight months I was in total denial, and just pretended that I wasn’t moving at all.  There were lots of complications with orders and what not’s, so it was pretty easy to just pretend that it wasn’t happening.  Then one rainy morning, five Japanese men showed up at the apartment and within three hours my whole life was packed away in crates headed across the world.  When I say I was in denial, I mean that I didn’t even have a suitcase packed or the dishes washed when the packers arrived.  Nothing.
I really didn’t even know where Germany was in relation to any other country except France.  I just knew that it wasn’t Okinawa.  There was no beach out my window and Lord help us all, it was gonna snow in the winter!
Yes, I had no idea.
I remember being in the car on my first drive into the area and I just looked over at my husband and said, “Is THIS Germany?”
I had no idea that the landscape would be a patchwork of fields and color.  Little villages would be nestled in the valley’s and perched on the hill tops.  Rows and rows and rows of grapevines would be scattered up the cliffs by beautiful rivers.  I had no idea that the leaves would change and really make the mountain look as if it were on fire.    The most beautiful sight would be my own little village covered in white with smoke rising out of the chimney tops like something from a storybook.
Wheat fields, old barns, tractors, dark woods, curvy roads…all woven together to create this texture.
The old with the new.  The hard with the soft.  The light with the dark.

-S

 

**This post is part of a circle of friends and other military photographers from around the world sharing their thoughts on the “texture.”  Please click to follow Amy next!

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Posted inaround town,blog circle,daily,family,just us,looking forward,travel
Friday, June 22, 2012

Summer

Summer…I just love that word.
Warm weather  (or warmer I should say.  What’s up with this 50 degree stuff?)
Lazy, carefree days
Flip-flops
All the yards and windows lined with beautiful flowers
Field of green
Picnics
Bike rides
Neighborhood bar-b-ques
Driving with the sunroof open, the radio blasting, and the wind in your hair
Park play dates
Dinner on the patio
Swimming pools
Parades
and don’t forget,  FIREWORKS!

The little man and I are not normally here (Germany) for the summer.  We always seem to take this time and share it with family in Texas.  Summer for us is a true vacation.  We play horseshoes and have popsicle eating contests.  We ride four-wheelers and measure who can slide the longest on the slip ‘n slide.  We watch Cartoon Network and shop at Wal-mart everyday!  We try and sneak in the kitchen while Mamaw is making her “Chocolate Chip Cake” so we can catch that secret ingredient she must put in there because her’s always turns out perfect and mine is a chocolate mush at the top.  We lay on one of Grannie Dot’s quilts at the 50 yard line of the High School football field and eat hotdogs while we are waiting for the fireworks show to start.  We sit in the Gazebo and look at magazines while drinking sweet tea and dream new design plans and solve the world’s problems.

These little Texas, boot clad feet are attached to the faces that I adore the most.  Their smiles and laugher, their stories and adventures are what make our summers so full of life and color.  And I will miss them this year.  Too much packing and planning and paper signing going on here.  Instead, we will be soaking up every last drop of summer we can squeeze out in this last month in Germany.

My heart will be in Texas though, doing all those things above.

-S

**This post is part of a circle of friends and other military photographers from around the world sharing their thoughts on the “colors of summer.”  Please click to follow Amy next!

***Thanks for hanging with me during my blog hiatus.  You would think this was my first move with the military as my thoughts and actions seem to be so scattered.  Change is coming faster and harder than I expected.  It’s good change, great change, but it’s still change and I seem to be hanging on to the things I know with both hands.   My “fly by the seat of my pants” attitude has just flown out the window!

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Posted inblog circle,daily,family,kids,travelTags:
Tuesday, March 27, 2012

Seriously Awesome | KMC Portrait Photographer

Yesterday was a super special day at my house.
There was no big party or crazy celebration.  In fact, we got up as normal and the little man got ready for school and the big man left early for the gym and work.  I meet the big man for lunch and coffee.  Once we were all back home we did a bit of cleaning out and organizing to ready ourselves for the next move.  We ate dinner and watched TV.  Just like normal.  It was pretty perfect.
The perfect kind of celebration that the big man likes.  No fanfare.  No crowds to mess with.  Just us.
Occasionally we would look at each other and say, “19!”  Then we would give each other a “high five” and move on.

