precious little newborn...

A few from a stunning little 2wk old girl. *Sigh*...I love newborns...
~mary

Check this out if you have a minute...

One of my favorite music artists is Sarah McLachlan. I first saw this video about a year and a half ago. Its amazing, and well worth watching. For some reason, it came to mind to me again today. Take a couple minutes and watch it once or twice. We can all make a difference in a small way each day, don't you agree? :)
~Mary
http://www.worldonfire.ca/

Harry Potter Book 7 Mania!

Harry Potter Book 7, Harry and The Deathly Hallows came out this morning at 12:01am! If my post could have a subtitle, it would be: "Why I chose to buy my copy from Amazon Bookstore on Chicago Avenue in Mpls and I think YOU should too! " (not amazon.com, but Amazon Bookstore Co-op dot com )
I took my two oldest children to the Harry Potter 7 Release party at Amazon last night. It was the most fun I think we could have had around this event. We had Butter Beer and Pumpkin Juice, donated by Adrians Tavern. Wizard Cookies donated from Turtle Bread. Snape's Evil Chocolate Ice Cream Cones from the Pumphouse Creamery, and more I'm sure I am forgetting. The staff at Amazon went way way out of their way to make it fabulously fun and exciting. They were all in costume, complete with a portrait who wouldn't allow passage without the proper password. There was potions class down in the basement, with Professor Anne T. Dote. Herbology class we had to miss for a breath of fresh air, but I'm sure it too was fantastic. Wizard Trivia was done Jeopardy Style, two games worth, and yes, I was amazed at the minutiae that the young readers of these books have absorbed and remembered. Of course Professor Trelawney was there, reading palms and offering predictions. We made wands, were sorted by The Sorting Hat, and wrapped it all up just before midnight with a costume contest, with prizes for various categories getting great Harry Potter related books from Amazon. So, before I move on to a few photos I took of the event (you must see them, the costumes were so clever and brilliant!) I just have to hop up on my soapbox and ask, for those about to rush out to Walmart or B&N or wherever to get their book at the "cheapest" place, is it really so important that you save $5 on this, the last of the Harry Potter books? I've been buying books from Amazon Co-op for a few years now, and am amazed and thrilled that they continue to stay afloat in the corporate monoculture that drives so many small businesses to shutter their doors. All of the small businesses involved in last nights wonderful event deserve a round of applause (and your patronage!) And the book, I'm off to read it, as soon as I can wrestle it away from my 9 year old... maybe I'll have to run to Amazon and get a second copy.
Thanks for reading
Mary

Potions Class

Winner of Best Harry Potter Look-Alike (of course I'm biased, but isn't he adorable!!)

Professor Umbridge!

The crowd at Amazon waiting for 12:01 am!

Hagrid, complete with pink umbrella no less!

And one of my favorites (and also a winner!) Dobby the House Elf, here
being held by Bellatrix Lestrange, complete with the death eater mark on her inner arm!

And again, my bias is showing, but this very scary soul sucking 7 year old Dementor (with her blond curls hidden away) should have won something too! ;)
thanks,
Mary

Sneak peek of two beautiful children!

Meet Ben & Josie, two very fun and beautiful kids. Had so much fun taking their photos! Ben paid me one of the ultimate compliments as a photographer too! After I left, he was asking why I had been there, and his mom explained that I was a photographer, that I take photos of kids as my job, he said "oh, she should come and take our photos some time!" He had so much fun "talking and playing" with me, he hadn't even realized he was having his photo taken! Compare that to a chain store studio experience, lol! :)

Here is a sneak peek of a few of my favorites so far:
(remember you can click to enlarge photos)

~Mary

Hug your kids, and please put a bike helmet on them...

I'm still recovering from my computer crash, but wanted to share some very sad news I feel I must. A fellow photographer friend of mine, had a horrible loss recently in her family. Her nephew Luke, who was 11 yrs old, was in a bicycle accident on July 5th, and died a few days ago from the head injuries he sustained. He lost control of his bike and went headfirst into a light pole.


While we will never know for sure if a helmet would have saved Luke's life, it certainly would have made his injuries less severe. Please keep his family in your thoughts and prayers, and please, please, let his death help you remember to have your children wear bike helmets. Thanks,
Mary

Had a bad past few days...

On friday morning, I was in the middle of typing an email, and my new beautiful 24 inch iMac froze. I restarted it and my hard-drive was wiped out. Completely gone. Apple customer support couldn't help me over the phone, so after trying valiantly I brought it into the Apple store for the Genius Bar to help. No dice. Even with the "almost never fail" power of Disk Warrior (or something like that?) they couldn't find anything. I tried using it in target disk mode with a firewire cable. Nothing. So, now I'm in the process of data recovery with another method which is both time consuming and expensive, and as a result, I'm going to be weeks behind in proofing and editing photos and orders. I appreciate all my clients patience and wanted to post this as a reminder to everyone to backup all your important data! I always burn discs of originals, but not so great with backing up work I've done on images, b&w conversions, etc, so I'm out dozens of hours of work, as well as a ton of personal photos of my children. :(
So, go burn discs of your photos and important data, transfer to an external drive, or better yet, set up a RAID system (google it if you don't know how!) so you don't ever have to be in my shoes.
Thanks,
Mary

bumble kitty

I get emails from time to time asking how big Bumble Kitty is getting (7.5 lbs now, 1lb when we got her in december), how she looks now,(beautiful, but I'm prejudiced) are her eyes still different colors, (yes, still one blue, one green!) etc. She really ought to have her own blog for her mini-fan club, lol. Anyway, here are a couple recent shots of Bumble Kitty for those who asked. :)
~Mary