FIRST WEDDING PHOTO SHOOT COMING UP......EXCITED, YET ANXIOUS!!!

It' been a very busy week. On Monday, I met with the couple who asked me to do their wedding photography. They are getting married at a golf course and then having their reception a our Canoe Museum....pretty cool, eh?
The owner of the golf course took us around to each hole and we picked three main holes to take some shots. It's a beautiful, beautiful golf course called Baxter Creek. This course has only been open a little over one year. It's funny how life is..turns out the owner and I went to high school together.
The wedding couple are definitely not conventional and were looking to do some really different and funky type shots. I think we have some great ideas and some great locations. I'm looking forward to this my first photography assignment of this type. I've included a couple of course locations that are so beautiful. There will be some out of the ordinary shots taken also...like at the course porta potty and at an old silo...so much fun to work with this couple.
I went back to the Golf Course the next day and the owner and myself went to the three holes we picked and I did some practice shots of the location, just so I could be sure of the views and angles. Unfortunately, it was later in the day so couldn't test out the lighting accurately. They are getting married in the late afternoon.

I spent some of the week baking for our Ohio friends that arrive on Sunday for nine days. I have attempted to put some type of touring schedule together. Since our weather has been so unpredictable, we'll have to be a bit flexible with what days we do what. Two things are for sure. My brother and sister-in-law are having us out to their place on Monday (it's a legal holiday in Canada) for a visit and a great BBQ.
We will also take them to the Curve Lake gift and art shop. Our friend loves this place and always finds something she can't live without. We are also going to Toronto to see Jersey Boys and stay with friends we have up there for two days.
We hope to go to Picton and Bloomfield and also out to see the sand dunes and maybe take the ferry ride....weather permitting. We are also going to take them to a free outdoor concert on Wednesday night in Peterborough. The featured act is Beau Dixon who is a local person and does a lot of the Isley Brothers type music....fun!

Tomorrow I'll go to our farmer's market and buy fresh local produce and then pick up the meat and other small bits I need. Tomorrow night we're going to another free outdoor concert and the feature is the 'Canadian Tenors' My cousin, who is a musician and performer was kind enough to get us tickets for the VIP section.

Sadly,on Sunday, before our friends arrive we will go to the visitation at the funeral home for a friend who died yesterday. He was a very, very gentle, sweet, kind man who died suddenly of heart failure. We have lost a few people we know this year and sadly we're at the age where our 'elders' may not be with us much longer. We will enjoy them while they are here. I often wonder why some of the nicest people I've known are no longer here, and yet others who aren't so nice seem to sail through life. Only God knows why.

Well, not too much blogging will take place next week while our friends are here but will try to get my first Etsy shop owner feature out Monday or Tuesday.

Have a great weekend everyone. I sure hope the weather will cooperate. It's been much lower temperatures and a whole lot of rain.....YUK!

Month of August and Etsy Shop Owners.......

I decided today that for the month of August, I will feature one of my favourite etsy shops at least once a week. I have found some amazing, amazing artists and would like to pay them some recognition.....so, something to watch for next month!!

I've been baking and getting ready for our friends from Ohio who arrive on Sunday. We always have so much fun with them and now my brother and sister-in-law share in their friendship as well. They are generously going to host a BBQ on the Monday.
We will definitely do some fun things and take a couple of day trips. We hope to take them to Warkworth and then will spend a full day in the Picton area which is about one and a half hours away. This is a beautiful area and is the Canadian sand dunes area. There is apparently some great shops and restaurants in the area as well.

I got to see my grandson via webcam the other night. I just love seeing him, even if it is via webcam. We hope to go see my daughter, son-in-law and our grandson some time in September or October, but nothing worked out yet.

We haven't see our little grandaughter since we got back about two weeks ago from our visit there. My daughter sent me the most adorable picture of our grandaughter taken by one of my daughter's sister-in-laws....a beautiful picture of a beautiful little girl. I'm including it in this post. She is going to be so much fun to watch grow. She definintely is her mother's daughter!( Large grin )

Productive.......yes, Stressed........no!

It's a beautiful day here in my little village of Keene! Started the morning by taking a leisurely tour of our gardens and realize how much still needs to be done. We are going to totally re-do our back corner garden as we want to place the arbor my husband is to build in the next week, in the back corner of our triangular garden. We'll then re-plant some of the plants already there and reposition others in different areas of our yard. I can't wait to have that quiet, calm, zen area.

I then spent time manipulating and cropping some of the newer photos I've taken. I want to post some on my site at Fine Art America. It's tricky when I post on Etsy because the size they allow isn't really conducive with the other sites I post my photos on. They require the size to be much smaller. I've managed to screw up a few times and shrink a photo for Etsy before saving the larger size and then it's no good for other sites. Lessons I continue to learn! Aaaahhh!

My sister-in-law then came this afternoon, as I had promised to help her design and complete a scrapbook for her brother who turns sixty. She came up with a wonderful concept of his daughter's asking him about his younger years and his responses. It was well written with a lot of satirical quips with an underlying message of deep love. Her family have planned some games in his honour and will present him with the book. They are having a reunion to also celebrate her Dad's 90th birthday. My sister-in-law was quite pleased with the end product. I just know her brother will be so touched.

Tonight, I hope to do some baking to freeze so I don't need to do anything when our friends from Ohio arrive one week today.

Tomorrow, I'll meet with the couple I'm doing their wedding photography for in August. They are getting married at a golf course so we want to meet there and check out various locations around the course and to check out the lighting at the same time of day they will get married.

Tomorrow is the finale of 'Bachelorette' and I don't plan to miss it. It's some of the 'fluff' I watch. I don't watch too much TV anymore, but I did get sucked in watching this particular show. The bachelorette is actually a Canadian.

The rest of the week we'll see how much I get accomplished. I will do what I can do!

SOME R & R ........ I needed that!

Well, I returned Friday after spending three days with some of my 'girl' cousins. We went up north to one cousin's home that happens to be on a lake....beautiful! It's just SO comfortable being with women all close in age and all with a long history together. Although some of us moved away, a strong bond developed when we were younger. We kind of have our own sisterhood. It's amazing when we're together how we spend a lot of time laughing, and talking, talking and more talking. Philosophically we have some differences but truly enjoy our individualism. We spent one entire day just laying on the dock and unfortunately all got burned to varied degrees. We did some crafting together although not a lot. We are hoping to plan something in the future to include all the sisters-in-law as well. I still think a PJ party would be great.

I now have to get serious about some of the many tasks I should get completed...however, I'm not going to stress too much about it. A plus of getting older.....learning to chill out a bit.