I’ve made some seriously awesome memories with this guy over the years.  We’ve also been on some seriously awesome adventures together.
I’ll say it again, We would make a seriously awesome reality show…or book.
Seriously,  Seriously Awesome! ;)

And KDP I know that you are reading this and I really think you are seriously awesome.

-S

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Posted inCouples,family,just us
Thursday, March 22, 2012

The day my Mom shot me

First you need a little back story.
I have this crazy, irrational fear/phobia of getting shot.  Shot with a gun and bullets, not a camera.  It makes no sense, and I have no interesting story of where this came from or why I even have it.  It’s just that loud gunshot type noises, cause me to “duck and cover.”  Yes, I’m serious.  For example, in the middle of the night a large framed photo fell off the wall and hit a pot plant making a very loud noise.  Before my husband could even register that something had happened, I was up, out of bed, and face down on the floor.  Example number two:  We have a projector downstairs in our home theater room.  When a bulb burns out in a projector, it usually explodes.  Just so happens we were watching a movie when one of the bulbs exploded.  Once again, when the lights come on, I am face down on the floor because I thought someone was shooting at me.  These are just two of the examples that I’m willing to share.  There are more.

A few months ago, I told my Mom that I wanted some new bedding in the master bedroom.  I sent her a picture from a catalog, and asked her to make it.  (She’s good like that!  She can make anything!)  For Valentines Day, I received my new awesome bedding, complete with pillows!  Chenille pillows with little squares of chenille in the bedding!  It’s totally fantastically amazing.

 

So yesterday I’m making up the bed and that little pillow in the middle had fallen to the floor.  I picked it up and thought I would just “fluff” it really quick.  So I grab the corner of the pillow, pop my knee out, raise the pillow up to my head, bring it down to my knee, and WHAM!
The most intense pain, seriously.  So much so that it knocks me to the floor and I’m pretty sure I blacked out.
As I’m laying on the floor this is my thought, “Well, it finally happened.  I’ve been SHOT in the knee!”
Really, why wouldn’t I think that.  I mean WHAT ON EARTH could be in a PILLOW that wasn’t all nice and fluffy soft??!!
I laid on the floor for a good five minutes just trying to figure out what the HECK had just happened!
When I realized it was “safe” to move again, I felt the pillow and it dawned on me:  THE ELF!

The story of the Elf.
Many moons ago, I was out shopping with my Mom.  She is “Christmas Crazy” and it was the middle of summer, but we were in a Christmas store.  I was looking at a cute little stocking, and when I touched it, the crazy little elf stocking holder came crashing to the floor.  It broke into several pieces and those pieces scattered to every corner.   It took a good ten minutes to crawl under all the displays to find them!   And after all of that, the little sales lady made me buy the stinking, broken, ugly elf.
Once we were back home, my Mom lovingly glued him back together claiming that “he’s not that bad, almost kind of cute!”  I was pretty much just sore about the whole deal, and never wanted to see that little thing again!  I told her if she liked it so much then she should keep it!  So I put “Twinkle Toes” in her kitchen window, and there it stayed the whole trip.
After I arrived to my own home, I was unpacking my suitcase and what do I see?!!  That ugly stinking elf!  Twinkle Toes had been put in my suitcase…I think another part of him had been broken off in trip.  UGGG!!!  So I wrapped him up with a little note, and mailed him back to my Mom.
So began the travels of Twinkle Toes.  Back and forth with different packages.  Back and forth on trips and in suitcases.  Once I hid it in her house so well that she didn’t find it for almost two years!  When I was home this past summer, I made the mistake of letting the little man in on the secret hiding place, and I think he told Mom.  She tried to sneak it out in a “special box”, but I found it and left it with my Grandmother.    This time my sneaky little Mom had sewn Twinkle Toes into the pillow.  Touché, Mom, touché!
Over his travels he’s been broken again and again, and we just keep gluing him back together.

I have to admit, this was a good one Mom!  I might not have ever found it, had you not tried to shot me.  Lesson learned:  Always be on the look out.  You never know when “Twinkle Toes” might show up!  (or someone could be shooting at you!)

Stay safe out there people…it’s a crazy world!

-S

 

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